The "Good till Cancelled" fiasco has begun for me.

[shoppingbag*]

I am a non store owner. Yesterday I had 40 free listings. Today I have 39 yet I have not listed anything. One of my sales came to an end and now sits at the bottom of the listings with a "relist item" button, which informs me that "this item didn't automatically reslist".

Investigating and getting the item number for the so-called used free listing, brings up this very item, which tells me that the item is relisted with "good till cancelled" Doing a general search for it, and yes, it is indeed relisted, but does not show as such in my items for sale. I wonder what would happen if I went to relist this item from my sales list and if it would then show as another free listing used. I have not received any email from eBay regarding these changes, nothing at all.

Your thoughts please.

[dazzledayz]

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@bluebudgies wrote:
Surely that can't be too hard to figure out. If the original listing date is 17 Sept 2017 then it's done almost 18 cycles (12 cycles plus an extra 5 days per year).

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We won't know that until the first GTC listings roll over but yes, if the new system works like the old GTC format did then you can have your 1st start date (and cumulative views) given in active view.

If however, you have a certain number of free relists via any promotions offered, the day calculation becomes rather important because after the free relists end you'll attract an insertion fee.

Maybe eBay will play nice and automatically end these freebies for you after the ultimate iteration completes but who knows?

Here's 2 questions:

If you started a listing at 1.56pm on 1/2/19 (with a GTC listings rollover every 30 days) and had 3 free relists GTC cycles, what would be the latest date and time you could manually end that listing without incurring a fee?

How long did it take you to figure this out?

[rapadaan]

The following is a copy and paste from a similar thread which i fell explains the issues :

In respect of the new rules for GUC (good until cancelled) listings I contacted an Ebay representative last week trying to fathom what are the actual facts of what is proposed by Ebay.

The over-riding assumption on many threads is that the GIC listings are charged a fee (or one free listing) on EACH RE-LIST (EVERY 30 DAYS).

Now please read the conversation transcript:

Question (from myself): A couple of questions first. Under 'good until cancelled' upon re-listing, a free listing is used. Is that correct?

Answer (Ebay): No, Once you list the item and it is good till cancelled, it will used up the promo this month and the succeeding months will be free.

Question: So when all of the free listings are used up, are re-lists then charged at $1.65? Not so from what you have just said?

Answer (Ebay) When all the free listings will be used up, the next listing will be charge for $1.65 and relists will be free.

Question: This is all at odds with comments on the forums. Even now I am not sure of the rules. Could you possibly look at my listings and tell me what to expect if I leave them up? My first instinct was to end them all, but from what you are saying, maybe I should'nt.

Answer (Ebay): If you leave them up, you will not be charged if it relists.

Question: But my free listings are disappearing each time one is re-listed. What happens if more items re-list before the end of the month than the amount of my free listings balance?

Answer (Ebay): ***  With this new change, Once the item is relist, it will no longer take up the free listings.***

Question: Ok then so I have to analyse how many listings will re-list and when they have all re-listed once I can start putting new items up. Is that correct?

Answer(Ebay): Yes, that is correct!

My interpretation. From what she told me, sure the existing listings will use up a free listing or will be charged at the normal listing rate if all free listings for the current month are exhausted BUT ONCE THE RELIST HAPPENS (ONCE ONLY) THEN NO ADDITIONAL LISTING FEES ARE PAYABLE ON THAT ITEM UNTIL THE SELLER ENDS THE LISTING OR THE ITEM IS SOLD. Could this be correct? Good until cancelled meaning exactly that with no 30 day relist fee?

BUT IS THIS IN FACT TRUE? Or, have I been a victim of misinformation? Or is my interpretation incorrect? You know, wouldn't it be wonderful if an Ebay representative jumped on and laid out the facts, correctly?

IF this IS in fact true, and after reading much of many threads on this topic, I think there could be a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation in many comments which could be very costly for sellers. I have read where sellers are thinking about moving up to the next store level, at considerable expense, for the sole purpose of getting enough additional free listings to cover their items which they assume will be charged for re-listing every 30 days.

I suppose in the absence of knowledgable Ebay comment, I am as much up in the air as everybody else. BUT........just assume the above comments by the Ebay representative are true. Then all I have to do is:

1. check the remaining free listings balance for the month.
2. look how many listings will end before the end of the month.
3. end the quantity of listings that are in excess of the free listing balance
4. at the start of the new month, do the same analysis and use up the 40 free listings in the same way.
5. when my inventory is re-listed with GUC, I can then use free listings to re-list the items I ended previously
6. once I have relisted all inventory, I can then resume listing new items, as before the change

Sure it may take a couple of months ( I have just over 100 items listed), but when the initial pain is over all is good, until, of course, Ebay decides to change the goal posts again!!

[digital*ghost]

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@dazzledayz wrote:

Here's 2 questions:

If you started a listing at 1.56pm on 1/2/19 (with a GTC listings rollover every 30 days) and had 3 free relists GTC cycles, what would be the latest date and time you could manually end that listing without incurring a fee?

How long did it take you to figure this out?

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Customise your selling view to show start date, and sort them by ending soonest. 

If needed, you can also add a note to any listings that have free relists - you can select multiple listings to add a note to. I'd use a short code (eg RL3 for 3 relists). 

This way, you can open your listings once per day and see pretty much straight away which ones will incur a charge if they are not ended.

[Anonymous]

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@dazzledayz wrote:

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@bluebudgies wrote:
Surely that can't be too hard to figure out. If the original listing date is 17 Sept 2017 then it's done almost 18 cycles (12 cycles plus an extra 5 days per year).

---

We won't know that until the first GTC listings roll over but yes, if the new system works like the old GTC format did then you can have your 1st start date (and cumulative views) given in active view.

If however, you have a certain number of free relists via any promotions offered, the day calculation becomes rather important because after the free relists end you'll attract an insertion fee.

Maybe eBay will play nice and automatically end these freebies for you after the ultimate iteration completes but who knows?

Here's 2 questions:

If you started a listing at 1.56pm on 1/2/19 (with a GTC listings rollover every 30 days) and had 3 free relists GTC cycles, what would be the latest date and time you could manually end that listing without incurring a fee?

How long did it take you to figure this out?

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As budgies said, and ghost, and several others previously, you wouldn't have to figure anything out if you sort your active list by time left.  If you sort that way it shows you exactly how much time is left before any listing rolls over, with those ending/rolling over first at the top of the list.  

[dazzledayz]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@dazzledayz wrote:

Here's 2 questions:

If you started a listing at 1.56pm on 1/2/19 (with a GTC listings rollover every 30 days) and had 3 free relists GTC cycles, what would be the latest date and time you could manually end that listing without incurring a fee?

How long did it take you to figure this out?

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Customise your selling view to show start date, and sort them by ending soonest. 

If needed, you can also add a note to any listings that have free relists - you can select multiple listings to add a note to. I'd use a short code (eg RL3 for 3 relists). 

This way, you can open your listings once per day and see pretty much straight away which ones will incur a charge if they are not ended.

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Well you don't really need a code in the notes field (which would normally contain a SKU id if you use them) but the original list date does give the month so it shouldn't be too hard to eyeball the time left against that date to figure out what needs to be ended.

It would just be a bit visually confusing when you have 3 months worth of data to compare

If the convo reported by @Rapadaan is true then the whole matter becomes moot anyway.

That looks very much like an Amazonification where listing costs nothing but final value fees are a bit higher.

Again, referring to @Rapadaan's post, all a store would be good for now would be the small reduction in FVF and the rate at which you can list (plus SMP and a few other small frills).

Non store free listing would be at a rate of 40 per month

Regular store 600 per month.

Featured store1500 per month.

If relists rollovers are free then you could ultimately build your listings into the millions at no cost over time.

That sounds quite wrong to me.

I know storage is pretty cheap (AWS has Glacier archival storage @ $0.004 per GB per month)

The free tier of fast access storage is 25GB

But eBay is NOT Amazon and they have not invested in infrastructure to anywhere near that level.

We really need some official clarification from the Gods to settle this cloud of dust, and soon.

Given that stores are no longer easily searched after the removal of the internal search feature, it would be almost practical to stop using stores entirely and go for massive listing numbers via a 3rd party app like Wonderlister or similar.

For eBay that would be very dangerous as most of these 3rd party tools allow for listings to be pushed to other venues, not just eBay.

I don't think it's just me that's very confused ATM.

[davewil1964]

eBay will, however, charge an admin fee for 'stale' listings. (12 months old+, I think I recall).

So if you didn't want to get hit with that, you'd have to end and relist every 360 days. In which case the figures would be -

480

7200

18000

[digital*ghost]

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@dazzledayz wrote:

Well you don't really need a code in the notes field (which would normally contain a SKU id if you use them) but the original list date does give the month so it shouldn't be too hard to eyeball the time left against that date to figure out what needs to be ended.

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The SKU is under custom label, adding a note is separate, and I just thought it might be handy for anyone who has listings with and without free relists, and wanted a quick visual way to distinguish them, as well as know how many relists have already occurred. Not really sure how useful it is, as all my listings have been GTC for years, and I am well under my current allocation, so just trying to brainstorm some ideas to help work with the system. 

I don't know what eBay is doing with this move, or if anything else will change. For now, the only official announcement is the format change, so I will simply presume that is the only change that has indeed taken place, and all the normal rules will apply, unless  / until they announce otherwise (that is, there has been no announcement in so far as changes to the listing or billing cycle, so I will presume it will work the way it has been - no fee for the first X number of listings, fees for everything in excess of the free allocation, every 30 days). I honestly wouldn't bother calling eBay CS for clarification on issues like this - JMHO but I see no reason why they would have unannounced information, with the authority to pass it on, and it's not like they have a good history of demonstrating a clear, unwavering interpretation of long-standing site functions and policies.  

Still, as I've mentioned a few times, if they are going that way, it would make more sense to have a maximum number of free listings available at all times as the standard (with additional promo freebies still a possibility). If the allocation is 40, you don't get any more for free the next month, you just have slots that open up when an item sells or is ended. 

[imastawka]

Last year they announced that they would remove stale listings that were 12 months old.

(can't find the thread now)

I commented on that thread, that it would only work for GTC's.

Hey presto, bingo, we got GTC's!

At least they're not removing them willy-nilly.

Just charging for them.

[curraone]

Isn't this fun?    No matter how much we throw theories around, I guess nobody will know for sure until the 22 March - when the first rollover happens.     

[dazzledayz]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

eBay will, however, charge an admin fee for 'stale' listings. (12 months old+, I think I recall).

So if you didn't want to get hit with that, you'd have to end and relist every 360 days. In which case the figures would be -

480

7200

18000

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That would suit me down to the ground Dave.

A basic store with 7200 listings would be pretty much ideal.

Anything coming up on 12 months gets ended then similared.

I don't think there'd be too many sellers would need a Featured store with 18000 items.

Your theory makes the current 400 or so templates look a bit scabrous though.