eBay Motors Parts Compatibility feature

GarageSale
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I’ve requested Parts Compatibility be added to Garagesale for the past several years, but it’s still a much needed left out listing component. Parts Compatibility is an eBay Motors feature rolled out in 2010, over 7 years ago, it’s somewhat similar to item specifics, but it’s a feature that allows buyers to verify an item fits their application via an eBay catalog or seller generated list. eBay motors sellers are expected to use titles that describe the item only, then use specifics and most importantly the Parts Compatibility list, to display which years and models our item fits. If we cram our titles with models of vehicles, we’re penalized in search standing. This feature is paramount when listing on eBay motors, it’s vital to search standing and if you omit this option, you can expect your items to almost never make it on the first page of search.

I’m hoping that other forum members will read this post and respond; the only way iwascoding will invest in keeping current with eBay features is when we, the consumer request it. I don’t blame iwascoding for initially overlooking a feature with limited interest, but it’s been seven years, far to long to leave out such a vital tool. There are other Motors listing tools out there, mostly windows based, but a few online options are available to complete eBay motors listings in their entirety… but I’m a GarageSale user, for many, many years now, I would like to continue to support the listing tool I’ve grown to love…please, please, please address this shortcoming, and please, please, please speak up if you would like our listing tool to offer all the features that eBay recommends for best practices.

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I can understand your grief about GarageSale still not having support for Motors Parts Compatibility.

The dilemma we are facing is that the feature is a good amount of work to implement (not in only in the application itself, but also in the custom backends we are use), while at the same time only being useful for tiny part of our user base.

We thought about offering a separate subscription add-on for GarageSale to cover the costs of developing and maintaining such niche, pro features. But we are unsure the subscription based on add-ons are accepted by our user base, as shown by the backslash the developers of the Ulysses text editor received when the switched to subscriptions last week.

What’s your take on this?

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Subscription is always a bad idea. It makes a client pay indefinitely for a service they may or may not use regularly. You feel you don’t really own the product you purchased, you are basically renting. This is exactly why I stopped the adobe suite of products.

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Not sure if you read my post fully, but I was not talking about turning GarageSale into a subscription-based app. I was talking about pro-add on for certain niche features.

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I did understand that but once you start down that slippery slope…. ;-(

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I would gladly pay a substantial monthly subscription for the parts compatibility feature as an add-on.

Adding a new API has to be labor intensive, and if it’s to be an offline tool it would require the ability to update in the same way store categories do now, but with a much larger database of compatibility information. I think that most motors sellers would be happy with the only having the option to manually input vehicles to a user generated compatibility list that we could save in our templates, if that is easier to implement than integrating with eBay’s compatiblity catalog, thier catalog does not work all that well as it is, and I know that I have to manually enter each vehicle.

As it stands I have a few options to work around this. I sell used motorcycle parts. Sorry for the wall of text, and please know I’m not trying to “advertise” other options, I’m just trying to explain the options for motors sellers and how we don’t have good listing tool options, and how on a Mac they’re even worse.

I can list with Garagesale, then use the Froo Bulk revision tool for free via eBay applications, but this takes an extra 5 minutes a listing and doesn’t offer the same available vehicles (sometimes) like manually inputing through the eBay, so I lose customers because they don’t know my part fits and it’s a very clunky way to list. I lose time.

I can list with Turbo lister in parallels or bootcamp, but Turbo lister is a buggy pile of doo doo and it takes just about as long to use it as it does to use the “sell” link on eBay. My listings look plain and unprofessional. I lose time.

I can list with Auctiva, using their online tool, subject to internet connections, browser crashes, and their questionable business practices, including injecting their adverts into my listings. (I tried them for about 3 days, no way, never again) I lost a lot of time.

I can pay for a subscription to MotoLister and use it through Windows. It’s either $50 a month, or $0.10 a listing (max $150 a month). Now moto lister has some cool features, including pricing help and their own catalog for cross reference help. BUT, it’s not a perfect solution it has significant flaws, $50 is fairly large monthly investment, the tool is online and subject to those shortcomings, I have to use Windows, adding a layer of work to picture files and record keeping, plus it’s only for powersports, and I do have an automotive section in my store, leaving me to choose from the above options. I think in the current situation, I’ll use motolister for a few $0.10 listings that have 300-1000 vehicle fitment options, those listings that take the longest to add compatibility to after creating.

So you see, the options suck, and the best option already has a monthly subscription cost. If Garagesale could implement this feature and charge in the realm of $25 a month, and maybe optional per listing charges for smaller volume sellers, I think you’d have a winner. ESPECIALLY, if you could implement into your mobile listing tool at the same time (I never list using mobile, but I know it’s a growing segment and as a per listing charge, I think it would fit well). Having all the listing solutions wrapped into one application and solely on our Macintosh…YAY. I don’t know how many current users would be willing to invest in a subscription or pay per listing to add this feature, but I know once word grew that GarageSale had Parts Compatibility, that new users would come, and eBay would most likely add GS to the very short list of tools that offer Compatibility.

1 Like
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I would gladly also pay $25/mo for a tool like this, in my case I sell auto parts.

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I sell auto parts and would love to have a mobile option

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Last time I searched about this it was mentioned as maybe coming in 7.1 so although it sounds like this won’t happen now it is a least good to bring it back to the attention of the development team.

eBay are regularly asking us now why we aren’t using their part compatibility feature and the fact we use GarageSale is the only reason.

Although we don’t list vast amounts GarageSale has been a time saver over using the eBay site and helped keep track of things. I’m sure a paid upgrade to get this feature would be better than moving away from the program but as with most things a one off charge is generally better than a subscription - especially if eBay isn’t your main business.

eBay’s ever changing policies already cause enough problems.

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