GTS: when they switched over to mandatory, I watched the ending dates closely and manually ended them. However, I just noticed that they seem to be counting how many items are listed at the start of the month, not how long they were active.
I had thought that they counted when the listing started? Items that were listed at the end of July were counted towards my total for July AND August despite being up for only a few days. And items from July that I ended before they expired were still counted towards the total for both July and August.
Given this, what is the point of the countdown? If it runs out in the middle of the month and re-lists, does it count for two that month?
Hello Tracy,
as far as I know, as I already said here in the forum, ending GTC within the month does not affect the count since it considers what you started, independently from the expire date. I mean, if 1 august you start 1000 listings and you close them the day after, at least here the count says you started 1000 listings. This is why there are not many possibilities in my opinion to avoid the count limitation, except starting only a limited number of listings within that limit, every months.
Yes, that’s normal. You started in July (+ 1 in July), it has been renewed in august (+1 in august). As said before, it doesn’t metter when you expire or how long it has been active, it is a general monthly count which considers any listings you started month by month.
There are not many possible solutions. Or keeping all GTC, and paying the difference, or keeping just an active number of listings within the eBay monthly limit. If limit is 100 and you have 200 listings, in July you start listings from 1 to 100, and close them within the end of july, in august you start from 101 to 200 and end within august.
I hope this makes sense…
Mmhh I would say yes. As far as I know, a GTC listing counts in the ebay month limit although it is not relisted. In other words, if you start a listing at the end of July and you don’t stop it in august, it counts also in august limit. This “makes sense” (manner of speaking…) since GTC “should” not be stopped and relisted for eBay, so every month ebay counts them into the limit although they are still active and have never been stopped. It’s like an implicit stop and relist that happens every months for all GTC. Only problem? They do not appear as “new listings” and go buried…
But they were already counted August 1. That would be twice in one month without being ended. That would mean that every listing counts to your total on the first of the month and every 30 days.
Uhm maybe I missed one step. Just to be sure I correctly understood:
you started one listing as GTC at the end of July and counted in July limit
listing was automatically renewed by eBay on 1st august
at the beginning of august (let’s say 3rd august) you manually ended that listing and it counted in august limit
now you ask why it counted in august if it was only active few days during august
Is this correct?
If this is correct, that’s (unfortunately) normal that it counts in august limit. That listing was started on (let’s say) July 25, so it would have been renewed on august 25 if you didn’t stopped it on august 3. Since you stopped it, eBay had to count it within the august limit, although it was active for only few days (otherwise that listing was “free”, and eBay does gift you nothing…).
Let me know if this is correct or if I am on the wrong way…
Federico
Between synching ghost images and this one, it’s puzzling me . Now I have some more time to spend investigating so hopefully I can be more precise:
a listing is posted July 7 (1 hit in July). There are 3 possibilities:
you don’t stop it: after 30 days, August 7, it renews and is counted again (but that’s the 1 hit of august, so it doesn’t concern the 1000 listings of July)
you stop it between 7 and 31 July: 1 hit in July has already been counted when listed
you stop it between 1 and 7 august: HERE COME THE DOUBTS.
Well, this is confusing for all because mixes two durations: starting-ending date (which does not coincide with the first and last days of the months) and the counting period of free listing between 1-31 of the month. This should be your matter. Am I correct now?
So, if this is correct, now we have to focus on that 1-7 period. In your first message you said that you closed the listing in this period and counted as 1 hit in August. I maybe misunderstood and here is the fatal question : when you stopped it, did you relisted it???
if you relisted it, well that’s correct that it counted again, although it has been online for only few days
if you didn’t relist, that’s impossible that eBay counted it within august hit if the expiration date was not yet reached.
I mean, another way to explain. I have just done an example in my stock and this is result.
listing A will end on 20th august, so it was started on 20th July (1 hit in July)
I just stopped it → the hit of august didn’t change (the ending date is not yet reached)
I stop it and relist it immediately → there is a new hit in august
Well, now I hope I did some clear here. Did I do?
Now I will dream ghost images and GTC this night
No, my ended items were not re-listed. The intention is to replace them with other items, rotating the inventory.
So, I did an experiment. I had 645 used items this morning. Some of the items were about to “expire”, most of which I ended manually, but 10 others were allowed to run their course to see what happened. Sure enough, now there are 655 used. The same items were counted 3 times in 30 days.
when listed in July
on August 1 (reminder I started August without uploading anything and it said I had over 400 on August 1)
Well, I am still convinced that it counted maximum two times, not three. This one:
counts into august limit, not July. So July hits are maximum two. Isn’t it? Where I am wrong?
Told this, I think it worths a focus on point 2:
So, you are saying that on 1st august ebay count said 400 started listings. Are you sure that it was not just the previous July count not yet updated? I think that ebay count might take a little time before reseting. Might it be the solution?
Other than the 10 that I allowed to renew, I have ended all listings before they expire and only listed about 200 this month. My count says I have used 655.
There is definitely something wrong there… so you just have 200 + 10 active listings but the count for august still show 655? Did you try to export the list of counted items and check which ones have been counted? Under “my ebay”, click on the listing count which show 655. It is OBVIOUSLY extremely confused (not suprising by ebay side!!), but on small numbers you can check randomly some:
No, I have 655 active listings, but only 200+ that have actually been added this month. The rest were counted from last month as they were still active on Aug 1.
I give up. I’m off the platform Dec 1 so I am not going to worry myself with it anymore. I will just watch my totals and count the days until I fulfill my commitment.
That’s anyway a strange behavior, I would try to figure out what’s going on just to understand… Sorry to hear you are going to giving ebay up, which is in part comprehensible, I hope you could have better result with your site!
. Now I have some more time to spend investigating so hopefully I can be more precise:
: when you stopped it, did you relisted it???
