eBay

g1v2d3 · ‎07-02-2021

The Required Item Specifics cannot be fullfilled and it has specifics that are unrelated to the item that are suppose to be required. eg. Condition of item: the only category is "Used" - what about New or Like New.

this is one of many specific problems. Ebay - you need to read the Posts that sellers are putting on about Item Specifics. There are so many flaws that it would be a disaster to require buyers to use it or implement it.

STOP it NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Listen to your sellers!

g1v2d3

ypdc_dennis · ‎07-02-2021

I assume you might be talking about the sports card category.

The categories I sell in have a wider range of conditions available. Plus a condition description field that pops up when the item is not "new" to add more details.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-02-2021

Sewing Patterns are the same. Choices are New and Used, but I sell never used, factory folded patterns that have been in someones sewing closet for decades.

I call them New, but the packets are usually crumpled and sometimes even have notes.

Perhaps Brand New / Factory Folded/ Used should be the categories.

And in Books, there is a Required IS for Series Name.

Most books are one offs.

And the few trilogies and other series I sell always seem to be missing from eBay's prefilled list.

Series should be a Recommended not a Required.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-02-2021

@femmefan1946

Books, CD's - Music, DVD's, older electronics and clothing used to be straight-forward listings to create. Now, not so much!!! There may be many others but those are first to come to mind.

-Lotz

As a side note, Canadian products with ratings - Music/DVDs etc - PG, R, G etc has per eBay Tech Support(June 24) should now be compatible for use with the Canadian options of standards. With a previous update they were amended to show The US options ONLY. Haven't had a chance to confirm if previously created listings have been corrupted by these updates.

esclyons · ‎07-02-2021

they are asking for all coin listings to be updated, with the KM number.. Nobody uses these numbers, and 90% of collector's don't even know what they are.. Ebay really needs to get in touch with reality.. Who came up with this idea, to use KM, numbers, there is no need for them, and they are a complete waste of time, absolutely nobody searches for an item using that number, so why include it.. Just a big waste of time for seller's.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-02-2021

Oh yeah- another problem with Book Specifics - one that predates Item Specifics.

Canadian and British (and I would guess Aussie and South African) ISBNs are usually not accepted. Nor are early iSBNs when the system was just being accepted.

This is frustrating since a 1975 book is sometimes preferred as Vintage.

And the ISBNs ofter pull the wrong edition from the eBay catalog.

But then, most of my customers are readers rather than collectors.

hlmacdon · ‎07-02-2021

@esclyons wrote:
Who came up with this idea, to use KM, numbers, there is no need for them, and they are a complete waste of time, absolutely nobody searches for an item using that number, so why include it.. Just a big waste of time for seller's.

Same intern that is creating utterly irrevalent item specifics across multiple categories. It's clear they have nobody with any product knowledge in these verticals. I mean one of my categories literally has 40! item specfics that can be used and of those maybe 3 are relevant and might actually be used by a buyer. You could literally take a data dump of the last 5 years of sales history within a category and extract more usable item specifics from the listing titles than ebay provides.

This isn't hard, literally send surveys to the top 10% of sellers within a category asking them for input on what would be useful and increase sales then actually fix site navigation so that those attributes actually appear as primary selections for filtering criteria.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-02-2021

@hlmacdon

I've been meaning to tell you how good it is to see your opinions back on the boards after a short hiatus.

You have a different kind of knowledge than most of us and it is appreciated.

ypdc_dennis · ‎07-03-2021

@femmefan1946 wrote:
... And in Books, there is a Required IS for Series Name. Most books are one offs.
And the few trilogies and other series I sell always seem to be missing from eBay's prefilled list.
Series should be a Recommended not a Required.

Book series is not required. At least not on a desktop computer view of ebay.ca

Required-Soon for books:

Author -- not all books have an author, but it does allow multiple names and (editor) as part of a name

Book Title --

Language -- multiple choices are allowed, which is a good thing for some books

...

As for ebay's book database, it's usually wrong on a least some detail/image for books published before the age of internet publishing. An example would be the many SF novels supposedly authored by "Penguin book staff". Plus there is the problem that a search using an ISBN will not find a book, when a title search will show results that include the book with that ISBN.

....

Going back to the OP's condition choices.

For not-new books it is best to fill in the additional Condition description or ebay will display their own (usually useless) definition for the condition. Since I scan most of the books I list, I use "see scans" if I have nothing to say...

-;-

doc_scribe · ‎07-03-2021

@hlmacdon wrote:

It's clear they have nobody with any product knowledge in these verticals. I mean one of my categories literally has 40! item specfics that can be used and of those maybe 3 are relevant and might actually be used by a buyer. You could literally take a data dump of the last 5 years of sales history within a category and extract more usable item specifics from the listing titles than ebay provides.

Initially I did what I always do when a major sea change in SYI database structure and content is introduced - i.e. suck it up, hunker down, and work with (or around) the new field options to flesh out my item specs as best as possible for the benefit of customers.

In this latest reconfiguration though, there are simply too many trap-doors and show-stoppers. In the category I'm most familiar with (DVD & Movies) form designers are apparently trying to reverse 100+ years of accepted terminology by trying to change the meaning of "Release Year" from the year a studio production was first presented to the public (regardless of format), to the year a specific home video product was first available for sale (in the listed format).

The former is of potentially critical importance to someone searching for a title like "KIng Kong". I mean, is the buyer looking for the 1933 original?...the 1976 remake?...the 2005 remake?...or the 1966 animated TV series? In the new "Release Year" field though, only 2005 would be a valid selection because the dropdown now ends at 1991 with no manual input option for prior years. Why? Because DVDs didn't exist before that. "Huh?" I mean, "Eh?"

@hlmacdon wrote:

This isn't hard, literally send surveys to the top 10% of sellers within a category asking them for input on what would be useful and increase sales then actually fix site navigation so that those attributes actually appear as primary selections for filtering criteria.

Bottom line: How are Sellers expected to work around key field design so far off the mark from the get-go? I'm here to list and sell, not endlessly tweak and debug bad database practice.

hlmacdon · ‎07-03-2021

@femmefan1946 wrote:
@hlmacdon
I've been meaning to tell you how good it is to see your opinions back on the boards after a short hiatus.
You have a different kind of knowledge than most of us and it is appreciated.

Thanks for the kind words. Glad to see a lot of the same faces here providing helpful information to help me get up to speed on some of the goings on.

ypdc_dennis · ‎07-03-2021

@doc_scribe wrote:
... I'm most familiar with (DVD & Movies) form designers are apparently trying to reverse 100+ years of accepted terminology by trying to change the meaning of "Release Year" from the year a studio production was first presented to the public (regardless of format), to the year a specific home video product was first available for sale (in the listed format).

The former is of potentially critical importance to someone searching for a title like "KIng Kong". I mean, is the buyer looking for the 1933 original?...the 1976 remake?...the 2005 remake?...or the 1966 animated TV series? In the new "Release Year" field though, only 2005 would be a valid selection because the dropdown now ends at 1991 with no manual input option for prior years. Why? Because DVDs didn't exist before that. "Huh?" I mean, "Eh?"

Thanks for mentioning that.

Nothing quite like changing the meaning of things without notice.

"Release Year" popup definition used to say it was for when the movie or show was first released. Paired with "DVD Edition Year".

"DVD Edition Year" is now suggested for removal. And the definition for "Release Year" changed so it would act as a replacement. Never mind that "Release Year" already had an important use.

They should have left "Release Year" (and definition) alone and changed "DVD Edition Year" to "Edition Year".

tyler@ebay -- another suggestion for fixing.

I note that as long as I do not modify "Release Year" on my older movie listings, that dates before 1990 are still okay, just not allowed for new listings.

-;-

femmefan1946 · ‎07-03-2021

@ypdc_dennis

I list most books on dotCOM since my titles can ship LetterPost usually.

It may well be the dotCOM IS that are demanding the 'series' while somehow an actual book reader was allowed to set the IS in Canada.

doc_scribe · ‎07-14-2021

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

As a side note, Canadian products with ratings - Music/DVDs etc - PG, R, G etc has per eBay Tech Support(June 24) should now be compatible for use with the Canadian options of standards. With a previous update they were amended to show The US options ONLY. Haven't had a chance to confirm if previously created listings have been corrupted by these updates.

Since the beginning of the week I've noticed the appearance Canadian movie ratings in the dropdown lotz.

I also noticed the disappearance of NR (Not Rated), indicating that any pre-MPAA movies will now require a best-fit G, PG, or R rating if/when that field becomes 'Required'.

In other changes since we last communicated, a heads-up specifically for Sellers of Blu-rays. The old dropdown listed that Format as "Blu-ray Disc", but there are now 2 discrete options: "Blu-ray" and "Blu-ray 3D". Since this is a 'Required' field, I did not take the seemingly minor distinction for granted, and spent the afternoon updating my item specs.

Finally, something of similar potential impact has changed in the Genre field dropdown. The old "Action & Adventure" option has vanished, leaving a blank field with separate "Action" and "Adventure" checkboxes, both unchecked by default.

Just FYI...

cardconnoisseurs · ‎07-15-2021

It's absolutely dreadful. They need to add "N/A" as an option in *every* Item Specific field, and give us a way to update these in bulk. Additionally, we should have the option to turn off the "add reccommended item specifics" notification. It's *infuriating*.

doc_scribe · ‎07-15-2021

As noted in one of the other threads, an "N/A" option could be helpful - especially to collectible sellers - but not if/when a 'Recommended' field suddenly becomes 'Required'. I would always try to find a valid value, or leave blank (e.g. the MPN # field for home video).

BTW, I just noticed another Genre selection that media Sellers need to watch out for. The "Animation & Anime" selection has been dropped and replaced by separate checkboxes for "Animation" and "Anime", both unchecked by default.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-15-2021

@doc_scribe wrote:
As noted in one of the other threads, an "N/A" option could be helpful - especially to collectible sellers - but not if/when a 'Recommended' field suddenly becomes 'Required'. I would always try to find a valid value, or leave blank (e.g. the MPN # field for home video).

BTW, I just noticed another Genre selection that media Sellers need to watch out for. The "Animation & Anime" selection has been dropped and replaced by separate checkboxes for "Animation" and "Anime", both unchecked by default.

Another alternative would be "Unknown". Most helpful for anyone selling OOAK/obsolete older items without original packaging. Would be much better than just guessing. It's turned into eBay Whackamole with prizes......when something does eventually sell.

-Lotz

mindbender3 · ‎07-28-2021

Agreed. Absolute madness. I sell mostly music (CD's and Vinyl) and half of the required specifics are unrelated to the product. It is a total joke and I am tired of getting emails from eBay telling me to add requirements. As usual some great mind at eBay who knows zero about selling or buying instituted another change to make it more challenging for sellers to list their items.

aramatic · ‎07-29-2021

It's not only a disaster but an unnecessary and annoying one. I give full descriptions of my items that are more detailed and more accurate than filled-in templates, yet eBay yells "Add Item Specifics"! on every listing if I don't. They need to stop treating us like children and make Item Specifics optional. Those whose descriptive ability runs only to "Condition is Used" deserve to be ignored.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-29-2021

@mindbender3 wrote:
Agreed. Absolute madness. I sell mostly music (CD's and Vinyl) and half of the required specifics are unrelated to the product. It is a total joke and I am tired of getting emails from eBay telling me to add requirements. As usual some great mind at eBay who knows zero about selling or buying instituted another change to make it more challenging for sellers to list their items.

The most recent new baffling suggestion is "Color" for CD's etc. Wonder how long the staff meeting was to come up with that one?

-Lotz