ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
Check your response file for your upload. I suspect the problem is that eBay will not mix self-hosted with eBay-hosted. Or perhaps the PicURL column was not correctly populated.
The PicURL for a variation should include the option name, like this:
133 Mike Marshall=https://hostingsite.com/image1.jpg
If multiple images, then like this:
133 Mike Marshall=https://hostingsite.com/img1.jpg|https://hostingsite.com/img2.jpg
In File Exchange, the ADD verb for the Action field is only for creating an entirely new listing and can only be used in the parent record. It can not be used to modify an existing listing, and the Action field in the child records (the variations) must be blank for an addition.
To add a new child variation to an existing listing, use the REVISE verb in the File Exchange Action column, and only for the parent record of each listing to be revised.
When revising a listing to add a new variation "Attribute" to a listing (a whole new droplist), you will need to include the entire list of Attributes and Options in the master record's RelationshipDetails. In your case, you are only trying to add an Option to an existing Attribute (drop list). I have not tested whether the full option list must be included to add an option to the list. If you were able to add a name that did not previously exist in the list, and if you did not provide the entire list, then I suppose you would not need to add the whole list.
Can you clarify what you did and whether you used File Exchange to add the new card name?
Do you have an item number for discussion?
Looking at your listing, I can see that you have created the new option in your droplist for 1987 Fleer #U-24 (Glossy) and that the image is missing. I also see that it is sorted alphabetically into the middle of your list.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/174960672281
So, I must conclude that adding an Option to an existing list does not require repeating all of the other options in that list.
You will need to review the upload response file to see what errors were encountered. Are you uploading your spreadsheet to Seller Hub? If so, on the same screen where you have uploaded, scroll all the way to the right of your relevant uploads to find the results/response file and download that spreadsheet. It will provide warnings and errors.
I think the upload with only the URL succeeded because the data was ignored, but I don't know why the upload with the full field data failed. Did the failure say why? I would think that a mix of eBay-hosted and externally-hosted URLs would make it further to at least generate a results file.
Even if it uploads with no errors, are there any warnings in the downloadable results file?
Here is what I have discovered by testing with my own listings.
1. After trying various configurations of limited parent record details, I was required to fill in the complete list of existing, and new, droplist options in the RelationshipDetails cell of the parent record.
2. The upload failed because "A mixture of Self Hosted and EPS pictures are not allowed".
Here was my upload file:
Action,ItemID,Relationship,RelationshipDetails,Quantity,StartPrice,CustomLabel,PicURL
Revise,384232930811,,"Variety=#10 Micky Mouse;#11 Popeye Sailor;#14 Goofy dog;#16 Minnie Mouse;#26 Donald Duck;#35 Pluto Protagonist;#37 Mighty Mouse;#20 Scoobie Doo",,,,
,,Variation,"Variety=#20 Scoobie Doo",4,1.91,"MM4","#20 Scoobie Doo=https://i.postimg.cc/mgNS2JwW/Dawson-067.png"
Here is the crux of the downloaded results file for the above upload:
LineNumber,Action,Status,ErrorCode,ErrorMessage,WarningCode,WarningMessage,Code...
2,Revise,Failure,20004,Error - A mixture of Self Hosted and EPS pictures are not allowed.|
When you kludged the PicURL field, eBay just ignored the image and uploaded without.
When matching images to variations, the images are processed separately, so they do not need to be on the rows that match the variations themselves. The association is in the name that is connected to the URL, not its location in the spreadsheet. It's possible to swap the cells as shown below, and the pictures will still associate with the name connected to the URL, not to the other cells on the same row.
(the related cells are diagonal below).
Cards=card #1,"card #2=<pic2>"
Cards=card #2,"card #1=<pic1>"
When I removed the name attached to the URL and just tried the URL by itself, the upload succeeded because the image URL was ignored. So this uploaded, but there was obviously no associated image.
Action,ItemID,Relationship,RelationshipDetails,Quantity,StartPrice,CustomLabel,PicURL
Revise,384232930811,,"Variety=#10 Micky Mouse;#11 Popeye Sailor;#14 Goofy dog;#16 Minnie Mouse;#26 Donald Duck;#35 Pluto Protagonist;#37 Mighty Mouse;#20 Scoobie Doo",,,,
,,Variation,"Variety=#20 Scoobie Doo",4,1.91,MM4,https://i.postimg.cc/mgNS2JwW/Dawson-067.png
Basically, the issue with the inability to upload photos is that eBay does not allow mixing eBay hosted images with self-hosted images. You will have to manually upload the photos to listings that already have eBay-hosted photos.
Ways to list with a spreadsheet
If you get around to creating an entire listing using a spreadsheet, you will be able to use your external image hosting for both the listing creation and for listing modification, because the image hosting won't be mixed. In fact, sellers actually use the spreadsheet at least three different ways:
1) For sellers with an external image host, create the entire listing with variations and add externally hosted image URLs.
2) For sellers with no hosting, use a spreadsheet to create the entire listing with variations, and add a single placeholder image to the parent record (and possibly set a scheduled start date). Then use eBay's listing tool to delete the placeholder image, manually add all of the photos, and remove the scheduling.
3) For sellers who don't want to get too involved in the details of a full-blown spreadsheet and who may not need photos for each of the variations, create a variation listing on eBay for all of the master record data, including item specifics, and for one placeholder variation, and then use a spreadsheet to replace and flesh out all of the variations as a revision, using either of the tools below to generate the revision template.
Variation Revision Tools
On eBay's upload page, you can download the "price and quantity" template to gather existing variations that you want to revise (and delete from that report all the ones you don't want to change). That will make it easy to add your new droplist options to the list that is already displayed in the parent record, and to add a single row for each additional item in the list. You can remove any of the variation rows that you don't want to edit, or you can leave them in place and they will revise with no change.
This next tool was designed to make it easier to rename variation groups that are caught up in eBay's changes to Item Specifics, which tended to reserve words that could no longer be used as names of variation groups. Or it can be used to rename variation groups that just have bad names:
https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/VariationScanner.htm
The tool can also generate a simple report with the same variation details that eBay's download provides, however, the difference is that if you want to modify a smaller number of listings, you can enter those item numbers (up to a maximum of 20) in the tool's keyword field surrounded with parentheses, like this: (222222222222, 333333333333, 444444444444). Then you will have a smaller report that will be simpler to edit in your spreadsheet.
Listing with a spreadsheet is a real time saver for bulk uploading and managing items within the same category. Learning the quirks can take some time, but it is rewarding in the end. Have fun learning!
Thank you for visiting this thread! I wasn't sure if the team was still involved here, so I am thrilled we still have a tools team presence. 😍
