eBay

dirk12955 · ‎04-07-2019

I'm an 18+ year seller on ebay with more than one account. I've been dead set against GTC listings and have been fairly vocal about it under a different ID. I sell vintage postage stamps. I'm not the biggest seller on ebay offering these items and by far I'm not the smallest.

For years I've run my listings as 10 day Buy it now. I have 2 premium stores and my inventory is a good fit. Things have been increasing at a fair pace. Both sales and profits. I have few problems on ebay and I don't suffer from many of the problems like SNAD and buyers remorse.

The way I ran my 2 stores was everyday I had 25-35 listings ending that could be relisted. SO my 10 day listings were a constant flow of listings both ending and starting. I did this because I'm a firm believer that a large % of shoppers search newly listed and ending soon. The only proof I can offer of this is 18 years on ebay has given me some experience.

Now, All my listings have been GTC for a few weeks. As I predicted I have items that have been GTC and have drawn few views, No watchers, No sales in 15 days or more.

Last night I'm looking over my listings on this account and find that some of my more expensive items (Stamp sheets), Normally are pretty good selling items, after 15-20 days these sheets are drawing dust and being ignored.

So I end them. Why not? No harm no foul and EBAY does not care if we do this. Right? I relist these sheets last night and this AM when I log in I sold 6 sheets for $150.00 ! While not very scientific, it might be significant.

The other side of the coin. Since March 18th my sales have not suffered and have actually improved.

I'm baffled, completely baffled. I'm baffled why the results of this goofy move by ebay is producing such mixed results.

tamaralea · ‎04-07-2019

You want goofy?!! I changed all my GTC handling times to 5 days and sold more in the 6 days I was gone than I normally sell in a month. Then I get the 100 freebies and change them all to auctions, with the fixed price being the starting price. Someone just bought an item, paying the 30% higher BIN price.

dirk12955 · ‎04-07-2019

My wife and I were gone for 5 days recently. I put both stores on vacation with 5 day handling and had around 25 sales while we were gone.

I honestly think most buyers pay no attention to the details. 1 day-2 day-5 day handling and free returns, no returns, 30-60 day returns. 5 day handling didn't hurt me any for that short period.

pvcliff · ‎04-07-2019

We drove from LA to Yellowstone and back last June. Put my items at 21 days handling and still made sales on both of my accounts while we were gone. When I had the chance I thanked buyers for their purchases, told them we were on vacation, and gave them a ship date. Only issue was after tracking on an $8 item said "no access" several times, it was returned to me. Buyer never responded to my message. We were gone four days last week and my secondary account went crazy with three sales while we were gone and two more yesterday.

______________________________________________

They didn’t say it was your fault. They said they blame you.

coolections · ‎04-07-2019

@dirk12955 wrote:
The way I ran my 2 stores was everyday I had 25-35 listings ending that could be relisted. SO my 10 day listings were a constant flow of listings both ending and starting.

You can still do that. Space them out and they will roll over on day 30 so it will still result in a constant flow of listings both ending and starting.

dirk12955 · ‎04-07-2019

Thank you coolections, I had figured that and have actually done some of it. I had read that watchers carry over when the GTC automatically relist. So far I've only ended and restarted listings with no activity and especially no watchers.

I suppose eventually we'll figure out all the ways to make the best of the GTC formula.

tamaralea · ‎04-07-2019

When I ended and relisted as auctions, about half of my watchers found me again. That is fine with me because most watchers are not serious buyers.

femmefan1946 · ‎04-07-2019

I've used GTC as my norm for years and like it.

But it is worth noting that while GTC listings still get the About to Close bump in both that Search and in Best Match, they do not * get the Newly Listed bump.

I agree that Watchers are not buyers.

I monitor my listings daily and close any with over 100 views without a sale. Most of my listings are One of a Kind, not multiples.

Spreading listings throughout the month is a Best Practice.

*and perhaps never did.

luckythewinner · ‎04-07-2019

@dirk12955 wrote:
So I end them. Why not? No harm no foul and EBAY does not care if we do this. Right? I relist these sheets last night and this AM when I log in I sold 6 sheets for $150.00 ! While not very scientific, it might be significant.

I have always found that collectibles sell best on the first couple days of the listing.

I have always attributed that to people like me whose primary apprach is to search "Newly Listed" every day.

If I don't see it in those first couple days, I am unlikely to see it unless I am looking specifically for that item or I am searching"Ending Soonest".

laurabeardsley · ‎04-07-2019

Correct me if I am wrong but unless you have a store that gives you a lot of free listings to end the items and start again you would have to pay .35 each. So if you did this every 10 days it would start to add up unless like I said you get so many free listings that you do not use them all anyway. I only get 50 each month so it would add up quickly for me.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-07-2019

You're not wrong but the same would be true whether or not those listings were originally listed as gtc or for 10 days.

dirk12955 · ‎04-07-2019

I only have 340-360 listings on each account to fit in with the 10 day duration. I'll have to make a large quanity of new listings before I use all my 1,000 free monthly listings and have to pay.

laurabeardsley · ‎04-07-2019

So this method works for you but with only my 50 free listings it would not work for me and right now with Ebay doing so poorly I will not open a store and lose even more money. It is a wait and see game for me right now.