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The Mandate
After October 23, 2023, NO new listings, relists, or revisions will be accepted in the trading card (singles) categories if they do not adhere to eBay's new Condition policies. Affected categories are:
- Non-Sport Trading Card Singles (183050)
- Collectible Card Games Individual Cards (183454)
- Sports Trading Card Singles (261328)
While your current listings will persist, allowing time to address the issue, eBay may begin removing listings that have not been updated by mid January.
So, it's time to update those Trading Card Condition Descriptors, and there are several methods available.
A listing revision will fail if:
- Your auction has bids
- Your listing has active offers
- Your listing has other mandates that are not updated in the same edit.
Fortunately, eBay has a plethora of conversion options, and whether a casual seller or a power seller, one of these options should meet your needs.
(All screenshots below are from a desktop browser and will click to open a larger view)
1. Casual Sellers using "My Selling"
If you are a small seller with only a few cards listed, then edit each listing individually to revise the card details. eBay will let you know which listings are affected at the top your My Selling page. You may have to scroll the info bubbles to find the "Missing condition details" selector. Select "Revise" from the droplist beside each affected listing.
https://www.ebay.com/mys/active
Below is the Quick Lister presenting both the old and the new condition methods. Click the "Get started now" link to use the available condition options.
2. Casual Sellers on "Seller Hub"
If you have a small number of card listings in your selling lineup, then use the filter at the top of your Seller Hub Active Listings to isolate the listings affected by the new mandate. You may wish to individually select each listing to edit.
https://www.ebay.com/sh/lst/active
The advanced listing creator will display older condition info and will have a "Get started now" link to set up the new condition details. Notice that if you have an older condition description, it will be removed.
3. Volume Sellers
Use the bubble filter at the top of the Seller Hub Active Listings to locate missing Condition Details in the grid. You may want to set the grid pagination to a full 200 items per page. Then checkmark those listings for revision in the Bulk Editor. The Bulk Editor is opened by clicking the "Edit" button just above the checkboxes. For best performance, you may want to select groupings of up to no more than 200 items per job.
https://www.ebay.com/sh/lst/active
When the Bulk Editor opens, again checkmark the affected listings that will all share the same condition, and then select the "Condition" option from the droplist.
When the condition overlay appears, "Change" the type to "Graded" or "Ungraded" and make selections from the additional overlays that appear. Apply your changes and save on back to the Seller Hub grid. Start the process again for your next group of 200 items.
4. Sellers with more complex changes
Sellers with many listings, or with listings that may have more diverse requirements, will often be more efficient with a spreadsheet. Locate "Missing condition details" from within Seller Hub Active Listings and download a spreadsheet report in XLSX format.
https://www.ebay.com/sh/lst/active
The XLSX spreadsheet will contain the card categories (183050, 183454, or 261328), item number, sku (custom label), and title, followed by the new condition fields and a list of item specifics. Many of the columns will provide droplists within each cell that might require revision. However, you must first select the new ConditionID value before some of the droplists will be activated.
NOTE: New listings can be created from a similar category XLSX template downloaded from Seller Hub Reports Uploads. When using the template, it is important to first select the category from the droplist, and then the Condition ID, in order to activate all the other related droplists.
Once the spreadsheet has been completed, save the listing sheet (only) as a CSV that is ready to upload to eBay. The file can be uploaded directly on the Seller Hub Active Listings page, at the top right of the listing grid. This is the same uploader that can be found on the Reports Uploads tab, so you can upload there if you prefer.
5. Spreadsheet from scratch
To create your own spreadsheet, you will need a list of item numbers. You can download the "Missing condition details" revision spreadsheet from seller hub (as described in the previous method) and remove all the columns you don't need; or you can download a full list of active item numbers by selecting the "Edit Price and Quantity" template from Seller Hub Reports Uploads.
https://www.ebay.com/sh/reports/uploads
A revision template can be used to revise any part of the listing (by adding appropriate columns), so this might be a good starting point if there are other changes you would like to make at the same time — particularly if there are multiple unmet mandates. Armed with a list of active item numbers, below is an example of the simplest revision template for Condition descriptors. However, if your listings have other unmet mandates, the upload to eBay may encounter a number of failures. If you know or anticipate what they might be, you could add them to your template.
NOTE: It is important to be aware that some elements modified in a spreadsheet must include all members of the set. For instance, to modify an Item Specific, all the other item specifics must also be included in the revision. Similarly, to modify photos, all photos must be included in the revision spreadsheet. Condition Descriptors are a group that is separate from Item Specifics.
Below is a spreadsheet that I used to successfully revise two sport trading card single listings (pan to the right).
| Action | ItemID | ConditionID | CD:Professional Grader - (ID: 27501) | CD:Grade - (ID: 27502) | CDA:Certification Number - (ID: 27503) | CD:Card Condition - (ID: 40001) |
| Revise | 386159221445 | 2750 | MNT Grading (MNT) - (ID: 2750114) | 8.5 - (ID: 275023) | 987654 | |
| Revise | 225797136510 | 4000 | Very good - (ID: 400012) |
The image below displays all of the values available for sports trading cards, but when clicked, will open a full web page table of values for all three types of affected trading cards (sports, non-sport, and game cards). These values can be used in a spreadsheet upload to eBay. Notice, below, that a spreadsheet revision can accept shorthand numbers, rather than the longhand values for descriptors.
The values in the page that opens will cover the 3 categories below:
- Category 183050 (Non-Sport Trading Card Singles)
- Category 183454 (Collectible Card Games Individual Cards)
- Category 261328 (Sports Trading Card Singles)
Condition Values
The condition values for ungraded Sports and Non-Sport trading cards are the same, while ungraded Collectible Card Games use a different set of numbers.
Sport and Non-Sport trading card conditions:
- Near mint or better - (ID: 400010)
- Excellent - (ID: 400011)
- Very good - (ID: 400012)
- Poor - (ID: 400013)
Collectible Card Game conditions:
- Near mint or better - (ID: 400010)
- Lightly played (Excellent) - (ID: 400015)
- Moderately played (Very good) - (ID: 400016)
- Heavily played (Poor) - (ID: 400017)
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eBay email
eBay is sending emails to sellers who list in the affected card categories.
Below is the email I received today (11 Oct 2023 ) in my messages and in my standard email.
Keep in mind that it is easier to revise listings in bulk while they are still active.
Resource Links
The "Card Condition (Required)" link in the middle of the email leads to this Card Conditions page that explains the meaning of each "condition". There is a tab for trading cards and a tab for game cards:
https://pages.ebay.com/cardconditions/
The "Seller Center" link, lower left, leads to:
https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/selling/selling-trading-cards
The "Revise your listings" button at the bottom leads the "My Selling" page:
https://www.ebay.com/mys/active
The <Item.Location> is the postal code from which the item will be shipped. If you are uploading from a spreadsheet, consider adding a column for "PostalCode" or for "Location". If using the web listing tool, then make sure the default setting (gear icon) for the listing has your Zip Code. Since you are in Puerto Rico, make sure your state is PR, your country is United States, and that your Zip codes is valid.
