eBay

wildwonder · ‎09-15-2019

The policy change last March that fixed pricings can only be set as good until cancelled is a MAJOR hassle and is costing me money. eBay obviously made the change so they can charge us relisting fees if we don't constantly monitor our listings and manually end them before they are relisted. I don't have time to do that because I travel constantly. I also list items at different dates so I'd be on eBay all the time monitoring items to make sure they aren't relisted unless I want them to be.

One of the benefits of posting fixed items previously is I could "list it and forget it." Then at the end of the month or when new free promotions popped up I would log in and relist items. Now I can't do that. The changed policy makes no sense except that eBay wants to earn millions from fixed item sellers who forget to end items that then get relisted and charged fees.

I've also noticed that my sales have dropped since the policy change. I can't tie that into the change directly but it must have something to do with it. Anyone else notice that?

I called customer service about it, but as usual they basically said "Sorry, nothing we can do about it." I asked if there was a direct line or way to voice my complaints to people who make these policy changes and he said no. I then asked if any other sellers are complaining and he said very few. But looking in these discussion boards and online elsewhere I have seen a LOT of people complaining.

This is just another in a long line of policies that punish sellers to benefit eBay.

parkersparrow · ‎09-16-2019

I actually asked rep on the phone, "If my listing was put up and says 'Good Until Cancelled' then isn't it false advertising for it to end in 30 days and me to be charged an insertion fee again?"

@julia1 The answer to that question would be that GTC mean that the listing is just that, good until you the seller cancels said listing(s). You have total free will to cancel before the monthly fee is charged or your next month's free listings are used up.

mam98031 · ‎09-16-2019

@parkersparrow wrote:
I actually asked rep on the phone, "If my listing was put up and says 'Good Until Cancelled' then isn't it false advertising for it to end in 30 days and me to be charged an insertion fee again?"

@julia1 The answer to that question would be that GTC mean that the listing is just that, good until you the seller cancels said listing(s). You have total free will to cancel before the monthly fee is charged or your next month's free listings are used up.

GTC yes means Good Til Cancelled. It is also Good til Sold. If it sells, it doesn't relist or renew unless you have the OOS setting in your site preferences for inventory.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

willialloy_8 · ‎09-16-2019

https://observer.com/2019/09/shopify-ebay-amazon-ecommerce-growth/

vinylrecon · ‎09-16-2019

No one was more against GTC than me when became law of the land. I ranted and raved on here. I have made peace with it somewhat. If you go to the Classic page its really easy to end & relist hundreds of auctions in minutes,but you have to keep on top of it. I sometimes end the auctions 24hrs before ending just to be safe,sure i may miss out on a few sales,but thats better than have 200 auto relist. I know i'm beating a dead horse,but i truly believe GTC did affect sales in a negative way like never seen before on Ebay

yuzuha · ‎09-16-2019

@julia1 wrote:

I actually asked rep on the phone, "If my listing was put up and says 'Good Until Cancelled' then isn't it false advertising for it to end in 30 days and me to be charged an insertion fee again?"

Why would it be false advertising? The listing will remain listed until you cancel it. Nothing ever said it would be free to do so.

wildwonder · ‎09-28-2019

@gamersbaystore wrote:
I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but charging $10.99 to ship a comic book likely isn't helping your situation either. You also don't have predictable shipping rates, they are all over the board. One listing states $10.99, others $4.99, $8.99, etc. You're scaring buyers away. I just can't see buyers wanting to pay such high rates for shipping.

Buy your labels, mailers, etc, wholesale, they're pennies on the dollar this way. Its also one of the benefits to having a store subscription, you get $50 each quarter to spend on free shipping supplies. I just got 50 boxes and 100 bubble mailers for free from ebay.

And I would agree that ebay made the change to GTC to benefit themselves and not sellers.

I'm not going to completely revamp my processes and increase my workload every time eBay gets greedy -- again. I've tested various S&H costs over time and post what works for me. I don't charge $10.99 for comics. Only for action figures and related large collectables.

I charge between $3.99 for first class to $8.99 Priority for comics and magazines based on value and size. $3.99 is the cheapest I can ship a single comic with the protective packing I use, otherwise they get their damaged.

Stop critiquing my processes and focus on how eBay's policies are **bleep**.

Or do you work for eBay?

wildwonder · ‎09-28-2019

@lvelenc-17 wrote:
Sounds like a personal problem not an eBay problem

Thanks for that totally useless comment.

wildwonder · ‎09-28-2019

@disneyshopper wrote:
If you are using the Seller Hub, just add a Start Date and an End Date to your columns and sort by END DATE. You can quickly look at your Active Listings to see which ones you might want to end before they roll over.

I'm on Seller Hub whenever I log in. But as I said above, I don't have time to increase the number of times I log in just because eBay made a useless policy change.

mam98031 · ‎09-28-2019

If the amount of listings you are currently running are close to what you typically run in a month, the GTC policy change isn't what is costing you more in listing fees. You need a store. Or should consider one. You could save good money on your listing fees, even with a Starter Store. Right now you have about 75 listings above your monthly allotment of 50 free. So 75 x .35 = 26.75.

A starter store that gives you 100 free listings is $9.95 if you do it monthly or $4.95 with a one year commitment. A Basic store gives you 250 free listings for $29.95 monthly or $21.95 with a one year commitment.

Just stuff to consider if you are looking for ways to cut costs. And there are other benefits for having a store that can be important as well.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/run-your-store/subscriptions-and-fees.html

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

yuzuha · ‎09-28-2019

@wildwonder wrote:
@disneyshopper wrote:
If you are using the Seller Hub, just add a Start Date and an End Date to your columns and sort by END DATE. You can quickly look at your Active Listings to see which ones you might want to end before they roll over.

I'm on Seller Hub whenever I log in. But as I said above, I don't have time to increase the number of times I log in just because eBay made a useless policy change.

You only need to log in once a day, which you should be doing anyway if you have active listings. The Seller Hub will highlight the Time Left for all of the listings that are ending within the next 24 hours in red; all you have to do is glance at them and decide what you want to end. I do it in the morning while I'm brewing coffee-- takes me just a couple of minutes.