This isn’t the first time that mappings between Item Specifics on International Sites haven’t been accurate. I remember a case from the past in clothing where Beige was showing as Nude. Although colour differences are important Item Condition is even more so as it’s now a required element when listing. It’s not obligatory to complete item specifics for colour but sellers have no option but to specify if their item is new or used (or in some categories other variants).
If you’re making your listings available internationally you need to double check what item condition is being displayed to buyers on other eBay sites, especially if you’re using the International Site Visibility listing upgrade.
If you spot any more anomalies please do let us know in comments below.
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6 Responses
Sorry to say but this has been known for a very long time.
https://dev-forums.ebay.com/thread.jspa?threadID=500016327&tstart=0&mod=1278030189944
Not by me, thanks for posting the info Chris.
It doesn’t matter if the seller is using the International Visibility upgrade or not. This miraculous conversion to ‘like New’ will happen when any UK media listing is viewed on the .com site, e.g. shows in a search result.
This can only leave UK sellers open to unfair Negs and low DSRs for description
This all begs a few questions:
1) why convert it in the first place. All variations of ‘Used’ are never going to equal ‘Like new’ under any circumstances.
I can’t help thinking that the basic problem is that the only available options of NEW and USED for UK media are woefully inadequate
2) If it’s been known for a long time.
Why haven’t ebay fixed it.
How difficult can a fix be?
3) Why use Like New anyway. Using that term in a listing title could get you a keyword spamming policy violation
The comment about the duplicate use of the 3000 code to mean both Used and Like New depending on category is the root of the problem. Under the covers there’s only one value to send and the UI display control at eBay decides what value to show to the buyer (which could be Used, Like New, or Pre-owned). The US has multiple condition options for media items (New, Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable) whereas UK only has New and Used. Because of that overloaded value under the covers, that’s the equivalent to the US only offering New and Like New.
The most reliable solution here would be to split apart Like New and Used to have different code values under the covers and then the “translation” from one site to another would avoid this issue. Among the other condition elements, there are no others that potentially expose this situation — just the Used/Like New on media items.
Considering how long they’d been telling sellers about this and countdown warnings for those like me listing in affected categories, you’d have thought they’d at least check it could be done properly. But in typical eBay fashion it’s another botched job of oh well it’s near enough. The incompetence of their technical side beggers belief considering how long they’ve had to make sure this update works and for that matter was even possible.