eBay Pricing Tools
eBay Markdown Manager lets Store subscribers run time-limited sale events with visible strikethrough pricing — the kind that shows a crossed-out original price next to the sale price. It's a legitimate promotional tool, but it operates under strict rules: minimum listing age, cooldown periods between events, and a structure that treats price cuts as events rather than ongoing strategy. This guide explains exactly how Markdown Manager works, what it can and cannot do, and why some sellers pair it with a continuous repricer like Undercut instead of choosing one or the other.
Markdown Manager is a feature exclusive to eBay Store subscribers (Basic, Premium, Anchor, or Enterprise). It lets you create sale events that display strikethrough pricing on your listings — the original price appears crossed out, and the sale price shows in red or bold alongside it. This visual signal is proven to lift click-through rates because buyers perceive an explicit discount. You access it through the Seller Hub Promotions tab or the older Markdown Manager tool under the Marketing menu. You can apply markdowns to individual listings, entire categories within your store, or your whole inventory at once. The discount can be set as a percentage off or a fixed dollar amount, and the event runs for a defined window — typically 1 to 14 days depending on your plan.
eBay enforces several rules to prevent abuse of strikethrough pricing:
When you create a markdown event, eBay records the listing's price at the moment the event starts as the 'was' price. That figure appears crossed out on the listing page and in search results during the event window. For example, if you have a listing at $45.00 for at least 14 days, you can run a 20% markdown event and buyers see $45.00 crossed out next to $36.00. The visual impact is strongest in search results where the red sale price stands out against competitors with no strikethrough. After the event ends, the listing reverts to its pre-markdown price automatically. If you manually changed the price during the event, behavior can vary, which is one reason sellers using a repricer need to coordinate carefully — a repricer moving the price during an active markdown can interfere with how eBay displays the strikethrough.
Markdown Manager and automated repricing solve different problems. Markdown events are promotional — you use them to create urgency, clear slow inventory, or boost visibility during peak buying periods like holidays or clearance cycles. They are time-boxed by design and rely on the psychological effect of a visible discount. Continuous repricing, by contrast, is a process that runs 24/7 to keep your prices competitive against other active sellers. Undercut checks competitor prices on an interval (every hour on Free, every 15 minutes on Pro) and adjusts your price to beat the lowest competitor, but never below your hard floor. These tools are not mutually exclusive. A common pattern: use repricing to stay competitive day-to-day, then pause repricing on targeted listings and run a Markdown Manager event during a clearance push. After the event ends, re-enable repricing. The key distinction is that markdowns are events and repricing is a process — they operate on different timescales and serve different goals.
Markdown Manager requires manual setup for each event cycle, is restricted to Store subscribers, and has a 30-day cooldown that makes it impractical as a day-to-day pricing mechanism. If you are selling in competitive categories where prices shift daily — electronics, collectibles, used goods, media — a continuous repricer handles what Markdown Manager cannot. Undercut's floor-first design means you set a hard minimum (cost + eBay fees + target margin) per listing, and the repricer works within that boundary automatically. At 13.6% final value fee plus a $0.30–$0.40 per-order fee on most categories, margin erosion is real if you reprice without a floor. The Free plan covers 25 listings with hourly checks at $0/month — no card required. The Starter plan at $29/month covers 100 listings. Markdown Manager can complement this workflow but should not be the primary mechanism for staying price-competitive in fast-moving categories.
14-day Starter trial, no card. Undercut competitors automatically — never below your minimum.
Start freeDrop your email — we'll send early access and founding pricing.
Do I need an eBay Store to use Markdown Manager?
Yes. Markdown Manager is only available to sellers with an active eBay Store subscription at any tier — Basic ($21.95/month), Premium ($59.95/month), Anchor, or Enterprise. If you do not have a Store, you cannot create markdown sale events with strikethrough pricing. Sellers without a Store can still lower prices manually or use an automated repricer like Undercut, which does not require a Store subscription.
Why won't my listing qualify for a markdown event?
The most common reason is the 14-day minimum listing age requirement. A listing must have been active for at least 14 consecutive days before eBay will allow a markdown event on it. The second most common reason is the 30-day cooldown: if the listing recently finished a markdown event, you must wait 30 days before starting another. Check the listing's event history in Seller Hub Promotions to confirm which rule applies.
Can I run Markdown Manager and an automated repricer at the same time?
You can, but you should pause repricing on any listing that has an active markdown event. If the repricer adjusts the price during an active event, it can affect the strikethrough display or cause eBay to recalculate the 'was' price in unexpected ways. The cleanest workflow is to exclude markdown-event listings from your repricer's active queue during the event window, then re-enable them once the event ends and the listing reverts to its base price.
Is Markdown Manager the same as reducing a listing price manually?
No. Manually lowering a price does not trigger strikethrough pricing in search results — buyers just see the new lower price with no visual comparison to the old price. Markdown Manager specifically creates the crossed-out original price display, which has a measurably different psychological effect on buyers. If your goal is simply to stay price-competitive rather than signal a promotional event, manual price changes or continuous repricing are more efficient than managing markdown event schedules.
How does Undercut protect my margin when repricing aggressively?
Every listing in Undercut has a hard floor you define — typically cost plus eBay's ~13.6% final value fee plus a target margin percentage. The repricer will beat the lowest competitor price, but it will never move the price below that floor regardless of what competitors do. This means you can reprice aggressively in competitive categories without the risk of selling below cost during a price war or when a competitor lists at an unsustainably low price.
Related: Manual vs. Automated Repricing on eBay · eBay Pricing Strategy Guide · How to Reprice Without Losing Margin · eBay Seller Fees Explained