Can you make changes to LIVE eBay Listings?

One of the more common emails I receive are from people panicking because they’ve made a mistake in one of their listings and don’t know what to do. This always surprises me as it seems most people aren’t aware that you can actually make a number of changes to a current listing on eBay – even listings with a sales history.

And really it’s for those listings that this is most important. After all if you’ve uploaded the wrong image on a new listing and notice right away, you can always just delete it and then re-do it.

But what about a listing that has been running for a while, that has built up a good sales history and is sitting high on eBay’s search algorithm? In this case the last thing you want is to END the listing to make changes, as you’ll lose all that hard work.

Thankfully though, you can make a number of changes, including:

• Changing the price
• Adding or removing images
• Editing the description
• Changing the quantity available
• Shipping terms
• Return info
• Etc.

However the exact rules on what you can and can’t change depends on the type of listing used, whether or not you’ve made a sale or had any bids, and the time left before the listing ends.

Let’s quickly run through the rules, so that you can use this as a reference if you ever need to make changes in the future.

Revising Auction-style Listings

Less than 12 hours until auction end time + Bid(s) received:

• Add optional features to increase your listing’s visibility

Less than 12 hours until auction end time + No bid(s) received:

• Change the category and add item specifics
• Add a second category
• Add to the item description
• Add optional features to increase your item’s visibility
• Add a page view counter
• Add pictures
• Add new payment methods and post-to locations

More than 12 hours until auction end time + Bid(s) received:

• Add a second category
• Add to the item description
• Add pictures
• Add optional features to increase your item’s visibility
• Reduce the reserve price of your auction

More than 12 hours until auction end time + No bid(s) received:

• Change any information except the format. The auction end time cannot be extended if it has been 2 or more hours since the listing was submitted
• Remove the following optional features: Buy it Now, eBay pictures upgrades, reserve price, 10 day listing
• Add optional features to increase your item’s visibility
• Add or change pictures
• Add a second category
• Reduce the starting price of your item

And there you have it! Those are the four different sets of rules for editing auction-style listings on eBay.

Let’s now move on to fixed price listings:

Revising Fixed Price Listings

A purchase has been made from the listing:

• Raise or lower the BIN price
• Increase or decrease the quantity available
• Change the eBay Shop category
• Change the primary and secondary category
• Edit the title (as long as there are 12 hours before the listing end time)
• Add to the description
• Add or remove pictures using eBay picture services
• Add or remove optional features
• Edit the delivery details

No purchases have been made from the listing:

• Change any information except the listing format
• Raise or lower the BIN price
• Increase or decrease the quantity available
• Edit the title (as long as there are 12 hours before the listing end time)
• Add or change the gallery picture
• Add or change other pictures
• Edit the delivery details

And that’s it for fixed price listings, for which there are only two sets of rules, depending on whether or not any sales have been made from that listing.

The actual process of revising a listing is incredibly simple. All you have to do is:

1. Go to the All Selling section of My eBay (Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro Subscribers – use Active View)
2. Find the listing you want to change
3. From the Actions drop down menu, click the Revise link.
4. On the Edit your listing page, make your changes (if a section is grey, that means it can’t be edited) and click Continue.
5. Review your fee information and Submit revisions.

If you need to change multiple listings, you should use the bulk editing method to save time:

1. Go to My eBay
2. From the left hand navigation bar (under Sell) click Active.
3. Select the listings you want to revise and then click Edit.
4. Your selected listings will appear in a table that lets you directly revise them.

*Important* It can take up to 24 hours for any changes to show on your listing, though it’s usually much less, so please don’t panic if it isn’t instant.

Also, ensure that you clear your cache after you make these changes, otherwise your browser might continue to show you the old version, even after it’s been updated.

It of course goes without saying that for any purchases made prior to you making changes, the previous details apply. This goes for postage, returns, price etc.

Another important point that a lot of people seem surprised by, judging from the emails I get, is that you won’t get any credit/refunds when you remove features from your listing. Yes, you do have to pay extra if you add these in, but you pay the same if you remove them. Unfair, I know, but nothing to get caught up about.

And that’s pretty much everything I wanted to cover about revising current eBay listings. It’s a very simple topic but still one that I get a lot of questions about.

Speaking of which – I spoke earlier about not wanting to lose a listing with good search positions, and the inverse also applies! If you have a listing that is quite old, but isn’t performing very well at the moment (even if it did fine previously) and is falling down in the search results, then I suggest you end that listing and start a new one!

One thing that I know for sure from my years of experience on eBay is that a listing with poor search results is extremely hard to improve. There could be a number of reasons for this (poor conversions, shipping cost etc.) or it could just be pure bad luck – eBay’s search algorithm has taken a “dislike” to that particular listing and there is nothing you can do to save it.

Either way, your best option is to start over with a new listing. Of course don’t just copy and paste – you still need to fix the problem by improving your title, pictures, description, pricing etc.

But starting from scratch is a lot easier than trying to revive a dead listing. Trust me on this and save yourself a lot of time and money!

That’s it for today. I’ll see you again on Wednesday when I plan to post a short guide on creating custom pages for your eBay shop. Stay tuned.

All the best,
Andrew