Auto Price Reduction Tool
Hi everyone,
I’m an eBay seller, and on Tuesday, February 3, the Auto Price Reduction option disappeared while I was actively creating and revising listings.
I’m trying to determine whether this was a UI glitch, an account-specific change, or an intentional removal of the feature.
I saw a related thread in which a mentor noted that the feature has been discontinued. I appreciate that response, but I haven’t been able to find any official eBay confirmation (Seller Announcement, Known Technical Issues post, ALERT number, or staff response).
Does anyone know if there is an official eBay source confirming that Auto Price Reduction has been discontinued, or where such changes would be formally announced?
Additionally, is there a recommended way to confirm this directly with eBay, without going through Seller Help's Tier 1 phone support agents, if possible?
Thanks in advance — just looking to verify this directly.
silverfieldstoo
·6 months ago@wastingtime101
Thanks, I appreciate the follow up and the respectful discussion.
I understand your Amazon based perspective, and I agree third party tools can be a practical workaround when eBay doesn’t provide what’s needed; even if it’s not ideal.
My main point was simply that APR filled a useful niche for many business sellers managing large inventories, especially for aging listings where gradual reductions improve sell through without constant manual adjustment.
I think we’re mostly aligned on the broader frustration: eBay’s tool decisions can be disruptive, and sellers are often left adapting around them.
Thanks again for the exchange, and best of luck with your sales.
silverfieldstoo
·6 months ago@wastingtime101
Thanks for the clarification, I understand what you’re saying.
But I think this is where our perspectives differ: most eBay sellers, even high volume business sellers, are not looking to “reprice upward with the market†the way Amazon style sellers do.
In many categories, if demand rises or the market shifts upward, the item sells before there’s ever a need to raise the price. APR was never meant to be a two way dynamic pricing engine. It was a practical automation tool for aging inventory.
The purpose wasn’t “I priced wrong.†It was:
I listed competitively.
The item didn’t move in X days.
The market is telling me I need to adjust.
APR handled that efficiently without constant manual intervention.
That’s not hobby level overpricing; that’s basic sell through optimization at scale.
Also, suggesting that business sellers should rely on third party repricers instead of a built in eBay tool is exactly the frustration. A native feature that improves velocity shouldn’t be restricted to casual sellers simply because it only moves in one direction.
Not every automation tool needs to raise prices to be valuable. APR was effective because it helped convert stale listings into sales; which benefits both sellers and eBay.
wastingtime101
·6 months ago>>But I think this is where our perspectives differ: most eBay sellers, even high volume business sellers, are not looking to “reprice upward with the market†the way Amazon style sellers do.
Yeah, I get what you're saying. Because I sell on both eBay and Amazon I was coming at it from a different perspective.
>>Also, suggesting that business sellers should rely on third party repricers instead of a built in eBay tool is exactly the frustration.
Not what I was saying. I was saying since there isn't a built in tool for business sellers at this moment, a third party tool is an option to consider. Was not at all implying sellers should have to rely on third party tools because the platform fails to provide tools needed. Trust me, I have a long wish list for eBay tools and get super frustrated constantly having to figure work around and relying on tools outside of the platform; but it's what I need to do to adapt - it's an option even if it's not an option I like.
>>Not every automation tool needs to raise prices to be valuable.
Again, not what I said. I acknowledged the value in the APR tool, just said from the way I looked at it as a business seller it was too limited.
Anyway, thanks for the discussion. Always appreciate having an exchange to learn and consider another seller's perspective.
silverfieldstoo
·6 months ago@wastingtime101
I appreciate you sharing the clarification from eBay.
That said, I respectfully disagree with the idea that experienced sellers “should know how to price correctly from the start†and therefore don’t need Auto Price Reduction.
Pricing isn’t static. Markets fluctuate. Demand changes. Competitors enter and exit. Inventory ages. Even with Terapeak/Product Research data, you’re looking at historical information, not a guarantee of future buyer behavior. Auto Price Reduction wasn’t about not knowing how to price; it was about using automation to respond to market conditions efficiently.
As higher-volume sellers, we manage hundreds or thousands of listings. Manually revisiting and adjusting aging inventory one-by-one isn’t always practical. APR provided structured, incremental adjustments without requiring constant manual intervention. That’s not inexperience, that’s operational efficiency.
The fact that the tool is now limited to the simple listing tool doesn’t make it unnecessary for experienced sellers. If anything, higher volume sellers are the ones who benefit most from intelligent automation.
Yes, there are other tools available; coupons, seller initiated offers, promotions, but none of those function the same way as systematic, time-based price adjustments on individual listings.
This isn’t about “leaning†on a feature instead of pricing properly. It’s about having access to automation tools that increase sell through rate while also increasing eBay’s fee revenue.
If a feature drives more sales volume, removing access to it for business sellers seems counterintuitive, regardless of seller experience level.
wastingtime101
·6 months agoTo add some clarification:
My viewpoint about "pricing correctly from the start" was centered around the fact the only thing the APR tool can do is lower the price. It can not raise the price as markets fluctuate. For high volume business sellers there are third party tools that can read the market and lower/raise prices along with market changes.
A tool that exclusively discounts is (in my opinion) geared towards hobby sellers that overprice to begin with.
A tool that can reprice with the market, whether that's higher or lower, is for business sellers. It's not efficient to exclusively lower the price when you still have to manually raise when the market prices go up. It's not efficient to not have a management page where you can see all listings being auto-repriced and adjust settings as needed.
I hope that explains @silverfieldstoo my view that the tool as it stands today is geared towards hobby sellers - even though yes, businesses can make use of it, it's not geared towards them.
undergroundmetaldetecting
·6 months agoI noticed this feature vanish without any notice on all of my listings a week or 2 ago. I called ebay phone support and was told it was being reported by many users and it was NOT discontinued, and she would add my account to the list of people reporting the issue. A few days later I started to see the feature reappear on several listings - but not all of them. Same with creating new listings, some have the feature available and some do not. I'm definitely hoping they bring it back because it is extremely helpful when you have hundreds of active listings to not have to manually adjust them constantly.
wastingtime101
·7 months ago@beasteesvintage @silverfieldstoo @king-collect @msamo_33 @corndogcache
We got confirmation from eBay on what's going on - read more here. The Auto Price Reduction tool has not been discontinued, but its use has been targeted as (in my opinion) it should have been from the start.
The tool is available exclusively through the simple listing tool for newbies/casual sellers; it is not available through the business listing tool. The simple listing tool is very limited and not the right fit for everyone. If you use Seller Hub you cannot access the simple listing tool.
Newbie/hobby sellers using the simple listing tool can access the Auto Price Reduction feature, and those with more experience using the business listing tool should know how to price their items correctly from the start and not need to lean on Auto Price Reduction.
eBay has many tools for advanced users such as Product Research to figure out pricing, they have Seller Initiated Offers for sellers wanting to offer discounts to interested buyers, and they have Discounts with a Store subscription where sellers can make use of coupons, order discounts, sales, and more.
silverfieldstoo
·7 months agoWhen I contacted eBay on Wednesday night about it they advised me it was a site wide technical issue and they were working to resolve it. They also stated any auctions you have set up with it would be restored and you would'nt have to fix any of them. In the past I've experienced eBay Customer Service just telling me what I wanted to hear only to have something else happen, but we shall see. They gave no timeline on a resolution either. I hope they haven't discontinued it; it's an amazing tool for us sellers and I love it!
@beasteesvintage
@valueaddedresource
@corndogcache
@msamo_33
king-collect
·7 months agoI also found the automatically decreasing prices to be an incredibly useful feature and came to this board to find out what's going on.
If it is being revised, I would like to have the option of setting the reduction as a percentage rather than a dollar amount. Thanks!
msamo_33
·7 months agoWhat in the world??!! I too just searched and searched for it and can not find it. I literally just used it the other day???!!! Ugh, I am getting more and more frustrated with selling with ebay. Has there been any more information on this???
corndogcache
·7 months agoCount me in as one of the very disappointed sellers! We took the time (a lot of time, hours and hours) to add it to all of our listings, and now it's just gone without warning. It's not just the complete waste of all of that work, but also that it clearly increased our sales, which have been really flat for the last few years. This was the first thing that seemed to be working--we were getting a lot of sales on old inventory. We're really unhappy that it's gone. We have too many listings to in anyway reproduce the automatic lowering of prices that that feature was able to accomplish.
valueaddedresource
·7 months ago@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay - can you check with the product teams and confirm if the Price Reduction feature has been discontinued permanently or just paused? If paused, is there a timeline for bringing it back?
I'm seeing a lot of sellers saying they found it useful and are very disappointed it was removed without notice.
a_c_green
·7 months ago@valueaddedresource : Well, when you think about it, practically everything eBay does is "without notice." 😄
eCommerceBytes has picked up the story as of last night:
https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2026/02/08/ebay-disappears-the-auto-price-reduction-feature/
This is a textbook example of how eBay's utter failure to communicate the slightest things to the outside world (or even to their own Community representatives) leads to all sorts of confusion and guessing.
undergroundmetaldetecting
·6 months agoI found it funny reading the Ecommercebytes article because I recognized MY Reddit post about this issue being quoted in their article.