Create Trading Card variations with Seller Hub's bulk uploader (spreadsheet)

[shipscript]

 @pristine10_auctions   asked in another post:

Hi, can anyone confirm this bulk upload will work for sports cards currently? I can envision myself filling out this CSV file with hundreds of lines and then in typical Ebay fashion, it will fail and wasted hours for nothing....

Yes, eBay's bulk Uploader within Seller Hub "Reports" does support bulk uploads of sports cards. 

But don't start with hundreds for your first test, just upload one or two variations and use the revision option to fill in the remainder until you are satisfied your file is correctly populated.

Start on the Uploads screen here:

https://www.ebay.com/sh/reports/uploads

Select a template for your category (probably Sports  Cards Singles) and download the template to your computer.  Your category path will probably be:

> Sports Mem, Cards & Fan Shop

      > Sports Trading Cards

            > Trading Card Singles

If you choose the XLSX format, the file will include droplists of all of the available options for the parent record, which is extremely helpful. You can then add child rows for each variation in a single listing.

The documentation for filling out the parent record can be found here:

https://ir.ebaystatic.com/cr/v/c1/rsc/feeds/v1/guide-inventory-onboarding.pdf

Once your data is populated, save your spreadsheet in CSV format for upload to eBay.

The only real issue will be photos. If you have an external image host, you can upload images to that external server and include the hosted URLs in the spreadsheet file. If you don't have an external server, then you can add an online placeholder image to the parent record and manually revise the listings to upload images from your desktop to eBay's listing tool.

[pristine10_auctions]

Dude, thank you!!  And yeah, I figured the picture piece may be challenging.  I’ll probably just use a placeholder and do that piece manually.  At least half the process will be a bit faster…..

[shipscript]

@pristine10_auctions 

Below is what I posted to  another thread, dealing with adding photos:

Sellers can use the spreadsheet at least three different ways:

1) For sellers with an external image host, create the entire listing with variations and add externally hosted image URLs.

2) For sellers with no hosting, use a spreadsheet to create the entire listing with variations, and add a single placeholder image to the parent record (and possibly set a scheduled start date). Then use eBay's listing tool to delete the placeholder image, manually add all of the photos, and remove the scheduling.

3) For sellers who don't want to get too involved in the details of a full-blown spreadsheet and who may not need photos for each of the variations, create a variation listing on eBay for all of the master record data, including item specifics, and for one placeholder variation, and then use a spreadsheet to replace and flesh out all of the variations as a revision.

[nygiants20]

I have several Baseball card listings that are the "listing with variation" type and I want to learn how to do these listings more efficiently. A little searching led me to this thread.

Does the spreadsheet that is discussed here work for listings with variations?

Just to make sure I'm speaking clearly, as an example, let's say I want to sell 100 different cards from the 1985 Topps baseball set. The 100 cards would be 100 variations in the listing (drop down box in the final listing).

Does this spreadsheet work for this? If so, are there any more detailed instructions anywhere that explain how to set it up and create the listing?

Thank you!

[nygiants20]

So far, I've created my variation listings by using the eBay listing tool. I'm assuming this is the most manual and slowest way to do it...it certainly seems so! 🙂

[shipscript]

@nygiants20 

For bulk trading cards, the listing tool is the slowest method.

The spreadsheet method is the fastest.

And yes, the method described in the first post will allow you to manually add variations to your spreadsheet. However, I would recommend creating a single listing without variations while learning to list with a spreadsheet so that you can make sure any other issues are resolved first.

PHOTOS

Adding photos is the hardest part of the spreadsheet tool if you don't have your own image host, since a photo is always required for the master record. If you don't have an image host, you may want use a placeholder URL in the spreadsheet master record, and then add master and variation photos manually as a revision in eBay's listing tool.  Here is a temporary trading card placeholder image (which will persist only as long as I have a test listing running):

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/kQwAAOSwbkRiTOV3/s-l1600.png

When you revise to substitute your own photo uploads for URL-hosted images, you will need to delete all such web-hosted images before manually uploading your own photos from your device.

When using a placeholder image, you may want to schedule your listing so that you will have time to manually add your replacement photos before the listing goes public. Add a column to your spreadsheet for scheduling, and then remove the scheduling within your listing tool after you have manually added the photos.  The spreadsheet column heading is ScheduleTime and the value in the master row will be formatted as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, using 24 hour format, so might look like 2022-04-17 16:30:00 .  You will only be able to schedule a few weeks into the future.

SPREADSHEET

For sports trading cards, download the "sport trading card singles" spreadsheet from the "Reports > Uploads" screen of Seller Hub.

https://www.ebay.com/sh/reports/uploads

The report will provide columns for all of the basic information, including the "item specifics" (C:columns) that would be included in only the master record.  Fill in as many columns as are relevant, and you can remove any columns that do not apply.  Currently, only two C:columns are mandatory for your items (C:Sport and C:Graded), although a few others are recommended for better search exposure.

I should warn that the recommended item specifics are based on buyer input. So as buyer preferences change, so may the recommended or required specifics. It would be wise to enter as many as apply to get ahead of that issue.

VARIATIONS

The variations (child rows) will need the group label for your variation drop-list (card# in your listings) and will include each item in that drop-list as a separate row. Each of those separate rows will have the option name or number for the card (like "1T Doyle Alexander"), the quantity, and the price.  You may also add a SKU for each card and add externally hosted photo URLs for each card.

The bottom of this variation tutorial addresses the spreadsheet method:

http://shipscript.com/ebayhelp/lister_hub/creating_ebay_variations.htm

To get an idea of the data you will need for a variation spreadsheet, I would recommend that you use this tool to extract some of your existing variations.

https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/VariationScanner.htm

Enter your name and country (and a single item number in the search field if you want to limit the results to one listing). Then click "Get items". When the extraction completes and scrolls to the report area, click "Build Report", which you can copy and paste into an open spreadsheet to see how the variations should be formatted in your own spreadsheet.

What you will notice is that each row or "option" in the variation list has a unique card name and that those card names are concatenated in the master row, semicolon delimited.  That may be the most tedious effort on your part.

This tool may help with that, but only if you start with your list of card names in the tool and then transfer the columns from the tool to your spreadsheet for fleshing out.

https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/VariationBuilder.htm

The tool will take a list of card names, along with a heading that is the label for your drop list group. It will then build the columns that can each be added to your spreadsheet.

While that tool was designed to simplify the creation of multi-variations, it should also work well to create a spreadsheet list of single-variation sports trading cards, especially if you have a long list.

[nygiants20]

First, I want to THANK YOU for the detailed explanation. 

I spent most of the day today working on this and finally got it to work. 

There were items that i couldn't figure out. I couldn't figure out the "ScheduleTime" header and date/time format. Also, the Variation Builder tool was of no value to me, it just took me from bad to worse, so I had to ditch it.

I did about 15 spreadsheet uploads and corrected each error one at a time. It required data in more columns than I expected. Eventually, when the upload completed, I was able to end the listing and save it as a draft. Then I was able to manually edit all of the necessary fields. I wish I could make some of the mandatory columns not mandatory.

The string of concatenated card names in the master row is still a bit of a challenge. I used a separate "dummy" sheet to figure out the excel CONCAT formula to string the card names together. Then I would copy/paste the result to the main sheet's master row. But, I haven't figured out how to format the excel formula to include the semi-colon between each card name.  If you have a suggestion for this, it would be much appreciated. 

[shipscript]

@nygiants20 

The old concat works like this:

=CONCAT(A1,";",A2,";",A3)

or

=CONCATENATE(A1,";",A2,";",A3)

Newer Excel has this function with the VBA code already built in.

=TEXTJOIN(";",TRUE,A1:A20)

So you could create a list of cards in one column, the name of the variation group in another, and concatenate in two directions.

The first two columns are fixed data and the second two columns are formulas.

[shipscript]

@nygiants20 

If you don't want to fool with spreadsheet formulas, try the tool at the bottom of the Variation Builder page:

https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/VariationBuilder.htm#singlehelp

Please let me know if you encounter any issues.

[nygiants20]

Do you think the Variation builder tool is better than using the spreadsheet? If so, I need detailed instructions. 

Otherwise, I'll stick with the spreadsheet, for now.

Thank you for your help!!

[shipscript]

@nygiants20 

If the spreadsheet formulas are working for you, then stick with them. Some people don't know how to use spreadsheet formulas, so the simple tool at the bottom of the Variation Builder would be better for them.

Scrolling down to the bottom of the tool page, enter the name of the variation group (like Card#) in the first slot, and then add a vertical list of the various cards in the next box, which can look like column B or C in the above spreadsheet example (if it looks like C, then checkmark the option to remove the "Card# from the data). Click the button to build the cell for the master record (will look like column D, and to build the list of drop-list members (will look like column C).

[nygiants20]

I continue to work on my spreadsheet and have run into another issue. When I create the CONCAT string in cell F1, the results stop at cell C63 even though the formula range is C3:C106 and I have no idea why. I'm assuming it's a formatting issue but...? 

Any insights would be appreciated!

[shipscript]

@nygiants20 

I don't know the answer;  but you might check whether there is an extra line-break in cell C63, and check whether the data in F1 is multi-line. There are also some data limits for concatenating, although I don't think you are at the limit if you have a newer version of Excel.

[nygiants20]

I used the spreadsheet to create a listing last week and it worked. Today I tried to create another listing using the same spreadsheet as a template and I'm getting this error. 

Do you have any idea what the issue could be?

Thanks!

[nygiants20]

This is a screenshot of the top area of my spreadsheet.