Can't Relist (auto or otherwise) because ebay added extra nonsense Item Specific fields to listings

[momcqueen]

I had 14 listings 'fail' to auto-relist last night when they ended.

I immediately suspected this had something to do with the new nonsense fields ebay has added under Item Specifics but it's more insidious than that. (See https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/NEW-OPTION-UNDER-ITEM-SPECIFICS-MODIFICATION-DESCRIPTION....)  I looked at one of my listings for diecast cars and it had a whole SLEW of new non-relevant fields under Item Specifics and then rejected the listing due to not understanding 'Mattel' is the 'brand' they are looking for.

Allow me to reiterate these were perfectly good listings until someone decided to 'improve' something at ebay last night or within the past seven days.

For the record, I'm not 'fixing' these; I'm waiting for ebay to fix it so I can relist them the way I should, as they are and have always been.

If that never happens? Well..... 

tyler@ebay

Nope nope nope. Media? It's almost as if the people adding these fields have never sold a diecast car, and their boss in charge of the whole project has suddenly up and quitHuh? The person(s) responsible for designing these fields is unaware of Mattel?

[retroman_studios]

I know you only just posted this but I immediately thought of Roz from Monsters Inc. "Your stunned silence is very reassuring "

[great_junque_finds]

Only on ebay is Mattel not a 'valid brand'.

They really screwed the pooch on this last update. Did it to clothing categories as well.

[Anonymous]

Yeah eBay is getting insane by the minute with those kind of things.  Actually the specific items required are not necessary and waste of time.

[kawartha-ephemera]

Maybe I'm mistaken ... I thought the idea behind the new product based system was to eliminate the need to input all of this sort of data.

My understanding of the master plan was that the user would simply enter the product UPC code and all this type of information would automatically populate.

My condolences... looks like another make work program.

[momcqueen]

Yes, I think this is the effect of something being effed up. There was a beta running in another category where sellers in that category are supposed to populate the data... but this is not that category yet all those superfluous fields remain. Someone hit the wrong button and then left for the Long Weekend, so we’re left holding the bag. Or maybe it started sooner, there was a problem earlier this week with a collector sticker listing of mine that I couldn’t revise for shipping reasons because the form suddenly didn’t know what brand Panini is. Eyeroll.

[momcqueen]

More listings have ended that cannot be relisted.

[momcqueen]

I am, however, understanding the problem does not lay with all these extra Item Specifics fields.

This is about the Brand field.

eBay isn’t accepting Mattel.

It wants me to choose between ‘handmade’ and ‘unbranded’.

Obviously, for an authorized and legitimate new toy that’s factory-sealed in the package, neither are correct.

This needs to be fixed. It’s actually really ridiculous that an error such as this could be allowed to go live in the first place.

[momcqueen]

I started a new thread about this because the actual problem cannot be redefined in the thread title.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Error-in-Brand-field-causes-items-to-fail-at-relist/m-p/...

[mlhj87]

we have 300 live listings and over 1000 to relist

we get 500 listings a month so rotate through our 1300 we've created

Now they want us to edit them ONE AT A TIME and add 6 item specifics that are useless? the info is already in the description

there are many more item specific categories that they don't force us to input is it possible they could simply remove the mandatory status of the ones they are now forcing us to do as we try to relist?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Sadly these sorts of problems are easy to find when attempting a search. Is this discussion going to get tagged as a zombie thread? Most likely. Why it came up? Because the last poster did a search and for reasons only eBay knows older threads often are the usuals to show up first by default. Bringing back the old adage...."History never repeats itself". Okay, maybe it does in eBay Land!!

-Lotz

[reallynicestamps]

FWIW I see those turn up every now and then on various types of listings.

Mostly sewing patterns.

I just ignore the ones that are not sensible. Those will not show on the actual listing as empty. They don't show at all.

When the BRAND does not turn up in the list, I use "enter your own" which always seems to be there, and then, and this is the important part, click on ADD.

I suspect that using Add eventually puts the brand name in the list thought whether it is only my list or everyone's list is a mystery.

I can't be more specific about this because patterns have three or four different categories that overlap and the question may come up on only one of them.

About relisting from a list,  do you do ten or twelve a day or do you have a couple of hundred that are relisted ever few weeks?

It's been my belief that having something open or close every day is best to keep our listings in Search.  I could be wrong.

But if it's a handful a day, the job becomes less onerous, especially for those who are not letting listings run until sold.

[electronicifycanada]

Item specifics is one of the few things Google has admitted is actually good for SEO. Their not entirely useless but if we keep changing them they will become that way.

[tyler@ebay]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began I have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread!