Ray Gould had recently commented to me in an email that he had seen a pretty dramatic increase in eBay’s Scouting auctions.
Have you seen the tremendous increase of Scout related items (using the general search category “Boy Scouts”) in past 2 weeks….For last several years, the volume of items selling in this category at any given time fluctuates between 10,000 and 11,000. But for approx last 2 (maybe 3?) weeks, this category has grown to almost 15,000 in a very short period of time.
Ray posited a potential cause, which I’ll try to get to in another post, but I think the increase is mainly due to the change in Fixed Priced listing fees which took place on September 16.
Insertion Fees for Fixed Price listings (effective 9/16/08)
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Starting or Reserve Price Current Insertion Fee New Insertion Fee
3, 5, 7, 10, 30 day, GTC durations
Same price for all durations!$1.00 – $9.99 $0.35 $0.35 $10.00 – $24.99 $0.55 $0.35Â Â Â Lower fee! $25.00 – $49.99 $1.00 $0.35Â Â Â Lower fee! $50.00 – $199.99 $2.00 $0.35Â Â Â Lower fee! $200.00 – $499.99 $3.00 $0.35Â Â Â Lower fee! $500.00 or more $4.00 $0.35Â Â Â Lower fee!
The hidden cost is the increase in the Final Value Fees:
Final Value Fees for Fixed Price listings (effective 9/16/08)
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Parts & Accessories, Clothing, Shoes & Accessories, all other categories
Closing Price Current Final Value
FeeParts & Accessories Clothing, Shoes & Accessories All other categories Item not sold No Fee No Change No Change No Change $1.00-$50.00* 8.75% of the closing value 12.00% 12.00% 12.00% $50.01 – $1000.00 8.75% of the initial $50.00, plus 3.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($50.01 to $1,000.00) 12.00%
9.00%12.00%
9.00%12.00%
6.00%Equal to or Over $1000.01 8.75% of the initial $50.00, plus 3.50% of the initial $50.01 – $1,000.00 plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 – closing value) 12.00%
9.00%
2.00%12.00%
9.00%
2.00%12.00%
6.00%
2.00%
So for the average sale (less than $ 50), the final value fee goes from 8.75% to 12% an increase of 3.25% and for sales up to $1 000 the fee on the amount over $ 50 goes from 3.50% to 6.00% an increase of 2.50%.
The plus side for the seller though is twofold
- You can list a high priced item for 30 days for only $ 0.35 and if it it doesn’t sell your only out $ 0.35 not the $ 2.00 – 4.00 it would have cost.
- Higher position in search results. These Buy-It-Now items are included in the regular search results and not relegated to the lower search priority of eBay Store items.
What is your take? Is this the reason for the increase in listings or is there another cause?
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- The reverse side also has a reverse side.
Bill,
Obviously we track eBay activity pretty closely. Ray is right in his current observations but off in recent history.
We’ve been following eBay Scout listing trends for more than a decade. Ebay was actually in the mid to upper 13,000 USA based items in 2006. eBay listings have been declining since then.
They are up currently for two reasons. One cited above, folks moving items to fixed price, but also overseas offerings flowing into eBay.com. If one filters to USA only, 1,000 – 1,500 items drop off. I raised with eBay why we sometimes have Australian offered rock and roll pins flow into Boy Scout memorabilia. Their response was that is how they have it mapped and they weren’t going to change it at that time.
I would generally conclude that offerings continue to trend down (and will continue when folks get their eBay invoices) as you note the eBay fees continue to climb much higher.
We’ve been experimenting with the new pricing option but the jury is still out. As you point out, it is REALLY expensive on the back end.
A piece you might not be aware of are eBay’s actions on their sites in other countries. They are starting to regulate the amount of shipping and handling one can charge.
Regards,
Roy
Roy More
TheScoutPatchAuction.com
If you want to read more comments on this topic we’ve been talking about it on http://www.patchblanket.com for nearly a month now. Follow this link to go to the specific forum at http://www.patchblanket.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=28
If you want to jump in on the chatter you can register (its free) and be patient until you get the notification that your account is active. The registration process is a little slow but we are trying to keep spam off the site.
Jason Spangler
It is interesting to actually read all the details of the Ebay changes. Technically, they do not prevent sellers from still accepting checks cahs or money orders, they just require that you take an approved electronic format.
They try to make it sound as if they are only allowing it in special circumstances, but I believe this to be the case: because Ebay is an interstate enterprise, UCC (Universal Commercial Code) REQUIRES them to allow you to take checks, money orders and especially, cash.
I am betting that there will never be an action based upon someone taking these forms of payment, now or ever.
Is there a commercial attorney out there that can comment?
Dan,
You may be right, that they cannot forbid you to accept a check.
It seems their point is eBay won’t allow you to list (in January 2009) if you advertise that you accept checks