Item Page Watch Button Dropdown for Custom Lists

[hardrhymer76]

I just opened a new account (this one) for buying, and I noticed that although I've had the feature (in the post title) for years on my main account, I do not have it on this one. It doesn't matter what browser I'm using or whether or not I'm in a private window, cookie settings, etc. It's absolutely account-specific.

I did some searching of these boards and found a post from 2017 by an eBay employee that stated the feature was being "tested" through temporary removal on random accounts, but the thread has since been locked.

Does anybody know if the test is still ongoing, or if the feature needs to be "unlocked" at a certain account age or feedback score? Or something else? I know that I can add items to the main Watchlist and transfer to custom lists from there, but the dropdown would be a pretty handy tool for what I'm trying to do right now.

Main Account

New Account

[eburtonlab]

Have you actually created any other lists in your new account?

It may be that you have to create the new lists first by using the drop-down menu on the Watch List page at the top where it says "Watchlist" before you get the option to add an item to another list.

[hardrhymer76]

Yes, I thought of that and created 2 or 3 of the lists that I need, but no difference. I'll try creating more, closing browser and signing out/in, but I don't think it'll help.

Thanks for the reply.

[star.fighter]

when ebay created those 'groups' or whatever they called them -- where people could add items to a group and then share on social media -- ebay started to disable the custom drop-down lists in order to transition to their new version.  i know some people complained, and i did too... and now they are back on most of my pages.  in fact, last year, i noticed on some of my views that ebay was featuring that function to encourage me to use it.  i couldn't tell if it was account-specific or not, but i am still happily using the feature.

the only caveat is that while i can create and add-to each list... i cannot FIND how to ACCESS those lists!!  LOL  so, what i do is...

1)  i go back to an item that i have already saved to one of those lists

2) at the top-left of the page, it will say that the item was saved in a list (same place where it says it's saved in our watchlist)

3) i then click on the name of the list and it brings me to that list

4) once in a list, there is a drop-down somewhere above the displayed items -- it is defaulted to the list where you are sitting, but it is a drop-down where you can jump between the different lists.

voila'

i suspect that these lists were partially removed before ebay had second-thoughts about removing them.  so, the links to them got removed, but the actual lists still exist and are wonderfully functional.

i'm here on this forum today SPECIFICALLY because my 400 items in watchlist is NOT working (i am stuck at 308) with it saying 'watchlist full.'  if it were not for those other lists, i would be even MORE frustrated with the watchlist than i am right now.

hope that helps!

[eburtonlab]

@star.fighter 

i'm here on this forum today SPECIFICALLY because my 400 items in watchlist is NOT working (i am stuck at 308) with it saying 'watchlist full.'

The Watch List limit was previously at 300 for quite a while, and although at one point I was able to go above that, I have not tried recently.

I did run into the "watch list full" message when trying add new items despite having less than 200 items on the list. In some cases, signing out of your eBay account, restarting your browser and signing back in can help.

Not sure why you are having problems seeing the Watchlist drop-down menu, though. Are you sure you are on the Watch List page and not the Summary page? What browser are you using? It might be worth trying another browser. I do know that many mac users have previously complained about not being able to see the drop-down menu -- perhaps there was an issue with Safari.

If you continue to have problems reaching your other custom lists, it might be worth bookmarking each one so that you can reach them more easily.

[star.fighter]

ah... thank you -- i had been using the summary page and not the watchlist page.  on the summary page, there used to be a quick link on the left nav bar to get to the other lists... but that disappeared a long time ago.  forgot that the drop-down was prob still on watchlist page.  appreciate it!

However... i have ALWAYS had only 200 items allowed on my watchlist.  i can assure you that is true -- given all the times i have had to delete items recently in order to make room.

and yes... even AFTER deleting items, it didn't work without signing out and then back into my account.  i had tried flushing my cache, or doing shift-refreshes, etc...  but only signing out-and-back in would do it -- i learned that lesson the hard way.  grrrr.

as to the current amount allowed... after getting the mssg that they were allowing 400 items, i FINALLY broke through that 200-item ceiling this week.  yay!  but then... i now hit the wall again with 308.   i don't know how you managed to have 300 previously, but i was so happy to be able to do that this week.   but, today it's a bit of a let-down.

sigh.

[eburtonlab]

The Summary and Watch List pages each used to have a very distinct appearance, but eBay has been slowly been converging on the Fisher-Price app theme with big blue buttons, so it is getting harder to tell them apart. A lot of folks have made the same mistake -- understandably so.

For a while I found that the Watch List was more stable if I kept my count of watched items at 200 or below; above that I often found I had problems deleting multiple items at once.

I got above 300 items on my Watch List right around the time that eBay did away with the "All Lists" link in late November, early December. Since then I have had to reorganize quite a bit to put all my auction items on one list so that they could be easily sorted to see the auctions ending soonest.

I have seen posts by folks saying that eBay was allowing them to put up to 400 items on the Watch List, but I had not seen such a message from eBay firsthand. Though now that I look, I do see the 400 number quoted here:

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/search-tips/watchlist?id=4046

Make sure you are looking at your whole Watch List -- not just the active items or a subset in a particular category. If possible, try deleting some old or ended items to make space for new ones, or move some items to another list.

At least once or twice eBay has unexpectedly changed the Watch List limit downward, which prevented new items from being added until the actual number got below the new limit -- but this was a temporary mistake on eBay's part, I think, and it was corrected fairly quickly.

If I get a chance I will try to add some more items to my Watch List to see if I can reach 400 or if I top out sooner than that.

[star.fighter]

yes, not only do they say they allow 400 now... they had it featured on their main scrolling promotions, plus i got a personal mssg and a survey to answer about that.  i naively answered the survey positively -- thinking they meant it... and now, i'm stuck at 308. ahem!

[star.fighter]

for some reason the image didn't post on this originally... now i cannot delete this post.  is there a way we can delete our own posts?

[star.fighter]

oh - forgot to address your one point -- yes, i am looking at the WHOLE list -- ALL...

[eburtonlab]

I was able to add enough items to my Watch List to get to 400, but no further:

400 appears to be the limit.

[eburtonlab]

If necessary you can use the three-dot Options menu in the upper right corner of your post to select "Report Inappropriate Content" and request a moderator remove it, but unless the post had information you do not want shared publicly, it is probably not worth the effort to remove a blank post.

[eburtonlab]

@star.fighter 

So when you try to add an item to your Watch List, do you see the "Watch List Full" message on the item page under "Add to List"? And signing out and back in, or using another browser does not affect this?

If so, try adding an item directly from your search results page, using the little "Watch" link next to the eye icon:

[buy_me_a_river]

I have the same issue as raised by hardrhymer76 in the first post, on a new account that I've just set up (not this one).

It doesn't seem to be resolved here, does it just go away after the account gets some feedback or reaches a certain age ?

[hardrhymer76]

OP here. Almost 3 years later and no change at all on my end. This site can really be cuckoo-bananas sometimes.