How variants work.

[huatao1975]

Good afternoon. eBay's operators seem to have different understandings about how variants work. Any help is apprecieted.

My understanding: for each variant, you need to have at least 1 product (or more) that belongs to that variant. So if I sell billiard balls, and I have 3 variants (red, green, yellow), I need to have at least 1 ball for each color. Selling a red ball should not affect how the other 2 variants are sold. In other words, if I have 1 ball for each variant in stock, and if I sold the red ball, red variant will become out of stock, green and yellow should both have 1 item of stock left.

So in my case, I have a listing with 2 variants: #1 xbox console ($69.95) , #2 wifi adapter ($47.5). Because I only have 1 console, and if I list variant #2 as console + wifi afapter, it conflicts with my understanding of how variants work, and if 2 persons bought both variants in the same day, 1 of the 2 orders will fail.

To me it's very simple: it's like you buy a car for $20,000 and maybe some accessories for another $2,000 (optional), and if someone bought the accessories only, he / she he can't expect to get the car too.

And of course, a gentleman bought variant #2 and demanded that variant #1 to be also shipped to him. I refused, and explained to him how variants work. He threatened me with negative feedback, then left one a few minutes later. To me he sounded disappointed rather than surprised.

I contacted eBay operators. To my surprise, most of them don't even know what variants are. Some have vague understandings, and call variants as "options" or "select" etc. 1 operator seemed solid, unfortunately he didn't have authority to do anything. So I finally reached two ladies at eBay who have some authority. First one didn't understand what variants are. I closed chat window. Second one said if buyer bought 2 items you should ship 2, I said no he only bought 1, which variant #2. Then she spent like 15 minutes trying to understand this matter, then finally came back saying the buyer has some points, and she also think it's "confusing".

So I gave up. My question: am I correct on how variants work? And if yes, why eBay's operators don't seem to understand? Does eBay have a way for selling variant #2 automatically reduce the stock of varaint #1 ? Thank you.

[kopenhagen5 · Accepted solution]

So I gave up. My question: am I correct on how variants work? And if yes, why eBay's operators don't seem to understand? Does eBay have a way for selling variant #2 automatically reduce the stock of varaint #1 ? Thank you.

1. Yes

2. because they are not eBay staff, only contractors.

3. No

You are not really selling variants, but offering accessories that can be purchased with main item so you need to control stock manually if buyers also get the accessories with main item. Or always have an extra accessory above the stock of main items.

[digital*ghost]

eBay doesn't allow global quantities for variation listings, so for everything that is offered as available in a listing, you need to be able to supply it

On some sites, listing with variations can have a global quantity or a per variation quantity. This means you can list an item with 5 different variations, but only make one available so that once someone purchases whatever variation they want of that item, no one else can buy. It's a god-send for my items where I might have enough material to make 3 of something and want to offer it in multiple sizes - it means 3 people can buy 3 different sizes, or 1 person can buy 3 of the same size. There are other times where a per-variation quantity is more appropriate so I wish eBay was as flexible in this regard. 

[purplemon18]

---

So in my case, I have a listing with 2 variants: #1 xbox console ($69.95) , #2 wifi adapter ($47.5). Because I only have 1 console, and if I list variant #2 as console + wifi afapter, it conflicts with my understanding of how variants work, and if 2 persons bought both variants in the same day, 1 of the 2 orders will fail.

---

Your understanding is exactly correct. If you have one of each item, you can either make a variation listing with one in stock of each, or list them both together as one item (at a higher price). You can't do both. If you actually talk to someone on the phone at ebay, you might be able to get the neg removed.

In the buyer's defence, your listing is ambigious enough that if your buyer opens a INAD (item not as described), they will probably win. Variant 1 should say "console only" variant 2 should say "wifi adaptor only" For the listing title I would say Console or wifi adaptor

In the description I would clearly list what exactly you get with each variant.

Having said that, I just wouldn't do a listing like that. Whether you meant to or not, you give people the impression that they can get a console for $47 in the search results. I would either list those items as completely separate listings, or make something like an xbox hardware variation listing and put a dozen different pieces of hardware in it. controllers, kinects, guitars, whatever. Just more variety so that it is clear its a variety hardware listing.