ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
Category Changes: In the 2019 Spring Update, we were told that a large number of categories will be reorganized on June 10.
- https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2019-spring/inventory-optimization.html
- https://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/categorychanges.html
Item Specifics restructured: eBay will implement standardized headings for Item Specifics in selected categories:
Item Specific Scanner: Many sellers complained that category shuffling in the past had deleted their Item Specifics and I promised I would work on a tool to help those sellers. This tool will extract Item Specifics from your current listings (more about this Item Specific Scanner farther down):
Item Specifics by Category: eBay has a download page where all item specific headings and common values are available for each category. That page has been broken for several months, but I'll still post the link here because this is going to be a very important tool when they get it fixed.
Item Specifics Spreadsheet: When the above is working, I'll have a tool that will take the item-specifics data from eBay's developer tool and marry it with the extracted data from your own listings. The result will be an online spreadsheet with droplists of values for each Item Specific heading so that you can update your listing data in bulk by clicking the options. Look for it here sometime in June:
Item Specific Scanner tool for sellers
Here is a tool to collect Item Specifics from your existing listings and organize them by Category in spreadsheet format that you can save to your computer. It may be a bit rough and I haven't written any solid instructions, so please let me know what more is needed.
http://isdntek.com/ebaytools/ItemSpecificScanner.htm
- Enter Seller name.
- Select Country.
- Optional: Use advanced settings to limit search results
(like selecting a category number). - Click "Get Items" button.
- When scan ends, generate reports at the bottom.
- Copy/Paste to open spreadsheet or text file.
My only warning at this time is that if you have items in lots of different categories and made up your own item specifics along the way, the spreadsheet could have more columns than Excel can handle. In that case, choose smaller category groupings to reduce the number of Item-Specifics column headings .
I haven't tested 10,000 items (the current limit), but I would expect a scan that large to take nearly 30 minutes to complete. When the scan completes, it will sort the job in your browser. I've encountered a "script running" error in my browser because sorting a large file takes a few seconds longer than my browser will tolerate on my under-powered computer. I just click "allow script to run" on the warning and the job finishes almost immediately. If anyone on a "normal" computer encounters that warning, please let me know. 
For sellers with more than 10,000 items, who can't break the data into smaller groups using the advanced search options at the top of the tool, there will be a File Exchange input option, but I've not yet added it. You will find it on the Country droplist when it becomes available. Even though File Exchange can give you more then 10,000 items, it would be wise to break that data into smaller batches that your browser can process.
@southern*sweet*tea wrote:Cookbooks are being moved to non-fiction.
Swell
But will they clean up the category and move all the NON cookbooks to elsewhere? I highly doubt it.
It will probably mean just mean MORE non cookbooks in that category.
@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
@southern*sweet*tea wrote:Cookbooks are being moved to non-fiction.
Swell
But will they clean up the category and move all the NON cookbooks to elsewhere? I highly doubt it. Of course they won't clean it up. I gave up on that happening three years ago. Apparently assurances and promises in writing from higher ups mean absolutely nothing.
It will probably mean just mean MORE non cookbooks in that category. Yep, and more buyers who can't find what they're looking for when they do a general category search.
The listing services and listing tools should have something available to help sellers migrate, but it will probably be something like new droplists on the listing form. I doubt that there can be anything automatic if eBay changes the Item Specific names.
The listing services will have access to the new "structured" category Item Specifics, like those on this list, and they will also have access to the popular "recommended" values to use for each specific, like those the rest of us will see on the listing form or will be able to access in bulk when this eBay page is repaired. So, it really just gets down to what will remain of your Item Specifics after the structured data is applied to each category.
I think the result will be the same whether or not you use a listing tool. If the old Item Specs are purged because they don't match the new structure, you'll have to re-enter the new data. Thus, if you feel you want to save and reference your old specs, then you should make backups using the scanner tool. If you just want to start fresh, then wait until after the purge and bulk edit your listings.
Those who made up headings for their Item Specifics and who know the data is still valid (and should to be moved to a new heading) are probably the ones who should back up their Item Specifics for later reference.
You're welcome! I'm glad you got that settled.
To all-
I want to link to these two Seller Update threads that relate to this topic because we have a staff response in the first one.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Inventory-Optimization/Category-changes-and-item-specifics-updates/m-p...
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Inventory-Optimization/Reporting-Category-Change-and-Item-Specifics-Pr...
Since they asked to be notified in that thread, I'm letting @tree*fern and @coffeebean832 know this particular tool is posted. This is the archiving side of the solution. Sellers who think they might be affected can archive their Item Specifics. The other half of the solution will be a tool to bulk edit the Item Specifics, and that will be available after eBay fixes their broken page.
The current tool does not process out-of-stock items or adult items, but will be able to do so when I get the File Exchange input added in the next day or so.
