Ebay canceling listings that are over 1 year old

[quadrille]

So I have a 2nd level store with over 1100 items tonight I got over 800 emails from ebay saying listings were cancelled this was the text

Listings that haven’t generated interest, after being active for a long time, can clutter the site and make it difficult for buyers to find what they’re looking for. This can be unfair to other sellers when their listings are difficult to find. Therefore, we’ve done the following:
– We removed any listings that have been active for 1 year or longer without sales. A list of removed item(s) is available further down in this email.
– Any fees for listings that were ended early for not following policy won’t be credited to your account.

We recommend that you don’t relist these items unless you first take steps to improve the likelihood of sales. Please also make sure that items don’t automatically relist. Listing fees may not be refunded for subsequent removals.

To increase the chance of your items selling in the future, we recommend that you consider the following best practices:
– Reduce the price of the item.
– Add images.
– Include pertinent item specifics.
– Offer free shipping.
– List the item using the Auction format.

To help you, we have compiled recommendations for improving your listings. For more information on listing best practices, please see:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/searchstanding.html

I called ebay and they said all items that have not sold in over 1 year would be taken down across the site to declutter their site and ensure buyers can find what they are looking for. They also said it is to save sellers money on listing fees.

Has anyone else expirenced this?

[quadrille]

I found this text on ebay

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/questions/listing-ended.html

If your listing has been active on the site for more than a year without sales, then we may remove it.
Review the email you received from us. It contains information about the listings that were removed and next steps.

[ChristineR]

Wow. Thanks for posting. I just saw a video on YouTube indicating that the number of listings in certain categories (i.e. clothing) has really taken off in the past year, without a corresponding growth in sales. I also have always wondered if they have the server capacity to show all of the listings at once? I know, I know – it’s conspiracy territory.

I just checked my facebook groups and there are others reporting this. Interestingly, the categories seem to be collectable, used items, so people are speculating that it is part of EBay’s strategy to keep moving toward more new goods. Categories mentioned there were stamps, postcards, vintage jewelry, dolls and housewares.

[Losingitagain]

I was just coming here to see if this is happening to anyone. Long-tail items are certainly at risk. I am wondering if revising items, such as the title or item specifics, could prevent deletion?

[Margana]

As usual, eBay’s communications with sellers are confusing as hell, but it sounds like if the only problem with the listing is that it hasn’t sold, you could just do “sell similar”? Or maybe reduce the price by $1 and “sell similar”?

I systematically discount items by 10% every 6 months and eBay hasn’t cancelled anything yet. If they do, it will just make it harder for me to identify older listings that need to be discounted.

[quadrille]

So when I called eBay they said they are phasing this in to “reduce clutter” on the site, remove old non-relevant listings so buyers can find they stuff they are looking for.

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