What is the difference between GTC and auto relisting?

[Deleted]

I have always used automation rules to automatically relist my fixed priced items until they sell.  Recently, I removed the automation rules, and did an experiment with "sell similar", which didn't yield higher sales.

I am now going back and adding the automation rules again, but isn't this the same thing as GTC?  Are there benefits of one over the other?

[zoesam]

I could be wrong, as I haven't used either, but I would NEVER use GTC for OOAK items. My understanding is that GTC items don't end at all, ever. You have to manually go in & end them if you want. So, your impression to sale ratio only goes down for the life of the item, thereby continually lowering it over time in search results.

I assume the automation rules, simply do a relist every 30 days (or maybe you get to set the amount of time). What you want is to do the equivalent of a Sell Similar every 30 days. You get a new item number & your impression are wiped clean, in theory.

[somany]

With automation rules, you can set the relist time to up to 3 weeks after the end date. I set my things to relist one week later, and when they end, they immediately schedule a new listing. You see the ended item under unsold/resisted and you see the new listing under scheduled listings. This saves me a few extra listing fees per month.

There is no charge for the original setting, even if you have it set to relist three weeks after it ended. You can change the time you want it to relist once it's in the scheduled listing, but it will try to charge you (unless you are changing it to start immediately). You can avoid the scheduling fee in those cases when you want it to start later by going in one day or one hour before it relists and changing it to start immediately. In other words, it doesn't charge the fee until it actually hits the relist time so circumvent that using "relist now" just prior to the scheduled time.

GTC keeps a history of any change you make to the listing, even MM sales, so a buyer can see how long a listing has been up and the see how many sales you have run on it (not sure if they see the discounted price in the history). All they have to do to see it is click on a tab--can't remember what the tab is called but it's easily seen on the listing from a computer--not sure about on a phone.

[Desire]

With GTC you keep the same item number - that's good if you use Pinterest or tweet. So if someone sees your item and clicks it on, it won't be a dead link on an ended listing. I think there was a tutorial at one time that said to never use GTC for more than 90 days. After 90 days go in and end it and relist it to get a new item number on your listing for reasons that Zoe posted about it lowering in search.

[Deleted]

This was good information. I have two pieces of swimwear that are inexplicable duds. I can't bring myself to re-donate because they're both NWT, so I finally put them on GTC. Just so I wouldn't be reminded every 30 days when I needed to re-list that they were still hanging around. I'm off to end them right now. 

[Deleted]

Jun 19, 2015 5:49:19 GMT zoesam said:

I could be wrong, as I haven't used either, but I would NEVER use GTC for OOAK items. My understanding is that GTC items don't end at all, ever. You have to manually go in & end them if you want. So, your impression to sale ratio only goes down for the life of the item, thereby continually lowering it over time in search results.

I assume the automation rules, simply do a relist every 30 days (or maybe you get to set the amount of time). What you want is to do the equivalent of a Sell Similar every 30 days. You get a new item number & your impression are wiped clean, in theory.

I checked my friend's store on Terapeak, she does all her items on a GTC--- and TP is showing her sell thru rate to be extremely high, about 71%.  Does eBay still take that into consideration?

Also, I don't think the automation rules do a "sell similar", but are a relist.  I haven't had anything relist automatically in a month, so I can't see if a new item number is given.  Does anyone know?

[zoesam]

Jun 19, 2015 12:19:12 GMT somany said:

GTC keeps a history of any change you make to the listing, even MM sales, so a buyer can see how long a listing has been up and the see how many sales you have run on it (not sure if they see the discounted price in the history). All they have to do to see it is click on a tab--can't remember what the tab is called but it's easily seen on the listing from a computer--not sure about on a phone.

Another good reason not to use it.  That's a 1 click for a buyer.  

[zoesam]

Jun 19, 2015 16:42:28 GMT @christie said:

Jun 19, 2015 5:49:19 GMT zoesam said:

I could be wrong, as I haven't used either, but I would NEVER use GTC for OOAK items. My understanding is that GTC items don't end at all, ever. You have to manually go in & end them if you want. So, your impression to sale ratio only goes down for the life of the item, thereby continually lowering it over time in search results.

I assume the automation rules, simply do a relist every 30 days (or maybe you get to set the amount of time). What you want is to do the equivalent of a Sell Similar every 30 days. You get a new item number & your impression are wiped clean, in theory.

I checked my friend's store on Terapeak, she does all her items on a GTC--- and TP is showing her sell thru rate to be extremely high, about 71%.  Does eBay still take that into consideration?

Also, I don't think the automation rules do a "sell similar", but are a relist.  I haven't had anything relist automatically in a month, so I can't see if a new item number is given.  Does anyone know?

Hahaha. ok...she does NOT have an extremely high STR.  Not at all.  This is a side effect of using GTC.  The way it was explained to me & you can find numerous conversations about this on old boards, is b/c the items never end.  Terapeak & Ebay as well, take those as sold listings, when they are NOT.  It gives an artificially inflated STR that is crazy high.  Often around 90-95%.  There's no way to tell the real STR either b/c even if you look in Ebay, those show up as solds, in green. 

[zoesam]

p.s. If anyone can explain that phenomena ^^^ better, have at it. I know it's a well known side effect, but not sure how to best explain it, as it makes no logical sense to me, even after it was explained. That's just the way it works.

[Deleted]

Jun 19, 2015 16:59:53 GMT zoesam said:

p.s. If anyone can explain that phenomena ^^^ better, have at it. I know it's a well known side effect, but not sure how to best explain it, as it makes no logical sense to me, even after it was explained. That's just the way it works.

Yes-- it is a side effect of GTC-- but there was talk that eBay likes a high STR, so that could give a boost in search rank, even though it is not an accurate STR. 

[Deleted]

I agree that the STR for sellers who use GTC is misleading. But Christie brings up a good question. There are a lot of things that factor into our search placement. If STR is one of them, and especially if the importance is high rather than low on the scale of what-matters-most, that could overcome other drawbacks to using it.

[Deleted]

sniped

[zoesam]

Yeah, I guess that's possible. I assume Ebay still uses STR amongst their 503 sets of criteria to determine placement in search results. But it also may know that it's a fake number & not use it. Who knows? They won't tell us LOL.

All I'll say is beware that if you use it, it's a pain in the ass to remove.

[Deleted]

I ended mine. Did sell similar and changed the duration. I only had two, but I did both steps in bulk so it wouldn't have mattered if it were 2 or 20. But if I'd had 50 listings or 100 it would have been a drag to use up free listings to essentially re-list what didn't need to be re-listed.