eBay Eliminates Music Categories

[Rudy]

Quite an outrage from some eBay users: apparently eBay has begun eliminating categories from their Music section. This has caused a few problems:

1) Sellers who relisted items this week had to start over from scratch, since their originally chosen categories no longer exist.

2) Buyers who browsed categories are no longer able to do so.

3) A lot of buyers who used Favorite Searches came into their accounts to find their searches using these categories have been removed from their favorites list.

There is currently a protest auction posted on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4002682442&category=306

Some I know are either e-mailing or calling eBay to complain. I personally use keyword searches for everything, so it doesn't affect me...but I do not like the fact that it has removed a useful tool that many eBay buyers and sellers used.

Part of it may be eBay's move toward putting categories into URLs...which I've only seen used when they place ads on search engines (like Google's AdWords).

It will be interesting to see if eBay chooses to listen to their customers, or the boardroom, in this matter.

 

[W.B.]

Alas, it isn't just for Music categories; the same is true for those selling old VHS videos or DVD's on eBay as well. I should know. I handle all the above media (records, cassettes, DVD's, VHS's) in selling on eBay on behalf of assorted friends. Likewise, there were modifications to those selling old books on eBay.

Also, when I clicked on that "protest auction" you mentioned, it had apparently been eliminated since they claim it is no longer valid, or had expired, or something.

 

[andywithaz]

Oh somebody get the nitroglycerin (sp?)!!

 

[Rudy]

Also, when I clicked on that "protest auction" you mentioned, it had apparently been eliminated since they claim it is no longer valid, or had expired, or something.

I almost expected that. My guess is the seller cancelled it so he wouldn't have to pay the fees, or eBay cancelled it to eliminate bad publicity.

Wish I'd made a screen shot of it, now that I think of it. It wasn't anything special, except for the seller posting a lot of the support e-mail he got in the body of his description.

I'm not often a seller, but at least I know, going in, that the next time I list a few things to sell, I'll have to download another update to TurboLister.

 

[Rudy]

Update: someone I know on another forum has taken time to investigate this, and it appears that you can now make similar sub-category selections through the "Item Specifics". In effect, the end result is nearly the same, but buyers will still have to adjust their surfing habits.

Another related note: one big eBay seller I'm acquainted with is now having to relist 500+ CD titles due to the change. So in effect, this seller's business has been slightly derailed while they adjust to the new system. Not a huge deal, but if anything, an annoyance.

 

[aymnostalgico]

I was not familiar with this news, even though I buy occasionally on ebay. I am pretty sure everyone who sells have gotten a letter from ebay about the changes to come? I hope, otherwise this is not a good business practice if they didn't send advice or ways to cope with the change and what to do.

 

[Rudy]

No such luck--eBay just sprang it on everyone. I think it was like a case of the sellers knowing there was a change coming, but knowing what was changing, and when. One seller I know ("jonifan") who runs a business on eBay said that nothing was mentioned to them. And now he's having to manually relist under the new system. The new system will probably end up working similarly, but the way eBay apparently implemented it was clumsy at best.

 

[ephemeral daisy]

Ebay has a particularly nasty habit of shooting first & asking questions later. The good thing is that if their customers raise enough sand, they'll usually back down...for the time being anyway. They eliminated the little new auction sunshine a while back, but brought it back in less than a week because of all the complaints. Maybe they'll do the same here.


Ephemeral Daisy


(I can't get enough of that emoticon! It is quite possibly the coolest smiley ever. It reminds me of the opening credits for The Twilight Zone. Heh.)