FIXED PRICE Good Until Cancelled - HOW I AM DEALING WITH IT

[cathydale]

Well first of all there is obviously nothing we can do about this change.

Ebay likes NEW LISTINGS.  They don't like it when you relist things that did not sell right out of the gate, or after 7 days.  So now those Good Until Cancelled listings will be GOOD AND HIDDEN if they are automatically relisted at 30 days.  You will only have visibility the first few days. 

SO here is what I am doing.  I listing just 3 or 4 things a day EVERYDAY.  That way I will always have something new being listed.  

ALSO, I am using the SORT feature to keep track of what is about to end.  Before the 30 days is up on any fixed price listing, I will then send it to an AUCTION LISTING for 10 days  The Auction listings WILL NOT automatically renew.  At least that is my understanding.

When items are not bid on and the auction item end, I will then be able to DECIDE MYSELF what items to relist out of the unsold items, and WHEN to do this. 

You need to have some control over what to relist so that you are not relisting a heavy sweater in July !  Instead you can wait until closer to the next season to relist it again.

Just makes more work, but what can you do ??

[jayjaspersgarage]

Over the past few days I decided to relist a handfull of items as GTC.  Yesterday one of them listed for 30 days.  I saw it as a small victory since it has stayed a 30 day listing.  Oh how we yearn for the good old days that were last week.  How will I ultimately deal with the latest policy change?  #1: I have stopped purchasing 20K of products per year on ebay.  You can vote with your wallet.  It will have an immediate impact.  #2: I will probably downsize my store and switch to month-by month.  That will save me 50% of what I pay per month for my Premium store on a yearly subscription and free up my time to learn how to sell on other sites while maintaining my most lucritive products in my soon-to-be Basic store.  #3:  I will no longer recommend ebay to peole as a place to sell on-line as I have for the past nine years.  

[jayjaspersgarage]

I am sure many of us will look for ways to feel better about this.  The key is to only use half of your fixed price listings so that when they roll over and automatically relist you won't exceed the max.  During the month you can introduce new items at will and cancel the duds.  Oh, don't fprget to stock up on aspirin and ace bandages for your sore wrist from all the extra keyboard time you will be spending.  I must say I have enjoyed selling on ebay since January of 2011.  The future looks bleak at best with the oncoming recession.  

[mstcwrld7]

      I guess a lot of people  including store owners will be ending their  GTC listings on the last day and manually re-listing them so they'll be at the top of Newly Listed.  Unless you wait til the very last minute to do this you will lose buyers who may be waiting til the end of the listing to buy -- though with a FP listing there is not a lot of point to that, it's not like an auction.

     It will be a huge lot of work for sellers who do that, an annoyance. 

      We have a basic store and have been going over 250 listings for some time, naively figuring the more we list , the more we will sell and the more money we will make.    Now I am wondering about that. maybe we should list less?

     I don't know now ebay thinks they will make more money by discouraging sellers from listing more.....

[mstcwrld7]

jayjaspers -- IMO
you should call ebay and let them know you have stopped buying 20K of items a year on this site, because of this GTC policy change.
Don't just post about it here.

That is the kind of thing they understand, and are more likely to take notice of. If it is costing them some money instead of earning more for them.

[rockinthreadsrecords]

mstcwrld7, have you ever called Ebay within the past couple years.  They can't handle the simplest issue and make everything out to be your fault.  I always have to call multiple times and get multiple supervisors before anything can get done.  The only comments that are for GTC are just Ebay reps trying to save face.  All the other posts about GTC get removed so Ebay has to have reps consistently give nonsense comments on how GTC is good for the sellers.  I like many sellers are done .  I easily made at least 250.00 a day on Ebay and that came to a dramatic halt this week.  Rant over.

[blingrescue]

MOving on to too

[blingrescue]

Go Live- yard sale, flee market , craft fairs. I am leaving the e market on this platform . Cannot name other sites without big brother stepping in. 

[blingrescue]

---

Calling Ebay and complaining won't do any good.  The only thing that will make Ebay change this new policy is if sales slow down -- and this would not happen overnight. 

Perhaps if we all took a break from listing the first two weeks of April we could get our message across. It is only

[blingrescue]

Webinterpret- I just opted in now i see that this will be a new nightmare if I come back.

[tcscollectibles1]

Capitolism is fine...but not on MY back

[tcscollectibles1]

Kudos...hittum where it hurts

[woothy]

Interesting to note that there was a big banner in my store offering a $3 coupon to first time buyers on eBay. Looks like they are trying to lure new buyers because the older buyers are giving up on the site especially with all the system glitches.

[jayjaspersgarage]

I suppose I could call and wait on hold for up to six hours like some of our fellow sellers have reported.....or I will just let the chips fall where they may along with  a couple of dozen sellers I know who have vowed to stop buying on ebay as well.  Start a trend and join in on the buying boycott.  I live very close to the ebay headquarters and thought about picketing.  I figured that would get me #1 on the news and #2 get my stored closed very quickly.  lol

[brestradingpost]

Totally agree with above posting. My reasons are if I am not selling items...I want to be able to evaluate why they are not selling...example of selling a heavy sweater in July...just one. And possibly changing before a new cycle of fixed price selling.

I just cannot see how this benefits Ebay...making all items good until cancelled. To my observation, Ebay's only answer to selling off unsold items in general is mark everything down and/or provide free shipping.  Anymore, I feel like I am selling high value items on a Dime Store ecommerce site. Or as the new generation understands...in a Dollar Store style ecommerce. Ebay's mentality and marketing strategy of low profit margin, large volume products is their answer to competition by Amazon. And yes, many have responded that if a person has complaints, than they should consider other ecommerce selling platforms...which I am in the process of doing. However, I want Ebay to understand WHY I am leaving and WHY I see their profits are down.  

What kind of customers is Ebay really wanting to attract with this strategy and does this correlate with my product line? Yeppers this is the question I am asking myself...

[brestradingpost]

One other quick note...I remember when Ebay marketed their brand through television, radio, and etc...but now, I never see marketing through media. Ebay is becoming a dinosaur...and doing minimal to attract a new generation. Other ecommerce sites are picking up the younger shoppers....