eBay Mess

[Matt]

Maybe I'm just suffering from not having morning coffee, but it seems eBay has done away with the categories in the sports card space and has vaporized the "pre-1930s" category. If anyone figures out a reasonable way to browse vintage card listings on eBay, please post it here.

[leftygrove10]

I noticed the same thing this morning.... Hopefully it's a temporary problem, maybe just a "glitch" in their system...

[Matt]

Brad - thanks for the confirmation. I'm afraid it's not a glitch as there are dozens of complaints on eBay's forums regarding the same issues with other categories. It's unfathomable to me that eBay makes these decisions not knowing that it will make using their site more difficult, so I must assume that they are aware of the issues but because controlling your search experience this way will allow them to guide you to results they want you to see, my guess is that they felt the change was important enough to force on the system, assuming that since they are, by far, the biggest game in town, people will suck it up.

[thegashousegang]

I was doing some early morning searching, and tried refresh after refresh...thinking that maybe after 100, ebay would have regained some common sense. Not to be...

[milkit1]

this could be a good thing for us deal searchers

[Matt]

Originally Posted by milkit1

this could be a good thing for us deal searchers

Maybe for a few days until sellers realize that buyers can't find their listings and stop posting.

[docpatlv]

Well that sucks...I just checked to see if it did the same thing when I ran that search and instead of searching "pre-1930s", it searches under "baseball" with 10,000+ baseball items. You should see some of the quality stuff listed under that search . Jay Buhner autograph anyone? So much for a convenient filtering method to find the items you really seek.

My question is...why hasn't there been some kind of viable alternative developed to compete with e-bay? In almost all other aspects of commercial life there are multiple venues to choose from. Surely many sellers, fed up with e-bays idiotic changes would flock to a new site. So why do you think e-bay is still a "monopoly"? I know there have been some similar sites that have tried and failed, but with all the recent changes, don't you think now might be the time to try?

Mike

[barrysloate]

Yep, pre-1930's is gone. In fact almost all subdivisions are gone.

I just went into the "sell" mode and started browing categories. After I hit "cards", it took me to the subcategory "baseball" and that's it, I had now chosen a category for selling. I wasn't asked if I wanted major or minor league baseball, whether I wanted pre-1930's or 1950's, or whether the card was SGC or PSA graded. Why would they take away categories? Wouldn't that make searching more onerous?

[iggyman]

Originally Posted by Matt

Maybe for a few days until sellers realize that buyers can't find their listings and stop posting.

I'll second that! I had planned on putting a bunch of cards on eBay starting today. With this category change.....it is not going to happen anytime soon. From a sellers perspective, today is not a great day to be running any auctions. Argh! What the frickin' frack!!!

If I'm understanding the changes right, we now only have one GIANT baseball category. That's a fantastic idea but a bit short-sighted. Why stop there. Lets have one giant category for all eBay sellers! That way, we can rekindle the feeling of the old fashion flea market. Imagine browsing through the eBay maze looking for your favorite pre war card (soft music playing in the background), when all of a sudden a Manny Ramirez beanie baby catches your eye..... Yep, eBay stock is going to go thru the roof!@#!



Lovely Day...

[D. Bergin]

Best Match baby! Best Match!


Now Ebay can tell YOU, what's best for you.

[D. Bergin]

New category breakdown from Ebay:


Stuff

More Stuff

Types of Peanut Butter

Misc. Stuff

[Jim VB]

Here's one work-around (not ideal, but what else is new):

Click:
Categories
Sports Memorabilia, Cards & Fan Shop
Baseball
Original
Year (A drop down menue appears listing individual years)
Choose More

Another menu pops up allowing you to select as many different years as you'd like to see. You can select every year from 1930 back.

Best I can see on short notice.

[Frank A]

I have some items on there now and I am not very happy with this. I may just stop all my auctions.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Jim VB

Here's one work-around (not ideal, but what else is new):

Click:
Categories
Sports Memorabilia, Cards & Fan Shop
Baseball
Original
Year (A drop down menue appears listing individual years)
Choose More

Another menu pops up allowing you to select as many different years as you'd like to see. You can select every year from 1930 back.

Best I can see on short notice.

Jim - I saw that as well, but as the majority of listings are in the "undefined" category for "year" you'd be missing a huge chunk of listings if you used that to browse.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by Matt

Jim - I saw that as well, but as the majority of listings are in the "undefined" category for "year" you'd be missing a huge chunk of listings if you used that to browse.

What??? Sellers would need to list the year of the card in the description??? Damn them!

[T206.org]

Damn, eBay.

The PreWarAuctions.com homepage is "broken" now, with all sorts of modern stuff showing up (it was showing pre-1930s before). Maybe I'll get rid of it then...

The other categories still work fine though. There is also a link at the bottom of each results page that will take you to eBay to see all of the results since the output is limited to 200 results max.

Browse by Set, T206 for example:
http://www.prewarauctions.com/baseba...white-borders/

[Ladder7]

Good news. Help is just a phonecall away.,

[painthistorian]

this one is sure to cripple all sellers, yesterday will be our last run of e bay material unless they address this absolute stupidity.

This is a serious issue and as a buyer & seller, it will be difficult to reach targeted customers, the search is absolutely impossible using best match, so the material on e bay will be diluted again, this affects everyone..Everyone needs to call e bay..here is the #
1-866-442-3229

Bombard them with calls, this affects EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
good guys, great guys, auction houses, moral guys, immoral guys, ladies and gentleman etc...this is the worst decision yet from e bay and this filters down to everyone as quality sellers on e bay significantly contribute to collectors in finding material and auction houses will be affected also.

[slantycouch]

Originally Posted by thegashousegang

I was doing some early morning searching, and tried refresh after refresh...thinking that maybe after 100, ebay would have regained some common sense. Not to be...

I think you could refresh all day and find that eBay still has no common sense.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by painthistorian

this one is sure to cripple all sellers, yesterday will be our last run of e bay material unless they address this absolute stupidity.

This is a serious issue and as a buyer & seller, it will be difficult to reach targeted customers, the search is absolutely impossible using best match, so the material on e bay will be diluted again, this affects everyone..Everyone needs to call e bay..here is the #
1-866-442-3229

Bombard them with calls, this affects EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
good guys, great guys, auction houses, moral guys, immoral guys, ladies and gentleman etc...this is the worst decision yet from e bay and this filters down to everyone as quality sellers on e bay significantly contribute to collectors in finding material and auction houses will be affected also.

Larry- while I am probably not going to take the time to call, since I doubt ebay will listen, I think this might be their worst decision yet.

[calvindog]

This is obviously a mistake -- auctions seem to be gone as well.

[Jim VB]

According to one poster on the Ebay boards, Ebay is saying this is a "bug" in their system.

[D. Bergin]

You guys don't understand. Ebay polled the community and this is what they asked for.

At least that's what it says in the e-mail I got from ebay titled "You asked for it!"

[calvindog]

There is an ebay email that claims users did not want there to be a breakdown by date of listed baseball cards? What could possibly be the advantage of that? Can't be. If this is a permanent change no one will ever list a vintage card on ebay again.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

You guys don't understand. Ebay polled the community and this is what they asked for.

At least that's what it says in the e-mail I got from ebay titled "You asked for it!"

Please show that email. Thanks.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by calvindog

There is an ebay email that claims users did not want there to be a breakdown by date of listed baseball cards? What could possibly be the advantage of that? Can't be. If this is a permanent change no one will ever list a vintage card on ebay again.

I was joking.


Or I could have been prophesying...........we shall see.

[Jay Wolt]

...and tomorrow's the day that every eBay seller must have their auctions in tow
stating what their handling time is as well as if refunds are accepted or not.
If both aren't taken care of, eBay will eliminate them.
Nice way to add revenue...just kill a % of the Buy It Now's that are in place.
Many sellers have changed the auctions & Buy It Now's, though I'm sure a good % has not
and will probably not re-list them

[iggyman]

Originally Posted by Jim VB

According to one poster on the Ebay boards, Ebay is saying this is a "bug" in their system.

Not a "bug", this a well thought-out business decision.... Apparently, a few power sellers complained (during the town hall meetings) that with sooooo many categories, sellers sometimes have to spend extra $$$ to have the same item appear in more than one category. Therefore, one can reasonably conclude that ebay sales are going down because they have "too many categories". Thus, you end-up with a great idea from a bunch of great guys! You make the sellers happy and at the same time, you make it easier on the buyer when searching (best match). Yep, somebody got a big promotion with this idea.

Here is a link to the categories that have been changed. Plus a link announcing the changes (albiet, it's for ebay.UK....but they were once Americans):

http://pages.ebay.com/CategoryChanges/

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200909211156112.html

Lovely Day...

[Jim VB]

Thanks iggy. Stupidity abounds on the west coast, I guess.

[botn]

Gonna make browsing impossible. Great way to alienate sports cards sellers and buyers.

The B/S/T is gonna be working overtime. Leon, start charging for listings and take this thing public!!!!

[timzcardz]

On a bright note, etopps still has its own category.

[1966CUDA]

Just got off of a phone call to them (866)643-3720. They said I was the 1st complaint they had heard about this! They said they would look into it and call me back. I told them to search my completed auctions and look at what category they are listed in...all of them say "listed category:_______(blank)...no categories for the completed auctions!!! And all my running auctions have defaulted to category: Baseball cards!!! I told them if this is a permanant change it is the worst thing they could have done for this sect. of Ebay users....I am sure nothing will be done but she did say to have anyone I know who is upset with this to call Ebay and let them know.

-Claude

[greenmonster66]

Yeah I just noticed this! Hopefully this is just a temporary thing and fixed sometime soon!

[jbsports33]

I am certainly disappointed in the change, but there are ways to create your own searches. Hopefully there will be enough complaints and they will change it back, if not I will just use some of the searches I have had setup for years and make adjustments.

Jimmy

[tbob]

I did my part, sending an email to eBay. let's everyone get off their butts and do the same.
I tried entering "t210" in the search box on the new baseball card page and one listing came up. I know this is wrong as I am bidding on several now but just one BIN came up. I know there are many BINs which didn't and no auctions came up.

[tbob]

http://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI...ry=suggestions

[Leon]

Originally Posted by botn

Gonna make browsing impossible. Great way to alienate sports cards sellers and buyers.

The B/S/T is gonna be working overtime. Leon, start charging for listings and take this thing public!!!!

Great suggestion Greg.
First of all I am adamantly opposed to charging anything for what we do on the board today. That being said I have spoken, in the last few years and currently, with 3 s/w developers about running an auction, similar to ebay, for the board. Most likely it would be free for some time....until it got to a critical mass, and then there would possibly be a small fee......

Our free rinky dink auction section would still be there. I don't want to change anything. I only want to (maybe, and it's still a big maybe) add another feature......I am hopeful on having more conversations about it today. I do think we have the right traffic for sportscards.......I definitely understand the value equation for buyers and sellers.....I have been on ebay for over 10 yrs and have some experience with other hobby venues too......we shall see. If there is enough support it might happen.

[botn]

Bob,

I just did a search for T210 and came up with 18 listings. How a seller types their title will determine if your search is going to be successful and pick up what you are looking for. So now you will have to search T 210, T210 and Old Mill to see that you got them all.

Greg

[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."

There is a bug out there which has put many, many listings in NO CATEGORY whatsoever, including 3 of mine, and many others you can only find by manually searching for specific card type ("1952 Topps," "1989 Bowman," but not otherwise, since they do no show up in the sole remaining category of "Cards-Baseball."

There was absolutely no interest on either the line-person nor her supervisor (after a long line of bullsh*t about how they have to investigate what I'm saying, etc.) of how this screws me, my friends, my sellers, my buyers, no one. Period. None.

I am supposed to get an email (within 24 hours) that explains the reason for the changes, the benefits, etc. I'll post that drivel when it arrives.

[deadballera]

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

[alanu]

The listings I had for sale under the "pre 1930" category now don't have a category attached to them at all. The one's without bids I was able to revise, but the other one's can't be revised and now are sitting out there without a category.

I hate to end listings early that have bids, but might have to in this case.

-Alan

[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."

There is a bug out there which has put many, many listings in NO CATEGORY whatsoever, including 3 of mine, and many others you can only find by manually searching for specific card type ("1952 Topps," "1989 Bowman," but not otherwise, since they do no show up in the sole remaining category of "Cards-Baseball."

There was absolutely no interest on either the line-person nor her supervisor (after a long line of bullsh*t about how they have to investigate what I'm saying, etc.) of how this screws me, my friends, my sellers, my buyers, no one. Period. None.

I am supposed to get an email (within 24 hours) that explains the reason for the changes, the benefits, etc. I'll post that drivel when it arrives.

I will be very disappointed if nothing in this pending e-mail says "You asked for it, now here it is!"

[timzcardz]

I sent an email to auctionbytes. We'll see if they talk to ebay and report on it on their site.

[Frank A]

Just called EBAY, what a waste of tome. After explaining to them whats happened they tell me to file a written report of whats happening. I also have cards listed. If this is not fixed sometime today I will have to remove them, if I can figure out how. What a joke. Frank A

[GrayGhost]

For my small stuff that I sell, Id rather sell to guys on here, who I know are into sports. Plus, there isnt the BS stuff ebay is doign these days.

Of course, I understand that a "wider range" of appeal is needed on big ticket items too, as not everyone who collects cards and memorabilia belongs to Net54, tho they should, as its the best. Also, the pile of non sports paper and oddball I have gets bigger and bigger if I dont go to ebay. ha.

[tonyo]

I usually search "all categories" anyway.

Although just this morning, I wanted to search 1950 bowman football and wanted to exclude baseball, but couldn't figure out how to search in the "football" category.

Unsophisticated eBayer I guess.

By the way Claude, thanks for buying that Reggie Booklet from me!

[1966CUDA]

Yea, thanksTony...thought I'd try and put that set together. Looks like it can get done without costing much...and SGC grades them if I want to go that route.

[mintacular]

Do they not realize the millions of "junk" sports cards from the 80s-90s are now going to waterdown every other search? I was told that my FVF would be returned, whoopee! I am going to demand that my current auctions should be be paid out at HBV since this change was implemented midstream and I wouldn't have listed the cards as such if I knew they were going to be lost in a cesspool of 1990 Fleer garbage, etc.

Also, good luck if you have a mixed lot of some valuable stuff as they will be damn near impossible to find.

[alanu]

Just sent my compaint to ebay... not too optimistic about them changing it back though.

This will just lead to the continuation of more BIN's and less auctions.

[marvjung]

I saw this too and at first I thought my eye's were bugging on me - Mike Schmidt in the Pre-30's section? WTH??!

Alas, apparently this is how it's suppose to be?

My saved search of "T206" still yields correctly, but the other searches do not. I guess technically, NOW would be a good time to BUY (because who's going to go through 125K listings to find a particular card) but it's sure as heck NOT a good time to sell.