20 RTS Listings are in my Unsold Bucket

[TiasTreasures]

This morning when I logged on to relist our closed auctions, I found a nasty surprise . . . 20 of our "Run Until Sold" listings are also there.

Most of them are priced under $1.00, and before I can relist them I have to open every single one of them and add the original eBid ID number as the SKU. Otherwise, when I sell an item, I'll never be able to find it. That's the number they're filed under. I chose to use that as the unique identifier because when we joined eBid, we were told that these would never be closed.

Here are some of the auction IDs:
1225937730-28738-0
16865792
17733636
16694530

We have over 4000 RTS listings running (in addition to around 1,500 that do have closing dates). I don't have time to go through these and add the SKU. If this is an attempt to get rid of deadwood sellers, it's the wrong way to do it. I log on EVERY day, and right now I have several new sales ready to mail. If this happens again, I'll have to start looking for a new site. It wouldn't be that much more work to copy the unsold items to a new site, since I will have to open every single one of them anyway.

[gazza]

On First Bid and Run Until Sold items have always had a fixed lifetime. The figure was 730 days until around 6 months ago when we shortened it to 365 days due to many users complaining about stale items on the site. After some more recent input from some users talking about out of date items we checked deeper and found that that many RUS items weren't being closed after this time period had elapsed. This bug has been fixed.

Any input into the workings of this function and any changes that could improve this as always will be taken on board.

Gazza

[astral276]

On First Bid and Run Until Sold items have always had a fixed lifetime...

Your figures do not match your own help files which state a life of 180 days for OFB and no lifetime on RTS.

[astral276]

I would also agree with Tia in that a blanket 365 day limit on the run time of RTS is not a solution to dead sellers.

365 days is far too long to leave listings running that have no one attending to them. It also penalises attentive sellers, such as Tia, who use RTS in a responsible manner.

I'm not going to attempt to suggest how RTS should be handled as that has been well covered in another thread - which you must be aware of. If you are going to use your current system then there is the need for sellers to be able to reset the countdown clock in some way. E.g. Current Julian date - Last login Julian date.

[gazza]

Your figures do not match your own help files which state a life of 180 days for OFB and no lifetime on RTS.

We'll get this updated.

[TiasTreasures]

On First Bid and Run Until Sold items have always had a fixed lifetime. The figure was 730 days until around 6 months ago when we shortened it to 365 days due to many users complaining about stale items on the site. After some more recent input from some users talking about about of date items we checked deeper and found that that many RUS items weren't being closed after this time period had elapsed. This bug has been fixed.

Any input into the workings of this function and any changes that could improve this as always will be taken on board.

Gazza

This was discussed at length in several threads. It seemed most of us agreed that the best solution for "stale items" or "absentee sellers" would be a requirement that a seller had to log onto eBid every 30 days (although other time periods were also suggested).

I just checked the FAQs and there is NO MENTION of a 730-day expiration. I would never have listed these items if I had seen such a limit. And, I can't find any post in the forums that it had been changed to 365 days.

I just relisted six of them. I had to do it manually to add the SKU. Copy the ID number, open the listing, add the SKU, repost. I'm going to think about whether I want to do this 20 times a day, every day, for as long as I keep these on eBid.

[gazza]

I see no reason why RUS shouldn't be allowed to continue for attentive sellers. We'll add a last login check when doing the 365 day checks each time. We'll have to have the same provisions for OFB in that case also.

I'll put 365 day closures on hold until this is added.

Thanks,
Gazza

[astral276]

Actually that example I gave at the end of my last post didn't make sense. The logic I meant was:

If Julian(LastLoginDate) - Julian(RTSListingStartDate) > 365 Then CloseListing

[gazza]

This was discussed at length in several threads. It seemed most of us agreed that the best solution for "stale items" or "absentee sellers" would be a requirement that a seller had to log onto eBid every 30 days (although other time periods were also suggested).

I just checked the FAQs and there is NO MENTION of a 730-day expiration. I would never have listed these items if I had seen such a limit. And, I can't find any post in the forums that it had been changed to 365 days.

I just relisted six of them. I had to do it manually to add the SKU. Copy the ID number, open the listing, add the SKU, repost. I'm going to think about whether I want to do this 20 times a day, every day, for as long as I keep these on eBid.

Are you saying the SKU was in the original listing and then has disappeared when it closes? This would be a bug that would need fixing urgently. Let us know.

Thanks,
Gazza

[terry5732]

No, TT was using the listing ID for a SKU which of course changes on relist