Posting when a fixed price item was first put on eBay kills sales unless it's brand new.

[john_wade]

Most buyers want to buy fresh items. They don't want to buy anything older than a month in most cases. Putting the date it was first put on eBay makes them not want to buy it if it was along time ago This is why British book publishers often don't have dates for when the book was first published or catalog publishers often don't have a date. Letting everyone know exactly when the item was first put on fixed price is a bad idea. They skip the older items. I know someone who has over 800 items listed. Most of the time it's items that have only been on less than a month being the ones that he sells. Many of his items have been on over a year. No one wants them at any price. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

Unless a buyer is looking for something that they look for every week/month etc.- the 'date' doesn't really matter. 

Buy it Now items with multiples available can list for years. I have many, and it only shows the 'month and day' and not the year, so even though it shows November 14, it was really listed in 2013. Nobody will ever know, and again BIN with Multiples wouldn't matter. 

Many 'collectable' things have been listed for 5 years, then the right buyer comes along. 

I started shopping for old Las Vegas Casino Coins a year ago; I clicked 'Buy It Now' and then 'Lowest Price' and purchased. I didn't even know when they were listed and could not care any less. Same with Albums (vinyl). 

[buyselljack2016]

Putting the date it was first put on eBay

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Where does a buyer see that?

[hartungcards]

Unless it's fruits, vegetables, milk or meat, most buyers could care less how fresh it is.

[fern*wood]

I see when I listed my fixed price items, but I don't know how to see when others have.   Having said that, I bet lacemaker or one of the other computer whizzes on here could figure it out.

[postcardcountry]

That's where listing tools come in handy.

I can cancel a listing, then relist "as new".  It gets a new age date, so it doesn't appear as "old".

[shipscript]

Could the issue be that those stale items are not very desirable and that is why they are so stale? They are called long tail because they may take a long time to be seen by someone who might actually be looking for that item.

[dhbookds]

Disagree with "they don't want to buy older than a month"............I'm sure the majority of the items I've sold in the last 3 months have been well over 6 months old........some several years.    I sell collectibles.......lol.......and they are already "old".........  It just takes the right buyer to come along for some stuff.....and that can take time........

[coolections]

Why would a buyer care if a book is more than 30 days old? When I first read the title of your topic I thought you were talking about expired items, I.E, food, cosmetics etc. Confused, please explain how dating a listing will result in no sales.

[coolections]

@fern*wood   Change the search to newly listed. It will show items listed by date.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@john_wade wrote: .... I know someone who has over 800 items listed. Most of the time it's items that have only been on less than a month being the ones that he sells. Many of his items have been on over a year..... 

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Another way to interpret that information is that things buyers want sell quickly, and things nobody wants sit around waiting for a buyer to eventually come along.

I share the others' skepticism about how important buyers think the listing date is, indeed whether they notice it at all.

[pargran3]

I cannot see the date you listed an item. Only you the seller sees that

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@pargran3 wrote:

I cannot see the date you listed an item. Only you the seller sees that

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Not if you click the 'newly listed' (where the 'best match' is).. I can now see a date for all items (but again, they don't show the 'year'- just month/day)

[yuzuha]

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@shipscript wrote:

Could the issue be that those stale items are not very desirable and that is why they are so stale? They are called long tail because they may take a long time to be seen by someone who might actually be looking for that item.

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Either that or the price isn't right.