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mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Inceptions
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I would suggest that the responses by @mam98031 most directly and accurately address your concerns. As I understand it, you would be keeping only 50 active listings going at any given time.
GTC has been used in 80% of listings for years and sellers have never before been concerned about the billing cycle issue (nor have they complained about the extra freebies each February). It has only now become an issue for those sellers who want to stay under the free limits, meaning it is only a concern for smaller sellers, the ones who typically visit these forums.
And even for those using the free limits it only becomes a major issue if all 50 listings are posted on a single day, the first day of the month (or any of the first 6 days of the month). If the 50 listings are spread over the 30 days in a cycle, only a handful would see two billing cycles in a 31 day month.
Since eBay says they will address this concern by May, I thought I would look at the near-term forecast for those posting listings between now and the solution:
A seller can post on any remaining day in the month of March, and not see a repeat for about 5 years.
In April, a seller can post listings from the 7th through the end of the month and see one repeat a year or more later, and then none for 5 more years after that (don't post on April 6 - multiple repeats).
In May, listings posted from the 8th through the end of the month will see one repeat a year or more later, and then no repeats for 5 years (don't post on May 7 - multiple repeats).
http://www.isdntek.com/listingtools/billingcycles.htm
Use the tool to see how choosing dates after the 8th of the month will push out the date for the first repeat. Because the 30 day cycle is shorter than the average month, the 30-day dates creep earlier every couple of months and eventually reach the first day of the month where they can repeat. So posting a listing later in the month provides the longest duration of no repeats. However, avoid Jan 30 and Jan 31 due to the short month of February rolling those onto the first of March or April.
If I just use my 50 free fixed-price listings, and never accept any free/promo offers, will i never be charged insertion fees? Or is there something I am missing that will trip me up and I'll end up paying insertion fees somehow?
You are correct. You didn't miss a thing.
As far as I can tell, if I just refuse to use any promo/free FIXED PRICE listings, I won't be charged additional fees for the auto-renewals, right?
I'm not sure about this question. No one has to use any free listing promos that Ebay may extend to you. It is completely up to you. So if you don't use it, there is no way to get charged for anything, you would be correct.
In other words, can I just set the 50 free fixed price listings to run and forget about them without having to end them before they autorenew?
Yes. If you have 50 free listings per month, if you list 50 Fixed Price listings, they will auto renew until they are sold out.
And what about adding in free auction listings...if ebay offers free listings for AUCTION only, no matter how many of those I accept/use, I should not get insertion fees, right?
Auctions are not affected by this change. Auctions remain as they have been for years.
The answer above is incorrect.
If I just use my 50 free fixed-price listings, and never accept any free/promo offers, will i never be charged insertion fees? Or is there something I am missing that will trip me up and I'll end up paying insertion fees somehow?
As far as I can tell, if I just refuse to use any promo/free FIXED PRICE listings, I won't be charged additional fees for the auto-renewals, right?
In other words, can I just set the 50 free fixed price listings to run and forget about them without having to end them before they autorenew?
You WILL be charged for each auto-renewal if you have used your free listings. To avoid listing fees, you'll need to manually end your GTC listings before they relist if you run out of free listings and don't want to pay listing fees. You can do that in bulk, so it's pretty quick. Just make it a habit to check each day for ending listings that you don't want to auto-relist and manually end them before eBay renews them. If you have multiple listings, you can do this quickly in bulk.
And what about adding in free auction listings...if ebay offers free listings for AUCTION only, no matter how many of those I accept/use, I should not get insertion fees, right?
Some auctions auto-relist. Learn more about auction fees here:
@kensgiftshop wrote:If you space your 50 listings out through the month and not list all 50 the same day, you should be ok and not have any listing fee's.
List 1 or 2 items a day then towards the end of the cycle, when it's time for the first items to start relisting, hopefully you've sold a few items, and you'll have those listings to cover your relisted items.
As far as the auctions, if they give you free one's, you shouldn't have any listing fee's for them, because auctions don't relist like fixed priced listings.
Good point. Steer clear of posting the first week or the last week of the month as Ebay renews the listings every 30 days.
This is a short lived problem as Ebay is going to release an update to this policy in May. I don't know what that update will be, but it should fix this 30 day verses months with 31 day issue. With that said, staying away from listing the first or last week of the month, you won't run into a month that would have a double listing period for a couple of years.
@sudiequ wrote:I'm wondering about months with 31 days... i can't find an answer anywhere. 😞 Wondering if on May 30th I have to cancel everything so i don't get charged on the 31st? I'm like you and only do the 50 freebies (although I DID take advantage of promos). Right now I'm scheduling anything I list (up to 50 items) to start on the 1st.
Very good question.
Ebay is aware of this issue. For those of us that have used GTC for years, it really hasn't presented as big of a problem as many sellers that will be new to the GTC listings seem to think. But that doesn't make it any less important.
For myself I don't list all my listings in one or two days. I list throughout the month as I have time to create new listings. So my renewal dates are staggered throughout the month. But I do understand for others, they prefer to list once or twice a month.
For now, just don't list any GTC's the first week or the last week of the month. That will prevent any months with double renewals for at least a couple of years. Ebay has stated they are coming out with a resolution to this matter in May. I don't know what that will look like, but it appears this is a short lived problem. And the double listing months are easy to avoid between now and then.
Here is an awesome tool that @shipscript developed just for us 
http://www.isdntek.com/listingtools/billingcycles.htm
You can plug a date into the chart and it will display any date, in red, that will have a renewal within the same month.
eBay has said they are looking into the 30 day renewal to avoid listing and then renewing in the same month. I have not heard anything about a change forthcoming yet.
Here is an example of the chart:
@inceptions wrote:The answer above is incorrect.
If I just use my 50 free fixed-price listings, and never accept any free/promo offers, will i never be charged insertion fees? Or is there something I am missing that will trip me up and I'll end up paying insertion fees somehow?
As far as I can tell, if I just refuse to use any promo/free FIXED PRICE listings, I won't be charged additional fees for the auto-renewals, right?
In other words, can I just set the 50 free fixed price listings to run and forget about them without having to end them before they autorenew?
You WILL be charged for each auto-renewal if you have used your free listings. To avoid listing fees, you'll need to manually end your GTC listings before they relist if you run out of free listings and don't want to pay listing fees. You can do that in bulk, so it's pretty quick. Just make it a habit to check each day for ending listings that you don't want to auto-relist and manually end them before eBay renews them. If you have multiple listings, you can do this quickly in bulk.
And what about adding in free auction listings...if ebay offers free listings for AUCTION only, no matter how many of those I accept/use, I should not get insertion fees, right?
Some auctions auto-relist. Learn more about auction fees here:
I think you may have misunderstood the question by the OP. The answer given to the OP was not incorrect, I just think you misunderstood.
If you get 50 free listings every month. If you post no more that 50 GTC listings. Each month they renew the listing fees will be covered by your 50 free listings for that month. Now the only exception to this is months in which you may have a double renewal. For example you list a listing on the 1st of a month and it has a 30 day renewal cycle. If your month has 31 days, then it would renew again in that month on day 31. So that would mean you have additional listing fees not covered by your 50 free listings for that month.
This is an EASY thing to avoid. DON'T POST AT THE BEGINNING OR END OR A MONTH. PERIOD. Problem solved for a couple years. In the meantime, Ebay is aware of this issue and is offering a fix in May. So it is a short term problem.
YES some Auctions do auto relist. But if you don't want them to auto relist, that is a simple fix too. Don't click on the box that says auto relist when you set up your listing. Again, you are in control of this. It is all in how you use it.
@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
Except there's no reason to not post at the end of a month if you're trying to avoid double listing fees for any particular month.
True since the fix will arrive before that ever becomes an issue.
i was not considering the fact that the free listings always start on the 1st of the month, so that does require babysitting of our listings because at some point the 30-day auto renewal period will drift.
Seems like ebay hasn't though this out all the way...we will STILL have to cancel/renew manually occasionally, which defeats the (alledged) purpose of preserving Item number/web address info for google....
GTC listings are NOT new to Ebay. The majority of sellers have been using them of years. NO you do NOT have to cancel and repost listings unless it is your preferred way of doing things. The 30 day issue will be resolved by Ebay in May. Just a couple months away. Between now and then it is an EASY thing to avoid.
SO the answer to my main question is NO you can't just set your 50 free listings to run indefinitely...
My initial answer to you remains correct. YES YOU CAN. Just don't post them on the first few days of the month.
