Items specifics nonsense

[retrowise]

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

[twyngwyn]

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

[p9games]

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.

[twyngwyn]

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)

[retrowise]

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!

[acermacca]

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." 

[davewil1964]

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.

[retrowise]

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.

[davewil1964]

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.

[lynne8221]

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.