EBay Inc. hopes to lure more sellers by essentially doing away with “listing” fees for people who occasionally auction items on its site. Instead it will take a cut of the final selling price.
To encourage people to list more items for sale, eBay told sellers that starting March 30 they will be able to post up to 100 items for auction every 30 days without paying fees to list them. The items must have a starting bid of less than $1, and when they sell eBay will take 9 percent of the final price or $50, whichever is less.
Currently, eBay lets occasional sellers — who make up the majority of the 28 million people who sell on its main site — auction up to five items for free every 30 days. It charges them 8.75 percent of the final price or $20, whichever is less.