Featured How does seller keep same no bid item up 4 years?

I put in a search for “Cannon model” a few years ago. This same apparently uninteresting-to-everyone-item has been relisted every week for years. Not sure how/why anyone would do that, is their listing free?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-So...396500?hash=item3b1af5f294:g:jVIAAOSwXrhXm9XN

 

Maybe it's a common theme for a number of sellers who change their seller names for a number of the same "unsold" products for years.The pieces may or may not be original and prices reduced at times. See trade silver cross or fur trade crosses. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...leDesc=0&_osacat=281&_odkw=trade+silver+cross

 

I have seen a few items that have been listed for at least 4 years.

 

It may be. I sell only occasionally, usually listing 3 items at most. Haven't listed in a while, but when I was, eBay kept giving me 'special offers' of no listing fees, hoping to lure me into doing more.

 

Some cameos are like old, overpriced, friends.

 

A lot of eBay vendors who deal in sports memorabilia do the same thing with a lot of their items. These items become notorious in the hobby and are referred to as "museum pieces." We infer the point of endlessly relisted overpriced items is twofold: free advertising for other more reasonably priced items they might have listed, and hope that some sucker will actually buy the endlessly relisted item at the outlandish price the vendor's asking for it.

 

I used to get 50 free listings a month until I opened a "store". I get antsy after a couple months myself if something doesn't sell. I know it takes a special buyer for certain items but I've never had anything last a year. I'll drop the price till it sells after the first month or so.
It helps when you don't have much invested in the items your selling though. If it's an item I like, I may keep the price a little high though, until it sells for a good price.

 

I have a small collection of these things from visits to Civil War sites. They run about $5. Maybe $10 for an elaborate one.

 

If you pay a monthly fee for a store front on eBoo then listings are free and stay there forever until sold.

 

Since eBay eliminated listing fees, I just let listings run, sometimes for a year or more. In my experience, everything sells eventually. (Of course, I'm not indiscriminate about the items I list.)

Debora

 

I have about 8 items up as BINs, each listed for 30 days. When the 30 days are up they automatically relist at no cost to me. I was thinking I should end them then this month 2 items sold that had been up for 4 or 6 months, what are you gona do

 

Not having a store, there are some functions not available to me. I suspected there had to be way for unsold items to keep recycling, but wasn't sure what made the difference between those that simply expire & those that put themselves back on my Watch list without my help. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

Ebay will just wait to make some money off of sold listings - no matter how long it takes!

 

Their description, or lack thereof, would make me very suspicious, in terms of what they're actually selling.
In fact, the whole listing is confusing. If you're trying to cross-market your merchandise, you should have some logical flow to the information. That thing is a mess from top to bottom.

 

OH I HAD NO IDEA!! I will definitely read up on the rules if I ever go back there!
Thanks for mentioning this

 

I have seen some glassware listings on eboo that have been listed for years too.
I guess if there are no listings fees, there is no reason not to let litsings go on and on and on till the right buyer comes along.
I don't sell there anymore, so I have no idea of how things work. I only buy there now.

 

I don't have a store. When listing a BIN, at the bottom of the page, there should be a check box for automatically relisting the item

 

Long post but it may go partly to answer your question.

We have 3 outlets, our Ebay shop with c 1400 items for sale at any one time, Etsy with c35 items for sale and our website with c750 items (and rising!) for sale. We add approx 200 items per month across the outlets and sell 150-200 items a month. As a mom and pop business we are a small player indeed!

Ebay charge us £80 per month (plus FVFs) for a featured shop (which allows 1500 BINs and 300 7 day auctions) so there is a listing fee charge of approx 5p per item which rises if you go over the allowance. So each month we plan to use that allowance in full.

Now here is the curious thing. We reckon on Ebay to get circa half our sales from stock listed in past two months and half our sales from older stock that has been listed several times. We only start considering price reductions when stock has been on for several months. From time to time we will remove old stock and make up a B&M auction lot to make room for new listings when new listings exceed sales

Some of the older stock we sell is quite long in the tooth, if it was in a B&M shop it would have a layer of dust. But while we have a finite capability to source and list new stock, it makes money sense for us to keep a wide range of stock for sale and get a steady profitable sales stream.

On our website we recently sold 15 items that had been listed for 4 years, but the problem here is not the quality of stock but our ability to attract buyers to the site.

With Etsy we are still fairly new but have a policy of listing interesting stuff at remunerative prices. We have sold about 40% of items listed there since we opened at the end of last year.

So maybe we have several thousand £ of older stock, but while it provides half our monthly sales, we won't be delisting it any time soon!

 

I only sell part time and as a hobby right now so I don't have an eBay store, but a member. With that comes 50 free listings that I can use each month. I put a 'buy it now' price on it and there is an option for "Good to Complete" (or close ... I don't remember) but it relists itself indefinitely until sold.

It is a minimal maintenance way to sell, but then again I can afford to wait until it's sold as well.

I also use Etsy for vintage items and Webstore for smaller margin stuff since it is free no matter how many listings.

 

Excellent info, rhiwfield and AJefferson. Thanks for posting.