eBay Mess

[sportscardtheory]

Originally Posted by deadballera

I sent my email to eBay giving my two-cents !

I'm sure they will find a way for you to give them more than 2 cents.

[alanu]

Here's the reply I received from Ebay:

Dear Alan,

Thanks for taking the time to write to us.

We are aware of an issue with being unable to narrow down the search
results within Baseball Cards. This is not a permanent change and we
are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

There are many changes in progress as part of the announced final seller
release of the year.
(http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200907270812462.html). These changes will
be rolling out during this week and are not yet complete.

As part of this release, the categories within Sports Trading Cards are
changing to the simplified set of sports that you see here:
http://sports-cards.shop.ebay.com/Ca...i.html?_npmv=3

Previously, there was a duplication between the categories (eg
Baseball-MLB > Singles (Pre-1930) > Graded etc) and the Item Specifics
(Sport, Year, Graded, etc), which made it confusing on which to use to
narrow down the search results. Once you browsed to the Singles
(Pre-1930) category, you were still presented with the Year Item
Specifics. We are removing this duplication in favor of the more
versatile Item Specifics.

Prior announcements about these changes can be found at the following
links.

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/July2009U...ies/index.html
http://pages.ebay.com/sell/itemspecs.html
http://pages.ebay.com/categorychanges/sportscards.html

When categories are changed, there is a reindexing of the items that
must occur, and this can take up to several days to complete. Once
complete, your items should be showing in the category:
Sports Mem, Card & Fan Shop > Cards > Baseball (category 213). Until
then, your items should still be found in all relevant title searches.

In addition to the previously available search refinements of Product,
Sport, Year, Card Manufacturer, Card Attributes and Grading information,
we will be adding the ability to refine search results by both Team and
Player where applicable.

Once again our apologies for this issue and we ask for your patience as
we work to resolve it.

Sincerely,
Mahina
eBay Classification Team

[Matt]

That is not encouraging; looks like the change to one big Baseball Cards category is permanent.

[FrankWakefield]

I don't see US ever "fixing" eBay from the outside.


If anything is ever to be done, it would be because each of us buys some stock in eBay (instead of buying a few cards), the together see if we could elect one of us to their board of directors.

It looks to me like there are 13 directors. The stock doesn't pay dividends. I doubt that enough of us would get enough stock to make a difference... but that still seems to me the way to get something done.

[Potomac Yank]

They are constantly going against all logic.

Their slogan, "We're working to make eBay easier to use." --- What a joke.

If it isn't broken, don't fix it!

[tbob]

Alan- I just got the identical email from "Mahina" at ebay......

[painthistorian]

We do a decent business w/ E bay-they are unresponsive and brain dead.

unfortunately, this is the line drawn in the sand......no more selling on e bay until the system is fixed........everyone should feel this way........
if you want to search thru tens of thousands of cards, you may get lucky but since e bay has no idea how bad they made this change for everyone in our industry, the only way to find items thru search is EXACT searches such as T206, T 206, piedmont, Cobb etc. and there will be every Ty Cobb card current or old when you search for Ty Cobb including your favorite reprints, magazine cutouts, Ty Cobb Toilet paper etc....

nothing that e bay has done last year is better than it was before they ruined it but this is a major blow to all of us that tried to run a good vintage card auction site w/ some quality items, what a shame.

EVERYONE needs to bombard e bay w/ calls, message etc. o/w this will never be changed back.

[Zach Wheat]

Apparently, this may be start of eBay's switch to a new search platform and the manner in which select items are identified. It appears they are trying to appease the larger sellers. I hate to selectively quote from a source, but I have copied some of the key paragraphs from Barron's (a financial publication) regarding eBay's switch. Barrons' has had several articles on eBay recently, one of which dealt with the switch to a new "search" platform and another on the drive to focus on larger sellers and retailers.

Here is the link for thos so inclined to read the entire article:
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB...888930015.html

If you Google Barron's & eBay the results will bring up links to the other articles.

Here is a summary of the one regarding the new search platform:
============
The company already faces a variety of headwinds: Many sellers are irritated about recent changes eBay (ticker: EBAY) made in its fee structures. The softening consumer economy is not helping matters. And with well over half of its revenue coming from outside the U.S., its financial results will be hurt by the recent strengthening of the U.S. dollar......


....Blair and Hunter also say eBay is close to rolling out a new search platform that it has been testing for some time. They see risks if it isn't successful: "The ability to search and find an item with accuracy is a key factor in eBay's success and any changes that negatively impact the effectiveness of search would create a significant problem for the company." EBay shares are down approximately 30% this year, trading near their lowest level in five years.

[egbeachley]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

"The ability to search and find an item with accuracy is a key factor in eBay's success and any changes that negatively impact the effectiveness of search would create a significant problem for the company." .

When has anyone has trouble with accurate searches? It brings up the listings with the words you ask for?

[gabrinus]

I just sent an email to them explaining(hopefully) how this will lead to lost revenue. Hopefully every member on this board will do the same. There are quite a few big players on this board. Maybe this will wake them up.

[BobbyVCP]

What a mess eBay has created for everyone, we are scrambling to fix our feeds we get from them to add their listings to VCP.

To make life easier for everyone we are going to add a section that will make it so you can search for the eBay listings we are tracking. Hope to have it available to you very shortly. Of course we only cover graded cards.

[Rob D.]

eBay: the ultimate game of hide-and-seek.

Golly.

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by egbeachley

When has anyone has trouble with accurate searches? It brings up the listings with the words you ask for?

Egbeachley,

I think they are referring to bringing up similar and related items. The focus seems to be getting more clicks and traffic to the large high volume sellers and retailers on eBay. One of the other articles in Barron's identified such a strategic shift in their business model.

[danmckee]

WOW! So much for me policing the category for fraud and doctored fakes!! I can't go through 400K items!! Scumbags, thieves, and bottom feeders, the road is now WIDE OPEN!!! After all of the clean up efforts we had the pre-1930 and 1930s categories fairly legit and free from fraud.

I just don't get it. Have to take my auctions down tonight or give stuff away.

Truly a shame.

[Frank A]

Whats a real problem' is someone who wants to list a real oddball item. There is no way a person will ever find it unless he spends all day listing every type of card. Talk about someone at EBAY being really stupid!!!!!!!!!! This is going to cost them a lot of money in the long run.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by 36GoudeyMan

I just hung up with eBay reps (after 1 hour and 7 minutes)...

This is a planned change, not a bug. EBay did this to make browsing "more convenient" after doing "extensive research." This was "not done because of any input from our Powersellers."

Damn, the irony was lost on me the first time around.

They actually say "You didn't ask for it, but we did it anyways!"

LOL!!!

[D. Bergin]

Jeez, now my daily search of Donruss Rated Rookie cards is going to be diluted with hundreds of T206's, Ramly's and Boston Garter listings.

[Rob D.]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Damn, the irony was lost on me the first time around.

They actually say "You didn't ask for it, but we did it anyways!"

LOL!!!

Taking out of the equation the fact that this is a stupid decision by eBay, it's not unusual at all that the company didn't ask for customers' input.

The Big 3 never polled all of the owners of their cars before working on designs for the new model year. Microsoft doesn't send e-mails to all of the owners of its current version of Windows before working on the next one. Wendy's didn't call me before revamping its value menu.

Yes, bad decision by eBay. No, not unusual that a major company decided on its own to implement a change.

[toppcat]

What a revolting development this is......

[Matt]

Originally Posted by toppcat

What a revolting development this is......

Everyone so negative; this is a good thing.
eBay has been making bad changes (forcing Paypal, requiring sellers eat insurance, etc.) for well over a year but no other site has been able to compete because eBay still had enough devotees. If this forces enough people off eBay to populate a viable alternative that is cheaper then eBay, we'll all win. Say all of our emails to eBay get answered and they revert the categories - we still have to live with all the other bad eBay decisions.

[Buythatcard]

Wow, this is a real screwup. While listing my items on eBay tonight, the Blackthorne software could not find any of my categories. Instead it chose Baseball as the category.
I sent in my 2 cents to eBay via email and also included a link to this thread so that maybe someone over there would take the time out and read what some of us are saying.

[Rich Klein]

Ebay has totally forgotten what made them successful. And with all the people struggling in today's world (Unemployment truly around 15 percent counting people NOT counted by our gov't); if EBay would go back to what it was circa 1998; they would recieve more items to sell and have even more customers.

That includes having those ridiculous pay pal only rules. What is wrong with a check or money order (Esp a bank money order; which at my bank costs me NOTHING and would be cashable immediately.

Rich

[Exhibitman]

This is soooo dum [sic]. I mean, having one category for boxing cards is fine (there were only two anyway) but not for sports with much greater followings. I agree that their prior searches were sloppy but that means clean them up not scrap the categories entirely.

What amazes me is how the changes will kill off browsing. Don't they realize how important it is not to have to search a category?

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

What amazes me is how the changes will kill off browsing. Don't they realize how important it is not to have to search a category?

I think this is the end of vintage cards being listed on ebay. Nearly every day or so I'd browse through the pre-1930s section and inevitably I would pick up a card I just liked even if it weren't of one of the players I normally collect. That is now impossible. Why then would anyone list a valuable card on ebay knowing that a large part of your targeted audience will miss it?

[19cbb]

What a piece of crap!

Anyone knows if this type of 'simplification measure' was taken on other collectibles categories?

I saw this today under the ebay system announcements board... Maybe golf cart owners are pissed off right now.

[Potomac Yank]

There is some one at eBay that has a death wish for eBay.

[buymycards]

I just got off of the phone with an ebay customer rep. I complained about the search feature, and the fact that it will take more time to list items. The 400+ items that I have listed are pretty much worthless with the category search function taken away. I can't see how these changes will benefit anyone.

Rick

[Potomac Yank]

Their slogan.

What a joke!

[danmckee]

We have to remember that in the scheme of things, baseball cards is a very minimal category. Compared to electronics and music and books. AMAZONBAY!!!!

[GoldenAge50s]

I have 2 listings up for Pawtucket Red Sox cards. Now they are just Cards-Baseball---No Minor Lg or anything!---just lumped into the mix!

What a crock!

[mintacular]

I sold a '53 Topps lot of (16) w/a Spahn (granted they were in Fair shape) for $16! Normally, they would have sold for atleast $30. I will not be honoring this sale and will take a neg. if need be. I have changed all my other auctions starting price and would recommend others do so before a bid comes in.

Normally, at this time of the night, I would browse a couple of my favorite categories, place a few bids, win a card or two. Now, not going to happen, not just b/c I'm STEAMED but mostly b/c the cards just aren't accessible and I hate wading thru modern junk.

BTW--this is all intentional. They want to kill auctions and small/midlevel sellers, this will help them do so very quickley. I will not be listing anymore the way/volume I had been planning on.

[Wite3]

Horrible...try to search t206 next year with the new topps issue. Or Allen and Ginter or Goudey....all you get is a bunch of new stuff with a vintage issue every 30th listing. I sent my email...

Joshua

[painthistorian]

On the phone again w/ ebay this time a supervisor was more open to reason and will try to push this up higher, they are getting a lot of calls regarding this subject, EVERYONE! keep calling!...nothing will get done unless everyone bombards these guys with complaints...this is the single worst change e bay has done ever and this one, i am calling every day, 7 X a day for however long it takes to overturn this stupidity, they never forget how ridiculous this is...this is a plea to all that want to see this reversed, CALL E BAY- 1-866-442-3229...hit -0-)- several times if you do not have a pin #, eventually a live operator will ask you for your user ID, then bombard them...

Guys with LOTS OF FEEDBACK & OR LARGE SALES VOLUME- time to PRESS BUTTONS, smaller guys, we need you too!

Thank You......Larry

[scottglevy]

I happen to know the guy that started iOffer ... I just wish they could gain a little more traction in the collectibles market.

[paul]

This is beyond unbelievable. It does not make browsing for prewar cards more difficult. It makes it impossible. There are literally 200,000 "baseball cards" on ebay now. I do not have the time or patience to browse through 200,000 cards, mostly post-2000 to find the prewar cards I'm looking for. And I can't even imagine someone looking for post-2000 cards has the stomach to wade through everything else.

I've been on ebay since 1998, very actively buying. No more. And not because I'm mad. It's just impractical now. It's like going to a thousand flea markets and hoping that you'll find what you want.

I am also cancelling all my current auctions on ebay. Again, not because I'm mad. I just can't expect to get anything close to the value of my cards. Who the hell is going to find them unless they do a search for the specific card I'm selling? This is, pardon my French, totally f'd up. I cannot imagine that ebay will last more than a month with this system. At least not for sportscards. Maybe buyers of golf carts prefer one category.

[paul]

Well, I just cancelled my auctions. I only had two running. Here is the message I sent to most of my bidders (slightly different for the other card). I couldn't send it to all of the bidders since ebay has a limit of 5 messages per day that you can send to your bidders. (Who knew?) So they'll get the message tomorrow. What a bunch of crap.

Dear Bidder,

Thank you for bidding on my E95 Mathewson. I apologize, but I am cancelling all of my ebay auctions. The reason for this is that ebay has complete changed the organization of its entire websites. Effective today, ALL BASEBALL CARDS ARE NOW LUMPED TOGETHER IN A SINGLE CATEGORY OF 200,000 CARDS! As a result, collectors of pre-war baseball cards will not be able to find my card unless they are willing to wade through 200,000 cards. I had no idea this change was coming, and never would have listed my card if I knew that my card would not be targeted specifically to likely buyers. That's why I picked the "pre-1930" baseball card category -- a category that has now disappeared.

Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. You can reach me at pstewart@kmob.com. Thank you for understanding.

Paul

[caramelcard]

Just called ebay as well.

They said that this is their new policy. I can no longer sell cards on ebay after this change.

What a bunch of douchebags.

Rob

[painthistorian]

On the PSA community board, a few posted that we are antiquated on the way we search for items(by category or graded/non graded)...what they and e bay fail to realize is that most of the collectors that buy vintage cards(pre 1970) do not want to waste time filtering thru all the shiny stuff, reprints, magazine cutouts and even many do not want 1960's and 1970's cards which are abundant compared to pre war cards and probably those shiny guys really do not want to see prewar cards in their searches. It is true if you want a specific card with specific tags such as 1933 Goudey Ruth, you can search that way but so many of us may bid on other 1930's cards because they are all in line 1930-1939 category....Many only want graded, many only want non graded but at least there was a separation that was distinctive, now you have to search for cards with 200,000 related items, have fun!

This probably does not have an answer unless everyone that buys and sells no matter how large or small calls ebay and lets them know that we do not want to eliminate the category search and refuse to do anymore transactions on e bay.

Frequency and #'s are the only thing they might understand......do not get discouraged, call your friends and tell them, keep calling e bay....

[Vintagedegu]

-

[ncinin]

I have a question concerning the new EBAY category changes.

First of all, please understand I am not saying I support the new category changes and am not looking for an argument. While these changes are not optimal I do not see where one would quit selling on EBAY.

I buy and sell on EBAY. When I am looking to buy cards I don't go on a blind search for cards. Do most people blindly search for baseball cards on EBAY where they have no focus of what they are looking for?

For example I look for graded 1960's, 1950's, Play Ball, Goudey, etc. I just performed EBAY searches for 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth, 1933 Goudey Ott, 1933 Goudey PSA & 1915 Cracker Jack. Granted reprints popped up as well, but many did before as sellers of reprints put them in category of original cards.

Take the E95 Mathewson in an earlier post for example. If someone is seriously interested in buying a E95 Matty, they would search for E95 Mathewson or E95 (maybe they are working on a set). I just searched for E95 and clicked on cards and see 43 cards available for sale from that set.

I just don't see buyers in the past blindly searching pre-1930 baseball cards and seeing a E95 Mathewson and having an epiphany that they need a E95 Matty and placing a high bid on the card or outright purchasing it.

The same with 1950's & 60's cards. I would think most people would search for 1955 Topps or 1955 Topps PSA or some similar search.

I see where doing general searches for cards trying to find cards selling too cheaply, etc would be a problem or if you sold lots that contained multiple years, etc.

I am for leaving good enough alone, but on the other hand I do not see these changes (if they indeed permanent) killing one's ability to sell cards on EBAY.

What am I missing?.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by ncinin

I have a question concerning the new EBAY category changes.

First of all, please understand I am not saying I support the new category changes and am not looking for an argument. While these changes are not optimal I do not see where one would quit selling on EBAY.

I buy and sell on EBAY. When I am looking to buy cards I don't go on a blind search for cards. Do most people blindly search for baseball cards on EBAY where they have no focus of what they are looking for?

For example I look for graded 1960's, 1950's, Play Ball, Goudey, etc. I just performed EBAY searches for 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth, 1933 Goudey Ott, 1933 Goudey PSA & 1915 Cracker Jack. Granted reprints popped up as well, but many did before as sellers of reprints put them in category of original cards.

Take the E95 Mathewson in an earlier post for example. If someone is seriously interested in buying a E95 Matty, they would search for E95 Mathewson or E95 (maybe they are working on a set). I just searched for E95 and clicked on cards and see 43 cards available for sale from that set.

I just don't see buyers in the past blindly searching pre-1930 baseball cards and seeing a E95 Mathewson and having an epiphany that they need a E95 Matty and placing a high bid on the card or outright purchasing it.

The same with 1950's & 60's cards. I would think most people would search for 1955 Topps or 1955 Topps PSA or some similar search.

I see where doing general searches for cards trying to find cards selling too cheaply, etc would be a problem or if you sold lots that contained multiple years, etc.

I am for leaving good enough alone, but on the other hand I do not see these changes (if they indeed permanent) killing one's ability to sell cards on EBAY.

What am I missing?.

Bottom line, it leads to fewer hits and fewer eyes on your auction. Most buys on Ebay are impulse buys.

Anybody who has sold on Ebay for any amount of time knows it only takes two interested bidders to drive an item up to an acceptable level. Take out the possibility of even one less possible bidder seeing your auction and I could see how this would scare a lot of sellers.

[paul]

There are a few cards that I specifically search for on ebay. But I find most of the cards I buy by browsing a category, usually pre-1930. I think a lot of people do the same thing. That was one of the great advantages of ebay. Sellers could target buyers looking for a specific type of thing, and buyers could look at only those specific things.

My E95 Matty is a great example of precisely the kind of card that would never be found through a search. Most E95 Mattys are very expensive. So a lot of people who don't have a lot of money would never bother to search for one. They will spend their time looking for Goudey Hubbells or T206 Crawfords. They just assume they can't afford an E95 Matty. But mine is a PSA1, and someone who likes old cards might decide to give it a shot if they are browsing the pre-1930 category.

Also, a lot of people buy a card because they have some vague interest in it but only want it if it's a good deal. I do that a lot by browsing categories. Now all those bidders are gone. I wouldn't be thrilled selling my Mathewson to a guy only looking for a bargain, but it's better than selling it only to the very few people who are specifically looking for an E95 Matty that week. And maybe someone really wants an E93 Matty, but he sees my E95 with a nice front and a miserable back, and he decides to go for the relative bargain.

Another good example is the E card of Wagner in a throwing pose. I'd like one. This pose probably appears in 6 or 7 sets. So now I have to search for all of them. But this is also a card that is very expensive and I'd only want one similar to my E95 Matty -- massive back damage, or maybe even slightly trimmed. I've been looking at ebay for years and still haven't found one that's the right balance of looks and price. And it's just not worth the effort to do a search for this specific card every week when the chances of finding one that I can want and afford are low. Particularly if I have to do similar searches for hundreds of other cards. I already do about 40 "out of category" searches every week. I'd hate to have to do a couple hundred more. It's so much easier to browse one or two categories every week.

[Frank A]

All of my buys in the pre 30's cat. are from browsing. I collect no 1 set or player. Browse every day and bid on several items I liked. Now, it is not possible to do, therefore I will no longer try. Tell me that is good for the seller. NOOOOOOO. What a shame that ebay has no clue as to sports cards.

[Dustanh1]

I just ran my normal t206 (psa,sgc) search and only got 800 something cards. Nothing out of the ordinary. While I don't think this will affect my buying too much, I doubt I ever list anything for sale on ebay again. I did also email them a long message, so hopefully it helps.

[danmckee]

Dearest NCININ, I don't do a blind search when looking for cards, I search pre 1930 and the 1930's category. Anything newer than that does not interest me in the least. Is this a blind search? Well maybe to a point but it is also very specific to certain era's. That option has been taken away.

Go Amazonbay!

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by Dustanh1

I just ran my normal t206 (psa,sgc) search and only got 800 something cards. Nothing out of the ordinary. While I don't think this will affect my buying too much, I doubt I ever list anything for sale on ebay again. I did also email them a long message, so hopefully it helps.

Dustan,

The thing you are wrong about is that this WILL affect your buying, a lot! The reason is that many sellers will stop using Ebay as their marketing arm, because of the reduced number of views. If the sellers move, it will impact what you have available to buy.

Any decrease in bidders will lead to a decrease in sales. That will lead sellers to go elsewhere.

[Dustanh1]

Jim, that makes sense and after thinking about it a bit further, I do see your point. A worse overall product will eventually show its effects, even though my search ran today produced similar results. I will wait and see what happens a few months down the road. It only makes sense that less sellers means less cards available for sale that I would like to purchase.

On another note, Ebay sent me a reply within 10 minutes of my email to them. Here it is in all its glory:

Thank you for writing to eBay Customer Support.

Your suggestions are very important to us and will be treated with our
full attention. Our product development team is working to read, discuss
and process the input that we get from our members; therefore, we will
not be able to respond to your message.

To avoid any possible misunderstandings, we must advise you that any
comments or materials you have submitted or may submit to us, including
questions, technical or creative suggestions or ideas, are considered to
be non-confidential and non-proprietary.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please do not respond to this email. Any email sent as a
response to this Acknowledgement will not reach us.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact us by
following these steps:

1. Click "Help" at the top of most eBay pages.
2. Click the "Contact Us" link on the left side of the page.
3. Select the options that best match your question or concern.
4. Enter your message in the space provided.

We appreciate your patience,
eBay Customer Support

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Well, I'm glad we got that cleared up. Just another reason that I won't sell anything on there again.

[19cbb]

Wonder how coin collectors would react if eBay merges every subcat under COINS.

Nothing like browsing through hundreds of Zimbabwean and Iranian coins while looking for some silver Quarters!

[jonincleve]

ncinin, with all due respect this is how it affects the sellers. by the way this is my first official thread post, be kind. i collect cleveland indians pre-war among other things. with the pre-1930's category i just look through and see what shows up. as a buyer i am not looking for a specific card, just a team or just something that strikes my fancy. i might be looking at t206 cards and a e90-1 bradley shows up. i was not looking for that specific card but i put a bid in anyway.

as a seller now on ebay of a e90-1 bradley card a buyer would either have to search for THAT specific card or wade through all the other cards to find it.

this is a very bad development for sellers of vintage material. why would i want to list an odd ball type card on ebay right now, there is no reason because it would get lost.

take care
john

[jcmtiger]

As a buyer this does not bother me. I only search for Old Judge Detroit, so that is no problem, except there usually are none available. As a seller this might cause problems, we will see

Joe