Sell similar versus re-list

[fbusoni]

Recently tried an experiment:  I had about one hundred items listed with no views for the last year or so.

I ended the listings, then waited a few days.

I re-listed about 25, and sold as similar another 25.

Those that I simply re-listed showed no activity.

About 7 of the "sold as similar" items actually went to new homes.  

Thanks to @gurlcat for the suggestion.

[jg.mason]

I have also had some recent success with sell similar. I should be doing it with more items but for some reason it just seems like I never get around to it.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@fbusoni  Did you make any changes to the listings, or just end a listing, and then use relist or sell similar to repost the exact same listing?

[fbusoni]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

Forgot to add that... yes, I ended the listing, then waited a few days to sell similar.  I also made a very slight alteration to the title and / or the price.  

(NOTE: I added that info to my OP above.  Thanks for your reminder.)

[luckythewinner]

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@fbusoni wrote:

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

Forgot to add that... yes, I ended the listing, then waited a few days to sell similar.  I also made a very slight alteration to the title and / or the price.  

(NOTE: I added that info to my OP above.  Thanks for your reminder.)

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As an outside observer, it seems possible that it was the changes to the title and the price that spurred those sales, rather than sell similar vs. relist. 

[mcdougle4248]

Something that works well for me to get slow movers out the door is to end the listing and use sell similar from one of my sold listings. Upload the photos and make the necessary changes to the listing. The algorithm seems to like this method 😀 

Remember to go back and delete the ended listing.

[nyr134]

Was your success because the "sell similar" items float to the top of queries sorted by "time: newly listed" - as if they were new - whereas relists are muddled somewhere among the mix lower down?  (I am probably stating the obvious.)

[chapeau-noir]

People have been doing this for years, with all sort of opinions as to whether it works or not. I tend to think it helps if one does some tweaking. 

[fbusoni]

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@nyr134 wrote:

Was your success because the "sell similar" items float to the top of queries sorted by "time: newly Listed" - as if they were new - whereas relists are muddled somewhere among the mix lower down?  (I am probably stating the obvious.)

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I don't really know.   (Does a simple re-list give the item in question the same eBay URL address that it had previously?  I don't think mine did.) 

Another seller here recommended this method to me and I gave it a whirl.  Seemed to work.  

[mam98031]

That is one way to get them to re-index.

I use the Bulk Editor to get my listings to re-index my listings.  Usually I bounce my handling time back and forth from 1 day to 2 days.  I do this about once a month so all listing have to re-index.

[chapeau-noir]

Another (possibly a myth) is to bulk edit the listings. I guess it jiggers the search a bit.

[lakefor94]

@fbusoni  Good thread. Been working on the same here.

Updating and then ending 10-15 per day and the next day doing a sell similar. I was wondering about the timeframe to wait before doing the sell similar. Noticed you are doing 2 days.

Not ending listings that have significant google placement I see as advantageous or most multi-quantity listings with previous sales. Lot of my items have part/model numbers so I get a lot of organic sales from google search.

The listings with no specific part/model numbers that have not sold are being updated, ended and then sell similar. If they are hard to search for or just get lost in the mix with other similar items, those are my “for sure” candidates for sell similar.

After sell similar, getting some sales and items coming up with the chance to send offers so it does spark things up a bit when it comes up as a New Listing.

Been working over the listings I am not ending as well. Same as all items, changes to title, add to item specifics, description, check pricing, volume pricing, offers on and off, adjust photos on some, making some changes to shipping. Loading up item specifics to assist search which is important.

I have been moving quite a few “Lot Listings” from Lots to selling onesie, twosies, threesies, etc. (recently ran out of eBay 6x5x5 boxes for the first time ever)

FWIW -- About 18 months ago, I was working about 500 items, ending and doing sell similar, bulk 100 at a time, for 5 days in a row, every 2 weeks, no edits, 24 hours wait time . That did NOT work. I think it screwed my sales up for a month or so, jfyi. The system did not like those maneuvers. Anyone else ever try this? Results?

Anyone else have any ideas on the timeframe to wait before doing a sell similar?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

 An hour and a half ago, I ended two listings and just now relisted one and did a sell similar on the other. BOTH were given new ID numbers. (whether that would happen for the relist if I did the relist within minutes instead of a half hour, I don't know for sure.

But this suggests that BOTH methods will result in a new ID number and so in theory the listings will get a "new" bump. (At one time, relists carried over the old ID number.)

[lakefor94]

Do your "relisted" items get the designation of the green "New Listing"? If you search for Newly Listed, do they come up in that search?  Curious....

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@lakefor94  I think there is some benefit to the "new" bump, but how valuable it is at this point, I'm unsure. We know it is a temporary benefit (and the duration might be fixed for all items, or might vary per item/category).

A couple years ago, at an ebay Open, ebay said that the algo can now discern between relists (whether done as relist or sell similar) and listings that have been ended, revised and relisted/sell similar). The implication was pretty strong that, without revisions, it would make little difference (beyond the perhaps short live "new" bump). We were definitely encouraged to review and revise (meaning: improve) such listings before putting them back up.