um my item specifics are half empty

[lasantino]

hi,  last october the item specifics fiasco messed up so many listings and the search results.

At some point ebay seemed to have mostly fixed the issue ,i thought.

I'm noticing, every listing I go to edit , anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 of the item specifics that ebay has designated as required are empty!..  even though I did have the date in the listing originally.      This seems to have suddenly started appearing on every listing i edit!..  any clue what is going on? there isn't any pattern that i can detect. Some of my listings have the current ebay required specific blank . But then below, in additional item specifics there will be the same specific , which i have filled out. but ebay didn't transfer it.  

[kinum-65]

I have been aggravated by this nonsense as well...

First it's really none of ebay's business how I chose to list, although yes I do see the logic behind them pushing this on us so ok but then... A lot of the specifics are not even related to my item at all, AI at its best again I'm sure.

And then...

It will bug me time and again over some specific (such as brand name) that I just KNOW I've entered!!!

And go to edit and I see it has "renamed" the brand name specific to something like manufactured by, and is now re-requesting a brand name and if I fill that in it will also rename it and in circles we go!

trinton@ebay.com please FIX the BUGS !!!

Read that again: please FIX THE BUGS!!!

One more time: please FIX THE BUGS!!!

[gwzcomps]

Yup eBay is breaking stuff again and making it our problem. Shame we can't sue eBay or make them compensate us for our losses we suffer due to their incompetence.

[lasantino]

here is a listing...

this is a listing that i filled out correctly..and it's been listed.. now suddenly ebay has removed my specifics.!

[lasantino]

so basically..  most of my very carefully listed items are now showing up as not having any item specifics selected,.. and we all know that ebay says, if you don't specify item specifics you're items are not likely to show up.

[gwzcomps]

Yeah. What I suspect they did was just erased the old item specifics options and replaced them with new ones. They couldn't be bothered to migrate the data into the new fields. Or just update the existing fields.

Threw the pig fetus out with the bath water as the saying goes.

[shipscript]

@lasantino 

Are the item specifics in your listings and just failing to populate slots when revising, or are the gone from your listings?

This tool will extract a report of your existing item specifics:

https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ItemSpecificScanner.htm

Did you revise item 173864524839 to add the missing values or did you abandon the revision?

[chapeau-noir]

My item specifics are fine, but when I go to sell similar a lapsed item, not only are the IS's gone, but the actual IS drop-downs are gone.  I figured it was just me.

[shipscript]

@lasantino 

I bulk scanned your items to extract item specifics

https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ItemSpecificScanner.htm

and made a report of category 45333 >> Clothing, Shoes & Accessories:Women:Women's Shoes:Flats

You have 64 listings in that category.

Using eBay's lookup tool, I downloaded eBay's list of item specifics associated with that category and saved as a plain text file:

https://developer.ebay.com/tools/item-specifics

Next, I merged those two reports in the Bulk Item Specifics Editor to create a spreadsheet of old and new

https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ItemSpecificsEditor.htm

Here is what I find:

You have your own item specifics like "Material", but eBay has now split that into "Lining Material",  "Insole Material", and "Outsole Material".

"Size" has been changed to "US Shoe Size (Women's)".

"Width" has been changed to "Shoe Width" and values like "Medium" are now shown as "M".

There are many changes like that. The spreadsheet editor can produce an onscreen grid for editing, or a report that you can paste into Excel in order to move the values to the new columns. In the case where values are changed (like from Medium to M) you may want to work with the droplists of options that are displayed in the online grid.  The tool droplists show the same values as eBay's online editor so that you will have consistent terms.

You can still keep your custom item specifics (on the left) that are not moved to the predefined columns (on the right).

This online Item Specifics Editor still has a ways to go to be efficient, but it might help you find a way to save and update your item specifics without one-at-time editing because its CSV report will interface with eBay's File Exchange for bulk listing updates. 

File Exchange would require the ItemID column and the columns for all Item Specifics (columns that start with C:  ) . All other columns can be removed from the spreadsheet.  The entire group of all desired Item Specifics must be included, since an upload that includes any item specifics will wipe out the item specifics that already exist in the listing.

[lasantino]

hi,, thanks so much for that link,,

i did revise the item and filled in the empty item specific fields.   

let me run this tool you linked to,, thanks so much.

[lasantino]

omg.. shipscript.. you are amazing.. my eyes almost glazed over reading your explanation.. i am going to wait til tomorrow when i'm not so exhausted and hopefully i can follow what you explained.

what you described is exactly what i've seen in my listings.. my question is.. so if ebay hasn't migrated over the old specifics into the corresponding specific..  like..  shoe size migrated to us shoe size.. does that mean my items aren't being indexed correctly for search.. or do you think ebay is including the old specifics also in search results..

[shipscript]

@lasantino 

On a desktop computer, if you look at the left column of search filters, you will see all of eBay's new filter names.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/Flats/45333/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_ssn=lasantino

If a buyer uses the filters in the left column and if your items do not use those filters (Item Specifics), it is unlikely your item will appear in search. If the buyer does not use those filters, and uses keywords instead, I suspect your items with matching phrases will appear.  However, in the fuzzy area where eBay is trying to map old to new, I suspect they have worked out the overlap in search and your items would appear in both cases (at least in the near term and for the significant matches).

[lasantino]

that's what i was afraid of.

why didn't ebay notify sellers it was going to change the item specifics..i mean, i always keep up to date on new item specifics requirements.. but ebay not only added new, but changed the name slightly of exisiting.. so basically. the new "us size" shows up empty,, even though i correctly input the "size" when i made the listing.

this isn't the same 

[chapeau-noir]

In my experience, eBay never notifies us of IS changes and leaves us to just stumble into them. They also seem to consider our time to be worthless with these constant unannounced, and often incomprehensible changes. If anything drives me off this platform, it will be that.