Tips On How To Adapt To Good Til Cancelled for Fixed Price Listings

[18704d]

Any positive thoughts? What is your strategy going to be to continue selling with fixed price listings here?

Yes I know many say they won't be able to do this, that it'll harm or end their ability to continue selling on eBay; but many of us are making enough profits to absorb this change.

How will non-store sellers with 100 or less FP listings be affected? 50 or less listings?

From what I can see, instead of using 50 'free' 30 day listings, sellers will have to pay 35 cents or so on the beginning of the month. Right?

Shouldn't small sellers be able to absorb those extra 50 fees at 35 cents each?
How will you adapt to this?

Thanks
Lynn

[castlemagicmemories]

In my musings on this, I wonder if the rationale is that in order to increase sales velocity, to avoid having items relist, sellers would need to lower prices?  And this is more incentive to do that?  

[poppyswag]

Many of us will try workarounds and adjustments but morale and incentive are low. I see many sellers falling off the ebay wheel of fortune/misfortune with this spin. They will probably make just as much from streamlining the flow and the gotcha relists.

[noodlevette]

I think for me the solution will be to have fewer listings so if I am not on top of it one day / have a health issue / stuck working late / sick grandkids.. and they auto renew -I don't exceed my allotment for the month.   

But- I think I will try the "end a day early" method initially. 

Still have not decided how I will handle listing.  I like to list / relist a few every day.   Now I think I will have to list or relist everything on the 1st, end everything on the 29th.  Some months have 31 days. 

I'm not sure I have the time to obsess about ending them on day 29.    Maybe I will have time though, thinking it through, since I will obviously not spend as much time creating "new" listings.  

I think I will have to loose about half my listings to get under the "safe if relists" number.  It took me time to create those and I'm not happy about the prospect of the excess going "poof" at the 60 day point, but summer is coming anyway, more time for the garden and grand kids.  

[jtro8059]

To add, I've figured out a better way, to list half my items the beginning of the month, and half at the the end of the month, replacing sold listing at the end of the next month, so it will be years before the 1st to 31st scenario would make me go over. I am going to look at other options in the meantime. 🙂

[lindyslucky]

Love your attitude.

Your strategy is what we will aim for also.

We like to list pretty steadily, give some things a rest, keep up as much as we can. 

All of that goes out the window, profits are now way too slim to even take a chance on more fees.

We will have to stick to listing on certain days, canceling on specific days.

While using promoted listings has shaken out a few extra sales, the fees are such that ebay is making as much as we are.

The time for the garden & grandkids is great!!!

But isn't it odd that the $$ you have been making is so minuscule that you never mentioned the effect of losing it?

Best of luck!!  

[jobs-7]

I'm looking forward to this change taking place.  If half of the people on here claiming they are quitting Ebay actually quit, there will be a lot less competition for those of us who think this isn't much of a big deal.  BTW, I have almost 2,000 listings across 2 stores.  

[noodlevette]

   Oh I will miss the income, with half the listings I anticipate half the sales, but not much I can do to change it.  

   I started selling here to downsize a lifetime of "stuff" so my daughter was not stuck doing it.   The wrinkle was in searching comps I would find other items I liked, so I end up spending my sales proceeds on someone elses downsizing attempt.    I just choose to look at the positive- if I don't sell as much I won't buy as much.   

[tellmemama]

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@18704d wrote:

"Small sellers may be able to absorb those fees, but then again, they may not; ..."

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Yes, there's a couple examples above 'doing the math' to show how it can impact  lower cost listings.

So will this mean that some sellers will have to drop some listings which have a lower profit margin?   And only list those that have the potential to stay unsold on eBay for a few months, until the right buyer(s) come along?

?

Lynn

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In other words, is eBay backhandedly deciding that low profit items may no longer be a good fit on this site?  If so, do they realize most sellers with any experience know high priced items no longer fit either because the risk of losing them to scammers is too great?  Just take a moment and think about all of the rarities that never see the light of eBay.  So if they don't want us offering anything too "cheap" and leave us out to dry with anything too "expensive", what exactly is left?

For a company seemingly all about the money, they sure are turning it away.

[lindyslucky]

We hear you!! Inherited, collected, closed our B&M store...lots to sell.

And oh yes, I liked to buy. 

A lot of times, I probably barely broke even for the month.

That stopped (Stopped!) a couple of years ago as sales fell.

But, looking at my favorite categories yesterday, I was surprised to see how prices have gone up.

Sadly most seems to be the effect of shipping costs.

The ebay % & slow sales have cut the $$  we were making more than the number of items we have listed.

[buyselljack2016]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

With 50 free listings I will have no relisting fee with the GTC policy.

The odds of me hitting a 1st-31st relist are slim, and I will monitor it to make sure it does not happen.

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Strategy for this will be to not list during the first few days of the month. Ideally  not before the 15th.  That will reduce the chance of an item being listed 2 times in the same month. Many already are far enough into the month that it will take over a year to hit a 1-31 list. 

Wife has some that list selectively now. (slow, slow sellers that have always waited for a freebie sprout) (missed the last one thinking there was another day to list) She will have to monitor the listings more as she gets the promos, and maintains on average, about 100 listings.

As some others have posted in threads, back in the day we paid a fee for all the listings, and the extra photos. Some of the low selling price items could not stand the fees to relist them.

[xray731]

In my 20 yrs here - every time an update comes along that people are upset with - someone comes on and says great - leave - my sales will increase. Guess what - it's never happened - because when sellers leave - you and I lose them as buyers. And we're talking about good buyers who know the rules - don't try to take advantage of the MBG or getting something for free because they know what it feels like.

Each and every passing update - my sales continue to fall and not because I don't adjust, change up what I sell, how I sell ect… Ebay has lost the edge - they spent too much time trying to copy everyone else instead of sticking to what made Ebay unique.

My question which has still not been answered by anyone is why is GTC now the way to go? Why for 15+ yrs have I been told not to use GTC for my items as they are OOAK - why did Ebay make a big deal of getting rid of all the old GTC listings that people hadn't updated? No site has the technical problems Ebay does. No site back tracks as much as Ebay does - you can't have watermarks, you can't use GTC if inventory isn't selling, you have to use the product catalog - and yet they have backtracked on each and everyone. They really do not know what they are doing. They are pitching a good line now - most of the vloggers are rolling with it - it's the next great thing since sliced bread - not.

While items may show up more in google search - very little traffic was received due to google search - you can check your stats - again - you may be on the first page or last page of google search - and google shopping is a totally different entity in itself - being found in google search does not mean a seller's items will be seen in google shopping

[noodlevette]

Interesting thought.  We can't be the only two using our ebay sales money to buy on ebay.  

I wonder if anyone has ever looked at THAT data.  

I know I am afraid to list expensive or pricey to ship items because of the increased fraud, have noticed there are fewer of those items I am interested in available from other sellers as well, I suppose there will be even less available now.    

I really can't think of any way other than to cut the number of listings to under the "safe if relists" amount, and I know it can't sell if it isn't listed.   Sales and traffic just are not strong enough here anymore to warrant any upgrade or extra listing fees.   

Maybe the sellers that are also buyers have something to do with that.   

[iwaroaddog]

I have to think about this for myself.    I just don't know.   I can't afford to post on Amazon.   And I haven't found another good platform.   Will definitely have to think about this.   

[poppyswag]

So I guess ending soonest is a thing of the past? 

[moms**art**window**]

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

In my musings on this, I wonder if the rationale is that in order to increase sales velocity, to avoid having items relist, sellers would need to lower prices?  And this is more incentive to do that?  

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You are probably right BUT many one of a kind's don't work like that,it's very often the right buyer & right price combo = sale 

right price without right buyer = no sale