Some new features for trading card buyers/sellers

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Buy-sell-and-manage-your-trading-cards-with-two-new-feat...

I'm not a trading card seller or buyer, although I do have some around here that I'll eventually get to listing. But credit where credit is due....if ebay eventually brings this kind of focus to other categories, many of us might see some real benefits. 

[farmalljr]

eBay's "tool" for "trending" prices, is an abysmal failure. I'm not saying that because I want to "bash" on eBay, the tool is just not accurate or even useful. That tool, if working properly, could be a huge benefit to sellers. 

I do not have any confidence, that this "tool" will actually work right or be accurate. I don't sell trading cards, but IF I did, I would likely feel no different. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

As I said, I'm not a card seller, so I won't comment on the accuracy of the tool. My point is not so much about this specific tool, as it is about the fact that ebay has done a lot of things with this category (and I've seen positive and negative reactions from sellers about those changes), and it is an acknowledgement that different categories should be treated differently. Books, pots and pans, trading cards, etc they aren't the same things and I think there are things ebay could do on a category basis to improve sales.  At least ebay now recognizes that. 

[farmalljr]

If eBay creates a "tool" that does not help sellers or buyers, it's not acknowledgement of anything. 

Currently, when listing sports cards, sellers are required to select the "grading company" for the card(s). Most cards here are not graded that are listed here. Yet, if you want the listing to rank or be shown in search, you have to select a grading company. That did NOT help buyers or sellers. 

If you want to believe this is "positive" , then that's great. In my experince not much totally positive happens on this platform. The platform works, but not nearly as well as it could if more input from sellers were considered. 

[maximumnumbers]

I tried out the tool when it was announced, and I still can't stop laughing.
Not only does it not differentiate between the two main categories of 'Graded' and 'Ungraded', it doesn't differentiate between set, card finish, edition, or anything else besides keyword I'm led to think.
The test collection I uploaded of 36 cards was showing as worth upwards of $2,000 because it was skewing the prices by mixing graded and ungraded card sales, cards worth $5 were being shown as worth $100+  as a result.

I agree on the potential of it, but the implementation was absolutely wrong.

[ten_o_nine]

That's because there is no "customer acceptance testing" and they don't involve concerned sellers in the thought process of writing the requirements for their projects.

[marlin@collectibles]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques , @farmalljr , @maximumnumbers  & @ten_o_nine ... thank you everyone for your feedback on our Price Guide & Collection tools. We take each of your comments & suggestions and pass them on to or team who continues to work on improving the functionality of these tools. @my-cottage-books-and-antiques  ... the eventual plan is to expand the Price Guide & Collection tools to other categories as well. Please continue to provide us with feedback on your use and performance of the tools so we can work on improvements. Take care - Marlin

[coffeebean832]

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@maximumnumbers wrote:

I tried out the tool when it was announced, and I still can't stop laughing.
Not only does it not differentiate between the two main categories of 'Graded' and 'Ungraded', it doesn't differentiate between set, card finish, edition, or anything else besides keyword I'm led to think.
The test collection I uploaded of 36 cards was showing as worth upwards of $2,000 because it was skewing the prices by mixing graded and ungraded card sales, cards worth $5 were being shown as worth $100+  as a result.

I agree on the potential of it, but the implementation was absolutely wrong.

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This is not at all surprising. In Seller Hub- go to the Listing Improvements section under the Research header. The same exact thing happens there. eBay has "listing insights" and "underperforming" listings that can be analyzed- however all the data they compare you against is only a tiny piece of the puzzle. They do not factor in the difference between singles/lots/bundles, condition, etc. They tell you to lower prices on everything- but when you look at the number sold on eBay in the last 90 days and 90% of the sales are yours- why are they telling you to lower your price?

The idea of these tools is good- but the implementation is always lacking. If they can't fix the old tools- why are they bothering to invest in new tools that are similar and operate with the same flaws? We've provided tons of feedback on the old tools and have never seen changes made.

Go ahead, eBay- spend money expanding this to other categories without working out the major flaws. Invest in that instead of fixing the many technical issues and existing tool flaws. Sorry if that statement is cynical- I get really tired of things never working around here.

[marlin@collectibles]

@coffeebean832  We understand where you're coming from. A huge part of the reason we launched these features in beta is so we could take the time to listen to users and learn. Its our commitment to you that we're going to keep improving these features. Thank you for your feedback! - Marlin

[dhbookds]

marlin@collectibles 

In my opinion, every time Ebay releases something that is so patently bad, sellers lose confidence in Ebay's "common sense", and/or programing.   You may consider it "listening to users", most of us users consider that Ebay knows NOTHING about Ebay or how sellers use it and that's very discouraging to us.    If it's too much to expect that Ebay to know you can't compare 1y to 4y's, it makes everyone wonder why in the world you are trying to do anything........Improving things is great, but it would sure be nice to start off with a GOOD product to begin with.

[tev4all]

The only one that will benefit using the tool is ....

 the one that gathers the contents of each shovel full.

another, data gathering tool. 

[marlin@collectibles]

@dhbookds Thank you for your feedback about our platform. While we understand that the platform has room for improvement, that's precisely our goal to make it a more enjoyable, functional and user-friendly experience. Thank you for your valuable input! - Marlin

[marlin@collectibles]

@tev4all Thank you ... we do appreciate your feedback! Take care - Marlin

[coffeebean832]

marlin@collectibles- Here's an example of the "listing improvements" section in Seller Hub. eBay's suggestion was to lower my price on this "underperforming" listing.

I was the only seller on eBay with this item- sold out of my stock (quantity of 5) within 90 days- was priced lower than the trending online price of $42- the retail price was $49- yet eBay told me the listing was underperforming and I should lower my $33 (with free shipping and free returns) price tag. This is why sellers don't trust the suggestions made by eBay on things like pricing. Was the listing classified as underperforming because it sold slower than the $1.50 knock-offs moving en masse from sellers located in China?

[marlin@collectibles]

@coffeebean832 Thank you for providing your specific example. Its beneficial for eBay to see this type of feedback so we can build on the user experience! We are using the learnings from the Price Guide beta to drive further improvements to price guidance elsewhere in our platform. What type of insights would you like to see and how would you like them communicated? -Marlin