eBay

valeries_trunk · ‎10-12-2021

Why, oh why would eBay change categories at this crucial time of year? You have have pretty much eliminated antique & collectible sellers from being seen! I cannot even add item specifics on a doll! I am thoroughly disgusted with this change. Put it back to the original!

fab_finds4u · ‎10-12-2021

Makes no dang sense. I searched American Bisque Cookie Jar and the first jar shown is not a cotton picking jar at all. It's a dang pair of plush bears. NOT a cookie jar!!!!!!!! What have they been smoking?

collectfest · ‎10-12-2021

wow...sad. Hope things get back on track....

auctionpet · ‎10-12-2021

@valeries_trunk wrote:
This is a total fail! I am a 20 year eBayer. I just called customer service & the rep agreed with me! Our unique items are going to be lost in the huge cesspool of eBay items. I cannot even add Item Specifics when creating a listing through Auctiva, a well known auction listing service. My antique glass compotes now are listing under Pottery & Glass: Bowls. Duh! Who in the heck is going to look at that? How can eBay be so dumb? If I list an antique kerosene lamp, I am supposed to fill in light color, cord color, number of blades, manufacturer warranty, & then have to scroll through about 200 or 300 names of characters that the lamp could be. None of this applies to me & it wastes my time. It is getting more & more confusing to sell on eBay. I will see how sales go for a week or 2. Thinking it is time to go to Etsy. Don't even consider sending me one of your surveys about whether I would recommend selling on eBay to others!

Hate to break it to you, but etsy is actually worse. Extremely limited categories and very few subs. They expect you to fill manually fill in keywords on every listing. Very time consuming. The one thing I like about ebay is they beat etsy hands down when it came to categories/subs, looks like that is changing quickly in the wrong direction.

With the crazy competition for sales, a functioning search engine where buyers can easily whittle down results via sub categories was the main reason to shop here. Neither Amazon or etsy have that. When I'm looking for something I don't have the inclination to go through a myriad of item specifics, way too time consuming. Don't understand why a website wants to make it harder for buyers to find what they're looking for!

m60driver · ‎10-12-2021

@collectfest wrote:
Huh, concept based categories ... to dynamic product based categories, what does this mean. I have never purchased a concept on eBay since I have been a member since 1999. What exactly does this mean. What is a dynamic product. Who said the prior search was concept based. Words have meanings. One cannot just state things as fact when they are not

The words being regurgitated by the Ebay spokesperson are not designed to carry meanings. They are just corporate nonsense to implement tactics like deflection, ambiguity, etc. The idea is to obfuscate by speaking nonsense as it tends to obscure the fact that the corporate elites either have no clue what they are doing or know exactly wheat they are doing but don't want anyone to know a truth that might interfere with the cash flow. Ebay is just throwing crap up on a wall to see if any of it will stick. Alas, if only they at least would have the humor of Professor Irwin Corey (RIP) when doing their corporate schtick.

valeries_trunk · ‎10-13-2021

Well eBay, in your infinite wisdom, I discovered today that 1 of my antique glass water pitchers has been moved to the category Pottery & Glass: Cookware, Dinnerware & Serveware - BOWLS! Now how in hte heck is someone going to find a pitcher under BOWLS????? Whoever rolled out this new program should be FIRED! What a lousy job! I am sure I will find many more items that are incorrect. Don't mess with my stuff!

oneglassman · ‎10-13-2021

They have ALL been moved****

sextons-sweet-deals · ‎10-13-2021

I just checked my milk glass listings and they are under : Pottery & glass, cookware, dinnerware & serveware, bowls

What a joke! Now there are many item specific fields that are empty that need filled in. I like to know how the item specifics helps buyers in their search? I already put full details in my item description area. If a buyer needs more information, they can simply ask correct?

Stop thinking so hard eBay! People know what they are looking for and the key words in "search" is what works best, but even that has deteriorated in the past 2 -3 years. I have to switch words / add / delete to see every listing of the item I'm looking for.

I will give eBay the week or two as they posted that things will improve with these changes, but that does not help me with sales for now and covering my bills.

August sales were probably the worst I ever had. September improved. October started good and then I went 6 days with no sales. Interesting on the timing and the eBay changes.

My report says I'm down 45% from last year at this time!

I just did a search for "antique milk glass candy dish" and then selected "nearest distance". I did see some of my listings. So, are we going back to key words in search? What a mess for now!

monroe67 · ‎10-13-2021

"Bowls" seems to be the catchall category, default for the deleted categories.

Imagine an eBay buyer somewhere out there in America who is actually looking for bowls, that she can use for serving a green bean casserole and candied yams on Thanksgiving this year. And all of a sudden her search for Bowls in the Dinnerware and Serveware category shows her your milk glass candy dishes, my 122-year old green vases with gold trim, and another poster's Tiffany vase. "So -- am I supposed to serve One Candied Yam in this milk glass candy dish?"

These changes are affecting sellers, obviously, and buyers, both.

Granted I am not a computer programmer or wizard of any sort, but shouldn't there be a way to work out these aspects of massive category changes like these, so that users aren't thrown into the frenzy so many of us have experienced?

BTW, I went into my listing yesterday -- and I only have that one listing currently active -- and manually changed its category to "Collectibles > Decorative Collectibles > Vases." Because I am trying to sell a pair of vases, you know, to hold cut flowers, rather than bowls.

hioctane62 · ‎10-13-2021

Wow, I'm actually GLAD that eBay FINALLY removed all my listings a few days ago for not signing up for Mangled Payments (after threatening for nearly a year and a half). All my items have been listed on another site for over 2 years, and since eBay removed my listings, my views on the other site have increased dramatically. Many views over there on an item that I sold last week here on eBay before they removed them. My customers know how to find me, and they'll figure out that most of what they can no longer find on eBay IS still available... elsewhere. The merchandise is moving to other sites, the buyers will follow. It should be very interesting to see where things go for eBay in the next 2-3 years.

I'm sure the timing of these category changes coincide with the fact that they removed MILLIONS of items from their platform last week, so that's less items they have to "re-organize".

hummingbird*antiques · ‎01-05-2022

I have been an active buyer and seller specifically for antiques since 1997. Removing all of the specific categories as Ebay has done is going completely backwards to the way Ebay was when it first started (I was one of the very first members). Over the years Ebay created specific categories for different types of porcelain, pottery, and much more, and all you had to do is go directly to that particular manufacturer and see exactly what you wanted to see. Now you do a search for something specific, and you get many items, many brand new and have to waste your time sorting through it all.

Sorry, but this was a HUGE mistake on Ebay's part, and there is no fine-tuning it. Please bring back the categories that were removed. Seems like Ebay cares more now about seller's who sell new items than antique dealers and collectors like me. Antiques and collectible selling is what gave Ebay it's start; please don't ruin it. Very disappointed! Even the items I am selling have far fewer views, and by the way, having to constantly fill in all of the item specifics each time I list is a huge waste of time that we never had to do before you took down the wonderful, detailed categories.

If anything sinks Ebay (not hoping for it!), this will be it.

Thanks for listening.

Sheila

hummingbird*antiques · ‎01-05-2022

Sadly, you're right.

saganguy · ‎12-01-2022

Valerie, I share the frustration. I have just shut down my Ebay store and reduced antique listings from around a consistent 400+ to under 80, and intend to drop down even more....BECAUSE EBAY ELIMINATED ITS VALUABLE CATEGORIES under antiques and placed most of them under much larger broader categories, such as "Decorative glass and pottery". Yeah...that really helped buyers and sellers to find their interests, by increasing the quantity of items to be searched thru by the thousands. Best of good fortune to you.

kh-vince · ‎12-01-2022

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.

kh-vince · ‎12-01-2022

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.