Automatic Relist vs Good Until Cancelled?

[pattern-bookstar]

Hi I sell CD's and have about 600 at any one time listed.   I usually use the automatic relist feature but was wondering what sellers feelings were on the Good Until Cancelled feature?  Are they both relists each month?  Do they hold the same placement in the searches?   Or do the GTC go to the bottom.  

Isn't automatic relist just a limited GTC?

[recped]

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@lidpen2 wrote:

Hi I sell CD's and have about 600 at any one time listed.   I usually use the automatic relist feature but was wondering what sellers feelings were on the Good Until Cancelled feature?  Are they both relists each month?  Do they hold the same placement in the searches?   Or do the GTC go to the bottom.  

Isn't automatic relist just a limited GTC?

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Yes auto-relist is really the same as GTC.

As for the placement question that would depend on many factors but primarily on the sales history if any and the views/impression ratio. The longer a listing is up with no sales, no views, no watchers the lower it will rank in Best Match.

When you have had something listed for months and months with no "action" it's best to list it again as a "new" item (use Sell Similar).

Of course that all presumes that your buyers actually use Best Match (I rarely do). One good thing about a relist (not sure about an auto-relist) is that watchers will get a message that an item they had been watching has been relisted.

The auto-relist thing was really intended to be part of the limited free re-list promo.

Personally I do it all manually and in conjunction with the regular promo offers.

[rose-dee · Accepted solution]

I personally like GTC listings, especially for my multiple-quantity items, because I don't need to be constantly "babysitting" my listings -- they just take care of themselves, and keep track of inventory for me. 

I really haven't found that my GTC listings suffer particularly from being pushed downward in search visiblity due to being up for a long time without a sale.  I think there are so many other parameters these days that determine where your item will place in searches -- your seller status, shipping cost, item price, number of photos, TRS or not, defects or not, the category you list in, etc. etc.  

It seems to me that eBay's search/placement function isn't a simple 1+1=2 anymore.  If you're on top in the majority of determinants, I doubt that lack of sales alone will be enough to make your item "invisible".  Everyone has their own theory about eBay search/placement -- who really knows for sure?

One good thing that has recently been introduced for GTC listings is the "Out-of-stock" option.  Once a multi-quantity item is fully sold (0 available), the listing is hidden from searches, but all the purchase and search history is retained so that when you enter stock again (1 or more) it automatically shows up with all its previous data.  I believe this option holds out-of-stock listings for 3 consecutive 30-day billing periods.  It used to be that such GTC listings would simply be ended (along with all their accumulated history) and removed from eBay search when the quantity was sold out.

This can be a significant benefit for desirable items that go out of stock quickly -- I used to find it irritating to lose all the purchase and search data on such items.  I like this option and I think it will be a real help for sellers like me who list a lot of multi-quantity items.  

In the end, I choose GTC because, all other things being equal, I've found it saves me a lot of time, trouble, confusion and frustration trying to keep track of ended, re-listed and sold out items.  

[pattern-bookstar]

Hi rose-dee, I really like the way you think. Thanks so much.

When they had the 3 free relists, I absolutely loved it, I didn't have to spend time babysitting my listings, I could spend time on new listings. I'm going to try GTC on the next 50 or so listings and see how it goes.

[rose-dee]

You're more than welcome!  

I hope I've been of some help, but I always feel that each seller develops a different approach, based on different experience.  Your plan is always the best where eBay is concerned -- experiment, experiment, until you find something that works well for you and for your particular items.  

[pjcdn2005]

I only use GTC for listings that I have with multiple items that sell fairly often. I find that if a listing has no or very few sales after a few months, it becomes almost invisible.

[cumos55]

GTC works  until  the listing gets"old"...

eBay classifies anything close to or over 16 months as old.

Ending a listing  and relisting  appears to wake up the search protocol.

A revision also appears to wake up  Cassini.

My revision would be the postal code.

Delete the postal code and then replace it...with the same postal code..... 500 listings at a time

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Many sellers list  and leave it... and then sales fall off.

The listing gets "OLD"

So do something to tickle Cassini  and wake up Cassini ... relist  also wakes up the watchers....  they get notified the item has been relisted.....

Over the last few days my major revision was prices  and sales have been very... very good....

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New listings also lets Cassini you are "feeding" the system.

It is not enough to list... GTC... and just let it sit "unattended..  Many sellers do this and wonder why sales are not that good....

[cumos55]

I know of a bookseller that had 20,000 listings....  but only put 10,000 listings  on eBay for 30 days....  

revolving inventory... on-off-on-off  ... forever....

Then there is a bookseller with millions of listings.....constantly moving inventory on and off eBay...

Nothing goes stale with these two sellers.

[pjcdn2005]

eBay classifies anything close to or over 16 months as old.

I know that's when they send you the suggestion about changing a listing but I think that the search engine classifies anything much newer than that as being 'old' if it hasn't had much recent interest.

Interesting comment about the postal code.  I wonder if that really works.

[reallynicestamps]

My revision would be the postal code.

Delete the postal code and then replace it...with the same postal code..... 500 listings at a time

What a devious mind you have. I like that in a man.