August 29th, 2007 by Skip McGrath

no more listing on the worst days to use the listing fee promotions. This time eBay has got it right, and at the best possible time.

Normally, when eBay offers a listing promotion, it’s for one day only and it’s usually a Tuesday or Wednesday (typically the worst day to list an item). So, the dollar value savings in the listing fee often does not equate to the loss you’ll take by ending your item at a non-optimal time. This time it’s different.

In my previous post I talked about the Summer slow-down, so this is the perfect time for eBay to offer this kind of promotion. September is a tough month because the kids are back at school, summer’s coming to an end, often buyers spent too much on vacation, and no-one’s really thinking about Christmas yet. This usually translates into fewer sales and lower final values. So in this month, many eBay sellers list fewer items because the listing fees mount up if you’re not getting as many sales. Cue eBay’s new promotion:

If you list between August 29th (today) and September 30th you can get your listing fee waived. There are a few requirements:

• You must use Gallery (which you should be doing anyway)
• You must list the starting price at $9.99 or lower
• You must add Gallery separately (rather than with Pro Pack, Gallery Featured, Value Pack, Gallery Plus, etc.)
• You must list an auction-style or fixed-price listing
• eBay Motors (including parts and accessories) and some other categories are excluded

This is huge. You can list your items at optimal times, and still get the fee reduction. This is not a credit you have to wait for, this is a discount that you will see immediately.

"What if I can’t list it at $9.99?" I hear you cry. Don’t worry, eBay has got you covered too. They understand that there are some items you just can’t start at that low a price. So they are giving you a 25% discount on all insertion fees when the starting price is $10 or higher. This is how the fee table works out:

Let’s look at a few examples.

High-Volume Low-Dollar

If you’re a professional high volume, low-dollar seller, listing 100 auctions a week, that gives you 400 auctions during this promotion. It shouldn’t be an issue for you to start at $9.99 (since you probably do that anyway). So you are saving $160 in listing fees. That’s pretty significant, particularly in one of the slower months.

Low-Volume High-Dollar

Now, let’s look at the other type of professional seller – low volume, high-dollar sellers. You may only have 15-25 auctions a week, but your starting price (or more likely reserve price) will probably be either in the $200-$499.99 or $500+ band. So if you list 20 auctions per week, that’s 80 during the promotion period. Let’s assume you’re in the highest band price, that means you’ll be saving $96 in listing fees. This isn’t as high as the high-volume seller, but it’s still good. This might be the time to get a bunch of items listed so you can take advantage of the promotion. If you are able to list 40 auctions a week, your savings just jumped to $192.

This promotion has been launched at the absolute best possible time. Don’t forget, that many sellers are also buyers. All of the buyers who saw this promotion know that there will be a lot of inventory posted in the next month, so we may actually see a spike in sales. Either way, this is a great way to get geared up for the holiday season.

See Also

• The eBay Wholesale Buying System
  How to find and deal with wholesale sources who will work with eBay sellers
• The Complete eBay Marketing System
  Everything you need to know about starting and running a successful eBay business