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!

[camtnranch]

So true, that was my point exactly.

[camtnranch]

So true. Almost every month ebay lets me know how much I saved by using the free insertion offer, usually $40+. It's not that I don't appreciate ebay's presence and my ability to be a seller here, but I'm just disappointed they are hurting the little mom & pop sellers. Too bad.

[raystrainsbooks]

That is still extra work now, and if I miss a day, I will go over my free listing for the month.  I do NOT want to pay a listing fee for something that hasn't sold for months and have to go manually to close listings.  Having them end in 30 days gives me the time I need to see what I want to list new, what I want to relist, what changes I want to make to a listing to make it more appealing and what I want to just not list at all.  That's all I need is to have a bunch of $5 listings renew when I have something new to list for $50 but don't have any listings left for the month.  It's impossible for eBay to know every business, and they should not be assuming that they can dictate changes that are good for me. 

Has eBay considered the loss of income from ending an item early?  Not all sellers buy right away and wait to the last minute to finally make a purchase.

This isn't a good change and please look at the number of sellers who agree with me.  I have an idea, how about no listing fees?  Then people won't be as upset about eBay trying to run their businesses for them.

[evodoor]

I tried GTC listings for a short time, with absolutely zero sales. Even 30 days does not work for me. I have regularly used five, seven, ten day duration, and most of my items sell within one or two listing durations. I imagine that's because my items come up in "ending soonest" searches. I have compared my practice to others who sell similar items(vintage jewelry), and use GTC. My stuff far outsells theirs, or at least it did, until this new policy was forced on me. I am still waiting for eBay to show me some proof that this will be good for small sellers who sell one of a kind items. I can switch to auctions, but historically, I have gotten more money for my fixed priced items. If eBay wants to do something useful, they could stop charging sellers to add a "buy it now" price to their auctions. That would at least be a compromise.

[namele365]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Yep 'long term durations'...  There's the rub!

longer durations means more fees, not necessarily more sales. 

eBay wants 'listers' not sellers...

[kensgiftshop]

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@dugoldstuff wrote:

> 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.

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A buyer will see what they've always seen.

The listing will still have an end date and time, just like they always have.

The only difference, once it ends without being sold, it will relist.

Buyer still has a chance to buy it before it ends just like before.

[dumbblondeinsc]

I called Ebay today too... I'm really upset about this change.  More work for sellers who don't want their listing(s) renewed automatically. I think this was a really bad decision on Ebay's part. 

[kensgiftshop]

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@jerzee908 wrote:

Many sellers have been using Good 'Til Cancelled listings exclusively for quite some time with great success,

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I've been using it for awhile now and I wouldn't go back to 30 day listings.

If you do any off Ebay promoting, it's nice to not have to change your links every time you relist an item.

[brian@ebay]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

@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".

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Hi @reallynicestamps, we posted another update just now about the concern with fees and GTC listings. You can view that update here. Thanks!

[kensgiftshop]

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@tsme35 wrote:
Sad ebay doesn't read the boards or care what sellers think, I haven't seen anyone that likes it and thousands against it

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I like GTC and been using it for years.

I've been reading a lot of the post and everyone complains they don't have control of their listings and don't want to pay more in listing fees.

You still have control, just have to do it a little different.

As far as the fee's, you have control on when you want to end the listings.

[tellmemama]

A buyer will see what they've always seen.

The listing will still have an end date and time, just like they always have.

The only difference, once it ends without being sold, it will relist.

Buyer still has a chance to buy it before it ends just like before.

And there's the rub.  Yes, it will relist but will no longer show in the newly listed  search because it is a "perpetual" listing.  I can't speak for anyone but myself but when I search, I only look at ending soonest" and newly listed.  So I'm losing basically both of my criteria after a listing goes through the first 30 day cycle.

GTC does have its advantages for sellers with multi quantity items.  For the one of a kind vintage collectible, it is the worst.  I've been here for over 20 years.  I think I know how my buyers buy.  When I list for 30 days, I get a flurry of sales within 24 hours of listing, a few during the duration, and another smaller flurry when they are about to end.  Those remaining unsold get tweaked or repriced. 

So with this new dictate, I'm prepared to lose the sales at the end in order to maintain the sales at the beginning.  I firmly believe anything listed in perpetuity is only going to gather dust until hopefully that one buyer who may still be searching using best match  finally sees it.  As far as I'm concerned, manually canceling and relisting is my little insurance policy to keep my items from being buried.

With Cassini you never know if/when the buyer will see your item as it is. 

[tsme35]

You'd be about the 3rd person I've seen that likes it out of thousands, if it works for you fine. It was a option for you to use or not, now its forced on the rest of us that don't want it. If you read the threads you'll see there dozen's and dozen's of reason why sellers don't want it and really only 2 reasons for it.

[alexandrias.neo]

I don't like the change, had no say in it being made (should have been put to a vote NOT just imposed on sellers against what works best for them), and it totally screws up the strategy I've been using that works. We should have a say it major changes like this, had no say, and just had this imposed whether we like it or not whether it will work for us or not ... my strategy worked. With good til cancelled the listings are seen AFTER new listings ... and I doubt many people spend their whole evening going to the end of a category looking for what they want which is where I am told is where "good til cancelled" goes and WHY I NEVER USE IT. Now I'm being forced to. We are entitled to choice not force.

[alexandrias.neo]

I don't like it either. I have my own strategy that works. This is throwing a sinker in it! Am not a happy camper over imposing this against a seller's will. We have a right to choice. We had that before with fixed price (could choose how long to run it). Choice has been removed when choice is critical.

[alexandrias.neo]

what bothers the sellers is "choice" is removed. GTC is forced even if that doesn't work for you. It takes away a seller developing, refining, and improving their own personally customized individual strategy customizing it to work best for them.  Not everyone has the same strategy so you can't impose no freedom of choice. Take away freedom of choice and what does that snowball into. Communism ... dictatorship ...  (no choice ... boring and no good).