What is the best duration to use?

[starwizblue2]

I recently upgraded to a store in December so now have the option to list for 30 days or GTC.  I have always used 10 days but was wondering which is the best duration to use.

Is it better to end the listing every 10 days so that people who search by ending soonest will see it more or is it better to use one of the others. I read somewhere that GTC puts you higher on the best match search..is this right?

thanks for any advice

[i-love-my-sheep]

I don't have a store, but I think with GTC you get to keep your sales history and watchers, whereas relisting every 30 days, you would lose that. Someone with a store should be along soon, but I think that's how it works.

[chameleon54]

With good till cancelled, your listings automatically relist until they sell out or you cancel them manually. This saves a lot of time relisting unsold items. As sheep says you retain your selling history and watchers and this can help to push your items up to the top of searches if they are consistent sellers. The flip side of this is that if they are not all that popular they can slowly sink into oblivian if they dont have a strong selling history etc. Many store owners regularly cancel their slow moving listings in bulk when ebay offers free listings to stores and relist them to push up the rankings again.

[clarry100]

We use GTC on all our BIN listings.

We have tried the method you suggest Chamelion with sluggish sellers and it did not seem to work for us.

But the opposite is very true.

If we happen to get a run on a particular item we can see it goes high up in the search results.

Then they will sell like hot cakes for a while, maybe some days.

Then just as suddenly all stops again. So I think they only give you so much time up there and then turn off the taps.

[lane-ends]

A lot depends if you are using acturately priced multiples, or single items that dont have set values, as in my case. I use 30 day, then revise pricing each relist. Otherwise you can set price wrong and it goes round and round with little interest.

[chameleon54]

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@clarry100 wrote:

We use GTC on all our BIN listings.

We have tried the method you suggest Chamelion with sluggish sellers and it did not seem to work for us.

But the opposite is very true.

If we happen to get a run on a particular item we can see it goes high up in the search results.

Then they will sell like hot cakes for a while, maybe some days.

Then just as suddenly all stops again. So I think they only give you so much time up there and then turn off the taps.

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I have several of my best selling items that have stayed at number one spot in searches and sales for well over 12 months straight. They have each had over 1000 views ( one heading for 2000 ) and have several dozen watches. Theres no doubt that if you can hold onto the top spot it improves sales no end and this helps an item stay at the top spot. My field is not as heavily contested as baby gear, so this certainly helps and probably reduces the chance of the items being rotated with other sellers. ( from China ? )  

[clarry100]

Yeah its the Chinese sellers who flood our category that give us the biggest problem.

However, if you can ignore those (and the default search filter really should be AU-only... another story) then we would be very close to the top of the results most of the time.

Going by feedback rates of increase we are the 2nd highest Aussie-based seller. This is after almost 3-years selling in this category. So we are travelling OK so far.

Buyers ought to be able to set AU-only filter in their preferences and it will stick. But no it reverts back to ALL each time you search. And ebay will never change that as to do so would cut down sales by these Chinese sellers and of course their income. Although having said that, if buyers were not buying from the Chinese sellers they would possibly be buying from us and since our prices are higher then takings from fees should also be higher you would think.

[funkyflamingo*]

I agree with you Clarry, it's bloody annoying when you put in a search, and click onto AU items only, and then you want to search for another item, and again having to click on the filter AU.
I now give up searching, as I only want to buy from Australia. It's time wasting , and I just don't have the patience.