Well, I guess that's the end of the free weekend ...

[5129frederick]

The opening line says it all, really, doesn't it.  EBay are not in the slightest bit interested in the little man, and why should they be?  As we all know it's jumped from 15p to 35p per item so realistically it's not worth selling anything for under a fiver.  My pleasure was selling clothes and puzzles at between £2.50 and £3.00 each, but those days are now gone.  And as for this twenty free items per month!  Pfft!  To put 60 - 70 items up now is out of the question.  I never realised it, but over the years it has become more and more expensive putting stuff on eBay.  OK, so it depends on what you put up, but I've seen my monthly creep up from £10.00 per month to over a pony (£25.00).  I'm now going to give it one final bash, and then let it die a natural death.  Even if they reintroduce this free weekend, as far as I am concerned, they're finished.  I think, or rather I know so many others like me are going to say "Enough is enough" and pull out all together, they are going to lose money hand over fist and this will severely accect their profits.    I might try my luck with A*bleep*n - can't be any worse.  I'll still visit FHG though - unless they start charging for that too!  (roll eyes).  I've had a good run for my money ( shrug shoulders).  See you around, Fred.  

[dairyview123]

And then RM put the boot in Fred! 

[ed_blackadder_1]

Shame, I think I shall only be listing if I know it is going to sell for a good price, I listed just before the 20 listings thing it cost £6. to list everything, I sold about a tenners worth the rest didn't sell, with the fees. I just about broke even, oh and as they were free post I didn't count the postage.  So I don't think I shall bother too much now, it just doesn't seem to be worth the time and effort.  I shll still carry on with the charity listings as that is a good cause.

[5129frederick]

They're fools.  We might be small individually, but together we make up a veritable army who are not prepared to be walked over.   As I said what with the change in charges and being messed about for about an hour because they kept sending me a new password to a nonexistant address, I'm going to let it die a natural death.

A final word of warning - there's going to be a whole spate of eBay spams claiming people owe them money, and as a precaution, if you do bank on line, regardless of how safe eBay say it is, CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT - NOW!  You can always open it again at a later stage once the dust has settled.  Catch you later, Fred.

[cee-dee]

I don't suppose this will win me any friends but I'm gonna say it anyway:-

It must be more than 12 years ago since I said on the boards that it costs eBay the same to host a listing for a 99p item as it does for one selling for several hundred pounds.

Having said that...... at that time I also said one day eBay would start including the postage on the FVF and I predicted that eBay would take over PayPal and the Community Manager at the time said "We would never do that". Hmmmmm, I was right.....? Do many people remember Billpoint?

Ebay started off with people just selling their odd, unwanted items but some people quickly turned that in to a business. Some people ended up making lotsa money...... At one time we were doing £35k a week but unfortunately the actions and/or inaction by eBay have alienated many people, both buyers and sellers and the selling platform is completely different to what it used to be. The economic climate hasn't helped and really, I think eBay have been a bit greedy along the way.

That said, eBay is what it is and it's up to people to make the best of it as it stands. There's still a living to be made on eBay but you have to change with the changing times and the changing face of eBay.

I see people complaining about all sorts of things over the changing passwords issue but just today, I've changed passwords on three IDs and I had no problems at all, the change was seamless.

Complain about the fees if you like but just work out the FVF + the PP charges etc on a £700 item and factor that out of your profit? Things are different today and that's about it!

An old saying is "If things don't change, they'll stop as they are." Well, eBay has changed and you have to change tactics to continue. If you don't...........

[funnyshapedcat]

I don't often post on here but - I rarely used the 99p free listings, I found them useful for items I would otherwise have given away but I resent the way the charity shop volunteers pick over the donations and put them aside for themselves and have many times seen heaps of good items sitting at the back of the shops and theives rooting through them, or heaps put out for the binmen. So, I put them on Ebay and people who wanted a useful item have been happy with them.

I made good use of the free listing weekends, although never really needed a lot more than 20 as it takes too long to list. We have been told that promotional offers have not been discontinued. Time will tell.

I would 'like' more than 20 free listings a month but honestly I can't see why people are complaining about being given something FREE, you can list for whatever price you like, you can schedule them to start when you like and you have a choice of auctions or BINS.

You have to move with the times, this site has changed many times since I joined, I have a house full of stuff to sort out and clear and more listings would have been a great help but I am not about to flounce off because it has changed. What it will do is make me more selective about what I list for my 20 items. 

You can still list items at £2.50, and you can post them for £2.80 and if they are listed well with decent photos and a good description there is no reason why they won't sell as well as before you were given the 20 FREE listings at any start price. No need to give up. You can even start items at a higher price and if they sell it will cover the 35p for another listing. 

I am finding it hard to understand why people are complaining about being given something that could improve their sales and will not cost them anything to try.

[leoleoleo123]

Yep. I agree with the previous 2 posts...

[5129frederick]

Yes, I understand exactly what you and mou are saying, prices have to rise to keep hedge with inflation, but forgetting the actual cost per item factor, but does that justify a 100% increase OVERNIGHT?!  

Not even Wilson got away with something as preposperous as that!

"The pound in your pocket will not be affected by inflation."  That was the first thing he said.  The second thing he said was: "Let's freeze wages" after having given himself a 20% increase, from £16,000.00 to £20,000.00 per year salary, but not even Wilson, with all his gaulle dared double his salary overnight!  What if the railways suddenly decided to do the same?!  We'd be like Germany in the early thirties where people walked down the road with wheelbarrow loads of money to do their shopping.  I kid you not - Google it and you'll see photographic evidence of it.

A lot of people are raving their sides out about this.  "I'm going to do ... blah, blah, blah about it"  But it will soon blow over within a couple of week.  

Only some of us, including me, will be putting our money where our mouth is - my word is my bond.  I'm giving this one final shot.  Watch my board when all my sales dry up, whether I'll be relisting.  EBay are'nt worried about the likes of Fred - we're fodder to the cattle.  Their real money comes from big businesses.  I'll still be on the discussion board because I hope I still have a couple of friends out there - three friends?  Nah, that's stretching it a bit! 

[Anonymous]

But they haven't doubled the fees overnight, they have enabled people with more expensive items to list them for a lot less, I have paid quite hefty fees on some of the things I sold because I didn't wait for a free listing day and I didn't want them to sell for under £5.00 when the average price on here was at least £30. So, I listed them for what I wanted them to sell at, sometimes with a BIN which was 40p, so if I had waited I could have listed them for £30 or more and with a BIN and saved some money.

I really don't see why you can't see that you are potentially no worse off - cheaper items can be sold in lots of 2 or 3 for a higher start price or listed for £2.50 - £3.50 for FREE every month.

You have nothing to lose by trying and if one way doesn't work then try another way. Some things just never sell anyway, and it depends on whehter it is your turn for exposure to potential buyers, now that I do get upset about - if I am paying (IF, as I will be using my free 20 listings) for a service then I expect my items to be seen by anyone who searches, not just those that Ebay think should see them.

This has also stopped people listing for 99p, selling it for 99p and then refusing to post it because it actually sold for the start price. I have often wondered if I would receive an item won at 99p and have had honest sellers but a lot of folk haven't.

To make it work, you have to go with the flow and accept that nothing is constant, it can be annoying but try adapting to it and it might be better than you thought.

[leoleoleo123]

Exactly!

[**towery**]

IMHO 

i think Ebay will wait til  mid june at the earliest before doing anymore free listings

that gives chance for most of the 100 free 99p listings and the first lot of 20 free any price listings to end

then thy will have a rough idea of how man items are nt being relisted and if the new idea has generated as much money and the old system did

i think the people who had chosen to go with the shop offer will be finding out how thats going too  but it will be august before that effect shows any improvement

[5129frederick]

You've raised a couple of interesting points.  It's just when I suddenly see items I'm now putting up being charges at 35p instead of 15p, I begin to question whether it's actually worth it.  I've cut it down from 70-odd items down to twenty newly listed items and will be watching it with a keen eye.  I've put my items up so it's now down to Lady Luck - as you say, some items are destined to end up in the charity shop!  I'm sitting on the fence with this one.  The next few weeks will be a deciding factor.  Pessimist as I am, I'm not too hopeful! 

[**towery**]

i interesting thing about the fees changes is that the  media category - music cds records  etc  have seen the rise from  5p/10p per listing to  35p

there has been a huge drop in the amount of items in those categories this last week or so

[5129frederick]

Precisely - the proof of the pudding is going to be in the eating.  I don't think eBay have done themselves any favours on this one.  They're living in a fool's paradise if they think this will all just wash over in a couple of weeks, because it won't.  If they're hoping tp brazen it  out, they're in for a long wait.  The only way to get them to take notice is by industrial action, but it would take several thousand people to make it work, and that is by withdrawing everything from sale en masse.  Not so farcical  as you might at first imagine.  France did it forty years ago with the cost of eggs.  The cost of eggs went up and up.  Two thousand buyers said they'd had enough.  If the price of eggs didn't come down they'd refuse to buy.  The chicken farmers lined up to pour scorn on the idea calling their bluff.  Bad mistake - thousands of eggs remained unsold and had to be thrown away.  With it went the livelihoods of several chicken farmers, but the price of eggs returned to normal.  After that, they no longer treated the French housewife with contempt.

So, eBay, you have been warned - tread lightly.  Music and cd's where there's a lot of money at stake - far more than there is with my puzzles of which I have already withdrawn the bulk, is being affected - how much more?

[ginap.123]

Whenever ebay make changes people threaten to boycott, virtually every poster on seller central was going to boycott when they started charging fees on postage, loads of flouncing but the same old posters are still on there & actively listing.

[5129frederick]

True - hot air from most.  The operative word being most.  Some of us though will put our money where our mouth is - keep watching, keep waiting - you could be in for a surprise.  

[10phizz]

Hi Fred, just looked at your listings....I think the Francis plates are probably a lot more collectable than most others but you have only put John`s name on one (I think).

I am one of those who rarely used the 99p. listings . I rarely list anything for under a tenner as you only make yourself a lot of work  but I  used to list some items  a number of times...after all you don`t need a replacement item until you break the one you have

. Buyers have been delighted to complete vanity  sets, buy a Victorian glass lampshade., replace  odd glasses .....  but these are the sort of items I won`t be able to afford to list now.

. I had hoped the three free re-lists would follow on from the 35p start which wouldn`t have been too bad.

I think many like me have used the 20 already and assume ebay will be looking to analyse the figures this month before they decide about  offering  a FLW .

For what its worth I have sold the same value from 20 items as I usually do from a hundred......but you won`t get that odd candlestick I may have had listed last month.

I started selling on here because as a carer for the OH I can`t get out to do a car boot ..and there are only so many crosswords you can do.

We are leaving the family home after 50 years, I have stuff from my parents, his mother , an aunt (no two plus one of mine  ), several neighbours and friends  who moved and left stuff  because we had loads of storage...and we were  collectors and  hoarders ourselves,  Just come right for us ,....all this 35p  listing fees lark . LOL