eBay Shuts Down Its Listing Service eBay Valet

In another sign that eBay’s future will be with more professional sellers, eBay has decided to shut down the eBay Valet service.

With eBay Valet, sellers could send products to the company, and they would do all the work, image, description, list, sell, and ship.

In return, sellers paid a higher fee. This was intended for lower volume sellers or occasionally sellers that did not want to mess with the listing process.

And when one looks at some recent changes by eBay, such as introducing a new higher volume tier for its stores and Devin Wenig talking about eBay becoming one of the top-3 global Omnichannel retailers, it’s become pretty clear that individualized services like Valet are in trouble.

What About eBay Authenticate?

While the eBay Authenticate service fundamentally runs the same way as Valet, it has a very different goal and revenue opportunity.

With eBay Authenticate, the company attracts a much higher value item to be sold. That itself makes the service more attractive for eBay.

However, more important, eBay Authenticate helps the company overcome the issue of fake products as sellers will use eBay Authenticate to try to gain higher sale prices on products.

A buyer looking for a used product in an eBay Authenticate category is likely going to trust an item sold through the authentication service. That should translate into a higher final sale price.

Consignment Sellers and Other eBay Programs

eBay also stated in its announcement that impacted Valet sellers may wish to consider other programs the company offers:

• Third Party services offering consignment sales can be found in a directory eBay maintains here.
• Sellers can also send in new or used phones for fast cash with the company’s Quick Sale Program.
• And similar program they have for tablets.

Winding Down Operations

All products that the company has currently will stay listed for the 60-day duration.

If a seller started a listing process earlier in March, they must send in the item before March 30, or the company will return the product to the seller if received after that date.

Those newly received products will stay active per the program terms for 60 days. If they do not sell, they will be returned.

This change should not impact most professional sellers. There could be a new opportunity for consignment sellers or small retailers to add eBay consignment sales to their services.

If you have any thoughts on this decision by eBay, head over to our Facebook Discussion Group or use the comments section below.

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