eBay Mess

[Jim VB]

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

[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!!!!

[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.

[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.

[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

[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."

Damn, the irony was lost on me the first time around.

They actually say "You didn't ask for it, but we did it anyways!"

LOL!!!

[D. Bergin]

Jeez, now my daily search of Donruss Rated Rookie cards is going to be diluted with hundreds of T206's, Ramly's and Boston Garter listings.

[Rob D.]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Damn, the irony was lost on me the first time around.

They actually say "You didn't ask for it, but we did it anyways!"

LOL!!!

Taking out of the equation the fact that this is a stupid decision by eBay, it's not unusual at all that the company didn't ask for customers' input.

The Big 3 never polled all of the owners of their cars before working on designs for the new model year. Microsoft doesn't send e-mails to all of the owners of its current version of Windows before working on the next one. Wendy's didn't call me before revamping its value menu.

Yes, bad decision by eBay. No, not unusual that a major company decided on its own to implement a change.

[Zach Wheat]

Apparently, this may be start of eBay's switch to a new search platform and the manner in which select items are identified. It appears they are trying to appease the larger sellers. I hate to selectively quote from a source, but I have copied some of the key paragraphs from Barron's (a financial publication) regarding eBay's switch. Barrons' has had several articles on eBay recently, one of which dealt with the switch to a new "search" platform and another on the drive to focus on larger sellers and retailers.

Here is the link for thos so inclined to read the entire article:
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB...888930015.html

If you Google Barron's & eBay the results will bring up links to the other articles.

Here is a summary of the one regarding the new search platform:
============
The company already faces a variety of headwinds: Many sellers are irritated about recent changes eBay (ticker: EBAY) made in its fee structures. The softening consumer economy is not helping matters. And with well over half of its revenue coming from outside the U.S., its financial results will be hurt by the recent strengthening of the U.S. dollar......


....Blair and Hunter also say eBay is close to rolling out a new search platform that it has been testing for some time. They see risks if it isn't successful: "The ability to search and find an item with accuracy is a key factor in eBay's success and any changes that negatively impact the effectiveness of search would create a significant problem for the company." EBay shares are down approximately 30% this year, trading near their lowest level in five years.

[egbeachley]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

"The ability to search and find an item with accuracy is a key factor in eBay's success and any changes that negatively impact the effectiveness of search would create a significant problem for the company." .

When has anyone has trouble with accurate searches? It brings up the listings with the words you ask for?

[gabrinus]

I just sent an email to them explaining(hopefully) how this will lead to lost revenue. Hopefully every member on this board will do the same. There are quite a few big players on this board. Maybe this will wake them up.

[BobbyVCP]

What a mess eBay has created for everyone, we are scrambling to fix our feeds we get from them to add their listings to VCP.

To make life easier for everyone we are going to add a section that will make it so you can search for the eBay listings we are tracking. Hope to have it available to you very shortly. Of course we only cover graded cards.

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by egbeachley

When has anyone has trouble with accurate searches? It brings up the listings with the words you ask for?

Egbeachley,

I think they are referring to bringing up similar and related items. The focus seems to be getting more clicks and traffic to the large high volume sellers and retailers on eBay. One of the other articles in Barron's identified such a strategic shift in their business model.

[danmckee]

WOW! So much for me policing the category for fraud and doctored fakes!! I can't go through 400K items!! Scumbags, thieves, and bottom feeders, the road is now WIDE OPEN!!! After all of the clean up efforts we had the pre-1930 and 1930s categories fairly legit and free from fraud.

I just don't get it. Have to take my auctions down tonight or give stuff away.

Truly a shame.

[Frank A]

Whats a real problem' is someone who wants to list a real oddball item. There is no way a person will ever find it unless he spends all day listing every type of card. Talk about someone at EBAY being really stupid!!!!!!!!!! This is going to cost them a lot of money in the long run.

[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