Using eBay's suggested category in File Exchange

[vip-marketplace]

Hey guys!

I list about 300 new items every months in almost as many categories using file exchange.

When listing items individually directly on eBay, you can easily get the item's category using eBay's suggested category.

Using file exchange, I don't get that suggestion. I have to research manually what the optimal category would be for each item and then find the category number using their category table. It's really painfully boring and time consuming to do.

Is anyone aware of a better way to get my categories / use ebay's suggested category even using file exchange?

Thanks!

[pocomocomputing]

@shipscript    @dollybeauty 

[dollybeauty]

FileExchange is a great tool. It allows a user to quickly make changes to listings without using an online form.

Creating listings? Not so much.

To create good listings that place well in eBay and Google search engines, you must do research, in the proper category to list in, the correct item specifics to use, and of course, you must upload your images to an online image host.

In FileExchange, there are no 'suggested' categories, and no handy drop down boxes of available options.

IMO, a member who uses the online listing flows, and the 'Sell Similar' option correctly, can out perform (create listings), a member using FileExchange.

To find the correct categories to use for FileExchange listing creation, use search keywords in the following file...https://ir.ebaystatic.com/pictures/aw/pics/pdf/us/file_exchange/CategoryIDs-US.csv

For eBay Motors...https://ir.ebaystatic.com/pictures/aw/pics/pdf/us/file_exchange/CategoryIDs-Motors.csv

[vip-marketplace]

Thanks!

However, I really don't think I could do without file exchange.

I feel it would be so easy to program some kind of script or even an Excel macro that extracts eBay's suggested category for a each titles in a list.

The script would simply initiate a new listing on eBay, copy-paste the title from the Excel file in eBay, copy-paste the resulting suggested category from eBay to the Excel file and repeat for all titles in the list (simple loop).

[shipscript]

@vip-marketplace 

Are you a programmer? If so, you may want to invest some time learning how to access eBay's Trading API:

https://developer.ebay.com/devzone/xml/docs/reference/ebay/GetSuggestedCategories.html

[vip-marketplace]

Wow!!

This looks exactly like what I need.

I know my way around Excel and VBA but that's about it.

I have no idea how APIs work. 😞

[shipscript]

@vip-marketplace 

It's an uphill learning curve and you would need your own server...

An API acts as a middleman between your application and eBay's application data. With very structured communications, only specified data can be traded back and forth. The Trading API also requires an authorization token be set, so there are multiple steps required to perform an operation that will return data.

[vip-marketplace]

That sounds like it would be more work and troubles than I expected 😞

Thanks for the info shipscript