I may not have been the first to have this happen to them, but this is the first time I've noticed it.  So, I only list things for free on eBay.  I wait until I get a promotion that lets me list an additional 100, 200 or 500 items for free which eBay often does with regularity.  However, when I listed everything this last time, I didn't notice until after most things were listed that the promotion automatically listed everything in the "Good until Cancelled" duration category.  Usually the duration is either 3, 5, 7, 10 or 30 days.  As I looked at the fine print, if a listed item hasn't sold at the end of 30 days, it automatically gets listed again along with all applicable fees in "order to help me sell my item."  Like hell!  It's in order to help them collect fees!  

So, I tried to edit all listed items to the 30 day duration and not the good until cancelled duration and was not successful.  I am not happy about this.  I may just have to wait until day 29 and cancel all my listings.   

If anyone else has had experience with this, I'd appreciate any help.  If you are thinking about listing items on eBay, you may want to watch out for this trick.   

As an eBay user since the first year of its existence, I don't enjoy the way the website has become a "Buy It Now" store. I have zero problems with people selling anything exactly the way they want to. I also miss the days when almost all eBay items were sold via auction and tended to start at $1. I know I am living in the past, and I like it that way. I usually click the "auction only" choices and avoid the "Buy it Now" items entirely. I totally understand why eBay wants to make more money on "Buy it Now" sellers. They are 95% of the listings, and endlessly list items at high prices and drown out the auctions I look for. I imagine that sellers can do that because eBay made it cheap to do so. I hope eBay motivates them to do otherwise via various fees and restrictions. Let the market set the price. If something doesn't sell within X months it is most likely because the price has been set too high. It's hard to not get bored seeing something listed for $300 for months on end when it typically SELLS for $75.

"Market-guy" here too. "Market price" is most commonly a fixed price. Carrots, shirts etc.  Many of us have won auctions for a much lower price than we would have offered - lucky for us, someone bid .99 before our offer was accepted. None of us has won an auction for more than we wanted to pay.

Auctions are for liquidating. They are "micro-markets"; and not seven-day or 10-day markets. They can be 3s, 2s 1s... markets. Depending on who doesn't like to bid early and forgets to set an alarm.

Dont get me wrong. People are smart for using auctions. It can guarantee a sale by date. That's awesome if you want to get rid of something in a short time and want the most possible in that time.

Those who list BIN items well above typical prices are great advertising for other listings, including auctions.

eBay has it right IMHO.

Thanks for the heads up I will have to check the "good until canceled" in my listings.

Do you still get the free 100/200/300 etc free listings?  I haven't seen one of these promos for a few years now - they use to be very common but I don't seem to get them anymore.

I basically gave up on auctions a long time ago.  At some point (possibly after the crash of 2008), auction prices just dropped off and everything was selling relatively cheap.  Auctions also created a lot of headaches.  Buyers that won multiple auctions often thought shipping on the extra items was simply free so want to negotiate shipping prices.  You also have to wait for buyers to pay (some take a few days others a week) and a lot of buyers are impatient.  I had one guy take a week to pay and then expected the item delivered the next day - his reasoning being its been a week since the end of the auction.

Buy-It-Now auctions are just simple - a lot less hassle.

Just yesterday I had a sale and shipped it promptly that afternoon.  Then, about 7:30 PM I get a message saying they wanted to cancel the sale!     So I wrote back, telling them to just ship it back in the same box without opening it, and I'd refund the money (that's not an approved eBay policy, by the way).  This morning I get a message saying that they'd just keep the item.     Some buyers are bi-polar or something (not that I am trivializing mental illnesses).  If you are going to sell on eBay, you have to put up with crap.  One of my eBay policies is that if I ever have a problem of any kind with a buyer, I put them on my do-not-sell list.  I must have 100 people on there.   And if anyone wants a copy of them, just let me know as I am happy to share.  

Mars wrote in RE: New EBay Shenanigans:Do you still get the free 100/200/300 etc free listings?  I haven't seen one of these promos for a few years now - they use to be very common but I don't seem to get them anymore

yes they do. I get them once a month. it's usually 100 or 200 auction or BIN. I think it's like Toad said, it's based on your seller status

when I was a power seller? I would get promos for 500 free listings and around Christmas time 1000. I think, I won't swear to it