Testing an AI photo-to-eBay listing workflow — how much would you trust it?
Summary: soldbyjh186 shared their experience using AI to automate the creation of eBay drafts from product photos, highlighting successes and the need for human review in areas like pricing and product identification. gayraj_postcards contributed by detailing how AI manages 90% of their workflow but emphasized human adjustment for pricing and category classification. They noted some challenges with photo orientation and have effectively listed approximately 6,000 items using AI. gy35-18 expressed interest in using AI for repetitive tasks while maintaining human oversight for critical areas like identification and pricing, suggesting a combined approach with tools like 3Dsellers for efficiency.
I’ve been experimenting with using AI to cut down the repetitive work involved in listing inventory, and I finally ran a real batch through the workflow.
I took 40+ product photos and fed 11 items through the system. It used the photos and available product information to research/identify the items and prepare real eBay drafts.
All 11 reached Seller Hub as drafts. After reviewing them, 10 were ready to move forward and one needed manual attention because the estimated shipping cost crossed the $50 threshold I set.
I’m intentionally keeping human checkpoints for things AI shouldn’t be guessing about; uncertain identification, condition, expensive shipping, missing information, etc. The goal isn’t really “let AI run my eBay account.” It’s to get the repetitive work between taking photos → having a usable draft as close to automated as possible.
Still testing and refining it, but this was the first batch where it started feeling genuinely useful.
For sellers who list a lot of inventory: what parts of the listing process would you be comfortable automating, and what would you always want to personally review?
christworks
·2 weeks agoI use AI in a variety fo ways. It definitely speeds up the process. What I do not like about some of the AI that generates listings is that at least half the top it places the item in the wrong eBay category. When this happens, I must manually change it and then re-enter all the item specifics. That defeats some of the work the AI did. When that happens it is often easier for me to start a listing from scratch. And, let's be honest, if you have to keep checking it, is it really saving you any time? That's not to say AI isn't useful. I do use it, but these AI tools that prepare listings aren't there yet.
gy35-18
·2 weeks agoAI could definitely help with some of the repetitive parts of listing, but I’d still want to review things like identification, condition, pricing, and shipping before anything goes live. Those are the areas where a small mistake can cause problems later.
I’ve also been looking at tools such as 3Dsellers for streamlining the listing process. Having templates, bulk editing, and other automation alongside AI could make the workflow more practical without giving the AI complete control.
For me, the ideal setup would be AI handling the repetitive data entry while the seller makes the final decisions.
gayraj_postcards
·3 weeks agoAI is doing about 90% of the work for me now. It feeds the information back into my database which I then use to export listing files to then upload (I list on three different platforms). I always redo the prices as it hasn't come back with anything realistic on the pricing. I look at the categories it comes back with in case I need to add to my code that determines which of my store categories it falls into. Descriptions have been pretty good so I just spot check them now.
soldbyjh186
OP3 weeks agoYea, pricing has been a little on the high side, but not terribly. Also seems like an issue im running into while uploading products photos is orientation and order. The system will constantly choose a lack luster product photo, and sometimes I have my camera flipped so it comes in upside down, it had a hard time figuring orientation out. Curious how many products you usually have it list regularly and smoothly, what are some of your limitations?
gayraj_postcards
·3 weeks agoOutside of pricing, it probably does 90% correctly. It sometimes gets the title wrong if there isn't one listed on the front of the postcard (what I sell), but it still manages to get the description. It has some difficulty with determining the era of a postcard. I put my photos in the correct orientation before sending--photos are uploaded to amazon storage and the ebay listing is pulling the pictures from there, so the orientation has to be correct. I've been doing it for a couple of months now and have probably done about 6,000 listings with it. It's given me back so much time. I want to tweak it to get more information off the card, but haven't had the motivation to make the changes to my database or the prompt to do so.
soldbyjh186
OP3 weeks ago6,000 is exactly what I was curious about, appreciate that. Mine’s dealing with random liquidation inventory so identification/cardinality gets messy pretty quick, but good to know the general setup holds up at that scale. Pricing is definitely the weakest part for me too. How many items do you usually upload at once, and roughly how long does it take from uploading the photos to having the listings ready? Also, when you push bigger batches through it, do you notice any new issues or is most of that remaining 10% just item-specific identification?
gayraj_postcards
·3 weeks ago150 cards takes Maybe 45 minutes. Size of batch hasn't mattered. What did matter was how much I was trying to grab. The more I tried to get in one trip to the ai, the less successful. So I send it three times each time to focus on something specific, like just identify what it is and then now that we know what it is go back and describe it. Some things are handled by the database..Ai doesn't get that IL, Ill, Ill. And Illinois are all Illinois, so I have a normalization table that handles that.
soldbyjh186
OP3 weeks agoVery helpful info, thank you! Im sure I’ll post an update at a later time.