Seller Report Uploads (File Exchange) ISBN for Books

[cordeliaflyte]

In the regular listing tool in the GUI, ISBN is grouped under Required Item Specific for the books category. 

Only it isn't really required, as you can publish a listing without entering anything in that field. (Also, obviously, lots of books don't have ISBNs).

When you download the blank template for the books category to upload in bulk, ISBN is not a column, nor is it even mentioned in the information.

I know that there is the P:ISBN header that supposedly triggers eBay to look for the item in its catalog — but shouldn't this be more like C:ISBN? And why isn't it in the template if its supposedly required? Is this an oversight?

I know I should just test this myself, but I haven't gotten to it yet... anyone know what the best way to include the ISBN for bulk uploads in the book category for ebay to parse it how it should?

Thanks!

[tools_apps_team@ebay]

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@cordeliaflyte wrote:

In the regular listing tool in the GUI, ISBN is grouped under Required Item Specific for the books category. 

Only it isn't really required, as you can publish a listing without entering anything in that field. (Also, obviously, lots of books don't have ISBNs).

When you download the blank template for the books category to upload in bulk, ISBN is not a column, nor is it even mentioned in the information.

I know that there is the P:ISBN header that supposedly triggers eBay to look for the item in its catalog — but shouldn't this be more like C:ISBN? And why isn't it in the template if its supposedly required? Is this an oversight?

I know I should just test this myself, but I haven't gotten to it yet... anyone know what the best way to include the ISBN for bulk uploads in the book category for ebay to parse it how it should?

Thanks!

---

Hi @cordeliaflyte,

I downloaded an .Excel Spreadsheet (.xlsx) template. P:ISBN was a column in it for the category Books & Magazines/Books. I also downloaded a .csv template for the same category. P:ISBN was not a column in it. That may have been an oversight. In any case, you could go ahead and add that column (the order of columns does not matter, other than the fact that the first column must be Action).

C:ISBN would be a custom Item Specific. You could add that column. However, to have product details from our catalog used on your listing, you should enter the ISBN in P:ISBN.

[cordeliaflyte]

Hi tools_apps_team@ebay 

Thanks for the reply. 

Yeah, I always just download the CSVs rather than the XLSs as I find them much easier to work with.

I guess what I was wondering is:

1. If I add the C:ISBN field as a custom item specific, I assume the eBay won't parse it as the value for the field ISBN in the "required" section of Book item specifics, but rather as a user-added key value pair. Is this detrimental to search?

2. If I did use the P:ISBN to invoke the catalog search, how does that work vis-a-vis CSV upload? Would it cause entries in the CSV such as Author or Title to be overwritten by catalog data, or would it only fill in missing fields that are supplied by the catalog? And wouldn't missing required fields (like Title) trigger an error during upload before that could happen?

I know I'm in the weeds with this, but I I want to get it right before uploading zillions of books. Thanks!

[tools_apps_team@ebay]

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@cordeliaflyte wrote:

Hi tools_apps_team@ebay 

Thanks for the reply. 

Yeah, I always just download the CSVs rather than the XLSs as I find them much easier to work with.

I guess what I was wondering is:

1. If I add the C:ISBN field as a custom item specific, I assume the eBay won't parse it as the value for the field ISBN in the "required" section of Book item specifics, but rather as a user-added key value pair. Is this detrimental to search?

2. If I did use the P:ISBN to invoke the catalog search, how does that work vis-a-vis CSV upload? Would it cause entries in the CSV such as Author or Title to be overwritten by catalog data, or would it only fill in missing fields that are supplied by the catalog? And wouldn't missing required fields (like Title) trigger an error during upload before that could happen?

I know I'm in the weeds with this, but I I want to get it right before uploading zillions of books. Thanks!

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Hi @cordeliaflyte,

I'm afraid that I can't say for sure whether or not using C:ISBN rather than P:ISBN would affect search. If at all possible, I would recommend that you use P:ISBN.

If you enter the ISBN in P:ISBN and your item is in our catalog, then product details from our catalog would be used. Item Specifics that are part of catalog product details would override your own Item Specifics. If you leave the Title field blank, then the title from catalog product details would be used. If you enter your own title, it would be used.