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.

[englishrosegardens]

"Why would anyone use ending soonest for BIN items?" 

The answer to that is that most buyers don't have a degree in mathematics or in logic, or they have their own reasons for doing it (I sometimes do it myself).  I often sell 30-day BIN items in my store that are due to end within the next few minutes or the next few hours.  I sell a lot more from listings that are just about to end than I do from listings that have just started, which shows that some people do look that way.  I have a friend who's had the same experience with her 7-day non-store BIN items.  We both know that some buyers don't understand the difference between BIN and auctions, ie. that with BIN you get it "now" and you don't have to wait for it to end.

If you're browsing in a category where a lot of the listings are store items on gtc, you'll only see the non-gtc items in newly listed (unless they're a brand new listing), and the only place to see the gtc items is in ending soonest, unless you want to scroll through perhaps dozens or hundreds of pages to get to the ones that were listed more than 30 days ago.

There's a category that I browse on a fairly regular basis but if I haven't looked for a while I have a look in ending soonest as well as newly listed, especially if it's a category that's got a good mix of store and non-store items.  I don't think it pays to assume anything about how buyers browse or search because everyone is different.

There are times when it's good to keep your watchers for as long as possible and this is a good reason to use 30 days, but it depends on your product.  I watch the odd thing that I don't need for a few months yet and if the listing keeps ending and relisting I have to continually watch the relisted item in my watchlist, and many of them end up dropping off my list because I can't always be bothered updating them.  To give an extreme example of this, if someone selling packaging had their listings on 10 days rather than 30 I'd be constantly having to re-watch it, but if they had it on 30 days I would only have to do it once a month.  The other thing to consider is that some people watch an item of yours that's least likely to sell, simply so they can keep an eye out for what else you list.  They could follow you instead but it's more anonymous to watch.

[davidc4430]

i didnt ask 'why would anyone use ending soonest for BIN items'.

[englishrosegardens]

I know you didn't. I just clicked on the last post because I was replying to two different things, the last paragraph being more general and not aimed at anyone in particular. My quote at the start made it obvious what my first paragraphs were about and it wasn't just replying to one person's post - several people have made comments about ending soonest.

I had planned on replying to your comment about expecting immediate payment but decided not to bother because this has been discussed ad nauseum in the past.

[5kazam]

I did a check today and there are 4917 listings in Australian Pottery (Other).  It is a difficult enough category to get sales at the best of times. 

But with that number of listings I think that is why my thoughts (subconscious?!) went in the direction of my OP. 

I will look forward to your input again once the 30 day listings have had time to have an effect either way.

[casbit33]

I was of the opinion that if you use 30 day listings, then when they relist they come off your free 40 and then you get charged a listing fee for any more that you have. Is that correct?  I'm sure I read it on these boards somewhere so I decided to stick to 10 days.

[5kazam]

No, the new 30 day listing (with 3 free auto relists) does not come out of your 40 when they relist.  It's the same as when you list for 7 or 10 days with auto relists, the relists do not come off the 40.

It's only the initial listings that come off the 40.

[casbit33]

thanks so much, I was afraid to use it as someone said it does and I thought it would cost too much

[247newdeals]

Personally I think 30 days and GTC have 2 uses the main one is for people who sell multiple units of an item the second is for sellers who are not to  bothered if an item sells and is happy to wait until it does but does not want the bother of re-listing.

My way of looking at things is it really does not matter what others think I will look for ideas but at the end of the day all I want is what works for ME and I try different things and see what results I get

[stephystarfish]

I'm just a small seller (clearing out my wardrobe) and listed one of my items for 30 days last month. It actually got less views than my 7 & 10 day listings for the first 2 weeks or so. It has more views now but I don't think I'll be using it much.

[davewil1964]

I cannot understand what the point of counting views is.

The more views, the more people who looked and DIDN'T buy. And if they are visible to prospective buyers, the said prospects will know that few/many didn't like it enough to buy.

I sell stuff with NO views and that doesn't upset me at all.