Converting HTTP content to HTTPS for a secure buying experience - HELP!!

[bsbk13]

I got the thing from eBay saying I need to be sure my listings are https compliant.  I admit to being totally frazzled after taking a direct hit with Hurricane Irma at our home.....and am just really desperate for help in understanding how best to comply.

I don't really the basic concept of why I need secure/https content , I admit, but I ESPECIALLY need help in the nuts and bolts of how to make my listings compliant.  I ran the scanner thing and out of my 463 active listings, 219 are showing non-compliant for the http/https content!   I could just cry thinking of having to go through 219 listings one at a time.  And that's just my ACTIVE listings, not including several hundred that are waiting to be re-listed.  I have no idea how to convert those either.

Is there a workaround or a bulk-editing option or do I have to go through them all individually?

PLEASE HELP!  I don't often feel this needy, but am SO HOPING someone here can help me. 

Thanks!  Beth 😞

[randysouders]

Simple FREE solution: Every one of my ads had non-compliant "HTTP" linked images in the item description. Simply save your images to your computer. Next click "Revise your listing" and  upload the photos you just saved into eBay's image hosting feature (12 max).   Scroll to the bottom of the page and "save" your revisions. 

Next, go to your newly revised listing and click on the images you just uploaded.  When you click on it it popsopen a full screen photo. Next "right click" on it and select "Copy image location." You will find that eBay has provided each image with a new HTTPS compliant link.. for free. You'll have to revise your listing again and use this new HTTPS link in your Itwm description.

NOTE: if you have any other HTTP hosted/ linked elements in your listing (borders, backgrounds, misc items) you'll need to delete or replace them with compliant links. I've found you can upload any images to eBay and generate the link.. then go back and delete them if you don't want them showing in your 12 image gallery.

HINT: I revised one ad and uploaded 12 images --one each for 12 listings-- and temporarily saved  them (along with an identifying title) simply in order to generate the HTTPS image links. I opened each, copied and pasted each link to a Word Doc, then went back thru the revision process and deleted the unwanted pics from the image gallery for that particular listing. With a little practice it goes pretty quickly. 

ALSO: eBay prefers you to upload images that are at least 1,200 pixels wide. Be aware use that same link in your item description the image will appear the same size. If you want a smaller version you'll have to create one, revise,  upload, copy the link etc.

Good luck

[pocomocomputing]

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@randysouderswrote:

Simple FREE solution: Every one of my ads had non-compliant "HTTP" linked images in the item description. Simply save your images to your computer. Next click "Revise your listing" and  upload the photos you just saved into eBay's image hosting feature (12 max).   Scroll to the bottom of the page and "save" your revisions. 

Next, go to your newly revised listing and click on the images you just uploaded.  When you click on it it popsopen a full screen photo. Next "right click" on it and select "Copy image location." You will find that eBay has provided each image with a new HTTPS compliant link.. for free. You'll have to revise your listing again and use this new HTTPS link in your Itwm description.

NOTE: if you have any other HTTP hosted/ linked elements in your listing (borders, backgrounds, misc items) you'll need to delete or replace them with compliant links. I've found you can upload any images to eBay and generate the link.. then go back and delete them if you don't want them showing in your 12 image gallery.

HINT: I revised one ad and uploaded 12 images --one each for 12 listings-- and temporarily saved  them (along with an identifying title) simply in order to generate the HTTPS image links. I opened each, copied and pasted each link to a Word Doc, then went back thru the revision process and deleted the unwanted pics from the image gallery for that particular listing. With a little practice it goes pretty quickly. 

ALSO: eBay prefers you to upload images that are at least 1,200 pixels wide. Be aware use that same link in your item description the image will appear the same size. If you want a smaller version you'll have to create one, revise,  upload, copy the link etc.

Good luck

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eBay recommends 1600 pixels on the longest side, not 1200.

Interesting post but there is much more to the eBay photo system than what you figured out.

As for using eBay URLs in the description, that is an old technique I used for many years to place eBay photos in the description and I used to post about in the old Photos & HTML forum.

As for reducing the size in the description, there is no need to download it and resize and upload it. Simply add to the URL a width or height option to resize it. Better still, eBay takes the master copy of an image you upload and then dynamically creates a range of smaller sizes from thumbnails to full size. I used to know the suffixes to add to the main image URL years ago but they changed in the past couple of years. I believe the suffixes are not meaningless codes but easy to understand codes with the pixel size (height or width?), like 1600, 500 and so on.

eBay member @shipscript    knows the way the eBay photo system works better than I.

Warning: Uploading a photo into a listing eBay gallery and then copying the URL and then deleting it from the listing will cause issues long term if the listing is running for 90 days. The deleted image will be flagged as inactive deleted from the eBay servers after 90 days when not used. It may even be deleted sooner since it is not in any active or completed listings. Images that are in active listings are kept for the duration of the listing and then 90 days after it has completed. If the image is used in another listing using Sell Similar, then as long as the image is active in any listing, the image URL will be kept alive in the eBay system plus the 90 days after the listing is completed. MY understanding of the way it worked years ago.

[shipscript]

@randysouders

@pocomocomputing  indeed has a lot experience with some of the methods you describe, so is a good resource for the methodology and consequences.

eBay already makes a suite of different sizes for photos they host, and the easiest way to get different sizes that fit in the description is to paste the item number or image URL into this tool and then select a display size:

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/CaptureThumbsFromListing.htm

While using eBay as an image host is a great idea for eBay descriptions, there are a few caveats.  First, this method is only recommended for product photos, as you won't want to post any irrelevant fluff in the eBay gallery. Second, the image must remain hosted in an eBay slot or eBay will purge the deleted photo a few days later.  That means you should not upload to eBay, grab the URL, and then delete from eBay because the housekeeping occurs every few days (I no long know the current purge schedule).  The same holds true for photos that are uploaded during listing creation, where the listing creation is abandoned and a live listing is never posted.

Additionally, one must be careful about copying the eBay-hosted URLs from one listing and placing those in the description of a different listing.  As Pocomocomputing correctly remembers, the photos will be purged 90 days beyond the end of the last relist or sell-similar where the photo is still maintained in an eBay slot.  The 90 day extension is only available for photos that remain hosted in eBay slots. 

In summary, once you upload a photo to an eBay slot, the photo will remain hosted on eBay while the photo still occupies an eBay slot.  Any listing spawned from that listing that contains the same photo in an eBay slot could further prolong the life of the photo.  The photo can live on forever as long as there is a listing that has that same photo (with the same eBay URL) in an eBay slot. When the last listing or spawned listing ends, the photo will be purged after 90 days.

[randysouders]

Many thanks...lesson learned the hard way. I relist the same 25 auctions each week and have other items in my store listed as "good until cancelled." Am I correct in assuming I can use the same eBay image link used for auction inside my item description as long as I keep relisting the item? I understand it must be the same image and same link.

[pocomocomputing]

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@randysouderswrote:
Many thanks...lesson learned the hard way. I relist the same 25 auctions each week and have other items in my store listed as "good until cancelled." Am I correct in assuming I can use the same eBay image link used for auction inside my item description as long as I keep relisting the item? I understand it must be the same image and same link.

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If you relist your auction listing after it ended, the same photo and link to it will be used so the image URL in the listing will be the same.

Even if you used Sell Similar, the images in the eBay photo gallery would use the same photo and link without any change.

This applies to Auction format or Fixed Price format (not just GTC).

Just make sure that if you change or add a photo in the listing that you use the new photo URL.

One other interesting tidbit. In the old Sell Your Item form, when you created the listing and uploaded the images into the listing, eBay assigned the image URL right them so all you had to do was right click on the image and copy the URL into the description where you wanted it to be.  This image would have a suffix for the thumbnail in the Sell Your Item form so after you pasted it in the description, you had to change the suffix to the eBay standard suffix for the size you wanted. So there was no need to list the item and revise after it was listed.

I have no idea how the New Advanced Listing Tool listng form works but I suspect it is the same. I also do not know the current eBay suffixes used.

[shipscript]

@randysouders

@pocomocomputing

I also pull eBay photos during the listing process. I can usually copy the thumbnails on the new form, or use the click-to-enlarge feature on the image uploader where I can easily copy the photo URL from that enlargement. Whenever I copy an eBay URL, I change the image suffix code to the size I need for display in the description.

eBay's newest photos end with something like /s-l400.jpg, where "s" might stand for "size" and lowercase "L" might stand for "longest" side (think size-longest), and then the actual size is displayed as a number, like 400.  Thus, you can choose one of eBay's standard sizes instead of 400 to display the photo. The standard sizes are 80, 96, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1600, with a lot of other specialty sizes along the way. The suffix can be "jpg", "png", or "gif" and eBay will make the conversion on the fly. I prefer to standardize with "jpg".

The old picture format ends with something like _0.JPG, where the number after the underscore is a code for size. Some of the older codes are:

_39 = 32 pixels
_33 = 48 pixels
_14  = 64 pixels
_0   = 96 pixels
_2   = 200 pixels
_35 = 300 pixels
_1    = 400 pixels
_12  = 500 pixels
_58 = 640 pixels
_3   = 800 pixels
_59 = 960 pixels
_57 = 1600 pixels or max size
_10  = 1600 pixels or max upload size for dynamic images (internal use)

Both the old and new naming formats are still in use on new listings.

Keep in mind that eBay does not enlarge photos in any of the naming schemes. So if you pick a size that is larger than what was originally uploaded, the photo will not display any larger than the original, regardless of the code suffix used.