Major Fee Changes At eBay

[MyCottage]

ebay announced significant insertion fee changes today.:

Link: https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/insertion-fees-update.html#m22_tb_a1__4

What is changing?
Free listings promotions that we announced in spring 2020 were received enthusiastically by eBay sellers and proved to be a powerful and effective selling tool in the challenging COVID-19 environment. We want to help you keep this positive momentum going.

On August 1, 2020, we’ll update our selling fees with permanent free monthly fixed price and auction listings so you can continue to introduce, test, and sell new inventory. These changes will be available to all eBay sellers and you don’t need to take any action.

The number of additional monthly zero insertion fee listings sellers will receive are determined by their eBay Store subscription levels. Sellers who have been invited and signed up for managed payments will receive additional monthly zero insertion fee listings in select categories.

Free monthly zero insertion fee listings
starting August 1, 2020
All Sellers
Non-Store, Starter Store, and Basic Store subscribers

Store Subscription Before Aug 1, 2020
monthly zero insertion fee listings After Aug 1, 2020
monthly zero insertion fee listings
Non-Store 50 auction or fixed price listings 200 auction or fixed price listings
Starter Store 100 auction or fixed price listings 250 auction or fixed price listings
Basic Store 250 fixed price listings
250 auction listings in Fashion & Collectibles 350 fixed price listings
250 auction listings in Fashion & Collectibles
Additional benefits for sellers in managed payments
Basic, Premium, Anchor, and Enterprise Store subscribers

Store Subscription Before Aug 1, 2020
monthly zero insertion fee listings After Aug 1, 2020
monthly zero insertion fee listings
Basic Store 250 fixed price listings in all categories**
250 auction listings in Fashion & Collectibles 10,000 fixed price listings in select categories*
350 fixed price listings in all categories**
250 auction listings in Fashion & Collectibles
Premium Store 1,000 fixed price listings in all categories**
500 auction listings in Fashion & Collectibles 50,000 fixed price listings in select categories*
1,000 fixed price listings in all categories**
500 auction listings in Fashion & Collectibles
Anchor Store 10,000 fixed price listings in all categories**
1,000 auction listings in Fashion & Collectibles 75,000 fixed price listings in select categories*
10,000 fixed price listings in all categories**
1,000 auction listings in Fashion & Collectibles
Enterprise Store 100,000 fixed price listings in all categories**
2,500 auction listings in Fashion & Collectibles 100,000 fixed price listings in select categories*
100,000 fixed price listings in all categories**
2,500 auction listings in Fashion & Collectibles
*Select categories
Sports Mem, Cards & Fan Shop > Sports Trading Cards
Toys & Hobbies > Collectible Card Games
Collectibles
Music
Books
DVDs & Movies
Stamps
Video Games & Consoles > Video Games
Crafts
Home & Garden > Greeting Cards & Party Supply > Party Supplies
**category restrictions apply
FAQs
Expand all Collapse all
What do I need to do to take advantage of the monthly zero insertion fee listings change?
Do I need to end my current listings to benefit from the monthly zero insertion fee listings change?
Why do the zero insertion fee monthly listings only apply to a select number of categories?
Will I receive the additional monthly zero insertion fee listings in select categories for managed payments if I am not signed up for managed payments?
No. You will not receive the additional monthly zero insertion fee benefits starting August 1, 2020 unless you are signed up for managed payments. Non-Store sellers and Starter Store and Basic Store subscribers who are not in managed payments will still be eligible for monthly zero insertion fee listings starting August 1. Basic Store subscribers and above who are invited and signed up for managed payments will receive additional monthly zero insertion fee benefits in the select categories starting August 1. We are inviting more sellers to join managed payments every day.

[MyCottage]

The announcement itself,, without all the details, is here:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/We-re-increasing-monthly-zero-insertion-fee-listings-for-most/ba-p/31074844

[Old Dad]

If I’m reading this right, for the biggest benefits you have to be enrolled in or invited to Managed Payments.

My tiny old non-store account has been enrolled, it only has 107 listings.

My primary account, an anchor store with 2935 active listings, has not even been invited yet. Its a slap in the face that they won’t give the discount just because they haven’t got around to inviting me yet. Those insertion fees were $148.25 last month.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Old Dad.

[Jay]

Thanks for the links.

Bascially you get more free listings only if you list in the categories:

Sports Mem, Cards & Fan Shop > Sports Trading Cards
–Toys & Hobbies > Collectible Card Games
–Collectibles
–Music
–Books
–DVDs & Movies
–Stamps
–Video Games & Consoles > Video Games
–Crafts
–Home & Garden > Greeting Cards & Party Supply > Party Supplies

Seems good for people who sell books and media. Why not just give more free listings all around? So vey specific.

[WabashValleyRelics]

Just the collectibles category alone is pretty huge and you guys sell a lot of it, so you should see some positives from this as well.

[MyCottage]

Jay, they address your question in the FAQs. And keep in mind, IF they simply increased listings in every category, they’d probably be increasing the store subscription fees too. I think the main reason is, they’ve for a few months worth of data (from the COVID free listing specials) that show them that these categories really benefited from the freebies. Even before COVI, I saw many sellers complaining that clothing, for example, was swamped….so would ebay really want to throw the doors wide for even more clothing oversupply?

We’re going to take a good look at this, and might downgrade from Premium to Basic, since we sell a lot in Collectibles and can load up a lot more in the media categories. But we’re on an annual subscription, so we’d have to pay the penalty…have to figure out what that would cost….

[Jay]

Understood. I guess if the fees are to actually keep supply down, then that’s an interesting reason. But I’m suspicious. More items would mean more pressure for people to lower prices. If prices are too low, then people should stop selling clothes.

We still havent hit our 10k limit on the Anchor subscription so not a big deal. I just finding listing fees to be a false/oldfashioned charge. Amazon doesnt charge to list. Craigslist. Server space is cheap.

[MyCottage]

Old Dad, you didn’t get the 50,000 free listings in June and July for your anchor store?

[Old Dad]

Yes, I should have said the insertion fees would have been $148.

[MyCottage]

Old Dad, Ah, OK, that makes sense.

[sonia]

Bascially you get more free listings only if you list in the categories:

No, not only. Small sellers without stores, as well as sellers in the Starter and Basic store levels get more free listings in ALL categories, regardless of whether they are in MP or not. Check the “All Sellers” section of the first link MyCottage shared:

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/insertion-fees-update.html#m22_tb_a1__4

I seem to have fallen right in the sweet spot, with a store of 375-425 listings. I just cancelled my Premium level subscription that was about to renew, and wasn’t sure if I had done the right thing or not. But now that Basic is up to 350 listings, and I usually have about 10-30 listings in the Crafts category, this is definitely going to save me some money (100 new free listings per month at 25c per listing = $25, which is not nothing).

[sonia]

Thanks MyCottage for always sharing these announcements! Somehow I never manage to check the announcements section on Seller Hub…

[almasty]

I think my main account got an invitation to join managed payments today. However, I continue to sell items in prohibited categories. I’m considering yanking all of these items off of Ebay and signing up for it. It sounds like at that point, I could go from an anchor store down to a premium store as the majority of my listings fall in the books, collectibles, music and movies sections.

My second ebay store is a store that also primarily lists in the music and collectible categories. I just reduced it down to a basic store a few months ago. I have signed up for managed payments for it, but have not officially joined it yet.

I’m excited at the thought of having store fees of less than $100 a month for nearly 15,000 items. I’m not excited at the thought of how much breaking the yearly anchor fee contract will be once my anchor store is able to sign up for it.

[almasty]

I just checked and the early termination fee for my anchor store will be $900! That is insane!

I’m going to move my managed payment restricted items off of Ebay anyway. Maybe Ebay in the meantime will think of extending a grace period for store sellers to move to managed payments and change store subscription levels without incurring such a hefty charge.

Also, as high as that fee is, I’m looking at savings of $400 a month on listing fees. The early termination fee would “pay” for itself in less than 3 months. Considering how much I can also expand with the new “free” listings, it is still worth moving to managed payments for my store model in order to overall save more money.

[Old Dad]

Have you considered setting up another ID for those resticted items?

[almasty]

If you create a new account at this time, are you automatically put into managed payments or old paypal Ebay?

[Sharyn]

Why don’t you wait until the end of your subscription and change to the lower level store then? It will also give you some time to make sure you won’t end up with additional costs at the lower subscription level. You might want to change the category of some of your items.

For instance, if you put a serving plate in the Home & Garden category, you might want to change it to a similar section of the Collectable category. I’ve done this to avoid auction listing fees as the 500 included in my Premium account is only good for certain categories.

Aren’t many of your items clothing? If so, this new benefit might not help all that much.

[Old Dad]

I just received the email for the migration of my primary store by Aug 31. My small account (no store) is already signed up but no transactions yet, but then I only get about 1 a week there so it might be awhile. I’ll wait until I see how that works before enrolling my main store.

[Mr. Schiavo]

My timing is horrible. I just upgraded from a premium store to an anchor store and opted for the yearly plan (ie it’s like a having a year contract). I wonder if they will let me drop back penalty free since they just changed pricing so dramatically.

[almasty]

Yay, I did it!  I removed all of my restricted listings off of Ebay and have signed up for managed payments.

I also took a look at my inventory count of items that are outside of the “free” listings categories – I currently have less than 200 books and pieces of ephemera that are listed outside of the newly created free categories.  These items could be easily moved back to the books and collectible categories, making my paid for listing count practically 0.  With nearly 14,000 items still listed on Ebay, a premium store would be ideal for me at this point with the new fee structure.  I’m really hoping that Ebay will provide a few weeks for people to change their store subscription levels for free, because clearly a lot of other booksellers and collectible sellers are in the same boat.

[Jay]

So if a seller only sold books and collectibles, they could have a 50k item store and pay no listing fees?

[MyCottage]

Jay, that’s right, a seller with a premium store could list up to 50,000 books and collectibles listings for free every month, plus use the other free FP listings he normally gets for non-books, non-collectibles, or for that matter, more books and collectibles. So, yeah, the really big benefit here is for those who list heavily in the selected categories, AND who have sufficient inventory/time to create thousands of listings. (of course, you still have your store fee to pay)

[Jay]

But you could just have a Starter Store with 50k listings as long as they’re books and collectibles?

[MyCottage]

Jay, No. You would need a Premium Store for the 50,000…

I posted this on another thread, reposting here. It’s long, but I try to break this down:

The extent of the change depends on your seller level. For non-store owner and starter store owners, there’s an increase in the freebies, with NO category limitation. So, today, non store gets 50 free auction or FP listings per month. That will jump to 200 in August. Today, starter store gets 100 auction or FP, that will jump to 250 per month. Again, NO category restrictions for those sellers.

The Basic Store owners get a hybrid : Today, they get 250 FP, and 250 auction in “Fashion and Collectibles”, a term which actually encompasses 13 ebay categories. In August , the free FPs in ANY category will jump from 250 to 350. (Auctions stay the same). BUT…Basic store owners, if they are in Managed Payments, will get an additional 10,000 free FP listings, but those freebies are confined to certain categories.

Premium, Anchor and Enterprise , unlike Basic and below, get NO unrestricted free FP listings beyond what they get now. So these larger stores DO get additional freebies, but they are confined to certain categories. In other words, if you have a Premium (or higher) store and only sell in a category that is NOT one of the specified categories, this doesn’t change anything for you. But…let’s say you list ONLY in Collectibles (which is one of the specified categories). Then this is great for you, because with a Premium Store, you get an extra 50,000 freebies in the specified categories. With an Anchor, you get 75,000 extras, and with Enterprise, you get 100,000 extras.

So, to figure out whether this is no benefit, some benefit, or a tremendous benefit, Premium and above need to look at the specified categories. There are six full categories:

• Collectibles
• Music
• Books
• DVDs & Movies
• Stamps
• Crafts

And there are four where we aren’t dealing with EVERYTHING in the category, but ONLY a specified SUB-category:

• Sports Mem, Cards & Fan Shop > Sports Trading Cards
• Toys & Hobbies > Collectible Card Games
• Video Games & Consoles > Video Games
• Home & Garden > Greeting Cards & Party Supply > Party Supplies

So, for Premium and up, and for Basic too, it’s important to know which categories and sub-categories apply to your business, if any.

For me, this is pretty great, because I’d guess about 2/3 or 3/4 of my stuff fits into Collectibles, another chunk is Books and Music, and a few odds and ends in some of the others. I also sell in some non-specified categories, but I probably have enough FP freebies to cover that stuff, since, as a Premium Store, I have 1,000 FP in any category in addition to the new 50,000 in specified categories. I might drop to Basic, my store renewal comes up in October, so if just wait a couple months, I can change to Basic without an Early Termination fee.

 

 

 

[MyCottage]

And I should emphasize, to get the free “selected category” listings, you MUST be in Managed Payments. I was just onboarded last night, so come August 1st my Premium Store will get the freebies.

[Jay]

I think its dumb eBay makes all this so complicated. Different subscriptions, different freebies, different categories of free listings.

So are you using Managed Payments right now? Or just in the queue to get turned on?

[almasty]

Agreed.  They should’ve just given it to everyone in all categories in order to encourage more items listed over the entirety of Ebay.

I really feel like in this case Ebay is giving the shaft to long-term sellers that sell in these categories.  My “yearly” subscription for an anchor store was renewed in May or June.  That is why I am looking at a $900 “fee” to go down to a premium store to take advantage of the overall lower subscription fee.  If Ebay had stated their intention to do this a few months ago, I would’ve gone to monthly ($349.99 a month) for my anchor store for a few months while I waited for this to happen in August.

However, other sellers in books, dvds, collectibles, etc,. that list elsewhere (such as on Mercari, Amazon, etc,. this is obviously to draw sellers away from those sites) will look at this new fee structure on Ebay and think “wow, I can get a premium store for $59.99 a month and list 50,000 (essentially unlimited listings because very few sellers have 50,000 items in their stores) items!  What a great deal, I should get on there!”

[MyCottage]

Mr Schiavo and almasty,  ebay was asked about waiving the early termination fees in a recent Weekly Chat and said there were no plans to do so. I suppose that could change, but I wouldn’t count on it.

[almasty]

:'(

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