Community Poll 2 : is GTC Good or Bad for your Business? After a month what are your thoughts?

[gotoguys2000]

Just a simple poll for the Community.

Do you think the GTC format is beneficial for your current eBay needs?

IF eBay gave you a choice???? 

Would you have said Yes or No to a GTC format?  This is a simple yes or  no question.

This was a very interesting poll posted about two weeks ago.  My sales are down approximately 40% from last month and I feel the GTC policy is the primary reason.     In my opinion It creates a lot more work/time to manage and takes a way the "sense of urgency" from potential buyers.  I feel is it horrible for small/mid size sellers and will result in additional fees if sellers are not  very careful. 

Now that it's approaching a month since it was made the only fixed price option to sellers, what is your opinion?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I would have said NO.
I think GTC will drive out sellers of cheap products, such as postage stamps, and eBay will lose significant revenue.

[elmo35]

NO! NEVER!

[guangxi_hone]

Good till cancelled (GTC) helps me with auctions I sell constantly. Auctions with “0” items for sale stays active but is not displayed in search. Make sense as there is "0" items in stock So one has to edit auction and add number of items for sale.
Ideally, could add large number of items for sale to have the auction displaying in searches very long but there is limit on my account in total value I can list.
No alerts are sent to notify that all items are sold. Could be nice to have such a feature...
I have to compare every so often number of auctions in search with active in my ebay.

Another drawback is that Ebay does not display in the list of active auctions number of items for sale. One has to open every auction to see or compare both lists: search results with active ones.

[jgoebert2012]

Sales are steady.  But, I have to end EVERYTHING EARLY.  And Its a pain.

[vivabe]

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@jgoebert2012 wrote:

Sales are steady.  But, I have to end EVERYTHING EARLY.  And Its a pain.

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Yes it is a major pain. Just ended several GTC and I will end more tomorrow. I need to change my listing routine. I have 250 auctions and 250 fixed price to list each month. I now need to list the GTCs in larger batch, maybe 75 once a week to alleviate the burden of ending too frequently. 

I used to launch auctions and 30-day fixed prices almost every days and I did not systematically relist ended listings. 

As a small seller, I cannot afford to pay for a larger store. I am also concerned about the fact that I might not be available to end a large number of GTC's before they relist which would end up using my store monthly allotted listings or generate extra fees on my monthly bill.

So, adjusting the best I can, as I have done for 19 years, but I hope the duration options will be reinstated in the future. I may sound naïve but.... you never know!

[bgrignon]

BIG NO! We have so few choices about our sales and they keep getting fewer.

[beautifulbeauty2012]

The "medium size" sellers suffer the most from this policy. If one sells under 50 items monthly, then they should have nothing to worry about - it is all free to list.

But for sellers such as myself (I have on average 500 items listed monthly) it is where the catch is - if I miss the ending time and don`t cancel, then a coat or some other seasonal item will be relisted forcefully for a fee for summer months. 

That is the biggest pain - restricted access to what I want to list and when - I don`t want white linen pants be offered in December, as it is 99% no sales.

eBay is either forcing medium size sellers to open Anchor store (I personally don`t have so many items), or hope that those who are not watching the ending time, will be contributing to the eBay`s bottom line.

So for now, I have decided to utilize 50 free listings (90% cut) and list only when a free listing promo in effect.  Basically, cutting about $100 in listing fees per month/$1200 per year, which I paid on listing fees before this new policy.

I really hope they will put the old structure back. I don`t see how it is profitable in a long run - maybe now when sellers missed the deadline to cancel, but doubt it will be a money maker for eBay. 

[marybell214]

No should be a Choice For me sales are been Down

[berry_island]

Put me down as a NO...

I deal with classic car parts, been with ebay 16 years. I think removing Fixed Price is a profoundly stupid idea. I ship parts all over the world (one of ebay's rare better ideas is Global Shipping)  and it sometimes takes a while for a buyer to search for and find my parts. Or their needs may change if they have another project. Or they may be a shop that got in a new restoration job. Ebay is taking away my ability to manage my listings as I see fit.

I personally think ebay should run free insertion fees all the time. They are making enough money off the back end of the sale. And with what I pay in fees I am not getting a good return on my investment.

This is the last hoop I am jumping through.

[mfish27301]

I am in total agreement that the GTC is very harmful to most store owners. It cost me $81.00 last month. I have canceled over 500 listings to avoid these unwanted fees. Most of these listings were originally free.

[mfish27301]

I agree with your comments. I am trying to adjust to this. I do think that regardless of what I do that it will affect my volume of sales.

[mfish27301]

One of most disturbing things to me was when I realized that I had used up my free listings. In the past I had used this to relist items that did not sale.

[mountaineertradingpost]

BAD for business. I tried to end 98 listings that were going to automatically renew and the bulk listing / editing tool failed to work. I can bulk list 200 items at a time but I have to end the listings one at a time. Customer support informed me that Firefox and Safari, the browsers that I use on my 2 laptops have problems and that I need to use Google Chrome. Customer support further stated that my computer may have a virus that is causing the problem. Who would benefit from the creation of a virus that would PREVENT sellers from ending listings in bulk but ALLOW them to list items in bulk? Under this new Good Till Cancelled format the answer is eBay. I didn't have any problems with the use of Firefox or Safari prior to the change in the fixed price format. It looks suspicious that eBay has given out free listings in 100, 200 and 500 increments during the last 30 days or so and when it comes time to end the listings it will be one at a time. It has been years since eBay gave me 500 free listings during the months of April or May. CEO Devin Wenig needs to focus on ways to be competitive with Amazon that don't include schemes to screw over the sellers.

[kosterfardos]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

[sunny_ell]

And now, over a month later... I tried another venue - reminds me of an old ranch on TV - I got views, the exact same number every other day. 3. And only on one item, the first listed in my "booth". Something fishy over there. Not one sale. So I put that stuff back here, on GTC (since it's STILL the only choice). I do have a few sales (but not the things I moved and brought back). My mother's brain advice (referencing my other post on this thread) told me to stick it out here. While I still don't like being forced and will end and relist my GTC items, it does seem better than elsewhere for the type of things I sell. Live and learn, I guess.