New user, trying to list a DVD. Having chosen the DVDs & Blu-ray Discs category, I enter the product (title, or UPC with leading zero), and GS matches it properly in eBay’s database. But then, when I click Attributes or Item Specifics, GS brings up a window that does NOT include ANY of the Attributes in eBay’s database for that matched product.
Instead, it fills all the fields with the first item in every dropdown list (e.g., the title is always 101 Dalmatians; the format is always 4K HD; the Genre is always Abs/Core; the actor is always Aaron Eckhart; the language is always Afghan; etc.). And even if I change the title to the correct one in the Attributes window, GS doesn’t then update the other values to match the corrected title.
So, not only does GS not include the Attributes from eBay’s database (which when listing directly on eBay are automatically populated for the matched product), but in GS I then have to manually change every field with a drop-down list, even ones I wouldn’t normally touch for my product (e.g., Music Artist, Franchise, Cinematic Movement, etc.).
This is so unusable that I must be doing something wrong, or missing something incredibly obvious. But I can’t for the life of me figure out what!
Can someone please help explain how I can get GS to lookup and import the Attributes for a DVD (or any matched product) from eBay’s database? Or at least not to populate most Attribute fields with extraneous values that I have to blank out manually?
Yea same happens with us. The worst is when you add language when adding attributes for books and its never English always the first one with the A. I know its not the app’s fault but I wish you can tell it to always pick English when adding this attribute to a listing that doesn’t have it. Something in settings that the app can default to or add from the actual UPC search of that book or media.
Also on UPC search (again not app’s fault) sometimes you have to add a 0 before the UPC number so that it finally finds a match. For some reason an UPC number not found, add a 0 before and it tends to find that UPC. Again probably on the back end and not GS fault?
The one I was working on that prompted my post was UPC 054961860098 (Foyles War: The Home Front Files - Sets 1-6), and I had all boxes except Include Stock Photo checked. See screenshots below of the Product popover panel, and the resulting Item Specifics/Attributes after GS matched it. But exactly the same thing happens regardless of what boxes are checked in the Product popover (I’ve tried every possible combination, including none).
The same thing happens with every other UPC I’ve tried, including: 054961526291, 054961595594, 883929099405, 758445200720, 883929355563, 883929655847, and several more. In every case, GS correctly matches the title, but the Item Specifics come back exactly the same as in the screenshot below (with zero attributes for the actual matched product, instead using only the first item of each popup list, as detailed in my OP).
Also, as so many others have noted (including WCV below), the only way GS ever matches a UPC is when you add a zero (“0”) in front of the actual UPC code.
The same thing happens if I search by title instead of UPC. GS finds and matches the title, adds the correct UPC (prepending a 0 to the front of the actual UPC), and displays the same problematic Attributes/Item Specifics.
FWIW, I’m using GS v9.4.1 (1545), on a 2022 Mac Studio running macOS v12.6.5.
As far as I know the item specifics won’t (can’t) be set by GarageSale when adding a Product. Instead eBay will add the matching specifics to the uploaded listing automatically if „Include additional information“ is enabled in GarageSale’s Product panel.
However, it seems you still have to define the „required“ item specifics in GarageSale in order to start the listing.
For that it’s helpful to select „Insert required attributes“ in the GarageSale preferences > eBay > Advanced > Attributes Panel.
If you then open the attributes panel (if no attributes have been defined yet), only the required item specifics will be added and you only have to define those. The rest will be done by eBay afaik.
Depending on how many attributes one wants to add, it’s debatable whether to start with “Insert required attributes”, and then manually add the additional ones one wants, or to start with “Insert suggested attributes”, and then delete the unwanted ones. But having the choice is good.
Better still for my usage is choosing “Ask me for attributes” (in the GS Prefs > eBay > Advanced > Attributes Panel). That way, I can start with the Suggested by eBay list, uncheck those attributes I don’t want, and then just fill in my values, without having to add individually each attribute I want. And I can tell GS there to “Always apply current selection in this category”, to simplify the process still further. That’s great!
Thanks for your prompt response, and for pointing me to those eBay > Advanced prefs settings.
So when I type in the upc, or the description, I get the items to choose from.
But when I choose an item, attributes are NOT inserted!
It just shows ‘Peter Pan’ every time.
I have all the boxes checked, including ‘Include additional information’.
When listing with ebay directory, they insert all the descriptions, upcs, manufacture name, etc.
But not garage sale.
It does not insert anything!
Further follow-up question: How can I change the default attribute names I previously chose with “Ask me for attributes” and then “Always apply current selection in this category”?
Once I’ve told GS to “Always apply…”, I can’t find any way to get GS again to present me with the “Ask me…” list of attributes with checkboxes so I can revise my default selections for that category.
In my initial choices, I included a number of attributes to include in my Item Specifics section, which eBay then duplicates in its About This Product section (in the Live listing). So I want to remove those duplicated attributes from my defaults for that category.
I found where GS stores my default choices in its Preferences file (~/Library/Containers/com.iwascoding.garagesale9/Data/Library/Preferences/com.iwascoding.garagesale9.plist), in the defaultAttributeNames_0_617 key, and can change them there. Or delete that key, and then recreate it with new defaults within GS. But I’d think there is (or should be) an easier way to edit those defaults for category 617 from within GS.
Is there such a way to edit chosen default attributes for a category using the GS UI, or is editing the .plist file the only way to do it?
I find it is easier to just create a template listing for things in a particular category, with the desired settings assigned, and duplicate that. For instance, if I am listing items in the Magazines category, I will create an empty listing with that category, and assign the general attributes by hand. Then all I need to set in the new listings I create by duplicating it are the title, dates, and so on.
