topic Re: Items specifics nonsense in Selling

Items specifics nonsense

retrowise — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 06:02:06 GMT

Woke up this morning to see message that over 400 of my items need specifics added or I'll not be able to relist them etc. When they were listed, the specifics weren't an option. Now they expect me to spend a ton of time listing $10 items and filling up to 15 non-relevant specifics. Are they going to pay me for the time? Besides it's simply not possible to add specifics for 400 listing one at the time, I have life to live. Anyone else has thoughts on this nonsense? I'm not going to do it, simple as that

Re: Items specifics nonsense

twyngwyn — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 06:04:54 GMT

Multiple threads about this....if we don't do it they will take down the items....we have until mid-July to cooperate 😞

Re: Items specifics nonsense

p9games — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 06:06:55 GMT

Seem to be 2 key concerns

1) Many of the item specifics that people are being asked to complete are N/A to the items they sell. Like a seller of T-shirts being asked what the engine size is. Maybe not that crazy but close to it.

2) Time needed to complete this.

For some sellers point 2 is a deal breaker, and some small and midsize sellers are leaving the platform. Sellers with sophisticated API software have no issue. I have over 80,000 items in my catalogue, about 10,000 listed. All have the item specifics and mapping it all to the relevant fields in my system took a few minutes. Any new listing I create the item specifics are generated automatically.

Re: Items specifics nonsense

twyngwyn — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 06:42:03 GMT

kudos to you for having your item specifics in the 'right' place...have a look at the 'big river in Egypt'....they've stuck their I/S in the body of the text (presume they're using 3rd party software)

Re: Items specifics nonsense

retrowise — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 06:47:35 GMT

Simple solution. If no one will do it, ebay will drop the idea if they want to keep making money. I'm just not going to spend days redoing 400 listings, only to find that soon enough ebay is going to want something else again and they will. Time is money and when they charge 18+% fees on top of that, one would have to be pretty desperate to go along with it and desperate I am not!

Re: Items specifics nonsense

acermacca — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 07:09:02 GMT

I was under the impression that you can continue to relist old GTC listings with out item specifics and the rules are for only mandatory for new listings.

this is from ebay

"Some of your listings need to be updated with required Item Specifics before 12 July. If you don’t update these listings, you will not be able to create, revise and publish these listings."

Re: Items specifics nonsense

davewil1964 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 08:03:34 GMT

I periodically check my (nearly 2000) listings. Usually once a year. It just means I am doing 40 odd per day instead of 6 until I get them all done. Early next week, hopefully. Takes me about a minute per. Time I won't get back, but not a deal breaker.

Re: Items specifics nonsense

retrowise — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 08:07:08 GMT

That's what I thought too but when asking ebay chat about removal he said yes, maybe he made a mistake, I don't know but that doesn't change the fact that if I can't revise old listings, than it's useless.

Even bigger stupidity is that if I can't revise a listing, how can I add item specifics they want? LOL, it's beyond a joke.

Just don't go along with the demands, it's the only way to fix the problem.

Re: Items specifics nonsense

davewil1964 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 08:10:13 GMT

if I can't revise a listing, how can I add item specifics they want

If you revise a listing and add the required specifics it will undoubtedly list.

It doesn't say you can't revise, it says you can't revise without the REQUIRED specifics. Most are recommended, not required, anyway.

For me, with books, there are over 20 specifics, but only Title, Author and Language are required soon. Which is nugatory work as Title and Author are in the listing header, and they emptied the language field a month or so ago.

Re: Items specifics nonsense

lynne8221 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:31:06 GMT

Yep, just finished updating my 3500+ listings (all books - so only 3 required specifics). Took me a month, as I just did the listings for each day over the 30 days. Hope they wait a year or 10 before they want us to do something else that will take so much time. This is my hobby in retirement, not my life's work (though it feels like it sometimes!!

Good luck with whatever you decide tto do with it.

Re: Items specifics nonsense

zhhn992000 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 11:07:44 GMT

some of the specifics are very irrelevant. I guess ebay pretends to be smart but they're quite stupid.

Re: Items specifics nonsense

acermacca — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 11:14:26 GMT

is also worth bearing in mind that "Good Til Cancelled" listings will continue to renew, even if sellers don't add the new mandatory eBay item specifics requirements. However, when adding new stock in the future, sellers will be unable to revise their listings until they update the relevant item specifics.

https://optiseller.com/blog/ebay-roll-out-new-mandatory-item-specifics-for-february-2021

Re: Items specifics nonsense

p9games — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 02:50:17 GMT

managing 3,500 listings manually, that's a lot of work

Re: Items specifics nonsense

oz-e-seller — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 03:05:25 GMT

You can upload the required item specifics via file exchange in bulk. It's much faster than doing them manually, especially if you have many items in one category.

I already updated all mine when they first required it however yesterday I saw 40 listings requiring item specifics. When clicking to update them the required specifics are already there. I had to revise the listings, delete the values and re-input them then save the listing for them to no longer be in the 'required soon' section. Nice waste of time that was.

Re: Items specifics nonsense

retrowise — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 04:53:20 GMT

Haha that's exactly why I'm not going to do it because it'll be never ending. No one should do it. At the very least it should only apply to new items where all the info is easily available from suppliers and should be all automatic.

If Ebay wants to take the time and do it for me , go ahead. I'm not their employee and I pay them enough for their service all ready. I'm not dong it. Stand your ground otherwise it's gonna get even worse.

Re: Items specifics nonsense

lynne8221 — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 05:03:15 GMT

Tell me about it!! It's only my hobby in retirement, any more changes like this one & I'm finding a new hobby - maybe taming snakes or something!!

Re: Items specifics nonsense

gec2002 — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 06:57:13 GMT

Along similar lines, I wrote this info in an earlier discussion on specifics.

Another option to save time is to use this free tool

https://isdntek.com/ebaytools/ItemSpecificScanner.htm

It allows you to build a spreadsheet of all your data that can be pasted into a spreadsheet or saved and opened in a spreadsheet. From there the data can be easily changed in bulk as required to suit your new item specifics. Once saved it can then be loaded into eBay via File Exchange. It is particularly useful if just using one category, I change over 2000 titles in less than an hour.

The tool was developed by eBay user shipscript who is well known on the US boards. All data is retrieved from data found publicly on eBay without accessing your account.

Re: Items specifics nonsense

lupercal — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 11:41:54 GMT

Gah. CD's have a minimum of ELEVEN required fields (ALL of which are in my damn description anyway). If their intention is to take up all of the time where I would normally be listing things, mission accomplished. I'm not going to be finished by the deadline.

Re: Items specifics nonsense

lupercal — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 11:03:29 GMT

@acermacca wrote:
I was under the impression that you can continue to relist old GTC listings with out item specifics and the rules are for only mandatory for new listings.

Can anyone can confirm if this is or isn't the case? It would make a hell of a difference.

Re: Items specifics nonsense

acermacca — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 11:32:56 GMT

This is the email from ebay it doesnt say gtc listing will stopped it just says if you revise them they will need to include new item specifics before you can relist.

"Some of your listings need to be updated with required Item Specifics before 12 July. If you don’t update these listings, you will not be able to create, revise and publish these listings."