Ebay comic categories not working... 9 9

[goldust40]

“Optimal visibility”. So when you go into a department store the staff have to show you everything in it before you can access what you’re actually after, you know, just in case you don’t know exactly what you want. 
 

So making it impossible to search for anything specific will optimise our experience. Has there ever been an eBay revamp that was customer friendly?

[jharvey]

If they made "Era" a required field, then this may actually work out eventually. A vast amount of listings don't have Era populated.

Edited May 12, 2021 by jharvey

[GACollectibles]

Yesterday ebay sent an email(see 1st screenshot) regarding changes in the Trading Cards category, as you can see after July certain Item Specifics will be required to keep listing active.  I would imagine that ebay will do the same with Comics and require certain Item Specifics to be filled out such as Era, Production Year or possibly two options they used to require on certain listings (Publisher & Character) . As of now there is an Era option(2nd screenshot) for Item Specifics which then shows up in item search pages on the left, not as main Category choice but as additional Item Specific detail.

The worst thing is that the Era detail could have been carried from an existing listing to the new format, which it did not do.

Trading Cards changes

Spoiler

Seller Protections    Seller Hub    Seller Center    Podcasts

We’re optimizing trading card listings Starting May 11, you’ll be asked to add new info to your listings that will help more buyers discover your items. Learn more  ➔

Now you can list sports cards by product type • Sports cards will be changing from sports categories into product type categories. Select from singles, packs, boxes, and more. • You’ll be required to choose a Sport under item specifics when listing. • If you don’t update your listings to the appropriate category, they will automatically be categorized as Sports Trading Card Singles.

Item specifics are required for all trading cards After July, you’ll be required to fill out these item specifics to keep your listing live: • “Sports” under Sports Trading Cards. • “Game” under Collectible Card Games. • “Franchise” under Non-Sports Trading Cards.

New options for graded and ungraded cards • You’ll also be required to select if your card is graded or not in item specifics for single card categories. • Graded cards have additional item specifics, like Grade, Professional Grader, and Certification Number.

 

 

 

Item Specific details for Comic listing w/Era option

[Transplant]

25 minutes ago, GACollectibles said:

 

The worst thing is that the Era detail could have been carried from an existing listing to the new format, which it did not do.

 

You should start a threa........nevermind. 

[1Cool]

And the hits keep on coming.  Now I've got a couple offers that I can't respond to since it keeps giving me an error when I submit my counter offer.  I will give it E-Bay they certainly love to mess with the people making them millions of dollars.

[Bludriver]

The only way this will work is if ebay eventually requires that you put the era/age in when creating a listing. Otherwise, people will just either ignore/forget this and it will be a mess like it is now.

[MyNameIsLegion]

3 hours ago, GACollectibles said:

Yesterday ebay sent an email(see 1st screenshot) regarding changes in the Trading Cards category, as you can see after July certain Item Specifics will be required to keep listing active.  I would imagine that ebay will do the same with Comics and require certain Item Specifics to be filled out such as Era, Production Year or possibly two options they used to require on certain listings (Publisher & Character) . As of now there is an Era option(2nd screenshot) for Item Specifics which then shows up in item search pages on the left, not as main Category choice but as additional Item Specific detail.

The worst thing is that the Era detail could have been carried from an existing listing to the new format, which it did not do.

Trading Cards changes

  Reveal hidden contents

Seller Protections    Seller Hub    Seller Center    Podcasts

We’re optimizing trading card listings Starting May 11, you’ll be asked to add new info to your listings that will help more buyers discover your items. Learn more  ➔

Now you can list sports cards by product type • Sports cards will be changing from sports categories into product type categories. Select from singles, packs, boxes, and more. • You’ll be required to choose a Sport under item specifics when listing. • If you don’t update your listings to the appropriate category, they will automatically be categorized as Sports Trading Card Singles.

Item specifics are required for all trading cards After July, you’ll be required to fill out these item specifics to keep your listing live: • “Sports” under Sports Trading Cards. • “Game” under Collectible Card Games. • “Franchise” under Non-Sports Trading Cards.

New options for graded and ungraded cards • You’ll also be required to select if your card is graded or not in item specifics for single card categories. • Graded cards have additional item specifics, like Grade, Professional Grader, and Certification Number.

 

 

 

Item Specific details for Comic listing w/Era option

the fact that they didn't map era category to the individual listing era is possibly the most egregiously incompetent thing I've ever seen from a billion dollar tech company- I mean it's several orders of magnitude dumb. You don't throw away product attributes and expect all the individual sellers to re-enter the same or similar attributes for 6 million listings just in the comics category.  You map it in the database and run a ---script, not push that responsibility to paying customers and tank all search options, ruins search filters, and royally PO buyers and sellers off all at once. They've broken their own site and made it each individual sellers responsibility to fix when most don't even know what or why or how. Rank amateurs and rank extreme arrogance. I hope they just go out of business.

Edited May 12, 2021 by MyNameIsLegion

[batcollector]

33 minutes ago, MyNameIsLegion said:

the fact that they didn't map era category to the individual listing era is possibly the most egregiously incompetent thing I've ever seen from a billion dollar tech company- I mean it's several orders of magnitude dumb. You don't throw away product attributes and expect all the individual sellers to re-enter the same or similar attributes for 6 million listings just in the comics category.  You map it in the database and run a ----script, not push that responsibility to paying customers and tank all search options, ruins search filters, and royally PO buyers and sellers off all at once. They've broken their own site and made it each individual sellers responsibility to fix when most don't even know what or why or how. Rank amateurs and rank extreme arrogance. I hope they just go out of business.

Completely agree.  Don't know why they carried the character attribute over but not the era.

I believe this will really hurt the auction sellers the most.  

[MyNameIsLegion]

5 minutes ago, batcollector said:

Completely agree.  Don't know why they carried the character attribute over but not the era.

I believe this will really hurt the auction sellers the most.  

and, the last 20 years, since BIN was introduced, we know that eBay HATES auctions. They want everything to be BIN. Sure, in some categories auctions seem reasonable and even expected, but on the whole, their core business is to just turn product as quickly as possible, and auctions slow that down. If a savvy competitor were to come along that ONLY did auctions, they'd really have the advantage...oh wait.  The jokes on us ha, ha, HA HA.

[James J Johnson]

2 hours ago, batcollector said:

.I believe this will really hurt the auction sellers the most.  

Absolutely. The way it is now, it's no longer an auction site. Not anymore than Amazon is an auction site. The old search results for Silver age Superhero comics generate a page with a list of off-ebay websites that deal in Silver-age comics. This is like being given a menu at a diner that lists the names and addresses of all the other eateries in the area, but nothing about what they serve and what you can order from them.

We've been saying for a few years now that ebay wants to become Amazon. Now they are.  

[James J Johnson]

2 hours ago, MyNameIsLegion said:

and, the last 20 years, since BIN was introduced, we know that eBay HATES auctions. They want everything to be BIN. Sure, in some categories auctions seem reasonable and even expected, but on the whole, their core business is to just turn product as quickly as possible, and auctions slow that down. If a savvy competitor were to come along that ONLY did auctions, they'd really have the advantage...oh wait.  The jokes on us ha, ha, HA HA.

This was easily predictable, once the managed payments initiated. 

[evilskip]

I decided to see how this affected picclick.com as it used to be faster than the ebay search engine. Using "Batman" "Silver Age" Superhero" I was greeted with 3, 692,626 items. Scrolled down quite a ways and there was very little Batman and nothing Silver Age.

So I went to ebay and went through the steps to get to the silver age, where only 5000 items are listed.

[rjpb]

So any other category I can blanket search by category or sub category without entering anything in the search bar, but not comics. WTF ebay?

[manetteska]

This may be a good time to snag auctions and/or newly-listed BINs as it's hard to find anything right now.

On the contrary... it's hard to find anything right now.

 

So when I use the back Categories -> Collectibles -> Comics I do get an Era sub-section. But when I click Golden Age there is yet another choice to make (Category or Publisher)? Can't I just look at all of them? And that's not even the end of it? I click on Horror and then have to choose a grade? I went through just clicking on things and ended up at this:

 

Not any listings, just links to other sites? This is some serious trash.

[James J Johnson]

1 hour ago, manetteska said:

it's hard to find anything right now.

Not any listings, just links to other sites? This is some serious trash.

The adage, "like looking for a needle in a haystack" comes to mind. 

Try searching for the Silver age Silver Surfer #1. The one and only; the original #1, 1968. The searches are beseiged with statues, dolls, toys, cards, and every other Silver Surfer comic from all eras even if not #1, but has a 1 in the title, as in #11, #12, #13, 1997, 2001, etc., etc., well, you get the idea.  Thankfully, I phased out buying and selling on ebay altogether quite awhile ago, opting for Heritage, Link, and Connect as my main resources. 

And as has been noted, any kind of genre or category search results in showing not ebay listings, oh no, that would be relevant. Genre or category searches for silly little categories like Golden age superhero or Silver age superhero result in links for off-ebay dealer websites, like if you were searching google. 

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by James J Johnson

[Get Marwood & I]

On 5/12/2021 at 8:20 AM, goldust40 said:

Has there ever been an eBay revamp that was customer friendly?

I'm generally a fan of eBay, Golders, as I get most of my comics from them (usually the ones no one else wants). And it's an invaluable research resource for people like me. But they do make it hard don't they.

Yesterday, the following three things happened:

1. I was reminded again that I had to go to managed payments if I want to carry on selling. I haven't looked into it that much, but what I have seen of it doesn't look overly inviting and I'm inclined not to join in. As a result, my 15 year selling history may now be at and end. Which would be a shame
2. As this thread has illustrated, searching has now become onerous. With perseverance, I can find what I want, but I have to click so many more times to get there and the various selections don't always seem to carry over to the next search
3. I was the high bidder at 99p on seven auctions which I knew, as they drew to the close, I would need to battle for to get them for their usual, natural selling price of around five or six pounds each. Then I get seven emails from eBay saying that my bids have been cancelled, and that I can see the reason for cancellation on the bid history page. I go there, and there is no explanation listed. The seven lots then appear as £20 BINs, giving me my answer. I used to think this kind of thing was against the rules but it seems sellers can do as they please nowadays if the largely impenetrable eBay Q&A pages / help functions are anything to go by

Not a great day to be an eBayer then. A company going out of its way, it seems, to get on peoples tits. Fortunately, mine are developing quite nicely in later life, so there is room for some more punishment yet.

[goldust40]

1 minute ago, Get Marwood & I said:

I'm generally a fan of eBay, Golders, as I get most of my comics from them (usually the ones no one else wants. And it's an invaluable research resource for people like me. But they do make it hard don't they.

Been on eBay since its wild west days, long before it got corporatized. Them were the days, when you could see who was bidding against you, you could call out and shut down shark or phony sellers and there was so much good stuff at reasonable (or better) prices. Gradually and incrementally eBay closed all the loopholes allowing you to datamine, or simply have fun. And just when you thought their last initiative wasn't draconian enough, they made the site even less of a pleasure. But it has been a goldmine for buyers such as me, allowing access to countless books I would have had no knowledge of, and so like yourself I rode out all the changes.

Until the last year or two. Not every single eBay change has been bad (not allowing buyers to receive negative feedback has generally been a good thing) but the site has been habitually counterintuitive in its revamps and price hikes. Plus it isn't the Aladdin's Cave it used to be - there's still good stuff, but it's thin on the ground. Back in the noughties I'd be bidding on stuff every day, practically. Now it's less than every other week.

You have to be philosophical - eBay can do what it likes. Last night I thought about a site like eBay that only did comics and other related collectibles. I figured that it'd barely make a dent in eBay's market share as the company got in on the ground floor, is too embedded and is global, and has been for many years.

So we're stuffed and will just have to lump it.

[Get Marwood & I]

19 minutes ago, goldust40 said:

Been on eBay since its wild west days, long before it got corporatized. Them were the days, when you could see who was bidding against you, you could call out and shut down shark or phony sellers and there was so much good stuff at reasonable (or better) prices. Gradually and incrementally eBay closed all the loopholes allowing you to datamine, or simply have fun. And just when you thought their last initiative wasn't draconian enough, they made the site even less of a pleasure. But it has been a goldmine for buyers such as me, allowing access to countless books I would have had no knowledge of, and so like yourself I rode out all the changes.

Until the last year or two. Not every single eBay change has been bad (not allowing buyers to receive negative feedback has generally been a good thing) but the site has been habitually counterintuitive in its revamps and price hikes. Plus it isn't the Aladdin's Cave it used to be - there's still good stuff, but it's thin on the ground. Back in the noughties I'd be bidding on stuff every day, practically. Now it's less than every other week.

You have to be philosophical - eBay can do what it likes. Last night I thought about a site like eBay that only did comics and other related collectibles. I figured that it'd barely make a dent in eBay's market share as the company got in on the ground floor, is too embedded and is global, and has been for many years.

So we're stuffed and will just have to lump it.

Spot on summary there Andy. The things you used to be able to do in the early days. Unthinkable now. And I agree with your current content summary - very slim pickings nowadays isn't it. Add to that the fact that everyone knows what everything is worth now and prices accordingly. And I swear that some people must sit there 24/7 swiping all the rare bargains, as they appear.

On you last point, you're right again. They can do what they like, eBay, and do, just like most companies today. It's the same with the company whose site we are on right now - a hundred reasons for us to complain about this and that but, at the end of the day, it gets dark, and they can do as they please. All we can ever really control is the extent to which we involve ourselves. Accordingly, I'm off to perform my six thousandth eBay search this week for Charltons. Wish me luck!

[PeterPark]

5 hours ago, goldust40 said:

 

You have to be philosophical - eBay can do what it likes. Last night I thought about a site like eBay that only did comics and other related collectibles. I figured that it'd barely make a dent in eBay's market share as the company got in on the ground floor, is too embedded and is global, and has been for many years.

 

I was thinking about this too. I guess there is mycomicshop, which might be the closest thing, but there is no site dedicated only to mediating sales of comic books with interests relating only to making selling easy and transparent. Wouldn't it be great if item specifics would be preloaded based on their database instead of other listings? Of course there must still be a way to put in unique items and the like but that can be worked out. It would be a lot of work up front but if an enterprising business like CGC or I really don't know would lead the way, the initial cost could be absorbed. A site like that would still get theirs taking a percentage of each sale without having to verify everything in hand, like CC or Comiclink or HA, and turnaround times could be shorter. Paypal might even want to get involved if that system hasn't been totally broken. There's a lot to it, and they would need a legal team, but the desire is there, I think, just not the outlet. For those that are interested in these kinds of things, they could run exclusive variants too, as that seems to drum up a lot of business. Give ebay competition against something better and focus only on being the sales venue for comics and comic-related merchandise. It could be great.

[Get Marwood & I]

10 hours ago, goldust40 said:

So we're stuffed and will just have to lump it.

I know you're watching the game Golders, but I've just noticed that Brexit is complete - our stuff is no longer showing in the EU listings:

We're free!