mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Join the Community team here at 1 PM PT on October 2nd for our Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a set topic this week, so please bring any general questions you may have on buying or selling.
The chat will be open for questions from 1-2 pm PT, at which point we'll close thread. While no additional questions can be submitted after this time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that may still be unanswered.
If you're new to the chat, welcome! Simply Reply to this post with your question from 1-2 PM Pacific Time and we'll be happy to look into it for you 
brian@ebay wrote:
@shaizen wrote:Hi! I have a question about Internet Sales Tax. What needs to be done if let's say a buyer located in Maple Valley WA is being charged 10% when it should only be 8.6%? Thanks!
Hi @shaizen, we always encourage buyer to checkout with as complete an address as possible. The buyers zip code is determines the tax paid. When a buyer provides their zip code + 4, we can determine the tax for their jurisdiction.
IMHO it would be best for buyers, sellers and Ebay overall to make that announcement to buyers a whole lot clearer. A banner on the payment screen when the system can tell there is no 4 digit code. A requirement to update their account so that a 4 digit code is there. Something.
It isn't well publicized which is why sellers have been asking this question off and on, on various threads. And if the sellers don't know it, it is unlikely that very many buyers know it.
Personally I like the flag on their account that requires them to update their zip code if they don't have the extra 4 digits set up. It would allow 100% of the buyers to see they need to update. And at the same time Ebay could remind them to make sure their contact information is / was up to date.
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Just watched ebay's How to Build the Perfect Listing video eBay Selling 101: How to Create the Perfect ListingeBay Selling 101: How to Create the Perfect Listing
Hear from an eBay executive and an expert seller on how to create the perfect listing, including tips for the ti...
I've also heard Harry talk about the subject, I think on the podcast. So, I get the 4 "pillars" of the perfect listing: Title, Item Specifics, Photos and Price. My question: What about the "Description" field? I've been on ebay 20 plus years, and years ago many of us wrote pretty long descriptions. (And let's leave TOS---terms of sale---out of this discussion---I assume many sellers have drastically cut down or eliminated the TOS within a description field, at least, I certainly hope so).But I'm talking about the item description itself. I'm noticing a definite trend among sellers towards shorter and shorter descriptions. I recently listed some newer text books, and, because I knew ebay's catalog would provide a lot of details, the only thing I included in the description was the title, author, and edition, along with condition. So, those are easy and short. However, I also sell a lot of older, vintage items, and they generally require more information (IMHO). So, a few questions:1. If I recall correctly, Harry said in the podcast (this wasn't in the video) that , for purposes of the search filters, ebay looks only at Item Specifics (and maybe title?), but does NOT look at description. So, if I say an item is green in my description, but leave Color blank in item specifics, a buyer filtering by color: green won't see my item. Does ebay's search function even look at what's in the description field? If so, for what purpose?2. In mobile, ebay truncates descriptions, although the buyer does retain the ability to read the entire description with one click. Some of these truncated descriptions are, sorry to say, really awful, leaving out important info. But that's a discussion for another time. LOL My question is, given that more and more buyers are looking at mobile, is it worth taking the time to write a detailed description?3. Related to my second question: I'm sure ebay has data on this, although you guys might not want to share it. I'm not asking for details, but at least some idea....what percentage of buyers actually read the description? If it's 95%, then it's worth the time to write a good one. If it's 5%, a lot of us may be wasting a lot of time. It would be nice to know.4. Would I be correct to conclude that, for purposes of SEARCH...that is, for the buyer to FIND the item in the first place...Title and Item Specifics are very important, description field really is not? The way I'm looking at it, the description field is not going to bring a buyer to me, but once the buyer has arrived, it's one place where I can try to convert the searcher to a buyer? For example, I can point out that an item could be repurposed as this or that, or I could provide some background about the item's history, or an interesting story about how I acquired the item. But, if only 5% of buyers look at descriptions, that might be more effort than it's worth.
Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques, the filters on the left side of search pages will only pull up items that have filled out that particular item specific (for example, color). If that field is left blank in a listing, then the item will not appear in that filtered search.
The length and detail in a description will differ depending on the item. Sellers should always provide all necessary details in the listing. For a DVD, this may be a small description, while a collectible item would likely have a much larger description.
The Community Team does not have data on how many buyers view descriptions, and as such this isn't information we can provide.
Items titles and item specifics are important, but so are price, shipping cost, and description. Many factors go into Best Match search results. However, item specifics are required for items to appear in a filtered search, so sellers should definitely consider filling out that information.
@mam98031 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
I don’t know why I haven’t brought this up before, but I have an issue with how the Ebay catalog will cause a change on my listings sometimes. I still create my listings in TurboLister. I know I need to let it go, but I like it and I find it easy to use.
Some of the stuff I sell is craft books on all kinds of subjects. Crochet, Knit, Cross Stitch, Plastic Canvas, Quilting, etc. There are categories under Crafts that allows for such pattern books to be legitimately listed under the Craft category. They are specific to pattern books. And I’d venture a guess that many crafters look in the craft categories for what they need.
The problem comes in when I use a UPC that is recognized in the Ebay Catalog. When that happens, during the posting of the listing from TL to Ebay, Ebay changes the category I have selected to Books: Non Fiction Other.
I don’t want them in that category. If I had wanted them in that category I would have designed the listing that way. This is becoming an increasingly larger problem all the time as more and more UPCs are added to the catalog.
Then there is the search engine. While a buyer may be trying to search in all categories, after doing a search, it will often times auto change to a specific category. For my poor little craft books, it will typically change to Books: Non Fiction.
I want my books in the Craft categories where they belong. I am losing sales due to this, I’m confident of that. I’m trying to get my categories corrected for the Holiday season, but of course it takes time and when you change the category on an existing listing it deletes all your ISBs [item specific box] so I have to reenter all of that.
The only way around this when posting a new listing that I’ve found it to put Does Not Apply in the UPC box. I’d prefer to have a better way of getting my stuff in the proper categories. Any thoughts??
Hi @mam98031, this one might be a bit tricky; we will change the category to match the one associated with that item in our catalog in an effort to bring consistency to the items in our catalog and ultimately improve visibility. For the specific example you have provided, I can see how the crafts category may be better than the non-fiction category for these patterns. I'll have to touch base with the appropriate team on this one to see what the best recommendation would be, but I will update this thread once I have more info!
LOL Tell me about it!!! Yes, "tricky" is an understatement.
But it doesn't increase visibility in this case, it decreases it.
YES PLEASE. For craft book UPCs they should default to the craft categories. When you check with the proper team, if they want my help or to discuss this for further information as a seller, I would be more than happy to participate in getting this problem fixed. Please stress this is a big problem for some sellers like me and we need some attention to this matter or we will just be forced not to use the Ebay catalog for these types of books.
Hi @mam98031, if you could email over a few item numbers as examples I can take it from there
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Some more questions regarding description field and item specifics:1. I routinely include a condition section at the end of my description field, but of course, ebay has a separate condition field for us to fill out, and I use the same info in the description field and the condition field. Is this duplication necessary? I believe ebay said one time that, in an INAD claim, ebay only looks at the seller's condition field, not the description, for the seller's stated condition. While I assume repeating the condition in the description is not any sort of violation, my questions is: is it really necessary? I could save some time if I only put it in the condition field. (To be clear, I'm talking about used items, not new in box stuff)2. For something like a newer book (one with an ISBN), which will have a catalog entry, do I really need to fill out Item Specifics beyond the ISBN?3. Also, for purposes of search, does ebay treat ebay's own catalog supplied info as Item Specifics, or does ebay ignore it, the way it appears to ignore the description field?
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques, you only need to fill out the condition field. It is not necessary to put the condition in the description as well.
Filling out Item Specifics will give an item more chances to surface in filtered search results, so I strongly recommend filling out as many as possible.
Catalog data does work in lieu of filling out an Item Specific.
@Anonymous wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:I don’t know why I haven’t brought this up before, but I have an issue with how the Ebay catalog will cause a change on my listings sometimes. I still create my listings in TurboLister. I know I need to let it go, but I like it and I find it easy to use.
Some of the stuff I sell is craft books on all kinds of subjects. Crochet, Knit, Cross Stitch, Plastic Canvas, Quilting, etc. There are categories under Crafts that allows for such pattern books to be legitimately listed under the Craft category. They are specific to pattern books. And I’d venture a guess that many crafters look in the craft categories for what they need.
The problem comes in when I use a UPC that is recognized in the Ebay Catalog. When that happens, during the posting of the listing from TL to Ebay, Ebay changes the category I have selected to Books: Non Fiction Other.
I don’t want them in that category. If I had wanted them in that category I would have designed the listing that way. This is becoming an increasingly larger problem all the time as more and more UPCs are added to the catalog.
Then there is the search engine. While a buyer may be trying to search in all categories, after doing a search, it will often times auto change to a specific category. For my poor little craft books, it will typically change to Books: Non Fiction.
I want my books in the Craft categories where they belong. I am losing sales due to this, I’m confident of that. I’m trying to get my categories corrected for the Holiday season, but of course it takes time and when you change the category on an existing listing it deletes all your ISBs [item specific box] so I have to reenter all of that.
The only way around this when posting a new listing that I’ve found it to put Does Not Apply in the UPC box. I’d prefer to have a better way of getting my stuff in the proper categories. Any thoughts??
Hi @mam98031, this one might be a bit tricky; we will change the category to match the one associated with that item in our catalog in an effort to bring consistency to the items in our catalog and ultimately improve visibility. For the specific example you have provided, I can see how the crafts category may be better than the non-fiction category for these patterns. I'll have to touch base with the appropriate team on this one to see what the best recommendation would be, but I will update this thread once I have more info!
LOL Tell me about it!!! Yes, "tricky" is an understatement.
But it doesn't increase visibility in this case, it decreases it.
YES PLEASE. For craft book UPCs they should default to the craft categories. When you check with the proper team, if they want my help or to discuss this for further information as a seller, I would be more than happy to participate in getting this problem fixed. Please stress this is a big problem for some sellers like me and we need some attention to this matter or we will just be forced not to use the Ebay catalog for these types of books.
Hi @mam98031, if you could email over a few item numbers as examples I can take it from there
Will do, a bit later this afternoon. Thank you for your help in this matter.
@Anonymous wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:I don’t know why I haven’t brought this up before, but I have an issue with how the Ebay catalog will cause a change on my listings sometimes. I still create my listings in TurboLister. I know I need to let it go, but I like it and I find it easy to use.
Some of the stuff I sell is craft books on all kinds of subjects. Crochet, Knit, Cross Stitch, Plastic Canvas, Quilting, etc. There are categories under Crafts that allows for such pattern books to be legitimately listed under the Craft category. They are specific to pattern books. And I’d venture a guess that many crafters look in the craft categories for what they need.
The problem comes in when I use a UPC that is recognized in the Ebay Catalog. When that happens, during the posting of the listing from TL to Ebay, Ebay changes the category I have selected to Books: Non Fiction Other.
I don’t want them in that category. If I had wanted them in that category I would have designed the listing that way. This is becoming an increasingly larger problem all the time as more and more UPCs are added to the catalog.
Then there is the search engine. While a buyer may be trying to search in all categories, after doing a search, it will often times auto change to a specific category. For my poor little craft books, it will typically change to Books: Non Fiction.
I want my books in the Craft categories where they belong. I am losing sales due to this, I’m confident of that. I’m trying to get my categories corrected for the Holiday season, but of course it takes time and when you change the category on an existing listing it deletes all your ISBs [item specific box] so I have to reenter all of that.
The only way around this when posting a new listing that I’ve found it to put Does Not Apply in the UPC box. I’d prefer to have a better way of getting my stuff in the proper categories. Any thoughts??
Hi @mam98031, this one might be a bit tricky; we will change the category to match the one associated with that item in our catalog in an effort to bring consistency to the items in our catalog and ultimately improve visibility. For the specific example you have provided, I can see how the crafts category may be better than the non-fiction category for these patterns. I'll have to touch base with the appropriate team on this one to see what the best recommendation would be, but I will update this thread once I have more info!
LOL Tell me about it!!! Yes, "tricky" is an understatement.
But it doesn't increase visibility in this case, it decreases it.
YES PLEASE. For craft book UPCs they should default to the craft categories. When you check with the proper team, if they want my help or to discuss this for further information as a seller, I would be more than happy to participate in getting this problem fixed. Please stress this is a big problem for some sellers like me and we need some attention to this matter or we will just be forced not to use the Ebay catalog for these types of books.
Hi @mam98031, if you could email over a few item numbers as examples I can take it from there
Oh BTW, it should be noted that the FVFs are higher in books than they are in Crafts too. That is an additional issue with all of this.
@christopher0 wrote:
So you guys have been waiting for more information for 2 months now? Am I supposed to really believe that? There is nothing that you can tell me today what you have been doing for 2 months now?
I hope you realize that in my original post I stated my concern about CLICKING the activation button did not seem to work, and I thought there was a bug or error on eBay's end. Then me calling support and telling them this exact concern way back during when that promo was offered.
In the end I feel like I will be paying for the mistake of the BIG Company.
"Sorry our APP was bugged and did not register when you clicked on activate. You are out of luck. Have a nice day!"
Hi @christopher0 - we have been waiting on more information for two months. From our initial review only one of the items you listed during that time qualified for the coupon as the terms and conditions stipulated time frames during which a qualifying item had to be listed and sold. We've escalated it several times now and are awaiting more details.
I know this is frustrating, and if I had more information to provide you I would do so, but at this point I don't.
