a few items that would make eBay more practical and relevant (in my opinion)

[kalandry]

a) I can understand  that you need to understand the product that is being sold/bought

    MPN is one number that is requested (required?).  Finding the MPN is not trivial.. seems it would be easier for the sellers/buyers to have a straight forward way to find the MPN for the product of interest quickly

b) there are some items that are not necessary ( in my opinion) that are currently required. For example for golf balls  there is a request (requirement?) to have the golf ball related to an event. (i.e. The Masters golf event)  I don't think that is useful (and I believe now it is not required.. but saves typing 

c) bidding to me is not straight forward... .. one example can think of is a person who puts a bid on the product and the seller is not completely aware of it.. and when the bid posts ..  possibly putting a reminder on the bid when it is to expire..

Hope this is helpful

[femmefan1946]

c) Do you mean when we send a Best Offer to Viewers of a particular listing?

I believe we get an email when we get a response to a BO, just as we do when an item sells, when a customer pays, when we get a BO on a listing,or when a customer's BO meets the acceptable parameters we have set on BO.

Are you not getting those notices?

possibly putting a reminder on the bid when it is to expire..

Who would be getting the reminder?

The seller should be getting a notice if the buyer accepts the offer and the buyer should not be annoyed by notices about an offer they did not like enough to accept.

[1-of-1memorabilia]

What about every item being able to be found by sellers that was purchased on eBay.  How does that effect you?  If they see you bought it for $30 and you are trying to sell it for $50 they will buy a different one if available.  

[1786davycrockett]

@kalandry 

If the MPN number is not required, don't worry about it.

Many manufacturers don't use MPNs -- likewise, many manufacturers produce new MPNS each time they introduce a new product -- and, very often, the old MPNs don't fit on the new product models.

It is more important to accurately describe the item which you are attempting to sell, rather than guessing at an MPN which may be worn away, or entirely obliterated.

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

Are you saying if the seller buys it on EBay for $30 and is now selling it for $50 the buyer will see that and not buy it?

Yeah...buyer is highly unlikely to spot that... I would know...

[susanb1872]

I think you are confusing the word "requested" with "optional". For any given item, ebay requires certain item specifics and the rest are optional. Ebay encourages you to use the item specifics because they think it will help buyers find your item easier depending on how the buyer does a search. I have never entered a MPN of UPC in item specifics. Just fill in the item specifics that you think would be useful to a potential buyer.

[femmefan1946]

@susanb1872 

For Books ISBNs are required, but many older books don't have one since the program only started in the late '60s and was hit and miss through the '70s.

But eBay does allow the use of Not Applicable  or n/a instead.

[1786davycrockett]

@femmefan1946 

"For Books ISBNs are required, but many older books don't have one since the program only started in the late '60s and was hit and miss through the '70s.

But eBay does allow the use of Not Applicable  or n/a instead."

Or "Does Not Apply," which is used by many booksellers on eBay.

BUT. . .

As has been noted many times previously, many eBay sellers are entering ISBN numbers inaccurately.

ISBN numbers are the publishers codes which identify certain individual EDITIONS of book titles, but may NOT accurately reflect the edition which an eBay seller may be attempting to list.

An example that I frequently mention is that of the eBay seller who had listed a later edition of the 1945 Pocket Books edition of THE HIGH WINDOW by Raymond Chandler; but the seller had mistakenly included a much later ISBN number in his listing -- and that particular ISBN listing was for an edition of THE HIGH WINDOW that had included an introduction by another mystery writer, who had not even been BORN until long after 1945!  Plus that ISBN number was listed to an entirely different publisher, and included a different page count than the 1945 edition.

So, due to the eBay seller's ignorance regarding ISBN numbers, the information provided in the seller's description of the book was incorrect -- leaving the seller open to a "not as described" case.

Additionally, the eBay book catalogue is a dumping ground for inaccurate information:  incomplete titles, as well as incomplete authors' names; incorrect genres; wrong publishing companies; erroneous publication dates; invalid page counts; mixed-up book descriptions; imprecise information concerning introductory and afterwords material; imprecise age ranges; and so on, and so on.

The moral is -- a seller should NOT use the ISBN number in the item description, until the seller has verified ALL the information in the eBay book catalogue against that ISBN number -- because 90% of the time, the eBay book catalogue is WORTHLESS.

In other words -- "Does Not Apply."

[maxine*j]

---

@1786davycrockett wrote:

As has been noted many times previously, many eBay sellers are entering ISBN numbers inaccurately...

Additionally, the eBay book catalogue is a dumping ground for inaccurate information:  incomplete titles, as well as incomplete authors' names; incorrect genres; wrong publishing companies; erroneous publication dates; invalid page counts; mixed-up book descriptions; imprecise information concerning introductory and afterwords material; imprecise age ranges; and so on, and so on...

Amen!

.

[femmefan1946]

Yup.

To say nothing of ISBNs for audiobooks that lead to Catalogue descriptions of hardcovers, when the actual book in question is a vintage (pre-1960) paperback.

Way back there was an ISBN for Anne of Green Gables which led to a Description for Lady Chatterley's Lover. Or possibly vice versa.

Not Applicable should be more widely used.

[1786davycrockett]

@femmefan1946 

"Not Applicable should be more widely used."

Hear, hear!

I am beyond sick & tired of seeing the eBay catalogue listing nonfiction books as fiction, and vice versa.

[brightlightbookseller]

As a book seller primarily, I strongly agree.  While I'm sure we make mistakes, this is an area we focus on, making sure we use the right ISBN or none if the book doesn't have one printed in/on it.  Anything prior to the early 1970s can't have an ISBN, and even many later books don't.  N/A works great, fortunately, and is quick to type.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

@1786davycrockett 

Book annotation on Ebay is hit or miss depending on the skills of the seller and whether he gives a **bleep**.

Many sellers copy the information from whatever edition they can first find in the search.

Add to that the complications caused by reprints, including the print on demand books.

No one is going to support the idea of a test which must be passed by a seller before they can offer books, nor will there be much support for an Amazon-like catalog which would only partially reduce the problems.

MPN's and used products are close to impossible to deal with, as are UPCs.

Trying to make Ebay more orderly is not going to happen because much of the merchandise being offered is suitable for a jumble sale, and the buyers need to have a jumble sale mentality. This is a fundamental conflict because Ebay wants to continue to grow beyond its decreasing buyer base to include more typical shoppers.

[femmefan1946]

The AZ catalogue is worse. We were exclusive distributors for a line of specialized hobby books (BNAPS ) and could not persuade AZ to let us sell them because they had no others like them listed.

And any ISBN with an X in the number, like many early ones, will be rejected, along with most non-US numbers, even Penguin numbers.

[1786davycrockett]

@tobaccocardyahoo 

Back in 2017, I regularly was emailing brian_burke@ebay  regarding issues that I was encountering with the eBay book catalogue, particularly the manner in which book publishers were ending older ISBN numbers, only to re-issue the identical ISBN number with entirely DIFFERENT titles at future dates.

After I had sent several of these emails, I received an email from brian_burke@ebay  requesting that I no longer refer that information to him, but rather to the individual at eBay who was in charge of making corrections to the catalogue.

Unfortunately that individual never acknowledged receiving any of my emails, nor were ANY of the changes that I had suggested ever implemented.

In other words, eBay is not interested in correcting the errors on their own catalogue.

Which is the major reason that I no longer find it useful to use the eBay catalogue.

I'll stick with "Does Not Apply" instead of entering an ISBN number to my listings.