Does eBay inform BUYERS about the changes in fixed priced listings to "good til cancelled"?

[evodoor]

I  wonder what buyers will think of this change? Will they even be told? It is going to be a huge change in how a lot of us do business! So many of my customers wait until an item is about to end to send an offer, or purchase a fixed priced item. I anticipate my stuff sitting on watch lists indefinitely. Ebay needs to make customers aware of these chages in policy, so they can also decide how to shop!

[greg5000]

alan@ebay 

brian_burke@ebay 

brian@ebay 

griff@ebay.com 

I think the post from @mos-jax-flyou replied to, and the many others posting on this thread (and numerous threads regarding this issue), all share the same concern. 

Most have many years of experience selling on eBay and know what they're talking about.  Some are very articulate and explain how the process will not work for them.  I can also visualize how it's extremely problematic.

And maybe the Seller opened the message and didn't understand it or felt it didn't matter, because eBay was going to implement something unwanted anyway.  I would also send that message to trash.

[dugoldstuff]

> Your item will still end like it did before, it will just get relisted automatically.

Which means it will NOT end.

Buyer's will just watch it indefinitely.

[jerzee908]

Many sellers have been using Good 'Til Cancelled listings exclusively for quite some time with great success, so we encourage you to give this a try before deciding our marketplace is not the right fit for your business. We know that it can be difficult to navigate an ever changing market, and are here to support you as we adapt to the expectations of the industry.

Any numbers to back this up?  What was ebay sales for items listed with "Good Til Cancelled" in 2018 compared to "30 Day Fixed Price"?

[bkraus]

don't like the gtc program shoved at us. will not work for me. all done with e bay not getting easier just harder.

[gshel6309]

This GTC being forced on us is just another way of Ebay screwing us over and sucking insertion fees from us if we dont keep exact track and count of what were listing. This has come to the point where I don't understand why they just don't move someone into my office and tell me what I can list, how to list it, and  exactly the way I must list it. This is still america so what ever happened to CHOICE??? Now we cant even sell the way we want to, everything is now controlled by Ebay. I do not understand why all sellers can't band together just once and but a end to this **bleep**.

If we stop selling Ebay loses a fortune and then maybe they will listen to us instead of lining the executives pockets at our expense!!!!!!!!!!!

[tsme35]

Sad ebay doesn't read the boards or care what sellers think, I haven't seen anyone that likes it and thousands against it

[weschurch]

"Sad ebay doesn't read the boards or care what sellers think, I haven't seen anyone that likes it and thousands against it"

And this is the EXACT reason that Ebay is failing! Change all the silly features they want but this is the elephant in the Ebay room!

The smug suits in the high rise are to **bleep** full of themselves to understand this.

[Anonymous]

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@ferretsforever wrote:

That is so wonderful that the large corporations and businesses use GTC, however, remember back in the early 90's when eBay was for the small individual seller?  Hey, there's some of us left!  You haven't gotten rid of all of us yet!  This is another step however.  GTC does not work for me since I will adjust the price if the item does not sell in hopes to make it more appealing to a buyer.  And I will finally remove an item when it gets to the lowest price I am willing to sell it for.  Also, does this take up my free listings each month?  If I have used them all, am I now being charged listing fees I did not actually authorize?  GTC does NOT WORK for ALL sellers!!

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Hi @ferretsforever, when I referred to businesses and growth, I was talking about every seller on the site - every sale is a business transaction, and even when a seller is not pursuing eBay as a full time business, they still benefit from high visibility and increased conversion.

You are still able to adjust the price as you see fit with a Good 'Til Cancelled listing, and you can end the item at any time. The only thing that the Good 'Til Cancelled format changes for you is that the listing will automatically renew after 30 days. This ensures the same item number is used, so third party search engines are able to more easily catalog and display your items to buyers who may be interested based on keyword searches.

When Good 'Til Cancelled listings renew they are subject to any applicable fees as with any new/renewed listing. Since you can end a listing anytime you like, if you are trying to keep the number of active listings you have under the number of free insertion fee credits you receive each month you would just need to end the listings prior to the renewal date. 

[Anonymous]

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@ferretsforever wrote:

That is so wonderful that the large corporations and businesses use GTC, however, remember back in the early 90's when eBay was for the small individual seller?  Hey, there's some of us left!  You haven't gotten rid of all of us yet!  This is another step however.  GTC does not work for me since I will adjust the price if the item does not sell in hopes to make it more appealing to a buyer.  And I will finally remove an item when it gets to the lowest price I am willing to sell it for.  Also, does this take up my free listings each month?  If I have used them all, am I now being charged listing fees I did not actually authorize?  GTC does NOT WORK for ALL sellers!!

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Hi @ferretsforever, when I referred to businesses and growth, I was talking about every seller on the site - every sale is a business transaction, and even when a seller is not pursuing eBay as a full time business, they still benefit from high visibility and increased conversion.

You are still able to adjust the price as you see fit with a Good 'Til Cancelled listing, and you can end the item at any time. The only thing that the Good 'Til Cancelled format changes for you is that the listing will automatically renew after 30 days. This ensures the same item number is used, so third party search engines are able to more easily catalog and display your items to buyers who may be interested based on keyword searches.

When Good 'Til Cancelled listings renew they are subject to any applicable fees as with any new/renewed listing. Since you can end a listing anytime you like, if you are trying to keep the number of active listings you have under the number of free insertion fee credits you receive each month you would just need to end the listings prior to the renewal date. 

[Anonymous]

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@thevintagesilvershop wrote:

@Anonymous 

Could you explain some of your answer?  I have been a GTC seller forever and am a 23 year Ebay seller. 

When I search my items via Google, my Ebay items never come up, just my Etsy items.  Also, GTC for OOAK sellers like me penalizes me in Best Match and I slowly but surely drop to the bottom of search for my long tail items (antiques and collectibles).  I have not seen increased visibility with GTC, just worse visibility.  I think the search algorithm is geared towards sell through which is best achieve with MQ new items or sellers selling exclusively at auction.  GTC OOAK sellers suffer in search.

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Hi @thevintagesilvershop, our search algorithm is more complex than what you may have assumed; while views and sales history can improve Best Match placement, there are a variety of other factors that also impact where your items will appear. Additionally, as we shift to GTC being the only format for fixed price listings, our Best Match algorithm is not going to penalize listings because they are in this format. I've spoken with many sellers recently who are seeing sales from listings that are older than 18 months and I can assure you, the Good 'Til Cancelled format will provide the best visibility for our sellers. Long term durations allow for maximum visibility in third party search engines and many buyers begin with third party search when looking for their desired purchase.

When looking at your listings, I can tell you have put a lot of time into the photos themselves and while this is clear, third party search engines do tend to prefer solid colored backgrounds. Specifically, white backgrounds tend to receive the best visibility, followed by black and other neutral tones. When I did some test searches with your items with third party search engines, I found that in instances where your products did not appear the background in the order products was white/neutral in color. I only tested out a few, so I'm sure there are exceptions, but this is a general rule of thumb. I also wanted to call attention to your store link in your description, as it does appear to be outdated and does not direct to your store. You can revise this in bulk to replace the current link you have present with an updated link. 

All in all, I do want to say that your listings really show a great level of investment and these suggestions are just designed to help push your business forward to the next step. When testing out some searches, I found many of your items appearing very close to the top of Best Match placement. I hope some of these suggestions prove helpful and encourage you to contact Customer Service if you have any other questions or concerns on maximizing your visibility.

[reallynicestamps]

@Anonymous 

The only thing that the Good 'Til Cancelled format changes for you is that the listing will automatically renew after 30 days.

I'm fine with GTC. Been using it for years and it works well for me.

I have Stores on all my accounts, except one I recently re-opened, and that's only because it will be restricted to 10 listings for some indefinite period.

I think what concerns sellers is not so much the GTC as the fees.

Since GTC re-lists every 30 days, and  only four months of the year actually have 30 days, there has been concern * that sellers will be double charged some months.

This problem could be solved by making all "monthly" fees  into "30 day"fees.

If we open a GTC listing on January 1 it relists on January 31 and again on March 2 and again on April 2 and then on May 2.  But the seller is charged fees in January, February, March, April and May. Five times.

With 30 day billing, the seller is charged fees four  times, not five.

* read "wailing and gnashing of teeth".

[readabouthorses]

@Anonymous  I keep seeing references to using a white background. Has anyone been successful figuring out how to display a WHITE magazine on a WHITE background? It just doesn't work. That is why I chose to go to black for most of my magazines, especially when showing opened pages where much of the content may be white. Do the search engines not really care how good the image is? What about a white shirt on a white background? Or a white pair of shoes on a white background? Just doesn't make sense and I've been in the advertising business since the 1960s.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

If I recall correctly, what Google said is that white background is preferred, I think a neutral color or black WHEN APPROPRIATE are also OK. So, white for the majority of things, black for primarily white items, etc. An uncluttered background is important, so sellers who provide "artsy" or just plain cluttered backgrounds might be hindered.
Also, and maybe trinton@ebay can jump in here, I think this applies to your Gallery photo. If you are using all 12 photos , artsy backgrounds etc are OK (I think) as long as they aren't the Gallery photo.

[camtnranch]

Well said Adventurer and I  totally agree.  I do not like it either, for several reasons.

We are retired and sometimes go on motor home jaunts for a month or more at a time.  I plan my listings so they expire before we leave.  Now I guess, if I do list them GTC then I'll be doing a lot of cancelling. 

I'm sure ebay will make more money, as we won't be able to take advantage of free listing offers, such as final value fees, free insertions ect.  Is that their motivation? I always looked forward to those offers, didn't you? It seem to inspire me to list.  I would wait to do my listings until those offers could be used, but now I won't have control of that.

I'm sure we can't fight city hall, as the old saying went. Since I'm old, here's another old saying "rich get rich and poor get poorer".

Don't like change, especially when it cuts into the old pocketbook.

[evry1nositswindy]

@Anonymous 

I fail to see how you don't see this as a fee grab.  Here is an example:  I got up early this morning to get busy using the rest of my 101 'free' fixed price listings from my basic store before I leave for vacation next week.   Of course as I list my first item, I see the GTC message.  I then go to my active listings and count how many will 'end' and then relist while I am gone.  That number was more than my free listings, so eBay would have gotten 30 cents for each one.  So today, instead of listing new items for sale, I was ending listings so I wouldn't go over while I was gone.  How does that help eBay?  How does that help me? 

I, for one, would love to be able to use my 500 listings as I please rather than 250 auctions/250 fixed price (now GTC).  For example, right now if I want to auction a book that is collectible, I can't unless I pay a fee because it isn't on my list of free auctions.  This would also help when my items relist after the month is over.  Then I could add more items to sell without going over my allotted amount.  Other sellers have also suggested this as well.  It seems like a good compromise to me.