Ebay's marvelous book catalog.....

[kathiesbooknook]

I  listed three books on the Civil War last night - when entering the ISBN numbers of the first two which happened to be the first two volumes in a series by the same author - the first came up in the cookbook category - the second as a children's book so as usual I had to opt out of the catalog listing,  change the category, and list the isbn number under item specifics.

The third book was a somewhat rare limited edition signed by the author - nothing came up when I entered the isbn number, but when I entered the title another edition came up with a different isbn number and the category was "other books".     I was unable to enter the correct isbn number - it reverted to the other edition so again I had to opt out of the catalog listing, change the category, and list the correct isbn number under item specifics. 

I have a whole bag of books to list, but after having to go through all this with just the first three, I gave up for the day.  

Now this isn't something new - book sellers have been complaining about this problem for years, yet ebay which is now emphasizing product identifiers and their marvelous catalog has either been unable or unwilling to fix their book catalog. 

[zzydny]

I miss Half.com.  eBay sure made a huge mistake in closing that down.

[tunicaslot]

Agreed - I loved half.com. This is what bothers me with the catelog push - there are too many discrepancies and many items fall outside the generic catalogue description - first editions, autographed ect..

[dhbookds]

I don't know much about lising books, but have been watching the Product Page Board and the head of the team posted how to correct the catalog on books on this thread:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Product-Catalog/Product-Catalog-for-books-is-a-joke/m-p/28036350#M711

Only way the thing is ever going to be half right is if sellers list correctly and correct the mistakes.......

[lookng2015]

This is what happens when a company depends on sellers doing the 'work' for free.

[gracieallen01]

Actually, what with fees and time and whatnot, it almost feels like the sellers get to pay to do the work.

[dhbookds]

Definition of pay?.....if it doesn't get corrected......probably going to be alot harder to sell "our" books........  So, in my mind, we are getting paid for doing it....  or at least benefiting..

Frankly, I'd like someone to try it and report back on what happens.....do they correct quickly? 

[lookng2015]

Probably at the same speed of light they correct all errors on here (unless it's one costing THEM $) - ie "soon"

[kathieskorner]

Many of the errors were created by taking what some of the large booksellers listed as the standard for the catalog.   Just scroll through the cookbook category and see how many titles have nothing to do with cookbooks.

The thing is that when you create a listing using the isbn number or the title you are often given a choice of 2-5 categories,  BUT no matter which one you select when you enter the isbn number in the listing field it will automatically default your listing to whatever category is in the catalog listing.    

There is no gaurantee that information provided by a seller to ebay is correct either or that ebay will verify it.  

As a seller, I don;t see it as my job to correct ebay's catalog - especially if somebody can then correct my correction. 

[gracieallen01]

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@dhbookdswrote:

Definition of pay?.....if it doesn't get corrected......probably going to be alot harder to sell "our" books........  So, in my mind, we are getting paid for doing it....  or at least benefiting..

Frankly, I'd like someone to try it and report back on what happens.....do they correct quickly? 

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What comes to mind are the questions: 1) 'How many years have they been trying to get a catalogue up, and, 2) How many sellers have been contributing to it, and, 3) How many people have been 'correcting it?

Just for starters, you understand. 

And, in the mean time, the sellers sell for less, get returns, and, well, .....

[gracieallen01]

ebay seems to be spending a lot of time and man-power devising programs to oversee the catalogue and less of either on the actual catalogue.

There are many 'book sellers' and people who sell books on ebay. I would buy from very few of them. There are far too many that know very little about grading or describing books and a whole lot more that know even less. Books are easy to find, cheap to buy - at yard/garage sales, estate sales, 'Friends of the Library' shops, etc. I mean, what is there to listing a book - title, author, no. of pages, ISBN. easy-peasy. Yeah, right. Just walk through a book sale with your little scanner to see what ISBN is bringing 'more' and pick up a book - WOW, what a find!

Many serious sellers (and buyers) are on the 'book sites'. And, even they list here - often, just their throwaways or lesser books. Why? Because ebay is about volume/quantity, not quality, and there aren't enough sellers that push quality. It has become a race to the level of the cheapest price and the lowest 'common' denominator.

(personal opinion - your mileage may vary)

[tree*fern]

Hi Kathie, 

Try entering the ISBN-10 number (if the book has one) rather than the ISBN-13 (UPC) in the ISBN field. Click elsewhere on the page and wait for the system to override the ISBN-10 and apply the UPC, the catalog, and the incorrect category. There should then be a checkbox at the top of the page: Prefill this listing with eBay catalog info. Clear that checkbox to opt out of the catalog. Changing the category to the correct one will then stick.

Relisting will re-apply the incorrect catalog data and the incorrect category.  The workaround for that was using Sell Similar with the Bulk Editor, which used to carry through the original listing without re-applying the catalog.  But that apparently no longer works now.  To relist without the catalog, we'll now either have to re-create listings from scratch or revise each relisting.

[tree*fern]

Books are not on the list for the Spring Update forced product catalog.  But with the workaround apparently no longer working, in effect it's now being forced.

On average, the catalog data and/or the book category for about 9 out of 10 of my book listings are incorrect.     

The enormity of the problem is far beyond sellers "helping" eBay correct any book catalog errors. It's gotten worse over the years, not better.  Especially if they keep allowing that book warehouser with multiple IDs to keep making incorrect changes to the catalog.  

[ted_200]

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@lookng2015wrote:
This is what happens when a company depends on sellers doing the 'work' for free.

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I have no idea how this stuff happens, but I'm not prepared to blame any other seller for putting Civil War books in the Cookbooks category. 

There are mountains Product Catalog entries for coins, that have standardized Item Specifics that eBay got from someone - not individual sellers, that are in the wrong categories. 

[tree*fern]

Hi @ted_200,

I agree, most regular book sellers are not to blame.  My observation has been that an overwhelming new problem with miscategorization began after the large book warehouser with multiple IDs started on eBay. 

The book catalog was bad before that, now it's far worse. People have brought the problem to eBay's attention, but my observation is it's gotten worse, not better. 

Many of the warehouser's huge number of listings, across multiple IDs listing the same books at the same time, were erroneously dumped in Cookbooks, Textbooks, and Children's > Other books.  Another board poster estimated millions of listings. 

After they started, I noticed more and more of the catalog's categories had incorrectly changed to Cookbooks or Textbooks.  Enough that it seems a reasonable guess as to who - besides eBay - is probably to blame.