It's actually worse than you think.
First let me demonstrate why it's as bad as you think. The reason why "stale" listings slip further and further down search results is that the longer they go without selling, also the longer they go without a decent amount of views (and maybe watchers, not sure about that), the less your promotion rate "matters." What I mean is, the worse the item seems to be at getting views, the higher its' SUGGESTED AD RATE goes. Several months ago I got into a debate with at least one person here about the suggested rate; they were insisting that it only changes according to categories and seasonal demand, etc., NOT a specific item's performance. I argued that if that were true, then why do suggested rates always rise on an item; shouldn't they go down sometimes? But here I can give actual proof. You see here 3 of my listings in the same category, listed on the same date. They are 'stale" for sure, even though they're only a couple months old, because they haven't gotten many views. I've been meaning to "refresh" them, but it's going to be a pain, certainly no "batch" maneuver, in fact I'll have to create them from one-by-one AND FROM SCRATCH, as I will demonstrate here.
The 4.5% ad rate I chose to promote them at is a reflection of the suggested ad rate back when I created the listings (I typically promote near the suggested rate, sometimes a little below or above). But look at what it says for the suggested ad rate NOW: 9% for the top two items, 10% for the bottom one. They have incrementally GROWN that high, the longer these listings sat, especially without lots of views (note how the bottom one at 10% has had only 2 views --that's why its' suggested rate is even higher than the other two). This not only disproves the "by category and seasonal changes only" theory, because these are all in the SAME category in the same season, but it also shows how suggested rates grow according to poor view-attractability. In other words, it's suggesting a much higher ad rate because that's what it would take for these sucky listings to get views.
But of course it's a double-edged sword; part of why these listings aren't getting views is because they're showing further down in search results than in the past. So they're getting less CHANCE to be seen, causing a downward spiral effect!
Now, in the past I would just end/sell similar these listings. And VOILA, they would be shiny and new again, with promoted rates on par with the current 'default' suggested rate for sewing patterns. But recently (like within the past month????) I noticed something very troubling: The 'sell similar' listing page of a stale item I was trying to refresh still showed the inflated suggested ad rate!
Allow me to demonstrate. First I'll end one of these listings, the one currently suggested at 10%. Then go to Ended Listings. Then click 'Sell Similar.' Then see the item as a "new" listing on the creation page, as always before.
But of course we know it's NOT a new listing, and apparently Ebay has now programmed the bots to recognize that. See here, the suggested ad rate for this sewing pattern is still 10%!
So nowadays, doing this ^ would be a complete waste of time, as this listing would still be an "under-promoted" item. Granted, just having a start date of March 11 might make it go to the top of 'Newly listed' if a buyer used that sorting feature, but as someone stated here already, most buyers stick with 'Best Match.' And I want this to go to the top of that result page.
So what happens if I were to create a truly new listing, starting with the 'List An Item' button? Let's see.
Ah, there we go. 5% suggested ad rate, the apparent "default" for this category (and why I set all these to 4.5% back in January). But if I want to make allllll my "stale" listings truly new again, that means I'd have to copy-paste all their titles, descriptions, photos (I've already deleted all my sewing pattern photos from my computer btw, so I would have to two-step harvest them from these listings), and re-do allllll the horrendous item specifics. It wouldn't be too bad for the 7 or 8 stale sewing pattern listings I have, since after brand-new-creating the first one, I could use it for the 'sell similar' springboard to list the rest of them, but I have a bunch of other items over a month old that are the only ones in their categories, so I'd literally have to do all their item specifics one-by-one.
Now, for why this is even worse than you thought. When you do 'sell similar' using ANY item (not just Ended, but also Sold and Active ones), it will import the suggested ad rate for whatever that item has/had at the time. So say you acquire a truly new item and want to make it easier on yourself by using 'sell similar' of a truly similar item you're selling or already sold, if that item sat for any period of time before selling, this truly new item will be treated like that old one. And by the way, if you want an idea how FAST suggested rates can start climbing, see below. A couple of vintage brooches I listed just over a WEEK ago. The default suggested ad rate for vintage brooches is 6.8%. But look how high it has risen for these two, even though they've gotten a decent amount of views and even watchers!! Their suggested rates are spiking way faster than the sewing patterns did, because vintage brooches are so much more popular, therefore the expectation is higher that promoting at the default rate "should" have sold them by now (apparently). And if I used one of these to sell-similar-list a truly new, never previously-listed vintage brooch, it would have the same ridiculous 12 or 13% suggested rate.
So what I'm saying is, end/sell similar is basically off the table, you pretty much can't use it anymore, not for refreshing old listings, and not for creating new ones, unless you pick an old one that hasn't "crept" upwards already.
