eBay Mess

[Mark]

I am now selling 10 cards on ebay and was about to list another 70 over the next month, but now I am cancelling the auctions and holding off. This move by ebay is idiotic. As I told the lady at ebay, ebay is now like a Walmart in which you go in looking for a wrench and never see any other products. She was very sympathetic and after a long hold said that her coworkers agreed. She said she would put my complaints in a suggestion box, along with my phone number. I urge everyone who wants to sell another card on ebay to call and to ask to speak to someone on the listing team.

[iggyman]

I'm constantly searching items on eBay looking for pre-war and post-war bargains, I like to consider myself a consummate baseball card flipper. Since 1998, I've been crossing the line between dealer and collector. It's not an exclusive club, since eBay facilitated the buying and flipping of stuff. For the past few years, eBay has kept tinkering with its product and I've just rolled with the punches. They want to go to a "buy-it-now" mode.....Great! As a seller, I've hit on some great deals searching buy-it-now items and as a buyer, I've used this format to make some easy profitable sales. In unison with paypal, they want to screw the seller and make it totally safe to make a purchase. Great! This affords me the opportunity to take more chances then I care to remember with eBay purchases. I didn't think eBay could ever make a change that I couldn't adapt too. From my perspective, this latest change to the sports category is really a hum-dinger.


Will this category change stop me from selling cards on eBay? Yes! To my great regret, I'm done with the true auction format. Buy-it-now, the B/S/T section, and auction houses are the only viable alternatives.


Will this category change stop me from buying cards on ebay? Yes! On two fronts. First of all, since I'm constantly flipping cards and then using those profits to actually buy cards I need. I will soon reach a tipping point; if I can't flip the cards in a timely fashion at some point I have to stop my purchases. Secondly, although this new format will make it easier to find bargains. A prospective buyer will have to devote alot of time searching for cards/bargains and time is something I don't have at a premium. Looks like, I will hit my mid-life crises quicker then I thought!

Lovely Day...

[Jacklitsch]

If you want to find graded cards the following search parameters work great:

190* SGC This search will pull up all 1900-1909 SGC graded cards.

191* SGC This search will pull up all 1910-1919 SGC graded cards.

Substitute PSA for SGC and PSA only graded cards will appear.

[ibuysportsephemera]

Originally Posted by Jacklitsch

If you want to find graded cards the following search parameters work great:

190* SGC This search will pull up all 1900-1909 SGC graded cards.

191* SGC This search will pull up all 1910-1919 SGC graded cards.

Substitute PSA for SGC and PSA only graded cards will appear.

You beat me to it...I was going to post the same thing about the *. It is a great trick that someone taught me many years ago and has saved me a ton of time searching on eBay.

Jeff

[paul]

I don't know why ebay has any categories anymore at all. Why not just lump everything together in one big category? No one can possibly browse the "baseball card" category of 200,000 cards. So, card collectors have no choice but to do a word search. So why bother having categories at all?

By the way, some word searches will be very ineffective. Try searching for "Old Judge" and see how many 2008 and 2009 Topps cards pop up. If only there was some way to screen out post war cards from the search ...

[ibuysportsephemera]

Originally Posted by paul

By the way, some word searches will be very ineffective. Try searching for "Old Judge" and see how many 2008 and 2009 Topps cards pop up. If only there was some way to screen out post war cards from the search ...

You can...just use the minus sign (ie -topps -2008,, etc.) to narrow down your answer. You can do this in the advanced search feature and save that search for your future searches.

Jeff

[nolemmings]

As a buyer, I'm concerned with any tactic that chases sellers away. Otherwise though, I am pretty much unaffected, as I very seldom search by subcategory anyway (and believe it or not, in addition to some specific sets and players, I'm also a type collector).

As noted, a search with wildcards (asterisks) works tremendously. In addition to the searches by decade (at least for graded cards), type in 193* Goudey and you'll get the whole panoply of sets by that company for the decade, and perhaps even a stray companion piece. And once in Sportscards, type e9* and you'll hit a bunch of the caramel sets. I have a mild interest in several sets from 1928--the ice cream sets, r315, w502, exhibits, etc. I type in 1928 and I get 200 or so hits, only about 15% of which are useful, but it really doesn't take that much time or effort to gaze past the irrelevant stuff, especially if you change your settings to view 100 items per page. Same if you type in Gehrig--there might be mostly listings for non-cards and things of no interest to you, but it doesn't take long to get used to quickly scanning the thumbnails and separating the wheat from the chaff.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by paul

I don't know why ebay has any categories anymore at all. Why not just lump everything together in one big category? No one can possibly browse the "baseball card" category of 200,000 cards. So, card collectors have no choice but to do a word search. So why bother having categories at all?

By the way, some word searches will be very ineffective. Try searching for "Old Judge" and see how many 2008 and 2009 Topps cards pop up. If only there was some way to screen out post war cards from the search ...

As Jeff just said, type in a minus sign, left parenthesis, the things you wish to exclude, and a right parenthesis. This format will eliminate certain things you don't want to see, BUT... you must be specific!

For example, I did a search of the Sports Memorabilia category for Old Judge. I hit on 134 items. I refined it to this:

old judge -(UD, Upper Deck, Topps, 1995, 1996, 2005, '95, reprint, RP)

This yielded 77 results, which I believe were all pre 1900 vintage cards. But notice, I had to list both 1995 and '95 as exclusions.

Once you refine it the way you want, hit "Save This Search". You then have the option to have Ebay send you a daily email showing anything new that gets listed in that area.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by ibuysportsephemera

You can...just use the minus sign (ie -topps -2008,, etc.) to narrow down your answer. You can do this in the advanced search feature and save that search for your future searches.

Jeff

I just did a search of the 200,000+ baseball items....and I minused out Fleer, Topps, Donruss...and I think one more....and my search came up with about 70 total items.....none of them vintage cards

[chris]

I just spoke with my rep at eBay. She explained that this category consolidation is permanent "for the time being". Basically, unless we all come together and make our opinions know eBay will not be reverting back to have the previous categories within the baseball category. I asked her what could be done regarding this change and she explained that I should get as many buyers and sellers together to contact eBay and express their dislike for this change. She stated that each account rep and customer service rep has a function called Voice of the Customer. They use this to report opinions regarding eBay and changes to actual decision makers at eBay. She said that if I can get enough people to call regarding this and have customer service/account reps log this information into the Voice of the Customer log then we may be able to get this changed. She agreed that this was not a good decision for eBay once I cited this example - would you go buy books at a bookstore that had 200,000+ books all lumped together in no order, or would you buy from the store that had the inventory categorized! So I am asking everyone to please make the call - I know that it may take some time being on hold, but we all know that if we can get this changed we will all benefit! I will be posting this on many message boards today and hope that you will do the same - lets try to get this changed!!

Also, I found a link to a way that you and others can make suggestions
(in addition to the Voice of the Customer that we talked about).

http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/suggestions.html

[Mark]

The biggest problem comes when you decide to sell some cards that don't appear for auction very often. I know that there are people who don't search everyday for e126's or w573's or E102's but who would consider bidding on them if they saw them appear among the newly listed cards.

[nolemmings]

another way to search for Old Judge, or the searches I have bookmarked anyway, is to type n172 judge, or 188* judge, or 188* goodwin. That should hit the mark while leaving out the reprints and garbage.

[paul]

I'd still like to know what "extensive research" showed that people prefer to have their items buried with tens of thousands of unrelated items, rather than logically categorized only with other similar items. Who makes these decisions?

[Ladder7]

I dont envy VCP, trying to track recent sales.

[Frank A]

There ar currently 2,583 pages of baseball cards on ebay. I looked at the first 20 through ending soonist. These 20 pages will end in 1Hr 55Min. On these pages was 1 pre 1930 card. HAHAHAHAHA. Good luck hunting.

[nolemmings]

I found three in about two minutes of searching, a t205, a strip card Tris Speaker and a BIN T206 Cy Young

oops. Missed the date on the Young, the t205 was Fred Clarke

[danmckee]

What will be missed are the pre-war non-graded gems that do not have years in the title. Mom and Pop in New England with a great find will get killed posting these on ebay! I mean Amazonbay!

[calvindog]

At last, my Westlaw and Lexis training from 1989 will serve me some good....

[deadballera]

I used the suggestion tool...

http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/suggestions.html

[ibuysportsephemera]

I feel everyone's pain about the elimination of the categories and really do not understand how eBay thought it was a good idea to consolidate all into 1 big category...that being said.... As a seller the most important thing to me is the title description. I have paid attention to my statistics from sellathon and traffic reports from ebay, and it is my experience that most buyers come from keyword searches and not specific categories. Granted, I rarely sell cards, so maybe in the card arena it is more important, but for vintage sports memorabilia, a descriptive title is key.

As a buyer (I have a total different identity on eBay) I have about 20 different saved searches that are e-mailed to me daily. They are all by title. I have checked many times what category items are put into and it is amazing how items are mis-categorized by sellers.

[David W]

Originally Posted by Mark

The biggest problem comes when you decide to sell some cards that don't appear for auction very often. I know that there are people who don't search everyday for e126's or w573's or E102's but who would consider bidding on them if they saw them appear among the newly listed cards.

Or you're a seller who knows nothing about the nomenclature who finds 5 strip cards in grandpa's desk, and used to just put them in as "Old cards" under the pre 1930 category since they look old, they will be less likely to be seen now because they aren't labeled properly.

I usually search by key word but often also search through a year or years looking for cards that interest me.

I guess I could type in 1963 card in the search, but then I'll get football, hockey, Christmas cards, etc... when it was simpler to just check the 1963 box and have a peek.

[uffda51]

I started buying on ebay in 1999. I generally restricted myself to dealers I knew from the real world. My transactions break down as follows:

1999-48
2000-68
2001-44
2002-63
2003-98
2004-119
2005-50
2006-51
2007-51
2008-24
2009-10, with nothing since May

Zero negative feedback. 622 positive.

2 neutral, both from guys who sold me altered cards.

If I were ebay, I would want me as a customer.

For reasons already well documented by others, I'm done, and also in large part because so many of the sellers I trust have left as well.

If ebay can't analyze their own data and figure out that their policy changes are counterproductive, someone else will come along and fill the void.

ebay cancelled one of my major searches as "category no longer available."
The search was:1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899) -mswsports, -AAA, -Reach, -Spalding, -Putnam, -bsva, -Whitman, -Conlin, -NASA

Also cancelled: T207, T-207

Thanks, ebay.

[brickyardkennedy]

An idiotic move, that likely finishes my Ebay buying.

[Mark]

I again urge everybody to complain to ebay. This is such a stupid move that it is bound to appear so to somebody there.

[D. Bergin]

I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop as far as search results go and what I normally specialize in.

I can't even keep track of the number of websites I've come across...........including many that were supposedly trying to compete with ebay in which the word "Boxing" automatically defaulted to the word "Box" and all forms of the word "Box" (boxer, boxed, boxes)............even if I put it in quotation marks.

Damn..........I hope ebay reps aren't scouring NET54 for ideas.

[Jim VB]

The following post appeared a little while ago on the Ebay message board. It was made by someone in the company (garnor@ebay.com). It is message #92 in this thread:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Spo...53170&start=90


Hi all,
We are aware of an issue that is causing members to be unable to narrow down the search results within some areas in Sports Trading Cards. This is not a permanent change and we are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Regards,
Garnor

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Jim VB

The following post apperaed a little while ago on the Ebay message board. It was made by someone in the company (garnor@ebay.com). It is message #92 in this thread:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Spo...53170&start=90


Hi all,
We are aware of an issue that is causing members to be unable to narrow down the search results within some areas in Sports Trading Cards. This is not a permanent change and we are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Regards,
Garnor

Wow, one hand doesn't seem to know what the other one is doing.

[barrysloate]

One post contradicts the other. Is it a permanent change or just an error that needs to be fixed? This is ridiculous.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

One post contradicts the other. Is it a permanent change or just an error that needs to be fixed? This is ridiculous.

My guess... it WAS a permanent change. One which created problems they had never imagined. 24 hours later... it's a systems problem that they are working tirelessly to fix.

It probably never occured to them what would happen when 200,000+ items went into one single category that could not be narrowed down.

Look at it this way, if they now reduce the classifications by 50%, we'll all think it's fine. If they had just made a 50% cut to start, everyone would have gone nuts (just like we did.) Now, they can "fix" it and be "great guys."

[D. Bergin]

I think Ebay needs to streamline their operation and cut loose all these talking heads, reps, marketing people and programmers that think they need to throw the whole freakin' system into a tailspin every couple of months in order to justify their jobs.

[Potomac Yank]

There's Mental Giant at eBay with a death wish for eBay, and he/she might get their wish.

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

[judsonhamlin]

I wondered where the creative minds behind the Pontiac Aztek landed-- it's eBay. I've probably dropped off 90% in what I buy off of eBay over the last year - there are a couple of dealers whose stores i will scan occasionally, and a couple of saved sellers, but that is it.

[danmckee]

I just searched 1987 Topps set and got some hits, I don't see a problem here??

[tbob]

I complained to ebay and got nowhere other than the run around that the change is NOT permanent and they had to do this in order to streamline things and get them back to normal. Huh?
To answer the question way up the thread from ncinin about "does anyone do blind searching?" Absolutely. I collect certain caramel cards and some tobacco cards from 1909-1919 but if I happen to run across something I like, like a nice Old Judge or a sharp Fatima for a good price, I'll buy it, tuck it away, and use it as a trader or let it appreciate it and flip it. I don't collect E92, E99, E100, E101 or E102 but if I find a nice example at a deal, I'll grab it. I think a lot of collectors do the same thing.
Finally, the search tips are nice and useful, thanks for providing them but if you have noticed the tiny number of new offerings on ebay, it won't be long before buyers are punished simply because sellers are tired of screwing around with the new rules and stop listing. I am a collector but I constantly upgrade and sell cards to buy others I want more, again, a lot of us do this, but I will be damned if I will list any more cards on ebay for sale until this gets rectified

[paul]

I'm with Barry. I think one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. It's possible that the change is permanent. If so, those telling us that it is not permanent are probably referring to some other minor change that has been made, not realizing we are complaining about the major change. It's also possible that the change is a mistake that they are trying to fix. The people at ebay who say the change is permanent are again referring to some other minor change. Or it's possible that our complaints have made an impact, but somehow I doubt that.

[Northviewcats]

Hello Everyone,

I don't know if it will do any good, but I just called Ebay and told them that I wouldn't be listing anymore auctions until they resolved the sub-category problem. I just became a Power-seller a couple of months ago, so maybe if they get enough complaints/threats they will resolve the issue. I certainly hope they listen to us.

Best wishes,

Joe

[tbob]

Joe- Do you remember the number you called? I'd like to call the same guy to make the point also.
Tbob

[Northviewcats]

Hi Bob,

The number is 1-800-701-3229. When you call you will need to provide a pin number. This is nice to have because the person that you speak with knows exactly who they are talking to. If you don't have a pin number you can click on the help button and get a temporary pin number that is good for one hour. You will need to click on a question to get the pin.

Good luck,

Joe

[Doug]

Originally Posted by 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

I've always searched by individual card as well, but this still seems like a ridiculous move since obviously a large number of people do search by category.

[tbob]

Thanks Joe. I got a well meaning young woman to talk to and I had to spend 15 minutes building the foundation of how valuable these cards are and how ebay and paypal will suffer financially by this idiotic decision. I had to explain to her that the items I bid on are not 50 cent items but generally between $75-2500. That got her attention. She is currently checking to see if this change is permanent and when I find that out, I will post it to add it to the mix.

[tbob]

I'm a category checker and I review every single pre-1930 card each day.
"Hi, my name is tbob and I am a category checker." "Hi Tbob"

[tbob]

She checked with the higher-ups and this is a PERMANENT DECISION. Crap...

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by tbob

She checked with the higher-ups and this is a PERMANENT DECISION. Crap...

Well, that means Dave B and Barry were correct and one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing.

Different sources continue to say on the ebay boards, that they're working on it while phone reps tell people it's permanent.

In fact, they have already fixed the basketball card section and it is back close to the way it was before.

What a disaster of a company.

[brickyardkennedy]

http://www.net54baseball.com/images/attach/jpg.gif

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Jim VB

In fact, they have already fixed the basketball card section and it is back close to the way it was before.

Not for me - basketball cards are still all lumped together in one giant category. My guess is that this was a thought out and planned decision that eBay made, knowing full well it would alienate a chunk of their customers. As such, I doubt calling to complain is going to make them change their mind.

[Potomac Yank]

If they're not taking us serious, the only thing left is the language of money.
Every move that they've made during the last couple of years, have been to try to squeeze every penny they can from the buyers, and sellers.

Now, if the buyers, and sellers are really serious about this ... the only thing that might get their undivided attention ... is a boycott by both the buyers, and the sellers.

With the economy being what it is ... even a Mental Midget at eBay will agree that that's the last thing that eBay needs.

We can all use a month off anyway ..... Can eBay???

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by Matt

Not for me - basketball cards are still all lumped together in one giant category. My guess is that this was a thought out and planned decision that eBay made, knowing full well it would alienate a chunk of their customers. As such, I doubt calling to complain is going to make them change their mind.

Try refreshing your cache memory. (Note to many on this board, but not Matt: This means after the page you want to look at has loaded, press the F5 key in the top row of your keyboard. To help your computer load faster it sometimes "remembers" what a page looks like from the last time you went there.) After someone on the ebay board said it was "fixed" my first attempt failed. Refreshed and it was better.

My Baseball categories now shows this:

Refine search
In Baseball Cards
ProductBox (1,555)
Pack (1,462)
Single (67,104)
Single - Insert (15,287)
Single - Parallel (2,858)
Set (3,912)
Team Set (1,800)
Lot (13,997)
Choose more...Card AttributesRookie (24,478)
Serial Numbered (17,309)
Autograph (12,497)
Piece of Authentic (10,884)
Not Specified (100,335)
Choose more...Year2009 (15,526)
2008 (10,799)
2007 (7,735)
2006 (4,338)
2005 (4,591)
2004 (3,246)
2003 (2,952)
2001 (3,135)
Choose more...PricePlease enter a minimum and/or maximum price before continuing.$ to $
Card ManufacturerTopps (37,001)
Upper Deck (14,427)
Bowman (9,930)
Donruss (4,441)
Fleer (3,907)
Leaf (1,338)
Goudey (759)
Score (677)
Choose more...Professionally GradedNot Graded (69,886)
Graded (23,470)
Not Specified (50,333)
Choose more...Original/ReprintOriginal (78,706)
Reprint (761)
Unknown (253)
Not Specified (63,969)
Choose more...SellerSpecify sellers...

Preferences
Buying formatsAuction
Buy It Now
Include Store inventory
Choose more...Show onlyCompleted listings
Free shipping
Choose more...LocationUS Only
North America
Worldwide
Choose more...DistancePlease enter valid zipcode.
Please select a valid popular city.
Please enter valid zipcode or select a valid popular city.
Within 10255075100150200250500750100015002000 miles of ZIP

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[paul]

I don't understand why ebay would make a decision that they know would piss off some buyers and sellers, unless they thought it would make other buyers and sellers more happy. I still haven't heard any explanation of who might like this restructuring.

By the way, the F5 trick is a good one. I do now have more subcategories, like "parallel", "insert" (is there a difference between these), and "uncut sheet." Maybe they've just been getting advice from people who speculate on modern shiny stuff and forgot that the rest of us exist. If these categories are better for the modern stuff, fine. But why did they have to dump us in with them?

[t213]

Everyone who works at Ebay should be required to sell at least 10 items per month by auction.

Andy

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Jim VB

Try refreshing your cache memory. ...Refreshed and it was better.

My Baseball categories now shows this:
....
Not Specified (63,969)

Jim - it's not fixed - they just changed around the site to look more like the category browsing, but it's still using the same "Item Specifics" information, as you can see, only 64,000 listings will be missed when browsing that way...