eBay

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-15-2023

Stumbled across this on dot com. Interesting comments. It's progressed to a major read. We will have to see how/if/when it plays out on ca to the point where it makes a difference or is of any kind of improvement. There is a bit of an explanation from the eBay team in post 134. See post 157 to an opinion on how things are going (or not) !?!?! It's too bad Canadians were not kept in the loop similar to our US brethren!!

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/We-are-testing-a-reduced-set-of-item-specifics-in-the-listing/...

We’ve heard from our sellers that item specifics is one of the most complex parts of our listing experience.

As a part of simplifying the listing flow, we are testing a reduced set of item specifics, optimized for the selling and buying experience. As a result, in select categories, some sellers may see fewer item specifics to fill out when creating a new listing on web or mobile. We’re actively monitoring performance and taking seller feedback into consideration.

We’re constantly evaluating how to make listing on eBay easier and will keep you informed about any site-wide listing changes. Feel free to leave feedback in a comment below or via our survey during the listing process.

As always, thank you for selling on eBay.

***********************************************************

In perusing I was not able to uncover which categories they are currently testing with and the possibility that it could adversely affect seller templates.

-Lotzofuniquegoodies.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-15-2023

Dumbing down the Item Specifics because many sellers don't understand the difference between "Required" and "Recommended".

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-15-2023

@reallynicestamps wrote:
Dumbing down the Item Specifics because many sellers don't understand the difference between "Required" and "Recommended".

The bigger concern would be all the listings that have been modified in the last several years of this (hopefully accurately) and then undoing all the work and potentially corrupting listings. Even worse if there is an direct affect on sellers templates.

-Lotz

As a side note in recently trying to correct 2 sports card listing due to changes to "eBay conditions mandatory requirements for Oct" the wording chosen is terrible with a limited variety of related options. Or extremely contradictory. I had my own condition notes because I am not a professional grader, nor can I afford to send cards off willy nilly for authenicating etc. You can only re-explain information in a listing so many times before anyone that views misses.

marnotom! · ‎10-15-2023

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

It's too bad Canadians were not kept in the loop similar to our US brethren!!

I don't see the logic in eBay Canada posting information on developments associated with the US site. If Canadian sellers are selling on the .com site, it stands to reason that they should be keeping up with announcements and news on that site as well. I wouldn't expect eBay UK or eBay France to have information on developments on the Canadian sites.

mrdutch1001 · ‎10-15-2023

I agree!...

As of 18 months ago, I list only on .CA site and no longer concern myself with whatever is printed on the .COM site. If it's not announced on .CA, if it does not concern Canadian sellers on.CA, if it does not concern my listing on .CA., I don't need to know ......

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-15-2023

@marnotom! wrote:
@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

It's too bad Canadians were not kept in the loop similar to our US brethren!!
I don't see the logic in eBay Canada posting information on developments associated with the US site. If Canadian sellers are selling on the .com site, it stands to reason that they should be keeping up with announcements and news on that site as well. I wouldn't expect eBay UK or eBay France to have information on developments on the Canadian sites.

@marnotom!

I agree to disagree to your comment. If something so major is going to be posted on com by eBay staff it would be common courtesy to post on ca. This will potentially corrupt ALL listings and templates on both (all) sites. Mostly laziness on eBay's part for the job they do following through with major changes (rethinks) and technical glitches to eBay's structure and how things are "supposed" to work.

mrdutch1001 · ‎10-15-2023

"Testing"goes on all the time...only those sellers in "tests" need to know...If a change and/or addition,deletion,amendment is made that concerns all sellers of said site, then and only then is an announcement needed. The capabilities or lack thereof on the .CA site is well known..but it is also well-known that changes,additions,deletions ammendments to the .COM site are not necessarily forthcoming on .CA.

ANY Canadian sellers who list on .COM are informed of said changes on.COM by announcement to that site. If Canadian sellers list only on.CA and/or for those Canadian sellers who list only on.CA anything that pertains to the .COM site that is not applicable to the.CA site, is not needed and only serves as confusion on the.CA site and imposes unecessary speculation....

doc_scribe · ‎10-15-2023

I agree with @lotzofuniquegoodies' agreement to disagree with @marnotom!'s disagreement.

Specifically regarding concerns about cross-site Search visibility. "Paging M. Cassini..."

byto253 · ‎10-15-2023

Is the translation of that info "we are going to take out a bunch really dumb recommend specifics that don't make any sense for most listings"?

I am fine with the required I get for my listings, they make sense. I try to do the recommended as well as I can to try to pay homage to the algorithm, which leads to some honest creativity.

marnotom! · ‎10-15-2023

@doc_scribe wrote:

I agree with @lotzofuniquegoodies' agreement to disagree with @marnotom!'s disagreement.

Specifically regarding concerns about cross-site Search visibility. "Paging M. Cassini..."

Go on. . .

doc_scribe · ‎10-15-2023

@marnotom! wrote:
@doc_scribe wrote:

I agree with @lotzofuniquegoodies' agreement to disagree with @marnotom!'s disagreement.

Specifically regarding concerns about cross-site Search visibility. "Paging M. Cassini..."
Go on. . .

I was merely deferring to the range of legit questions, observations, and concerns already expressed in that thread @marnotom!

Still recommended read, regardless of home site... 😎

recped · ‎10-16-2023

@reallynicestamps wrote:
Dumbing down the Item Specifics because many sellers don't understand the difference between "Required" and "Recommended".

Plus it might reduce the "garbage" that the sellers referenced above often enter into the Recommended fields because they just cannot live with leaving the box that doesn't apply EMPTY (oh the horror of an empty field that is not relevant to anything).

Maybe it's just me but of all the things that go into creating a listing the Item Specifics are the easiest thing to do.

"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-16-2023

And not all of those empty boxes will accept N/A as valid.

Selling old books (pre-1980) which don't have ISBNs (codes) or which do have an ISBN but not for the USA or are early and include letters as well as numbers, is one example.

flipistics · ‎10-16-2023

@reallynicestamps wrote:
And not all of those empty boxes will accept N/A as valid.

Selling old books (pre-1980) which don't have ISBNs (codes) or which do have an ISBN but not for the USA or are early and include letters as well as numbers, is one example.

You can input DoesNotApply into the ISBN field. I agree that it is very annoying though.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-16-2023

@flipistics wrote:
@reallynicestamps wrote:
And not all of those empty boxes will accept N/A as valid.

Selling old books (pre-1980) which don't have ISBNs (codes) or which do have an ISBN but not for the USA or are early and include letters as well as numbers, is one example.
You can input DoesNotApply into the ISBN field. I agree that it is very annoying though.

@flipistics

@reallynicestamps

It depends on the mix of products you sell but some come up as required. Not always easy to locate/confirm when you sell vintage or anything without box. It can be a bit of dig or project when those requests come up. Same issue when eBay does a tinkering under the hood by moving items from 1 category to another.

-Lotz