AuctionCut

I've created an information product for the popular online game 'World of Warcraft' and I'm trying to sell it on eBay. The market isn't that crowded - maybe 4 or 5 other sellers however if you do an ebay search for "wow gold guide" (wow is short for World of Warcraft) you'll see 7 pages of listings with listing expiring ever half hour or so. Each seller posts multiple different auctions of their guide, so there's a flood of listings.

Many of these guides sell for around the $10 mark. With a price that low, it's hard to believe they're paying $1.50 for each listing. I'd conclude that they're using store listings where you can list for about $0.11.

I opened an ebay store and posted a store listing for 30 days, but it doesn't show up in the search results - which only go out to 10 days until they expire.

Question For You Ebay Experts: How are these sellers able to create a flood of listings that are expiring every half hour or so? Can I do the same with store listings?

Any help on this is extremely appreciated! TIA!

There is a lot of listing flooding occuring on eBay at the moment because of the recent 10p listing day, and people taing advantage of re-listing fee credits.

Sellers can list dozens of items on Cheap Listing Days, and whether they sell or not is a small concern - they can be relisted once again and if they sell 2nd time around then the 2nd insertion fee is refunded to the seller.

Insertion Fees are normally non-refundable. However, if your listing ends without a winning buyer or ends with an Unpaid Item, you may be eligible for a relist credit. If the item sells the second time, eBay will refund the Insertion Fee for the relisted item.

So, regardless of what it cost first time around, your credit is based on the fee paid the 2nd time.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/quest ... elist.html - Clarifies the policy. Some of the key points include -

All items relisted in Auction-format and Buy It Now format will be eligible for the relist credit, regardless of format of the original listing. For example, you could list a car using the Classified Ad format and then relist it in Auction-format if it doesn't sell. Your second insertion fee will be refunded if your car sells.

The starting price you set for the relisted item must not be greater than that of the original listing - So you could list a blank item at £99 for 10p, then create a BIN with the relist at £79.99 and receive your higher listing fee back.


The market was flooded with all sorts of tat last week, but also with LOADS of high value items.

I'd leave it a week or two before checking again to see the activity, but i strongly suspect it will have dropped significantly.

If it hasn't and some sellers are simply pumping eBay full of loss-leaders, then invest in a featured listing that wll stay at the top of searches for up to 10 days, and along with checking category keywords you will gain maximum exposure for your product, appearing above the majority of the competition.

Thanks very much for the reply! That definitely clears up many of my questions. I suspect that I've been somewhat naive in my ebay marketing and need to rethink my strategies to compete effectively. Perhaps a loss leader effort or a featured listing will work... Now I wonder if opening this ebay store will have any value to me.

There is another Half Price listing day on Thursday 3rd May - so keep an eye out for loads more "unsellable" listings!

Now I wonder if opening this ebay store will have any value to me.

I'd defiantly suggest so. An Ebay store will allow you to brand your business and allow users to find your listings quickly and conveniently - especially important when your selling in a niche such as yours.

At the moment I have a single product which is a bundle of audio programs. There might be a possibility of selling the programs individually, however they were designed as an overall package.

I have created 4 unique 'salesletters' which I plan to test through ebay as unique listings, but ultimately I have a single product. Considering that, would you still recommend an ebay store?

What format do you sell them in, Auction or Buy-It-Now?

I was hoping to use the store inventory format - that's what I thought my competitors were using since they post 40+ auctions expiring every 30 min for a $10 product. I couldn't imagine they were paying "regular" listing fees of $1.50 or more. The economics don't make any sense. I'm still a bit confused as to how they're able to flood so many listings.

But to answer your question, I'll be using buy it now format. Probably as a featured listing since I don't know how else to compete with the flood.

Some Ebay Store information you may find of use..

Thanks AuctionMan, that was a good read. I especially liked the point about store listings being indexed by search engines and possibly using that to increase traffic to a traditional website (which I have- http://www.richinwow.com ). I'm still not 100% convinced a store is a benefit for a single product, though I'm willing - and have the marketing budget - to let it run for sometime - say 6 months - but I want to use my time most effeciently and so far the benefits remain still unclear.

stevew8975, you said,

There is another Half Price listing day on Thursday 3rd May - so keep an eye out for loads more "unsellable" listings!

Where can I go to see when these listing specials will happen? And secondly, do you know if the half price listing would apply the price of the Featured listing upgrade?

They come throuh on the Ebay site itself..

stevew8975 wrote:There is a lot of listing flooding occuring on eBay at the moment because of the recent 10p listing day, and people taing advantage of re-listing fee credits.

Sellers can list dozens of items on Cheap Listing Days, and whether they sell or not is a small concern - they can be relisted once again and if they sell 2nd time around then the 2nd insertion fee is refunded to the seller.

Insertion Fees are normally non-refundable. However, if your listing ends without a winning buyer or ends with an Unpaid Item, you may be eligible for a relist credit. If the item sells the second time, eBay will refund the Insertion Fee for the relisted item.

So, regardless of what it cost first time around, your credit is based on the fee paid the 2nd time.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/quest ... elist.html - Clarifies the policy. Some of the key points include -

All items relisted in Auction-format and Buy It Now format will be eligible for the relist credit, regardless of format of the original listing. For example, you could list a car using the Classified Ad format and then relist it in Auction-format if it doesn't sell. Your second insertion fee will be refunded if your car sells.

The starting price you set for the relisted item must not be greater than that of the original listing - So you could list a blank item at £99 for 10p, then create a BIN with the relist at £79.99 and receive your higher listing fee back.


The market was flooded with all sorts of tat last week, but also with LOADS of high value items.

I'd leave it a week or two before checking again to see the activity, but i strongly suspect it will have dropped significantly.

If it hasn't and some sellers are simply pumping eBay full of loss-leaders, then invest in a featured listing that wll stay at the top of searches for up to 10 days, and along with checking category keywords you will gain maximum exposure for your product, appearing above the majority of the competition.

...........Thats cleared a few questions that were puzzling me...Thanks