sold similar, older listings
I have older listings that I would like to sell before I end up deleting them and donating. I've used sales and going back through to check prices to adjust them. Presumably nobody wants them. I see advice here to cancel listings and Sell Similar to get a bump in visibility. IF you do that don't you lose the information about how long the items have been on the site? Or maybe you don't care? Have an external system to track this? thanks.
24 comments
iamthecrosseyedcow
·7 months agoI think ultimately just "touching" (doing something or anything that makes a little bit of sense) to old listings helps. For me, messing around with titles seems to work the best.
I come from a bricks and mortar background, and I learned years (and years) ago that moving loser items from one display to another or one part of a shop to another can result in a sale. I consider the title of a listing to be a big part of my "display" on eBay.
And yes, there are some items that will never sell, sadly. So, I'm not at all against culling losers, either.
christworks
·7 months ago@keziak I also use an external system that keeps track of how long items have been listed. For redundancy, the first 4 digits of my SKU give me the year and month. I use the format YYMM. I can then sort by that, and I know which items have been listed longer.
If you have not ended and sold similar, then I recommend that. I have to disagree with @luckythewinner. eBay, to my knowledge, has never said whether it helps with only the items that you end/relist or sell similarly or whether it impacts other listings beyond those. From my A/B testing and anecdotal evidence over the past couple of years, it certainly appears to have some positive impact on everything in the store. There is no way to know definitively since you don't know what you don't know.
Ideas about making adjustments to the title or adding item specifics may help, too. A year ago I took new photos of about 60 items that were listed in 2023 before I had a lightbox. I saw a huge spike in sales of those items in the days and weeks that followed. It was well worth my time to do that.
There are some things that nobody will want, unfortunately. It is good, in my view, to rid your store of those old things, especially if space is tight. I've got plenty of space, but when I do inventory at the start of the year, I pull items that have been listed for over two years, get zero views, are below $20, and after trying multiple ways to get the item sold. It feels good to clean house, and it allows you to focus on better items.
keziak
OP7 months agothanks for the detailed response. You guys have given me good advice and I need to think on it.
meme6253
·7 months agoI use the cancel and sell similar method all the time & it does help sometimes, I actually don't bother trying to keep track on how long the item has been on site,other than the fact that it's bothersome to know sometimes!
sakic92710
·7 months agoI have never found ending listings & recycling via sell similar to make any difference at all. If views hover around 0-5, there will not be an improvement with this action. Best of luck with future sales! 🙂
keziak
OP7 months agothank you. It's sad to think some/many books just won't find a buyer in a reasonable time frame or maybe ever. Thjis attitude is a slippery slope though. I've worked with library book sales for decades and there are older ladies who think every book deserved a chance to find an owner. I never minded that and culled aggressively.
When I remove my own books I take them to the local bookstore but while they take a lot of them they are stingy with store credit.
iamthecrosseyedcow
·7 months agoDon't know if this will help you, as I don't sell in the books category, but I find that making creative changes to listing titles and changing pricing/shipping cost either up or down (both work equally well, so guess which I use most often...) help to sell my mostly long tail items.
I rarely end and donate items unless the item's condition is less than desirable or if I think I can sell it in one of my bricks & mortar booths. If you're thinking about donating "good stuff", you may want to consider finding someplace where you can consign the items.
telegraph_mercantile
·7 months agoHi @iamthecrosseyedcow - Do you have a minute to say more about creative changes you’ve made to listing titles? Any examples to share?
Thx in advance.
iamthecrosseyedcow
·7 months agoHi!
In clothing it is somewhat common to use terms like "granny" or "granny core" for clothing items that an older woman might wear, but are now (somewhat) trendy with younger people...a flowery vintage blouse for example. Or maybe "Party On' for a cocktail dress. Or "comfy casual" for an over-sized sweatshirt.
For a unique vintage hors de ouvres server, for example, I might add words like "Party" or "MCM Vibe".
It's obviously much more important to use appropriate/standard key words that describe specific aspects of the item being listed. Those are what will bring eyes to the listing in the first place, but a couple catchy words at the end of the title, if there is unused space in the title, may make the listing stand out in a crowded field.
Again, I use this technique on older unsold listings that I figurine anything I do might help sell them.
telegraph_mercantile
·7 months agoThanks, @iamthecrosseyedcow - I see what you mean. Some of your other listings use terms like Preppy, Boho, or Artsy, but only at the end when you have space. You’ve inspired me to try to think that way, too.
mcdougle4248
·7 months agoYou could put the original listing date in the Custom label (SKU) field. Buyers cannot see this field when viewing your listing. You can customize your active listing page to include a Custom label (SKU) column. That way, you can see your original listing date from the active listing page.
ETA: You can also search Custom Label (SKU) from the Active Listing page.
keziak
OP7 months agothat is very useful, thanks! All I've really done is sort my Active listings by date entered to find the oldest stuff but your tip might be the ticket if I end and Sell similar older books.
luckythewinner
·7 months agoI see advice here to cancel listings and Sell Similar to get a bump in visibility.
"bump in visibility" is a very imprecise term.
keziak
OP7 months agoThanks for the details, I appreciate it.
I now have a decent number of listings and could afford to jettison by age. I've gone through and removed the lowest price books. It gives me a wince to remove more expensive books. when I've been going through them I've removed books with a lot of copies never mind my condition. I haven't tried just matching the lowest price for ANY condition. Some people seem to think you should always do that.
gurlcat
·7 months agoIt definitely will put the listing high on Best Match results, in fact it will even have a 'New Listing' label in front of the title.
-Now how long this boost lasts, I don't know.
12345jamesstamps
·7 months agoSo, maybe raising the price of the item and putting free shipping into the item won't work?
Or selling two items together instead of one...
keziak
OP7 months agoI haven't done much with free shipping, maybe should explore that.
The books are pretty much a mish-mash, not a lot of the same topic.
jonathanbrightlight
·7 months agoBooks are easier to do free shipping on, since you know the rate can be the same to anywhere in the country with Media Mail. We didn't find it made much difference, though, when we were listing some books with free shipping and some without, so we rarely list with free shipping now.
keziak
OP7 months agoThank you. I do not as a rule do free shipping because it's easier to offer combined shipping when s hipping is stated.
dhbookds
·7 months agoYou do............ what popped into my mind........make a category in your store "Steals and Deals" or something similar and use it for a 2nd category when trying to rehab the old listings....at least you could tell it's a "2nd time around" for them........
just an idea.......
keziak
OP7 months agoInteresting.
I forget, do we get two categories for free?
jonathanbrightlight
·7 months agoYou can list in two Store Categories for free, yes (well, it's part of your store subscription, but no charge per listing). Two eBay Categories is what will cost you extra.
caldreamer
·7 months agoEBAY charges extra to list items in 2 different EBAY categories. Only "store categories" that you create are free and you can have your items show in different categories (ie books and last chance books).
keziak
OP7 months agoThanks, I think I knew that jsut haven't really done it. I get combined orders so I guess some people are browsing in the store.