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How do you prepare your listings if you want to take a vacation?
 

The problem with this business is finding the time to take a vacation. I usually end up looking at the USPS Holiday schedule then taking a extra 2 days to make it a 5 day getaway. We all know that our buyers want the item now and hate waiting for shipping. I also don't like to end my listings because I want to be making sales while sipping my adult beverage.

The only feasible solution that I employ, is moving my handling time from 1 day to 2 days on all my listings. That way I can start my time off on a Thursday and if Monday is a USPS Holiday then I can fly home on that Monday and ship my sales on Tuesday.

What do you do to prepare your listings for vacation?

I personally just make sure that whatever listings I have up...will end by the date I plan to leave for Vacation. This works for me since I only do BIN's and require Immediate Payment I don't have to worry about someone paying while or during my vacation.

If you are taking a short vacation, then i do not see a problem.

Typically if I take a mini vacation, I will check my sales at the end of the day and go ahead and print out my shipping labels and once I get back ship them out. This way at least the buyer has some sort of detail that the order has been processed.

If it is a longer vacation, I usually make sure that auctions will end prior to me leaving and go ahead and relist two days before I am scheduled to get back.

If you have an eBay store you can do this:

To turn on your Store vacation settings:
Click the Messages tab in My eBay.
Select the Change settings link on the top right side of the page.
In the Store vacation settings section, select Turn ON.
If you'd like to hide your fixed price listings and prevent buyers from making purchases from them while you're away, select Hide and block purchases from my fixed price listings.
If you'd like buyers to see a return date, select Display a return date, and enter a date in the box provided.
In the Message to display on your storefront section, edit the default text displayed in the textbox if you would like to customize it.
Click the Apply button.

go to here for more information http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/plac...-vacation.html

Otherwise if you don't have an eBay store make sure the listings end after you come back from vacation, you can do this by setting a scheduled start time when making a listing.

VACATION?!??!? what is this thing you speak of :heh:

You can change your processing time to a longer time?

if you change your handling times to a longer window you aren't going to have to worry about anything cause your views and rankings will drop like a rock.

Ya that's the point and when you come back change it back to normal?

i wouldn't risk it... what if you get stuck down there for a while.... :surrender:

I agree.

I work 12-16 hour days every day and when its vacation time its vacation time.

I shut everything down a week prior so I dont have any straggler issues or messages as I do not check on them when I am on vaca.

For many years I owned and operated a small manufacturing business and even when I was away I was at work.

So now when we head off for a vacation I feel I have earned time off and dont want to deal with professional buyers or MM78 (:heh:) for at least a week.