posted on May 16, 2004 06:51:54 PM new
That is, what was ebay thinking when they got rid of categories (mostly) for older books? What possible rationale could they have? I am royally p****d.
posted on May 17, 2004 06:35:31 AM new
The psychologists and the metaphysicians wrangle endlessly over the nature of the thinking process in man, but no matter how violently they differ otherwise they all agreethat it has little to do withlogic and is not much conditioned by overt facts.
- H.L. Mencken
posted on May 17, 2004 07:12:23 AM new
do you think they will be setting up a separate venue for books??
what will happen to all the books on Half.com??
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on May 17, 2004 07:28:36 AM new
I just sent an email off to the Power seller customer support team to inquire about the travisity that occur when they implementing their most recent book selling feature. My sales are down drastically and after 5 years of selling on Ebay, it is horrible for me and my family. It will become a nightmare when Half.com joins the ranks. I will post their reply which generally takes 1-3 days.
posted on May 17, 2004 07:46:29 AM new
Those of us selling records and cds begged, pleaded, and tried everything else in the books but no luck with swaying Ebay on the category roll-up.
Even the top sellers tried to convince them and many did leave or stop listing for awhile. Sales are down, hits are down, and category roll-ups are here to stay regardless!
So, I would say books will be the same and whatever anyone may say about it, Ebay has already heard that and more from the music sellers.
Edited to add:
I heard they were even doing the same thing to some antique categories. If they do that it would be my guess that categories will be a thing of the past throughout Ebay in the not so distant future.
Although I fought the category changes in music and now I no longer even shop Ebay for music (I used to like to just browse through ending today by category to see what was out there I might not have), I think what is hurting us the most is the new search methods. It is very difficult to get some items to even show up anymore. I'm referring to older records and things that just don't fit into the Pre-filled data
posted on May 17, 2004 09:54:54 AM new
The best thing the ebay has done in a long while was to generalize many of the catagories. This has clearly benefited sellers. Buyers that maybe searching through catagories often see items that they didn't even know that they wanted and are making bids. When the catagories were too specific, they wouldn't have seen those items and obviously wouldn't have made the bids.
posted on May 17, 2004 10:22:04 AM new
I don't know enough about books and music to comment on those areas but I do agree with Stone as far as what I sell.
It's much easier to find an appropriate category now that there aren't so many. I don't list books in the book categories, seldom did. I put them in the category which is the subject of the book. Dog, Herend, Model Cars, etc.
Hopefully eBay will continue the category streamlining.
posted on May 17, 2004 11:05:49 AM newIt has clearly helped my sales.
Stone,
Mind if I ask what kind of books that you sell?
Not asking for "trade secrets" -- just a general idea like "fiction" or a price range that you generally sell them at.
I'm curious since you are the first one that I've heard this from, and I'm trying to fit your statement into my own research and experience with the book market on eBay.
posted on May 17, 2004 11:19:51 AM new
I like the idea of streamlined categories, but they should at LEAST give us an additional "subject" box to enter in the item specifics field.
That way if one lists "An Esoteric and Pointless History of Architecture in the Southern United States 1800-1861", one could enter the subject as both "history" and "architecture". As it is now we have to choose one subject or the other.
I'm getting half the hits and half the bids on such tomes.
posted on May 17, 2004 12:02:18 PM new
Do you have to choose a subject? Most of the item specifics fields I've seen have the option of leaving it blank. But maybe this wouldn't help in the book categories???
posted on May 17, 2004 03:45:17 PM new
I don't suppose one has to enter a subject.
But if a bidder enters any criteria in the subject field of the search engine, wouldn't those books with blank subject fields be overlooked?
That's the way it seems to work when I'm browsing anyway. It's more difficult for me
to find things now than it was before. Mostly, because I'm not looking for just one specific book, but just something interesting to read and ponder.
posted on May 17, 2004 03:58:40 PM new
I just had a wild notion and you all are free, I guess, to tell me I'm nutty. Never stopped you before.
What if...eBay is working on intuitive systems to do just what ajbooks (and others) are wanting?
I mean, it's the wave, right?
Amazon is notorious for it, and for all the strange books it "suggests" to you. And note well, friends, all Amazon has is one BIG Books category. No subcategories.
Not to mention TiVo, that lovely little invention that tries to deduce your tastes in television viewing, then record material it "thinks" you might want to see.
This just could be precisely what they were thinking.
(And, oh, BTW, did anyone know why Tony was sitting on a horse in Carmela's living room in his dream? I know why, but I'm wondering how many figured it out...)
--
[ edited by fluffythewondercat on May 17, 2004 04:00 PM ]
posted on May 18, 2004 04:00:43 AM new
But I doubt that most sellers trust eBay to know what their customers want better than the sellers themselves know. Even if they could eventually do an Amazon-style searching/suggesting routine, why eliminate the current useful categories until such an alternative system is not only available but proven?
And this would seem to be another layer of abstraction so that eBay can "claim" buyers as eBay customers, not simply customers of sellers on the eBay "venue".
Yahoo ID: grantje
posted on May 18, 2004 04:18:23 PM newWhat if...eBay isworking on intuitive systemsto do just what ajbooks (and others)are wanting?
That would explain the annoying "Were you looking for XXX?" link keeps appearing at the top of the search results page. <duh! -- tapping self gingerly on the on forehead.> Don't know why I didn't put those two things together before. THANKS! That may help to develop a strategy.
However it doesn't seem to be helping hits or bids though. Hope they keep working on it. So far it's about as intuitive as my ex-husband's mistress was when she picked him out of the crowd . As we say here in the South "bless her heart".
IMHO, bidders know what they are looking for and not finding it the first time out hopefully just causes them to click that little "search title and description" box. They don't need such helpful suggestions as "weren't you looking for a bestselling mass market paperback?"
The problem for booksellers seems to be when they (the bidders) start limiting the perimeters of their search by Subject. Before, one could just browse various levels of categories -- dependent upon how pedantic one was feeling that day. Now the books that straddle genres are only found by half of the people looking for them.
Of course, I may not have a clue. I'm just trying to figure out how to adapt, so I can pay for kids braces (and a vacation occasionally) and not have to leave the house to do it.
. As we say here in the South "bless her heart".