eBay

eauctionmanagement · ‎03-19-2019

What solutions will eBay offer to fix these scenarios that don't work under GTC?

Seasonal Goods - Some products shouldn't be listed all year round! (Do you really want an Easter Basket in August?)
Seller Dies (sad, but I'm sure it happens!) - If their listings are GTC... that's going to be a shock to their survivors when the bills start coming in. Not to mention lots of disappointed buyers!
Small Sellers that Want to Schedule around Vacations - If you know you'll be going on vacation, listings with durations let you plan around that. GTC does not!
One-of-a-kind Products/Collectibles - No benefit from Sales History, Eventually will get buried with all the rest of the stale GTC products
Months with greater than 30 days - creates a potential for double-billing situations for those that max out their "free" listings and/or store plans

I've yet to hear solutions from eBay about these real and legitimate issues. Instead, they just plowed ahead with their plan to force GTC on us. It would be nice if the service we PAY for would be interested in serving US.

18704d · ‎03-19-2019

"What solutions will eBay offer to fix these scenarios that don't work under GTC?"

------------

Not to sound sarcastic,

but I thought it was the seller's responsibility to adapt their listings and business plan to eBay's rules?

Thanks

Lynn

Lynn

You love me for everything you hate me for

.

goodluckselling · ‎03-19-2019

Most of your list are not issues? eBay is an international company so many things might not seem correct from your US based thinking?

What is seasonal in the US (winter jackets, etc) are in season in other places and holiday decor is highly collected year round.
Sellers die can be tricky but can also be handled with eBay ( I have done this in my family)
small sellers have to schedule around vacations now, so I am not sure what you think would be harder? Non store sellers end listings and restart them when they return. Store sellers have setting they can use.
OOAK/collectibles IMO will benefit the most from this change. These items need specific buyers and being active with a stable URL address will only increase the chance that unique buyer will be able to find and buy these kinds of items. Keep in mind exact and or very similar items are going to be shown together in a cataloged product based search anyways.
double insertion will be a problem for some sellers and maybe eBay will change the listing time frame duration from 30 days to hopefully 31 days, which would solve this issue.

Good Luck Selling!

eauctionmanagement · ‎03-19-2019

@goodluckselling

I respectfully disagree with you that these are not issues. I've also noticed that many other sellers on this forum share my concerns.

There are many seasonal items that it doesn't matter whether the item is international or not. In fact.. eBay has created an entire guide on what to sell in particular seasons: https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seasonal-playbook/#2019-winter-selling-season Will some items sell out of season? Of course! But shouldn't sellers be given the tools they need to help manage when they list items and for how long? Fixed price durations gave us a tool for that.
Relying on eBay customer support to assist during a time of family grief seems to not be very comforting to me... I'd much rather know that if something happened to me, my listings wouldn't last longer than 30 days!
If I know I'm going on a vacation in July, I used to be able to schedule my fixed price listings to end (on their own!) before I left for vacation. Now I'll have to put in more work and cancel the listings manually. Again, possible... but more work!
Every single one of my 150,000 OOAK items already has stable URL's from other venues that I list on. My products are already easily found through search engine results. I use eBay to selectively list portions of my inventory on a rotating basis. The only reason I do this is because I acknowledge that eBay has their own customer base. These customers start their searches on eBay. I'm happy to have the business that eBay generates for me... but i'm not dependent on it. Many collectibles sellers like me are in similar situations. We just don't anticipate to see any of the benefits that sellers of large quantity/new merchandise goods that don't sell on other venues may experience.
Clearly you agree that the Double-Insertion is a potential problem. I've even seen eBay moderators (and their VP) hint that they see this as a concern. BUT... they haven't announced any fix. Again, they simply pushed through the change regardless. It's this kind of cavalier, could-care-less about how it impacts sellers attitude that is concerning. There simply doesn't seem to have been a lot of careful attention to the implementation of this plan and how it would affect all sellers.

Are there ways to work around GTC? Absolutely. Should we have to work around it? No. If eBay gave their customers (the sellers) the option for fixed-price duration listings, then we'd have a tool that sellers could use to their benefit. Do you use the hammer in your toolbox every time you have to do some work around the house? No. But, when you have to hammer in a nail... do you want it to be there? Yes. Fixed-Price duration listings may not be appropriate for everyone... but they're still a tool that should have been left in the toolbox for those that need it.

lloydsteventaylor · ‎03-19-2019

my way to get around if "seller dies" is that now i only will do auctions with buy now or best offer no more fp

lloydsteventaylor · ‎03-19-2019

i cancelled my store as of 3/31/19 and deleted all my fixed price listings

thevintagesilvershop · ‎03-19-2019

@eauctionmanagement wrote:
What solutions will eBay offer to fix these scenarios that don't work under GTC?

Seasonal Goods - Some products shouldn't be listed all year round! (Do you really want an Easter Basket in August?) Don't know how to work around this one. I only sell one seasonal item and it always sells out before the season ends, so I don't have to worry about what to do with it in the off season.
Seller Dies (sad, but I'm sure it happens!) - If their listings are GTC... that's going to be a shock to their survivors when the bills start coming in. Not to mention lots of disappointed buyers! Everyone needs a back up plan for this potential situation or if they get ill or hospitalized. Whether its GTC, auction, or FP with ending times. Even brick and mortar. Make a plan.
Small Sellers that Want to Schedule around Vacations - If you know you'll be going on vacation, listings with durations let you plan around that. GTC does not! You have a Store. Use the vacation settings. That's what they are there for.
One-of-a-kind Products/Collectibles - No benefit from Sales History, Eventually will get buried with all the rest of the stale GTC products This is truth. GTC buries OOAK items. Once again, have a plan on how you will monitor your inventory to refresh them, end them, donate them, or move them to other selling venues.
Months with greater than 30 days - creates a potential for double-billing situations for those that max out their "free" listings and/or store plans I still ponder this one. I don't have to pay as long as I'm within my Store allotment, so I won't pay more. I don't know why people are so up in arms about it unless they don't have Stores or do a lot of churning of inventory. I suspect all will come up with a plan to work around this. It's just not something I worry about.

twnpopcards · ‎03-19-2019

@eauctionmanagement wrote:
What solutions will eBay offer to fix these scenarios that don't work under GTC?

Seasonal Goods - Some products shouldn't be listed all year round! (Do you really want an Easter Basket in August?)
Seller Dies (sad, but I'm sure it happens!) - If their listings are GTC... that's going to be a shock to their survivors when the bills start coming in. Not to mention lots of disappointed buyers!
Small Sellers that Want to Schedule around Vacations - If you know you'll be going on vacation, listings with durations let you plan around that. GTC does not!
One-of-a-kind Products/Collectibles - No benefit from Sales History, Eventually will get buried with all the rest of the stale GTC products
Months with greater than 30 days - creates a potential for double-billing situations for those that max out their "free" listings and/or store plans
I've yet to hear solutions from eBay about these real and legitimate issues. Instead, they just plowed ahead with their plan to force GTC on us. It would be nice if the service we PAY for would be interested in serving US.

Ebay has done zero planning and thinking about the ramifications of this change. All they thought about was the potential additional revenue they so desperately need to help the CEO last until Managed Payments comes into play full bore. Its going to be interesting to see how many Sellers and Buyers leave when that happens as Ebay has never shown the ability to have a safe, secure platform that can give those using it the comfort level they will need to give Ebay that much Financial Information.

Truthfully, i can't wait until Ebay gets introduced to the new set of government agencies that they will have to answer to once they are in the new arena that they will be stepping into. Its going to be so much worse than Ebay trying to get the Sales Tax collection right. Even Paypal with all the years of experience recently was fined $600 million for having to lax of security protocols with Venmo 2 or 3 years after they acquired them. Ebay owned Paypal but they were a completely self run company with employees who knew what they were doing and Ebay will never lay out the money needed for that quality of personnel.