Hey Ebay, you need to fix this "Add Recommended Items Specifics" BS *NOW*.

[cardconnoisseurs]

If Ebay wants these specifics filled out bad enough, they should be mandatory when creating a listing. And if they are NOT mandatory, then give us the ability to OPT OUT of having these pleasant little "reminders" clogging up our seller page. 

And WORSE, is that now there is a NEW devil in hell, the "Add Item Specifics That WIll Be Required Soon" demon. 

Either give us a way to fix ALL of our listings at once, with an easy to use interface that DOESN'T error out every time you try to use it, or give us the option to opt out of receiving these! It's absolutely *infuriating*, and is a thief of time. We are running businesses here, in the midde of a global pandemic. Stop giving us incentives to migrate our inventory to other platforms. 

[alacar-8]

I have always between 800 and 900 listings on eBay.  I also use a couple of local platforms.  On these I can list, for example, "New Boots, sz 10" $40"  No required tread depth, lace style, texture of the insole etc. Plain and simple, new boots $40.  I am going to have to spend a lot of time "fixing" my unbroken listings.  A pain and I don't like working for free.

[ricarmic]

As a note you don't have to fix anything that is already running, it is grandfathered.

If you revise them then you do have to also add the required specifics.

Of course new items have to have the required specifics added. 

Recommended specifics can just be ignored.

[widgetc]

They are a  PIA and often useless!

For example you have to specify "uncertified". 99.9% of stamps  are uncertified. he expeption is very expensive ones and that is somwthing I'd put in the title. Things like grade and condition are confusing for lots of several samps. I generally end up putting something like "see scan".  A waste of time.

[ricarmic]

@widgetc 

I hear you, "ungraded" and "uncertified"  are on all my listings......

[needsmorerobots]

I've learned thus far I am enetering data twice, like the length of an music record (2 times I had to data enter "Album").

The segment where I added actors for movies is there but the lead actors section is gone.

And no longer can I note the difference in movie rating. For example, a DVD distributed for a Canadian market has the Canadian Home Video Rating of 14A. In the US this would be considered a higher rating under their system. The new changes only allows the US rating system to be used and not the Canadian. I've entered it manually and it auto erases. Now to make a Canadian rating known I have to add it into the description box.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@needsmorerobots wrote:

I've learned thus far I am enetering data twice, like the length of an music record (2 times I had to data enter "Album").

The segment where I added actors for movies is there but the lead actors section is gone.

And no longer can I note the difference in movie rating. For example, a DVD distributed for a Canadian market has the Canadian Home Video Rating of 14A. In the US this would be considered a higher rating under their system. The new changes only allows the US rating system to be used and not the Canadian. I've entered it manually and it auto erases. Now to make a Canadian rating known I have to add it into the description box.

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@ricarmic 

In some cases categories have been discontinued and replaced with new categories. In other cases information has been tinkered with. Example: Changing Title to Book Title. Causing a new field needing updating for basically no rational reason. Lastly, new very specific fields have been added that are not always either available or easily located/confirmed.

Similar to sellers adding a field when they created the listing because eBay missed it originally so eBay chooses to add now because they just realized....causing subtle duplication.

Grandfathering does not seem to apply when it comes to item specifics. It's kinda like moving flowers around in the garden. All the flowers are still there, just in different places. Maybe you added daisies because you like them.

Still the biggest concern for all this affects is that those specific that were/are missed show up after the listing is created. NOT DURING!!!!

-Lotz

[doc_scribe]

Re:

"Grandfathering does not seem to apply when it comes to item specifics. It's kinda like moving flowers around in the garden. All the flowers are still there, just in different places. Maybe you added daisies because you like them."

...but at some point will our 'gardener' be watering only the new plot because that's as far as the hose will reach?  🤔

I guess you already know how wary I am about the risks of globally renaming database fields. Bottom line: I take nothing for granted when an essential (required) field suddenly defaults to blank in the Item Spec form.

"Still the biggest concern for all this affects is that those specific(s) that were/are missed show up after the listing is created. NOT DURING!!!!"

Even using Sell Similar from a listing with already updated Item Specs, the closest I can ever seem to get to zero eBay recommendations is "1". I always have to go back into the form and manually select "Don't remind me of these recommendations again." then Re-Save.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@doc_scribe 

Re: Item Specifics and watering

Do you know where you can buy good weed killer for these nuisances? Maybe even if we had a general idea of what their intention(eBay) and how close to done they are, it would be less aggravating.

If you click on save and then update one more. you see at the last second it unchecks that box. Even if that box was build in to listing creation it would be a partial fix. Not perfect but better when most fields are either unknown and/or applicable. Also, what can happen after you have done all your needle in the haystack (some specifics are very well hidden) fill in the blanks challenge, ebay can add a new specific meaning you have to start from square one to fix.....If you even can. Maybe this is a just a project to take our minds off of MP. After awhile you start to wonder!!! 😳

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

Hmm regarding grandfathering, it must depend on the categories then.

I have just under 2,000 items with NO required specifics entered. 

None are implemented automagically.

Any time I revise one,  they are blank and I have to add them all (plus some other stuff that's happened over the years, I have some listings that have been running GTC for 10 years now, and some of them sell from time to time, one just needs the right buyer to come along in fact 5, 6, 7, and 8 year old listings sold yesterday!)

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@ricarmic 

I've had the same listing requiring mandatory Specifics re-appear multiple times in the month. Some are easy to confirm. Other specifics, not so much. The most prolematic categories for this nightmare are Clothing/Footwear, Books, CD's, DVD's, Automotive, Electronics .....AND Anything manufactured over 20 years ago that eBay believes should be Bluetooth compatible along or OOAK antiques where the packaging is long gone. Stamps/Currency/Printed matter....I can only imagine.  Majority of these updates are mostly a nuisance.

-Lotz

[doc_scribe]

Beats me lotz. I'm still grappling with the logic behind some of these new field selections.

For example, for home media the "Studio" field now includes a default dropdown selection for 'Tracy Anderson' but not...uhm...'Unversal Pictures'? 😮

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@ricarmic wrote:

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

Hmm regarding grandfathering, it must depend on the categories then.

I have just under 2,000 items with NO required specifics entered. 

None are implemented automagically.

Any time I revise one,  they are blank and I have to add them all (plus some other stuff that's happened over the years, I have some listings that have been running GTC for 10 years now, and some of them sell from time to time, one just needs the right buyer to come along in fact 5, 6, 7, and 8 year old listings sold yesterday!)

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Publisher:: was modified by eBay to Publisher:        . That should have been corrected by a simple programming fix at eBay's end, not a fix to the listing by the seller.  Publisher:: still is included as an actual specific.

Ex Library is now Ex Libris. Proofing I guess was not used during the process.

LIBRIS (Library Information System) is a Swedish national union catalogue maintained by the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

@doc_scribe 

Presumably you have already tried, but in the stamps categories, when they first introduced them some had none that worked or were correct. Their fix was to just let one type what one wanted for the required specific.

I don't know if they ever fixed them or not, normally I relist/sell similar and it just brings across what I had.

Worth trying if you haven't already.

[cardconnoisseurs]

Except that's not true. Once a listing "rolls over" after it's 30 day listing, Ebay treats it as a new listing, and thus, it will need to be edited. 

[cardconnoisseurs]

Exactly. It seems like Ebay wants to change the trend of the title containing all information the seller deems to be pertinent. It's our business, let us go about it as we see fit. This only dramatically increases the amount of time it takes to list an item on Ebay. If they want us to use these specifics, it's time to drop the picture requirement. You can't have it both ways. I am not spending 20 minutes to list a $4 trading card that I paid $1.50 for, that I have to pay 15% seller fees on. It's their rodeo, but when you raise the cost of something, you get less of it. So it seems like Ebay wants to drive a lot of the low ticket item sellers elsewhere, since listing those items just became a lot more expensive. 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@cardconnoisseurs wrote:

Except that's not true. Once a listing "rolls over" after it's 30 day listing, Ebay treats it as a new listing, and thus, it will need to be edited. 

---

With anything that rolls over using GTC the views/watchers/date created/shipping options remain. If I use sell similar or relist it updates automagically my listing by adding Russian Federation as a ship to location even though Russian Federation is on my do not ship to list in settings. I have to remember to uncheck each time.

-Lotz

[doc_scribe]

Oh sure ricarmic, I can type "Universal", or any other unlisted Studio into that field, then click 'Add Custom Value'. But for a studio spanning the history of moviemaking that seems like an absurd extra step. "Universal" or "Universal Pictures" - or any of the other majors for that matter - should ideally have hard-coded into checkbox defaults on the SYI form.

Also, the Studio field does not seem to hold onto custom values added via the dropdown. I  still have to remember to add that selection again, even when I use Sell Similar from a listing with already updated Item Specs. That's how subsequent errors and omissions can easily creep in...

We're here to sell, not debug.

[ricarmic]

I'm not sure how it works across categories, but I've created my own unique specifics and what happens when I create an item, it pulls up the most common one's I've used in the category.

For a simple example the stamp quality, usually is some thing like "mint" or "used" - because I sell batches of stamps that makes no sense for me often - so I started putting in "used some mint possible" and in almost every category I list in now, that shows up on the most used list, often first and I have to be the only guy entering that....I do have to click it but that part isn't too bad.

Just to be clear the item specifics are almost completely useless for what I sell, and for certain they cost me more time to list.....I'm not a fan.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

*****Bump******

Suggestion for Item Specifics updating.

I don't _____ know!!!! N/A and ignore does not work for all specifics. Pardon my language!!!

-Lotz