free listings on Ebay - more questions

[kellyponyfeathers]

So I'm new to selling on Ebay.  How does the free listings thing work?  It says we get 50 per month - great!  But does that mean we get 50 for November, 50 for December, etc?  Or does it mean that if we list on Nov. 15, we have to wait until Dec. 15 for more free listings?

And does it mean that we get 50 free NEW listings each month?  So far for November, I listed about 45 items and have sold about 15.  Does it mean that on Dec. 1st I get 50 more free listings? Or does it just mean that I'll get the balance of about 20 new free listings?

 

There are a lot of ways this can be interpreted.

[ponylady]

It goes by per calendar month, so beginning at 12:00am Pacific Time on the first day of each month and ending at 11:59pm Pacific Time on the last day of the month.

So the answer is yes!! 50 free every month.

[Ringlets]

BTW just to add for non US ebayer sellers (especially for newer sellers who might not know )  the amount of free listings we get in other countries varies. In the US its 50, in the UK (where I am)  its 20 free listings a month now (we hadn't used to get any free listings at all unless there was a special offer every now and then on a weekend , until earlier this year if I remember correctly ).  I think in France they get even more free listings a month than both the UK and the US.
 I guess I should just have written " non US peeps please check with ebay in your own country" lol    

[Miss_Pompon]

In France, for now, we have 50 free listings via the ebay website + 50 free listings via the mobile phone app.

And if you choose the automatic relisting option, the unsold items are relisted 3 times and it doesn't count as a new listing so it doesn't impact the free listings count.

[Sebby6]

I don't qualify for free listings because "I don't sell enough" lol

[Rhubarbpie]

That's odd Sebby, I got a message for 20 free listings and I only really buy on ebay, Ray sometimes sells fishing stuff, but that's about it....

[Ringlets]

ebay Uk is just weird. We had the 3 free relistings thing too not long back -  but now its gone back down to 1 free relist *siiiigh* 

[Miss_Pompon]

It changes all the time here too...

[Thunderwing]

It resets on the first of the month. If you are doing Re-Listing that counts as part of your free. So if you list 50 new auctions in November, and five sell, then on December 1st you can relist the 45 that didn't sell plus five new ones.

If you use the summary page to relist from, where you check all the little boxes and then 'relist all' and it gives you any grief, then just remove a few. I found that if I have 50 free listings, and try to relist 50 auctions using the bulk relist feature, it tries to charge me fees for them all. But then if I go back and try to list only 48, it works fine. You have to watch with this feature, if one auction is an oddball (like if you put a buy it now on one, and then the buy it now isn't free the next time around) then it messes the whole thing up. Just something to watch for! 

Last year, when I would list 50 free auctions early in the month, about a week later I would get an offer from ebay: "List up to 100 more for free" "List up to 20,000 auctions for free!" "Add buy it now to all auctions free!"  It was never the same offer twice, but I always got one. But only after I had filled up my 50 free slots early in the month.

[kellyponyfeathers]

Uhhhhh, more questions, please; I'm confused.  So relistings count toward listings?  That sucks!  I wasn't counting on that!

So I listed 44 items and sold 12.  I just relisted the ones that didn't sell, thinking I was fine and avoiding fees.  But now I'm getting the impression that these relistings will count toward my monthly allotment of 50?  So if they sell I'll lose a big chunk to fees?  Ugh.

[Chi]

What exactly is listing for free? Is it no charge to create the listing or no charge when the listing is completed?
I've only ever had about .30¢ to list and automatically free relisting, I believe. It's just not worth it for me to use eBay with the fees I've been getting...

[kellyponyfeathers]

Well I don't mind losing 30 cents or approx. $1 to fees; that's fair enough.  But I know in some situations sellers lose 20 - 25 % of the sale price to fees between Ebay and Paypal, and that's what I'm trying to avoid.  I just don't really understand how this works.  The items I want to sell next are worth $50+ each, so I really don't want to lose 25% of those sales to fees.

[bluerose9978]

Additional info from eBay's own words (this may clear some things up for you). This is for U.S. sellers:

The following count toward your monthly free-insertion-fee listings:
Manual and automatically relisted items
Good 'Til Cancelled listings
Listings that you end early, or we end early
Duplicate identical auction-style listings (even if one or more of those listings doesn't appear on eBay
Insertion fees for manually relisted items are free when eligible under these guidelines.

Final value fees:
After a buyer commits to purchase an item, you're charged a final value fee. If a listing ends without a sale (not including any successful Second Chance Offers) you don't pay a final value fee. Final value fees are calculated based on the total amount of the sale and are charged per item.

[Prismatic]

Well I don't mind losing 30 cents or approx. $1 to fees; that's fair enough.  But I know in some situations sellers lose 20 - 25 % of the sale price to fees between Ebay and Paypal, and that's what I'm trying to avoid.  I just don't really understand how this works.  The items I want to sell next are worth $50+ each, so I really don't want to lose 25% of those sales to fees.

You'll pay those final value fees regardless.  I believe it comes out to like 12 or 13% of the sale (including shipping) for non top rated sellers.  What the 'free listing' is referring to is the initial fee to list the item, and it's only for auction listings (with or without BIN added on.)  Ebay charges 2 separate fees, one to list the item initially, and one once the items sells, which is the final value fee.  The free listing offering is for that initial listing fee (usually for me it's like .30) and each time the item is relisted, it counts in that free 50 quantity (since it's listing it again.)  You'll pay that 12% final value fee on all sales, including ones listed for free.

One thing I wanna add too, is that if you ever get one of those promotional emails that advertizes free BIN listings, make sure you read the fine print, ebay has removed the toys & hobbies category from most of those promotions.  A few recently have included it, but only up to 10 day BINs.

When you list, check the fees for the listing on the second page, if it qualifies, it should say 0.00, but also list your total due for the next invoice, which will include any final value fees charged on listings for the month.

[silverdawn]

I've listed hundreds in the last month and haven't paid a listing fee yet.. Not sure why.