Listing information

[beverly1525]

1.  When listing I see E-Bay predetermined areas for input, many don't apply to my item and I leave them blank.

2. I see others putting a period in these spaces so all are filled. 

   How does this affect customer visibility, is it better with 2 ?

[ckimodog]

@beverly1525 

Many of us experience this.  Items specifics definitely needs some improvements and updating.  Just type in "does not apply" in the items specifics.  It's acceptable. 

Happy Selling!

[hartungcards]

Just leave them blank.  It looks dopey with #2.

[pjcdn2005]

I leave it blank as well. If you leave it blank the buyer will then see only the specifics that you filled out. The other ones will not show at all.   It looks silly and is annoying for a buyer to have to scroll through a bunch of item specifics with do not apply next to them. 

[slippinjimmy]

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@beverly1525 wrote:

1.  When listing I see E-Bay predetermined areas for input, many don't apply to my item and I leave them blank.

2. I see others putting a period in these spaces so all are filled. 

   How does this affect customer visibility, is it better with 2 ?

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DO NOT insert "garbage" into OPTIONAL Item Specifics, if it doesn't apply to your listing leave it blank. Putting anything else can only hurt you by making your listing invisible to buyer who refine their searches.

The only field where "Does Not Apply" is generally applicable is the UPC/ISBN field in the Categories where it is a required but the item does not have a UPC/ISBN.

[inhawaii]

I put totally irrelevent words in my item specifics.

That way if someone looking for a ford pinto muffler bracket stumbles across my listing for a widget, they just may buy it!    😉

[martin2001]

They may even buy something that you don't even have listed ... 🙂

[buyselljack2016]

keyword spamming

Great idea, NOT🙃

Bored again today out there in the Pacific ???

[jimw1776]

I miss the old way of listing.

I find this newer way (it's old now...they'll probably change it) tedious and time-consuming.

Sorry...just had to vent😉

[chapeau-noir]

I don't even remember the old way of listing. I *do* remember the painful iterations some years back until we got to this version , though.

[mam98031]

One thing it affects it that when the Ebay search engine searches for whatever was put into the search bar, it not only searches titles but it also searches the ISBs [item specific boxes].

[brightlightbookseller]

We had heard from the dedicated eBay support, when we had access to it, that filling in all "Recommended" item specifics (but not worrying about the Optional ones unless they mattered in that instance) would give us a boost in our search results.  We've been testing it for a while, but I can't say we confirmed it.  We usually put something like "N/A" or "Unknown" in the fields that don't apply, depending on how it's worded.

[turtles-trading-post]

If you leave them blank you get the nagging  " Missing Recommended Item Specifics" message on each listing, as well as at the top of my page... yea it says I have 813 items to fix!

As said here, the item specifics look like they were decided by a team of eight graders who don't speak English. Nobody is going to search for postal history by COLOR  and MODIFIED doesn't apply.

In my US Postal History category there is  State....  it gives choices of the 50 states, BUT doesn't have Washington DC or the US territories.  I do type those in.

[fern*wood]

I'm pretty sure I read here on the board that a rep said to skip any specifics that do not apply.

[dhbookds]

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@fern*wood wrote:

I'm pretty sure I read here on the board that a rep said to skip any specifics that do not apply.

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You're right.......ebay has said innumerable times to leave non applicable IS blank.......  Obviously, required ones have to be filled in but no need (or benefit) to fill in "No" for character if there isn't a character........

Filling in them in just lengthens the IS area and the space is totally wasted, not good for mobile.....and aggravating on a PC......at least to me.