In a move that makes the eBay marketplace more like Amazon, eBay told sellers that all fixed-price listings on site would become permanent, or in eBay parlance, “Good Til Canceled” (GTC). But sellers will still have to pay listing fees every 30 days.
eBay chose a rather benign name for the change, “Fixed price listing duration change,” but that didn’t stop many sellers from reacting vehemently to the change.
Currently sellers can choose a shorter duration for fixed-price listings, and GTC is completely optional. But as part of the eBay Early Seller Update, eBay announced: “Starting in mid-March 2019, the listing duration for all new fixed price listings on eBay will be Good ‘Til Cancelled.”
“Good ‘Til Cancelled listings renew automatically every 30 days unless your item sells before that timeframe,” eBay stated, while sellers may continue to choose the auction format.
Among the major questions sellers are raising are around GTC fees. eBay explained: ” We charge an insertion fee every 30-day period. Good ‘Til Cancelled listings count toward your monthly zero insertion fee listings. Fee amounts are based on the terms in effect when the listing goes live and when it renews.”
And in the FAQs, eBay answered the question, “How often will I be charged for Good ‘Til Cancelled listings?” with the following answer:
“Good ‘Til Cancelled listings will renew automatically every 30 days unless your item a) sells before that timeframe (except for sellers who have enabled the out of stock feature), b) you cancel your listing, or c) eBay ends your listing as a result of an eBay policy violation. Each time your listing renews, the listing will either count toward your monthly free listing allotment, or you will incur the standard insertion fee based on your eBay Store subscription level.”
eBay explained why it was making the change:
Today, over 80% of fixed price listings on eBay are Good ‘Til Cancelled. Because of their longer duration, Good ‘Til Cancelled listings, potentially have greater exposure to buyers and may be more likely to sell. Other benefits of Good ‘Til Cancelled listings include:
Improved SEO
Listings keep their interested buyers
Out-of-stock feature
No seller action required to relist items
End listings at any time and relist when you want to
Simplified selling flow
Retained sales history for multi-quantity listings, which improves search rankings
You can read more on the eBay Early Seller Update announcement.
And we tackled some of the questions and objections we’re seeing from sellers on the EcommerceBytes Blog.
This is a despicable money grab that will cost sellers a lot of money every time eBay runs a free listing promotion, because eBay knows that many, many sellers will fail to end those “free listings” before they roll over and generate $millions for eBay. Sellers who get caught by this will not only quit selling, they will quit buying, and also let all their friends know how badly eBay treated them.
Good Til Canceled listings don’t show up as new listings and keep dropping further and further
in the search.
I have always used 30 days and selected ‘sell similar’ instead of ‘relist this item’ so it would
count as a new listing and show up closer to the top of the search.
Now I guess, all GTC listings will be old news.