Vintage, handmade, and OOAK items

[creativecrisis]

I sell mainly vintage and handmade items, which normally don't have product identifiers. How will these kinds of listings be associated with the catalog? What will search results for buyers look like?

[revenue-collector]

This is a recipe for disaster when it comes to collectibles.

The same base stamp could have a value/price ranging from $1 to $500, depending on the cancel, the usage, the plate variety, and all of the values could be valid.

For certain types of items, there is more to the buying decision than the lowest price... a concept that eBay clearly does not comprehend.

There are some things you can't just stuff into pigeonholes, unless you want to eliminate sales of them entirely, which appears to now be eBay's goal: only sell widgets and force sellers of collectibles, vintage, and antiques to move elsewhere.

Any statements to the contrary, while still insisting that catalog listing be mandatory, are disingenuous at best.

[upgradedendmills]

The items I sell are almost impossible to catalog because they are re-manufactured and modified. I think that I am still able to list and describe them myself because I have almost 50 years of experience with them. eBay seems to think they know more about them than I do.  I am not on their payroll, they are on mine and I plan on resisting these ridiculous changes until they throw me off the site for non-compliance. I honestly feel like they are taking my money and giving me a SNAD product most of the time. Earlier today, I made an effort to file a SNAD claim against them with PayPal. Not working yet, but I plan on pursuing it as far as possible.

[dugoldstuff]

I have a feeling that people who shop on eBay for unique items will not cotton up to the catalog experience. That's part of why they shop on eBay: they can't actually get to the flea market, but eBay offers a similar experience online. It's the thrill of the hunt that drives most collectors, actually.
So, possibly, two things will happen:
1) Those buyers will leave eBay for other sites (maybe etsy, for example).
2) eBay will write an algorithm to see if sales fall off in general, or if those not participating in the catalog have better sales than those who do.
Once these two things happen, if it wants to preserve its revenue stream, eBay will have to decide if it's keeping the catalog concept.

[walk4us]

Yes. Yes. Yes. OOAK is something eBay has done well, and both sellers and buyers look for that from them. It is a shame to loose that market while trying to be like other sites.