Hello Everybody,
Today I just want to talk about listing on eBay using the 'Good Till Cancelled' format.
Basically, I've tried them all! Yes, them all. From one day to Good Till Cancelled. You do have to have an eBay shop though to run 30 day listings and also use Good Till Cancelled, though if you're a serious eBay seller I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't have a shop.
Anyway, the length or duration of you're listing depends a lot on which products you sell I think. If you have a large inventory in which you make recurring sales from your inventory then I believe it is always better to use Good Till Cancelled. This listing basically runs forever until you stop selling that item. So as an example, within my shop last year I was selling pencil cases of a particular brand. When I first purchased them I was unsure exactly how they would sell, well I knew they'd sell but it was just a matter of how quickly. I purchased a dozen, after a few days I'd sold a couple as expected really but then I think it was the third day when things really started to pick up. The reason? Because when you put an item on Good Till Cancelled, the more you sell the higher you go up the search pages. What this means is, slow start - lets say for example at the bottom of seven pages of search results, with the one, three and seven day listings higher than you BUT when these listings have run out, the seller needs to repay eBay to list the item again then of course they go lower down in the search results.
You on the other hand with your Good Till Cancelled eBay listing, whilst you start slowly will gradually gather momentum (by this I mean by gathering more sales) until you hit the first page, possibly first result on eBay (as I did) but this depends on competition on what you're selling though. Oh and the complete listing only cost me 18 pence to practically run a whole year.
The more sales you make - the higher you go up the search pages for that item. Who do you think buyers will buy from if they see, lets call him Mr competitor - with this three day listing selling a couple of items or me with my year long listing selling over three hundred? Well I can tell you that generally they will buy from the eBay seller that has had most sales.
Oh and you might think, well so what it's only a few extra pencil cases. True, it is but just on this one item I made £600+ net profit for the year. Not bad for a 'few measly pencil cases'.
Try it. Go search on eBay and look at the results that come up first. Sure to be sellers that have had repeat sales of items using 'Good Till Cancelled'.
Also you will probably notice that there is a few oddly priced items in the results. It raises a few eyebrows to the untrained eye but what a seller will do (and I've done this myself many times) is, when they're running out of stock, they will raise the price really, really high to stop people buying it. Strange you might think but there's method in the madness. This is to preserve the longevity of the listing and give the seller time to restock the product. Then when it's been restocked, the seller will drop the price back to normal again.
Another little tip to preserve sales history on eBay (if you don't want to use the method above ). If you re-ordered stock in the same scenario as above, you could change the 'handling & dispatch time' on eBay, from for example one day to three or four. This would still allow buyers to buy as per normal, buy yourself time while you're waiting for stock to arrive and most importantly of all - preserve sales history of this listing and keep your place at the top of the search results, meaning continued sales.
So, if you intend or expect to keep restocking an item and receive regular sales. Use Good Till Cancelled, you won't regret it.
Hope that helped you in your endeavours as an eBay entrepreneur!
Thanks for reading,
Mark Davies
Making Money Online Out of Auction Websites - Moving Your Business Online
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