The ABC's of the eBay "List 5 Free" Promotion

[egbeachley]

I think I figured it out. Since the regular fees are 8.75% of selling amount for the first $25.00, the fees are the same for items that sell for $25.00 or less but you save on listing fees which is about 35 - 60 cents or so.

But the regular fees are 3.5% for the amount over $25.00 and up to $1,000.00. So you don't get that 5.25% savings for sales over $25.00. That eats up the free listing fees pretty quick.

HOWEVER, the $20.00 fee for the listings is a maximum So you can save a bundle for big items that are the first 5 each month. If you sell 5 items for $1,000.00 each, your fee is $20.00 with the special, but about $180.00 the regular way.

[iggyman]

At the end of the day, it is a sweet deal for sellers who sell a few big ticket items every 30 days (the crab fishermen from "Deadliest Catch"???). Sell your first five items every month for over $525 and you're smelling good, sell it for less and eBay gets a nice cut...

Here is the breakdown (this chart assumes your starting price is ".99 cents"):

Sell Price............Regular Fees..................5 Free Listings Fees
$$20....................$1.90..................... $1.75 seller nets 2 dimes & a nickel

$$30....................$2.52..................... $2.63 eBay wins
$100....................$4.97..................... $8.75 eBay wins
$200....................$8.47..................... $17.50 eBay wins
$300...................$11.97....................$ 20.00 eBay wins
$400...................$15.47....................$ 20.00 eBay wins
$500...................$18.97....................$ 20.00 eBay wins

$550...................$20.72....................$ 20.00 seller can almost buy a Sprite
$1000................$36.57...................$20. 00 seller wins a cheap lunch
$5000................$96.46...................$20. 00 seller wins a dinner at Canton including dessert

Okay, you get the idea...but it still rubs me the wrong way. It is definitely sneaky. EBay will snooker the casual/novice and on occasion the veteran seller into paying a little extra in fees, while at the same time they get a listing increase which will look good to wall street. While we end-up with a bunch of auctions selling 1987 Topps cases for $1000 (not that there is anything wrong with selling 1987 Topps cases for $1000....).

So, what do you have to lose.....start listing those T206 OM back overprints for $9999! Create multiple accounts if you have too. First five listings are free!

Lovely Day...

[egbeachley]

Iggy, nice chart but you need to multiply hte regular fees by 5. The offer is $20 for all 5 listings.

[RichardSimon]

I thought the offer was $20 maximum for each listing,,, not for all 5 listings.

[mybuddyinc]

Thanks for the info, Iggy ...............


"Sell Price............Regular Fees..................5 Free Listings Fees
$$20....................$1.90..................... $1.75 seller nets 2 dimes & a nickel"



................... actually it's only 1 dime and 1 nickle !!!!!!

[D. Bergin]

Really, this is just one more bulls**t thing you have to worry about planning around regarding Ebay.

If my item sells between this and this I'm going to get screwed, if it sells between this and this I guess I'm going to do ok.

Why don't they just do a promotion whereby everybody who uses it actually saves a little bit of money instead of having to try to figure this sh*t out? Every "promotion" they come up with is designed to screw somebody, somewhere along the line. They don't ever actually give anything up on their end in these "promotions".

It's ridiculous.

Thanks again for another wonderful Ebay promotion.


- Dave

feeling a little rambunctious today

[timzcardz]

Originally Posted by egbeachley

Iggy, nice chart but you need to multiply hte regular fees by 5. The offer is $20 for all 5 listings.

Not so. The $20 is "per listing."

Second bullet on this page: http://pages.ebay.com/sell/June2009/...ree/index.html

The $0.00 Insertion Fee listings will have a Final Value Fee per listing of 8.75% or $20, whichever is lower.