eBay silently makes changes to auction extension policy

[mandy]

Some very observant sellers noticed this subtle change to the eBay "fee circumvention" policy section that seems to spell the end of Extenders (more on this later)->

    Extension of Auctions - eBay listings ('auctions') have a fixed duration. eBay may on rare occasions (for example, as the result of a site outage) extend the duration of an auction. Extension of auction duration by a seller, via either manual actions or the use of automated tools, is not permitted. Extension of auctions by a seller for any reason is not only a form of fee avoidance, but also harms the finding experience for buyers....

Here's a quick background and tutorial on Extenders if this topic is new to you.  A now-defunct company, Ethical worked with a large seller to productize an idea he had found to be a winning strategy for improving sell-through rates...

Nobody but eBay knows how widespread the practice is, but if you were to survey 100 top sellers in each category, I think you would find 15-30 of them utilizing Extenders... 

full article: http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_str...d_con.html

[amy]

We won
PeSA lost

[mandy]

Auctionbytes article:

eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy said the company is in the midst of communicating the policy change with developers who offered such tools, of which there are not that many, he said. eBay will also make an announcement on its Announcement Board to alert sellers. eBay will begin enforcing the policy change aggressively in 30 days.

The new policy language bans automatic extender tools, but it also bans manual revisions of auction durations. Formerly, eBay allowed sellers to change duration in special circumstances...

full article: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m01/i23/s02

[mandy]

The official announcement:

***Policy Clarification: Auction Extensions Prohibited*** 


Hi...This is Sarah Brubacher with eBay's Global Policy team in Trust & Safety. We're making a change to our Fee Circumvention policy to clarify that auction extensions are not allowed on the eBay marketplace.

Third-party auction extender tools allow sellers to automatically extend auction-style listings beyond their stipulated duration. Auction extensions using these tools, or done manually, are banned.

Why we're making this change
Auction extensions, whether automatic or manual, disrupt normal bidding patterns and create a negative buyer experience. For instance, buyers who enjoy bidding in the last moments of an auction are unfairly disrupted when listings are inappropriately extended.

These tools also "un-level" the playing field between sellers by unfairly adding time to a listing, so that it is available on the site for longer than the chosen duration. Plus, many buyers look for items that have been newly listed, so listings that have been extended have an added unfair advantage in browse and search results.

In special circumstances, such as covered by our Outage Policy, eBay reserves the right to extend all eligible auctions.

For more information on this policy clarification, please read eBay's Fee Circumvention policy. For information about our other policies, please review eBay's Rules and Policies and Rules for Sellers. You can visit these pages by clicking on Help at the top of most eBay pages.

eBay's revised Fee Circumvention Policy: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/list...nting.html

[amy]

An update:

eBay has begun enforcing its ban on the use of extender tools this week, according to spokesperson Catherine England, but an eBay-certified vendor spoke out against the ban on Thursday. Auction extender tools allow sellers to automatically extend auction-style listings beyond their stipulated duration, making them appear at the top of the search results more often. (eBay auctions can be 1, 3, 5, 7 or 10 days in duration.) England said enforcement on the ban started this week, as the company continues to reach out to third-party partners...

full article: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m03/i02/s01