Ebay issues.

[Brian Miller]

Does anyone have insight as to why Ebay is a mess for finding items right now?

[Terry]

I've been having problems with youtube since yesterday. Looking at that I found a site called downdetector.com

https://downdetector.com/status/ebay/

People - probably not us - report when sites are down.  Here's a selection of their complaints:

https://downdetector.com/status/ebay/news/419177-problems-at-ebay/

I've had a few failures sending emails myself. Seems to be a consensus that eBay is updating functions and screwing things up.

I recommend NOT changing any bookmarks to solve the problems as they may be temporary.

[Terry]

I just went to write some listings and the scales and gauges are GONE. 

So what I used to list in Toys and Hobbies/Model railroads/ho scale/other HO scale
now  goes into

Toys and Hobbies/Model railroads and trains/Railroads and trains/other railroads and trains
which has 184,000 results.

There is a drop down on the page to select gauge, but none of my old listings has that filled out. For diescast cars it's the same thing but called scale.

They have Lionel Standard gauge as one of the selections, but it's not on the main menu and has to beaccessed with the see all link at the bottom of teh drop down. Only  266 results come up for Lionel standard gauge.  A normal week had about 300-350 auctions with another 1000+ fixed  price listinsg in the standard gauge categories.


We'll figure out how to find the trains we want, but I can't be giving trains away like last time eBay messed with the categories.

[starfire700]

Ebay is a mess, they continue to dumb it down and screw it up. I am convinced that a 16-year-old who knows nothing about trains is writing their programs.

[Terry]

My guess is the person designing the categories is a woman. She wants a SWEATER -- BLUE made of WOOL in SIZE 4 with a V-NECK. She'd check off all the capitalized words as keywords and then scroll through results.

We collectors don't shop that way. We're opportunists who buy items that we see that fit into our collections.

I wrote listings for standard gauge junk just to get rid of it. I think people will search for Lionel standard gauge.  If I have time today I'll do some diecast cars because that category wasn't changed.

Then again with the supply chains disrupting Christmas imports, maybe I should sit on the diecast until people start Christmas shopping?

[early0electric]

Is Anyone else having trouble with eBay listing descriptions being jammed to the left side of the screen? Sometimes a refresh will work, other times not.

Mike

[Terry]

I've seen this on and off for months. Maybe even back into last year. I see it more often with completed listings than active ones. Maybe never for aqctive listings?

Last week my set up ebay auto-searches failed for 4 days then started working again.

I'm starting to think that when a coder screws up he should cut off a portion of a finger like the Japanese "yakasoba" mobsters  do to show shame. Enough mistakes and typing becomes impossible so he's forced to get a real job.

I know it's yakusa, but it entertains me to say the name of a tasty Japanese noodle dish instead.

[starfire700]

It seems that Ebay favors the I phone and want sellers to list and buyers to but from the Apple device. Many of their changes are tailored to work with the I phone, but these chances often do not work as well with desk-top and laptop computers. Many of the changes they make involve compressing, rearranging and standardizing information specifics. Standard specifics do not work with a used/vintage antique toy train.

[Terry]

That's an interesting observation Jim. I've had problems with ebay blocking portions of my description on phones.

[Terry]

I moved the webhosting on 6-22. Everything should be working so this serves as a test.

Also, about eBay I figured out how to put the postage on a credit card so I get rewards. Basically, I deleted the bank account on my paypal account and put the card on as a fiunding source. Paypal takes the money out of the balance first - that's just book sales and I transfer it to my personal paypal account before starting packing. Then, since there is no balance or bank account, paypal charges the card when I print a label and select paypal as the funding option on ebay.

Yesterday I spent 3 hours trying to change the paypal account associated with my eBay account. On managed payments there is no option to change it. Ebay tells me to contact paypal, paypal tells me to contact ebay.

None of the help menus on either site have current information. I did find a discussion board post that said the way to change the paypal address was to buy something and then select paypal ass your payment method. I'll try that this weekend when I figure out what additional caternary parts I need for the Marklin.

[early0electric]

Terry,

That's a good one to put it on the credit card for the rewards.

Mike

[Terry]

I bought a bunch of catenary parts and used the new paypal account to pay, but it didn't change the paypal address used for the shipping payment.

My dad used to tell me, "If all you have to complain about is the bank, your life is OK."

My life is ok.