2013 Spring Seller Update

Make sure you’ve got the right plan to get the lowest fees when the fee updates take place on April 16 and May 1. See the new fees at a glance and use the Fee Illustrator to determine if subscribing to an eBay Store or upgrading your subscription is right for you.

Update any listings now that don’t meet eBay’s picture quality requirements. Starting July 1, listings with pictures that don’t meet the requirements may be blocked or removed. Remember, quality pictures help sell your items and optimize your listings for mobile devices and eBay’s new personalized homepage.

Opt in to the new business policies functionality as soon as you see a message in My eBay > Activity that it’s available to you. Get familiar with this functionality now to see how easy it is to define your payment, return, and shipping policies once, and apply them easily to all of your listings. Starting in June, all sellers will be automatically opted in (with the ability to opt out).

In April

April 16—Standard fees change to include 50 FREE fixed price or auction-style listings* and one flat 10% final value fee. If you sell more than 50 items a month, you may benefit from subscribing to an eBay Store for even more free listings* and lower final value fees. See the new fees at a glance and use the Fee Illustrator to determine if a new eBay Stores subscription is right for you.

Starting in early April, you can open an unpaid item case as early as two days after a transaction ends and payment is not received—either manually in the Resolution Center or using Unpaid Item Assistant. If you use Unpaid Item Assistant and want to take advantage of the shorter 2-day wait period, update your UPI Assistant settings in site preferences in My eBay to select the 2-day option.

Mid April—Item specifics changes are being made in several categories. Be sure to update your listings as needed.

In May

May 1—New eBay Stores subscription plans launch with free listings* and new competitive flat final value fee rates as low as 4%. See the new fees at a glance and use the Fee Illustrator to determine the right plan for the way you sell. Also taking effect today are the new requirements for a Buy It Now price to be 30% more than the Auction-style start price and the fee updates for the Heavy Equipment, Concession Trailers & Carts, Imaging & Aesthetics Equipment and Commercial Printing Presses categories within Business & Industrial.

Starting the first week in May, categories changes will be made. Note: the category changes may result in reduced or increased fees for listings in the affected categories.

To help reduce unpaid items, eligible fixed price and auction-style listings purchased with Buy It Now will now remain for sale until a buyer has paid for the item. This change will take effect gradually over the coming months. Most sellers won’t need to take any action. If you offer combined shipping discounts, update your listing descriptions with instructions for buyers to add the items they want to purchase to the eBay Shopping Cart. Get details.

When you accept a Best Offer in the Jewelry & Watches, Art, and Computers & Tablets categories, the buyer will need to commit and often pay, for the sale to be confirmed. You can now start accepting multiple offers to increase your chances of selling the item, without fear of over-committing.

Late May: You can now specify same-day handling  and an order cut-off time for same-day shipping. If you routinely ship the same business day, consider updating your listings to reflect this service.

In June

Last chance to update your pictures to meet the picture quality requirements! Starting July 1, the picture quality requirements will be enforced.

All sellers will now be automatically opted in (with the ability to opt out) to the new business policies functionality for defining shipping, payment, and return policies.

In July

Picture quality requirements are now being enforced. Update any remaining listings now that don’t meet the requirements to avoid interruptions to your business.