eBay

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎04-16-2019

This is something that I have seen on the US discussion boards. Also my husband & I came up with the same idea recently. GTC works great for big businesses with new items & lots of stock. And many of these sellers have been using GTC all along. But it is another story for the small businesses that are dealing in one of a kind, vintage collectibles. GTC does not work for the majority of them. It works better to choose the length & duration of their listings. So if eBay could make 2 different rules or tiers, one for big businesses & one for small businesses, it would work. Not that this will ever happen but think it is a good compromise.

ricarmic · ‎04-16-2019

I would think of myself as selling a lot of "one of a kind" type of items, but ones that I can often replace (sort of like someone who knits a pair of mittens, when they sell they knit another pair, except in my case it is "bunches of stamps").

You've probably seen a recent thread I posted that I had an item sell that had been running for over 10 years as a GTC.

I've always seen GTC perhaps another way around, I find something to sell, I value it, I list it and I wait until the right person comes along to buy it....which can sometimes take a long time!

I have noticed that some of my very long running items show up disproportionately early in google searches, so it does seem to make a positive difference to have had something running for a "long" time....

It would be interesting to me to better understand the perspective that GTC doesn't work for one of a kind, vintage items that stay listed for a long time?

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎04-16-2019

If GTC works for you that is great & you were able to choose to use it for yourself. But some of us don't want to be forced into a mold that doesn't work for us.

ricarmic · ‎04-16-2019

Hi! Yes I understand that it doesn't work for you, what I would like to better understand is the concept as to why it doesn't work and what advantage the use of 30 days or whatever practice provided? (I may have missed that discussion in other threads)

I ask because understanding other perspectives gives me ideas for trying other things myself down the road, although as you note, we don't/won't any longer have any options other than GTC for BINs.... but I could theoretically execute a similar practice by running a batch of auctions for 10 days then a different batch of auctions for 10 days and flipping the unsold back and forth like I think folks did with the 30 day BINs to generate variety?

Anyway I would like to better understand if possible.....

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-16-2019

@ricarmic @2nd-time-around-jewelry

The main issue for a good percentage of sellers selling OOAK or even seasonal items is the control they had with 30 day or less. Sellers budget their listings. Anything over their "allotment" per month is at additional fees. Listing fees do vary per listing. When a seller could rotate items in and out at will they feel like they control their listings?

-Lotz

ricarmic · ‎04-16-2019

Ahhh I hadn't thought about seasonal or timing things or managing to the listings limit.

My items limit has always been unattainable to me so I've never considered that aspect.

That is very helpful information, thank you for sharing it!

pocomocomputing · ‎04-16-2019

I suggested in another topic to use GTC to list items for 3 months and cancel at day 89. Essentially rotate you stock on 89 days instead of 29 days using GTC. Less work and you get a chance to see if GTC for 89 days helps sales.

Most eBay changes seem to make things worse for sellers of one of a kind items. Maybe this GTC will work for some sellers.

esclyons · ‎04-17-2019

the BEST solution would be to leave it alone,, the programming is already done, and there is no need to do anything, the 30 day option is already there.. They just need to leave it there.

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎04-17-2019

I agree, that would be ideal to just leave it the way it is now. But I doubt eBay will do that. They would have to admit they made a mistake then. But in order for them to save face, I proposed the other alternative. Not that my opinion matters much.

lady.stark · ‎04-17-2019

@ricarmic wrote:
... what I would like to better understand is the concept as to why it doesn't work and what advantage the use of 30 days or whatever practice provided?

I cannot respond for others, but in my experience, when an item is only 30 days, when the listing ends and the buyer don't see it anymore in his/her watched items, he sometimes pannics and contacts me to see if it sold. If not, he asks if I can relist it. I even had one like this at the beginning of the month.

femmefan1946 · ‎04-17-2019

Full disclosure-- I've been using GTC on all my listings for years and like it just fine.

I'm seeing two groups that are upset.

First are the ones who worry about double charges because GTC listings are relisted after 30 days, while Free Listings (in particular but including Store listings) are for a month-- and a month may be 28, 30, or 31 days.

The other is sellers who will not list more than the 50 Free unless there is a promotion. They worry that they will have to actually pay a whole 35 cents for a listing.

EBay could calm the first group by changing 'monthly' listings to '30 day' listings. While most will still be complaining that there was a change, any change, the consistency should help.

The seller who will not list unless the listing is free, I confess I don't have too much sympathy for. Frankly, if you don't think you can make a profit if you pay 35 cents for the listing, it's time to rethink your business plan. Perhaps you need to charge more.

I have on dotCOM suggested to some of those sellers that opening a mini-Store (not available in Canada) would not only solve the problem but usually would save them money. I was attacked by one seller (as a 'cheerleader' of course) who was actually spending over $15 a month in listing fees for making the suggestion that he go for the $7.95 a month MiniStore instead.

The others have ignored the suggestion. Oh well, I have raised teenagers.

The best anti-GTC argument here has been the "seasonal merchandise" one. And the suggestion that sellers run those for 89 days seems a pretty good one to me.

The seller gets at least two of the About to Close bumps in Search, and one Newly Listed*. There is also the promise by eBay that GTC listings get picked up better by Google, Yahoo and Bing. The jury is still out on that.

*It would be important when relisting months later to use Sell Similar, btw.

sylviebee · ‎04-17-2019

I'm not sure why this change to GTCed is a problem for sellers.

I've listed via 30 day cycles for a long time and that has worked well for me. I've had the most sales for newly listed items and for items "ending soonest".

With this GTCed change we lose the advantage in relation to the boost that comes from items "Items ending soonest", but for sellers working the 30 day cycles................ ending items around day 29 and re-listing ............... (it only takes a few minutes to do that) it should be more than balanced out (and worth the effort) because there will be fewer items designated Newly Listed (i.e. less competition on at that end) because more sellers will just let the items run forever so there should be fewer Newly Listed items.

Also, eBay has put a lot of new options into play which will help with items which do run GTCed, such as sending buyers offers etc. I like those options. I've dabbled only a little so far but they seem to work well.

All in all, working the new system so that you do get 30 day cycles could work out well.

Give it a chance.

femmefan1946 · ‎04-18-2019

@sylviebee

It's the "newly listed" we don't get, but I understand we still have the "about to close".

It's been my practice to monitor about to close items on my Active Listings, and close down ones that are not performing.

They go to Unsold for 90 days and can be relisted with a click if I want.

Although I have a few thousand listings only a few hundred close each day, so this takes only a few minutes.

Relisting as Sell Similar (to get the Newly Listed bump) takes longer if I want to make any changes.

sylviebee · ‎04-18-2019

@femmefan1946 wrote:
@sylviebee
It's the "newly listed" we don't get, but I understand we still have the "about to close".

femme, normally with 30 day listings there was a boost when first listed and also when the items were about to close.

Are you saying that GTCed items still get the boost when 30 day cycles are about to end but not when the 30 days cycles begin again?

In my mind I pictured that ending items every 30 days and re-listing would still mean that they'd get the "newly listed" boost but not the "ending soonest" boost and GTCed would get the "newly listed" boost only once when initially listed and never the "about to close boost"?

I clearly sell more items at the start and end of 30 day cycles so I'd like to retain that as much as possible.

femmefan1946 · ‎04-18-2019

That's what I have read on the Boards- as I remember it, it was a Blue, but I'm not sure if it was on Canada or the US.

tyler@ebay - can you confirm my memory?

Again, it's my understanding that if a seller used Relist to ....ummm... relist, there never was a Newly Listed, only with a Sell Similar.

Which would make sense, since the Sell Similar would at least theoretically be a different item and the Relist the same old same old.

That "16 month" note showed up on GTC listings and also (from the notes I put on some listings)on Relists. Sell Similar loses the notes.

tyler@ebay · ‎04-18-2019

Thanks for the tag @femmefan1946!

My understanding of this is as **follows:

A Good Til Cancelled (GTC) listing does not 'relist' every 30 days, it 'renews'. The 'newly listed' boost applies to new item numbers, which a renewal wouldn't receive, since GTC keeps its same item number.

However, the 'ending soonest' boost is based on listing end/renewal time, so a GTC listing should receive that boost near its renewal date consistently.

An item relisted from unsold could receive a newly listed boost as the item number is different. But again - this isn't information I've been able to confirm.

**I have not been able to find definitive proof that this is the way it works, but this is what I understand to be the case. I need to do some digging on this to be entirely sure (though fair warning the search team is notoriously tight-lipped). I've got an email through to them, join me in crossing fingers that they deign to reply!

Tyler,

sylviebee · ‎04-18-2019

I use Garage Sale (GS) which is a program just for Apple users selling on eBay.

Maybe eBay has evolved during the past few years to be more Mac-Friendly, but when I started using Garage Sale eBay was difficult for Mac users.

It's not expensive, more than worth the money, and I'm pretty sure that ending and re-listing every 30 days is more difficult without GS.

lady.stark · ‎04-18-2019

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Frankly, if you don't think you can make a profit if you pay 35 cents for the listing, it's time to rethink your business plan. Perhaps you need to charge more.

The thing is... it's not just 35 cents when the item is listed for more than a year.

tyler@ebay · ‎04-18-2019

Hi everyone - I've gotten more information on this, and it appears things do not work the way we've all thought they have.

I want to clarify a few things as it pertains to the Best Match algorithm, and correct incomplete or incorrect information I have given previously:

There is no ‘boost’ applied to an item for being either newly listed, or ending shortly.
There is no such thing as a ‘boost’ to search placement. More information about optimizing for Best Match can be found here.

Good ‘Til Cancelled listings renew every 30 days, keeping their watcher count, sales history and item number. If a buyer is watching your item they will be alerted when a GTC listing is approaching its renewal date.

So I've learned a lot today, and have a number of threads to go correct myself on