eBay

tyler@ebay · ‎08-22-2017

Hi everyone -

Here's the thread for this week's chat.

While I am still working on updates for the overall chat grid, I wanted to show you the updated information I have, so I'll include it this week.

Thanks for your time, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Selling limits live items count discrepancy	Closed	"This is working as designed. It is counting the multiple variation and multiple quantity listings"	Will be removed going forward
Handling times not being added properly	Open	No update at this point	Waiting for tech team's response
Shipping Cost Cannot Be Calculated Error On Us/int'l Sites For CA Listings	Open	"This fix is pending."
Seller Hub shipping reminders on items that have been marked as shipped on eBay.ca	Open	Ticket Filed	Waiting for tech team's response
Guides written on .UK are now missing without a trace	Open	No update at this point
Link to relist item from eBay message to seller's private email will not load	Open	Reported resolved	Checking with initial reporter to verify
Shipping calculator not factoring regional shipping differences in delivery estimate	Open	No update at this point	Waiting for tech team's response
Sold email formats have changed - test or intentional?	Information Requested	No update at this point	Waiting for response
Total number of items fluctuates when you hit refresh	Open	No update at this point	Waiting for response
Seller Dashboard showing 20% instead of 10%	Open	No update at this point	Waiting for response

Tyler,

pocomocomputing · ‎08-22-2017

Regarding the Selling Limits discrepancy issues explanation, that was not the reason why I experienced a discrepancy in the counts. When I first posted about this issue over a year ago, I was listing single quantity Fixed Price Listings and non-variation listings. I was listing on a new account with low limits with short durations within a month (7 or 10 day Fixed Price) so I could see the Active Listings and Ended Listings (Sold and UnSold) and the begin and end of the listings within a month. The carry over of active listing to the next month was often wrong. In short, the counts never made sense.

I also noticed it on this account after I had found the issue on the other account.

On interesting quirk of Selling Limits is that they take into account Scheduled Listings waiting to be listed. It would count towards the months limits. So you could not use the Scheduled Listing to hold listings. I have no idea if drafts affect selling limits.

Even more interesting, if a category had a item limit, then you could not schedule a listing if you had reached the limit with an active or sold listing. This has nothing to do with the monthly limits but just a note on how strange Selling Limits worked.

I have not listed in over a year on any ID so I cannot give any example. eBay is too frustrating to sell on with all the glitches like this.

jt-libra · ‎08-22-2017

I’ve been trying to determine why my media sales have declined so dramatically over the last three or four months. As well, most of them only have 2 or 3 views in a 30-day period, which is unusually low. I realize that school has ended, people are on vacation and there is a declining interest in hard-copy media.

I was certain that my listings were free of active content but I ran them though eBay’s bulk active content scanner again. I found that although there was no active content, there were target issues on 125 of my listings. I knew this related to the link to my store and I thought I had corrected them all, but I hadn’t. They have to be corrected individually so I’m working on that.

It was my understanding that eBay would not remove listings with active content or target issues but that buyers would have difficulty viewing them properly. Can you please confirm that a listing with an incorrect link will still be visible? It’s going to take me a while to revise my listings but I’d like to know whether they are still being seen.

Thanks.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-23-2017

Hi Tyler,

When I searched for seller standards I ended up on the following page which has a lot of outdated info. Perhaps someone could update it. Most of the transaction defects mentioned on it are no longer defects. There may be other mistakes on the page but I didn't read all of it.

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/seller-non-performance.html

Transaction defect rate requirements

The transaction defect rate is the percentage of your transactions that have one or more of the following defects:

Detailed seller rating of 1, 2 or 3 for item as described
Detailed seller rating of 1 for shipping time
Negative or neutral feedback
A return initiated for a reason that indicates the item was not as described
An eBay Money Back Guarantee request or PayPal Purchase Protection case opened for an item not received or an item not as described
Seller-initiated transaction cancellation

To meet our minimum standard, you can only have up to 5% of transactions with one or more defects over the most recent evaluation period. To qualify as a Global Top Rated Seller, you can only have up to 2% of transactions with one or more defects over the most recent evaluation period. All your transactions with global buyers count toward your seller performance rating on eBay.ca. Only your transactions with US buyers count toward your seller performance rating on eBay.com.

The defect rate won't affect your seller performance status until you have transactions with defects with at least 8 different buyers, or at least 5 different buyers to impact Top Rated status, within your evaluation period.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-23-2017

Apparently some US sellers are getting messages from ebay stating their listings will be ended and/or not be seen unless they add product identifiers.

In the 2016 fall update we were told that more categories would require product identifiers in February 2017 but I believe that eBay delayed that date as I didn't hear anything about it until recently. If we received more info from ebay about it, I can't find that right now. That fall update also said as well as standard identifiers, upc etc., we would be able to use:

Amazon standard identification numbers (ASIN)
Google product identifiers
Private label product identifiers (seller-generated product identifiers)

I believe that we can produce product label identifiers by adding unbranded and private label items to the ebay catalogue but how do we access the Amazon and Google product identifiers?

Most of my listings are for brand name items and I'm sure that they do have a upc but when the product was sent to me the tags did not have a upc code so I have many new items without any type of product identifiers. Actually I suppose most of them are considered new old stock so I'm not sure that I can even find product identifiers for them as the products themselves are no longer available from the manufacturers.

My questions:

1. What is the official deadline now for adding those identifiers and what will happen to non compliant listings on that date?

2. How do we access the google and amazon identifiers?

3. Are you aware of any general database that we can search for upc codes on?

4.What should sellers do if no product identifiers can be found for product that is new and unused?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

cumos55 · ‎08-23-2017

The following applies to the Book Category on eBay.com and eBay Canada.

Several sellers have added millions of listings to the book category. There is a massive disregard to eBay policy relevant to what should be in each listing…. These sellers choose not to follow policy. Policies are the same on eBay.com and eBay Canada

The policies of importance include.

(1) Picture policy ---

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/picture.html

(2) Use of the catalogue for books … stock photos and associated information

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/product-details.html

(3) duplicate policy

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/listing-multi.html

Picture policy states……We require at least one photo in your listing, but suggest that you include many clear pictures of your item.

Then … Why are there so many, many listings without that one photo?

Estimating the number of listings without atleast one photo -----I go to the seller’s store and view listings in atleast five successive pages under each of …Best Match… Newly Listed … and then … Highest First

Newly listed provides an estimate of how many of a seller’s listing do not have one photo… And then Highest First adds to this percentage.

Best Match is an indication of what people are viewing in a store…… People do look at listings without a photo, but will choose not to view about half the listings without a photo.

Highest first are the listings that do not sell and are indicative of the history in relation to the uploading of listings without a photo, when a seller first started listing on eBay

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With 48 listings per page the count can vary for each seller…… and these numbers can vary, with numbers higher at times

Newly Listed ----- 8 to 10 ,,,, about 20 % of the listings

Best Match ----- 5 to 7… about 10 % of the listings

Highest First…… from a low of about 30 to as much as 35 and even more…..55 to 65 % of the listings

The Highest First listings have prices in the thousands of dollars each and without a photo…… This pricing is outrageous, mainly because these books can be found at lower prices, in the range of $20 to $30, elsewhere on the internet.

There are three major seller groups that list a total of 8 million listings on eBay

(1) Group 1 with two ID’s -- 4.1 million listings.

(2) Group 2 with two ID’s --- 2.4 listings

(3) and then a single seller with 1.6 million listings.

At 20 % of listings without one photo…. the count for listings without a photo could be 1.8 million… and most likely higher.

These sellers appear to be using a listing option where the absence of a photo does not stop the listing from being uploaded to eBay

Picture policy states…… The following is not allowed …

-----Including photos that don't accurately represent the item for sale.
-----Placeholder images used to convey messages, such as no image available, stock availability, or other marketing messages
-----Stock photos for used, damaged or defective items

Then comes the photo included in a listing that states…. No Image available

Or a fake book cover with states the following… This is not the actual book cover… or an equivalent… along the lower edge.

One gets the impression that the catalogue may be providing photos with fake covers…. Not definitive if this is really happening, but this is indicated to some degree.

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Use of the book catalogue states…. When you select an item from the catalogue, be sure it's an exact match with what you're selling

The key words are … exact match ……………..The catalogue is used by these sellers even if there is no exact match.

One seller states the following in every listing…..

……..Stock Photos: The photos displayed within our listings are Stock Photos provided by eBay and the publisher as a visual aid. They are not actual photos of the physical item for sale and should not be relied upon as a basis for edition or condition.

And then this same seller states …..

……...Disclaimer: This item may be a de-commissioned library book and may not include its CD, dust cover, access code and/or accessories.

With this Stock Photo and Disclaimer reference this seller states….. The book the buyer gets may not be the one described in this listing. Some sellers say this at the end of their listings

This seller ignores the fact that….. Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing….. a statement included on each and every listing on eBay….

This seller could perhaps have been off eBay for several months.

Stock photos can be used… but not if the book is ex-library… or …does not have a dust jacket… or …..is in a very poor condition…. In these situations, the photo must show the actual book being sold….. Stock photos must be used in a careful manner…. And most likely for brand new or almost new books

The stock photo and associated information in the catalogue must be an exact match to the book being listed. Many do not follow this rule.

These sellers have so many books to list … in the millions…..they do not have time to provide a correct photo or correct information. They have ….. no camera to take a picture…or no scanner that can also provide an image..

These sellers do not follow eBay policy for photos or use of the book catalogue….

And in so doing they provide a great disservice to buyers on eBay… a great disservice to the sellers of books that follow eBay policy, and then a disservice to all sellers on eBay.

These sellers are just a start of the problems in the book category. These are as many as 30 and perhaps 40 sellers of books … and definitely more… that do the same…. But each of these sellers lists a lower number of books. One gets the feeling with each passing day, that more sellers list without that one photo that is required on eBay..

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Examples….

One seller put 100,000 listings on eBay… all had the same photo that stated… image not available… Many listings have had a photo uploaded to eBay but that statement is still there with many, many listings

Then another seller with 4,000 listings has many… many… listings without that one photo.

Then just this past Saturday A seller with about 250,000 listings for books was found in a situation where about 95 % and more of those listings had NO photo in the listing.

And this is just a start……..

The feedback of these sellers gives an indication of the problems encountered by buyers. Many buyers will buy…. And then never buy again…. And not leave negative feedback because it is not worth the effort of doing so…

--------------------------------

The chat person for eBay will be getting ID’s… and more… with an explanation of the problem for many , many sellers.

This was done about 18 months ago…. Before the chat sessions were closed….. Many if not all of the sellers reported are no longer on eBay

The question then becomes…….Can a seller meet the requirements for picture policy and use of the catalogue?…

The answer is YES…. A seller with 2.3 million listings of books… a few problems… less than 2 % of listings…. Nothing like the sellers listed above….

The highest price for a book sold by this seller is about $180….. No outrageous prices in the thousands of dollars.

About Duplicate listings

These sellers prepare so many listings that they do end up with duplicate listings…..Listings can be different except for the fact they use the same stock photo…..

The descriptions are generic and in many instances they may not be specific to the book being sold

Duplicate listings have been reported…. And they have been removed.

In response to this … the seller has a second ID…. Duplicates are difficult to report if they are on two different ID’s held by the same seller

With one seller I was able to do a search for … Da vinci code ….and found 130 listings…… for about 30 different books with da vinci code in the title….. when viewed in gallery format the duplicates become obvious… on the basis of the same stock photo being used for many listings. There were another 40 listings in the second ID for the same seller, and also with duplicate listings present with that second ID.…..

Information that identifies the sellers noted above will be forwarded to Tyler at eBay

cumos55 · ‎08-23-2017

eBay is unique because it is the only site where booksellers must have a photo in the listings.... and then they must follow eBay policy that is the same for all sellers listing on eBay.. .

If the cataloge is used the information in the cataloge must be an .... exact match to the book being sold.

and then Duplicates......Many sellers will have only one listing for a book.

Some sellers will have more than one listing for a book.... usually it will be the same stock photo for a book varying in condition..... that is ...acceptable, good and very good,,, and then ex-library books... or with no dust jacket (The stock photos hows a dust jacket)

The book cataloge works if it is used carefully... However many sellers will ignore the exact match requirement.

and then... one may see the following.... The book you get may not be the one listed..... in their listings

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eBay does have a special site for books.....half .com

On half.com a seller will find a stock photo, and information about the content of a book. on a page...This is the entry for all books listed. ....Each bookseller then adds information about the condition of the book they want to sell

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eBay does have many sellers that do follow policy as it is applied for books.

Usually it is the sellers with hundreds of thousands and up into the millions of books listed that choose not to follow policy as indicated in my other entry here... They have so many books to list they feel they can list no matter what.... They do not have time to take a proper picture with a camera of with a scanner...... They must list and many times end up with duplicate listings.

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The book cataloge is an interesting option to use. However many sellers use it without regard to exact match. Negative feedback is a good indicator of the problems that a seller would encounter.

My view of the book cataloge is that it is a .... Mess looking for a place to happen....

Each of my listings has a photo of the book being sold... and then Information about the book is added to all of my listings.

When I started on eBay I sold items other than books, and then gradually I found my niche for books..My approach to listing is the same for books as it was for items other than books.

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Using .... Best Match ........ Newly listed and .... Highest first ......gives a good indication of what is happening.for a seller of books without photos.... or correct photo and not just something that says, Image not available

Newly listed is an indication of the percentage of a sellers listingsthat do NOT have a photo.

Best Match is an indication of which listings are being viewed by a potential buyer..... Potential buyers do tend to ignore listings without a photo.

Highest first..... The presence of listing with very... very high prices into the thousands is a good indication that the seller may not understand the reality or correct pricing .... Without a photo these listings will most definitely be ignored by potential buyers....These listing will accumulate.

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As time passes more sellers will not add photos to a listing..... and gradually the book category will change.

Ultimately many potential buyers will ....

...................Ignore listings with stock photos, or missing photos

---------------not buy books priced less than $10

--------------They may buy from a specific seller until they experience a problem and then leave negative feedback.... Do not buy from from this seller

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It was about 7 to 8 years ago that a seller of books listed 100,000 book, with very few book priced at less than $5. The few books more than $5 ... up to $1000 could be found elsewhere on the internet at $10 to $20 each..... It soon became evident this seller was increasing his prices, randomly and without logic.... but he could not sustain his selling on eBay, and that is when half.com became a reality. Eventually he disappeared from half.com

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cumos55 · ‎08-23-2017

The ISBN for books is only required if the book is listed as ... NEW.

It is recommended that if the ISBN is available, that it should be listed

Usually it is the books published before 1967 that do not have an ISBN... Even with this situation some books published recently might not have an ISBN

For books the ISBN Is an identifier, specific to a book, and will vary with edition. It will also vary if the same book is published by a different publisher. The ISBN also identifies the publisher of the book..

ISBN.....International Standard Book Number.... and was introduced as an identifier for books in 1967

momcqueen · ‎08-23-2017

There are multiple reports in the Boards about buyers over the past two weeks being unable to load pages to view items or shop due to warnings about 'too many redirects' and it seems to transcend browsers, updated software et cetera. All the usual fixes will not fix it. It is also apparently specific to the english version of ebay.ca and not the french side or ebay.com. There have been probably six threads and comments by 20 different users which would lead me to believe this is a fairly serious problem that is impacting ebay Canada seller's profitability. Some speculation leads to inefficient or malicious third-party advertising on the site. Can you comment?

These are two of the threads. There have been others but unfortunately I don't have time this morning to search them all out.

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Site-Issues/Error-INET-E-REDIRECT-FAILED/td-p/380409/highlight/true and

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Site-Issues/The-page-isn-t-redirecting-properly/m-p/381300/highlight/tru...

momcqueen · ‎08-23-2017

Also, if I may, offer a reminder about the Shippo webinar today at 1 pm EST. Be there or be square.

bunbar · ‎08-23-2017

Although the books you buy from the book clubs now have ISBN numbers, they didn't used to, so book club books from the 70s for at least the next 2 decades don't have ISBN numbers in them

momcqueen · ‎08-23-2017

Here's a seller-specific problem that I have: I recently received a late-shipment report mark on an item I had to reship due to a Canada Post error. As in, I had to ship an item twice due to an error the postal agent made at the counter, the second time the item was sent to the buyer, it went with tracking about three weeks after purchase. (I had shipped the original within 12 hours.) Because the replacement item was shipped with tracking, it overwrote the ebay notes on the original shipment, and I got a 'tracking shows late shipment' mark on my Dashboard. Can I appeal to have this removed, or am I stuck with it? I don't feel like this was a defect that I deserved, and the buyer was not unpleased with the outcome of the transaction.

cumos55 · ‎08-23-2017

That seller from 7 to 8 years ago had very few books listed at a price higher than $5.

Correction ... very few books priced at over $5

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎08-23-2017

I had something similar happen to me awhile ago. Had to resend a package as the buyer gave me the wrong address. Sent it the second time with tracking & it messed up the system & showed late shipping on my Dashboard. Phoned up eBay & got the strike removed as it wasn't my fault.

musicyouneed · ‎08-23-2017

Back to the issue of incorrect amount of sold items showing and every time you refresh you get another amount.

A poster on my original thread:

tyler@ebay

Hi tyler, I'm a bit confused about a couple of your comments, please see my comments/questions in blue below.
PJ

tyler@ebay wrote:

Hey everyone -
Just wanted to let you know I did some digging and was able to find a little bit of general information about what should be being shown:
Completed listings are available for items that have sold within the last 90 days and for items that didn't sell within the last 30 days.

That is how I understand it to work as well but we are not seeing all of the items that sold during the last 90 days. music's sold listings were being shown as either 91 or 64 when in reality, she sold 174 items in that 3 month period.

My sold items were being shown as 6 or 7 items but I had sold about 38 items during those 90 days. In my case quite a few of the multiple sales were not being counted but there were also a few other items that just didn't show up at all on the sold page. For example, the page was showing sold items from May 25. It counts one item as having been sold 1 time in 3 months when there were really 7 of that item sold.I'm sure that it was different at one time Either on the completed page or the sold page the total number sold would include all items sold. In the case of multiple gtc listings, that number would be updated every 30 days when the listing rolled over. Perhaps someone else remembers that it used to be like that or am I just confused?

When using the Advanced Search page, an "Items by seller" search will include completed listings up to the last 15 days.
When using the Advanced Search page, an "Items by bidder" search will include completed listings up to the last 30 days.
This part confuses me. In the first part of your post you mentioned that completed listings showed for up to 30 days, but then you mention 15 days. When I search completed listings or sold listings using advanced search or by checking off completed items on the seller's listing page, I see completed items for up to 30 days, not 15. I see sold items for up to 90 days. But again..not all sold items are showing up.

What do you mean by an items by bidders search? Bidders don't have completed listings?

Nothing I've found explains why the numbers are changing between refreshes however, so I've filed a tech ticket and hopefully we'll either get more clarification or a fix soon!

momcqueen · ‎08-23-2017

@mjwl2006 wrote:
There are multiple reports in the Boards about buyers over the past two weeks being unable to load pages to view items or shop due to warnings about 'too many redirects' and it seems to transcend browsers, updated software et cetera. All the usual fixes will not fix it. It is also apparently specific to the english version of ebay.ca and not the french side or ebay.com. There have been probably six threads and comments by 20 different users which would lead me to believe this is a fairly serious problem that is impacting ebay Canada seller's profitability. Some speculation leads to inefficient or malicious third-party advertising on the site. Can you comment?

These are two of the threads. There have been others but unfortunately I don't have time this morning to search them all out.

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Site-Issues/Error-INET-E-REDIRECT-FAILED/td-p/380409/highlight/true and
http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Site-Issues/The-page-isn-t-redirecting-properly/m-p/381300/highlight/tru...

This is another thread about it. http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buying-on-eBay/why-do-I-get-a-sorry-request-limit-exceeded-try-tomorrow/...

It seems like the same action is causing different browsers to display different error codes but the result is always the same: cannot view page. It goes without saying that buyers cannot buy something they cannot view. I hope there is some serious attention available to be paid about this.