Gallery Image problems when bulk-starting listings

[markus]

I am starting about 1000 listings, I do that bulkwise, about 40 at once. I am using the latest 7.0.14b6 now but the problem was there before.

• All images are URL based
• The first image is marked as “gallery image”
• All images are correctly present on my webserver, URLs are checked and correct.

When I start a bunch of 40 listings all works without problems.

But when I then, after an hour or so, have a look on the ebay auctions, some of them (about one or two of every block of 40) report “problems with the gallery image”.

When I check the paths of the images, all is o.k., all three images appear correctly within the ebay auction. Bit the gallery image is reported as faulty.
When I now just end the auction and start i new, without changing anything else, all works fine.

Is it possible that somehow when starting more listings at once, something may go wrong with the “mark as gallery image” flag? Maybe its an ebay-thing, but maybe its something with the “speed” how garagesale uploads the listings?

[ilja]

Have you checked the access logs from your web server for an HTTP Get request from the eBay API server for your gallery shortly after starting the listing? Did that request succeed?

[markus]

So I did a bit of digging and investigating…

Apple 21.5 Zoll iMac A1311 super Temperatursensor Kabel 593-1242 online kaufen...

Listing started 24. Apr. 2018 14:46:15 MESZ
reported as „Gallery image faulty“

First entry that has not my own IP as GET source, 4 seconds after starting the auction:

realrecyclers.com-2018-04-24:1484: 66.135.202.41 - - [24/Apr/2018:14:46:20 +0200] “GET /ebay/Artikelbilder_Zett/KA1560/KA1560_iMac_215_A1311_2010_DVD_Optical_Drive_Temp_Sensor_Cable_1.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 299716 “http://www.ebay.com/” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT)”

Seems successful for me?

———————

I checked then the next started auction:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/142769700140?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Listing started 24. Apr. 2018 14:46:18 MESZ
Gallery image o.k.

First entry that has not my own IP as GET source, 2 seconds after starting the auction:

realrecyclers.com-2018-04-24:1480: 66.135.202.169 - - [24/Apr/2018:14:46:20 +0200] “GET /ebay/Artikelbilder_Zett/EL0320/EL0320_MacBook_Unibody_15_A1398_Retina_2012_Early_2013_MagSafe_DCIn_Board_2.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 185910 “http://www.ebay.com/” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT)”

Looks quite the same as the „faulty“ image line (despite the image itself).

———————————

Interesting: When I put my mouse over the image of the „gallery faulty“ auction within the auction on this first image, I get no further information, but I can click on it to see it bigger.
When I do that with an auction with working gallery image, the image first reacts with the message that I can click on it to enlarge the image.
When I right-click on the „faulty“ image, I can copy the URL path to my image:

https://www.realrecyclers.com/ebay/Artikelbilder_Zett/KA1560/KA1560_iMac_215_A1311_2010_DVD_Optical_Drive_Temp_Sensor_Cable_1.jpg

When I right click on a „working“ image, I just get the javascript message:

javascript:;

Clicking on the enlarged version of the image:

Faulty:

https://www.realrecyclers.com/ebay/Artikelbilder_Zett/KA1560/KA1560_iMac_215_A1311_2010_DVD_Optical_Drive_Temp_Sensor_Cable_1.jpg

Working:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/F4cAAOSw~u5a3ycd/s-l1600.jpg

———————————
Now I check the listings in GarageSale to see how the first image is handled there.

Faulty: Image present, as URL, marked as Gallery image, URL:

https://www.realrecyclers.com/ebay/Artikelbilder_Zett/KA1560/KA1560_iMac_215_A1311_2010_DVD_Optical_Drive_Temp_Sensor_Cable_1.jpg

Working: Image present, as URL, marked as Gallery image, URL:

https://www.realrecyclers.com/ebay/Artikelbilder_Zett/EL0320/EL0320_MacBook_Unibody_15_A1398_Retina_2012_Early_2013_MagSafe_DCIn_Board_1.jpg

Both look good.

So where can the problem be located?
—————————
I now go directly to edit both auctions within the ebay system through the browser to see how the images are stored there:

Faulty: All three images appear. First is marked as „Main picture (Hauptfoto)“. When I move with the mouse over larger image display, I get the „Click to enlarge“ message (which I don´t get within the auction itself!). Copying the image address shows

„https://www.realrecyclers.com/ebay/Artikelbilder_Zett/KA1560/KA1560_iMac_215_A1311_2010_DVD_Optical_Drive_Temp_Sensor_Cable_1.jpg“

Working: All three images appear. First is marked as „Main picture (Hauptfoto)“. When I move with the mouse over larger image display, I get the „Click to enlarge“ message (which I GET within the auction itself, too). Copying the image address shows

„https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/ODAwWDEyMDA=/z/F4cAAOSw~u5a3ycd/$_1.JPG?set_id=880000500F“

—————————
Conclusion:
The images of the „Faulty“ listings are stored as URL on ebay
The images with the working listings are stored different, they are processed by ebay for the „Click to enlarge“ thing
And remember: When I simply end the auction and restart it, without touching anything in between (no changes to the images, paths or so, no fresh update of the description in GS, only end and start, it works.

[ilja]

Looks to me as if the eBay process that is supposed to copy your image form your server to their server successfully retrieves the image, but fails later on. Seems eBay interprets this failure as if the images wasn’t on your server in the first place. So, this looks like some kind of eBay bug to me.

[markus]

I first thought the problem may be the server where the images are hosted, but then ebay would not be able to grabe the images at all I think? And the “GET” in the access log seems to bee successful…
But i noticed now, that, if I change something within the images and simply let GS revise the listing, all seems to be o.K.