01-30-2019 08:40 AM - last edited on 01-30-2019 12:54 PM by doug@ebay
Hello everyone! Join us today for our weekly chat with the Community Team. We're discussing general topics today starting at 1pm PT until 2pm PT. Hope to hear all your buying and selling questions then!
01-30-2019 01:00 PM
Good afternoon! The chat is now open for replies
01-30-2019 01:01 PM
During a recent search, I found an active listing for an ornament that I made. The ornament is displayed, in the first photograph, on the original card that came with the ornament and shows my complete email address.
I spoke with Trust & Safety on 1/17/19 and 1/21/19. My understanding, from both conversations, that displaying my email address was against policy and action would be taken. Since the two conversations with Trust & Safety, the listing expired, has been relisted and still displays my email address.
At this time, the seller has their vacation settings turned on and listings blocked from purchase, however, I can still see the listing in question because the item is on my watch list. So, at this point it looks as though when the seller returns on 2/5/19, the listing will be viewable again and still be showing my email address.
Would you be able to help me have this seller remove or edit the photograph in the listing that displays my email address?
01-30-2019 01:01 PM
Is eBay search now able to scan images for text like google is doing now ? I was able to find out product with the text that is contained in an image (4th image) in ebay listing 163514660537. We are taking pictures of UPC's now because we are getting errors from our postings (with Channel Advisor) on some items with UPC's. Usually the error is invalid UPC or doesn't exist. Since there are different formats for UPC's like 12 digit or 14 digit is there an eBay standard of UPC's that you accept ?
I went ahead an manually inserted the 14 digit UPC in our listing, the text in the 4th image has the 12 digit version. Searching google I get successful hits for both numbers so each number is correct just different formats (i think)
Also, any updates on the shipping calculator problem I have been reporting for the last few weeks ? where multiple quantity shipping is hiding other options available.
Please advise.
Rick
01-30-2019 01:02 PM
I am requesting eBay allow listings with variations in the ticket category. My reasoning is as follows. I often list tickets for music festivals. With a 3 day music festival, tickets are often sold as 3 day passes as well as individual days. Additionally, there are usual multiple types of tickets such as General Admission, VIP, and some kind of Super VIP.
In this example, I end up having to maintain 12 almost identical different listings:
This is a perfect use case of the variation option in a listing. It is tedious and time consuming to maintain 12 separate listings for the same event. Additionally, buyers will often message me asking if I have this or that type of ticket. Since the search algorithm typically picks only one or two of these to put anywhere near the top (because they are basically identical listings with only a couple words changed), the rest of the listings are almost never seen. Because of this, buyers can not find what they are looking for, and therefore I also believe myself and eBay are missing out on sales.
01-30-2019 01:02 PM
As I’m sure you are aware, Ebay can be very competitive among sellers. It appears some savvy sellers are using the Good Til Cancelled OOS feature to circumvent having their sales show up in searchable completed sales listings. Sellers of used clothing and other things where they only have one of the item, and will obviously not be getting another one, are using this feature, and merely ending the listing once the item sells, thus not having the completed sale show publicly to all. Clearly this is not what Ebay intended for this feature ( or at least I wouldn’t think so). My question – is Ebay OK with sellers using this loophole/workaround to keep their sales hidden from others? Should we all be selling this way?
I would recommend that the OOS feature only be allowed to be enabled if the original listing had more than a quantity of one in the listing to help prevent this.
01-30-2019 01:08 PM
With the new rates, First Class Packages cost almost as much as Priority Mail...and First Class Packages over 13oz cost exactly the same as Priority Mail.
I mostly sell small things, and First Class postage used to be a good deal. Now it isn't.
I would like to offer First Class Letter rates to my buyers, which saves them a couple of bucks on shipping cost...but that's an automatic defect.
Can anything be done about this? If a buyer CHOOSES the most economical shipping rate, knowing that it doesn't have tracking, shouldn't a seller be allowed to offer it without getting a defect?
01-30-2019 01:09 PM
A bunch of my relists are missing the gallery photo. When I go into some of the listings, it looks like there is no photo there either, but when you hover over the "missing" photo, the zoom function works and you can see the photo.
(I haven't checked them all, there's like 100 of them)
Anybody else, or just me?
01-30-2019 01:11 PM
FCP 13-15.99 oz = 5.53 zone 9
PM Flat rate envelope = 6.75
01-30-2019 01:11 PM
@geniusboy91 wrote:
I am requesting eBay allow listings with variations in the ticket category. My reasoning is as follows. I often list tickets for music festivals. With a 3 day music festival, tickets are often sold as 3 day passes as well as individual days. Additionally, there are usual multiple types of tickets such as General Admission, VIP, and some kind of Super VIP.
In this example, I end up having to maintain 12 almost identical different listings:
- 3-Day GA
- 3-Day VIP
- 3-Day Super VIP
- Friday GA
- Friday VIP
- Friday Super VIP
- Saturday GA
- Saturday VIP
- Saturday Super VIP
- Sunday GA
- Sunday VIP
- Sunday Super VIP
This is a perfect use case of the variation option in a listing. It is tedious and time consuming to maintain 12 separate listings for the same event. Additionally, buyers will often message me asking if I have this or that type of ticket. Since the search algorithm typically picks only one or two of these to put anywhere near the top (because they are basically identical listings with only a couple words changed), the rest of the listings are almost never seen. Because of this, buyers can not find what they are looking for, and therefore I also believe myself and eBay are missing out on sales.
Hi @geniusboy91, great suggestion! I will pass along this example for consideration
01-30-2019 01:12 PM
@mcdougle4248 wrote:
During a recent search, I found an active listing for an ornament that I made. The ornament is displayed, in the first photograph, on the original card that came with the ornament and shows my complete email address.
I spoke with Trust & Safety on 1/17/19 and 1/21/19. My understanding, from both conversations, that displaying my email address was against policy and action would be taken. Since the two conversations with Trust & Safety, the listing expired, has been relisted and still displays my email address.
At this time, the seller has their vacation settings turned on and listings blocked from purchase, however, I can still see the listing in question because the item is on my watch list. So, at this point it looks as though when the seller returns on 2/5/19, the listing will be viewable again and still be showing my email address.
Would you be able to help me have this seller remove or edit the photograph in the listing that displays my email address?
Hi @mcdougle4248, I'm happy to take a look and see what options I have to help. I'll send you an email shortly!
01-30-2019 01:12 PM
01-30-2019 01:14 PM
01-30-2019 01:16 PM
@mendelsons wrote:
Is eBay search now able to scan images for text like google is doing now ? I was able to find out product with the text that is contained in an image (4th image) in ebay listing 163514660537. We are taking pictures of UPC's now because we are getting errors from our postings (with Channel Advisor) on some items with UPC's. Usually the error is invalid UPC or doesn't exist. Since there are different formats for UPC's like 12 digit or 14 digit is there an eBay standard of UPC's that you accept ?
I went ahead an manually inserted the 14 digit UPC in our listing, the text in the 4th image has the 12 digit version. Searching google I get successful hits for both numbers so each number is correct just different formats (i think)
Also, any updates on the shipping calculator problem I have been reporting for the last few weeks ? where multiple quantity shipping is hiding other options available.
Please advise.
Rick
Hi Rick - visual search is definitely an option, but we haven't had any formal update on reading text within image at this point.
If UPC codes are similar but in different formats (12 vs 14 digit code) it's more likely that our database correlated the two and displayed both in results.
When it comes to your tech report, our developers are still looking into it. Thanks!
01-30-2019 01:17 PM
@vrykalak wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:FCP 13-15.99 oz = 5.53 zone 9
PM Flat rate envelope = 6.75
That's not what I see when I look at "calculate shipping" while setting up my listing.
Do you have it set to show you full retail price or the commercial rates which we get if we purchase the labels online?