Selling on both UK and US ebay sites simultaneously
Sheila
don't know if anyone will still read this. However, I'll give it a try.
I want to display paintings on both the UK and US sites simultaneously.
I was told by eBay Help team that if I selected "Worldwide" when
filling in the seller's form this would basically happen.
I have found that what does happen is that I can see the listing on
ebay.co.uk with no problem and of course can also identify it through
keyword, item number and so on. But when I go to the ebay.com (US) site
although I can identify it by keyword, item number etc. ( and it shows
up with the currency converted to dollars), I cannot find it in any of
the expected listing categories.
There is a problem with slight differences between the UK and US
categories for art. I don't know if this is the same with other types
of items. So the categories that I normally select for my UK painting
auctions do not exist with exactly the same wording on the US site. I
have tried to find the nearest category to the UK ones whilst searching
ebay.com but I cannot locate the item in any of the American listings.
I am inclined to believe it isn't actually there. Therefore, if an
American buyer knows my name or item number and searches ebay.com for
that then he/she will locate my item, no problem. But if an American
buyer is just browsing through say, Art>Self Representing Artists on
ebay.com (or any of the other Art categories) they will not come across
my painting.
Responses to this question from ebay Help have tended to evade the
issue and makes me suspect that they don't know or won't say. Or it
could be they are not reading my question properly.
If my painting is listed in ebay.com how can I know which category they
are using? If I have to register separately with ebay.com to get my
stuff in the American listings I assume I have to pay them separate
fees.
Anyone any ideas?
Sheila
Lumpy
Look at your listing on the US site.
At the very top of the listing, above
the auction item title, you should see
"listed in category: blah> smaller blah> oil smaller blah"
Lumpy
--
Blah, Blay, Blee, Bloh, Bloo
www.lumpyvoice.org
Don Lancaster
NEVER sell foreign!
http://www.tinaja.com/glib/ebaysell.pdf
--
Many thanks,
Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
rss: http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml email: d...@tinaja.com
Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com
Rainer Bauer
>I have found that what does happen is that I can see the listing on
>ebay.co.uk with no problem and of course can also identify it through
>keyword, item number and so on. But when I go to the ebay.com (US) site
>although I can identify it by keyword, item number etc. ( and it shows
>up with the currency converted to dollars), I cannot find it in any of
>the expected listing categories.
Do you mean you cannot find it when browsing the categories?
It would be helpful if you tell us the exact category where you have listed
the item on ebay.co.uk.
Rainer
--
Munnin - Ultrafast eBay-Browser with many features!
http://www.munnin.com
Sheila
Thanks Lumpy. I already did what you suggest though. The result I get
is that it shows the UK categories - which do not exist on ebay.com.
Also they are not clickable links as they are in ebay.co.uk
Sheila
definitely buyer trends in the US which are insignificant in the UK. So
I do need to try both.
Sheila
painting sales are: Art>Artists(Self Representing)>Paintings>Acrylic.
I also post on Art>Artists(Self Representing)>Paintings>Oil
These categories do not exist on the American site. They do have a
"Self Representing Artists" but it is not a sub-set of "Artists" and it
is not followed by the same options as I have in UK.
R. Totale
>Thanks for responding Rainer. The categories I normally use for my UK
>painting sales are: Art>Artists(Self Representing)>Paintings>Acrylic.
>I also post on Art>Artists(Self Representing)>Paintings>Oil
>These categories do not exist on the American site. They do have a
>"Self Representing Artists" but it is not a sub-set of "Artists" and it
>is not followed by the same options as I have in UK.
This has been a problem in one of the areas I buy in (Lp records) for
a while. eBay US reduced the category structure to a minimum, but
retained in in the UK. UK sellers carefully select the proper
category for their items, and in the US they just get dumped into
Music->Records->Other. If these are your own work and you're getting
better response in the US for some items, I would consider signing on
to the US site and listing these items from there. The price will show
in USD rather than UKP, and you'll probably have to pay a bit more in
Paypal conversion charges, but if these do sell better in the US you
do want them to be seen here, and using the US category structure is
probably going to be the best way to insure this.
Lumpy
> Thanks Lumpy. I already did what you
> suggest though. The result I get
> is that it shows the UK categories
> - which do not exist on ebay.com.
> Also they are not clickable links
> as they are in ebay.co.uk
Hmmm. In a lot of cases, the category is relatively
insignificant. People probably tend to search for
"Epson Printer Cartridge" or "GI Joe Village People
Costume" or "Discarded letters to gahwud". They don't
(probably don't) go to a category and browse the
items, simply because there are just way too many
items in any category.
But I don't know how people would look for oil
paintings.
Are there categories that are appropriate to your
painting that exist in both UK and US sites?
Perhaps more importantly, have you fully explored
the work/expense/problems involved in shipping an
oil painting from the UK to the US?
Lumpy
--
How come you didn't star on Star Trek?
Because Clint Howard beat me for the part of Balok.
www.lumpyvoice.org
Sheila
items "just got dumped" in another category. If that is true for mine
then I would like to know what category that is, so I suppose I shall
just have to search hard to find out. Otherwise, I think your advice is
sound and I should consider listing the items from ebay.com as well as
or instead of eBay.co.uk.
Many thanks,
Sheila
Sheila
Thanks to all of you for responding with clarity and intelligence. All
of you gave good advice much of which I shall follow. I tried doing a
search for "Paintings" on the American site because I thought that
someone who just wanted to buy a painting for the home would perhaps do
that and what do you know, my painting was in its correct place in the
list. I then clicked on the painting above mine to see what category it
was in and the one below mine as well. Both were in the same category
(which is different to mine). When I clicked on my painting it showed
me the same old UK categories I had used in the first place. So it
still wasn't telling me what American categories it was using - if any.
(Because I had done a keyword search on a generic term "paintings" it
didn't just select items from one category).
I then decided to do a specific keyword search for the particular
painting in question in all the possible American categories
separately. And I discovered that it had categorised my item in the
"Art" category with specifying further. This is ok, so I think I will
not bother subscribing to ebay.com at the moment.
By the way, the help and advice I got from this group this afternoon
far exceeds any help I have had from eBay itself. They are quick to
respond but they do not answer your question directly. I still don't
know if it is deliberate or just sloppy.
Many, many thanks once again..
Cheers
Sheila
Rainer Bauer
>Thanks for responding Rainer. The categories I normally use for my UK
>painting sales are: Art>Artists(Self Representing)>Paintings>Acrylic.
>I also post on Art>Artists(Self Representing)>Paintings>Oil
>These categories do not exist on the American site. They do have a
>"Self Representing Artists" but it is not a sub-set of "Artists" and it
>is not followed by the same options as I have in UK.
Art [550] > Artists(Self Representing) [60435] > Paintings [60437] > Acrylic
[60438]
Well, let's see: the top level category "Art" [550] is fine for US and GB.
But none of the other subcategories exist on ebay.com. I.e. the category
handle's [60435, 60437, 60438] ***do not exist at all*** on ebay.com.
In this case I would suppose that eBay will only show items from the GB
category 60438, if someone is browsing "ebay.com > Arts". But even that is not
correct, I just checked it for an item (that is basically what you said in
your original message).
Like others have mentioned before: most people are searching the categories,
so personally I would not put too much weight into the fact that the item is
not showing up when browsing eBay (nobody is really browsing the Arts category
where >200k items are listed).
If you do want them to show up, you will have to select a category that exists
on both platforms. Category 552 for example is present on both platforms:
Art [550] > Drawings [20119] > Contemporary (1950-Now) [552]
You could then still list them in your original category, if you use it as the
second category (I just checked this out, too: Items listed on GB in category
552 will show up when browsing the US category).
Rainer
PS: If you want to know on which listing page an item is currently displayed
you can use this URL: http://listings.ebay.co.uk/aw/listings/?item=XXXXXXXXXX
(replace XXXXXXXXXX by the item handle). However, this only works on the
platform where the item was listed!
R. Totale
wrote:
>In this case I would suppose that eBay will only show items from the GB
>category 60438, if someone is browsing "ebay.com > Arts". But even that is not
>correct
No, what they do is send the item into a catchall faux-category like
"Other" under whatever topmost level category the two sites have in
common. As I said, this is a real problem in Records, look at
160045801708
for example. This item is five levels deep in the UK category system,
(as shown at the top of the listing in links which are on the US site
not clickable), but in the US it's hidden under Music->Records->Other.
Rainer Bauer
Really?
First: There is no category Music>Records>Other, only Music>Records.
Second: All items listed in the GB category "Pop: 1960s" [25602] will only
turn up when searching "ebay.com > Music" but in none of the subcategories.
Why? Because there is no category with handle 25602 on ebay.com.
Rainer
R. Totale
wrote:
>R. Totale wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 04 Nov 2006 20:16:30 +0100, Rainer Bauer <use...@munnin.com>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>In this case I would suppose that eBay will only show items from the GB
>>>category 60438, if someone is browsing "ebay.com > Arts". But even that is not
>>>correct
>>
>>No, what they do is send the item into a catchall faux-category like
>>"Other" under whatever topmost level category the two sites have in
>>common. As I said, this is a real problem in Records, look at
>>
>>160045801708
>>
>>for example. This item is five levels deep in the UK category system,
>>(as shown at the top of the listing in links which are on the US site
>>not clickable), but in the US it's hidden under Music->Records->Other.
>
>Really?
>
>First: There is no category Music>Records>Other, only Music>Records.
>Second: All items listed in the GB category "Pop: 1960s" [25602] will only
>turn up when searching "ebay.com > Music" but in none of the subcategories.
>
>Why? Because there is no category with handle 25602 on ebay.com.
Sorry, I misspoke. On the US site the =only= category for records is
Music->Records, the "Other" is actually an Item Specific. In the case
above there are other Item Specific designations that would have fit
better ("Pop", for one) - but the US site makes no attempt to map from
sites where there is still a functioning category structure to the
Item specific structure they imposed here, they just dump them all
into "Other".
Rainer Bauer
>>>for example. This item is five levels deep in the UK category system,
>>>(as shown at the top of the listing in links which are on the US site
>>>not clickable), but in the US it's hidden under Music->Records->Other.
>>
>>Really?
>>
>>First: There is no category Music>Records>Other, only Music>Records.
>>Second: All items listed in the GB category "Pop: 1960s" [25602] will only
>>turn up when searching "ebay.com > Music" but in none of the subcategories.
>>
>>Why? Because there is no category with handle 25602 on ebay.com.
>
>Sorry, I misspoke. On the US site the =only= category for records is
>Music->Records, the "Other" is actually an Item Specific. In the case
>above there are other Item Specific designations that would have fit
>better ("Pop", for one) - but the US site makes no attempt to map from
>sites where there is still a functioning category structure to the
>Item specific structure they imposed here, they just dump them all
>into "Other".
The item specifics and the category structure have no connection.
You will *never* find items listed in
ebay.co.uk > Music > Records > 7'' Singles > Pop & Beat: 1960s > Pop: 1960s
when *browsing* category "Music > Records" on ebay.com, because the category
handles are different:
US: "Music > Records" [306]
GB: "Music > Records" [1071]
Let me know if I am wrong and you find this item...
R. Totale
wrote:
>R. Totale wrote:
You are wrong, that's how I found the example to give above. On the US
Site, go to Music->Records (~45,000 ending today). Use no Item
specifics, browse the whole category. Scan through looking for items
priced in UKP and click on some. You will see many which were entered
into actual categories on the UK site.
R. Totale
wrote:
>Let me know if I am wrong and you find this item...
Actually I was wrong in my first reply to this, but it's so weird I
cannot figure it out at all. If you just go to Music->Records and
choose no IS as I just said, you are right, you do not see items in
the deeper UK category structure. If you then choose the "Other" Item
Specific under Genre in Music->Records, you do see them. If you then
=unchoose= Other (go back to "See all options"), those UK records,
invisible before, remain browseable. 20,000 of them.
Rainer Bauer
Well that explains why we got different results.
I checked it out and it seems they added something new when browsing
categories. When I browse category "Music > Records" [306] on ebay.com:
http://listings.ebay.com/_W0QQsocmdZListingItemList?sacat=306
it shows 145k items.
Now after doing what you said (item specifics: Genre > Other and then undo),
the URL will change. Interestingly, the "sacat" argument is -100 in the new
URL, i.e. invalid. After some testing, I found the new category parameter is
"pfid": http://listings.ebay.com/_W0QQsocmdZListingItemList?pfid=1268
This will show 240k items, including those from the (non-existing) UK
categories.
This behaviour makes browsing pretty non-determistic.
Sometimes I wish they would stop playing with their system and start spending
their time to create a reliable system with good customer service...