eBay Has Once Again Made A Change Without Putting Any Thought Into It

[Buythatcard]

I currently use Sixbit to list all of my cards on eBay. It's a great tool which makes my life easier. Every time I list a card, I use an existing template so that I don't have to reenter everything each time. I just need to change the pics, description, the grade, and a few other things if needed. Saves me tons of time.

The other night I noticed that all of my listings failed to submit. I looked at the error messages and it said that I was missing the team name, sport and grade. These were all optional fields that were part of the Item Specifications. I always filled out the grade for graded cards but didn't need to fill out sport since I had it listed under the correct sport in eBays' categories. I never filled out the team because it really didn't matter to me.

After speaking to tech support at Sixbit, I've just learned that eBay has made these fields mandatory. So, for every raw card, I need to set Grade to Ungraded. I need to fill out the Sport even though its already categorized under the actual sport. I also need to fill out the team for every single card. It means more time looking up the name of the team for cards from the early 1900's which I don't know off the top of my head. There is also the issue where the card have multiple players from different teams. Do I need to use all the team names?

The whole point of my rant, is that eBay made a change without even contacting the Sellers what they were doing. Who makes these dumb decisions? It also adds more time to my already long night of listing cards.

Just want other Sellers to be aware of these changes.

When will this madness stop?

[eliotdeutsch]

Noticed that too. So ridiculous.

[buymycards]

I ran across the same problems this morning. Let's see - I listed it under the "baseball" category, it is in the "baseball" category in my store, but now I also have to enter "baseball" in the item specifics.

I have to enter a team, even though it may be a lot of 50 1971 Topps cards that have several teams, and when I start typing in the team name, even though I am listing in the baseball category, teams from other sports are in the drop down menu.

I always used the graded or ungraded item specifics, but it wasn't mandatory, but now it is.

I hope they don't make me do that for all 900 of my BIN's when they are automatically relisted at the beginning of the month. (That is another mandatory change that pisses me off.)

These changes don't sound like much, but it is time consuming to enter all of the item specifics for each item, especially when the layout of the specifics changes, depending on what you are entering.

[tonyo]

I don't have nearly as many cards listed as you guys, so I really feel for ya.

But I'll complain a bit anyway......,

they didn't even support "bulk changes"

Typically I can select as many listings as I want, then make the same change to all the listings at the same time.

Looked like it was working, but didn't. Fortunately I was only re-listing about 50 cards, so I ended up cutting and pasting "not specified" or "see photos" or "ungraded" into all the now-required specifics for each individual listing where appropriate. Thank goodness they allowed me to paste those in the "player name" and "team name" fields.

Seems like they would want to make it easy to list things.

[Buythatcard]

Originally Posted by buymycards

I ran across the same problems this morning. Let's see - I listed it under the "baseball" category, it is in the "baseball" category in my store, but now I also have to enter "baseball" in the item specifics.

I have to enter a team, even though it may be a lot of 50 1971 Topps cards that have several teams, and when I start typing in the team name, even though I am listing in the baseball category, teams from other sports are in the drop down menu.

I always used the graded or ungraded item specifics, but it wasn't mandatory, but now it is.

I hope they don't make me do that for all 900 of my BIN's when they are automatically relisted at the beginning of the month. (That is another mandatory change that pisses me off.)

These changes don't sound like much, but it is time consuming to enter all of the item specifics for each item, especially when the layout of the specifics changes, depending on what you are entering.

Rick,

You brought up a good point. What happens to the BINs that are relisted which previously did not have these mandatory fields included?

[BeanTown]

EBay has become a Dinosaur company. The head doesn't even know what the tail is doing. The onlything constant with them is change.

[buymycards]

I just checked. I have 190 BIN's that ended in the last few days. None of them automatically relisted.

[buymycards]

I can't seem to get the listings updated using the bulk editor. I can't find any option to update the graded/ungraded, although the listing are all flagged as errors because of this. I'm not able to update the item specifics for the correct sport, except individually.

I'm not going to change them individually. Hopefully this will be straightened out.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by Buythatcard

I currently use Sixbit to list all of my cards on eBay. It's a great tool which makes my life easier. Every time I list a card, I use an existing template so that I don't have to reenter everything each time. I just need to change the pics, description, the grade, and a few other things if needed. Saves me tons of time.

The other night I noticed that all of my listings failed to submit. I looked at the error messages and it said that I was missing the team name, sport and grade. These were all optional fields that were part of the Item Specifications. I always filled out the grade for graded cards but didn't need to fill out sport since I had it listed under the correct sport in eBays' categories. I never filled out the team because it really didn't matter to me.

After speaking to tech support at Sixbit, I've just learned that eBay has made these fields mandatory. So, for every raw card, I need to set Grade to Ungraded. I need to fill out the Sport even though its already categorized under the actual sport. I also need to fill out the team for every single card. It means more time looking up the name of the team for cards from the early 1900's which I don't know off the top of my head. There is also the issue where the card have multiple players from different teams. Do I need to use all the team names?

The whole point of my rant, is that eBay made a change without even contacting the Sellers what they were doing. Who makes these dumb decisions? It also adds more time to my already long night of listing cards.

Just want other Sellers to be aware of these changes.

When will this madness stop?

Me also.

What a pain in the butt.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by BeanTown

EBay has become a Dinosaur company. The head doesn't even know what the tail is doing. The onlything constant with them is change.

They like to fix things that aren't broken.

[BabyRuth]

Fixing the problems we never knew we had......

[midmo]

I noticed this today too. I didn't feel like filling out all those categories so I just entered a period in each field and it accepted it. It's a dumb change. Hopefully they don't stick with it.

[Buythatcard]

I doubt eBay would reverse this decision. Once they change things, that's the way it stays.

Whoever makes these dumbass decisions does not see the big picture. These changes might work for a few but it doesn't work for most.

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by buymycards

I hope they don't make me do that for all 900 of my BIN's when they are automatically relisted at the beginning of the month. (That is another mandatory change that pisses me off.)

You can set BINs to not relist on their own. It just isn't the default.

[buymycards]

No, all BIN's are automatically relisted, unless you end the listing. In the past, you could choose not to automatically relist, but now you can't. You can with auctions, but not with BIN's.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Wait it gets better. If you're listing a group lot you STILL have to choose a team. Haven't looked to see what happens if you're listing a complete set.

[icurnmedic]

I guess AL , 10 and Yankees as default?

[Johnny630]

The Bay is lowballer buyer friendly not seller friendly .......always will be this way

[Tim Zwick]

This has not affected me........yet! I listed over 250 new auction items as I always have making none of the new changes mentioned earlier this week with no issues. I've also had over 100 BIN automatic relists this week go smoothly. I use Seller Sourcebook.

[LACardsGuy]

Originally Posted by Tabe

You can set BINs to not relist on their own. It just isn't the default.

Really? Since they made the good til cancelled only change (another dumb one), everything does it automatically. any way to fix this would be good info.

[LACardsGuy]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Wait it gets better. If you're listing a group lot you STILL have to choose a team. Haven't looked to see what happens if you're listing a complete set.

You can write "i am not doing this" or "your mom" and it will still work. that's how I have now modified my templates in garagesale.

[LACardsGuy]

Originally Posted by Tim Zwick

This has not affected me........yet! I listed over 250 new auction items as I always have making none of the new changes mentioned earlier this week with no issues. I've also had over 100 BIN automatic relists this week go smoothly. I use Seller Sourcebook.

It changed on tuesday with no announcement. if you listed after that without this, you have some charmed existence.

[wdwfan]

I noticed it too. What I've started doing is just change it for the first item I list in that sport (change the name, sport, grade, etc to what I'm listing then). Then I keep all the specifics the same for whatever I list afterward in that sport. I don't care if it says it's a Tom Brady card. It's clearly in the title it's someone else. Plus, the picture clearly shows someone else. I don't even think people look at item specifics anyway.

[Buythatcard]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Wait it gets better. If you're listing a group lot you STILL have to choose a team. Haven't looked to see what happens if you're listing a complete set.

You will need to put in every team name if you are listing a set. I also heard that next year, you will need to include the weight and IQ of every player that you list.

[Buythatcard]

Originally Posted by wdwfan

I noticed it too. What I've started doing is just change it for the first item I list in that sport (change the name, sport, grade, etc to what I'm listing then). Then I keep all the specifics the same for whatever I list afterward in that sport. I don't care if it says it's a Tom Brady card. It's clearly in the title it's someone else. Plus, the picture clearly shows someone else. I don't even think people look at item specifics anyway.

I believe that the item specifics will be used as part of the search criteria.

[SMPEP]

What I love ... if you sell nonsports cards from the 1800s ... you are now REQUIRED to enter a "Franchise". Like Star Wars or Aliens or Goonies.

Yeah, that's relevant!

good grief.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by wdwfan

Plus, the picture clearly shows someone else. I don't even think people look at item specifics anyway.

People may start reporting your listings for "Search/Browse Manipulation" because you're name-dropping things that aren't accurate for the listing. You're better off putting "N/A" than putting the same wrong value in every listing.

[Tripredacus]

What team do you pick for checklists?

[murphy8276]

Originally Posted by Tripredacus

What team do you pick for checklists?

lol.. touche

[swarmee]

"N/A"

[Golf History]

A few notes:

In my experience, if you select anything other than Good Until Cancelled the listing will not fail but eBay automatically changes it to Good Until Cancelled.

Regarding team names (multiple): Unless eBay changed it, Item Specifics are limited to 50 or 60 something characters.

My personal gripe: Golf cards also require a Team item specific....okay sure, that will help visability.

I automatically end and relist every monthly cycle but even though a listing is GTC it still has a start and end date each month. Listings should start failing in mass as they Auto renew. This should make listing counts in affected categories plummet until they are edited and relaunched.

These changes have added a minimum hour or more a day to my listing process and it won't end until I have edited all of my current approx 800 listings. I do about 25 per day so the added busy work will continue for about five weeks. This is not counting the 8000 or so inactive stored listings.

It is difficult to make these changes in bulk if you sell cards of all sports.

I have been on eBay 21 years and the new normal seems to be that they average a change that requires editing all listings about once a year. This time will hit many hard as they would be using that additional time preparing inventory for Christmas season.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by Golf History

My personal gripe: Golf cards also require a Team item specific....okay sure, that will help visibility.

Most of them went to college. So that's a team. Or they play for their country in the Olympics or international competitions, so that's a team.

[Exhibitman]

Ran in to the same stupidity today. Asking for teams on boxing cards. I was tempted to put in "Jacob" or "Edward" but I ended up putting "none" in every category except sport and original/reprint. I have a buncha listings ending tomorrow so I guess I get to spend my weekend on this nonsense.

eBay: fixing what ain't broke since 1995.

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by LACardsGuy

Really? Since they made the good til cancelled only change (another dumb one), everything does it automatically. any way to fix this would be good info.

Yeah, there's a way to turn it off when listing. I just did it for the item I'm selling.

[Buythatcard]

Ok, eBay I am trying to do as you ask. I need help on this one. Which team should I enter?

[swarmee]

Springfield Isotopes

[Luke]

Man I just listed my first card since the change and it was brutal. Really hope there is a way around this.

[cardsnstuff]

Originally Posted by Tabe

You can set BINs to not relist on their own. It just isn't the default.

how do I do this?

[ReefBlue]

Originally Posted by Buythatcard

Ok, eBay I am trying to do as you ask. I need help on this one. Which team should I enter?

Or any checklist.

What about cards with multiple players from different teams?

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by LACardsGuy

You can write "i am not doing this" or "your mom" and it will still work. that's how I have now modified my templates in garagesale.

That's great!!!

Love it!!!

[jchcollins]

Yep, I noticed this late last week. So annoying. It's stupid, because - 20+ years in, eBay ostensibly has "experts" at things like collectibles who are supposed to advise on these type of changes. Clearly it's not happening. I was already a bit over their "standard" description which if you didn't fill anything out would put something in the details like "Card is in Very Good condition, shipped with a USPS First Class Package."

If anything, they should have made the detailed description mandatory and not pre-filled, so that sellers would be prompted to provide a little more detail about why they think this or that raw card is VG+ or EX-MT and not NM. In the early days of eBay you used to see that frequently, but it's long gone by the wayside now.

[buymycards]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Yep, I noticed this late last week. So annoying. It's stupid, because - 20+ years in, eBay ostensibly has "experts" at things like collectibles who are supposed to advise on these type of changes. Clearly it's not happening. I was already a bit over their "standard" description which if you didn't fill anything out would put something in the details like "Card is in Very Good condition, shipped with a USPS First Class Package."

If anything, they should have made the detailed description mandatory and not pre-filled, so that sellers would be prompted to provide a little more detail about why they think this or that raw card is VG+ or EX-MT and not NM. In the early days of eBay you used to see that frequently, but it's long gone by the wayside now.

eBay's experts still have the same condition listings for sports cards that haven't updated in the last 10 years:

Brand New, Like New, Acceptable, Very Good (no damage to the jewel case), and Good.

[ValKehl]

I doubt eBay will ever learn to "leave well enough alone."

[JollyElm]

I wish to God these so-called ebay experts would spend their time more effectively and perhaps institute rules outlawing the use of phrases such as "Looks better than grade!!!! Regrade????"