Please Help! - I want to use a bulk template for listing, but I want in draft mode.

[mrfaucets]

We want to develop an excel spreadsheet template that we will use to bulk list new inventory in eBay in DRAFT mode. (header field name = ‘Action’, value = ‘Draft’). We require additional header fields than those contained on Ebays Draft Listing Template, such as shipping type, shipping service, weight and dimensions, etc.  

We have experimented with the listing templates in Ebay, but they are not providing us with all of the information that we need. We have tried to add other header fields on the template that we need, but when we pull up the listing draft, much of the information does not populate to the Ebay listing from our template. For example: In the template that we customized, we started with Ebay’s ‘create new drafts’ template ( Source = Listings, Type = create new drafts) and added some additional header fields that we need, such as ShippingType, Shipping Service 1 option, Shipping Service 2 option, weight and dimensions headers, etc.  When we uploaded the template, many of these header fields did not populate: ShippingType, weight and dimensions, Shipping Service and others).  

We have also tried using the new listing/category template, but in the action field it only accepts 'Add'.  We do not want to list all of these items live.  We want draft.  And we want additional fields mentioned above.  See below for the fields that we want and also those that did not populate.

Field	X = Fields that did not populate the listing when template uploaded
Action(SiteID=US|Country=US|Currency=USD|Version=1193|CC=UTF-8)	Draft
Custom label (SKU)
Category ID
Category name
Title
P:UPC
Start price	x
Quantity
Item photo URL
Condition ID
Description
Format
Duration
Buy It Now price
Paypal accepted
Paypal email address
Immediate pay required
Payment instructions
Location
ShippingType	x
OriginatingPostalCode
PackageType	x
WeightMajor	x
WeightMinor	x
WeightUnit	x
PackageLength	x
PackageDepth	x
PackageWidth	x
Shipping service 1 option	x
Shipping service 1 cost
Shipping service 1 priority	x
Shipping service 2 option	x
Shipping service 2 cost
Shipping service 2 priority	x
Shipping service 3 option
Shipping service 3 cost
Shipping service 3 priority
Max dispatch time
Returns accepted option
Returns within option
Refund option
Return shipping cost paid by
Shipping profile name
Return profile name
Payment profile name
TakeBackPolicyID
ProductCompliancePolicyID
C:Brand
C:Type
C:Material
C:Finish
C:Model
C:MPN

[shipscript · Accepted solution]

eBay's "draft" spreadsheet is very bare bones. Many sellers have asked for the ability to add more columns, to no avail. About the only extras that seem to work are the item specifics.  Drafts expire after 75 days, although members have reported them, or their photos, disappearing sooner.

Are you planning on editing the drafts, or were you simply trying to post all of your inventory and then publish each over time?

To allow further editing of a listing, or to allow manually uploading photos, one option is to start from a category template where you can fill in all common values. You may also need to add some placeholder values where fields are required. Then set the listing to start up to 21 days in the future as a scheduled listing. The scheduling can be updated (or removed to "start immediately") within Seller Hub's bulk editor.

The header would be:

     ScheduleTime

and the cell value would be in ISO format:

     YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SSSZ  (GMT) like this example:

     2023-08-25T16:35:49.000Z

The benefit of a scheduled listing is that it will have an ItemID for further spreadsheet manipulation before the listing is published. Scheduled listings can be deleted without going live or adding to the listing count, or can be rescheduled to publish immediately, without incurring any scheduling fees.