i see your point if that was the only reason, the reason i do the sales is i took the business model from supermarkets and big department stores of a “loss leader” ie example a supermarket would sell a can of beans for 5p that they couldnt be making any money on. But when your in the store your more likely to go in and buy more than just a can of beans. I use the sales to attract people looking into my shop and have noticed a rise in sales from multiple purchases using the cheap and combining it with the more expensive.

I also saw a lot of gold an platinum powersellers doing exactly the same thing, though after working out their costs they are actually losing money in doing their sales, they were even running them as featured listings. I applied the same logic to my own business but i do make a profit, given it may be 1p, but its still profit.

Better sales, increasing feeback and more return customers is the reason i am doing it.

I understand what you are saying and I’m in no way accusing you of doing anything unethical. I know eBay has forced sellers like yourselves into this situation with their policies. What I’m saying though is that you are selling items with only feedback in mind. What makes you think that eBay isn’t going to decide one day that this is their definition of feedback manipulation?

Its not feedback manipulation, its “providing the buyer with excellent service for all round improved buying experience and driving customers towards my other listings to generate better sales/profits for ebay”

and as #12 says “we encourage all sellers to continue seeking ways to offer best value P&P costs”

Im doing exactly that.

I sell the items, make no money from it, ebay/paypal makes money from it.

I sell it for what i pay for the items + what ebay/paypal takes from me on fees and royal mail/packaging costs. So i worked out all the above and i sell it for exactly that and sometimes i might make 1p after all outgoings…

Ebay ended all items that were below 99p in the buy it nows and made it so that it had to be a physical delivery as feedback manipulation what you are talking about was with ebooks and other digitaly delivered items.

The items i sell are real goods that i post out and sell through my one and only business account.

I know you guys are pretty much forced to sell the cheap items but I kind of wonder if eBay will ever consider that feedback manipulation. I know eBay has a low opinion of cheap items and recently got rid of all digital items claiming they were used for feedback manipulation. They do suspend sellers who have multiple accounts that rotate items for DSR purposes so it seems like it would be only a matter of time.

Whilst we encourage all sellers to continue seeking ways to offer best value P&P costs, there is no change happening to the eBay.co.uk Postage and Packaging policy on October 30th or at any other point this year.

Regards,
Elisabeth for the eBay Team

Me to.

“Im now off to post some worthless items that i am selling and making no money from.”

Join the club. It sucks doesn’t it.

I will be listing another 100 tubes of silicone later,, to enhance the buyer experience of course….

Laser printers and heavy bulky IT equipment arnt cheap.

My DSR for postage was at 4.5 or their abouts wheras everything else was at 4.7 and higher. I cant escape the fact that the items i send do cost a lot to send them and thus at one point where i was selling a lot of these it went to 4.34 and i was lowered in search standings.

I have had to counteract this by selling a lot of very cheap ( i actually make no money from any of these sale, yet have to go and post and spend time doing it to increase my DSR for postage alone) its now up to 4.65 and rising but will always get marked down due to the heavy bulky items.

My point being, if ebay does introduce a cap, then postage DSRs should not be in existance.

Im now off to post some worthless items that i am selling and making no money from.

# 2 is absolutely right about media mail. I never offer it but if I did I certainly wouldn’t make it the default. I always put the option I would want myself at the top. But if you put the most expensive (Express in the US) doesn’t this negatively impact your ranking in sort by price? Express costs several times more for 1st or 2nd day delivery compared to a typical three or four day delivery time.

I’ve always charged postage ‘at cost’, if I’m forced to use a flat rate stipulated by Ebay it will be very difficult for me to offer items such as books on an auction basis for fear of not covering my costs when the auction ends.

Just another example of Ebay’s determination to get rid of the honest small/hobby seller.