Has eBay Removed Extra Free Listings For Stores?

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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UPDATE 8-3-22

eBay has officially acknowledged this issue as a glitch and says they will be proactively crediting impacted sellers for listing fees incurred due to the issue.

Re: Did the extra 10K free listings in select categories end???
Hello all! I’ve heard back that they were able to find an issue on August 1st where some sellers did not get the benefit of the “select category” free insertions. This was an issue and not a sign of things to come. They are proactively crediting sellers who paid these insertion fees as a result and…

Hello all! I've heard back that they were able to find an issue on August 1st where some sellers did not get the benefit of the "select category" free insertions. This was an issue and not a sign of things to come.

They are proactively crediting sellers who paid these insertion fees as a result and those should be seen in the next 48 hours. In addition to that, they will be checking again towards the end of the month, for any sellers who had activity on August 1st in the select categories but incurred insertion fees (in any category) later in the month as a result of this issue.

They wanted to note that the credit would be capped at the number of listings that the impacted seller had during the impacted period of August 1st.


UPDATE 8-2-22

Still no official answer from eBay on this, but sellers who were missing the listing yesterday report they have been restored today.

Interestingly, the start date is August 2nd, which confirms this was not just a display error and they really did have to restart the "promotion."

The fact this hiccup occurred exactly 2 years from when these additional listings were first introduced is interesting to note. Was there a pre-programmed expiration date that eBay forgot to communicate both internally and externally?

While the listings have returned, seller trust has been damaged and that is not so easy to fix. Community members were relieved at the fix, but still very frustrated with the customer service experience.

Mine are back also......

But, personally, I'm still burned up.........No one at ebay could spare 30 sec to post somewhere that it was a glitch and was being fixed? No one at ebay has enough respect for sellers to inform them? No one at ebay has enough knowledge that this was a BIG deal to sellers?

Community.........my hind foot........communicate/work with sellers.......sure......tell me about it..... just another example of pure, unadulterated bad management.........

And, I'll stir the pot a bit........is this a preview, like so many "glitches" have been? Are we going to see an announcement in the next update that the "special offer" will be ended? Is there an end date out there and someone programmed in the wrong date (as so OFTEN happens around here)?

Is ANYONE with any sense actually running this place?

This followed a typical eBay pattern:

  1. Sellers report a problem
  2. Lower level employees either deny it exists or imply that it is the fault of the seller
  3. More and more people report the problem inundating eBay with complaints so that eventually the middle level people higher up the food chain who actually understand the system attempt to fix it
  4. The problem gets fixed without eBay management ever acknowledging that it existed in the first place

I honestly think that the management end of the company thinks it is good business practice to do what politicians do and blindly stick their heads in the sand whenever they hear something they don't like - and of course try to insulate themselves so that they hear nothing at all. Sad but true eBay policy.


Back in August 2020 eBay announced they were increasing free listings for sellers in light of the pandemic, including significantly increasing the amount of free listings in select categories like trading cards, collectibles, music, books, DVDs & movies, stamps, videogames, crafts, and party supplies.

Monthly Zero Insertion Fee Listings Increase on eBay.com, eBay.ca

Starting August 1, 2020, you will get a permanent increase in monthly zero insertion fee listings so you can continue to introduce, test, and sell new inventory. These changes will be available to all eBay sellers and you don’t need to take any action.

This Spring, we announced free listings promotions, which proved to be a powerful and effective selling tool in the challenging COVID-19 environment. We want to help you keep this positive momentum going.

The number of additional monthly zero insertion fee listings sellers will receive are determined by their eBay Store subscription levels. Sellers who have been invited and signed up for managed payments will receive additional monthly zero insertion fee listings in select categories.

Then in April 2021 as part of the Spring update, eBay increased the listing allotments for Stores while also keeping the increased zero insertion fees for those select categories.

Sellers are reporting this morning that the additional listings for select categories are no longer showing in Seller Hub, leaving them wondering if this is a glitch or if eBay ended the offer, potentially leaving sellers on the hook for insertion fees for thousands of listings with no warning.

Did the extra 10K free listings in select categories end???
Wondering if I missed some nearly invisible memo. Shortly after the pandemic started, there was a Promo Subscription of 10K additional fixed price listing in select categories--things like crafts, when all that went crazy. Right now, mine is not showing as renewed for Aug, only in the expired off…

Wondering if I missed some nearly invisible memo. Shortly after the pandemic started, there was a Promo Subscription of 10K additional fixed price listing in select categories--things like crafts, when all that went crazy. Right now, mine is not showing as renewed for Aug, only in the expired offers.

I just listed an item in the collectible category, which normally would have been deducted from the ten thousand promo, but it came off my store numbers instead. If it's a glitch, it needs to be fixed quickly.

exactly. I had a few listings end this morning and they came out of my 1000 too instead of 10000.

I have a premium store and lost my free 50K as of Aug 1 too. It was also my annual renewal, for which they sent me notification that they had renewed for a year but so far they haven't deducted any funds. August starting very glitchy at ye olde Ebay


eBay's help page for Store selling fees does still show the additional free listings, so it's not clear yet whether this a glitch or if the additional zero insertion fee listings for select categories really has been ended and the policy page just hasn't been updated yet.

Store selling fees
For a monthly subscription, you can run your own eBay Store. The fees and benefits vary depending on the type of Store subscription you choose.

I've reached out to eBay and will update as soon as I have additional information.

In the meantime, let us know in the comments below if you're still seeing the additional free listings offer in your eBay account.

eBayTools

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Liz Morton is a seasoned ecommerce pro with 17 years of online marketplace sales experience, providing commentary, analysis & news about eBay, Etsy, Amazon, Shopify & more at Value Added Resource!