Ebay: sell me 100 listings for $10

January is here.

That's the beginning of my intense Ebay selling season.  The season lasts until Memorial Day.

It's also the season of listing cost stress.

In the really old days, listings were 5c.  All was well.

In the medium old days, up until about a year ago, Ebay gave us 50 free auction listings.. BINs were 50c.  After the 50 frees were used up, auctions cost varied based on beginning minimum bid.  99c auctions were 10c to list.

Now, the 50 frees are useful for any listing, which is great. However, after that, listings cost 30c, which is painful.

To reduce the pain, Ebay gives away lots of free listings, but they do it in an unpredictable way which can't be depended on.  The freebies can however be waited for, and listings held in reserve until the freebie offer comes.  That time management of listings is one complication for a modern seller.

The second technique available to us small timers is to sell on more than one account.  That gets a 2nd 50 freebies, but at a different kind of management burden.  Seller has to be willing to manage multiple accounts.  Perhaps more importantly, this can mitigate the value of crossover, where a buyer sees an attractive item listed, and checks out what else the seller might be selling. 

Wouldn't it be nice to not have to do all of that?

I do understand the value of pricing listings.  For one, it keeps a lot of pure nonsense from being listed, listings which just aren't attractive to anyone except perhaps victims of dementia.

So here's the suggestion to Ebay.

Sell us blocks of 100 listings for $10.  Good listings, the same as the current 50 freebies.

Fair enough that the listings have to be used in some time frame, say 30 days.  Then they expire unused.