Ebay’s 2011 Spring Seller Update
March 16, 2011 
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If you are a seller on Ebay, then please pay attention to their 2011 spring seller update. This update is going to take place on two key dates, which are April 19, 2011 and July 6, 2011. The April 19 changes are dealing with auction style listings and the July 6 changes are dealing with auction-style for store subscribers as well as fixed price listings for store subscribers and standard subscribers. The main point to take away from this seller update is that Ebay is lowering fees, but including one important thing in the calculation of the Final Value Fees. Before, the final value fee was calculated based on the selling price of an item, but now Ebay is adding shipping on top of that. This is to reward sellers that provide free or low-cost shipping rates to their buyers. Sellers that provide high shipping rates will get hurt by this change. Below are the important changes being pushed by Ebay.
April 19—List Auction-style FREE with FREE Buy It Now—up to 50 items per month with new Standard Fees.
- Under the new Standard fees, list Auction-style FREE, any start price—up to 50 items a month. Pay only if your item sells. Plus you can add a Buy It Now price to your 50 items FREE—set the price you want and grab buyers ready to act now.
- The Standard Final Value Fee rate for Auction-style listings will stay at 9% and be applied to the total amount of the sale—including shipping—with a maximum Final Value Fee of $100.
- Auction-style fees for Store subscribers will NOT change in April: If you sell more than 50 items Auction-style per month, an eBay Store subscription will most likely give you the lowest overall fees. If you don’t have an eBay Store, consider opening one now.
As always, eBay Standard fees are the right choice if you sell occasionally or sell to earn extra cash. If you sell more than 50 items a month, you’ll benefit from the overall discounted rates that come with an eBay Store subscription.
See fee chart for details.
July 6—Fixed Price (Store and Standard) and Store Auction-style Final Value Fee rates reduced and applied to the total amount of the sale—including shipping.
- Starting July 6, to encourage and reward low-cost shipping, Final Value Fee rates for Fixed Price listings will be reduced and applied to the total amount of the sale—including shipping. This change applies to both eBay Standard fees and eBay Store subscription packages.
- Insertion Fees for Fixed Price listings will not change. As a Store subscriber, you’ll have the same discounted Insertion Fees you have today—list in Fixed Price for as low as 3¢.
- Auction-style Final Value Fee rates with a Store subscription will also be reduced and applied to the total amount of the sale—including shipping.
- When an international or 1-day shipping service is offered and selected by your buyer, your Final Value Fee is calculated on the least expensive of your options—your international/1-day option OR the first domestic service offered other than 1-day. If your buyer chooses international shipping and you specified free shipping as your first domestic option, you pay zero Final Value Fees on shipping.
- Insertion Fees for Auction-style listings with a Store subscription will not change. Store subscribers can continue to list unlimited items Auction-style for as low as 10¢.
See fee chart for details. If you sell more than 50 items a month, you’ll benefit from the lowest fees with an eBay Store subscription. Use the Fee Illustrator to help determine which eBay Store subscription may best fit your needs.
Use the fee calculator to estimate what your new fees will be for a specific listing.
PowerSeller discount update
20% Top-rated seller discount continues, 5% PowerSeller discount retired
eBay Top-rated sellers will continue to receive a 20% discount on Final Value Fees for the item price portion of the sale along with the other great benefits of the Top-rated seller program such as:
- Promotion in search for Fixed Price listings
- Prominent logo displayed in search results and other key pages
- Priority in the Value Box for items listed with the catalog
- Priority in eBay’s home page merchandising
- Priority in eBay’s paid search marketing
Beginning with the first invoice in June, the 5% Final Value Fee discount for PowerSellers who are not eBay Top-rated sellers will be retired. PowerSellers will continue to receive other great benefits such as:
- UPS rate discounts
- Unpaid Item Protection
- Powerful Giving Program
- PowerUp print and email newsletters
- PowerSeller Discussion Boards
- Health insurance solutions
Learn more about Top-rated seller requirements and benefits.
Below are the new Fee Charts:
The way the program works is that each US user will get 2% back automatically on each qualifying purchase if they checkout with Paypal and the Bucks add up every 3 month. After the 3 month period, Ebay will issue a certificate that can be used on future 
As Ebay’s business has struggled due to sellers moving their inventory to Amazon, they have finally thought of a good way to attract sellers back to its platform. Ebay has introduced a new fee structure for all sellers that will take affect on March 30th. The fee structure deals with fixed-price listings for the most part, but occasional aucitoneers will get a break from Ebay was well. It looks like Ebay is finally fighting back against Amazon for taking it’s sellers away, but who was to blame for that in the first place? Ebay in the past has made some changes that did not really bode well for their image in the eyes of sellers. Hopefully this will help them clean up that image a bit.
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