eBay, how do I count html characters in the 800 character view?

[tealt]

The text in the Update says that line breaks are usually 50 characters.

If I use html and two adjoining br's in their carats, does that count as 8 characters or 50 characters or what?

[Anonymous]

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@tealt wrote:

The text in the Update says that line breaks are usually 50 characters.

If I use html and two adjoining br's in their carats, does that count as 8 characters or 50 characters or what?

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Hi tealt,

Tags will not be counted as part of character count, except for cases when they add characters or space (e.g. <br>, &nbsp).  If you include <br>'s within the description summary you designate, they will each count as 50 characters (approx. one line of text on a mobile device today).  

Thanks for selling on eBay,
Justin

[tealt]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@tealt wrote:

The text in the Update says that line breaks are usually 50 characters.

If I use html and two adjoining br's in their carats, does that count as 8 characters or 50 characters or what?

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Hi tealt,

Tags will not be counted as part of character count, except for cases when they add characters or space (e.g. <br>, &nbsp).  If you include <br>'s within the description summary you designate, they will each count as 50 characters (approx. one line of text on a mobile device today).  

Thanks for selling on eBay,
Justin

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So a double br counts as 100 characters. 

Great.

I find sentences stuffed together in a text block both annoying and off-putting.  How many board posts have I not read because they were a long paragraph with no breaks? 

Making my 800 Character Custom Block text readable will reduce the text to little more than a plea that a potential buyer click on the item description link. 

From mobile users I can see the SNADs and I-won-this-10-minutes-ago-but-I-didn't-read-the-full-description-until-after-I-won cancellation requests.  I'm already starting to get that type of cancellation request.

[llllady]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@tealt wrote:

The text in the Update says that line breaks are usually 50 characters.

If I use html and two adjoining br's in their carats, does that count as 8 characters or 50 characters or what?

---

Hi tealt,

Tags will not be counted as part of character count, except for cases when they add characters or space (e.g. <br>, &nbsp).  If you include <br>'s within the description summary you designate, they will each count as 50 characters (approx. one line of text on a mobile device today).  

Thanks for selling on eBay,
Justin

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That's ridiculous. 

So, how many characters is a paragraph break <p>?  Is it 100? 

[labs118]

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@llllady wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@tealt wrote:

The text in the Update says that line breaks are usually 50 characters.

If I use html and two adjoining br's in their carats, does that count as 8 characters or 50 characters or what?

---

Hi tealt,

Tags will not be counted as part of character count, except for cases when they add characters or space (e.g. <br>, &nbsp).  If you include <br>'s within the description summary you designate, they will each count as 50 characters (approx. one line of text on a mobile device today).  

Thanks for selling on eBay,
Justin

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That's ridiculous. 

So, how many characters is a paragraph break <p>?  Is it 100? 

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@llllady wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

---

@tealt wrote:

The text in the Update says that line breaks are usually 50 characters.

If I use html and two adjoining br's in their carats, does that count as 8 characters or 50 characters or what?

---

Hi tealt,

Tags will not be counted as part of character count, except for cases when they add characters or space (e.g. <br>, &nbsp).  If you include <br>'s within the description summary you designate, they will each count as 50 characters (approx. one line of text on a mobile device today).  

Thanks for selling on eBay,
Justin

---

That's ridiculous. 

So, how many characters is a paragraph break <p>?  Is it 100? 

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Isn't it feeling like some kind of cool game
How to perfectly present your item in 250 words or less. Do not miss flaws, do not miss measurements & size
If you do you cannot pass go ,  but you do earn a snad & get to pay shipping back or go  to jail

[ramonv-majorleaguepins]

I'm not even going to concern myself with this nonsense. I'm not going to waste time changing all my listings.

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@labs118 wrote:

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Isn't it feeling like some kind of cool game
How to perfectly present your item in 250 words or less. Do not miss flaws, do not miss measurements & size
If you do you cannot pass go ,  but you do earn a snad & get to pay shipping back or go  to jail

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250 characters ... not words 😞

A standard title is 80 characters ...

so a repeat of the title (80 chars) and  a blank line (50 chars) leaves you with only 120 chars ... 70 if you use another blank line 😞

[labs118]

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@penguins_dont_fly wrote:

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@labs118 wrote:

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Isn't it feeling like some kind of cool game
How to perfectly present your item in 250 words or less. Do not miss flaws, do not miss measurements & size
If you do you cannot pass go ,  but you do earn a snad & get to pay shipping back or go  to jail

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250 characters ... not words 😞

A standard title is 80 characters ...

so a repeat of the title (80 chars) and  a blank line (50 chars) leaves you with only 120 chars ... 70 if you use another blank line 😞

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Ok don't be sad I fixed it 

Isn't it feeling like some kind of cool game
How to perfectly present your item in 250 words  characters or less.
Do not miss flaws, do not miss measurements & size
If you do you cannot pass go ,  but you do earn a snad & get to pay shipping back or go  to jail

[llllady]

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@labs118 wrote:

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@llllady wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@tealt wrote:

The text in the Update says that line breaks are usually 50 characters.

If I use html and two adjoining br's in their carats, does that count as 8 characters or 50 characters or what?

---

Hi tealt,

Tags will not be counted as part of character count, except for cases when they add characters or space (e.g. <br>, &nbsp).  If you include <br>'s within the description summary you designate, they will each count as 50 characters (approx. one line of text on a mobile device today).  

Thanks for selling on eBay,
Justin

---

That's ridiculous. 

So, how many characters is a paragraph break <p>?  Is it 100? 

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@llllady wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@tealt wrote:

The text in the Update says that line breaks are usually 50 characters.

If I use html and two adjoining br's in their carats, does that count as 8 characters or 50 characters or what?

---

Hi tealt,

Tags will not be counted as part of character count, except for cases when they add characters or space (e.g. <br>, &nbsp).  If you include <br>'s within the description summary you designate, they will each count as 50 characters (approx. one line of text on a mobile device today).  

Thanks for selling on eBay,
Justin

---

That's ridiculous. 

So, how many characters is a paragraph break <p>?  Is it 100? 

---

Isn't it feeling like some kind of cool game
How to perfectly present your item in 250 words or less. Do not miss flaws, do not miss measurements & size
If you do you cannot pass go ,  but you do earn a snad & get to pay shipping back or go  to jail

---

Yep! 

@labs118- going to BARKS? Think I saw that it is this weekend?

[ymeagainlord]

Doesn't matter anyway.

If they do as they say and the bots will be "picking relevant words from the description" we'll just end up with the meaningless and deceptive dribble we had when they decided to show "parts" of a description and the button to see full description test.

We all have a fair idea what the bots consider "relevant"

[tree*fern]

@Anonymous  Hi ~ how will bulleted lists be counted?  Will each bulleted line count as an additional 50 characters for the line break between bullet points?

[tree*fern]

@Anonymous  Will the eBay-recommended paragraph about customs fees for international buyers be included in the character count?

Ebay's guidelines tell (non-GSP) sellers to include this notice in their listings.  It's important to include because if it was in the listing, then negative feedback about customs fees may be removed. 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/international-shipping-rules.html

"To avoid problems, make sure that your listing clearly states this. You can cut and paste this directly into your listing:

'International Buyers – Please Note:  Import duties, taxes, and charges are not included in the item price or shipping cost. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding or buying.'

If you add this information to your listing and receive negative or neutral Feedback from the buyer about having to pay import duties and taxes, we may remove the Feedback."

[shipscript]

@tree*fern

I have sent email requesting the same info about bullet lists, since those create separate lines like <p> and <br>.  Haven't heard back yet, but when I do, I'll prepare a summary of the info I requested.

As to Duties text, eBay will have a clickable "more..." link on the summary to prompt the buyer to read the full description. So if your Duties text is in your full description, it will still meet eBay's requirement. eBay is not setting a limit on how much description you can have. They are only saying that if your description is over 800 characters, they will select the text they wish to display, unless you add tags.  eBay is not likely to select Duty text for a summary. If you select it yourself, then it will be treated like any other text you select. 

[blackbird*singing]

I was wondering about that myself (how tags for numbered/bulleted lists would be handled in character count). I hope you hear back as I'd love to add the info to this thread which is an overview of the mobile updates - trying to gather all info in one place: http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Mobile-Optimized-Descriptions/m-p/25417010#U25417010

[tree*fern]

Thanks, Ship!  @shipscript

I'm wishing they won't include that verbiage in the 800 count, as it's not really optional.  I remember when they experimented with the pop-up notice for international buyers that made that text unnecessary in descriptions; was glad to omit the text.  In, out, in again.