Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › Item Specifics 101: How to customize specifics for unique items?
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T-Satt.
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07/31/2018 at 2:15 pm #46524
I have been trying to understand this vital issue and have looked on youtube and on Ebay but cannot find answers that work for unique items. When listing, often there are no automatic fields provided for something that is very unique and I wonder if item specifics matter at that point. Clothing and shoes are very straight forward but what about an antique rattle or a Medusa wall hanging?
I am curious how others deal with item specifics on unique items.
How many customized fields do you like to include?
What labels/names for your customized fields do you like best?
Is the customized field label as important as what you fill in?I am sure I did not ask all the right questions here but those are what seem to confuse me the most. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated since it seems that this is an important issue for search.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to help and enlighten.
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07/31/2018 at 2:45 pm #46529
We personally dont bother too much with creating customized item specifics for weirs, unique items. Beyond the material, color, etc, we dont see the point. The title and photos are what is most important on these weird items IMHO.
But then again, we have a very laissez-faire attitude to eBay to achieve maximum listing potential.
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07/31/2018 at 3:43 pm #46531
I agree with Jay – anything that doesn’t fit in the title isn’t that important to fill out.
I feel that many fields, even the recommended ones are very redundant. If someone needs that level of detail, they will ask.
I personally do not fill out many of the fields – they waste time. For example, a Sony AM/FM Cassette Walkman will ask me if it has a radio, cassette playback, uses batteries, brand name, and a bunch of other obvious stuff. I would think the title would bring in a buyer for this example, and just the fact they are looking for a “Walkman” would be enough that they understand what they are buying.
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07/31/2018 at 4:12 pm #46535
When shopping on your phone you don’t see the entire description unless you click on the arrow. So I think you may want to make sure pertinent information is in the item specifics and description so people can see that information without going further into the listing. For example the size of your medusa wall hanging. Since a large percent of sales are said to come from devices I think it pays to look at your listings on your phone and see how you want them to appear.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by
Nancy.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by
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07/31/2018 at 4:51 pm #46537
So, we are on the other side from Jay and Ryanne, where we try to use as many item specifics as possible. They are perfect to help with structured data, and they help to get more relevant keywords to aid in search, since Item Specifics are used in search.
This is part of why I like templates, as for many items, I can use prefilled custom item specifics to save time in listing.
PS – Max number of item specifics on a listing is 25. I know, as I have gone over before… 🙂
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07/31/2018 at 7:54 pm #46550
Right there with you also Troy. I have 25 Item Specific fields already built into my standard, unique vintage item template. When I select the Ebay category it also will populate any “additonal IS” above my list. I use those to input anything unique that Ebay wants that I don’t already have listed or prefilled. It will shpow me more than 25 BUT you can’t list more than that or I get an error from WL then I have to delete a few. I always predelete as I go any lines that are redundant.
There is also another value to IS. Goggle bots and spiders crawl those IS and for inclusion in other areas the SEO factor comes into play. Those fields get extra Google exposure and that will help drive organic traffic to our other platforms like Shopify.
But to me the more key words I can include the better. I have fields such as “Unique Features”, A place for our own MDC Galleries SKU, Suggested Uses”, We have 3 Size Dimension fields. Many times if we have a tea set I will include not only the physical dimensions of the cups, the saucers and the tea pot but also the liquid capacity of each. Of course color(s), material, Mfg., etc. are there but some times not from just the Ebay category drop down, so I have it built into my template. We usualy hit 20 our more item specifics.
If I had to drop any thing I would skip even having a description other than a title and just go with IS. But of course I do put a couple of lines in the description area.
IWe built our IS fields around all the questions we used to get emailed about our listings. Slowly we built a tuned IS area, that now we very seldom ever get question sent to us anymore, unless the buyer just doesn’t read to click the blue “SEE MORE” area of their phones. Our answer is “See the IS Area”.
More the better for us.
mike at mdc galleries-
07/31/2018 at 8:24 pm #46559
Amen Mike! Brother from another Mother!
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07/31/2018 at 6:18 pm #46542
I’m with T Satt on this. eBay strongly recommended using the IS, partly because their data indicates few mobile buyers look at the complete description, but apparently they usually DO read through the IS. And partly because of structured data, both for eBay’s use and Google Shopping’s use.
Some of my older listings already reflect this, but going forward I’m going to try to follow a simple rule: If it is info I’d normally put in the description (dimensions, for example), it will be in the ISs.
Reading between the lines at eBay Open, my sense is that as far as ebay is concerned, your IS details are WAY more important than your description.
I think this also helps cut down on INADs
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07/31/2018 at 6:19 pm #46543
Oh, and LOL at T-Satt’s 25 is the max comment….I thought I used a lot of IS, but I never hit the max…didn’t know there was one!
(I wonder, if ebay continues to build on structured data, will they expand the max?)
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07/31/2018 at 6:59 pm #46549
Hey…I go big or I go home! 🙂
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07/31/2018 at 6:32 pm #46545
From my experience, adding stuff into IS reduces stupid questions and is worth the extra time. I now don’t even put measurements into my descriptions, only into IS, and I’ll add a field with specific measurements if the generic field is generic. E.g. Rise = Low then I’ll add in a specific called Rise Measurement. I’ll put in dimensions of hard goods, composition of metals, anything that can add to a hook to trigger a sale. Seems to work.
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07/31/2018 at 6:58 pm #46548
Amatino: And if I could get SixBit to give me custom item specifics that I could duplicate in the Description, I would do that exact process, so that measurements are in both places. They do that on the eBay Item Specifics, but not on the Custom Item Specifics.
I’ll keep working on them…
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07/31/2018 at 7:59 pm #46552
Ah ha. Got ‘cha. That is exactly what I got WonderLister to do. All of the Item Specifics AND the whole CONDITION section will now populate right under my decsription in our shopify and soon to be Etsy listings. Everything in Ebay now goes into the open Description area. The description first, the condition area second and then item spcifics in a list under that. A buyer just scrolls down and see it all.
This is accomplished by just right clicking my line item in WL and clciking send to Shopify and in a short while, send to etsy.
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07/31/2018 at 8:27 pm #46561
Good to know Mike. If I can shame the SixBit folks and tell them that WonderLister has something that SixBit can’t do… 🙂
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07/31/2018 at 8:00 pm #46553
Troy, tell JC that if Chavi can do it then he should be able to do it. 🙂
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07/31/2018 at 8:50 pm #46564
Thank you all! This is amazingly helpful and greatly appreciated.
Amatino & Mike @ MDC would you be willing to share a link to an item(s) of yours so that I can see how you do your item specifics on hard goods only. I understand clothes, that is simple. I am more interested in seeing a listing such as you described for unique items.
Thank you again 1,0000 X
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08/01/2018 at 6:02 am #46587
Sure. Here is a link to a newly listed bowl that has a lot of IS and a fairly good description area.
And if you sort items in our store by “Newly” listed, you can check out several other variations of the IS area and less or more content in the description.
One thing to remember as I discussed with T-Satt that we are using SEO and some redundant keywords for Google to pick up as they crawl, not for just Ebay’s Cassini. Our goal is to start to build traffic for our other two platforms one of which would be all Google organic traffic. Our Etsy store gets as much traffic from Google as it does from within Etsy’s search. So that is why we put in so much.
Hope this helps…
Mike at MDC Galleries
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This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by
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08/01/2018 at 7:59 am #46593
Mike, thanks for linking to a specific item so we can discuss.
For weird, vintage items, I just dont see the logic of more specifics beyond color, type of material, approximate age, etc. We fill in the specifics that make sense. Takes 5 seconds.
–Are you guys taking a good amount of time to make custom fields?
–How long does it take to do it the way you do it?
–Do you just choose info from the pre-filled drop down, or does it make sense to write in your own info?-
08/01/2018 at 8:56 am #46600
Good morning:
Are you guys taking a good amount of time to make custom fields? No they are pre-made [one time investment when we create our Master Template for WonderLister]. and saved in our “Unique-Vintage” template in WonderLister. We have about 20 Master Templates of items we buy a lot of. i.e. sets of glasses, tea sets, dinnerware, stamps, art prints, etc. etc. . First in the blank template we selected the Ebay category and the Ebay ones then all showed up below our shipping information in WL. Then I created custom fields that I wanted to use for that item category and saved it. That then made a longer IS list. When I saved it, I used a short title Glass sets, or Ltd. ed. art prints. Once saved then those IS will be there from now on. From this MASTER Template if we buy one of those items, I click duplicate and that Master creates a listng form that we fill out for that listing. The MASTER stays untouched and saved in the MASTER TEMPLATE folder. I then just complete the balance of that duplicated form. T-Satt does the same thing in SixBit.
Another example is I stated last week that we went to a big auction and bought 326 items. Well there were 11 tea sets [pot, cups, saucers, creamer, sugar, to those sets]. So those “Forms-Templates will have fields that will have more size fields because of the varying sizes of the pieces and the liquid capacity of those items. I have had many email requests, how many ounces does the teapot hold, or how many ozs, do the cups hold,so I just built that info. into the tea set template.
I will just click on our Tea Sets MASTER, click “dup. 11” template and 11 will be created from that Master and all 11 will appear in a new screen all by them selves. I will click on them one at a time and just complete each template as I go. I will click “SAVE” as I complete each of them. when done all 11 will be in our “Ready to Submit” folder. Then I will highlight all of them, right click to Submit, click Ebay, Shopify and Etsy and all 11 will be submitted to all 3 platforms then auto move themselves into our Active folders. Those active on Ebay, those active on Shopify and those active on Etsy. [NOTE! WL is still in last stages of beta with Shopify and mid strides with the Etsy interface so a new user can’t do this yet, but I can because I am doing some testing], but that is the way it is going to work by mid-fall.
–How long does it take to do it the way you do it?Well of course that varies, by the items. On the US Commenrorative Stamps we listed on ebay and Etsy. The US MInt Stamp template had everything in it except, the scott Catelog numbers, the year and the price. The weights, size, shipping methods and all company policies were the same. Those only took about 30 to 60 seconds.
Of course the 14 pc. tea sets will take a little longer 2-3 minutes because I will have to get the dim. on 1 cup, 1 saucer, the pot and also the capacitiy. We keep a gallon jug of water and a funnel here in the office. susan just pours the water from the jug into the pot and one cup, then pours it back into a measuring cup and viola’ we have the capacity. Then dump the measuring cup back into the jug for use another day. we do the same for odd size glasses or pitchers.
If I have a lot of tough ones, and depending on how early I get up, I may be as low as15 +/- a day. If easy ones, I can do 4,5 to 7,8 an hour. And of course we do as you guys do, we lump like kinds of items together and process those in groups. So like the tea sets we will be doing a bunch of those togther. 10 pcs to 15 pcs per set is a lot of pieces to put on the hpto table, then remove, then get them slightly padded and into the plastic bins we keep here in the office. we place and assign bins as we go. Then when we get 4 to 8 bins full, we just carry those and place into their place on the storage shelves. This process allows us to pre-place them into the bins they will stay in and get that bin number into WL as we list.
–Do you just choose info from the pre-filled drop down, or does it make sense to write in your own info?
For the types of items we list, as i mentioned, we select the Ebay category first, and I find that Ebay has very little to offer. We have a lot of old Asian items made in Japan, or Limoges china, Lenox china, Nippon, Murano, Roseville, Hull, Fostoria and Indiana glass. ebay doesn’t have much on those. especially with certain unique decorating processes. I use Moriage on the asian pices when that technique is used, or Cloisonne”, enameled, and Ebay is just not gearing the IS for that. So, I have a custom technique field, or a “features” field. I can place the text “embossed, 3-D relief” pattern in there.
Now you may say who searches for that, well all of the collectors of glass with Moriage decoration on them, or Cloisonne’ pcs, Asian Flying Cranes is popular.
Now the last caveate’. I use all of these fields with specific wording for Google to find all of these listings and in turn pinterest picks up on our items. The ultimate goal is to build the Shopify store to the point whereby all traffic to the Shopify store will be driven to that platform byway of only goggle searches and at some pojnt all those sales made on our own web site and store will be Ebay fee free. we will have a much smaller overhead cost. I know of several artist who got there start on Ebay and or Etsy but closed there stores on those and now only sell through there own web site store such as Shopify, Volusion, etc. So I take the extra time to create as many keywords, even redundant ones, so Google will crawl and pick them up so as the shopify store is built out we can “SYPHON” off traffic from Ebay for increased profits. It is more of an SEO approach. But that is a longer range goal but you have to build the ground work from the very beginning.
And you may ask does it work. Yep. I have hidden crazy, nonsensical words into some test fields that don’t exist in the english language and, yep, Google found them, presented them in the results, at the top of the page of course, then when clicked, it takes you straight to our Ebay store. So now using that process, the plan is to have some of thos keywords found, presented by google and the traffic [searchers] taken to our shopify store. but all of this is just in the very start up phases.
If you wish to see how this works a little bit, have you ever wondered why I also sign at the end of my Scavengerlife Posts, Mike at MDC Galleries at Fine Art in atlanta, well Google is finding that everytime I do it. And guess what, if you type that phrase into google it will show some of our ebay items on their results page and guess what, it also shows scavengerlife as a link, so may even be driving some traffic back to you.
Try these and see:
#1 example… https://www.google.com/search?q=Mike+at+MDC+Galleries+and+Fine+Art+in+Atlanta&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
#2 example [love this version because I show as the top 4 and Scavngerlife is the 5th link] ..
https://www.google.com/search?q=MDC+Galleries+and+Fine+Art+in+Atlanta&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
#3 example … https://www.google.com/search?q=MDC+Galleries+and+Fine+Art&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
#4 example … https://www.google.com/search?q=MDC+Galleries&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1So after looking at all of these variations of the same words in different order and see the results, then think about the use of your keywords in varying order [without too much or you get caught for spamming] and how then Google may see those and who may search on google, Chrome, firefox, Opera, explorer, etc., etc.
You have said you don’t get much traffic from outside ebay, well have you SEO your site to try to go and grab that traffic in the first place. all the Ebay open comments on how to write titles comes from an SEO awareness approach.
So, A lot of IS are for me, especially considering a goal of ours is to try to start to grab the attention of searches and push them to our own store not Ebay’s. But don’t get me wrong, and you have said it too, ebay is a huge platform with millions of customers being brought to the table, so nothing to take lightly or overlook. We may never leave Ebay, we’ll see.
Google recognizes front links and also back load links as long as they are clean and not purchased links. That was what Ebay was doing that got them into trouble with google.
Hope i got your questions covered correctly and added maybe some more food for thought.
Mike Collins at MDC Galleries and fine art in Atlanta <<<< Of Course
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This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by
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08/01/2018 at 8:22 am #46596
Thank you Mike, very helpful and appreciated.
Q: I noticed that you left the ” on the measurement in the title. I was under the impression that special characters are now a no-no. Your thoughts?
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08/01/2018 at 9:02 am #46602
They are, it was an oversight and i will go and edit that. thanks for telling me.
those characters act as a road block for goggle spiders and bots and probably for cassini.
Mike Collins at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
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08/01/2018 at 9:44 am #46603
Thanks Mike, I really appreciate all your help. I am going to mimic your item specifics because you have it so well organized.
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08/01/2018 at 10:06 am #46604
Mike, thorough as always!
I can verify that yes, we do this similar in SixBit. I have all the custom Item Specifics set up in the Template by category, so it takes little time to make them customized to each item. This is also why for clothes and shoes, I have so many different templates. Short Sleeve Shirts alone has 4 (Casual, Cuban, Polo, Hawaiian), because the custom item specifics are different for each type of item.
Hard goods would be tougher, but we all have general categories that we trend to, so when you find yourself doing a similar listing a few times, make a template. I’m also constantly tweaking my templates when I find something that I want to add.
PS – On the Item Specifics that eBay wants…DO NOT ADD TO IT! Always select what they provide if you are going to use it. For their structured data, stay in the lanes they provide. For example, if I have a Burgundy Shirt, then the Color Item Specific eBay wants is Red, and I have a custom Item Specific called Shade that says Burgundy.
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08/01/2018 at 10:59 am #46615
Oh thanks for that heads up on editing the Ebay provided ones. Yep, I have been just editing theres if it wasn’t the color [or any other filed I want] that I wanted to say. using your example, I do have a custom color field but if Ebay’s color field popped up as red, I would have edited to Burgundy. guess I need to stop that and then just drop Burgundy into my own custom field and let Ebay’s pre-filled filed stay as it pops up.
And for those who will ask, yes, that will mean there will be TWO color fields in the item spcifics and same for Material and or sizes.
If Ebay’s pop up presents M, L, Xl, XXl, so forth… and I want to say Ladies medium with rolled sleeves, yes that will be in one of our custom size fields.
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08/01/2018 at 11:05 am #46619
Mike: +1
I have three Custom Color Item Specifics, plus one called Shade. So the eBay IS could be Multi-Color, and then I have Color 1 – Red, Color 2 – White, Color 3 – Blue.
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08/01/2018 at 11:35 am #46623
This caught my eye. Do you think it is necessary or better to just put one color per line or 3 colors on one line .. ie. red white blue That is what I have been doing. Which brings me to the Size – Dimension field 8-1/2″ tall x 3″ wide x 4-1/4″ deep all on one line. Should I approach it as only one dimension per line? That would be a real PITA! LOL 🙂 Besides we would run out of field allotment [25].
While we are on the subject what about the fractions and ” [inch] sysmbols in the IS area. should it be 8.5 tall x 3.0 wide x 4.25 deep ?? without the ” inch mark? I know to keep that out of the title but what about IS area?
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08/01/2018 at 10:15 am #46605
Can the Item Specifics be rearranged in the order you wish them to appear?
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08/01/2018 at 10:30 am #46606
I don’t believe so. I have never seen how to get them in a proper order, so now I focus on getting the data right.
I might have to delve into that though. If I can figure that out, I do it once and it is done.
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08/01/2018 at 10:51 am #46611
Yes.. sort of. You can’t rearrange the few that Ebay provides but with all of the added custom IS they will be saved alphabetically, providing as T-Satt says, there is something in the blank field so that it stays. The way we get all of our fields to stay is we just put an Asterisk[*] in each field and that is enough to qualify as “copy” and it stays. When we first create or add several to a template they will be at the bottom, but with the asterisk in the field and you save the whole template and then reopen it in the future, they will all be reordered alphabetically. If you notice the last IS field we use is our own SKU number.. well it is named z-mdc galleries SKU:. That way it is always at the bottom.
Same thing T-Satt is doing by using color 1 color 2. The reaswon I like just a small plain asterisk is if we don’t have anything to put into that particular field on that particular listing I just leave it and it still shows up in the listing only it has a small stersik in the field and it looks like it is just a “naturally” left blank field. Saves some time from having to either delete the copy or click the minus – remove button [in WL].
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08/01/2018 at 10:54 am #46613
Troy when I talked with JC a few weeks back, we were discussing this same issue and he was surprised that WL would allow the plhabetical rearrangement and that we could add or remove. I walked through the IS with him and it can be done, but in SB it is a walk around your fist to get back to your thumb. 🙂
There are just some things that WL can do and some things SB can do and not do and vice versa. Just how each company coded and built there SQL dBases.
Mike at MDC Galleries
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08/01/2018 at 10:35 am #46607
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08/01/2018 at 10:39 am #46610
Sigilini: I should have mentioned this. The Ebay Templates WILL save your Custom Item Specifics as long as you have typed something in the box as well.
So I have a “Color 1”, “Color 2”, in my custom IS. If you just type Color 1 and leave the field blank, it won’t stay. But if you create Color 1 and type “Blue” in that field, it will stay on the template.
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08/01/2018 at 10:57 am #46614
Thank you! Well you should work for ebay because customer service had to “submit a ticket” or something like that because the could not answer why it won’t save. And I was told cannot rearrange fields but they would recommend that to the tech team.
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08/01/2018 at 11:03 am #46617
Sigilini: This is what happens when we play around a lot!
They have to be so broad in so many areas, very hard to get deep on everything like this.
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08/01/2018 at 11:03 am #46618
And you may know this already but make sure to click “mobile-friendly checker” on your templates. I believe that should transfer over as such when you make a new listing off your template.
T-Satt, add to your list for Ebay Open 2019: Why??????? do sellers have to manually make listings mobile friendly? Why is it not just part of each listing.
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08/01/2018 at 11:15 am #46622
Sigilini: Not sure why you have to do that. We don’t…
Now, we have in our templates the two pieces of code that they asked for, so since then, we haven’t had to do that. I just tried to create a new listing on eBay direct, checked the HTML section, and yep, very blank. I then created one from my old eBay templates…the code is there since we put it there.
Another reason to use templates…
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08/01/2018 at 11:54 am #46625
Thank you TSatt. If I make a brand new listing not from a template, I have to click on mobile friendly checker. Usually I forget to do it but there is a bulk way of editing all your listings, which I did once.
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08/01/2018 at 2:19 pm #46637
Anyone watching the other thread? It is being reported that item specifics on templates are missing for some items.
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08/01/2018 at 2:31 pm #46639
Sigilini: Yep, I just checked our Templates and the IS are gone from shirt templates, but fine on Suit and Jean templates.
For our active listings, the IS are still there, even for shirts.
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