Community Chat, Oct 4th @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hello, 

Please join the Community team here at 1 pm PT today for our weekly chat. You may have seen that we were scheduled to discuss Structured Data today, but unfortunately, our eBay expert is unwell. 

Talk with you soon! 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Oh yes, lucky me. Thanks Heidi.

[mr_lincoln]

@Anonymous  wrote:  You shouldn't run into any issues but if you do, feel free to reach out to customer service who could help walk you through any trouble. Also, keep an eye on this page: http://pages.ebay.com/sell/item_specifics/product_identifiers.html where we show which categories require this information.

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Excellent and thank you Heidi ... you may have the rest of the day off WITH pay (hee-hee)!

[aluvz2shop]

OH MY! Sorry to hear you are leaving Miss Heidi! 

You will be missed!  Good luck to you! 

[Anonymous]

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@duchess-at-speakeasy wrote:

Why does the Pottery & Glass category not have a Condition unit?  Why can't we select Used, Pre-owned and New?  Most of the content is used items -- products made over 50 years ago -- but some distinction should be made so that buyers can sort by condition and actually zero in on "New" products that sometimes are available.

Thanks!

~~C~~

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Hi @duchess-at-speakeasy, while not every category requires a condition I am happy to get this submitted to the appropriate team for inclusion. I can see how someone may want to narrow their search down for new pottery and I will see what we can do about getting this feature added!

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

any update on the roll out of sales event+markdown?

I am STILL waiting to get it.

[Anonymous]

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@aluvz2shop wrote:

OH MY! Sorry to hear you are leaving Miss Heidi! 

You will be missed!  Good luck to you! 

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Thank you so much, @aluvz2shop! I'm excited for the new opportunity but I'm sure going to miss all of you! 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

any update on the roll out of sales event with markdown?

I am STILL waiting to get it.

[sarahbru]

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@duchess-at-speakeasy wrote:

I am extremely unhappy with the new My eBay "All Selling" page that fails to provide a single view of all segments -- Active, Sold, Unsold, etc.  I am especially unhappy that Unsold does not allow use of the bulk editor to relist items or make revisions.

And where is the Promotional Offers section?  I rarely receive e-mails for these -- and generally after the promotion is almost over, if at all -- and always relied on the Promotional Offers section for current information and counts.  Can't you add it to the Selling section where it's a convenient reference?

After 20 years and 2 months on eBay, I am about to abandon it and concentrate on selling and buying via other markets.  And please don't shove Seller Hub on me -- I looked at it (via a friend's account) and it's awful!  A lotta garbage stuff and not at all streamlined for easy use.  

~~C~~

~~C~~ 

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Hi duchess-at-speakeasy:  I'm sorry to hear how frustrated you are. 

The goal of Seller Hub is to centralize functionality in one place rather than have multiple tools with different functionalities in different places.  It does not yet have all of the functionality we envision for this tool -- but it does have the ability to bulk edit and make revisions you mentioned you are looking for.  We have shared with our product teammates that sellers are asking for one view of active, sold, unsold, etc - and will request again that this functionality be added to future versions. We are also creating "how to" videos on Seller Hub to walk sellers through how to use this tool that should be available by end of month. 

Re: Promotional offers this also appears in the Seller Hub home page (you can even customize the location of it).  If you don't want to use Seller Hub you could opt in to "classic view" on your selling overview page. That said, I really want to encourage you to try out Seller Hub because I do believe you will find helpful functionality there.  Thanks! Sarah

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@vrykalak wrote:

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brian_burke@ebay wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

What is the point of requiring BIN price to be 99¢ or more?

What supposed evil was that requirement supposed to fix?

Does it benefit anyone? Certainly not me or a potential buyer,

who may wnat the item, but can't wait 7 or 10 days to buy it.

If I want to sell an iten for 25¢, I should be allowed to.

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@vrykalak

Unlike an auction where the item price can increase over the duration of the listing, the listed Buy it Now price + shipping is the amount the buyer will pay. We set the minimum for a couple reasons:

1. It is tough to make a profit on a $1 item with reasonable shipping. Even hard for an item that you are selling for 25 cents.

2.  Sellers were listing items for one cent and then charging $40 for shipping. If the buyer had to return the item, the seller was only refunding one cent.

3. Sellers were listing items at low costs to "pad" their feedback.

None of these behaviors were good for building trust in the marketplace, which means it isn't good for our sellers. 

Questions for you: What item would you like to sell for 25 cents? How much would you charge for shipping? How much profit do you make on these items you want to sell for 25 cents?

Thanks for selling on eBay.

Brian

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None of these "reasons" make sense to me.
1. I absolutely can make a profit on little items, because I bought them for much less, and buyers are encouraged to buy a bunch of them, to save on shipping. Why should eBay care?
2. I charge a $1 handling fee on everything, and then give the least expensive 3 or 4 shipping options at (retail) price. Shipping is always "calculated" so eBay--not I--decides the amount.
3. I don't mind getting feedback for a lot of little sales. And I deserve feedback for every sale. Again, why should eBay care?

To answer your questions:
if I paid 5¢ or 10¢ for an item, and I offer it for 50¢, I get a bit more than the 10% eBay charges me for the right to sell it. When I set $1 handling fee on every S&H charge, that almost always more than covers the 10% eBay charges on the shipping cost. *  And every time I sell something to a delighted customer, that person is a bit more likely to buy from me in the future.

* And eBay's excuse for charging 10% on the shipping charge--which they didn't do in the past--was the same as #2 above: punishing us all for the sins of a few, rather than trying to fix the actual PROBLEM.

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@vrykalak 

So, you are not acutally selling your item for 25 cents. You state buyers purchase more than one at a time, if that is the case, bubdle your items. 

You state you add a $1 "handling charge" for every transaction - most sellers build those operational costs into the item price. If you added the $1 to your 50 cent item, it would have a starting price of $1.50

I'm sure you would not abuse low priced sales to pad your feedback, but others were doing it. The change reduced this behavior. 

For fixed price items, a dollar is a reasonable minimum. 

Thanks for selling on eBay.

Brian

Brian

[doug@ebay]

Hi @llllady, the shipping supplies team tracks sales and restocks the most popular sizes. I've passed this on to the team, and if they have anything to add, I'll update you here.

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@llllady wrote:

Hi.

Are there any new size shipping boxes coming, and if so, do you have an idea when that might be?  We've been asking for quite some time now.

Unfortunately, I just spent a bunch of money on another site for box sizes that aren't available here.  That doesn't bother me so much as it should bother you. 

BTW...    Yep, still going on months and months later.  😞

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[Anonymous]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

@Anonymous

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

Used to be able to sort UNSOLD by price, and probably some other things.

Now can only sort by time ended:  recent first or recent last.

Sometimes, I want to relist only high-priced things, or things that had watchers, and want to have those sorts available.

Any chance we can get those other sort filters back?

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Hi @vrykalak, those options are now only available through the Unsold section in Seller Hub. I recommend opting into our Seller Hub so you can filter by price and take advantage of a number of other benefits of this tool! Go here for more details on this resource 

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What is the point of deliberately REMOVING capabilities outside of Seller Hub?
That inconveniences those of us who avoid Seller Hub for valid reasons.
And it uses time and energy by eBay staff to REMOVE capabilities, that should be spent on improving the site.
Grrrrrrr.

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As Seller Hub is rapidly becoming the central tool for our sellers, we intend to move features and tools into it so we can focus our energies into developing Seller Hub into everything our sellers deserve! Mainting multiple tools for the same features is not the best use of our resources, and you will likely see more features being moved to Seller Hub as time goes on.

Additionally, I'd love to hear why Seller Hub doesn't work for you. Can you tell me the reasons you have for avoiding it? I'd be happy to pass along any issues you've run into to our Seller Hub team so we can get these addressed!

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I know you and @vrykalak are conversing but I just wanted to jump in with a comment/question.  I go from the SH Overview page to My Selling and have the Classic format there which is great.  Can you confirm SH will still allow that in the future?  Additionally, I like the Classic Store layout compared to the newer one which is all spread out so again, will the Classic Store format still be available?

I now prefer the Seller Hub Relisitng tool but it is spread out and there is more left to right eye movement to make sure about an item's Relist status ... the Classic format was narrower PLUS had the different colored button so you "eye" could pick it up easier.  This again was a suggestion I passed on for the SH Relist format page ... make the little square a different color if the item is Relisted.

Mr. L

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Hi @mr_lincoln, no worries about stepping in - it's a group discussion  

I can't confirm what may be the future views available as we work on developing Seller Hub and moving functionality. Our goal is to have Seller Hub contain all of the features currently available, and more! As we transition and develop, there may be some adjustments that need to be made and we will continue to pass along and review your feedback in the meantime. I also want to touch on the previous use of color with our prior views and compared to the current view and let you know that this feedback has been heard and passed along as a potential addition to our customization options.

[alan@ebay]

Thanks for joining us today, we have locked the thread as the hour is up. 
 

Hope you enjoyed today's session, chat with you again soon! 

[sarahbru]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

any update on the roll out of sales event with markdown?

I am STILL waiting to get it.

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Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques:

Sales events with Markdown Manager is being rolled out in phases. We started last month so stay tuned...it should be coming to you soon.  Thanks! Sarah

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@gracieallen01 wrote:

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brian_burke@ebay wrote:

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@vrykalak wrote:

What is the point of requiring BIN price to be 99¢ or more?

What supposed evil was that requirement supposed to fix?

Does it benefit anyone? Certainly not me or a potential buyer,

who may wnat the item, but can't wait 7 or 10 days to buy it.

If I want to sell an iten for 25¢, I should be allowed to.

---

@vrykalak

Unlike an auction where the item price can increase over the duration of the listing, the listed Buy it Now price + shipping is the amount the buyer will pay. We set the minimum for a couple reasons:

1. It is tough to make a profit on a $1 item with reasonable shipping. Even hard for an item that you are selling for 25 cents.

2.  Sellers were listing items for one cent and then charging $40 for shipping. If the buyer had to return the item, the seller was only refunding one cent.

3. Sellers were listing items at low costs to "pad" their feedback.

None of these behaviors were good for building trust in the marketplace, which means it isn't good for our sellers. 

Questions for you: What item would you like to sell for 25 cents? How much would you charge for shipping? How much profit do you make on these items you want to sell for 25 cents?

Thanks for selling on eBay.

Brian

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$ .98 is going to make a difference - .99 vs .01?  

How, if I may wonder out loud - so to speak?

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@gracieallen01

Clearly there is very little difference between 99 cents and 98 cents - that isn't what we were solving for. We moved from 1 cent to 99 cents. There is a difference, both optically and actually with 1 cent listings vs. 99 cent listings. It also reduces the likelihood that sellers will shift costs into shipping costs or handling costs, both are not an ecommerce standard. It also has the potential to create bad buying experiences if the buyer has to return the item. 

Thanks for selling on eBay.

Brian

[doug@ebay]

@llllady, the shipping team suggests that other boxes can be decorated with the new eBay stickers. 

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@llllady wrote:

Hi.

Are there any new size shipping boxes coming, and if so, do you have an idea when that might be?  We've been asking for quite some time now.

Unfortunately, I just spent a bunch of money on another site for box sizes that aren't available here.  That doesn't bother me so much as it should bother you. 

BTW...    Yep, still going on months and months later.  😞

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