End & sell similar when you have 10,000+ listings

[nam812]

This is a question for the larger sellers that subscribe to the practice (that it seems most of us do) of ending listings and using the "sell similar" feature before they become 30 days old so they always look like fresh inventory.

I have just over 5,000 listings, and there are some days in the month where 1,000 to 1,800 of them are turning 30 days old. Because they can only be done (to my knowledge) 200 listing at a time, and each block of 200 takes about 2 to 3 minutes to end and sell similar, and I spend about 30 minutes redoing those 1,500 to 1,800 listings.

I see my listings doubling in the very near future, so for the sellers that have possibly multiple days where 5,000 or 10,000 or 20,000 etc....listing about to turn 30 days old in the same day, do you just block out a few hours of your day to end and sell similar, or is there a different way to do it in bulk, or do you just let them auto relist every 30 days and not care about having them look like fresh inventory?

Hopefully that "question" makes sense, and thanks in advance for any info.

Nick

[mlbfan10]

Interested in seeing other opinions but I have close to 10k listings and have always just let them auto relist.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[BostonNut]

I only have about 2,000 listings and do 20-30 a day. Not sure if it works or not but I do get consistent sales.

[prospectorgems]

Currently have about 13K listings and for smaller priced items will let them auto-relist for 2 to 3 months and then do end/sell similar but instead of blasting ebay with that many listings at one time will do about 1000 per day.

When ebay actually works (right now it is isn't), the end/sell similar doesn't take that long. Of course, it is done on the computer so that may make it a lot easier. I would say it takes me just a couple of minutes to do 1000. I will select a category or sort by longest listed and end 1000 listings, open up a new tab and go to ended/unsold items and do a sell similar and then just refresh the active listings to verify that 1000 cards are listed again. Then go back to the ended section and delete all of them out.

Again though, this is when ebay works. I posted in the ebay thread that during this past week ebay's database has been super slow and I did 2K listings last night and it took me about 20 minutes as I had to constantly refresh the screens since all items weren't showing. Then today I just wanted to relist 22 items and only 6 show in unsold and the other 16 are stuck somewhere.

This is where things get tricky, when there are issues, you better have a database where you log all of your items you have listed because if an ebay issue like this occurs you could potentially lose any items you ended and are stuck in a database somewhere. I was fortunate that my issue was only 22 items and I spent a few hours to track down which ones they were but if it was 1000 I would have probably been screwed.

Aside from issues I can say that most of the time relists do help and do get a fair amount of sales from them.

[JeffG1954]

I currently have a little over 6K listings on eBay. I do end and "sell similar", but I don't do them all at once. I take about 2-3 minutes at the start of each day and redo between 200 and 300 auctions. I've been doing it for so long, it's just part of my daily routine.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by JeffG1954

I currently have a little over 6K listings on eBay. I do end and "sell similar", but I don't do them all at once. I take about 2-3 minutes at the start of each day and redo between 200 and 300 auctions. I've been doing it for so long, it's just part of my daily routine.

This ^^^ is how I do it, except I do it right before I go to bed.

Do 200-400 a day. Don't worry about the one's that are about to turn over/relist. The only thing is you'll need to monitor your available listings. So maybe 200 a day for the first half of the month, then adjust toward the end of the month.

That said, when you get to 10,000 listed items, you'll need to make sure you're not hitting items right after they've turned over. This shouldn't be too hard to track though. You could sort by days left instead of oldest listed.

If you get to the point where you're not hitting everything every month, one thing i'd reecomend is refresh items with watchers first.

[nam812]

Originally Posted by prospectorgems

.......I will select a category or sort by longest listed and end 1000 listings, open up a new tab and go to ended/unsold items and do a sell similar and then just refresh the active listings to verify that 1000 cards are listed again............

When you have those specific 1,000 ended, are you saying you do 'sell similar' for all 1,000 at once?

I was under the impression that since you can only end 200 listings at a time, that you could only do 'sell similar' for 200 listings at a time. If I knew you can do 'sell similar' for more than 200 at a time (if you actually can), then I wouldn't have even made this thread.

[JeffG1954]

Originally Posted by nam812

When you have those specific 1,000 ended, are you saying you do 'sell similar' for all 1,000 at once?

I was under the impression that since you can only end 200 listings at a time, that you could only do 'sell similar' for 200 listings at a time. If I knew you can do 'sell similar' for more than 200 at a time (if you actually can), then I wouldn't have even made this thread.

Only 200 will fit on a page at a time, but you can end the first page of 200, the 2nd page of 200, the 3rd page....etc. and then you can "Sell Similar" the same way.....1st page of 200, 2nd page of 200, 3rd page....etc. You can do them all in one day if you want, or spread them out, but you are not limited to how many you can do in one listing session.

[The Accountant]

Why do sell similar instead of relist?

[jamcas997]

Originally Posted by The Accountant

Why do sell similar instead of relist?

Sell similar is a new listing in the algorithm and relist basically is just like keeping the same item going. Another thing I believe if you have quantity of say 50 and sell 10 dropping you to 40 a relist puts it back to 50 and sell similar is 40 so you do not have to figure that a out and make a mistake of over listing.

[The Accountant]

Originally Posted by jamcas997

Sell similar is a new listing in the algorithm and relist basically is just like keeping the same item going. Another thing I believe if you have quantity of say 50 and sell 10 dropping you to 40 a relist puts it back to 50 and sell similar is 40 so you do not have to figure that a out and make a mistake of over listing.

Dang I’ve been doing it wrong. Thanks!

[paparoke]

Yeah it's just routine now, I end listings through with CSV, then I sell similar everyday. Yeah I hate the 200 listing limit, but it is what it is and I feel the effort is worth it in order to "refresh" an item.

The one thing I do differently is I don't refresh a listing when I have at least 1 watcher, in hopes that I can keep sending offers and eventually make the sale. The only thing that overrides watchers is when the listing reaches 60 days old, then I just end and relist those.

[thenightman]

Originally Posted by paparoke

Yeah it's just routine now, I end listings through with CSV, then I sell similar everyday. Yeah I hate the 200 listing limit, but it is what it is and I feel the effort is worth it in order to "refresh" an item.

The one thing I do differently is I don't refresh a listing when I have at least 1 watcher, in hopes that I can keep sending offers and eventually make the sale. The only thing that overrides watchers is when the listing reaches 60 days old, then I just end and relist those.

I don't even hold out for that. If they haven't bought it in 30 days, they're not going to. I've had quite a few buyers reach out when I've ended a listing, though, asking if it's still available. They're happy when I tell them it is.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by paparoke

Yeah it's just routine now, I end listings through with CSV, then I sell similar everyday. Yeah I hate the 200 listing limit, but it is what it is and I feel the effort is worth it in order to "refresh" an item.

The one thing I do differently is I don't refresh a listing when I have at least 1 watcher, in hopes that I can keep sending offers and eventually make the sale. The only thing that overrides watchers is when the listing reaches 60 days old, then I just end and relist those.

I've found the opposite is the way to go. I am more aggresive in ending listing with watchers because those items are likely to pick up watchers after the relist, which allows me to send more offers.

In the slow season I won't end an item with an offer out, but that's out the window right now. I'm just grabbing my oldest 200 items every day.

[Bosoxfan5990]

Originally Posted by nam812

This is a question for the larger sellers that subscribe to the practice (that it seems most of us do) of ending listings and using the "sell similar" feature before they become 30 days old so they always look like fresh inventory.

I have just over 5,000 listings, and there are some days in the month where 1,000 to 1,800 of them are turning 30 days old. Because they can only be done (to my knowledge) 200 listing at a time, and each block of 200 takes about 2 to 3 minutes to end and sell similar, and I spend about 30 minutes redoing those 1,500 to 1,800 listings.

I see my listings doubling in the very near future, so for the sellers that have possibly multiple days where 5,000 or 10,000 or 20,000 etc....listing about to turn 30 days old in the same day, do you just block out a few hours of your day to end and sell similar, or is there a different way to do it in bulk, or do you just let them auto relist every 30 days and not care about having them look like fresh inventory?

Hopefully that "question" makes sense, and thanks in advance for any info.

Nick

I have ~3,700 listings and I try to make sure I don't have more than ~250 hitting 30 days on any given day of the month.

I also try to make sure there's nothing ending on the 31st, as some months don't have a 31st.

February can get tricky.

However, I don't understand why you continue to have a few days where 1,500-1,800 listings are relisting when you only have 5,000 listings. Since it costs nothing to schedule listings now, why don't you spread out those relists over multiple days?

[premium1981]

Just an FYI for those who do this. I previously did this a lot too. My store was around 50,000 listings about 6 months ago. As I have shifted gears I have been trying to par down most of what was in my store. I've been doing a lot of bulk sales and lots trying to clear out space. While doing this, I have noticed a lot of items had disappeared from my inventory. I can only assume it happened during these end and relist periods. I'm not talking a card here or there. I'm talking hundreds of them. I never noticed and still wouldn't have noticed if I had not been doing my inventory clear out that I am currently doing. Just a heads up.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by premium1981

Just an FYI for those who do this. I previously did this a lot too. My store was around 50,000 listings about 6 months ago. As I have shifted gears I have been trying to par down most of what was in my store. I've been doing a lot of bulk sales and lots trying to clear out space. While doing this, I have noticed a lot of items had disappeared from my inventory. I can only assume it happened during these end and relist periods. I'm not talking a card here or there. I'm talking hundreds of them. I never noticed and still wouldn't have noticed if I had not been doing my inventory clear out that I am currently doing. Just a heads up.

I track my listed inventory daily, so if I were missing 200 items I would notice right away. I do an inventory audit once a year in Septmeber and I always find a few cards that slipped through the cracks.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

I track my listed inventory daily, so if I were missing 200 items I would notice right away. I do an inventory audit once a year in Septmeber and I always find a few cards that slipped through the cracks.

Unfortunately it would be pretty much impossible for me to do that (back then). I was selling many hundreds and listing many hundreds every day. It was a constant changing inventory and to find inventory variances of about half of a percent would be hard to spot. I also don't know if these disappearing acts were happening 3-4 at a time or 80 at a time. Looking back, I just know it had to be during these periods of end and relist.

[JeffG1954]

When I am doing my daily end and "sell similar" routine, I take note of how many listings I have before I end any.....once I end and "sell similar" I make sure the number is the same as when I started.....my numbers have always matched up.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by JeffG1954

When I am doing my daily end and "sell similar" routine, I take note of how many listings I have before I end any.....once I end and "sell similar" I make sure the number is the same as when I started.....my numbers have always matched up.

All good. I hope no one else has an issue. I just know that its been a thing in the past for a lot of people, and I didn't think I was affected by it until I was. Just wanted to share that everyone doing it should watch it very closely. Especially if someone is doing 1,000 at a time. Even if you catch a glitch and end up 100 listings shy, I would imagine it would be a major headache to identify which ones vanished.

[JeffG1954]

Originally Posted by premium1981

All good. I hope no one else has an issue. I just know that its been a thing in the past for a lot of people, and I didn't think I was affected by it until I was. Just wanted to share that everyone doing it should watch it very closely. Especially if someone is doing 1,000 at a time. Even if you catch a glitch and end up 100 listings shy, I would imagine it would be a major headache to identify which ones vanished.

Yes, if it does ever happen to me there is no way I will know which items were lost.

[nam812]

Originally Posted by JeffG1954

When I am doing my daily end and "sell similar" routine, I take note of how many listings I have before I end any.....once I end and "sell similar" I make sure the number is the same as when I started.....my numbers have always matched up.

That's exactly what I do to make sure there are no disappearances.

[nam812]

Originally Posted by Bosoxfan5990

....... I don't understand why you continue to have a few days where 1,500-1,800 listings are relisting when you only have 5,000 listings.........

There were a few days a while back where, from using eBays multi listing tool, I did 1,000+ listings each of those 2 or 3 days, so because of starting the same day, they end the same day.

Now that's not to say I couldn't break them into more bite sized pieces when their 30 days are over and they're ready for a sell similar, I just never have. Also part of me likes having the 7 - 10 day gaps between having to do my sell similars that I currently have.

I get that I cant have it both ways, but that's what I want gosh dangit. lol

[Bosoxfan5990]

Originally Posted by nam812

There were a few days a while back where, from using eBays multi listing tool, I did 1,000+ listings each of those 2 or 3 days, so because of starting the same day, they end the same day.

Now that's not to say I couldn't break them into more bite sized pieces when their 30 days are over and they're ready for a sell similar, I just never have. Also part of me likes having the 7 - 10 day gaps between having to do my sell similars that I currently have.

I get that I cant have it both ways, but that's what I want gosh dangit. lol

Fair enough! I just know I hate the days where I have to “sell similar” for 250 and do it twice instead of 100 and do it once.

[uminnesota]

For so many years, I would always have the Sell Similar and would do things for so many years, and now, since January -- no one can sell anything ----- how do we solve this where everything would show all things in the past, but not anymore? How can we all help with this?

These were helpful with updating them once a year or every two months, but now, nothing works with them to sell similarly, and they don't show up as they would every time.