Music enthusiasts are a large part of eBay’s community of 169 million active buyers. A guitar or guitar accessory is sold every 12 seconds on the marketplace with buyers in search of the perfect instrument – whether new, used, unique or mainstream. To benefit both buyers and sellers, and further elevate eBay as the destination of choice for musical instruments, eBay has announced a reduced final value fee (FVF), the final charge to sellers when an item is sold, of 3.5 percent for guitars, basses and guitar accessories (e.g., amps, pedals), effective immediately.
eBay caught up with Michael Mosser, general manager, Musical Instruments & Gear at eBay, to learn more about what this pricing change means for buyers and sellers.
Q: What exactly is the change that eBay is announcing today?
Michael: With more than 1.6 million musical instruments and gear listings on our platform, this category continues to be an area of strength for our business. Selling guitars, basses, amps, pedals, and other related guitar accessories on eBay only gets easier with this new pricing change. For both store and consumer sellers, the FVF will reduce to 3.5 percent and allows our music enthusiast community to sell more items at a faster pace and lower cost. Adding to this, it is now free to list your items in the Guitars and Basses category, and the FVF is now capped at $350 for non-store sellers and $250 for store subscribers.
Q: Why did eBay make this change?
Michael: We are always listening to our customers and recognized that we could do more for music enthusiasts to sell and buy on our platform. In the past year, we re-launched all our category pages, began featuring music as a category on the homepage, and rolled out an extensive sales and events program – all to make our vast selection of musical instruments and gear more easily shoppable. We’ve also added program features like eBay Valet, where eBay can sell your guitar for you, and Guarantees, where eBay will provide you with a coupon for the difference in the event your item sells for less than the trending price. The fee reduction is just one more way we continue to position ourselves as a first-choice marketplace.
Q: Who will it benefit?
Michael: Our end goal is that it will benefit both buyers and sellers with the opportunity for music enthusiasts to find and sell what they want at competitive prices. There are over 250,000 guitar-related searches on eBay every day. With this level of demand, we’re continually looking at ways to build our selection for music buyers – whether it’s through direct relationships with musical instrument retailers or iconic guitar brands like Fender, or by making it easier for sellers of any size to sell with lower fees.
Q: Will this apply to other categories or just within musical instruments?
Michael: We’re always looking at the competitive landscape to provide the best value to our sellers. A number of factors go into determining what changes we make to our fee structure. This can include competitor pricing, margins in the category, inventory considerations and eBay business requirements. The Guitars and Basses category was a natural choice for this reduction.
Q: When does this change go into effect?
Michael: This pricing change goes into effect immediately. We will be sharing additional details on what this means for buyers and sellers in the coming weeks, but please feel free to visit http://www.ebay.com/rpp/sell-guitars for more information on how it all works.