eBay

eyerave · ‎06-06-2014

Hi everyone,

I started selling during the slow winter months to see how my sales would be on ebay, quite happy with sales. But during the summer I usually go to events and sell products. Right now we do not have the man power to keep sending packages and to manage listings while we are doing our events. So I am hoping to simply put my listings on pause.

Yes, I can simply cancel the listings. But the worry that I have is all my watchers and the number of items sold will get deleted. I like the fact that I have so many watchers, and I find it very appealing for buyers to see the amount sold.

Question I have for all of the more experienced sellers out there, If I cancel these listings will my watchers and items sold get deleted and not be there after I re list my items in the future?

I am aware that I can open up a ebay store and set my account to vacation mode. It is a small fee for the monthly store, so not a major problem to do that... But saving money is always good, so I would like to avoid monthly fees if I am not using my account.

Any suggestions are appreciated, that you everyone!!

pierrelebel · ‎06-06-2014

My honest opinion: end your listings and move on.

Start again in the Fall when ready.

The value of those "watchers" is negligible. If they had wanted to buy, they would have done so by now.

Most likely competitors.

Certainly not worth the $60 it would cost you to have a store for three months.

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎06-06-2014

I agree with Pierre. If you can make more sales at summer events, then if you want sales, that is where you should go for them. I only see 6 sales since April when I look at your completed listings, and when I look at your sold listings, nothing is showing. Your feedback will remain, it doesn't matter that your current watchers and sold listings will not show when you begin to list items again in the autumn. Interested shoppers will see your feedback, and will figure out that you took some time away. I don't see any advantage to you in opening a store and immediately putting it on vacation.

The only downside to cancelling your listings at this time, is that you have a very recent negative for item not received, stating that you did not communicate with the buyer. In the autumn, that will still be very visible at the top of your feedback. Several more sales with positive feedback before you temporarily stop will go a long way to diluting that negative. If there was a reason the buyer did not receive his purchase that would cast a more positive light on this feedback, such as he provided the wrong address, you might consider adding a comment to it.

femmefan1946 · ‎06-06-2014

Your closed listings will be held in your Unsold Listings for 60 days.

You could re-open them all (that you still have available) for a day around Day 45 and then re-close them. The chances of a sale are negligible during such a short window.

Choose the shortest /cheapest listing. If seven days are cheaper than three days, open seven day listings and close them all after one day.

I'll have to do this myself while we are homeless after the new owners take possession of our house until we move into the new one out west, so I\ve been doing a lot of thinking about it.

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-06-2014

The OP actually has a few sold listings if you click on each individual items and items sold....19 on one item in May and June. If they end their listings then they would lose any extra visibility that they are receiving for the items sold on each gtc listings. But...if they put their a on vacation for a 2 or 3 months, I don't know if that extra visibility would still be there when they returned and if so...would it be worth the money they would spend to have a store.

In other words..I'm on the fence on this one. 🙂

rose-dee · ‎06-06-2014

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Your closed listings will be held in your Unsold Listings for 60 days.
You could re-open them all (that you still have available) for a day around Day 45 and then re-close them. The chances of a sale are negligible during such a short window.
Choose the shortest /cheapest listing. If seven days are cheaper than three days, open seven day listings and close them all after one day.

I'll have to do this myself while we are homeless after the new owners take possession of our house until we move into the new one out west, so I\ve been doing a lot of thinking about it.

That's a creative and good solution for a common problem (assuming one doesn't have a store with vacation settings).

In the OP's case I would say perhaps pick a rainy, stormy week in the middle of the summer when you won't likely want to be at summer events, etc. Re-open your eBay listings for a few days just to keep them refreshed, then close them again when you want to start your event selling once more. I personally don't see the point in paying for a store only to put it on vacation.

Besides, things such as visibility can change so dramatically on eBay (for a variety of reasons) over just a few months that paying money to maintain visibility doesn't seem economical for a smaller volume seller. And I agree with 'Maggie' that it would be a good idea to try to bury that negative down the list a bit more (or at least add an explanatory comment) before closing up shop for the summer.

pierrelebel · ‎06-06-2014

"istings for a few days just to keep them refreshed,"

A few days? It could be one minute and would do the same job. If the purpose is to have access to the same listings every 60 days for the purpose of eventually relisting, a one minute listing will do the trick.

For example, a listing ended on June 6 is available to relist in August (from the Unsold directory). Relist in late August, end the listings after one minute, and the listings will be available (in the Unsold directory) for relisting until the end of October.

rose-dee · ‎06-06-2014

@pierrelebel wrote:

A few days? It could be one minute and would do the same job.

I mentioned "a few days" on the premise that the OP might actually like to try to make a couple of sales on eBay during a rainy summer week when the prospect of on-site selling would be dismal and she had some time to spare, i.e. possibly killing two birds with one stone.

I do realize it would otherwise take nothing more than a few seconds to do the job if refreshing the listings were the only purpose.