30 day listings – I’m interested to know what others think

[5kazam]

Yesterday I cancelled a few of my auction listings and re-listed them BIN for 30 days, incl. the 3 auto re-lists, thinking this is great, 120 days, yeah!!  I didn’t have any views at all in the next 24 hours.

Then I thought this morning, that as a lot of buyers sort by ‘ending soonest’, my listings are only going to get a foot in the door in the last week of each month.

So I popped in to revise those listings back to 7 days (incl auto re-lists).  Went out for a couple of hours, and when I came back all of those items had views on them.

The way I see it (now) is that no-one is going to scroll through hundreds of pages to finally get to something that is going to end in (say) 26 days.  And unless buyers type in a specific line in the search bar, those listings are not going to show up any time soon.

The 30 day listings may be great for some sellers, depending on what they sell and in which category, but this little black duck won’t be going down that track again.

Interested in others opinions on the 30 day listings.

[oddsandendsoz]

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@5kazam wrote:

Yesterday I cancelled a few of my auction listings and re-listed them BIN for 30 days, incl. the 3 auto re-lists, thinking this is great, 120 days, yeah!!  I didn’t have any views at all in the next 24 hours.

Then I thought this morning, that as a lot of buyers sort by ‘ending soonest’, my listings are only going to get a foot in the door in the last week of each month.

So I popped in to revise those listings back to 7 days (incl auto re-lists).  Went out for a couple of hours, and when I came back all of those items had views on them.

The way I see it (now) is that no-one is going to scroll through hundreds of pages to finally get to something that is going to end in (say) 26 days.  And unless buyers type in a specific line in the search bar, those listings are not going to show up any time soon.

The 30 day listings may be great for some sellers, depending on what they sell and in which category, but this little black duck won’t be going down that track again.

Interested in others opinions on the 30 day listings.

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That's an interesting point! A lot of sellers seem to have been very quiet in terms of sales recently, and this could be a partial factor in that as the 30 day listings are fairly new.

On my own selling i.d.'s page views definitely seem down, but that could be partly due to having a couple of good months recently and am more likely to be being throttled currently. I think you have a point though. I may experiment on my own listings and change a few to 7 listing also!

[saarzi]

As a buyer, I never sort for 'ending soonest' in most categories any more, because all the good stuff is long gone by the time it comes close to ending. Its usually the dregs left over, and it was a waste of time. Sorting by 'newly listed' you will always have more choice.

Secondly as a buyer, auctions **bleep** me. People push up the price by bidding early, and I have to wait til it finishes, which could be days. I will always go to "Buy it now", so I dont have to wait and I know the price, and just buy it, or not. I only look at auctions if its an item i REALLY need and its not available elsewhere.  So, "ending soonest' isnt as relevant, and, as above.

As a seller, I list all my stuff for 30 days. I used to list everything as 7 days, but my tests found that having a longer history and more views on an item pushes it up in search and in turn gets it evenmore views. Obviously over 30 days an item will get more views than it would have done in 7 days, chance of it actually selling increases.

Secondly, I can list way more this way, and not have to pay for a larger store.

[5kazam]

I agree with sort by 'newly listed'.  But how long does an item remain as 'newly listed'?

As far as auctions v BIN, I used to have all my listings as BIN.  That worked for a while, then nothing.  So changed all to auction, that worked for a while, then nothing much.  Which is why I started to change back to BIN.

I do think it does come down to category a lot.  

Which is why I would rather 7x4 = 28 days in lieu of 30x4 = 4 months.  At least my listings will have a 'newly listed' for however long, and be amongst 'soonest ending' once each week for a month.

I don't have a store but I'm happy with the 40 free and the occasional promo.  

[englishrosegardens]

I very much doubt that the duration would have anything to do with how many views you get in newly listed.  I find views are generally down on a Friday any time, but I don't take a lot of notice of views because I've had as many as 8 views showing while a listing is still scheduled and not even live.  Once upon a time the figures were accurate but not in the last few months.  Sometimes I think ebay deliberately does it to kid us into thinking people are showing interest. The only thing that counts to me is sales - not views and not watchers.  The ones that sell often have very few views and no watchers so I don't waste my time trying to analyse them.

Depending on the type of products you sell and what duration your competitors are using, 30 days could work if you spread your listings out to start over the whole month.  That way you'll always have something showing in ending soonest and newly listed, and if your products are mostly in one category then hopefully people will click on your other items.  On one ID I've put a few on 30 days (one starting every day of the month, hopefully eventually two instead of one) and the rest on 10 days.  I use 10 days instead of 7 mainly to save myself work.

It's all a case of horses for courses.  One thing I do get annoyed at is listings on 3 days because I see the same stuff over and over again in newly listed and it turns me off looking at all.

[imastawka]

It's all a case of horses for courses.  One thing I do get annoyed at is listings on 3 days because I see the same stuff over and over again in newly listed and it turns me off looking at all.

And the free relists keep on popping up in 'newly listed' as well  -  PITA for a buyer

[englishrosegardens]

Yep, but if we don't do it nothing will sell. I don't mind the better class stuff popping up over and over, it's the junk I object to. One person's junk is another person's treasure, of course, but there ARE limits!  It's how often they pop up that can be annoying.

[5kazam]

I think you missed the point I was trying to make.  And I didn't do them on a Friday (actually avoid eBay on Friday's if I can - too many 'technical issues', 'error' messages, etc.....)

All I was saying that (for me anyway) listing for 30 days was not going to have my listings anywhere near the first few pages until near the end of the month, if sorting by 'ends soonest'.  Or as Stawka said relists put items up as 'newly listed', if sorting that way.  Yes, I could schedule to list one a day, but I've also found that most people who buy in my category usually do so on weekends.  But hey, if the 30 days works for you - great!

I'm also very much aware that eBay put 'views' in when there is no possibility of that happening, eg. your example of scheduled listings. Seen it too many times. 

But to me it's interesting that yesterdays (Saturday) 30 day listings did not have one view, yet when changed to 7 day with relist, there were views in a short period of time (could have been eBay 'views', but I don't think so).  If eBay are wanting to promote the 30 day listing for non-stores, you'd think they would pop a few views in to make people think it's the way to go.

[pennyforum14]

If you were listing auctions, then I'd say there is some merit in listing for shorter periods so buyers don't have as long to wait.  You get the best of both worlds, it comes up in newly listed and by the time it drops off that list, it has come up on Ending soon. 

But with BUY NOW, there is no correlation.  Buyers never have to wait for BN items, they know what they will pay and can buy at any time. 

[englishrosegardens]

I did actually get the point. I realised afterwards that you were talking about Saturday rather than Friday but it was too late to edit.

As for getting the point about not getting seen much in either newly listed or ending soonest when on 30 days, that's why I suggested people spread their listings out - so that buyers would always see one (or some) of your listings whenever they look.

If you have enough free listings not to need to use 30 days then fine, but for anyone who wants to list more than their freebies allow, using 30 days is one way to do it, and spreading them out is the only way to prevent them having a really dead patch in the middle of the 30 days.