eBay sellers who want to post classified ads for local services on the U.K. site have until the end of today to do so. After that, eBay's Local Services category will be retired and sellers will have to look elsewhere to post their ads, eBay announced.
Listings posted in the Local Services category today, as well as those already live on the auction site, will run until their end dates but can't be relisted in this category after today. However, eBay notes that sellers can post these listings on Gumtree, a classified-ads site that serves 60 cities in the U.K., Ireland, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. eBay U.K. currently partners with the site for jobs listings in the Local Services category.
Launched in August 2007, eBay's Local Services category was meant to provide "a place for local service providers and those in need of local services to get in touch with each other easily and quickly," eBay states in its General Announcement. Sellers who listed items in this category could only list items as 28-day classified ads.
Ending this category may not have a big impact on sellers, according to TameBay, since many sellers already post their ads for services on Gumtree. However, one TameBay reader says the change sets a dangerous precedent.
"This kind of thing scares me, in that they could do the same thing with auctions and go to all flat price," he writes.
Auctiva staff writers constantly monitor trends and best practices of those selling on eBay and elsewhere online. They attend relevant training seminars and trade shows and regularly discuss the market with PowerSellers and other market experts.
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