Experienced Seller's Opinion On Good Till Cancelled BIN's

[dffonline]

I've been in retail 35 years. I have been interviewed about retailing numerous times by local television & radio throughout the years and I was the yearly keynote speaker for the Fashion Merchandising classes at one of our local colleges. I was chosen because of my success in the area.

The number one question I always got & still do till this day is, "what do you do with merchandise that doesn't sell?" Any experienced seller knows the answer but this leads me to my point on why Good Till Cancelled is a horrible idea. 

Ebay puts listings that didn't sell into my "Unsold Listings" section. Having an "unsold listing" section on my seller dashboard forces my eyeballs on each listing that didn't sell in 30 days. This is a GOOD Thing!

It makes me scrutinize the listing and ask myself,  "Are there enough keywords in the title? Is there an error in the title or details section? Do the photos need to be re-done? Is the price too high? Should I make it an auction............." Whatever the case, I change that listing in some way to give it a better chance for a sale. This formula works! I did it in my brick & mortar store & I do it here on Ebay.

Now, Ebay decides to take a listing that didn't sell in 30 days & re-list it for me without giving me the option to make changes to improve the chances of a sale. It's as if those that make our rules have never retailed a day in their life. 

[dirk12955]

I couldn't agree more. Each seller has his or her own way of running their business. This GTC mess being forced on us is a perfectly good example of Big Brother (EBAY) Micro managing us and interfering in areas where they have no business.

I've been buying and selling for 51 years, Like the OP I have some idea of how to run MY business.

On this subject. I'm a small seller running Premium level EBAY store(s) 1,000 free listings per month I run my listings for 10 days. I do this because in my experience when I have a constant flow of listings starting and ending daily it improves my views, My watchers, and my sales.

I can leave listings to sit dormant until the mood strikes me to start them up again. I can rotate stock buy running half my listings for 10 days and running the other half for 10 days. Some things that are hot in December are not hot in July.

Doing things this way, I have plenty of opportunity to look at each listing every so often and make the decisions needed to make sales. Do I lower the price? Do I raise the price because sales are booming? Why is this not selling? What's the problem?

Ebay wants to take away my ability and comfort in the way I do things. The decisions ebay has been making have no basis in reality. These decisions are being made by ebay employees who have never run a store of their own.

I want to control my business. I hate the idea of having so much control taken away from me.

My sales for January 2018 were up 73% from January 2017
My sales for February 2018 were up 57% from January 2017

I know what I'm doing and I know what I'm talking about. What do you suppose my sales will look like when my potential buyers don'y see my listings day 3 thru day 29 ?

[dirk12955]

I misspoke. Or mis typed.

My sales for January 2019 were up 73% over January 2018 (My 3rd best month ever)
My sales for February 2019 were up 57% over February 2018 ( My BEST month ever)

Contrary to what the EBAY decision makers believe, Some of the sellers on this site
know what they are doing.

[crescentstation]

I am just starting my 33rd year in business and have been on EBay for over 18 years. I sell model railroad supplies, notably miniature vehicles. Like previous posters stated, I too make changes to my Buy It Now listings when they fail to attract interest the first time around. It is incredible how in one week there may be no interest in a product, yet a couple weeks it sells out. I really don't want listings out there GTC and monitoring them to cancel will just be another way for EBay to use up my precious time. The trend at EBay over the past few years has been (a) policies that take away Seller discounts and (b) procedural changes that suck up Seller time. I think my goal in 2019 is to list less and spare myself some of the aggravation.

[dgn5009]

100% agree. I've been selling on EBay since 1999. I don't like, and don't use, GTC listings for the reasons you stated. Probably 95% of my listings are fixed price. I have 100% positive feedback, nearly 2200 items. The "Unsold" list allows me to look at my items, make changes, and decide whether they've run their course. I can do this at my convenience. Now, I'll have to look daily and cancel listings. This is added to the attempt to force us into guaranteeing delivery - I gave up top rated plus because I can't control the post office. It's added to the change to 12% for books - about a third of my inventory. It's added to the "I changed my mind" returns. all of these in the last year.

So I'm slowly listing on other services (Etsy, Mercari, Facebook Local). My plan is to ride out the remainder of the year subscription and drop to my free 50 (while that lasts, anyway). EBay is the Time Warner Cable of online sale sites.

[obojoekn]

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@dffonline wrote:

Ebay puts listings that didn't sell into my "Unsold Listings" section. Having an "unsold listing" section on my seller dashboard forces my eyeballs on each listing that didn't sell in 30 days. This is a GOOD Thing!

It makes me scrutinize the listing and ask myself,  "Are there enough keywords in the title? Is there an error in the title or details section? Do the photos need to be re-done? Is the price too high? Should I make it an auction............." Whatever the case, I change that listing in some way to give it a better chance for a sale. This formula works! I did it in my brick & mortar store & I do it here on Ebay.

I do not yet use an eBay store, so my seller hub options and screens may be different than those that do have one. In my Seller Hub, all I have to do is go to my Active Listings page and click on the "Time Left" words at the top of the column in the chart. This arranges the listings so that the ones ending today are at the top and tomorrows are next, etc...  You can then edit, end, or do whatever you want to listings that are ending today, tomorrow, or whatever lead time you want to use. You can also end the listing at any time. If you end the listing, it ends up on the unsold page just like it sounds like you are used to having now. Might be a couple of more clicks than you are used to, but it is very easy. You can re-list unsold listings after editing, just like you currently do. I think there are search result benefits as well as some others, if you do not end then re-list the item, but just adjust what is necessary while it is live. 

Now, Ebay decides to take a listing that didn't sell in 30 days & re-list it for me without giving me the option to make changes to improve the chances of a sale. It's as if those that make our rules have never retailed a day in their life. 

You can edit fixed price listings 24/7, whether the listing is live or in your unsold list. 

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[mr.amherst]

I totally agree. I called Ebay last week and discussed this exact same issue with them. We change things as well.. We do not do 30 day listings. The Ebay Rep seemed to actually appreciate my point of view and encouraged me to ask other sellers who feel this way to call Ebay. They are keeping a written list of sellers concerns/complaints regarding this. Please call Ebay and share our concerns Sellers!

[mightymouse]

  I have been using the Good Till Cancelled listing for as long as it was available. For what I sell it saves me the time to relist items and keeps items in peoples watch list. I regularly sell items that have been listed for up to 2 years or more because you just are not going to get someone to buy all your listing within the 30 time range.  They do have a note after 16 months if no interest in an item which helps. Most of my items sell within a 3 year period so the auto relist is helpful for me. Some months I can list up to 200 items and other months none at all.

    I also started on Ebay back in 1997 and have been in retail starting in 1970 so I do have some knowledge of where they are going, plus the fact that I have been selling the same things since the early 80's and the market for retail has changed a lot and will change as will the buyers. I sell on line, at a brick and mortar mall and at trade shows. All sales  are different and all have a set price till the item sells or is marked down.

    I don't like all the changes but this one works for me.

[davewearsredsox]

Calling Ebay, listing on seller forums, and taking surveys does nothing. You were lucky enough to talk to someone who was good at telling you what you wanted to hear. FACE FACTS- Nothing will change as the complaints are visible to all of us. They simply have a nerd in a 3 piece suite with a tie on that is cutting off circulation making the decision for all of us. The decisions are made for what is most profitable for ebay with little / no concern of your experience. 

Sorry but I say this as fact as this has been the standard for more than 5 years now. If you do not like it, so be it... The change will offset the 3-4% sellers who will choose to leave or be forced to leave. Again Fact.....

[mstcwrld7]

I am more in agreement with mighty mouse.
One thing nobody here has mentioned -- you can check your listings periodically, when you have time, to see if they are getting views and watchers. GTC does not stop you from doing this!
I check my listings as I have time and opportunity --- if something has been listed for a eek and almost no views and no watchers,I figure something is probably wrong.. Most probably the price is too high for what the item is.. Or, it could be the photos or description are not as god as they could be.
If these warnings show up -- in as little as a few days -- I revise the listing to make it attract more interest. Or maybe promote it.
Ending listings manually, whether after 30 days or ten days, makes you take action at that time. It may not be convenient. To say nothing of the time needed to manually relist about 300 listings, which we usually have.
ANother thing no one has mentioned -- it is possible to forget to manually re-list an item. Suppose you are manually re-listing and you have to get up for a break for one reason or another. You can forget where you left off and forget to re-list an item or two. Or re-list the same item twice -- either can lead not only to missed sales opportunities but to big trouble. It has happened to us. I know we are not very bright but it seems like this could happen to anyone.
I don't know what is going to sell, when. So GTC seems most efficient to me, I have been using it for months. They key is to review your listings periodically -voluntarily -- to see how they are doing.
IMHO

[weschurch]

You are missing the point entirely!

I'm glad that works for you, Ebay made that an option, which is exactly what it should be, OPTIONAL. By forcing it you have to assume Ebay has financial motives ENTIRELY.

If it was a great option don't you think most sellers would have already adapted it when it was OPTIONAL? Why do they need to make it Mandatory? Its purely for financial gain by betting people will forget to end and will be stuck paying the relist fee on each of these auctions.

Its another slimy tactic. It should remain optional and the people who make this site, the sellers, shouldn't be stripped of the freedom to run their listings the way they see fit for their market and financial survival.

The suits at Ebay again show they have no experience in the real world Ecommerce business. They are business people, like many other companies are ran by, but Ebay is unique. Outside of Ebay the suits can control all aspects of the business because they don't rely on outside parties to generate sales. Its common knowledge that you have to please the customer base or your business fails, unless you have a monopoly. Ebays monopoly ended YEARS and Years ago so throw that out the window. So now Ebay has to please its customers, which are its sellers and their buyers. They make no attempt to listen to their customers who are sellers and have proven they are to inept to know what works to drive more sales in this online arena.  Why? Because they are business people, not sellers on the site. They know business, they just don't know how this business needs to be ran differently than other businesses. 

The sad part? All they have to do is ask the sellers. So many are invested with Ebay that sellers here are a wealth of information and voice their feedback all the time. Ebay suits, instead of accepting that this arena is not their forte, continue to turn a deaf ear over and over, and try to imply outside business practices to a different animal, AND ITS FAILED AND CONTINUES TO FAIL YEAR AFTER YEAR.

They have no clue how to increase sales for sellers. In fact they gave that up years ago. They are now only interested in bleeding whats left of the shrinking base for every penny they are worth, hence trying to increase revenue on forced GTC where the revenue comes in REGARDLESS of sale. It will agin, for the millionth time fail, more seller will leave, buyers will follow and the site will continue to erode. They are to far down to turn it around, this site is now on a collision course with disaster.....and all they ever had to do was give the sellers a little say, but as egomaniac suits tend to do, they would rather kill it then admit they were clueless.

[buytodayshipnextday]

you can revise the listing at anytime. they can't stop you from updating your items.  it's not like your items are LOCKED & can't be revised.

[vintagecraze50]

I read that one of the rationales for keeping the listing GTC is that Google search seems to favor these as more stable and therefore more likely to be bought at some point because they can be found better and not DISAPPEARING and then re appearing again.

[funchoice]

Hi,

Talking about GTC, what happens if I take my vacation? Do I need to end the GTC listings? Will eBay charge for ending the listings? That is what I want to know. I don’t have ebay store, and they don’t provide the Vacation leave for sellers without the store.

Thanks.

[vintagecraze50]

So you are saying that the updates which have encouraged sellers to ship fast, ship free, and honor returns have been bad for business here. I disagree. Every seller update has focused on how to attract more people here with ALL THIS MASSIVE COMPETITION. The current GTC seems to be related to the Google search issue and making the listings more stable.  Revisions can be made before the 30 day mark if the item is not selling.