I predict forced GTC is about to meet some of America’s grassroots touchiness regarding “freedom”

[krys888]

I’ve read through a lot of the forced GTC threads. There are some clear patterns and key words that seem to be, in varying degrees, humming through most of them. Choice. My store. My time. My schedule. Freedom. Most being top rated sellers. Some long timers. Some newbies. Different ages. Different store sizes. All located in the US. All with the same incensed shock and outrage, as if the age old “don’t tread on me!” Is erupting from latent family sacrifices in wars, in toil, in love, in honor, for our “freedom” to choose. We all trusted when we signed on that the clause that said ebay can do whatever it wants with its policies at any time that they wouldn’t abuse that trust or violate our common agreement of “don’t tread on me” only to find that every few months, the tread presses ever firmer leaving footprints on our faces. I think that there is still a group of grassroots Americans in the seller pool who might just be feeling a subconscious sense of being tread upon on our own turf, so to speak. Maybe we’ll all just pack up our toys and go home, as I also detect might be eBay’s ultimate goal with their continued $queeze on sellers. I don’t know. But I think they might just have gone a little too far this time. At least in the US market. Will be interesting to watch how it evolves. 

[sd-brightis]

Well less listings and switched 10 day auctions cause of the GTC move. And once thats done for the bay, the BAY has to wait til next month for me to relist. Its not ideal and looking to utilize other platforms.

[krys888]

Right. I purchased them in 2017-2018, then sold them 2018-2019. Didn’t make any profit after fees. Hence, my conclusion that it wasn’t going to be a business for me. From a tax standpoint, I guess its a good thing I didn’t make a profit!

[krys888]

Thank you. I started doll collecting when I retired as a way to heal (I’d just suffered several major losses). Two years later, I find that I’m ready to be part of the world again.

[krys888]

That was the biggest factor for me. Time and attention! Every change and update seemed to double the amount of time to list and monitor. Too much for a hobby, for sure. If the time suck hadn’t kept going up, I could’ve managed smarter to squeeze a little margin out, but time is money too! Right there with you!

[krys888]

No, I didn’t. LOL.

[mam98031]

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@krys888 wrote:
Right. I purchased them in 2017-2018, then sold them 2018-2019. Didn’t make any profit after fees. Hence, my conclusion that it wasn’t going to be a business for me. From a tax standpoint, I guess its a good thing I didn’t make a profit!

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Make sure you save all your records.  Unlikely you will ever be audited, but if you are, they won't take your word for that.

[raindropsonroses1]

GTC has killed my sales went from $200.00 sold per day to $0-50.00 per day. Explain how this is good? I know what works for me, took many years of selling and learning what worked for me.  I'm still here after almost 21 years. Unfortunately this is my final straw. I'm selling off my inventory and callings it quits, its not worth it. Sad that we never got a choice, but I got bills to pay and this is no longer working for me, and many others for example the disabled, elderly, shut ins, etc who sell on ebay to supplement their income. Did you think about that ebay? For you it's just another new rule we should all just shut up and roll with it, but its not the change we are afraid of its the lack of sales, so poor now can't imagine it getting much worse. How will I pay my bills? No Sales = no $$$$ I have called and complained at least a dozen times. I urge everyone to call, do survey's send comments, and pray that they change it back soon.

[raindropsonroses1]

Most sellers are also buyers .....lose us and your losing both a seller and a buyer, double dilemma.

[raindropsonroses1]

Let me know where I'm in!

[krys888]

I bought them all on ebay and sold them all on ebay and have kept immaculate records. That’s how I realized that ebay made way more on my two years than I did.

[mod-designs4u]

I sell one-off items for which the quantity is one and don't sell mass-produced new widgets for which anyone can purchase at their local megastore. I already have a pretty good ranking when potential buyers search for items in the categories of the items I sell.  

[mam98031]

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@mod-designs4u wrote:

I sell one-off items for which the quantity is one and don't sell mass-produced new widgets for which anyone can purchase at their local megastore. I already have a pretty good ranking when potential buyers search for items in the categories of the items I sell.  

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The search return issue is not within the Ebay search, it is for all other types of search engines off Ebay, like Google.

[mam98031]

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@krys888 wrote:
I bought them all on ebay and sold them all on ebay and have kept immaculate records. That’s how I realized that ebay made way more on my two years than I did.

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I'm glad you kept records, that is what we all should do.

You could claim it as a business income and a loss for 2018.  As for 2019, we aren't even half way through it, so this may be a profitable year for you.

[zamo-zuan]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@mod-designs4u wrote:

As it stands I'm going to have to manually cancel many of my listings on April 17th to coincide with my monthly allotment. What a hassle and waste of time!

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@mod-designs4u 

You may want to reconsider that on listings that you have a multiple quantity on and it has had sales on it.  It will return higher in the searches with the sale history attached which is one of the strong points about GTC.

I am sorry you are having issues with figuring out how to make GTC work for you.  

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This is correct, but for anyone reading who is not familiar with how eBay's GTC metrics work, I'd like to add that you must also use the "Analyze" tool eBay offers on the growth page, to see if your item compares to others in the category.

Let me explain.

For example, just getting a sale doesn't necessarily mean you will be "performing well" according to GTC standards.

The biggest effect a single sale has, is it removes "stale" or "stagnant" status from your listing. Listings turn "stale" after 30 days. "Stagnant" after 90 days. This gives you a penalty in search results.

Regarding GTC metrics specifically, it compares your product in two differnet ways:
- If your item has a "catalog match" it compares your item to other listings that are similar.

- If your item does not have a "catalog match", it compares your item to others in the same category.

For a GTC listing to be worth keeping, rather than taking it down/relisting, you must exceed the average statistics.

Here's an example (from the Growth page's listing details when you use the Analyze tool):

https://www.screencast.com/t/eXopaf3Chey

As you can see, this listing exceeds the average. So it would be worth keeping as GTC. This type of item would typically have a slow trend upward.

Now, in most cases, this won't be your results. Because in most part categories, a large bulk of the orders are specific "Hot Sellers". Our category is Motor Mounts, so in our case, a few specific Make/Models make the bulk of the sales. This means "most makes/models" are NOT exceeding the average. 

So in those cases, most items have a slope/downward trend. Especially once they go stale/stagnant. Even if you're near average, there tends to be a downward slope. You must exceed to actually have growth (at least without investing $$$ in sponsored listings/promotions/etc).

To be clear, this alone isn't the only factor. One of the roots of issues nowadays is these metrics only factor in to "natural" search results. A large amount of each search page is no longer "Natural" results. An example being there's usually a number of slots on each search page dedicated to "Sponsored Listings". And search tries to show you a "variety" of listings now. Some with cheapest price, some with free returns, some with guaranteed delivery, some with promotions, etc.

This makes it harder than ever to fight for those spots. And it means you must do a lot of micromanagement depending on how well each of your listings are doing. Constantly check the analyze tools, compare statistics. If they're strong, keep the GTC, if not, end the listing and list it as a new item (doing a simple relist will NOT generate new statistics, it will work like GTC if you just end/relist, you must actually create a new item/sell similar).

Also, things like Sponsored Listings sometimes HURT your metrics. For example, sometimes your item will appear naturally on a search page, and then a 2nd time in "Sponsored Listings". Best case scenario, you get a click on one of those items. But it still comes up as "2 impressions, 1 click". This is a worse metric result than if you had 1 impression, 1 click.

I hope that makes sense and helps some others on how the system works! (and hope eBay takes a look at the system to make it a bit more fair, and make sense. There should be a natural path for healthy competition - there's currently not one.)

[waldoneatsie]

You forget that if it wasn't for US then eBay would not exist!! Those of us who were selling from the beginning MADE eBAY!! If we hadn't stuck with them eBay would not still be in business! We were invested from the beginning and SHOULD have some say! WE are the ones who know what works the best...NOT some Computer Tech!! How many Execs have been sellers on eBay?? Not many! If they are SO smart them why are so many people leaving?