posted on November 10, 2002 10:31:12 AMAs a special offer to our sellers, we are offering a discount on the insertion fee for single quantity listings that have a starting price of less than or equal to $0.99 with no reserve. This offer is available on the U.S. site (www.ebay.com) from Monday, November 11th, 2002 beginning at 00:00:01 PT (12:00 AM plus one second), until November 17th, 2002 at 23:59:59 PT (11:59 PM plus 59 seconds).
During this special promotion, the discounted insertion fee for single quantity regular auction-style listings, single quantity eBay Motors non-vehicles listings, and single quantity Fixed Price listings will be $0.20 on the U.S. site (www.ebay.com).
I can see another big rise in the ebay listing numbers. There are still a lot of items on ebay that sell in the 75 cents to $3 range and those sellers may increase their very low end auctions. They can list 100 auctions at $20 instead of $30. The sellers of commom books at 99 cents with a $5 s/h for Media Mail should be out in force.
posted on November 10, 2002 05:28:26 PM
I think instead of offering all these specials to sellers, they need to somehow entice more buyers. Really don't need more sellers. The $.20 listing special does me no good. I can't affort to list at $.99. I would stand to lose the shirt off my back, or at least what's left of it.
posted on November 10, 2002 05:34:54 PM
I agree! I tried the 99 cent thing -- one time and one time only.
I had 10 listings as a trial. Still 4 no sales, 2 went for $.99, 3 went for under $3.00 and 1 went for $5.00.
I could have done just as well by keeping my $9.99 starting bid and having my 10% sell through. The same $10.00, only had to mail 1 item and still have the other 4.
For me at least, the cheap starting bid just doesn't work.
posted on November 11, 2002 11:22:32 AM
Saving 10 cents on listing does not seem much of an incentive. Perhaps if it was free, but no way would I gamble with items worth $10.00 to save a dime. Give me a break!!
posted on November 11, 2002 12:34:48 PM
Besides, with so many items listed now, if you get outbid on a 99 cent item you can probably find it somewhere else for the same price.
I think lots of people will get burned if they try it. But then, if they do, maybe they will be like me and not do it again.
posted on November 11, 2002 12:51:02 PM
My thinking is totally different on the matter. Half.com has 100 million items of which a very large percentage as $2 or less items, mostly books. Those items sit there and almost never sell, partially because there's little browsing traffic at Half.
I think a lot of sellers at Half are going to try to get rid of very slow items by listing them at ebay and rising the mandatory media mail that Half charges to cover the 20 cent listing cost.
This may somewhat backfire on ebay as many categories get a lot of 99 cent, no reserve items that may depress the sellers that are offering the same item at $4 or $5. It may mean less listing overall in those categories.
