eBay

lastade* · ‎04-30-2019

I guess I will jump on this board with a shame on you ebay for not listening to the veteran sellers. Really was hoping for announcement saying due to the response of sellers we are putting the duration of listings back the way they were.

Since the anouncement about GTC I have been reading the complaints from sellers that are upset over having 7, 10 and 30 day duration fixed price options ending and the only choice for duration is GTC forced 30 day roll over. Many of the sellers that have voiced their opinion are sellers with over 10 years or more experienced with selling on Ebay. The ebay people who make decisions should have listened to what these sellers had to say. It perplexes me that Ebay does not bother to listen to the advice of the people that have sold on this platform for years.

Why don´t their opinions matter? Who did it harm to have those choices? People who want GTC durations had that choice. People who did not want to have their items roll over had that choice. Personally it worked well for me to know that I could choose which listings I wanted to roll over and choose those I wanted to end automatically in a specific time frame.

I am coping. I have always been a small seller. I know that I can end the listings prior to the listing rolling over but it is a PITA. It is just the idea that what was working great - the option of choice of duration, is no longer a choice. The people that complained made that clear that we did not want this and the powers that be at Ebay have refused to listen.

flo_mingo · ‎05-01-2019

If they do indeed reverse their decision - I think it will be less about what sellers think and more about $$ and listings lost from the smaller sellers - as the bigger companies most all use GTC.

I think that the real problem was with big sellers using short sales to optimize exposure. why do the samll sellers who used 30 day listings have to be punished? If 80 percent of sellers were using GTC - how much harm were the few small one item 30 day sellers causing to e Bay. I have been moving my listings to other sites because it is easier than calculating and fretting over GTC rollovers fees. I do not see why limiting my listings to 50 a month when I used to have over 200 listing up at anytime with eBay subscription + free listing offers.

krzltd · ‎05-01-2019

I've been on Ebay since 1999 and have gone thru many of their changes. I can't remember ONE change that they've rescinded.

Since I have a Basic Store I decided to end ALL of the listings on the 30th and relist on the 1st as the only way to keep track of what's been listed and how many I have left to list/relist for the month...without going over the limit and getting charged extra fees. I've also put a disclaimer in all my listings letting people know that they all will be ending on the 30th of the month.

I hate GTC as much as everyone else....but Ebay seems to think that 80% of the Sellers love it. Obviously, we're in the minority and have to figure out viable 'work-arounds'.

mam98031 · ‎05-01-2019

@krzltd wrote:
I've been on Ebay since 1999 and have gone thru many of their changes. I can't remember ONE change that they've rescinded.

Since I have a Basic Store I decided to end ALL of the listings on the 30th and relist on the 1st as the only way to keep track of what's been listed and how many I have left to list/relist for the month...without going over the limit and getting charged extra fees. I've also put a disclaimer in all my listings letting people know that they all will be ending on the 30th of the month.

I hate GTC as much as everyone else....but Ebay seems to think that 80% of the Sellers love it. Obviously, we're in the minority and have to figure out viable 'work-arounds'.

Not everyone hates GTC, but there certainly are an important number of sellers that hat it.

BTW, that 80% number reflects FP listings, not just GTC.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

deannm156 · ‎05-01-2019

Hello, I just got done chewing them out at ebay for the supervisor could even answer my questions. I understood that if you create a new listing it will be "untill canceled" I get that. but what about my 1000 items that are going to end that are not new. So on 4/30/19 I revised all my listings to 30 day. For that is haw I control my inventory based on how long it's been there. Well it just doesn't matter for at the end of the month ALL listing that end will be renewed. Does that count towards my # of free listing you bet it does. My big question was where can i find out if an item was renewed 2 month, 3 month, a year? well only they can see that info. you would have to call them. What A nightmare for inventory control. So I removed 600 listings for if they get renewed without my knowledge then i will get hit with a listing fee. They don't get it. less listing means less sales and less money for us and them. spread the word. Dean

mam98031 · ‎05-01-2019

... I understood that if you create a new listing it will be "untill canceled" I get that.

GTC = Good Til Cancelled

but what about my 1000 items that are going to end that are not new. So on 4/30/19 I revised all my listings to 30 day.

You may have thought you did this, but it wasn't an option available to you. There are now two types of listings and that is it. Auctions and GTC. There are no other types of listings since March 18th.

For that is haw I control my inventory based on how long it's been there. Well it just doesn't matter for at the end of the month ALL listing that end will be renewed.

Yes, because they are now GTC listings.

Does that count towards my # of free listing you bet it does.

Yes you are correct.

My big question was where can i find out if an item was renewed 2 month, 3 month, a year?

I'm not sure about this question. A GTC listing will continue to renew each month until it is sold out or you end the listing.

well only they can see that info. you would have to call them.

Not true. You can see your listings in your Seller Hub or My Ebay. If you are talking about seeing an actual date when your listings will no longer renew, there is no such date. They will continue to renew until the sell out or you end them. That could be days, weeks, months or years.

What A nightmare for inventory control. So I removed 600 listings for if they get renewed without my knowledge then i will get hit with a listing fee.

At this point nothing should be renewing without your knowledge. You should be aware that ALL fixed price listings are now GTC and they WILL renew EVERY month until such time as the sell out or you end them.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

uvmmmdu · ‎05-02-2019

There may be GTC haters, but I think it might be more about the choice being removed. Some that used GTC are not affected. Those that liked choices, are the ones being affected. And what did it really hurt to leave us CHOICES for those that want it?

flo_mingo · ‎05-02-2019

Here since 2003. I am one of the 20 %. I don't care about teh short 3 5 7 10 day fixed price listings. I want 30 day listings. I do not see how GTC is helping the one off sellers who now have to manually cancel to keep control of their budgets and inventory. I think for the long time sellers this has stolen the joy for selling on eBay. Many of us retired or heading that way were doing this for extra income, but only because it brought us joy. Some may call us hobby sellers. Either way ebay was our market place. It was a joy to source list and sell. Now it is a Job. I work for myself and not eBay. Ebay has made this a tedious venture. No Longer what I look forward to tackling each morning with my first cup of coffee. I am liquidating inventory and moving on to other adventures.

Alan, are you reading any of these posts. I feel like eBay has turned it's back on long time sellers. So silent on the issue. The last perky upbeat podcast made me sick to my stomach, yada yada yada so busy patting yourselves on the back about how much you are doing for sellers. Yuck

granitestateattic · ‎05-02-2019

Very glad to see your post, I couldn't agree more. GTC was forced on sellers, it was never thought through and now we, the sellers, are losing. Since GTC started my sales began dropping. I have now dropped by 50%, costing me hundreds each week. Last year was the 15 day wait for sales & promotions that ended costing me several thousand dollars in sales. I'm sure there are many bigger sellers losing a lot more than that! Unfortunately, like last year, ebay will probably not do a thing about it until they see their own profits shrink at the end of the quarter. Then after 4 months of this they'll end it and claim they listened to us. Unless of course there is someone at ebay who actually reads these and cares enough about the sellers to do something and rescind the GTC policy. On every seller page (My Ebay, Sold Listings, Promotions etc) there are "Comments" links. I send a comment from every page every day. No response of course, just hoping that if enough people make noise maybe they'll see there is a real problem.

So keep writing, keep complaining...while looking for other avenues to sell our products.

jgoebert2012 · ‎05-02-2019

NO TO GTC !!

havemyfaves · ‎05-02-2019

The only thing that makes sense to me, is that the people who made the decision to get rid of the duration options are people who have no clue how eBay works and have never sold on eBay themselves.

We're not going to see ONE "we are sorry that this is causing..." or "we understand that forcing GTC is...." or "we know that sellers are upset because...."

They won't say it. Even the reps on this forum won't apologize or say that they understand our frustrations. They just keep shoving our concerns under the rug and telling us how it is supposed to benefit us.

And so, I'm going to continue to assume these decision makers are complete oblivions and they themselves have no idea why it affects us. If they don't use eBay as a selling platform then they will have no personal experience and, they frankly just don't care.

Either that, or it's all about money. Or, it's both.

havemyfaves · ‎05-02-2019

I don't think people are mad simply because choices were taken away. It goes deeper than that.

We're mad because we know this is going to affect our entire business model and selling procedures. People who've perfected their selling methods over years are now being forced to change how they sell, and it's going to affect sales in various ways.

The "choices" of putting a duration on our listing benefits us for MULTIPLE purposes. And when we can't choose a duration for our listing, we're not going to see the same number of sales as we used to. It's a concept and an experience you'll understand only if you've done business that way.

greg5000 · ‎05-02-2019

@havemyfaves wrote:
The only thing that makes sense to me, is that the people who made the decision to get rid of the duration options are people who have no clue how eBay works and have never sold on eBay themselves.

We're not going to see ONE "we are sorry that this is causing..." or "we understand that forcing GTC is...." or "we know that sellers are upset because...."

They won't say it. Even the reps on this forum won't apologize or say that they understand our frustrations. They just keep shoving our concerns under the rug and telling us how it is supposed to benefit us.

And so, I'm going to continue to assume these decision makers are complete oblivions and they themselves have no idea why it affects us. If they don't use eBay as a selling platform then they will have no personal experience and, they frankly just don't care.

Either that, or it's all about money. Or, it's both.

Sorry seems to be the hardest word .....

The Easy Things for eBay are:

Technical Glitches, Poor Customer Support, Poorly Deployed System Process Changes, and Customer Unfriendly Business Decisions.

uvmmmdu · ‎05-03-2019

I don't claim people are mad "simply" because choices were taken away. Its those choices that were taken that cause the problems us sellers are currently having and to our sales figures. If they had just left things alone it still wouldn't be a perfect platform but many feel it did not help at all to change it to GTC taking away our choices.

Sales have been dropping it seems from update to update for me, year after year. A few years ago, Adding in a percentage of fees to take in ebays pockets for shipping expenses (shipping that ebay has nothing to do with), that hurt the most IMO, But we always have to go with it or leave.......because they won't change to accommodate the sellers. So we make less and less and less...

compassion_matters502 · ‎05-03-2019

The only thing I can surmise, based on all of the replies, is that veteran sellers no longer understand what has changed about selling on the internet. eBay is now one of many many many selling platforms. Their change to GTC keeps them relevant in the growing selling platform landscape and means we will all sell more, not less. Why? Because a GTC listing keeps it's same product link, making it easier for Google search to put your product at the top. The old way caused a new link to be created breaking all of the links everywhere your product was being marketed; either by eBay or yourself. If you aren't marketing and taking advantage of SEO to have your products appear on ANY search engine, not just eBay's search engine, you are missing the boat. Buyers no longer have the same loyalty to a "brand" like eBay, Amazon, etc. They more often search for what they are looking for in a general search engine, and buy it on the platform the product they want is located in. They aren't going directly to eBay to search or directly to Amazon in the way they used to. This makes your product links extremely important, and makes it extremely important that they remain the same throughout the life of the listing until it is sold. GTC is awesome in my book!

lastade* · ‎05-03-2019

@compassion_matters502 wrote:
The only thing I can surmise, based on all of the replies, is that veteran sellers no longer understand what has changed about selling on the internet. eBay is now one of many many many selling platforms. Their change to GTC keeps them relevant in the growing selling platform landscape and means we will all sell more, not less. Why? Because a GTC listing keeps it's same product link, making it easier for Google search to put your product at the top. The old way caused a new link to be created breaking all of the links everywhere your product was being marketed; either by eBay or yourself. If you aren't marketing and taking advantage of SEO to have your products appear on ANY search engine, not just eBay's search engine, you are missing the boat. Buyers no longer have the same loyalty to a "brand" like eBay, Amazon, etc. They more often search for what they are looking for in a general search engine, and buy it on the platform the product they want is located in. They aren't going directly to eBay to search or directly to Amazon in the way they used to. This makes your product links extremely important, and makes it extremely important that they remain the same throughout the life of the listing until it is sold. GTC is awesome in my book!

That is kind of insulting. As a veteran seller I certainly do understand that the climate has changed selling on the internet and I have been selling on several platforms for years. I wized up 11 years ago when sales tanked on my Ebay store at that time. I think I am way ahead of the game now because I started spreading my eggs around back then.

The thing is about the Google search is that nobody had problems finding all those broken links to my products before March 18 when I used a 30 day fixed duration listing. Sales are about the same then as they are now.

For me having that 30 day duration option just made listing easier to do for the type of items that I sell. It was a style of listing that I liked. I will adjust to the work around of ending the listings I want to end before they roll over. But it is an extra step that I should not have to do if I had a choice. Sellers had no say in the matter. They did not listen.