Community Chat, January 6 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

[tyler@ebay]

Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us for the Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a specific topic this week, so feel free to share any general buying or selling questions you may have.

The chat thread will remain open until 2 PM PT at which point we'll close it from additional responses. After that time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered.

To post your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of this post, type your question, and hit submit between 1-2 PM Pacific Time. The format of our chat mirrors the format of our Community Discussion Boards, where each post will appear in the thread chronologically. The Community Team will review each question as it comes in, and will quote the original question in our reply. This quote and the reply will appear later in the thread, so just keep scrolling down to see our answers.

Missed the chat? Send your questions to the podcast by calling  888-723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com and maybe your questions will make it on the air! Or listen to past episodes while you wait for next Wednesday!

[golfingaddict]

Although this seems inconsequential today,  I still want to get a response about item specifics and the "required" specifics coming soon.

All of my variation listings are coming up as needing updating for item specifics, particularly for color and size and in fact those are the variations?

I've been asking for weeks.  Do you guys know anything? Who can we turn to?

This is going to affect a good number of my listings.  

How can we have variation listings and then be required to put in One Size or One Color in item specifics.

(the teams need to talk to each other and get a resolution for us)

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

[coffeebean832]

Happy new year!

The shipping scan issue where "pre-shipment" info appearing sequentially after an acceptance scan is still occurring. When this happens the item shows as "tracking provided" instead of "in transit".

I've received messages from buyers confused because they think I didn't ship- which is made worse by the fact that we're dealing with all of these shipping delays right now and many buyers are on edge about receiving their items.

Can you provide a status update on a fix for this problem? I know it was reported quite a while ago.

Here's a screenshot of the error with scans out of order and the status stuck at "tracking provided"-

It was hard to find an example that displayed correctly, but the unicorn did pop up after checking enough orders. Here's a screenshot of tracking that displays in the correct order. You can see this one properly shows an "in transit" status-

[donsdetour]

Hello this week, and again thanks for doing this: hoping you and the crew are all doing well.

Might as well ask about reports of emails about coins, bullion and managed payment  finally coming together so user can sell such:

Do you have any info on this??

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

[mam98031]

Happy New Year!  I am so glad 2020 is behind us.  I had such high hopes for 2021 until everything went to heck in Washington DC today.  OMG what a mess we find ourselves in on so many levels.  Common sense has just seemed to have been and is being ignored by a whole lot of people.

[coffeebean832]

Some of my listings say they're missing required item specifics. Most of them are for color, some are for material. I believe I know why this is happening and- if correct- it's a big oversight by eBay that needs to be fixed.

These are listings with custom values in the color and material fields.

These are variation listings where color and material are the selected variation attributes.

There was never an issue using custom values in these fields until a change eBay made in the last week or two. Most  of  these listings can't use the default color selections because they don't match the default colors.

For example- if an item comes in navy, aqua, teal and powder blue, how am I supposed to create 4 different variations for color if the system is trying to force me to select blue?

Creating a new variation attribute named something like "Color 2" to get around this oversight is absolutely ridiculous and should not be required. It also makes a listing appear sloppy to buyers.

I should also note that 2 of these flagged listings are using the default color selections (Blue, Red, Yellow, etc)- yet they're still flagged as missing the color item specific.

You're welcome to e-mail me offline for specific item numbers if they're needed to escalate this issue.

[coinslabz26]

I received a concerning email from ebay that sates

"Starting January 13, 2021, sellers in the Coins & Paper Money categories, including Bullion, will be notified to register or will be activated for managed payments if you’ve already pre-registered. Sellers that are already activated on managed payments may create listings in these categories beginning January 25."

If I am preregistered and activated on Jan 13 what happens to my listings until January 25th? Coins and bullion will still be restricted from the 13th to the 25th? On the 13th will all my listings be taken down if I am activated on the 13th?

No fees have been announced. How do I know what my ebay fees will be on that date? Currently prior to the switch coins are the same price as stamps. Will that continue and will coins stay the same price as stamps?

Also I have seen lots of people having trouble signing up to managed payments but I had none. If the payments tab says "You've successfully registered for managed payments" am I done? Or will I require any more action? I just don't want to be part of the wide spread problems getting payouts.

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Edit: a reply to your questions can be found here

[justsc92]

Let’s level set this conversation, eBay does have documented policy statements that state:

• “we have zero tolerance for fraud on eBay”
• “Seller fraud is any attempt by sellers to misrepresent themselves, or the products they're selling.”

So no hypotheticals, exact example:

2017 Panini Patrick Mahomes Cracked Ice Auto # 20 of 25 (sold as RP or reprint) Sports Card

This card is marked "authentic signature" on the front and "The autograph is guaranteed by Panini America, Inc." on the back.

Since the item itself is marked as authentic and guaranteed but sold as a reprint, how is that not the seller misrepresenting the authenticity and guarantee statements marked right on the item?   How is this not seller fraud?

Fraud would be misrepresenting the authenticity and guarantee statements printed on the card through a reprint or RP.  Isn’t this a clear cut example of seller fraud?

Again fraud no matter who actually reprinted the item, there might be counterfeiting, copyright violations, trademark violation above and beyond the fraud, but shouldn’t this be dealt with first as fraud?

In your response, please first address if eBay considers this real example as seller fraud.

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Edit: A reply to your post can be found here

[tyler@ebay]

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@golfingaddict wrote:

Although this seems inconsequential today,  I still want to get a response about item specifics and the "required" specifics coming soon.

All of my variation listings are coming up as needing updating for item specifics, particularly for color and size and in fact those are the variations?

I've been asking for weeks.  Do you guys know anything? Who can we turn to?

This is going to affect a good number of my listings.  

How can we have variation listings and then be required to put in One Size or One Color in item specifics.

(the teams need to talk to each other and get a resolution for us)

---

Hi @golfingaddict - I know this has been on your radar for a long time, I'm sorry we haven't gotten you something definitive yet. 

Will you remind me if you've spoken with the structured data team about this already (sdsupport@ebay.com)? We'll need to get something escalated to them on this I think. 

[wooden_flower]

Happy New Year to All 😁

Do you know when the 'eBay standard envelope' will be available for sports cards?  Will there be an announcement when it starts up? The initial announcement said 'in January'.

thanks!

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here

[justsc92]

AND ALSO REPEATED SERIALIZATIONS

So no hypotheticals, exact example:

2017 Panini Patrick Mahomes Cracked Ice Auto # 20 of 25 (sold as a RP or reprint) Sports Card

Since the item is serialized as # 20 of 25 and there are many, many of this same # 20 of 25 serial numbered card, how is that not a misrepresentation of the actual printed quantity?   There should never be more than one # 20 of 25.   How is that not seller fraud?

And there are currently 48 of the same # 20 of 25 actively being sold on eBay (today – active listings) for this same number # 20 of 25 numbered card (one listing has 20 of the same # 20 of 25 for sale).  There have also been at least 89 of this same # 20 of 25 sold since October 1 st.

How does this exemplify zero tolerance for fraud?  

Fraud would be misrepresenting a print quantity (for serialized cards) as a reprint or RP.  Isn’t this a clear cut example of seller fraud?

Again fraud no matter who actually reprinted the item, there might be counterfeiting, copyright violations, trademark violation above and beyond the fraud, but shouldn’t this be dealt with first as fraud?

In your response, please first address if eBay considers this real example as seller fraud.

[partsaholic]

1) Buyers who are having problems with Global Shipping Program delivery delays are contacting us for status updates. Why is eBay making the seller the first line of customer service for the GSP when the seller relinquishes title to the item once it's delivered to the GSP center and ebay, at least in the help documents, states that the seller is NO LONGER RESPONSIBLE (https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/global-shipping-program.html#faqs) . Bottom line: When a GSP package is late, the buyer's only option should be to CONTACT EBAY, not the seller!

2) What is eBay doing about the fact that the USPS stopped doing timely parcel accept scans in the past three weeks? This is resulting in late shipment dings for sellers everywhere when it is the USPS's fault. A recent Washington Post investigation revealed that the USPS ROUTINELY FALSIFIES SCANS:

"The Postal Service logged 94.8 percent of packages through handheld bar code scanners that track an item’s progress through the mail system from receipt to delivery. But a Washington Post investigation in October found that postal workers and supervisors routinely falsify those scans — one of few package-related performance statistics the agency makes public — to boost performance statistics."

(source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/15/postal-service-holiday-packages-delays/ )

EBay relies on that fraudulent tracking data to assess sellers. I'm sure in all of this eBay will blame the seller - "sellers choose which carrier to use".... What is eBay going to do to accommodate - instead of penalize - sellers for this USPS screw-up?

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Edit: A reply to your questions can be found here

[maxoptical]

Hello eBay,    What is the function of the Display Priority?   It does not change what promotion is shown when there is two promotion on the same listing.   I have no idea what it actually does.

John Norman
Max Optical LLC.

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Edit: A reply to your post can be found here

[mam98031]

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@donsdetour wrote:

Hello this week, and again thanks for doing this: hoping you and the crew are all doing well.

Might as well ask about reports of emails about coins, bullion and managed payment  finally coming together so user can sell such:

Do you have any info on this??

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Yes, more info please.  It is my understanding that MP has resolved its issues with the category.  There are a couple item specifics that has to be filled out but other than that it is business as usual it appears.  But I've seen no announcement on this and it sure is an important issue.

Can we be supplied with the particulars so we can share.  Are other of the restricted categories also moving into MP?

[somanypostcards]

I know Managed Payments does not currently offer a micro payment fee option similar to PayPal's 5% + $.05 transaction fee.  Can you let me know if Managed Payments might at least consider offering a micropayment fee option?  I sell postcards on 2 IDs which must join MP by Jan. 22, 2021.  The cost of selling a $1.00 postcard using the PayPal micropayment option was $.29 (PayPal fee $.10 and eBay fee $.09), and I make a profit of $.15.  Under Managed Payments the fee is $.43 (eBay FVF $.12 + $.30 transaction fee), over a 220% increase and I have a loss of $.08.  This forces high volume, low cost sellers to either leave eBay or change their business model.

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here