eBay selling question

ToddMyers · June 2017

So I finally broke down and listed my remaining items on eBay (none are auction; all are buy it now). I'll be leaving for vacation for a week later in July -- is there a way to temporarily suspend all of your items, or do I need to remove all of my listings individually before I leave and repost them when I return?

Thanks!

Todd

pharmjod · June 2017

No way to my knowledge unless you have an ebay store. Someone else can chime in though.

samiam391 · June 2017

Unfortunately, that's only an eBay store option (to my knowledge).

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/placing-store-vacation.html

I wish it was a feature that everyone could use. I know it would have helped me out a few times...

My solution whenever I ran into this problem was to increase the handling time on all of my listings to 10 days. That way I didn't lose any of the watchers on my items; as you would if you listed/re-listed.

ToddMyers · June 2017

Thanks! I think I'll go with increasing the handling time and will keep an eye on my email while I'm gone.

akunthita · June 2017

There is an eBay holiday/vacation setting where you can either temporarily turn off (hide) your listings, or you can have eBay display a message on your listings that you are out of town and for how long.

Where you find the settings on your eBay dashboard is different for the US and the UK, so it is best to do a search in the eBay Help Center for "Placing Your Shop on Holiday" (UK version) or "Placing Your Shop on Vacation" (USA version). From there, it is pretty self-explanatory; you just fill out checkboxes and the dates you are on vacation, and it is all set up for you.

I recently shopped from two sellers who had the holiday settings turned on. There was a message displayed on the listing itself, and when I made the purchase I got an email that there may be some delay in processing because the seller is on vacation until such and such date.

I think this is a better and safer way to handle vacations than just making your processing time long, because eBay protects you against negative feedback if the vacation settings are set up properly.

ToddMyers · June 2017

@akunthita - Unfortunately, I don't have a shop, so this method won't work in my case.

akunthita · June 2017

ToddMyers said:

@akunthita - Unfortunately, I don't have a shop, so this method won't work in my case.

Oh, I see... hm... then you might need to stop the listings while you are out of town. Relisting is actually not that hard, because eBay saves your recent listings for something like 30 days, so you don't have to set them up from scratch. All you need to do is hit the relist button. While your listings won't be active, at least this way you will have peace of mind that you don't have to deal with buyers. You can also do longer processing times as others have mentioned, but my understanding is that eBay lowers your seller ratings if you take too long to ship.

ToddMyers · June 2017

Hmmm. Good point on the seller rating issue. Maybe I will just take them all down and relist when I get back. Thanks for the advice.

samiam391 · June 2017

akunthita said:

ToddMyers said:

@akunthita - Unfortunately, I don't have a shop, so this method won't work in my case.

Oh, I see... hm... then you might need to stop the listings while you are out of town. Relisting is actually not that hard, because eBay saves your recent listings for something like 30 days, so you don't have to set them up from scratch. All you need to do is hit the relist button. While your listings won't be active, at least this way you will have peace of mind that you don't have to deal with buyers. You can also do longer processing times as others have mentioned, but my understanding is that eBay lowers your seller ratings if you take too long to ship.

@ToddMyers I don't think you need to be worried about seller ratings though considering you only have this last batch of sets to sell. I'm assuming @akunthita is referring to "top rated seller plus" where the item has to have a handling time of 1 day and a 30 day money back guarantee.

Since you're only selling a small quantity of items and won't really have anything additional to sell after (nothing that would get you close to getting top rated seller status), I don't think increasing your handling time will effect anything that you need to be concerned about. It will come down to personal preference, but I believe retaining "watchers" on my items is more important which is why I would lean towards increasing handling time over relisting. Especially, in your case where your items are mostly "specialty/rare" items and watchers are hard to come by.

akunthita · June 2017

samiam391 said:

Since you're only selling a small quantity of items and won't really have anything additional to sell after (nothing that would get you close to getting top rated seller status), I don't think increasing your handling time will effect anything that you need to be concerned about. It will come down to personal preference, but I believe retaining "watchers" on my items is more important which is why I would lean towards increasing handling time over relisting. Especially, in your case where your items are mostly "specialty/rare" items and watchers are hard to come by.

This could be a good strategy if OP is only selling sporadically and can keep in touch with buyers while on vacation to answer questions/resolve any issues. However, based on my experience as a seller (and as a buyer who ran into problems with sellers who were on vacation), I would say that it's not worth it.

I personally prefer not to have active listings anywhere online when out of town, because I might (and will very likely) not be able to handle them properly. I close shop a few days before leaving, and reopen a couple of days after returning.

I close a few days early, so there are no last minute orders that I need to rush out before leaving, when I'm already busy with travel plans, packing, and the myriad of other things that come up before going on a trip. And I give myself a couple of days of readjusting after my return before beginning to sell again, because I know I will be busy with catching up with messages, mail, bills, laundry, etc. and I will likely be very tired as well.

The only times I ever made mistakes as a seller was when I was rushing and distracted either before or after a trip. The stress is just not worth it. Not to speak of the financial loss of fixing mistakes. eBay is always going to be there, and there are always going to be buyers. It's not worth ruining a vacation over an eBay listing. At least this is my experience...

SprinkleOtter · June 2017

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you can't update the handling time after the listing is up.

samiam391 · June 2017

akunthita said:

samiam391 said:

Since you're only selling a small quantity of items and won't really have anything additional to sell after (nothing that would get you close to getting top rated seller status), I don't think increasing your handling time will effect anything that you need to be concerned about. It will come down to personal preference, but I believe retaining "watchers" on my items is more important which is why I would lean towards increasing handling time over relisting. Especially, in your case where your items are mostly "specialty/rare" items and watchers are hard to come by.

This could be a good strategy if OP is only selling sporadically and can keep in touch with buyers while on vacation to answer questions/resolve any issues. However, based on my experience as a seller (and as a buyer who ran into problems with sellers who were on vacation), I would say that it's not worth it.
I personally prefer not to have active listings anywhere online when out of town, because I might (and will very likely) not be able to handle them properly. I close shop a few days before leaving, and reopen a couple of days after returning.
I close a few days early, so there are no last minute orders that I need to rush out before leaving, when I'm already busy with travel plans, packing, and the myriad of other things that come up before going on a trip. And I give myself a couple of days of readjusting after my return before beginning to sell again, because I know I will be busy with catching up with messages, mail, bills, laundry, etc. and I will likely be very tired as well.
The only times I ever made mistakes as a seller was when I was rushing and distracted either before or after a trip. The stress is just not worth it. Not to speak of the financial loss of fixing mistakes. eBay is always going to be there, and there are always going to be buyers. It's not worth ruining a vacation over an eBay listing. At least this is my experience...

Very fair, and to each their own. Todd, I guess that's something you'll just have to decide on your own. In my experience, I've never had any problems with simply updating the handling time. I've done that a few times the past few summers when we go on family vacation. However, if you think that it will add additional stress to you then I would agree with akunthita that it's simply not worth it. It just depends upon what you think you can balance and if you trust the potential buyer. The common situation of weighing the risk vs reward!

SprinkleOtter said:

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you can't update the handling time after the listing is up.

That's incorrect. I changed the handling time on several listings just yesterday. I assume you're thinking of auctions (with a bid), in which case you cannot. From my understanding all of Todd's listings are BIN or BO.

SprinkleOtter · June 2017

SprinkleOtter said:

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you can't update the handling time after the listing is up.

That's incorrect. I changed the handling time on several listings just yesterday. I assume you're thinking of auctions (with a bid), in which case you cannot. From my understanding all of Todd's listings are BIN or BO.

I literally just tried. That, and most other shipping settings, are greyed-out. And these are BIN/BO listings.

* Edit
Probably because there is an (unrealistic) offer pending on the item.

samiam391 · June 2017

SprinkleOtter said:

SprinkleOtter said:

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you can't update the handling time after the listing is up.

That's incorrect. I changed the handling time on several listings just yesterday. I assume you're thinking of auctions (with a bid), in which case you cannot. From my understanding all of Todd's listings are BIN or BO.

I literally just tried. That, and most other shipping settings, are greyed-out. And these are BIN/BO listings.

* Edit
Probably because there is an (unrealistic) offer pending on the item.

Yep, that'll do it :)

akunthita · June 2017

samiam391 said:

SprinkleOtter said:

SprinkleOtter said:

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you can't update the handling time after the listing is up.

That's incorrect. I changed the handling time on several listings just yesterday. I assume you're thinking of auctions (with a bid), in which case you cannot. From my understanding all of Todd's listings are BIN or BO.

I literally just tried. That, and most other shipping settings, are greyed-out. And these are BIN/BO listings.

* Edit
Probably because there is an (unrealistic) offer pending on the item.

Yep, that'll do it :)

That's good to know! I wonder if the offer is rejected can the handling time be updated?

samiam391 · June 2017

akunthita said:

samiam391 said:

SprinkleOtter said:

SprinkleOtter said:

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you can't update the handling time after the listing is up.

That's incorrect. I changed the handling time on several listings just yesterday. I assume you're thinking of auctions (with a bid), in which case you cannot. From my understanding all of Todd's listings are BIN or BO.

I literally just tried. That, and most other shipping settings, are greyed-out. And these are BIN/BO listings.

* Edit
Probably because there is an (unrealistic) offer pending on the item.

Yep, that'll do it :)

That's good to know! I wonder if the offer is rejected can the handling time be updated?

Yes, if there are no active offers on an item you can edit the handling time. Having a pending offer on an item essentially removes all ability to edit it.

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