Free Listing Day on Ebay

Seller Tip #11

Every now and then Ebay runs promotions when they charge zero insertion fees (final fees still apply). These promotions are much more common on international Ebay sites such UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada. Some promotions are limited to residents of those countries, but most are open to any Ebay member that lists his or her items using the site that is running the promotion. 

I often take advantage of these promotions – why not save money on the insertion fees?  Sometimes new international customers find me due to the listing on an international site, but in majority of the cases the buyers are based in USA.

When you list on an international site, you obviously need to list the items in the monetary currency of that country.  If a buyer finds the items listed on an international site while searching on USA Ebay, Ebay  software is smart enough to show the value of the item in USA dollars as well as the other currency.

When I started listing on international sites some buyers would be a little surprised why a US-based seller is listing items in another currency and would email me asking this question. Based on this experience I now add an explanation at the top of my listings, which says “This is a listing by a US-based seller listing on an international Ebay site to take advantage of the promotional pricing offered by Ebay.”

There are several tools that I find useful when I list on international sites. Number one is the World Clock. This is very helpful as the promotion typically lasts just one day, and it is important to know the time difference.

The second useful tool is currency converter. I use it to determine the starting price, and I also add a link to it in my listings to make it easier for my buyers to figure out their maximum bid.

The third tool is the translation tool, which allows you to translate from any language to any other language. On rare occasion I receive questions from buyers written in language that is other than English, and this tool allows me to communicate with them. The translations are not perfect, but are pretty good. To verify that my response has been translated correctly, I round trip it. I.e. I translate it to another language and then back to English. If some word is translated “funny” I substitute another word and see if gets translated better.

I am writing this Seller Tip today, because Ebay UK is running a free listing day this Sunday, November 15. Which means, according to our friend World Clock, it starts at 7 pm on Saturday, November 14 for those of you who live on the East Coast of United States.

Get your listings ready to take advantage of the free listing day and good luck!

 This is a weekly feature called "Seller Tips". I have been selling my artwork on line since 1999. I have learned a lot about successful selling and like sharing my knowledge. I even won Ebay's Community Hall of Fame Award in 2004 for my efforts. I decided to bring that knowledge and experience to my blog.

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