Thank you - that's all good and well, BUT why do Ebay say they will display a notice on your listings saying you are away and to add the listing to your watch list?  

Also, I think you might be mistaken about the majority of stores wanting listings to dissappear altogether. Could be something to do a pole on?  I regularly to to 1 day events selling my goods, and have to put my store on 'holiday' for only 8 hours and block buying, just in case someone buys something that I only have 1 left of, and I sell it at my event too.  But I don't want the listings to dissappear!  Ebay should offer a choice - after all, we are they ones who pay them.