EBAY'S NEW HEALTH CHECK - I think it is seriously SICK!!

[6508.froggy]

Just received eBay's latest assistance to sellers *Ebay's NEW HEALTH CHECK* .

This may be old news but they are moving timed BUY IT NOW and will move all my listings to GOOD TIL CANCELLED. Well that is not what I want but then again we have no say. 

This does not suit me for many reasons with something new I like to use 10 days as an option. The rest are 30 day listings which gives me the option to adjust the listings if they are not attracting buyers or watches. I will sometimes group them with other items etc. 

I find the 30 day listings far more manageable for my business needs. 

So if all fixed listings are good til cancelled I dare say the next step will be for those with ebay stores will be reduced with the amount of fixed listings in their subscription. 

Good til cancelled also means there will be a hell of a lot of old stock on there for years or if I remember correctly they were bringing in limited time for listings.

I have had my vent but OH SO FRUSTRATING makes me wonder why I am doing this. 

[imastawka]

---

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
"Fixed price listings are set to Good 'Til Cancelled duration by default. This means your item will be listed on eBay until it sells or you end it."

That doesn't actually say that we won't be charged every month. It doesn't say we will, but nor does it say we won't. All it talks about is the duration, nothing whatsoever in relation to fees.

---

There are no relisting fees if you stick to your allocation.

[countessalmirena]

(5kazam, this isn't to you - it's just a general comment.)

I'm a buyer. I no longer buy anywhere near as frequently on eBay as I once did. One of the main reasons that I no longer buy on eBay as frequently (and for the high amounts) as I once did is that eBay's search results are engorged with Chinese listings, to the point that I would spend more time trying somehow to exclude those irrelevant listings than actually browsing through listings of items that I would potentially buy.

Another of the reasons is that eBay no longer has the range of weird and wonderful items that it once did, particularly with collectables and antiques. Many of the sellers from whom I purchased no longer sell on eBay as eBay changed.

Many of the results are not as relevant for me any longer.

As I think about it, it's plain to me that eBay's move to becoming more and more a place to buy new items, squeezing out private eBay members selling their own estate things or items that they've picked up on weekend antique markets, and that sort of thing, has distanced eBay from my buying preferences.

I am not saying that eBay didn't need to change. It needed to remain viable in a changing global economy where online shopping became more mainstream - I acknowledge that. But eBay had something that other online marketplaces didn't - and it's (at least to some extent) lost that. It is continuing along that line...

Technologically speaking, the load from non-store sellers selling things that haven't sold for a while is negligible. It wouldn't realistically be a factor in a company of this size and with its resources. In particular, as many images are hosted off-site, its architecture simply calls images and probably many functions. I confidently strike out "load" as a factor for eBay apparently wishing to get rid of "stale" items.

I think it's primarily that eBay wants to look as though it is ensuring that content is fresh. It's all about perception, not reality. Realistically speaking, stores carrying their products are going to have those products constantly available as long as they have stock, and that is hard to fit into a "we only do fresh" scenario.

The point could be made that most of those items attract regular sales, and that's of course a valid point if eBay only wants to be a mall for popular items. If eBay only ever allows the most popular items to be encouraged on eBay, that will mean shrinking of products that sell less frequently, and this is precisely the issue that I fear is going to mean buyers becoming frustrated at the promise if "Seriously, We Have Everything". It's precisely the reason why those who - like me - have Type I or Type II skin (the fairest/palest) find it difficult to get the right shade of foundation. It's precisely the reason why anyone who isn't a stock size (more petite or more plus) finds clothing that fits properly hard to find. It's precisely the reason why anyone who wants a particular brand that isn't stocked in Australia hard to find. It's precisely the reason why collectors of US military history items find those items hard to find in Australia. It's precisely the reason why some collectors of magazines are prepared to pay over the odds if they happen to pounce upon exactly the item they want. I could go on... and on... but I think my point is made.

... That is, we are all different and have different passions and different physiques and different styles and different wants.

As eBay continues along the road of forcing encouraging eBay sellers into by and large listing only the things that will sell quickly and often, quite a lot of buyers may feel a slight annoyance with eBay (for different reasons, but overall because they cannot get what they want on eBay when it comes to the harder-to-find things). That annoyance only has to be stoked a few times before it becomes a harder thing, like a lump under the skin. Over time, that annoyance may become so strong that it could drive buyers of the popular items away from eBay if they can possibly find the items they're looking for elsewhere.

I think eBay needs the unique things. I don't mind (in the slightest) seeing items that have been listed for a year or more. I do rather mind when so many irrelevant and probably fake items clog up my search that eBay puts the onus on me to come up with ways of filtering my search. I would personally like to see all items from Chinese sellers able to be filtered out with a simple selection box but eBay isn't about to do that.

There are different foci for different people. I am sorry to see this new change for sellers, not only because I think it will once again reduce the weird and wonderful on eBay - particularly items which I lovingly have listed in my watch list with the intention of possibly one day giving in and buying them - but also because I think the weird and wonderful is a feature that attracts some sorts of buyers to eBay. Other buyers will come for the new items, searching for the best price. Still others will come for others reasons. Both sides contending here have points to make, and both sides have valid arguments. But making slow-selling goods no longer viable to list only hurts us all, but especially those who, like me, are buyers of things that aren't quick-selling, readily available, and in high demand.

[*stuff*books*]

I haven't used the re-list option for months and have just manually re=listed them or if if I wanted them more as a "new" item I've

been using the Similar listing option,(seems to get a few more clicks compared to just re-listing them).

Others I'll leave for a week or more and reschedule them to start on a different day/time.

Lately I've sold 7 items on eBay and 23 on FB,(14 of the 23 items where listed on eBay but sold on FB).

I only have a few items for sale at one time so I'll see how they go with the GTC'd and may have to end them early and relist using

the similar option to make them "fresh".

[5kazam]

While I was having dinner, the thought kept coming to me that all this GTC issue is about creating a level playing field for all sellers (not including the O/S sellers, of course, because they've got their own eBay field to play on - no rules, and the umpire firmly on their side).  Oh, and more money naturally.

But then George Orwell kept coming into my mind, you know Big Brother and all that, and the line of 'some people are more equal than others'.

Then I remembered I've always had Orwellian thoughts in relation to how eBay operates.

So maybe this is a plan to eradicate the small seller, the ones who have the unique and one-off items that you mention. 

[joshbower]

Is there any way to check which listings are checked to relist automatically without loading them all one by one? I don't have a store so I get 40 free listings per month but I have 700 odd active listings. I lost the auto-relist box a little while ago but I know some of my current items still had it ticked with a few relists left to go. I don't want them to auto relist and suddenly charge me insertion fees. Even though ebay seems to be saying this won't happen it looks like it has already happened to a few of you. Do I have to revise all 700 listings individually to check for the little box or is there a faster way? I've clicked revise on a few and can see some with the box and some without but is there a way to filter them?

[wide-world-of-stamps]

---

@joshbower wrote:

Is there any way to check which listings are checked to relist automatically without loading them all one by one? I don't have a store so I get 40 free listings per month but I have 700 odd active listings. I lost the auto-relist box a little while ago but I know some of my current items still had it ticked with a few relists left to go. I don't want them to auto relist and suddenly charge me insertion fees. Even though ebay seems to be saying this won't happen it looks like it has already happened to a few of you. Do I have to revise all 700 listings individually to check for the little box or is there a faster way? I've clicked revise on a few and can see some with the box and some without but is there a way to filter them?

---

Not that I could find.

Using seller hub was a bit easier in that I could load more than one to edit at a time, but still had to go through them all 1 by 1 (yes, over 700 on our non-store ids - luckily we lost the auto relist on this id quite a while ago!).

[digital*ghost]

---

@5kazam wrote:

While I was having dinner, the thought kept coming to me that all this GTC issue is about creating a level playing field for all sellers (not including the O/S sellers, of course, because they've got their own eBay field to play on - no rules, and the umpire firmly on their side).  Oh, and more money naturally.

But then George Orwell kept coming into my mind, you know Big Brother and all that, and the line of 'some people are more equal than others'.

Then I remembered I've always had Orwellian thoughts in relation to how eBay operates.

So maybe this is a plan to eradicate the small seller, the ones who have the unique and one-off items that you mention. 

---

I'm happy to be among the first to call ebay out on questionable policies, ethics and other initiatives, but I am actually struggling to assign deeply sinister motives to this one, or see how this move will be of great detriment to anyone, outside the potential costs due if there are no bonus freebies to be had etc.

I understand that for a lot of sellers, that might be no small thing, I'm not trying to downplay or dimiss that as such, but I am approaching this with the mindset that free listings (beyond 40 per month for non-store sellers) aren't an entitlement, and people would rage at the loss of them regardless of whether it coincided with this initiative, so that's why I wanted to put that aside for a moment. I am also not saying that the transition has been perfect, or that there's nothing wrong with how it's all going so far.

What I am trying to say, or rather ask, what is the benefit of listings having cycles, outside of billing applications? I am fully prepared to accept that there's something I'm just not seeing, but if the billing was taken out of the equation for a moment, what other issues are created by listings being GTC? i.e. What is being lost? I'm not trying to be an ignorant jerk, I'm genuinely curious. 

One of the reasons I ask, is because the entire concept of a listing being there until sold / removed, is not new, it's in fact how many similar sites work (the A site in particular, who ebay continue to emulate, though casual sellers don't get any continual freebies from them, AFAIK). 

[casbit33]

no one is making you have a store - that's your choice. If you don't want to pay a store fee, then don't have a store

But don't put down the non-store holders - they have as much right to be here as you do.

And who says someones items are more important than someone elses.

All I want is a level playing field, where everyone is treated with respect.

[jfmgray]

Also not a major issue for me that can't be worked around a bit but for me all GTC listings create a few "inconveniences" and additional effort .  I have a featured store btw.

1. 30 day listings give me the opportunity to review my unsold items and tweak before I relist (which is normally a price reduction) or possibly not relist at all (and off to the salvos).  GTC means that I have to review listings before they roll over to a new listing which will require more diligence. 

2. Previously if I had multiples of the same item I would list as GTC.  This would be approx 30% of all my active listings with the remainder being 30 days.  I have the out of stock option selected to keep the history of my GTC listings.  Now the "one-off" items will also be GTC so I either will have to manually end the listing once sold or turn off the Out of Stock option as I do not want to be paying rollover fees for items that I am unlikely to obtain futher volume but would lose my history on multiples once stock ticked to zero. This of course would not be an issue if there were no rollover fees for GTC then I would leave on the Out of Stock option.

Its not the first and won't be the last time sellers will need to tweat their practice to better magane business once change occurs.