eBay

musicyouneed · ‎06-21-2018

Sales have been slow, so I have been checking out my competition.

One seller doesn't have a store, has over 500 listed on .ca, doesn't used GTC, I assume just 30 days and he/she has a 32% sell through rate over 3 months, which is excellent, mine is about 5%. We are selling a lot of the same CD's and he/she sold one for $10 CDN and I have mine listed at $5.99 US which is about $8.20 Cdn, mine is still for sale. Shipping within Canada and international the same as mine but to the US his/her is double mine.

So not having a store and not listing GTC this seller is selling way more than me. Maybe I have it all wrong. I might consider setting up another ID, no store not GTC and see what happens, couldn't be worse than now.

hlmacdon · ‎06-21-2018

The algorithm for best match punishes older listings that get views but no sales or have a low conversion rate. They'll never explicitly detail that and how it works, but that sort of metric does effect best match ranking. Personally I don't put a great deal of weight into best match since I generally rank very well in best match, have competitive prices and shipping (so regardless of which way a shopper is browsing I rank well in ordered results) and still experience peaks and valleys regardless. The last few months have been pretty poor.

mmmcross · ‎06-21-2018

I found this out by accident a few years ago... I'd had a large inventory of GTC listings for a couple of years and then shut it all down when they raised insertion fee rates. Then I did a sale using a listing promo a few months later and a bunch of stuff that had been active/online that whole time suddenly moved after no activity for the previous couple of years. This was a few years ago so the algorithms may have changed since then but that was indeed my experience as well.

cumos55 · ‎06-21-2018

A bookseller lists 10,000 books for 30 days.....Then it is another 10,000 books, all different than the first group of books.

and.. he keeps listing for 30 days, a new group of books each 30 days.

His listings were always new listings, and he sold well.

--------------------------------------------------

Some sellers will let their listings get "old" on eBay..... 16 months and older. eBay views 16 months and older as old listings on eBay.

-------------------------------------------------

Each year I will end my listings and relist.

For 2018 I started on June 1.... the listings that end that day are ended in the morning and relisted. at about 6:00 PM. This makes the listing as new listings on eBay.... and sales continue.

I do not worry about watchers... for they will come back if they are still interested.....

Wake up the search engine.....

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎06-21-2018

I personally prefer to have control over my listings each month so I no longer use GTC for listings. In the scheme of things, which do you thing get better visibility. Relisting an item(No changes), Sell Similar with same item or Sell Similar with modifications? And in eBay's eyes are they viewed any differently? My preference whenever possible is Sell Similar with a modification. My day to day sales for the most part are entirely random. (But then again, so are my available listings.) As of late I'm starting to believe eBay's search engine needs a flux capacitor to every work properly.

-CM

hlmacdon · ‎06-21-2018

I would recommend sell similar with alterations to the listing title and description else algobot might give you a few demerits.

Keep in mind the number of watchers for a given listing when attempting to create a "clean slate" variant. If it is a multi-item quantity listing you might try lowering the number available.

mmmcross · ‎06-22-2018

Another point is that some buyers find listings not by a direct fresh search of the site but by letting eBay do it for them using email alerts... I know that I rely heavily on my Saved Search email alerts for my own browsing and buying, and only really do direct searches for things I'm occasionally in the market for. From that perspective, GTC listings would only pop up once in the buyer's alerts, whereas a relisted item will pop up each time you relist it. There were sometimes advantages with GTC when I was able to have my entire inventory active and online, if a buyer was looking for any and all related items, but with seller fees the way they are it hasn't been possible for me for a long time.

For some niche sellers, Google searches/alerts can also be a source of interested buyers, and a fresh listing stays in their search results for a while after the listing has ended. I've had some sales happen that way.

ricarmic · ‎06-22-2018

I believe buyers also get notifications when a GTC item is put on sale, so each time a sale is (re)started on an item they've viewed or are watching they may get a notification each time?

femmefan1946 · ‎06-22-2018

Our B&M used GTC to save on labour costs, since listing was done by employees.

I followed suit because I was working and had less time to massage listings.

I saw a lot of thos 'this item has not sold in 16 months' notices. Which doesn't bother me since I sell books and other slow moving items.

However, with retirement, I have more time and switched to 30 day. This allows me to tend my stock more closely.

All those little tweaks eBay is constantly pushing.

I think that it also has improved my sell-through rate over the summer which is usually very slow for me in all my categories.

I don't think GTC worked against me, because it was useful for my purpose (low labour input).

It's not wrong, just different.

has over 500 listed on .ca, doesn't used GTC, I assume just 30 days

How can you tell?

femmefan1946 · ‎03-06-2019

Something of a zombie thread from 2018, but still of interest with the switch to Fixed Price/ Good Til Cancelled coming next month.

I had switched last year to 30 day, saw no difference in sales and switched back to GTC before the announcement.

amcdc79 · ‎03-06-2019

This thread is probably even more relevant now with the future change on ebay. I normally use GTC's, so really no big deal for me. If I had a store with more listings, I might use shorter duration listings, as most of the views come at the beginning and end of the listings. Because of that, I try to have an assortment of items ending throughout the month, rather then all at once.

I can see the pros and cons to using only GTC's, and feel for the folks who do not want to use them. I guess the only way to get around the policy, would be to list in auction format, with the starting price being what the seller wants for the item. If it gets bid up, that would be a bonus, but not expected.

mrdutch1001 · ‎03-06-2019

I don't have an eBay store so only use the allotted 50 free listings per month and whatever free listing promos that come my way but I have hundreds of listings across various categories that I can choose from to list as I so choose, when I so choose and at a duration that works for me and each specific category.

I tried out GTC a few years ago but found no benefit from it, so I returned to using the duration that works best for my items and generally that is 10 days. Occasionally 30 days listings have worked OK . I also use auction format from time to time, especially when offered a free listing promo that only gives the option of auction format and auction with BIN option.

I will use my own work around for GTC whenever it becomes mandatory for fixed price format and that does include using more auction format to be able to take advantage of the shorter listing duration. Unfortunately there are some categories that just don't work well in auction format but that's OK, a seller's gotta do what a seller's gotta do. C'est la vie...que sera, sera!

femmefan1946 · ‎03-07-2019

@mrdutch1001

If ten days is best for you, you could try the suggestion I spotted elsewhere and have been passing around.

Use 10 day auctions, with Buy It Now.

If you get a bid, your item is Sold.

If it gets bid up, bonus!

If someone uses Buy It Now your item is Sold.

The only problem is that you have only 50 free listings a month, so you would have to count carefully before adding a new item, and if (for example) 15 of your 50 sold in April, you would not be able to list another 15 for a month.

But -- 10 day listings!

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎03-07-2019

Good idea in principle but you would pay higher listings fees depending on your hopefully sell price and limited to single unit listings. Now I remember why I have not used the Auction format in years. <Sigh>

-Lotz

ypdc_dennis · ‎03-07-2019

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
Good idea in principle but you would pay higher listings fees depending on your hopefully sell price and limited to single unit listings.

BIN is free on auctions for non-store sellers.

Stores however, pay 5-25 cents extra depending on BIN value.

Stores are also restricted in which categories they can use free auction listings.

-..-

around_again_records · ‎03-07-2019

@femmefan1946 @femmefan1946 wrote:
has over 500 listed on .ca, doesn't used GTC, I assume just 30 days
How can you tell?

@musicyouneed Yes, How can you tell that a listed item is or is not GTC??

pocomocomputing · ‎03-08-2019

One issue with GTC is the duration of 30 days and the auto renewal. If a GTC is started or renewed on the 1st of a month, then on the 31st (30 days later) of a month with 31 days it will automatically relist using up a free listing or if none available, you will be charged an insertion fee.

There are 7 months with 31 days (January, March, May, July, August, October, December), 4 months with 30 days (April, June, September, November) and February with 28 days or 29 days in a leap year.

Because there are 365 days in a year (366 in leap years) and a GTC will use 360 days (12 x 30 days) leaving 5 or 6 days, the GTC renewal every 30 days will cause the day of month the GTC renews on to change eventually causing a double insertion fee month on the 1st and 31st.

The worst day of month to start a GTC or have it renew on is the 1st of the month to about the 7th of the months. The GTC will have a double fee month for those listing in the first 2 years. The best days of month to start/renew a listing is the 29th to the 20th as it will take years for a double fee month to occur.

To minimize the effects double fee months and surprise insertion fees, it is best to stagger your listings start/renewal day of month evenly across the days of the month. So have roughly 3.3% of your listings on each day of month. This will minimize the number of double insertion fee months to roughly the same number and if you keep a few free listings in reserve, you will not pay insertion fees in double months. Even if you had to pay an insertion fee, it would be for very few listings.

With GTC listings being forced on sellers who used 30 day BINs in the coming months, be careful when you relist them when they go GTC. Either stagger them out so they are spread out over the day of month or relist them from day 20 to 29 of the month.

I discussed this issue years ago when sellers got free listings for stores. I recommended spreading them out over several days and not to start them all on the 1st or 2nd when the free listing were available for stores.

Currently in the eBay 2019 Early Seller Update forum, there is a topic posted by an eBay employee and pinned to the top of the Selling board. It discuss the changes to GTC and that eBay is looking into this issue of double insertions in a month.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/2019-Early-Seller-Update/Update-on-Good-Til-Cancelled/m-p/29556571

There are a few more topics discussing the double insertion month issue.

Here is one

https://community.ebay.com/t5/2019-Early-Seller-Update/Will-regularly-ending-GTC-listings-on-day-28-...

In post 23, eBay member shipscript discuses day 29 of a month as the best day to list to maximize when a listing will have a double insertion fee listing month.

shipscript also mentions a tool she made to see when the first double insertion fee month will happen based on the start day of month.

http://www.isdntek.com/listingtools/billingcycles.htm

In my opinion, this issue of 30 days and double insertion fees months is so silly. Why should a seller using GTC have to worry about this issue? Most don't because they do not know it exists or accept it when it happens. eBay should change the renewal period from a set 30 days to renew on the same day of month as when it was listed on. So a listing that starts on the 1st in a 31 day month will relist on the 1st of the next month. GTC would have to take into account the different number of days in a month when relisting.

tyler@ebay comments please.

femmefan1946 · ‎03-08-2019

I'm beginning to think the relist problem is overblown.

It usually is expressed in terms of Free Listings being 'used up'.

But every non-Store seller has 50 Free Listings each month, which are now going to become 30 days listings and relist automatically.

EBay has yet to clear up that discrepancy.

tyler@ebay

Will the 'month-long' Free Listings become '30-day' Free Listings?

That would be a reasonable solution.

That the first day of each listing would change calendar date every month, I would regard as a feature not a bug. It moves slow items along, and perhaps finds the customer who only buys on payday, itself a moveable date. *

For anyone with a Store, the "free" listings are more numerous (250 up) and becomes only a problem for those sellers who have blocks of products.

By that I mean the seller who lists 250 items in March, and then ends all those listings on April 1 and lists another different group of 250 (adjusting for March sales).

Again, some sellers may spread out their listings and do those block relists weekly or biweekly.

*There are weekly, biweekly and monthly pay periods, and some follow the calendar and some use a set number of days.

pocomocomputing · ‎03-08-2019

I would not say the issue is overblown. It does happen and musicyouneed, the op of this topic, is a good example of this issue happening.

See this topic.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Big-Issue-with-listings/m-p/408761

The auto relist on the 31st used up all his free listing left for the month and charged insertion fees for the rest.

amcdc79 · ‎03-08-2019

@pocomocomputing wrote:
I would not say the issue is overblown. It does happen and musicyouneed, the op of this topic, is a good example of this issue happening.

See this topic.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Big-Issue-with-listings/m-p/408761

The auto relist on the 31st used up all his free listing left for the month and charged insertion fees for the rest.

I agree, it is not overblown, all sellers going forward, should be aware of this happening. I try to have a few video games listed at the end of the month, as they only cost a nickel to list. Most other items are 30 cents, so I don't mind paying the cheaper price for the media category products.

I also would like it, if the listing would stay on the same day each month, but ebay would be giving us all 5 free days on that listing every year. Of course, every February ebay would be happy, as the listings are up for only 28 or 29 days before they relisted. Hehe, I can see some sellers then complain about that, not realizing the benefits on the 31 day months. Whatever, it's hard to keep everyone happy all the time.