eBay

gotoguys2000 · ‎04-18-2019

If you posted any fixed price items on the first day of the new GTC you started having your GTC postings automatically relisted effect yesterday (4-17-19) if not cancelled. You may start incurring additional (unexpected) fees if you're not careful. GTC represents a serious juggling acts for many sellers. You need to first to look at how many "free postings" you have left then estimate how many items you may sell for the rest of the month, then look at how many GTC items that will be relisting automatically during the rest of the month and how many of those you may like to end, then determine how many new items you'd like to post during the rest of the month and don't forget those items you have in your inventory that are approaching 90 days and will be lost if not relisted. Seems simple enough right? If what I've been reading on this Chat Room is accurate, Ebay should see a noticeable cost reduction in the invoices sent out for April as small/mid size sellers post/sell less or even leave Ebay. In May invoices sellers will see the full impact of GTC items automatically relisting and perhaps exceeding their free listings resulting in additional fees/charges.

a1985vmx4km2 · ‎04-22-2019

GTC?

I'm a small seller who never goes over the 50 free listings. Average sales each month over the last 2 years? 10-15 sales a month. I'm good with that as I work full time and don't want to spend all my time on Ebay listing items.

This month? 2 sales. What has changed? Only forced "good till canceled"

jayjaspersgarage · ‎04-22-2019

I will take a look at what you sell in a moment. It looks like you sell mostly toys that would appeal to a younger collector. People's tastes can change. We just got through tax season. My sales picked up this last week and this weekend after stalling from 4/1 to 4/15. After 8+ years on ebay I know when people take spring break and have to scramble to pay their taxes. That's both income and property taxes. I would say it takes creativity and adaptability to survive in any sales "job". I used to sell anything I could buy at estate sales or garage sales. Over time I mellowed into a "sell what I like" approach. Rules change in life all the time. We need to positively adapt or maybe make a change. I have looked into selling on other sites, but they all have limitations.

piglet101255 · ‎04-22-2019

Yes it is a juggling act. Because I'm having to cancel the items early or be re-listed I'm losing the last min. sales. plus not listing as many items. I am down in sales 43% as of today because of this new policy. Maybe eBay will see that this policy is a mistake when they see sellers sales are down which means eBay is also losing? Please eBay bring back the 30's.

Thanks

ursulabraham_0 · ‎04-23-2019

Thanks for addressing this issue. Ridiculous change affecting the small seller who depends on the free listings. I think I will have to leave ebay. Too much juggling for the little returns.

Bulani

1salt · ‎04-23-2019

GTC - FORCED Relisting leading to forced payments without you being aware of it until after the fact. DRACONIAN, devious, underhanded, and I believe UNPROFESSIONAL! This is not how I treat my customers!

The 30 days period has been how I rotate my inventory. This tool has been taken away - and I am being charged for the loss. i CALLED AND WAS TOLD THAT "My Complaint has been logged but the new policy is . . . ."

NOT HAPPY!

mycinderbug · ‎04-24-2019

I agree. It is such a pain for me, that I am trying to transition to auction only & reduce my buy it now listings. My husband & I are just too old to do garage sales or the flea market. The little profit that I make is spending money for me. It is just too much work. I don't like not having control. In my opinion, this is what eBay banked on. CONFUSION, resulting in more listings & more listing fees. I really don't think that they value their small sellers.

mycinderbug · ‎04-24-2019

I agree. I also by on eBay as well as sell. It is not fun anymore.

mycinderbug · ‎04-24-2019

You are right. I have had items relist that I intended to drop the price on, but they relisted before I could. It's a pain having to go back in & edit. I have also pulled listings the day before they end to avoid the GTC, so I didn't get my 30 days & may have lost a sale.

mycinderbug · ‎04-24-2019

You are correct. I have items on my watch page that I don't feel rushed to buy. I figure that they will be there next month. No need to buy right away.

anthology-of-treasures · ‎04-24-2019

Its not a big deal in terms of managing GTC listings from my perspective.

I already sorted my listing within GarageSale:

Image Folder [7] (Corresponds to a folder on a backup hard drive in case I ever need to access the original images. GS stores copies of images within a database so in most cases one will never have to access the images again for use with GS. I recycle listing images to produce other income so I need to reference the originals).
- eBay Account 1 [AOT]
  - By Listing Type
    - Auction 7 Day
    - Auction 10 Day
    - Fixed 1 (GTC)
    - Fixed 2 (GTC)
    - Fixed 3 (GTC)
    - Sold
    - --- (Withdrawn for Sale Elsewhere or for Personal Use / Bundled)
- eBay Account 2
  - By Listing Type ""
- eBay Account 3
  - By Listing Type""

I can easily switch listing between folders; convert auctions to fixed priced and vice versa. GS's search function can find any listing in any account.

Fixed 1, 2, 3; for example, are GTC listings which are cancelled at 28 days. Each of these have a different ending date. I could add the date to the folder name, but instead the dates are written on a PostIt note. This saves having to constantly change the folder names and allows the folders to be recycled for new groups of GTC listing. When its time to cancel GTC listings I select their parent folder and instruct GS to cancel the entire folder in one shot while I do other things.

The basic idea is to create a assembly line for creating listings and managing inventory.

mystoreb55 · ‎04-25-2019

I have been a user of "open inkfrog" since its release (Not the same as inkfrog) it is a new version of their service. They have answered the GTC issue adding an option called watchdog, you can set it up to end your listing at whatever time left you would prefer. I have mine end at 15 days until relist date and it puts them into a folder called "unsold" you can then select all and relist changing pricing beforehand.

Hope this helps, its a good service except it has slow times during peak hours.

3eyedfishcatcher · ‎04-25-2019

Last night I noticed something that may be the real reason for the drop in sales. In the past when buyers did a search when sorted by best match the top results would be promoted listings then guarantied shipping then the most recently listed items in the order they were listed in the last 30 days fallowed by GTC in the order they were listed. When buyers sorted by newly listed this would show all listings sorted by the date they were listed.

Now when you select newly listed it does the same as best matched. They are pushing the promoted listings with this sort. For several categories I sell in the newest item were between 4 and days old. I also checked back every few hours and the same items come up over and over. So not only can buyers see what is truly a new listing the selection is the same stuff they were not interested in over and over again. So it looks like not only can buyers not find items they want they are being pushed items they already chose not to buy every time the search. The same categories show major drops in sale from last year yet the last few year the market had been steady so it is not seasonal and probably not the pricing of items but ebay pushing promoted listings over and over again.

The worst thing is why they want to call it one thing the reality is it is lead generation. Lead generation only works when the leads come from a out side source. Doing this internally does not generate revenue but causes revenue lose. If you look at the bottom of the listing template in the past they just wanted a percentage of your sales. Now they also want a add fee like a insertion fee. This is a indicator that their revenue from promoting listings is so bad they have to charge a fee up front to make up for the lack in sale from both promoted listings and from the lack of revenue from non promoted listings as those items have become unlocatable even when the listings are brand new.

faithandbutterflies · ‎04-25-2019

I'm a small time seller but been on here many years. I am a stay at home mom and we homeschool. Over the years I've used my income from eBay as a way to help buy curriculum and little extras like going to the movies and even once going to Six Flags. At one point my kids helped out and made a game of looking at the shipping label and finding the city/state we sold to on a map. They would get so excited when an item sold and was going to a city they haven't marked down. eBay has helped us make fun memories. But, now honestly I have nightmares. I had a nightmare this morning I woke up to find my items had relisted and I was being charged hundreds of dollars. I'm thankful that was a dream but I fear I will get some charges. I have reminders set on my phone to cancel some items 2 days ahead of their scheduled end date. I just can't take chances. I've always said once eBay isn't fun anymore I will quit. I just really hate to quit because we need the extra income. We are almost finished homeschooling our kids and due to my health I can't work outside the home.