• expired

eBay - Free Insertion, Free Gallery on Both Auction and Buy It Now

5410

Just got the email,

From 19 April - 10 May, eBay.com.au is making it even easier for you with:

Free insertion fees, Free gallery picture, On both Auction and Buy It Now listings

This promotion is by invitation only
To ensure you are eligible for this promotion, please list under your user ID at the top of this email.

mod - note: this post is being kept to let people know they may have an offer in their messages on the e-Bay website, as not everyone received the e-mail from e-Bay and not everyone uses e-Bay regularly

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closed Comments

  • +7

    thats cause they rip you off with paypal fees, then rip you off (more so) with final sale fees, has anyone noticed you used to be able to find ANYTHING on ebay as it was a good cheap place to list things, these days, there seems to be less sellers and less choice…

    • +2

      yeah my friend (seller) told me ebay made more money than her.. seems like all the seller are actually ebay's labour lol

  • cool ~! i have 3 to list tonight!

    • +3

      just remember the listing fee is only a small portion of the final fee you'll be changed.

      have a look at there fee structure.

      http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/fees.html

      (5.25% of the initial AU$75.00 plus 2.75% of the remaining closing price (AU$75.01 to AU$1,000.00))

      and paypal fees that your forced to use

      1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD to receive money.

      then potentially more when you put it into your bank account!

      • +2

        Minor correction to the paypal fees (AU vs. US):
        2.4% + .30AUD for the first 10k transacted a month
        1.4% + .30AUD from then on

        • ahhh thanks!

          you get the idea… !

          free is not free at all… ebay listing is only a dollar or under.

          final value fees can be what stings you!

          • +1

            @wisc: Most definitely. I've found in the past a good way to avoid paypal fees (on more expensive items, provided you've got the feedback behind you) is to offer an incentive for direct deposit. Even if it's a small freebie worth a couple of bucks, or a 1-2% discount. It means very little on a single item, but over, say, a few hundred items it does start to have an impact!

            • @pais: The other way, is to offer cheap items, but then when they buy more than one, tell them to contact you first for a little discount, get them to buy ONE only (to ebay's eyes)so that an invoice can be generated.
              Then revise the postage on the invoice so that any other additional item's costs is in the postage.
              Why?
              Postage isn't counted in the final sale fee, so in other words, you'd be saving on ebay's fees while the buyer saves when buying more than one product.
              Win-Win situation
              But if you have any rival ebayers, make sure you don't shove all the details in the description, ebay WILL screw you over if you're caught exploiting them ;)
              You need trustworthy buyers.
              NEVER, never, NEVER sell anything to a nigerian, my god, the scams..

              • +1

                @cwongtech: Myself and a partner were running separate eBay accounts doing something similar, I got one warning.. He was issued three in a day, and wasn't allowed to re-sell until he completed their crash course in selling rules! It only took a couple of minutes, but it's an easy way to get yourself flagged on their system.

                Risk and reward tradeoff, I guess :) Might be a better idea in those instances to create a mailing list from all of your customers and email them about good promotions that they may be interested in.

                But i think I'm detracting here and that sorta talk better belongs in the forums! My point was just a quick & easy way to incentivize non-paypal payments!

            • @pais: Absolutely, i offer free postage when playing via direct deposit for alot of my sales…i am still surprised at how many people choose paypal, however…

              • @samelf: Honestly, Paypal is much better for buyers. I've had to use the dispute processes quite a few times to get refunds for faulty/misdescribed items. It really does suck for sellers though, unfortunately.

      • Aren't there LOWER seller fees for PayPal Merchant's…?
        (maybe you pay a monthly fee to get them, so…
        always a trade-off to consider.)

        In any case:

        You can REQUEST that folks pay you via direct deposit;
        you must only offer PayPal, your buyer is free to choose.

        TRUE BLUE AUSSIES DON'T PAY AUSSIES VIA PayPal :-)

        (Spread the word!)

        • Paypal fees for business/premiere accounts are actually higher than for personal accounts (which have a trade cap). You can see the fees as listed above. They're lower over the 10k threshold.

  • -1

    OMG I just listed items last night. Can I claim that back for this promo?!

  • +3

    Invitation only?

    Great, so anyone who actually sells anything won't be invited.

    • i got on in my ebay inbox as well… cant be that selective…maybe check your ebay messages?

    • They seem to be promoting eBay to those not already selling regularly.

  • eBay will be full of junk during this time.

    I can't complain as I will be one of those people spamming listings to increase sales :/

  • It´s by invitation only so I´m not so sure that´s available to anyone.

    Also, the web server that is hosting that promotion is based in Austria, not that it matters I guess.

  • It's by invitation only, so it doesn't seem to be applicable unless you get the email yourself, according to the T&C. Any idea on how to get invited?

  • If you've ever sold anything, it's likely you won't get this invite. They only seem to send these things to people that are unlikely to take advantage of it.

    • I got the offer to an account that has never sold anything.
      Or bought!
      So no insertion fee, but zero feedback.

  • cool, just received it now.
    Save ~$2 - to spend ~$7 on FVF + paypal fees >_<
    Oh well, still a saving

  • Can we not accept paypal as a payment method??

    • All sellers have to provide Paypal as a payment method. However, you can also accept other payment methods.
      But its basically null, since everyone has paypal and there is no incentive for buyers to pay via alternative methods as they are not given "protection", they dont incur a fee and its generally quicker.

    • No, you have to accept paypal as a method of payment.

  • DOH! - I just listed things for the first time in months last nite! FUDGE!

  • +2

    I've lost faith in Ebay as a selling tool. I'm now seeking alternatives, this week I will placing a few things up for sale on gumtree.com.au, it is completely free to do so and see how it goes. I'm sure there are other free or cheaper-than-ebay alternatives to discover out there.

    Ebay's seller fee's are just too high in my opinion now, if they truly want to encourage sellers back they should offer discounts on the seller fees.

    • +1

      Yes, www.gumtree.com.au was a great alternative. But since it is now owned by ebay (http://info.gumtree.com.au/help/knowledgebase.php?article=12…) I'm sure it will get rendered useless once more people start to use it.

    • While it is completely free - lots of people use it too, and their ads may push your ad down in the search results list (onto other pages).

      They then offer you the option to "promote" your ad and charge you for that… so it's important to be aware of that.

    • ive used gumtree a lot, you will get a lot of people trying to lowball you and so will usually end up getting a lower price than you would on ebay. however it's much less of a pain selling something so it evens out.

  • +2

    As a heavy user of eBay something that really pisses me off is I never EVER get sent any of these offers…hmmm, i wonder why?? $$$

    Doesnt this apply to the original posters user name only?

    • dito oneflewnorth,
      never get these.
      I am on live chat with ebay now and they have not heard of this promo
      they are saying to me
      "Yes, but it did not came from eBay."
      "Sounds like a speculation only."
      "No, we are not affiliated with that."
      "You are being misinformed by this."
      that they believe it is a fake!!!!!!!!!

  • tell me about ebay customer service…

    It has proved in past that marketing department dont have any communication with different department.
    The chat consultants are never aware of any offer…

    This is the genuine offer from ebay..
    But the only thing i dont understand is "This promotion is by invitation only
    To ensure you are eligible for this promotion, please list under your user ID at the top of this email."
    What does this mean..

    and have anyone got this offer except the poster?

    • Means that, some people might have multiple userids on ebay… and this particular deal is only offered to the userid that is listed on the email.

      I got one of these emails too, but I don't often sell stuff, just sporadically.

  • Sounds like eBay should be reading some of the comments above, rather than offering iffy discounts on fees that shouldn't exist. JMHO. :)

    • there was talk of them removing insertion fees and raising the final valuation fee…(think it was to get more people listing items to fill it up again)

      TIC but they probably just settled for lifting the final value fee…/TIC

  • So how does one take advantage of this offer? I just tried to list something and it wants to charge insertion fees as usual.

    • invite only, you have to use the account they sent the email/message too, if you dont have one in your message/inbox, your probably not eligible…

      i got one, i rarely sell things on it.. probably got it as an incentive….
      OP has said its invite only at the bottom of the original post

  • +1

    This sucks! invite only…

  • i got an invite its been 11 months since i sold anything on ebay.

    • same here. I haven't sell for a few months already.

  • damn i dont qualify for this
    meh
    this would have to be the best offer from ebay yet

  • -1

    I didn't get the invite. I listed an item today and was charged a listing fee.

    • -1

      CHECK first before you comitted it.
      "This promotion is by invitation only"
      Did you not understand the sentence above?

      • I listed my item before I even read OzB. I knew I was going to be charged a fee. I only posted here to add to the count of OzB users that didn't get an invite email or credit.

  • great offer, shame I dont seem to qualify either, been 6 months since I bothered due to the fees.

  • I don't list all the time but have done so in the past week. I've received this offer though. =/

  • +2

    Wait - if this is invite only, why are there so many positive votes? I don't get it.

    • people dont read and just see free insert and gallary…

      or the word free.

      if you want lots of +ive votes have the word free in your heading… just like the ones that go s……x now that we have your attention…

  • Hmmm, I listed about 30 odd items about a week ago and received this promo. Admittedly, I hadn't listed anything for a couple of years prior shrug

  • I didn't get an invite but when I tried listing something it worked fee free. Guess you won't know until you try.

  • -3

    dont get me started about how much i despise ebays fees and how it runs itself

  • i dont get it if u dont get the invite y neg?
    to me i find that it's an eyeopener for me to check if i qualify, and if i have any junk laying around sell it
    just because u dont qualify dont neg, just leave it alone like i have

    • +2

      I am going to neg because if you got the invite, you dont need a bargain post telling you about it.

      And if you didnt you cant use it.

      So a totally useless post IMO.

      • Except I didn't get an invite and it works for me. I would imagine there would be others in this situation.

        • Just went ahead and listed a few more things.. Charged as per usual!

      • Still charged listing fee - not happy.

    • I dunno - I'm pretty annoyed that I always miss out on these simply because of how much I sell. I didn't vote negative, but perhaps it'd be in the interest of full disclosure to throw invite-only in the title as people vote fairly blindly.

      More to the point, there probably doesn't even need to be a "bargain" posted for it; those eligible for this promotion receive the email… for everyone else, tough cookies!

      Edit: beaten by that much :)

  • +3

    Just checked and no email for me. I'm a regular seller so hence ofcourse they dont want to give to us for free! They are actually the worst company in the world. This comes from years of experience in working with eBay and Paypal.

  • +5

    What's the point of posting "by invitation only" deal?

    • Agree. An invitation only offer is really not a deal IMO.

    • agree

      • I don't use ebay that much, so I don't see messages in my eBay folder.

        I also didn't receive the email, despite getting the offer.

        So it's a heads up for members in my situation.

  • +1

    ebay always sent this kind of invitation to buyer. trying to attract buyer to sell on ebay.

    ebay never send this free listing to Seller. I hate this ebay !!!

    • Agree, I paid over $50 every month to EBAY and get no invitation. Shame on ebay

    • I've received it in both my selling and buying accounts. Having said that my selling account is low activity (one listing two weeks ago and none in the few months prior), so perhaps that's a factor.

  • no invite for me either

  • I did not get an invite (never do), but I can confirm the item I just listed showed up as 'Free!' for both the Buy It Now & Gallery options.

    Reckon those negatives might need to be retracted…

  • I would neg this if my account wasn't less than 30 days old. I didn't get the invite, put something up today and was charged the lsting & gallery fee.

  • I didn't get the email, but it is in my messages on eBay.

    • The only message from eBay is an invoice notification. I tried listed something anyway and was charged. I wonder what's their selection criteria. May be only for inactive users, or users with sales figures under $x over y months.

    • You're right. I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. Top post, AAAAAA+++++++

      Though I can't go without taking a swipe at eBay and their forcing of PayPal. Wish the RBA would stomp on them rather than taking the position that PayPal is a too small a player in the payments market to warrant any action.

  • +4

    eBay rubs me up the wrong way once again. Now Paypal is a mandatory "option" and incurs a fee which is paid on 99% of transactions, listings should be free 100% of the time - to everyone.

    eBay is now flooded with imported junk - high volume, high margin stuff as sellers simply cannot afford to list one off's, rare and unusual items - the stuff ebay was built on.

    I started selling unique used PC components on ebay about 6-7 years ago, unfortunately as ebay gradually changed their site by chipping away at its' core - I began to make no money (in fact I lost money), so like everyone else i'm forced to sell bulk lines, in their thousands to make any money, flooding the site like everyone else with same for same items….

  • I also used to have an ebay business, selling wrestling dvds and other wrestling items. It was going very well til about a year ago, when the market dropped out.

    I now sell only every now and then, when a deal like this is on (though I didn't get the invite to this one, despite my 100% positive feedback as a seller and buyer. Would have thought long term customers doing the right thing would be rewarded).

    Been looking for an alternative on where else to go to keep ticking the sales over.

  • I didn't get it either. Anyone want to go to ombudsmen or practice of fair trading with me? Surely it is not legal to charge some people fees during a set period while others get the same free?

    • There's nothing illegal about it.

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