eBay Classified Ads - $.01 vs. $37 ??!!

[terryrayburn]

Somebody please explain.

There are lots of eBay Classified listings where the "price" is shown as $.01 when looking at search results.

Then when the search item is clicked on it goes to the classified listing where there is a sales page and a link for the product at $37, for example?

1) Why would eBay allow this, since it seems deceptive (unless I'm missing something)?

2) Why would anyone list the REAL price in the search results, if $.01 would logically cause more people to look at the sales letter?

I gotta be missing something.

[George Wright]

Hi,

My only experience with eBay is regular auctions. They still allow hosting to be sold via auction and BIN. When it says 1 cent for the first month and a link leads to the sales page the sales page either has a space for a coupon code that you get on the eBay page or you BIN on the eBay page and the sales page is just for an example.

Could it be the same with Classifieds?

George Wright

[Robyn8243]

I have seen those types of ads as well. I don't think eBay monitors price in classifieds since nothing is actually sold through classifieds directly.

Not sure how all customers really react to a 1 cent ad.

In the middle of a bunch of 1 cent ads, many might assume that a $10 or $37 product must be much better....while a 1 cent product may not even be worth the penny.

Robyn

[terryrayburn]

Originally Posted by George Wright

Hi,

My only experience with eBay is regular auctions. They still allow hosting to be sold via auction and BIN. When it says 1 cent for the first month and a link leads to the sales page the sales page either has a space for a coupon code that you get on the eBay page or you BIN on the eBay page and the sales page is just for an example.

Could it be the same with Classifieds?

George Wright

Thanks, George. No, these are not subscriptions. Many are Clickbank products. Let's see if I can dig up an example (which will be outdated, of course, for future readers).

Yeah, here's one (at random):

HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN HOME SOLAR POWER SYSTEM - eBay (item 200397669736 end time Nov-22-09 04:15:29 PST)

Here's another one:

PLATINUM Powerseller Reveals How To Get Rich on eBay - eBay (item 110449372830 end time Nov-22-09 15:22:58 PST)

[blackjack]

With classified ads on eBay, there is no selling through eBay system. Hence eBay can't force any rules. When you click on those ads in above example, the orders will be processed through Clickbank not eBay.

The classified ad pricing is different than normal auction prices. It is something like $20-29 for 28 days. Only certain categories allowed classified ads.

[terryrayburn]

Originally Posted by blackjack

With classified ads on eBay, there is no selling through eBay system. Hence eBay can't force any rules. When you click on those ads in above example, the orders will be processed through Clickbank not eBay.

The classified ad pricing is different than normal auction prices. It is something like $20-29 for 28 days. Only certain categories allowed classified ads.

1) I know there is no selling through the eBay system.
2) Of course eBay can force rules. They still have lots of them.
3) I know the orders will be processed through Clickbank.
4) Actually the Classified price is $9.95 for 30 days.

Thanks, but my question of the price discrepancy is still unsatisfied.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

I think the problem is that eBay lets the seller set a sell price that has absolutely no connection to the actual sales price. This happens, of course, because the sale isn't processed through eBay.

Why this condition persists is probably because of one of these:

1) eBay doesn't care;
2) eBay doesn't pay attention;
3) no one complains about it.

I don't think that is a satisfying answer, but it's the best I've got.

[timpears]

I think it comes down to a classified is an offer to sell, and the offer to buy must be made outside of eBay. And is subject to negotiation. Just like if you put a couch of refrigerator on Craig's List and priced it at what ever you decided you wanted. If someone called and offered you a different price, you can accept it or negotiate.

The community at eBay is one of they want everything for nothing or close to it. So to sell there it is a case ofwho will offer it at the lowest price. This gets out of hand in some cases, and has led to this type of practice in the classifieds. None of the prices mean anything in the classifieds, so the idea is to get the people to the listing with the low price come on. Once you get them there, you tell them the price that you really want, and hope for the best offers.

I don't know this to be the exact reason, but with the experience I have, this is what makes sense to me. It is kind of an educated guess. But I think it might be a reasonable explanation.

[blackjack]

Let me explain it another way

1. This price discrepancy will only happens in Classified Ads.

2. The reason people using $ 0.01 in price field and then real price in description is to get your listing on the top when someone choose " lowest to highest" price option on display settings.


Until enough people complain to eBay about this, this will continue.

[angiebee]

I see a lot of these too. I think the reason they are setting the price of 0.01 is because they aren't really selling the product in the classified ad well at least a lot of them that I've seen aren't. They are just using it to get traffic to to their affiliate link, kind of like a presell almost. Plus a lot times when you put a higher price you could turn off some customers before they got a chance to review the sales page.

However, I agree it can be confusing to some.

[E-supreme]

Blackjack, nailed it on the head. People place the item as .01c to be at the top of the listings when a potential buyer selects to display the lowest price.

Its just to increase click through. Ebay have so many ads that its difficult to get through them all and they rely on others to bring it to their attention.

If your not taking advantage of the ebay classified ads yet...you should get on board now!

[SiteBlaster]

Remember...this is eBays answer to removing digital works from the auction itself. You could trust most of the old style but these stink!

I agree with Terryray.

[wordwizard]

Hmmm, I was thinking about getting started with eBay classifieds, but if it requires unethical practices to get people to click that's pretty disconcerting.

What do you think? Would I even have a chance if I listed the "real" price?

Then again, I suppose I could "sell" a preliminary report for a penny and then presell them from there to the real thing ;-)

In fact, I was just wondering if there's a way to sell my blogging course on eBay. It probably has too high a pricepoint for that.

But what if I sold a blogging secrets report for a buck... and then worked on them with the autoresponder and the report). That could work.

Thanks so much.

Elisabeth

[blackjack]

Elisabeth

You don't need to sell anything through classified ads. You can use these ads same as squeze pages. I have seen ads with opt in forms within ads.

[terryrayburn]

Originally Posted by wordwizard

Hmmm, I was thinking about getting started with eBay classifieds, but if it requires unethical practices to get people to click that's pretty disconcerting.

What do you think? Would I even have a chance if I listed the "real" price?

Elisabeth

There are a lot of ads that DO give the correct price, and apparently are regular sellers who are doing serious business, so I wouldn't hesitate to give it a try if I were you.