Aging Rules: Spend Less on New Listings, Push Harder on Old Ones

Every listing has a shelf life. In its first couple of weeks, a new listing gets natural attention from eBay search and from buyers watching for fresh inventory. After a month or two with no sale, it starts sinking.

Most sellers either promote everything at one flat rate or adjust ad rates and offers by hand when they remember to. Aging Rules handles it automatically, based on how long each eBay listing has been live.

What Aging Rules does

You set up a few age tiers. Each tier tells Summit what to do with a listing once it reaches that age:

• Promoted Listings ad rate: How much you're willing to pay eBay when a promoted listing sells. A rate of 0% means the listing isn't promoted.
• Best Offer: Whether buyers can send offers.
• Auto-accept: Offers at or above this percentage of your price are accepted automatically.
• Auto-decline: Offers below this percentage of your price are declined automatically.

Once a day, Summit checks your active eBay listings. Any listing that has moved into a new tier gets that tier's settings. Listings that haven't changed tiers are left alone.

Why use it

Stop paying for sales you'd get anyway. A brand-new listing often sells without help. Promoting it from day one can mean paying an ad fee on a sale that would have happened anyway. Aging Rules lets new listings run unpromoted (or at a low rate) for their first stretch.

Put your ad money where it's needed. Listings that have sat for 45, 60 or 90 days are the ones that need visibility. Aging Rules raises their ad rate as they age, so your spend goes to the inventory that's stuck.

Turn stale inventory into cash. Turning on Best Offer and gradually lowering your auto-accept threshold makes older items easier to close. Your money isn't tied up in items sitting on a shelf.

Set it once. No more weekly passes through Seller Hub adjusting rates and offer settings by hand.

An example setup (the "Balanced" preset)

Listing age	Ad rate	Best Offer	Auto-accept	Auto-decline
0–14 days	0% (not promoted)	Off	—	—
15–45 days	3%	On	—	—
46–90 days	6%	On	85% of price	70% of price
Over 90 days	10%	On	80% of price	65% of price

For a $40 item that's been live for 60 days, that means a 6% ad rate, offers of $34 or more accepted automatically, and offers under $28 declined automatically.

There are also Conservative and Aggressive presets, and you can edit any tier to fit how you sell.

Getting started

1. Connect eBay with promotion access. If you see a "Reconnect eBay" banner on the Aging Rules screen, click it and approve. This gives Summit permission to manage your Promoted Listings ad rates.
2. Pick a preset or build your own tiers.
3. Check the preview. New rule sets start in Dry run mode. Summit shows exactly which listings would change and how, without touching anything on eBay.
4. Go Live when the preview looks right. Changes are applied on the next daily run.
5. Check the activity log anytime to see what changed and when.

Safeguards built in

• Your floor price is respected. If a listing has a cost or floor price in Summit, Aging Rules never sets auto-accept or auto-decline below it.
• Your other campaigns are left alone. Listings you already promote in your own eBay campaigns aren't touched unless you turn that option on.
• Exclude anything. Turn off Aging Rules for any single listing, or pin a listing to a specific tier.
• Only real changes are sent. If a listing's settings already match its tier, Summit doesn't call eBay.
• Fixed-price only. Auctions are skipped. If eBay doesn't allow Best Offer in a listing's category, that part is skipped and noted in the log.

Good to know

• eBay charges the rate in effect when the item sells. The fee applies if the item sells within 30 days of a click on its ad, and the item has to be promoted both when it was clicked and when it sells. So a rate change applies to the listing's next sale.
• Changes run once a day. A listing that crosses into a new tier is updated on the next daily run, not that exact minute.
• Age is counted from when the listing went live on eBay. For listings imported into Summit, that's eBay's original start date.
• Promoted Listings fees are charged by eBay. Summit never adds to them. Aging Rules only manages the rate you pay.

FAQ

Will Aging Rules lower my prices?

No. It changes your ad rate and Best Offer settings, not your listing price.

Can I use it on Poshmark, Mercari and my other platforms?

It's eBay-only for now. Age-based actions for other marketplaces are on the roadmap.

What if I turn it off?

Your listings keep whatever settings they had at that moment. Nothing is reverted automatically.

I already use eBay's dynamic ad rate. Do I need this?

eBay's dynamic rate follows eBay's suggested rate for the item. Aging Rules follows how long your listing has been sitting. If you want new listings to stay cheap and old ones to get pushed, that's what Aging Rules is built for.

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