eBay to Announce 2016 Fall Seller Release Today

[momcqueen]

eBay to Announce 2016 Fall Seller Release Today

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y16/m08/i30/s01

eBay will announce the Fall Seller Release today, which is a continuation of its efforts to make the eBay site more standardized and more like Amazon, including an expansion of its Structured Data requirements. In fact, beginning in February, sellers will be able to use Amazon standard identification numbers (ASIN) and Google product identifiers. eBay will also try to become a "kinder and gentler" company when it comes to seller performance standards.

[momcqueen]

I have MAJOR concerns about the Product Catalogue. I've created a dozen threads here about it over the past 18 months of so. It is fatally flawed each place it matches to one of my listings, with details so fundamentally incorrect that any buyer would easily win an SNAD based on the details ebay overprints on my Item Specifics without my consent. 

Simply search the term 'Product Catalogue' here and you'll see some of what I mean"

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/BEWARE-THE-BULK-EDITOR-ADDS-PRODUCT-CATALOGUE-DETAILS-TO-...

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Site-Issues/Bulk-Listing-manager-Malfunction-on-Product-Identiifers/m-p/...

[momcqueen]

I fully support the concept of a Product Catalogue but I honestly don't see that the people working in the arena of Toys have a hot clue what products or product lines and/or series and scales that they are dealing with. If you're selling a diecast car, for example, you have to list it in the right subcategory, and you absolutely MUST be able to properly identify scale. Incorrectly identifying scale is like trying to pass off a 1982 Ford Tempo for a 1968 Chevrolet Corvette. 

[pierrelebel]

From eBay.com this morning:

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/fallupdate16/index.html

No announcement yet on eBay.ca

[rose-dee]

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"[...] eBay will also try to become a "kinder and gentler" company when it comes to seller performance standards." 

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Ha!!!!

I did actually laugh out loud at this.  They've pummeled us for 4 years with ever-shifting draconian policies (some of which were utterly stupid), and now they're suddenly going to be kinder?  Now that a good portion of their small seller base has been decimated and/or left in disgust?  As usual, this is eBay closing the barn door after the horse has fled.  

The proof will be in the pudding.  We shall see.

[dutchman48]

No more Turbo Lister or Selling manager will hurt many sellers

[pierrelebel]

I like this line from eBay in FAQs:

" You can subscribe and gain access to these supplemental features for $15.99 per month,"

[izzame]

I fully agree, though I put it down to just another "Canadian" thing that they have no intention of addressing. I'm learning very quickly, the American way or it doesn't compute. In my case, selling mainly LPs, like your self I have the item right in front of me and it says invalid, first I paniced what the... check the # again, try again invalid. (time wasting) What I have found if it is a Canadian pressing, 99.9% comes up invalid. This is an ebay Canada website but items made specifically in Canada are invalid, OK Maybe a good idea to have a box after "invalid" a choice to "add to catalogue". Have also realized "common sense" or even "the obvious" doesn't exist in ebay decision land.

From what I understand the day is coming were listings with product code will place higher in the "search" so is the seller again being punished by ebay when they aren't providing the proper tools to achieve this.

Another favourite of mine is when I put the title in and my only category choice is CD, no, I have the LP in my hand and it is not a bootleg. So again wasting time to work around. Apple PC so we know the work arounds  already in play on a good day. Before the "spring update" I could list @ 1 item/3 min. 10 days ago it was 8 listings/hour. Less listings = less sales for me and EBAY . I can manage me, I can't manage ebay so I just soldier on and at the end of the day I can say I have done MY best with what I have to work with.

[momcqueen]

Certainly, that Canadian versions of the identical American product have different UPCs is part of the problem.

I really can only speak for Hot Wheels and Disney Cars here. Some LEGO. Hot Wheels are complicated because the UPC for all 250 basic ones released in a given year in a given country share the same UPC and only differ in MPN. And the same goes for speciality series of Hot Wheels, all one UPC but different MPN. And then sometimes for those speciality series like Retro Entertainment or Pop Culture Hot Wheels, the USA and CAD with be the same. But that's no excuse for labelling them with the wrong photos, wrong model and wrong scale. You cannot tell someone buying a 1:65 scale car (about 7 cm long) that they are buying one that's like 1:18 scale and about 30 cm or 12 inches long. 

With the Disney Cars, same deal. You have a specific character released on a specific card and there is one UPC for the USA while in Canada and the rest of the world ALL the characters share the same UPC but have different MPN. And if I've found one in the catalogue (of the 600 I have listed, I've found Disney Cars matches at most a dozen time) they have wrong key details associated with them and/or are misplaced in an incorrect category, like NASCAR instead of Disney Cars. 

I can see that someone who knows absolutely nothing about these products starting making index cards in the catalogue and then gave up. Probably because it was too complicated for them to understand.

With LEGO sets, it's a little worse yet. Some of the details might be right but then others are wrong.

I work hard on creating and maintaining my own catalogue of Product Identifiers with my listings and I don't want that wrecked by sloppy work from a third-party. Plus the buyers deserve better. When news of this Product Catalogue first came to ebay, my gut fear was that all my entries would be stolen for use by others and that I'd be creating the catalogue every time I made a new listing. Now that I've tried using the existing Product Catalogue, I feel like what had worried me would be the best possible outcome.