11 ways to boost eBay's 'Sell for £1 max' promos

There's a ‘sell for £1 max’ promo this weekend for many users, running from Friday 13 to 11.59pm Monday 16 November. 

Sadly, not every promo's open to everyone – they're targeted at certain users. To check if you're eligible, click the link and log on to eBay - it should say 'activate offer'.

Judging by replies from our Facebook users when we posted a £1 promo two months ago, about 70% of users are invited each time. However, it could be more, as some might not have checked their eBay account for a different, personalised offer. (See how to check if it's hidden in your eBay account.)

When we asked eBay how it decides who's eligible, it unsurprisingly wouldn't share specifics, saying: "This is up to eBay's discretion".

A short but crucial tip – always hit the 'activate now' button on the promo invitation page to be eligible. It's easy to forget this, but if you don't click, you'll pay full whack.

If you spot an invitation link in the forum and it turns out you're not eligible, don't despair. You may have a similar promo tucked away in the hidden goldmine of eBay's sellers' promo section.

Log on to eBay, then go to 'My eBay', 'Selling' and scroll down to 'Selling Promotions' at the bottom. Many times, I've been ineligible for a promo link I saw on the forum, but a valid £1 promo's cropped up in there instead.

Importantly, double-check closer to the weekend. I've often been invited on Friday, when others were invited to the party on Thursday.

Another place to look is your eBay message inbox (click 'My eBay' on the top right, then 'Messages', then filter by 'From eBay').

Still not invited? If you have a trusted partner and they're offered the deal, you could list a few things on their account instead.

If you've a lot to sell, list your pricier wares first over promo weekends. For example, if you sold a ring for £200, you'd usually pay £20 in final value fees (more if you posted). With this offer, you'd pay £1.

If you sold a bobble hat for £3 with £3 postage, you'd pay 60p. That said, you won't lose out by selling cheaper items, as it's a maximum of £1, not a flat £1.

Occasionally, instead of a 'max £1 fee', eBay runs a promo for a flat percentage instead, eg, 'Enjoy 2% selling fees'. This is a great time to cut lower-value items' fees. For example, sell some sandals for £5 and you'd normally pay 50p (more if you posted them). Here, you'd pay 5p.

It's not when you create your listing that counts, it's when it goes live. To be included in the promo, listings need to start in the time period specified on the invite. (This time that means from 00.01am this Friday 13 to 11.59pm Monday 16 November.)

Handily, eBay lets you create your listings and set them to go live at a future time for free, so you can create heaps in advance. To schedule a listing, select the 'Schedule to start on' option on the listings page.

Don't forget you still need to click to activate the promo before that listing starts.

All eBay items with fixed 'buy-it-now' prices now stay up until they sell (or you cancel the auction). Yet they need to sell within the first 30 days to benefit from the 'Sell for £1 max' promo.

Thus if you're accepting 'best offers' on an item, it's better to accept a few quid less just before the 30 days are up to avoid a 10% final value fee. For example, you'd normally pay £5 in fees on a £50 coat, so it could be better to accept £47 before the deadline and only pay £1 in fees.

You might ask: "Can't I just cancel all my 'buy-it-nows', then relist them to get the promo?" However, when we asked eBay if people could cancel and relist everything just to get the offer, it said: "We consider this abuse, and we'd discourage users from doing it. If a user breaches our policies we do have to take enforcement action, which can be in the form of a warning, suspension or ban".

While eBay didn't say this, I would guess systematically cancelling buy-it-nows and relisting during £1 weekends might result in fewer promo invites.

Another common question is: "If you edit a listing after it's gone live, does the £1 promo still work?" People often want to list as many things as possible before the deadline, and hone photos and descriptions later. When we asked eBay, it said editing was fine, even after the promo period's ended - and we couldn't see any terms excluded edited items in this week's promo.

That said, in the past some promos have included in the terms that you can't edit items, so double-check your specific offer.