eBay Sellers Have Questions and Objections to GTC Mandate

by: Sierra

Is there a possibility this is an attempt to BRING BACK AUCTIONS? And would that be a good thing?  

by: lancecorp

Bulk edit has been acting up - even when you bulk edit a group as small as 10 items and then edit them individually. Sometimes prices don't stick - nor does shipping. After working on 10 listings using bulk edit for over 20 minutes the other day - I cancelled the whole thing and went back later and edited and submitted them individually.

The tools are broken - view count still isn't fixed even tho we were told it was fixed 2 months ago.

by: salesrep1

Sierra brings up a good point the auctions listings make more of an urgency! The other factor is Google is disrupted every 30 days in placement so your item leaves the top placement on google each time u renew. As much as I forsee a billing problem is possible for those using up their monthly my guess is the counter will be in your sales hub you can check it out ? especially if you use up some free listings from the promotions?

by: 227272

My concern is that if I end GTC listings to coincide with my preferred schedule or timeframe, the out-of-control bots will slap me on the wrist (again) for supposed ''suspicious'' endings.

This happened to me in the past when I ended all of my BIN listings for vacation. One of the listings had previously had a question from a customer — no contact info or offer to sell off eBay — and because that listing was included with all the others I ended, the bot generated a warning and a demerit to my account. I have been afraid to end any listings early, for whatever reason, since then.   :(

by: frustrated

Okay GTC stinks.

GO to your ending today and END THEM. Don't get too used to this, soon they will find an "excuse" (cough cough) to stop showing you that, and you'll have to figure it out yourself.

THEY BROKE EBAY WHEN THEY DUMPED VOYAGER.

HELLO? THEY BROKE IT WHEN THE ADOPTED CASSINI.

Why do they think sellers call it CAN'T SEE ME?

If we can't see the listings, BUYERS (ya know the guys with money) can't see them either.

DOOOUHHHHHHH.

I can't figure out how these guys ever graduated high school, let alone college.

by: hawk

they are so money hungry that they only hire the people that has had NO EDUCATION at all.

it was nice when i grew larger and acquired larger buyers , but i never turned on all the smaller buyers that made my business grow in the first place. SHAME on the GREEDY ebay , so called leaders.

by: Chicago48

@Geoffreymason et al....I'm so tired of these policy changes.  They come every month don't they?  And it causes more stress and jitters - mainly about fees.  It's bad enough that the USPS increased postal rates, now we have to monitor our stores so that we don't go over the allotted amount and/or get charged for GTC listings.  I just wrote Eliot Management in Schaumburg, and I'm writing EB (won't get results).  Here's what I would like to do.....Pay ONE annual fee for the store, in my case $60(starter) and just let my stuff sit like it does on AMZ until it sells.  On AMZ I can cancel, end, close, change prices, change images, change titles, etc. etc. and I'm not charged for just letting it sit for years sometimes.  Ebay, just let me pay one yearly store subscription and LEAVE ME ALONE!

by: epuise

eBay wants you sitting at your computer, or, nose in your device, 24-7.
Answering all questions, shipping, immediately, and monitoring your unwanted GTC listings. The life of a Chinese sweatshop worker.

by: windsorbear

Well, I was going to never list anything again as soon as they assimilate me into managed payments... but if this is coming first, then this will also be a reason to not list anything, at least as far as "Buy It Now" goes.  While I really want to do a lot of "Spring Cleaning" in my house, and get rid of a ton of stuff, I guess I won't be doing it on eBay.  I think the old-fashioned yard sales are the best way to go.

by: moonmyst

To sasikat9: Wow, what a snotty comment to make: "Its the small sellers that like to try and game the system that this is directed at." Really?? I'm one of those small sellers who likes my listings to expire in 30 days. I have many items with expiration dates. I like to re-examine my keywords, my descriptions and my pricing so that my items will sell. I can't easily do that if the GTC policy happens. To say I'm "gaming the system" is a lie and and an insult to me. It's great that you're a large seller and can afford extra fees and whatever else that eBay throws at you. But shame on you for your high-and-mighty attitude!

by: spooky

I hate hate hate it! OK - I rarely end a listing early but when I do I get this warning from eBay that I might have to pay fees as if it sold. So if a potential buyer had asked a question about that item 2 weeks before but lost interest, would eBay assume I sold it to them? Also, there seems to be interest on the 29th day of a 30 day listing and I often sell items on day 29 but now I will need to be cancelling the listing on that day so I don't incur listing fees I don't want. Most of all - by having listings GTC the listings become stale. I used to buy a lot on eBay and I remember if seeing the same old item be listing over and over I would blank out on it.

by: Bidonmine

I constantly tweak my listings, usually every 30 days, in order to try various selling ideas. I do not want to list and forget on Ebay because, unlike Amazon, ebay charges a fee every 30 days (or subtracts from your "free" allotment). I also have rotating inventory where I list for 30 days and then wait 30 days to relist while another set of items is running. Since I list almost every day, there is no way to just bulk-end listings without my having to do a lot of extra work. I am so against this new policy.

by: Silver Ice King

@Lightening

You are incorrect that Wenig has not run his own business.  He took over his fathers pharmacy company and ran it into the ground and finally had to hire a CEO who knew what they were doing and he stepped away.  The company still is almost worthless except for one item that his father came up with that evidently keeps it in business, but he does have previous experience at running companies into the ground and that is exactly what he is doing with Ebay.  Either the man has no abilities at all or he is being paid off by somebody who is shorting the stock or who wants to take control of Ebay.  I truthfully believe that he has some type of golden parachute with China because every move he has made since that open letter from Elliott has been a major benefit to the Chinese Sellers, including this move.

by: mcposty

After GTC wait for the extra listing fees for stale listings to come into play as Ebay always wanted, so they can make even more money off not showing your items.

by: FidoMaster

Random Musings:

• Snapped - “One of Wenig's stated qoals during his most recent tap dance was to increase 'inventory'.   Having every FP listing that doesn't sell automatically relist is one way to compel that.”
Excellent point.

• Recall that in 2015 eBay tested a 10p fine for relisting items that had not sold for 18 months.

• Sierra - “Is there a possibility this is an attempt to BRING BACK AUCTIONS?”
Wenig would likely rather you auction OOAKs instead of listing fixed-price, but I wouldn’t characterize it as an attempt to “bring back” the heyday of auction format (eBay frequently boasts that 80% of items are ‘new’”).

• I wonder how many of the banal incessant complaining about “greedy activist investors” have actually read through the “Enhancing Ebay” proposal..

The importance of sellers is reiterated several times in the proposal, including the fact that Cohn’s mom has made her living selling jewelry on eBay for a decade: “[eBay] also provides a workplace for millions of sellers to earn a living. The marketplace is powered by these sellers, one of whom I’m proud to say is my mother, who has built a successful business selling jewelry on eBay for over a decade.” – Jesee Cohn, “Enhancing eBay”

• If eBay had concrete, material specifics to share with sellers regarding GTCs SEO and Google search ranking benefit they should have shared that. They didn’t, and I don’t believe they have anything new on that front.

by: cfrphoto

@Lightening
I am sure that I could learn to use the eBay Seller's Hub. While Seller's Hub changes will find their way back into the SixBit database, I would lose tracking capabilities built into the SQL script. Listings in the Reprice folder in the Items view are updated if the previous reprice was more than 30 days ago. If the minimum price is reached, the Item is not repriced. The date with the updated amount is added to the SixBit notes section of the Items record, making it possible to review price history. I sometimes increase prices of a few items to find out if buyers are paying attention. Sometimes, items sell after the price is increased. The eBay Seller's Hub is a blunt tool lacking refined search capability and an audit trail. Attempting to update too many listings will fail in the Seller's Hub. SQL Server, with transaction controls, will update all selected Items or fail. No partial updates. SQL Server can scale to thousands or millions or Items.

by: notfunanymore

Everyone! The party’s over. You should start considering you’re next move. All the execs need to do is hang in there until a buyout. They’ll tell you all you want to hear.. it’s going to get better for sellers, we are working on making it easier for sellers, we love sellers, they’re our partners, blah blah blah.  

by: RL15

from 2017;
A reader forwarded a copy of a letter they received from eBay:

Listings that haven't generated interest, after being active for a long time, can clutter the site and make it difficult for buyers to find what they're looking for. This can be unfair to other sellers when their listings are difficult to find. Therefore, we've done the following:

- We removed any listings that have been active for 1 year or longer without sales. A list of removed item(s) is available further down in this email.

- Any fees for listings that were ended early for not following policy won't be credited to your account.

We recommend that you don't relist these items unless you first take steps to improve the likelihood of sales. Please also make sure that items don't automatically relist. Listing fees may not be refunded for subsequent removals.

To increase the chance of your items selling in the future, we recommend that you consider the following best practices:

- Reduce the price of the item.

- Add images.

- Include pertinent item specifics.

- Offer free shipping.

- List the item using the Auction format.

by: toolguy

I have a plan!

I have a basic store, I use almost all of the free 250 fixed price listings each month.

So now the plan is to put the free 250 auctions to work, I'll just start my auction price at the price I want at BIN on my fixed price listings.

I can juggle this around and still have my cake and eat it too.

I refuse to let eBay beat me at their game. . . .

by: Lightning

@Tiffe Jasso
The 31 day months aren't as frightening as they sound.  If you did get double-billed in a 31 day month, it is because you started those listings on the 1st.  Just try to avoid that.  If those listings got double-billed, and you never touched them again, it would be almost 7 YEARS before those same listings would again hit a month where they get double-billed.  The biggest danger is getting double-billed, and then moving that listing in any way.  That just sets it up to be double-billed by random bad luck again.  It was safe for 7 years, and it got moved.  Not a good method.  If you have groups of listings that begin at different times, at least only a portion of the herd can be double-billed in any one month.

Do all your management (listing swapping, ending what you need to) toward the end of each month.  The renewal dates only creep forward one day at time on the seven 31 day months, and in February actually back up 2 days.  That's only a net of 5 monthly ''move ups'' per year.  So if you list something on the 25th, you have about 5 years before that listing becomes a problem.

I know it's little comfort, but if you have a store, you are not paying the full $.35 relist fee.  That ranges from $.30 to $.05 depending on the store size.