I have old listings that routinely sell that were listed 4-5 years ago if not longer. Sometimes its a rarer part that takes just the right buyer but I sell a few of these items each and every week. If ebay plans in the future to start removing or deleting these items I am going to be really upset. Also getting these messages for every item that sits longer than 90 days is going to get annoying really fast.
I have a basic store, back in the days there was a limit of 250 listings which was plenty for me, even now. But now they have given us a THOUSAND free listings and they wonder why things aren't selling?
I'm going to take a wild guess here that some sellers are filling listing space for the purpose of filling listing space. Price it high so it doesn't sell right away, list multiples of the same item with small variations in the title, list stuff we strongly suspect won't sell... All these things are not attracting buyers, but ebay somehow believes that giving us MORE free listings is the right answer?
Maybe if we had limited listing availability we'd have to be more frugal with what we list. I know, dumb idea.
I have a basic store, back in the days there was a limit of 250 listings which was plenty for me, even now. But now they have given us a THOUSAND free listings and they wonder why things aren't selling?
I'm going to take a wild guess here that some sellers are filling listing space for the purpose of filling listing space. Price it high so it doesn't sell right away, list multiples of the same item with small variations in the title, list stuff we strongly suspect won't sell... All these things are not attracting buyers, but ebay somehow believes that giving us MORE free listings is the right answer?
Maybe if we had limited listing availability we'd have to be more frugal with what we list. I know, dumb idea.
I have suggested this in the past but it was decried as heresy. Now that all platforms I've ever sold on have free listings except for Etsy, there's nothing to be done about it. If sellers cannot be bothered to tend to their listings, leaving stuff to run year after year untouched like the musty old junk I see in "antique" malls, then eBay (as well as Mercari, now) are going to prod them. All that is requested (not required) is to have a look at old listings. Sheesh.
These kinds of plans work for small sellers, I suppose, but what about someone that has 50,000 listings? I believe probably a seller with that many items has a plan of their own for managing their inventory, but what if they don't? So what? What business is it of yours? I don't understand why anyone else should care. Look to your own business, take care of it yourself the way you want to do it, and leave me and mine, and everybody else's, alone. Including ebay, I bet they already know the best way to run their business without your help.
I have a basic store, back in the days there was a limit of 250 listings which was plenty for me, even now. But now they have given us a THOUSAND free listings and they wonder why things aren't selling?
I'm going to take a wild guess here that some sellers are filling listing space for the purpose of filling listing space. Price it high so it doesn't sell right away, list multiples of the same item with small variations in the title, list stuff we strongly suspect won't sell... All these things are not attracting buyers, but ebay somehow believes that giving us MORE free listings is the right answer?
Maybe if we had limited listing availability we'd have to be more frugal with what we list. I know, dumb idea.
I have suggested this in the past but it was decried as heresy. Now that all platforms I've ever sold on have free listings except for Etsy, there's nothing to be done about it. If sellers cannot be bothered to tend to their listings, leaving stuff to run year after year untouched like the musty old junk I see in "antique" malls, then eBay (as well as Mercari, now) are going to prod them. All that is requested (not required) is to have a look at old listings. Sheesh.
I know I have listings that haven't sold, I've looked at them 3, 4, 5 or 8 times by now. I don't want to look at them again, I know what they look like, I know it hasn't sold, why would I even bother with the 10th of the same message from ebay? Now don't get me wrong, but ebay isn't helping us when they keep sending us the same old messages all the time, we all get to the point I don't hardly read the title of the message... Ebay message? Delete. I literally have filters on my email that auto-delete most ebay emails, because they are junk to me. Hey you shipped your item! Yeah, I know, I shipped it myself can you believe that? You paid for a shipping label on ebay, congratulations on your purchase! Yeah, gee thanks again. Your item has SHIPPED! Yeah no kidding, really?
Just to make matters worse the dropshippers also send me insipid messages. Oh hey we noticed your item has ARRIVED omg OMG no way hey.... hey don't mean to bother but... Can you leave us FIVE STAR FEEDBACK NOW?!
Yeah...
I get so tired of it.
Or the dropshippers who "hey if there's a problem please don't open a return / file for INR, but contact us first so we will make it right!? Uh....
The sad of it, ebay still thinks MORE spam is the answer! They call it "communication." "Better communication" are the actual words, but in truth it turns into good old SPAM. Spam = Messages I don't want.
The worst are in the ebay inbox, can't filter those, have to delete them manually, I bet there are sellers whose ebay inbox is FULL (literally) if such a thing is even possible.
I paid for 1000 listings every month years ago; and had no trouble filling them up, and in fact when I exceeded 1000 in my store, had to rotate my listings manually every month ( what a time consuming PIA). I'm smart enough to know I don't know just what everybody will want to buy. I want to have enough of a variety to suit every buyer that comes to look at my merch. I now routinely sell items that have been listed for 5, 6, or 7 years, and my income would be much less if I didn't have those items waiting in my inventory for just the right person. This is not to say I don't weed. Of course I do, but it's much, much less than you might think. Out of 5000+ listings, I probably cull less than 2 dozen a year.
I imagine there are a lot of sellers that don't run their business like you do, and aren't bothered by other sellers' "drek" as you seem to be. If your plan was implemented, I'd probably be out of business. So no thanks.
eBay is filled with drek that people list and forget about, and its probably been accreting since the auto-GTC started. Poshmark and Mercari have the same problem. In fact, any marketplace with free listings does. Bandwidth is not infinite.
The emotion on this thread over this small bit of housekeeping baffles me.
I have no problem with this - 90 days is considered stale on this site and if I have *anything* up for 90 days, it has to be rejigged, anyway. So it reminds me to take a look at these listings.
If you look closely at the email there is a place to answer whether you find the email helpful, yes or no. Then if you answer that question it takes you to a short screen wanting you to rate the email.
Be kind, but say if you like it or not. Everyone should do this. The more responses they get the more they will pay attention to the suggestions.
But they also told us they brought in GTC because search engines like google like longer lasting listings and some sellers were ending and relisting over and over in short time frames.
I actually preferred the old 30 day rollover because you would actually SEE the listings as they ended, and that's more likely to prompt a seller to revise before they relist I would think.
I'd prefer an email saying "Hey, we see you must have forgotten to update your flat rate shipping cost on these items".
Yeah, actually... Or "Your item is priced far below the average, you are literally leaving money on the table. We hope this message has reached you in time as in before it sells because your item could sell for so much more." Maybe then tell us how much we could sell it for (and have the algorithm double check itself that the suggested price is in fact at least 10% higher than the actual listed price). This kind of thing should actually happen at the point of listing, like when we click submit.
Holy wow am I dreaming good now? Ebay is in this perpetual race to the bottom, which is how I know I'm definitely dreaming.
I am telling you, I must've done some good drugs when I was young. Maybe that last sentence gets me in trouble for even mentioning mind altering chemicals. What a world we live in.
I'd prefer an email saying "Hey, we see you must have forgotten to update your flat rate shipping cost on these items".
@toomuchstuffagain35
Then make that suggestion to Ebay. We all have the ability to make suggestions right from the email.
Once you answer that question a screen comes up where you can send them feedback regarding this new email. There you can make the suggestions you think would make this more beneficial for you. I do however suggest this is not the place for venting. Those that read these at Ebay are just collecting your data and didn't cause you to feel negatively about the email.
Now that everyone is supposed to be committing to more AI, companies are struggling to find uses for AI,
The biggest Ebay AI use is annoying buyers and sellers with messages they do not want or need.
Agreed, though I very much doubt that AI had any involvement in this particular instance. All eBay needs to do is search their database for sellers who have had no sale in the past 90 days... or sellers who have no current entries on their Sold Items page... there are probably many ways to pull up a list of sellers matching what they're looking for when compiling a mailing list for this message.
I also received that totally unnecessary email from eBay a few hours ago. After shaking my head I deleted it.
I also have a lot of listings waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy older than 90 days, as sometimes it takes even a year or so to sell them, which is ok with me.
Just another demonstration of bored eBay software engineers who need something to do other than sit with their feet up and throw nerf balls into a toy basketball net in their office... It would be nice if their big bosses came up with a strategy to really confront scammers and have the engineers develop it, instead of giving them "busy-work" to do.
I also received that totally unnecessary email from eBay a few hours ago. After shaking my head I deleted it.
I also have a lot of listings waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy older than 90 days, as sometimes it takes even a year or so to sell them, which is ok with me.
The record seller that I'm mentoring is routinely selling records that were uploaded anywhere up to two years ago now, interspersed with records that were uploaded just last week. (Maybe shoulda charged a bit more for those, but hey, I'm not a record seller. ðŸ˜)
Point being that there's nothing tragic about some item that hasn't sold right away, and no need to panic a seller into lowering his prices.
@duffy4444 wrote:
Just another demonstration of bored eBay software engineers who need something to do other than sit with their feet up and throw nerf balls into a toy basketball net in their office... It would be nice if their big bosses came up with a strategy to really confront scammers and have the engineers develop it, instead of giving them "busy-work" to do.
Bug fixing would be another useful project for them to get started on.
chapeau-noir
·10 months agoNo, I give up.
bgt_masters_of_tiki_d
·10 months agoI have old listings that routinely sell that were listed 4-5 years ago if not longer. Sometimes its a rarer part that takes just the right buyer but I sell a few of these items each and every week. If ebay plans in the future to start removing or deleting these items I am going to be really upset. Also getting these messages for every item that sits longer than 90 days is going to get annoying really fast.
broto_64
·10 months agoIt doesn't make sense.
I have a basic store, back in the days there was a limit of 250 listings which was plenty for me, even now.
But now they have given us a THOUSAND free listings and they wonder why things aren't selling?
I'm going to take a wild guess here that some sellers are filling listing space for the purpose of filling listing space. Price it high so it doesn't sell right away, list multiples of the same item with small variations in the title, list stuff we strongly suspect won't sell... All these things are not attracting buyers, but ebay somehow believes that giving us MORE free listings is the right answer?
Maybe if we had limited listing availability we'd have to be more frugal with what we list.
I know, dumb idea.
chapeau-noir
·10 months agoI have suggested this in the past but it was decried as heresy. Now that all platforms I've ever sold on have free listings except for Etsy, there's nothing to be done about it. If sellers cannot be bothered to tend to their listings, leaving stuff to run year after year untouched like the musty old junk I see in "antique" malls, then eBay (as well as Mercari, now) are going to prod them. All that is requested (not required) is to have a look at old listings. Sheesh.
dirk12955
OP10 months agoMaybe reconfigure things so a listing times itself out. Automatically
renews every time you make a sale or revise, But ends after a certain
amount of time with no sales or revision. 90 days 365 days 1,000 days
If eBay sent a message that a listing was going to be ended before hand,
A seller could keep up with it.
Would be a way to remove some of the stale stuff that got that way
for whatever reason.
budthoothme
·10 months agoThese kinds of plans work for small sellers, I suppose, but what about someone that has 50,000 listings? I believe probably a seller with that many items has a plan of their own for managing their inventory, but what if they don't? So what? What business is it of yours? I don't understand why anyone else should care. Look to your own business, take care of it yourself the way you want to do it, and leave me and mine, and everybody else's, alone. Including ebay, I bet they already know the best way to run their business without your help.
dirk12955
OP10 months agoOK
I'll make a sincere effort to do better next time.
toomuchstuffagain35
·10 months agoThey already 'remove' listings with zero notice, and they don't show up in ended or unsold either.
dirk12955
OP10 months agoI've never seen that I had any listings ended by eBay, But do
see others on the board that have had that happen.
I have listings that are several years old but have made sales along the way
and are still current.
mam98031
·10 months agoThe message from Ebay that we have been discussing does NOT end the listing[s].
broto_64
·10 months agoI know I have listings that haven't sold, I've looked at them 3, 4, 5 or 8 times by now. I don't want to look at them again, I know what they look like, I know it hasn't sold, why would I even bother with the 10th of the same message from ebay? Now don't get me wrong, but ebay isn't helping us when they keep sending us the same old messages all the time, we all get to the point I don't hardly read the title of the message...
Ebay message?
Delete.
I literally have filters on my email that auto-delete most ebay emails, because they are junk to me.
Hey you shipped your item!
Yeah, I know, I shipped it myself can you believe that?
You paid for a shipping label on ebay, congratulations on your purchase!
Yeah, gee thanks again.
Your item has SHIPPED!
Yeah no kidding, really?
Just to make matters worse the dropshippers also send me insipid messages.
Oh hey we noticed your item has ARRIVED omg OMG no way hey.... hey don't mean to bother but...
Can you leave us FIVE STAR FEEDBACK NOW?!
Yeah...
I get so tired of it.
Or the dropshippers who "hey if there's a problem please don't open a return / file for INR, but contact us first so we will make it right!?
Uh....
The sad of it, ebay still thinks MORE spam is the answer!
They call it "communication."
"Better communication" are the actual words, but in truth it turns into good old SPAM.
Spam = Messages I don't want.
The worst are in the ebay inbox, can't filter those, have to delete them manually, I bet there are sellers whose ebay inbox is FULL (literally) if such a thing is even possible.
budthoothme
·10 months agoYes, dumb idea.
I paid for 1000 listings every month years ago; and had no trouble filling them up, and in fact when I exceeded 1000 in my store, had to rotate my listings manually every month ( what a time consuming PIA). I'm smart enough to know I don't know just what everybody will want to buy. I want to have enough of a variety to suit every buyer that comes to look at my merch. I now routinely sell items that have been listed for 5, 6, or 7 years, and my income would be much less if I didn't have those items waiting in my inventory for just the right person. This is not to say I don't weed. Of course I do, but it's much, much less than you might think. Out of 5000+ listings, I probably cull less than 2 dozen a year.
I imagine there are a lot of sellers that don't run their business like you do, and aren't bothered by other sellers' "drek" as you seem to be. If your plan was implemented, I'd probably be out of business. So no thanks.
chapeau-noir
·10 months agoeBay is filled with drek that people list and forget about, and its probably been accreting since the auto-GTC started. Poshmark and Mercari have the same problem. In fact, any marketplace with free listings does. Bandwidth is not infinite.
The emotion on this thread over this small bit of housekeeping baffles me.
quadcitypickers
·10 months agoYou seriously don't know how to screenshot?
You literally printed this out and scanned it in, wasting ink, paper and electricity.
budthoothme
·10 months agoEasy to be critical.
Better to be helpful.
I see you forgot that last part.
adamcartwright
·10 months agoI would open the listings and analyze what I might be missing in my own listings -- key words, photos, descriptions, etc.
luckythewinner
·10 months agoYes, but the wasted effort was not yours.
And you can turn off these sorts of messages in your seller account communication settings:
jonathanbrightlight
·10 months agoVery good point. Why worry about someone else’s wasted effort when it only wastes your own time and effort to worry about it?
dirk12955
OP10 months agoEvery so often eBay will send a message that needs to be read and acted on. Or maybe
it's just some helpful info that I need to know.
How many times over the years have we seen ebay members with an issue coming to this
board that if they had read their messages..........
chapeau-noir
·10 months agoI have no problem with this - 90 days is considered stale on this site and if I have *anything* up for 90 days, it has to be rejigged, anyway. So it reminds me to take a look at these listings.
mam98031
·10 months ago@dirk12955
If you look closely at the email there is a place to answer whether you find the email helpful, yes or no. Then if you answer that question it takes you to a short screen wanting you to rate the email.
Be kind, but say if you like it or not. Everyone should do this. The more responses they get the more they will pay attention to the suggestions.
toomuchstuffagain35
·10 months agoI'd prefer an email saying "Hey, we see you must have forgotten to update your flat rate shipping cost on these items".
dirk12955
OP10 months agoI see I sold a set of stamps yesterday that were originally listed
July 9th, 2023
Last revision was December 23rd, 2024 when I lowered the price.
So how long is too long? 26 months since it was listed?
Or 9 months since I lowered the price.
toomuchstuffagain35
·10 months agoBut they also told us they brought in GTC because search engines like google like longer lasting listings and some sellers were ending and relisting over and over in short time frames.
I actually preferred the old 30 day rollover because you would actually SEE the listings as they ended, and that's more likely to prompt a seller to revise before they relist I would think.
broto_64
·10 months agoYeah, actually...
Or "Your item is priced far below the average, you are literally leaving money on the table. We hope this message has reached you in time as in before it sells because your item could sell for so much more."
Maybe then tell us how much we could sell it for (and have the algorithm double check itself that the suggested price is in fact at least 10% higher than the actual listed price).
This kind of thing should actually happen at the point of listing, like when we click submit.
Holy wow am I dreaming good now?
Ebay is in this perpetual race to the bottom, which is how I know I'm definitely dreaming.
I am telling you, I must've done some good drugs when I was young.
Maybe that last sentence gets me in trouble for even mentioning mind altering chemicals.
What a world we live in.
mam98031
·10 months ago@toomuchstuffagain35
Then make that suggestion to Ebay. We all have the ability to make suggestions right from the email.
Once you answer that question a screen comes up where you can send them feedback regarding this new email. There you can make the suggestions you think would make this more beneficial for you. I do however suggest this is not the place for venting. Those that read these at Ebay are just collecting your data and didn't cause you to feel negatively about the email.
puggybelle
·10 months agoI received that email, too. I actually revised two of the listings.
Their advice was...
More photos - typically 7+
Several more item specifics
Free shipping
I added more photos. I added one more item specific. Free shipping? I don't think so.
All of the items they listed in the email had watchers. I hope they emailed them, too.
Hey! Puggybelle added more photos...take another look!
tobaccocardyahoo
·10 months agoNow that everyone is supposed to be committing to more AI, companies are struggling to find uses for AI,
The biggest Ebay AI use is annoying buyers and sellers with messages they do not want or need.
a_c_green
·10 months agoAgreed, though I very much doubt that AI had any involvement in this particular instance. All eBay needs to do is search their database for sellers who have had no sale in the past 90 days... or sellers who have no current entries on their Sold Items page... there are probably many ways to pull up a list of sellers matching what they're looking for when compiling a mailing list for this message.
toomuchstuffagain35
·10 months agoWhat was the advice? Either Promote them or lower the price or both? It's all they know.
Maybe we should ask what's ebay going to do about it?
dirk12955
OP10 months agoNo real advice other than revise the listings, Plus
1) Create a sales event
2) Do your homework
3) "Want someone to walk you through it? Contact us"
with links provided including links to the 4 specific listings
that got them in a twist.
It's a mystery to me how eBay employees come up with this
Garbage.
To start with, I have listings wwwaaaaaayyyyyy older than 90 days.
duffy4444
·10 months agoI also received that totally unnecessary email from eBay a few hours ago. After shaking my head I deleted it.
I also have a lot of listings waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy older than 90 days, as sometimes it takes even a year or so to sell them, which is ok with me.
Just another demonstration of bored eBay software engineers who need something to do other than sit with their feet up and throw nerf balls into a toy basketball net in their office... It would be nice if their big bosses came up with a strategy to really confront scammers and have the engineers develop it, instead of giving them "busy-work" to do.
Cheers, Duffy
dirk12955
OP10 months agoProbably some eBay employee shagged himself (Or herself) A nice fat
bonus for coming up with that idea.
Then messed it all up when it was put into the stream.
a_c_green
·10 months agoThe record seller that I'm mentoring is routinely selling records that were uploaded anywhere up to two years ago now, interspersed with records that were uploaded just last week. (Maybe shoulda charged a bit more for those, but hey, I'm not a record seller. ðŸ˜)
Point being that there's nothing tragic about some item that hasn't sold right away, and no need to panic a seller into lowering his prices.
Bug fixing would be another useful project for them to get started on.
tobaccocardyahoo
·10 months agoOne man's bug is another man's feature.
toomuchstuffagain35
·10 months agoI've had the same message.
Just sold something that was listed since 2019. That wasn't on the list and sold just fine TYVM.
hartungcards
·10 months agoWhat's Next? No sale in 91 days.