Problem trying to figure out Card Attributes is not allowed as a variation specific error

[hammerva]

Good morning.  I am trying to create a new listing that is a Pick Your card lot with 5 different cards.   I updated the Attributes and options you've selected part.   For each variation I entered a different picture, price, and quantity.  But when I try to list the item I am getting a 'Card Attributes is not allowed as a variation specific error".  I don't understand what this means.  I have been doing this format for many weeks now.  The version that I am working on is based on a 'Sell Similar" that I did on one I created 2 weeks ago.   Tried playing with Item Specifics and even Category with no luck

Is there some kind of update in ebay where this types of listing can't be done anymore?  

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Hi @shipscript,

I'm glad to hear that you're developing a tool to help with this, I know that the prospect of correcting listings is very daunting.

In the past when I've tested replacing variations, the biggest hurdle was getting all of the info into a spreadsheet. Once it's there (which it sounds like your tool will do, unless I'm misunderstanding), it becomes a matter of doing a lot of copy/paste, and Find & Replace to duplicate all variations, edit the labels, then upload to File Exchange with a Delete action on the old variations. Not a small task, by any means, but a lot more manageable than recreating everything.

[shipscript]

@Anonymous 

I was hoping that File Exchange or the Hub would have the extraction tools to gather the variation details, and that you could tell us which tool would be best.  As it is, I have successfully extracted variation details using the Shopping API (but with a 5000 daily call limit and the looming June 30 OAuth deadline, I've got to get a call increase and focus on the OAuth mystery before eBay shuts me down).

The tool will pull variations out of the first 10,000 listings (variations contribute to that total) that eBay provldes.  After collecting the variation listings, a filter will reduce that list to only those items of interest.  The tool can not only extract the data (qty, price,sku) , but apply the Attribute substitution in a Delete/Revise File Exchange spreadsheet.

The messy stuff that you described is easily automated by the tool when creating the revision spreadsheet, but the biggest hurdle in File Exchange is, and always has been, the images.

The image URLs are also provided by this tool, but we know that they will not successfully reload to eBay. eBay will accept them (as is) without rehosting, but when the variations to which they were originally attached are deleted, then the images will also disappear (probably within a few days).  @Anonymous  Can you verify if this has changed?

So, the solution is to upload images with a non-eBay URL, which can be accomplished by downloading all of the images and placing them on an external server, or by fetching eBay images from another server and transloading them across from that external server. These methods would ensure eBay generates and attaches new image URLs to the revision.

The tool can currently create a revision spreadsheet with either option. In the transloading option, I am redirecting them through my server, but I don't expect 100% success, because, while my server is pretty good, it doesn't have the throughput of the big hosting outfits for the full-sized images and mega-sized batches, and I expect some to be dropped during peak hours.  The zip option is available for those who want to download and place their images on their own server, or to simply archive them, which should probably be done even if using the redirection method.  The redirection failures can be captured and repaired in later batches if the originals are still online, or can be manually repaired from the archived images.

The zip feature currently names the images with a combination of ItemID and variation option name, ensuring the correct image is applied to the correct variation.  For sports cards, that means each photo will likely carry the name of the player, with indices if there are more then one photo per variation.  The File Exchange spreadsheet will provide those new URL names to match the new photo names.

Nothing in the master record is edited except the RelationshipDetails, which must provide the new attribute name.  So all other master record columns are empty, including PicURL, which should mean there is no change to those fields.

If anyone can think of other issues I might have missed, or if anyone would like to beta test, please let me know.  I hope to push this out in the next few days.

-ship

[shipscript]

@hammerva 

@rygar-77 

@izmuny99 

@mwc6 

@cardcollectorhq 

@mcucinella 

@mrtigersden

@o-wai-sa 

@esbeauctions 

Good news. We can fix our variation naming issues. I've got a "variation revision" tool finished and have successfully generated a download report of your listings, so the new tool appears to be able to handle that side of the problem. At least you can download an archival spreadsheet.  I am just waiting for some image confirmation from eBay. 

The online tool will capture your variations in a couple of minutes, will generate a replacement file that fixes your variation names, and it takes another couple of minutes to upload the file to Seller Hub. So hopefully there is no muss or fuss.

What might take hours or days of tedious repair on your own can be fixed in a few minutes.

A few of you don't have any variation images. You can use the tool immediately.  Those of you with scads of photos will want to see what direction we need to go with those.

As it is, I have successfully modified my test listing over and over again using the existing eBay URLs, but I'm waiting to be advised whether those will stick with the listing over time. If they won't persist, we have another avenue that could work, but it will not be as clean.

[shipscript]

@biggwillis_sportscards 

@shopwithdianne 

I couldn't post everyone's name in the above message, so you get special treatment because you both have much larger lists of variations to deal with, and you are most in need of a solution.  The tool should work for you too. I've successfully downloaded your lists of variations in a couple of minutes.

[shopwithdianne]

Good morning Ship. thanks for all you do but I really don't understand how you did it (downloaded my list of variations) did you download all of my pictures because there are many. I am  not to computer savy and if you can send specific step by step instructions it would mean a lot to me. Question: of the 154 items that are item specific that are required to change soon there are some that have more than 100 pictures on average each. How do I go about capturing those photos to change those variations from attributes to card number? I want to capture the picture along with the description. Please help. Thanks again

[shipscript]

@shopwithdianne 

With this new tool, let's call it a Variation Extractor, I am still awaiting confirmation from eBay that they will maintain your already-hosted images when we resubmit them (basically just reference them) in a revision request in Seller Hub. If we can do that, you're home free, as the tool will do everything in a matter of a few minutes, and it would be ready to use right now.  @Anonymous  is my File Exchange picture handling request something you can accelerate? I sent a copy of the request to turbodata 2 days ago.  

The important thing to keep in mind is that the report is also going to capture and resubmit your quantities, and items could sell in the interim between downloading the report and submitting to eBay. You would want to pick your timing for this revision, and you may need to manually edit and repair quantities for any interim sales.

The process will be:

1. Enter your sellername and eBay site on the tool.  The tool also has the option to choose (or exclude) specific categories, so you could exclude a thousand unrelated items by including only the trading card category (212) in the search .
2. Run the tool to collect all of your item numbers from eBay (takes about 2 minutes) and the fun part is then watching the tool march through all of your items as it gathers all of your variation data from eBay .
3. When the scan completes and the report feature opens, enter the old variation name and the replacement name.
4. Select the report format. Two reports will be generated to include only the variations that contain the find/replace names (this means you can rename other variation groups and produce different reports for them while the same data is loaded).
5. If you want to archive your photos, copy/paste or send the secondary Photo Zip report to the zipping tool.
6. Save/download the main report and upload that report to Seller Hub.
7. Seller Hub will respond with a "results spreadsheet" that will let you know if, and why, any of the line items failed, or if there is a warning on any of the items.

For capturing your photos and tying them to variation names, start with the zip report from the new Variation Extractor tool.  To capture all photos in all listings (or in a subset of listing categories), without identifying which variations own the photos, use the Bulk photo scanner tool and send its report to the zip tool.

The various tools are found here, but the Variation Extractor is not yet posted:

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

[computeraidllc]

eBay does realize they have given us a month or so to change all of this. I have another account that has over 50,000 cards that are all under the multi-variation listing using Card Attribute. I am a small seller. There are a lot of sellers with way more than that. This kind of change should not happen like this and will drive me and many away as I simply don't have the time nor resources to make this change in time. If the item doesn't relist, I simply will not take the time to fix it because it is a total waste of time and resources for cards that for the most part are less than a dollar.

I should be able to bulk edit graded card field for these listings. Also I did have graded card as no but apparently eBay changed the name of that field so all the old listings are not carrying over. Another piece of eBay's malarkey they are doing to this category. This needs to be undone or you will loose many sellers.

[Anonymous]

Hi @shipscript,

Thanks for posting.

I didn't see the email come through, and I don't see anything under your user ID, would you mind sending that again, or DM-ing me (assuming it's different from your question above)?

As for the images themselves, in my past tests I've always removed the variations and added the new ones with the same image URL's without issue. I don't have anywhere in my resources to confirm how long our servers hold onto images after the variations are deleted, so I've reached out to a contact to get a firm answer; I'll let you know as soon as I have that, I apologize for the delay.

[shopwithdianne]

Thank You very much - You have been very kind and helpful - I cannot seen to be able to get past #2  . I have no idea where to enter the new variation information - Do you and or Ebay offer a class or tutorial that will allow someone to shadow me thru this ? Again - Thank you for all that you have done - I will continue to try -

[shipscript]

@shopwithdianne 

When I am able to post the tool, I'll walk everyone through the process. 🙂

I'll get some screenshots to help.

[salvadord]

In your VARIATIONS listing, at the top where is says CARD ATTRIBUTE, if you select the ADD next to it, you will see a list with CARD NUMBER.  You need to uncheck CARD ATTRIBUTE and select CARD NUMBER as that is the only selection that will allow you to list your cards individually - by CARD NUMBER not CARD ATTRIBUTE.  If you had previous listings, they must all be redone by 12 July and the change to CARD NUMBER wipes out all the information you have already entered and you must re-enter all the information again.  Thank eBay for this change with no easy fix.

[salvadord]

Hey shipscript -  I just saw this post now and if this tool works as you describe it this is going to be a godsend for sellers.  I have done a number of tests making the change from CARD ATTRIBUTE to CARD NUMBER.  I noticed that when you make the change it does bring the same pictures back up.  However, what is lost is SOLD HISTORY (ie  27 sold, or quantity, 2 sold 1 left, and the price is missing).  This constitutes a huge amount of work for thousands of sellers an what is lost is amount sold and quantities remaining.  As I said, if this tools works as you say, many eBay sellers will owe you big time.   Thanking you in advance!!!!!

[shipscript]

@salvadord 

@shopwithdianne 

I wanted to let both of you know that I have run your listings through the tool and it should work for your particulars.  The only dilemma to resolve is when listings have a mix of eBay hosted photos (EPS) and externally hosted photos. So those who originally uploaded through File Exchange may have to wait.

Right now, if all of your listing photos were added through the online listing tool, then all of the photos should be eBay hosted (EPS).  And the tool, in its current version 10, should function for that.  (I used a future test version to determine that the photos on both of your accounts register as EPS ).

So, Here are the basics:

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

Generate a Report

At the top of the tool:

1. Enter your seller name
2. Select your eBay site
3. Click the "Get Items" button.

The tool will only return listings with variations. The pages of listing data will start loading and populating. When the data has finished loading, the tool will scroll down to the report area.

On the report area, there are several report options.

Delimiter (Spreadsheet format):

• Tab-delimited (handy for pasting from the screen into an open spreadsheet that can be saved as a CSV file).
• Comma-delimited (best for saving to a file that will be later opened by a spreadsheet tool or that will be directly uploaded to eBay).
• Semicolon-delimited (Euro version of a Comma-delimited file).

Report type:

• Report Only — a spreadsheet of your current data with no editing.
• Rename Variations — fill in the old variation name and the new variation name, and the report will include only those listings that have the old variation name. The tool will also generate the lines to delete and the lines to add, as required for a Seller Hub upload.
• Rehost Photos — Same as Rename Variations, but additionally blanks out the URL with a placeholder string, while keeping the image name that is then reproduced in the zip window. The seller would use a spreadsheet to replace the placeholder with their own server URL path.

Find/Replace

• There are two slots:  "replace" what is in the first slot "with" what is in the second slot. This will only affect the variation name. Nothing else. If you leave those slots empty, you'll get the full structure so that you can manually edit in your own spreadsheet if you prefer.

Sort (future)

•  In a later version, you will be able to change the sort order of variations in the drop list. Only the master or parent record affects the sort order. The variation rows do not affect the order and will not change.  On a side note, the variation photos are assigned by the name that is attached to the photo, not by the row on which they appear in the report, so don't be alarmed if photos are not on the same rows as the variation options to which they are assigned.

Save

After building a report to your satisfaction, save it to your computer or paste it into an open spreadsheet.  The report is displayed in tab-delimited format because it is easier to read and to see what is happening.  And this format is fine if you want to paste copied code directly into an open spreadsheet or look at a file as plain text. However, if you are planning to "Download Report", change to the Comma-delimited option and click "Build report" to get it into the proper CSV file format for eBay or for opening a saved file in a spreadsheet.  

The file created by the tool can be uploaded directly to eBay's Seller Hub. However, if you open the file prior to that, and "save" it, or if, upon delivery from our server, it opens instead of saving directly, the Item Numbers may become corrupted.  To prevent that, if you see any long numbers that have been converted to exponential notation (like 1.63E+11 ), be sure to change those columns to number format with zero decimal places, and the numbers will reappear as 12-digit item numbers (the tool has instructions). Then you can save the file as a CSV file.

Zip Photos (optional)

If you want to archive your photos against some possible modification catastrophe (never a bad idea on eBay), the bottom window provides that option.  If you want to archive your photos, do so prior to revising your listings.  Every time you run a report, the photo zip window is updated with the list of image URLs associated with that report. You can download or copy that report list for reference, which may be useful, but that is not your safeguard. Saving the actual photos is your best safeguard.

Zip (optional):

• Click the "Prepare Zip File" button and the tool will make a server copy of the image report.
• Then click "Send to Zip Tool" and another tool will open, automatically populated with that report.
• The zip tool has a lot of zip options for file sizes, delimiters, and such, but for straight archiving, just click the "Load Data" button.
• The data box will display any problems and there will be a row of gray boxes above to tell you how many zip files are anticipated. You can change the zipping parameters and repeat the "Load Data" button until you like what you see.
• Click the "ZIP FILES" button and the zipping process will begin.
• Links to the zip files will begin appearing in the results window. When the process is complete, you can click each link to download from the server to your computer.

Send Revisions to eBay

And finally, the actual drama moment, because nothing has really happened until you upload the revisions to eBay.

1. Use the "Reports" option at the top of Seller Hub.
2. Click the "Upload" option in the left menu.
3. On the upload screen, click the "Start Upload" button.
4. Find your CSV file, and the the Hub will immediately start uploading.
5. A small progress window will overlay in the lower left corner, and will tell you that there was no upload (massive file failure), or that the file uploaded but with problems, or that the upload was a success.
6. A file that actually uploaded, with or without problems, will appear in your upload history on the same screen, and you can click the far right option to download the response file to find out what issues were found in the upload data (or with your account or within the listing itself).

[beastieboy1023]

@shipscript you are an absolute god if you have figured out a way to get around this. Is there anything you need to do to help knock this out or can I do this myself with the guide you posted above? If I have to relist almost 50 dropdowns which include thousands of cards...I will lose it. What a stupid required update to listings by eBay. 

[shipscript]

@beastieboy1023 

I scanned your variation listings and they all contain EPS (ebay hosted) images. So, theoretically, you could use the current tool version 10. However, I notice that you don't have any SKUs for your items, and one seller with no SKUs reports that Seller Hub will not update the listing they tested. So I need to check that out. 

However, if you wish to use the tool to test, try one listing with the fewest variations, and follow the instructions. If the upload to Seller Hub is a success, but nothing changes in your listing, please let me know what ebay reports in their response file. This may be something that eBay needs to be concerned with, or we may simply need to remove the SKU (CustomLabel) column.  I could certainly use a few test cases to help figure out the issue.  🙂