I'm not seeing the option to start the 7 day sale anymore, anyone having a similar issue?
What 7 day sale?
I've never seen that option ...
You can start a sale anytime by going into your Marketing section.
And sometimes Etsy has sales that you can participate in ... but I haven't seen the 7 day sale.
Once I saw Etsy advertise and a sale and I did not sign up. Wanted to later - when the sale was in progress - and could not find the option anymoe. So if Etsy was advertising a sale, perhaps in a certain location or for certain sellers, the window for signing up may have come and gone.
The 7 day sale is for newly listed items. When the systems kicks you out of the creat listing menu, you will have the option of a 7 day 25% sale and now I'm not seeing that.
Logically. Why would anyone put a newly listed item on sale to start with? I would think that they knew they over priced it and the sale price is their regular price.
Besides that might not even be legal to put new things on sale from the start.
As @TheHomespunLoft says, in some locations it is illegal to advertise an item with a markdown price unless you can show sales at the full price over a period of at least 30 days, and in some locations 90 days. The premise is, that if the first time you offer that item for sale it is at 25% off, you are in fact inflating the price before adding a discount in order to fool buyers into thinking they are getting a deal.
Maybe it was a test. Etsy change stuff all the time.