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1 BEST ANSWER
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eBay does not have an archiving feature that will capture your descriptions and photos. There are other tools that will do so, but I think you can do what you need directly on eBay.
eBay has a "Time Away" feature to put your listings on hold for up to 30 days, but you need longer.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling-tools/time-away?id=5137
If all of your listings are Fixed Price, then check out the Out-Of-Stock option half way down this page:
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/bulk-listings?id=4160
An item can remain out of stock for up to 6 months before eBay will automatically end the listing. The listings will still generate an insertion fee each month, but you are probably within the free insertions range, so you can keep your listings hidden for free for up to 180 days.
When you turn on the stock control option, it will apply to ALL of your Fixed Price listings. After setting that feature in your account preferences, go into your listings and change the quantity to zero on those items you want to hide. Those listings will no longer appear in searches, but if someone has the item number, they'll be able to find the item, without the ability to purchase.
You can revise your quantities in bulk with a spreadsheet from Seller Hub Reports Uploads screen or using the bulk online editor in Seller Hub. Ask if you need help.
When you are ready to again display your listings, revise the listings to return their quantities to what they were. Then decide whether you want to turn off the stock-control feature. If you leave it on and sell an item, the listing will go "out of stock" instead of ending. If you are selling one-of-a-kind items, you probably want your listings to end. Even so, if it merely goes out of stock, you can end it yourself whenever you want, or after you are satisfied the buyer isn't going to return the item or if the buyer failed to pay.
eBay does not have an archiving feature that will capture your descriptions and photos. There are other tools that will do so, but I think you can do what you need directly on eBay.
eBay has a "Time Away" feature to put your listings on hold for up to 30 days, but you need longer.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling-tools/time-away?id=5137
If all of your listings are Fixed Price, then check out the Out-Of-Stock option half way down this page:
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/bulk-listings?id=4160
An item can remain out of stock for up to 6 months before eBay will automatically end the listing. The listings will still generate an insertion fee each month, but you are probably within the free insertions range, so you can keep your listings hidden for free for up to 180 days.
When you turn on the stock control option, it will apply to ALL of your Fixed Price listings. After setting that feature in your account preferences, go into your listings and change the quantity to zero on those items you want to hide. Those listings will no longer appear in searches, but if someone has the item number, they'll be able to find the item, without the ability to purchase.
You can revise your quantities in bulk with a spreadsheet from Seller Hub Reports Uploads screen or using the bulk online editor in Seller Hub. Ask if you need help.
When you are ready to again display your listings, revise the listings to return their quantities to what they were. Then decide whether you want to turn off the stock-control feature. If you leave it on and sell an item, the listing will go "out of stock" instead of ending. If you are selling one-of-a-kind items, you probably want your listings to end. Even so, if it merely goes out of stock, you can end it yourself whenever you want, or after you are satisfied the buyer isn't going to return the item or if the buyer failed to pay.
I just want to add, from my own experimentation, it appears the out-of-stock control runs from the listing's start day-of-the-month to that date on subsequent months, over the course of six months, in sync with normal GTC (good-til-cancelled) rollovers. So, the 180 days mentioned in the help page can actually be 182 days. I started a listing at 6pm on October 1 with a zero quantity (meaning it was created out of stock) and ebay ended it at 6pm on April 1. Since it did not cross the daylight savings time threshold, I couldn't test how it adjusts to the one-hour change, but I would expect it to behave the same way eBay's GTC behaves when a rollover occurs across a time change.
Even if it reverts to 90 days (which I doubt because I have argued "seasonal listings" with staff for quite some time), the out of stock control is based on billing cycles.
So, if you create a listing on the 3rd day of the month, the cycle repeats on the third day of each month (the contract month). If it goes out of stock on the 27th, it must remain out of stock for the full number of cycles (6 months, or possibly the nominal 3 months). That would mean that the month encompassing the 3rd to the 27th (a partial) is not counted. Then there are three, or six, full months, and if you restore stock before the 3rd of the fourth (or seventh) month, the item will remain.
To elaborate, there is some fraction ahead of going out of stock, then there are the allowed contract months, and then another fraction leading up to the renewal date. eBay evaluates the listing at renewal - that date is the key. It is my understanding that the item must be out of stock for full contract months.
