Ebay's marvelous book catalog.....

[kathiesbooknook]

I  listed three books on the Civil War last night - when entering the ISBN numbers of the first two which happened to be the first two volumes in a series by the same author - the first came up in the cookbook category - the second as a children's book so as usual I had to opt out of the catalog listing,  change the category, and list the isbn number under item specifics.

The third book was a somewhat rare limited edition signed by the author - nothing came up when I entered the isbn number, but when I entered the title another edition came up with a different isbn number and the category was "other books".     I was unable to enter the correct isbn number - it reverted to the other edition so again I had to opt out of the catalog listing, change the category, and list the correct isbn number under item specifics. 

I have a whole bag of books to list, but after having to go through all this with just the first three, I gave up for the day.  

Now this isn't something new - book sellers have been complaining about this problem for years, yet ebay which is now emphasizing product identifiers and their marvelous catalog has either been unable or unwilling to fix their book catalog. 

[gracieallen01]

Sellers may, eventually, benefit from the work of correcting things, but it doesn't look hopeful that it will be accomplished in the near future and, in the meantime, they are paying with their time and effort and less for their sales.

[ozarkjoe]

Instead of typing in the ISBN you can try typing in the title and you might find the book in the catalog   This works for the older books with no  ISBN.  However there will be no stock photo for the book.

[gracieallen01]

Thanks, I will keep that in mind. After all this time, I sometimes neglect some of the ways I've searched in the past. As for stock photos, they are about as useless as, well, you can imagine. Even before they - anybody - had attached photos, I never considered them valid or that I would ever use them - and that goes back to selling books to amazon, before they were Amazon, but just a book search.

[kathieskorner]

I already do all that - it's a pain tp have to override incorrect categories on 50% of the titles I list. 

[syedmhaq]

@dhbookds thanks for drawing my attention to this post.

@kathiesbooknook I'm so sorry to hear about your experience with the catalog. It's embarassing to hear about such issues but it does motivate me to work even harder to try and get these issues fixed for our sellers.

By the way I would encourage you and others to post such issues in the "Product Catalog" discussion board, which I constantly monitor:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Product-Catalog/bd-p/ProductCatalog

I strongly believe that allowing the community to quickly and easily fix such issues themselves under the stewardship of eBay is a great way to improve the overall quality.

We do have a way for sellers to report catalog issues through the selling flow (see screenshot below). Later this year we'll be making major improvements and enhancements to this feedback mechanism and have lightning fast turnaround times. Please hang in there in the meantime...

[tree*fern]

Hi @syedmhaq, in the meantime, could eBay please ~ please ~ allow book listings to not just opt out of the catalog when newly listed, but then once opted out, stay opted out?

Relisting re-applies the catalog and/or incorrect category to listings already opted out of the catalog.  Sell Similar with the Bulk Editor used to be a workaround for that problem, but apparently  that no longer works. 

On average, the catalog data and categories for about 9 out of 10 of my book listings is incorrect. 

So please understand, when I see you and other eBay employees asking sellers to report corrections to the book catalog, I can't help but think you don't have a grasp of the enormity of the problem with the book catalog.

Sellers have been telling eBay about the problems with the book catalog for years, but it's gotten worse, not better, especially with incorrect categories. 

Who has been responsible for introducing so many errors? Why isn't eBay making those persons/entities responsible for fixing the book catalog?

Who will vet the changes suggested for book category entries?  

How will eBay be addressing the complexities (just one example, different editions published in different years that use the same ISBN)?

Thank you ~

Also alan@ebay

[ted_200]

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@kathieskornerwrote:

I already do all that - it's a pain tp have to override incorrect categories on 50% of the titles I list. 

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Unless they added some functionality in just the last week or two, there is no way to override the incorrect category in the Coins category. 

I usually don't list with the catalog.  But eBay has been associating many of my listings with one of their product catalog pages anyhow, for me, after the fact.  Often, that page is already associated with the wrong category (and not the one I listed in either).  Sometimes, they associate my listing with the wrong product catalog page for me, and that page is also in the wrong category too - not the correct category for my item, and not the correct category for the product page item either. 

[ted_200]

please ~ allow book listings to not just opt out of the catalog when newly listed, but then once opted out, stay opted out?

The problem is, even though the catalog is not mandatory in our categories at the moment, eBay is already using the Buy Box page to serve inventory to buyers in our categories.  If your item is not associated with a catalog product page, the new "product based shopping" scheme will not show your listing to buyers.  UNLESS the buyer can figure out how to get off the "group similar items" default in search, and figure out how to get off the Buy Box pages and get an actual listings-based set of results based on keyword searches, your item is basically sitting in a dark stockroom instead of being on the shelves ready to purchase. 

[joesoucie22012]

Catalog is still a mess. Almost everything thing I list is going into books, other. This includes chess books, text books and more. And when my books go into books other there is 0 action on them. If you put isbn in item spec's and do not use catalog and list in correct category then Google search, bookfinder, addall and everywhere else your books don't show up. This catalog mess all started with mega listers dumping millions of books into the cook book category to manipulate sales. Then they dumped millions more into books other for same thing. This is do to prefilled info by them and can't find work around. Any solutions?

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@joesoucie22012 wrote:

Catalog is still a mess. Almost everything thing I list is going into books, other. This includes chess books, text books and more. And when my books go into books other there is 0 action on them. If you put isbn in item spec's and do not use catalog and list in correct category then Google search, bookfinder, addall and everywhere else your books don't show up. This catalog mess all started with mega listers dumping millions of books into the cook book category to manipulate sales. Then they dumped millions more into books other for same thing. This is do to prefilled info by them and can't find work around. Any solutions?

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The book catalog has been screwed up for over two years. Now non-book items are being dumped there. The only solution I know of is to not use it at all. Very few of mine have ISBNs thankfully, and some of the ones that do I don't even add them. I just list without using it.

Cookbook category is one gigantic mess

[kateinthe26th]

What helped me when i ran into that issue was to put the ISBN number in the tiltle, takes up a lot of the characters though but i notice if i google search by ISBN I could find my books here on ebay.

Might work as a workaround as I have encountered the problem of old books not being in the catalogue

[robot-hands]

It's been broken forever.

Don't expect it to ever get fixed.

[gracieallen01]

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@kateinthe26th wrote:

What helped me when i ran into that issue was to put the ISBN number in the tiltle, takes up a lot of the characters though but i notice if i google search by ISBN I could find my books here on ebay.

Might work as a workaround as I have encountered the problem of old books not being in the catalogue

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Yes, YOU found them by searching the ISBN.  However, it is generally only booksellers that think about searching with an ISBN.  A buyer may think of it, only when title and author doesn't bring up anything - but then they will have to look up the ISBN, somewhere, before they can search for the book on ebay.    Surprising how many buyers don't even get the title right.

[tree*fern]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

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@joesoucie22012 wrote:

Catalog is still a mess. Almost everything thing I list is going into books, other. This includes chess books, text books and more. And when my books go into books other there is 0 action on them. If you put isbn in item spec's and do not use catalog and list in correct category then Google search, bookfinder, addall and everywhere else your books don't show up. This catalog mess all started with mega listers dumping millions of books into the cook book category to manipulate sales. Then they dumped millions more into books other for same thing. This is do to prefilled info by them and can't find work around. Any solutions?

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The book catalog has been screwed up for over two years. Now non-book items are being dumped there. The only solution I know of is to not use it at all. Very few of mine have ISBNs thankfully, and some of the ones that do I don't even add them. I just list without using it.

Cookbook category is one gigantic mess

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Not an option for me, for months:

• Every new book listing I create is opted out of the catalog, but then the catalog later forces itself back on to the new listing. 

• Editing existing listings, or editing unsolds with relisting/sell similar, also permanently turns the catalog back on. 

• With the increase in FVF for books, I'd like to edit (singly or with the bulk editor) to raise some prices, but that turns the catalog back on.

I've been scheduling new book listings first and waiting to list up to 24 hours.  The zombie book catalog comes back on for every single one. 

Few book catalog entries are correct, and the catalog is mostly unusable for me. With the catalog forcing itself back on, I haven't been able to list new book listings.  I can only use sell similar to relist existing listings without the catalog.  You all know what eventually happens when you don't list any new items for too long.

At this point I'm feeling very desperate.  @Anonymous  has passed on all the details and some examples to the team for a fix.  But the problems have been going on too long, and I'm worried that even if it were fixed today, it may be too late for me.

(Also, the book catalog has been screwed up for longer than 2 years.)

[kateinthe26th]

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@gracieallen01 wrote:

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@kateinthe26th wrote:

What helped me when i ran into that issue was to put the ISBN number in the tiltle, takes up a lot of the characters though but i notice if i google search by ISBN I could find my books here on ebay.

Might work as a workaround as I have encountered the problem of old books not being in the catalogue

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Yes, YOU found them by searching the ISBN.  However, it is generally only booksellers that think about searching with an ISBN.  A buyer may think of it, only when title and author doesn't bring up anything - but then they will have to look up the ISBN, somewhere, before they can search for the book on ebay.    Surprising how many buyers don't even get the title right.

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I agree it's not an ideal solution / work around but it may help a collector who is after a first edition/special edition.