The latest un asked for message from ebay

[dirk12955]

Received this awhile ago.    What an amazingly wasted effort.    

Also 100%  inaccurate.

[dirk12955]

Every so often eBay will send a message that needs to be read and acted on.   Or maybe 

it's just some helpful info that I need to know.

How many times over the years have we seen ebay members with an issue coming to this 

board that if they had read their messages..........

[a_c_green]

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@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

Now that everyone is supposed to be committing to more AI, companies are struggling to find uses for AI,

The biggest Ebay AI use is annoying buyers and sellers with messages they do not want or need.

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Agreed, though I very much doubt that AI had any involvement in this particular instance. All eBay needs to do is search their database for sellers who have had no sale in the past 90 days... or sellers who have no current entries on their Sold Items page... there are probably many ways to pull up a list of sellers matching what they're looking for when compiling a mailing list for this message.

[quadcitypickers]

You seriously don't know how to screenshot? 

You literally printed this out and scanned it in, wasting ink, paper and electricity. 

[chapeau-noir]

eBay is filled with drek that people list and forget about, and its probably been accreting since the auto-GTC started. Poshmark and Mercari have the same problem. In fact, any marketplace with free listings does. Bandwidth is not infinite. 

The emotion on this thread over this small bit of housekeeping baffles me. 

[broto_64]

It doesn't make sense.

I have a basic store, back in the days there was a limit of 250 listings which was plenty for me, even now.
But now they have given us a THOUSAND free listings and they wonder why things aren't selling?

I'm going to take a wild guess here that some sellers are filling listing space for the purpose of filling listing space. Price it high so it doesn't sell right away, list multiples of the same item with small variations in the title, list stuff we strongly suspect won't sell... All these things are not attracting buyers, but ebay somehow believes that giving us MORE free listings is the right answer?

Maybe if we had limited listing availability we'd have to be more frugal with what we list.
I know, dumb idea.

[chapeau-noir]

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@broto_64 wrote:

It doesn't make sense.

I have a basic store, back in the days there was a limit of 250 listings which was plenty for me, even now.
But now they have given us a THOUSAND free listings and they wonder why things aren't selling?

I'm going to take a wild guess here that some sellers are filling listing space for the purpose of filling listing space. Price it high so it doesn't sell right away, list multiples of the same item with small variations in the title, list stuff we strongly suspect won't sell... All these things are not attracting buyers, but ebay somehow believes that giving us MORE free listings is the right answer?

Maybe if we had limited listing availability we'd have to be more frugal with what we list.
I know, dumb idea.

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I have suggested this in the past but it was decried as heresy. Now that all platforms I've ever sold on have free listings except for Etsy, there's nothing to be done about it. If sellers cannot be bothered to tend to their listings, leaving stuff to run year after year untouched like the musty old junk I see in "antique" malls, then eBay (as well as Mercari, now) are going to prod them. All that is requested (not required) is to have a look at old listings. Sheesh. 

[dirk12955]

Maybe reconfigure things so a listing times itself out.     Automatically 

renews every time you make a sale or revise,  But ends after a certain 

amount of time with no sales or revision.  90 days    365 days   1,000 days

If eBay sent a message that a listing was going to be ended before hand,  

A seller could keep up with it.

Would be a way to remove some of the stale stuff that got that way

for whatever reason.   

[toomuchstuffagain35]

I've had the same message.

Just sold something that was listed since 2019. That wasn't on the list and sold just fine TYVM.

[bgt_masters_of_tiki_d]

 I have old listings that routinely sell that were listed 4-5 years ago if not longer. Sometimes its a rarer part that takes just the right buyer but I sell a few of these items each and every week. If ebay plans in the future to start removing or deleting these items I am going to be really upset. Also getting these messages for every item that sits longer than 90 days is going to get annoying really fast. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

I'd prefer an email saying "Hey, we see you must have forgotten to update your flat rate shipping cost on these items".

[dirk12955]

I see I sold a set of stamps yesterday that were originally listed 

July 9th,  2023

Last revision was December 23rd, 2024 when I lowered the price.

So how long is too long?  26 months since it was listed?

Or  9 months since I lowered the price.

[broto_64]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@broto_64 wrote:

It doesn't make sense.

I have a basic store, back in the days there was a limit of 250 listings which was plenty for me, even now.
But now they have given us a THOUSAND free listings and they wonder why things aren't selling?

I'm going to take a wild guess here that some sellers are filling listing space for the purpose of filling listing space. Price it high so it doesn't sell right away, list multiples of the same item with small variations in the title, list stuff we strongly suspect won't sell... All these things are not attracting buyers, but ebay somehow believes that giving us MORE free listings is the right answer?

Maybe if we had limited listing availability we'd have to be more frugal with what we list.
I know, dumb idea.

---

I have suggested this in the past but it was decried as heresy. Now that all platforms I've ever sold on have free listings except for Etsy, there's nothing to be done about it. If sellers cannot be bothered to tend to their listings, leaving stuff to run year after year untouched like the musty old junk I see in "antique" malls, then eBay (as well as Mercari, now) are going to prod them. All that is requested (not required) is to have a look at old listings. Sheesh. 

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I know I have listings that haven't sold, I've looked at them 3, 4, 5 or 8 times by now. I don't want to look at them again, I know what they look like, I know it hasn't sold, why would I even bother with the 10th of the same message from ebay? Now don't get me wrong, but ebay isn't helping us when they keep sending us the same old messages all the time, we all get to the point I don't hardly read the title of the message... 
Ebay message?
Delete.
I literally have filters on my email that auto-delete most ebay emails, because they are junk to me.
Hey you shipped your item!
Yeah, I know, I shipped it myself can you believe that?
You paid for a shipping label on ebay, congratulations on your purchase!
Yeah, gee thanks again.
Your item has SHIPPED!
Yeah no kidding, really?

Just to make matters worse the dropshippers also send me insipid messages.
Oh hey we noticed your item has ARRIVED omg OMG no way hey.... hey don't mean to bother but...
Can you leave us FIVE STAR FEEDBACK NOW?!

Yeah...

I get so tired of it.

Or the dropshippers who "hey if there's a problem please don't open a return / file for INR, but contact us first so we will make it right!?
Uh....

The sad of it, ebay still thinks MORE spam is the answer!
They call it "communication."
"Better communication" are the actual words, but in truth it turns into good old SPAM.
Spam = Messages I don't want.

The worst are in the ebay inbox, can't filter those, have to delete them manually, I bet there are sellers whose ebay inbox is FULL (literally) if such a thing is even possible.

[broto_64]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

I'd prefer an email saying "Hey, we see you must have forgotten to update your flat rate shipping cost on these items".

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Yeah, actually...
Or "Your item is priced far below the average, you are literally leaving money on the table. We hope this message has reached you in time as in before it sells because your item could sell for so much more."
Maybe then tell us how much we could sell it for (and have the algorithm double check itself that the suggested price is in fact at least 10% higher than the actual listed price).
This kind of thing should actually happen at the point of listing, like when we click submit.

Holy wow am I dreaming good now?
Ebay is in this perpetual race to the bottom, which is how I know I'm definitely dreaming.

I am telling you, I must've done some good drugs when I was young. 
Maybe that last sentence gets me in trouble for even mentioning mind altering chemicals.
What a world we live in.

[mam98031]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

I'd prefer an email saying "Hey, we see you must have forgotten to update your flat rate shipping cost on these items".

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@toomuchstuffagain35 

Then make that suggestion to Ebay.  We all have the ability to make suggestions right from the email.  

Once you answer that question a screen comes up where you can send them feedback regarding this new email.  There you can make the suggestions you think would make this more beneficial for you.  I do however suggest this is not the place for venting.  Those that read these at Ebay are just collecting your data and didn't cause you to feel negatively about the email.

[budthoothme]

Easy to be critical.

Better to be helpful.

I see you forgot that last part.