eBay

evodoor · ‎03-19-2019

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!

weschurch · ‎03-20-2019

As a buyer, I don't think you are the only one. I used to buy tons of stuff on Ebay. In the last year the selection has shriveled up and it just keeps getting worse. Soon will have no use for Ebay.

They don't understand how a decade of running off sellers has effected the buyers as well. They just keep doing it though. Quite possibly one of the most Inept, incompetent bunch of leaders over a extended timeframe I've ever seen.

Every change brings in someone as bad, if not worse, than the previous ones. The site continues to decline and management continues to repeat mistakes and expedite the process. Its a shame

karryc123 · ‎03-20-2019

GTC does not work at all for me as each time it is “renewed” every 30 days and it’s not part of the 50 free listings, I get charged $.32-$.35. And what about all of the other listings that I have - I have 400 other listings that are just going to disappear in 60 days because I cannot re-list them without getting a fee charged and then they would automatically be turned into GTC costing .32 each time. So I’ll actually be losing money instead of making money.

lafano · ‎03-20-2019

This what I know. EBay does not ask their sellers anything. They pretend we have a business that we control and then BAM! another change. GTC as a mandatory. Seriously?? We have been mandated changes to feedback (we endured those) Seller fees (endured) Top Rated status changes (endured) now this. We keep accepting these blatant disregards for our own business minds and allow eBay to run rough shod over us like we are mindless. Although, we are not. So many of us have gone to other sites and sell successfully . China made and the high ticket items from dealers are popular, BUT our unique vintage or out of stock items DO SELL and people are looking for them. So, they may not find them on eBay since so many of us are being pushed out to other sites, but they look for these items and find them somewhere else. I used to be loyal to eBay. I would buy here even if it was cheaper on Amazon. But, at this point, I have no love for eBay or their tactics and buy and sell elsewhere when I can. I have been on eBay since 2003. This is another sad day for sellers.

weschurch · ‎03-20-2019

I understand the uproar about being charged listing fees on relistings and taking advantage of free listings BUT it does kind of tell the tale of what Ebay has become.

Profit margins are so thin and sales so slow all the sudden listing fees become that much more important. If thats not a sign that this place is a sinking ship I don't know what is. Why people continue this ponzi scheme I'll never know

vonandron · ‎03-20-2019

Thank you for your response @Anonymous and while your math still does not add up, that is beside the point of the primary issue. I asked that you outline how eBay sees that this will help my business and you completely ignored the question.

Your post addresses that we as sellers can go in and manually cancel a listing before it ends. This creates additional work for sellers and could hurt sales (as mentioned in several other posts) as buyers often wait until the very end of a listing to purchase. I fail to see how creating additional work, lowering sales, and forcing me to list no more than 50 items in an effort to avoid incurring additional fees helps my business.

I think what most sellers (including myself) are so upset about is the apparent total lack of regard for what sellers want - especially those of us who do not have a store. One would think that a new concept would be fully examined BEFORE forcing it onto your sellers. We feel that eBay is not listening to us as evidenced by the fact that there are multiple posts with multiple pages all voicing negative feelings about this change. Your promise that things are being "looked into" or that more information is coming in a few months does little to assuage our concerns.

I understand that your job is to field questions and you must be overwhelmed at this point so I do appreciate your response despite the fact that it did not address my question.

weschurch · ‎03-20-2019

I used to buy and sell everything strictly on Ebay. I got out of the selling here years ago and moved to greener pastures. As far as buying Ebay had an ever dwindling supply of rare OOAK stuff but that is about gone to. Ebay just serves very little purpose as either a buyer or seller these days. Its not just to me its to everyone I know. Noone in my family, or my network of friends uses Ebay anymore. In 2000-2012 they all did.

kmcangel2012 · ‎03-20-2019

If this is intended to be "good for sellers" and not about profits as you claim then why not make the "relist" FREE......???

greg5000 · ‎03-20-2019

alan@ebay

@Anonymous

There are a number of things Sellers are concerned with and Fees are at the top of the list, but the next serious concern I'm gleaning (and one I would have if Selling), is not being able to list for a set number of days.

Sellers want to be able to set their listings for a certain number of days, as they might be traveling or prefer not to be selling during part of the month. Now they'll have to manually adjust their listings. Between trying to avoid eBay Fees and adjusting GTC for their Selling requirements, they'll be spending a lot of additional unwanted time online.

sharingtheland · ‎03-20-2019

@greg5000 wrote:
alan@ebay
@Anonymous

There are a number of things Sellers are concerned with and Fees are at the top of the list, but the next serious concern I'm gleaning (and one I would have if Selling), is not being able to list for a set number of days.

Sellers want to be able to set their listings for a certain number of days, as they might be traveling or prefer not to be selling during part of the month. Now they'll have to manually adjust their listings. Between trying to avoid eBay Fees and adjusting GTC for their Selling requirements, they'll be spending a lot of additional unwanted time online.

Yes, sellers will have to manually adjust their listings if they will be out of town or prefer not to sell at certain times. But didn't a seller have to do that before this GTC change?

I have a store; I use vacation settings if I'm going to be gone. I have to do that manually. *If* I still did auction listings, I'd have to figure out when to start/end them based on my schedule. What has changed?

If the additional time that has to be spent is a deal-breaker, then it's time to move to another venue where less time would be spent online. Name that venue, please.

I plan to use 3 characters in my titles and add a date code, if necessary. We're still going to be able to sort/have a column of "ending soonest" in some way, aren't we? (I'm still backdooring on my ebay, not hub.)

As others, I remain skeptical of how this change will sort us all out in best match and I'm wondering how the ending soonest sort will work for buyers. But I don't know now how using GTC only will affect my sales and no one is forcing me to find out; I can quit selling here at any time.

As a seller, there are many things I "want" but I'm not going to get them.

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

Anonymous · ‎03-20-2019

@vonandron wrote:

Thank you for your response @Anonymous and while your math still does not add up, that is beside the point of the primary issue. I asked that you outline how eBay sees that this will help my business and you completely ignored the question.

Your post addresses that we as sellers can go in and manually cancel a listing before it ends. This creates additional work for sellers and could hurt sales (as mentioned in several other posts) as buyers often wait until the very end of a listing to purchase. I fail to see how creating additional work, lowering sales, and forcing me to list no more than 50 items in an effort to avoid incurring additional fees helps my business.

I think what most sellers (including myself) are so upset about is the apparent total lack of regard for what sellers want - especially those of us who do not have a store. One would think that a new concept would be fully examined BEFORE forcing it onto your sellers. We feel that eBay is not listening to us as evidenced by the fact that there are multiple posts with multiple pages all voicing negative feelings about this change. Your promise that things are being "looked into" or that more information is coming in a few months does little to assuage our concerns.

I understand that your job is to field questions and you must be overwhelmed at this point so I do appreciate your response despite the fact that it did not address my question.

Hi @vonandron, I encourage you to review my previous responses. I have outlined how this benefits a seller's business and have provided resources that address your mathematical concerns. This concept was fully examined before it was announced and we can only continue to state that since long term listings have a better chance for a successful sale, this will benefit our Community. I understand you disagree, and have confidence that you will see the benefit of this change in time.

When I recommended manually ending your listings it was to address the specific concern you raised regarding being forced into additional fees. You would not be forced into additional fees, as you have the power to avoid this should you choose to do so. Additionally, as we have discussed, this would potentially only be a decision you face twice a year, if you specifically listed on January 1st (January 31st and May 31st being the only examples in the first year, with no examples in the second year.) If you list during the middle of the month, this would not be a situation you would need to address within the first two years, as outlined in the link I have provided.

That being said, our recommendation would be to not end your listings, so they can develop higher visibility, more watchers and ultimately, sell successfully. If your primary concern is to avoid insertion fees, there are options available to you. If your main goal is to make sales, then this change will benefit you.

Anonymous · ‎03-20-2019

@greg5000 wrote:

alan@ebay

@Anonymous

There are a number of things Sellers are concerned with and Fees are at the top of the list, but the next serious concern I'm gleaning (and one I would have if Selling), is not being able to list for a set number of days.

Sellers want to be able to set their listings for a certain number of days, as they might be traveling or prefer not to be selling during part of the month. Now they'll have to manually adjust their listings. Between trying to avoid eBay Fees and adjusting GTC for their Selling requirements, they'll be spending a lot of additional unwanted time online.

Hi @greg5000, if a seller would like to hide their listings they can either utilize the Store Vacation Settings, or turn on the Out Of Stock feature from their account settings and set the quantity of their listing to 0 until they return. Quantity changes can be done in bulk and generally this only takes a few minutes.

bajafun · ‎03-20-2019

posting again the template I created for any future listing I may do....

PLEASE READ - On March 19, 2019, Ebay changed their policy for Sellers which is making us rethink our selling positions here. We are now ONLY allowed to list "Fixed Price" as "Good Till Cancelled". This allows Ebay to renew our auctions every thirty days, or until item is sold. Auction-style listings remain the same for now.

What this means to you, the Buyer, is that in order to control our own listings, we have to switch to "Auction Style" listings to be able to list for a certain number of days. There is every advantage to the Buyer as well......Seller can make lower price offers as listings near their ends. Now Ebay runs the Fixed Price auction for 30 days ONLY (We have no options), thus diminishing our reason for lowering prices near end of week-long (or 3 or 5 day) auctions.....THE BUYER LOSES AS WELL !!! This sucks for all of us. As now set up, if I go away for a week I will not be able to ship items sold during my absence and my valued Feedback will suffer, as items are listed GOOD TILL CANCELLED.

In switching to "Auction Style" listings, you will be paying more as we have to "cover our _____" to cover our product investment. We have to list price we will accept and "Buy it Now" has to be 30% over beginning price. You either wait until the duration of the listing nears its end, or Buy it Now if you want it.......really sucks........

Already, Ebay takes a whopping 10% of our selling price PLUS 10% of our collected Shipping Cost. This is a grand amount. Ebay has always been quite Buyer-friendly and has not been as fair to Sellers, without whom Ebay would be nothing.

Please let Ebay know you appreciate those of us Sellers who value their ability to control the timing of their listings in how to BEST serve their valued Buyers. Let us have back the control of our listings to continue awesome Customer Service I worked hard for !!

BELOW IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THIS (my first listing under these new terms) will work for you..........

This is a really pretty Ariat Womens riding jacket...It is in pristine condition, having only been worn once after being purchased when daughter was cold !!

It is a size Small and has double zipper, zipping both up and down. Very pretty floral quilted lining for nice warmth. Beautiful double stitching accents the jacket, front and back. Absolutely no damage and no issues. Please see photo for measurements....good luck !

I would like to sell this for $36.00, which is fair and reasonable - however you must now either wait until the duration of the auction and hope you get it at $36.00 or pay the unreasonable (to me) price of $46.80, the 30% Ebay makes me list as the Buy it Now feature..... you decide! THIS REALLY SUCKS

bajafun · ‎03-20-2019

this is my new template unfortunately