Way to see eBay "item specifics" warnings/errors?

eBay recently seems to have changed something, and now when I view my Selling page on the site I see quite a few (1000+) items labeled Add recommended item specifics.

I have looked at some of the suggestions, and they mainly appear to be trivial stuff I’ve historically left blank because it’s silly (like back issues of Magazines now want to be labeled Subscription: No or whatever).

In any case, I do not get any warnings for these annoying “problems” any more in GS, possibly (?) because I’ve muted those warnings. Is there a way to un-mute them?

Alternately, are these perhaps new things in the API which have not been added to GS 8.1? (If they’re in the beta, I will be happy to install that)

To clarify, I want to be able to detect which 1000+ of my listings appear in my Selling page under the tab “Missing recommended item specifics (1103)”, which as far as I can tell I cannot find in the GS interface.

For unmuting warnings have you tried ‘Show All Warnings’ in the preferences under General Tab?

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I confess that I had forgotten that one. But I am also at least a little concerned that there might not be explicit warnings yet… Will check shortly.

Thanks!

Well, (1) yes, resetting the warnings does generate some warnings, but (2) the warnings I receive in GS 8.1.1 do not include anything correlated with the “Add recommended item specifics” warning eBay produces.

So apparently whatever eBay is doing now to decide which items are “missing” recommended item specifics is not sent as a warning? Or is not captured by GS’s API calls?

The web interface at eBay does show the recommendations, and as I said above they’re… well they’re pretty stupid mainly. Every book is “recommended” to be special in some way, but a lot of books just aren’t. Every magazine is “recommended” to be either a subscription or not, but any fool can see the difference. And so on.

If it weren’t for the fact that eBay’s Selling page highlights so damned many of them, I wouldn’t have even mentioned it.

When I started see the item specific nonsense coming up I created a Applescript to add the commonly shared item specific to all my items and my master templates.

Brand: Unbranded
MPN: Does Not Apply

Those took care of most errors.

When an occasional error does pop up I doubleclick another Applescript on the edge of one of my screens which copies “N/A” to my clipboard (for Not Applicable). I then quickly paste that into any of the problem attributes.

I am not playing eBay’s idiot attribute game!

eBay is making listing a single item like waiting for a program to load off a two sided casette tape for a personal computer from 1979.

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Good point! I will try blanketing the most common offenders.

Still, it would be… of use, if not necessary, if GS had access to these new flags somehow.

Any chance you would be willing to share your AppleScripts???

Thanx,
Neal

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I think those may have got dumped altogether or are on a backup drive that I can’t seem to find offhand so I thought it might be faster to take a few minutes to create some new ones.

GS 7.0.21 > Help > Show Apple Script Examples

That will open a folder of examples. These are are locked files so if you want to reuse them the best bet is to create a folder somewhere else and paste copies of each script inside. Then select then all with Command-A. Then press Option-Command-I to bring up a multiple item Get Info window. Uncheck the “Locked” option. Close Get Info window.

The one named “Change Attributes.scpt” is related, but its for changing a existing attribute.

This adds two item specifics:

tell application “GarageSale 7.0.21”

repeat with theListing in ( get selected ebay listings)

tell theListing

set theSpecific to add item specific specific name “Brand” values {“Unbranded”}

set theSpecific to add item specific specific name “MPN” values {“Does Not Apply”}

end tell

end repeat

end tell

This removes the same attributes:

tell application “GarageSale 7.0.21”

repeat with theListing in ( get selected ebay listings)

tell theListing

set theSpecific to remove item specific specific name “Brand”

set theSpecific to remove item specific specific name “MPN”

end tell

end repeat

end tell

Now if use the add script on some listings where you’ve already added those attributes you’ll see the count of attributes increase each time you use the script. If you click into the attributes field on one of those listings there are no duplicate attributes actually shown and once you click out of that listing the count returns to normal. To prevent that and any odd behavior you might consider a script that first removes the said attributes in case they already exist before setting them.

tell application “GarageSale 7.0.21”

repeat with theListing in ( get selected ebay listings)

tell theListing

set theSpecific to remove item specific specific name “Brand”

set theSpecific to remove item specific specific name “MPN”

end tell

end repeat

end tell

tell application “GarageSale 7.0.21”

repeat with theListing in ( get selected ebay listings)

tell theListing

set theSpecific to add item specific specific name “Brand” values {“Unbranded”}

set theSpecific to add item specific specific name “MPN” values {“Does Not Apply”}

end tell

end repeat

end tell

You will need to change “GarageSale 7.0.21” to whatever the version you are using is named in the Finder. I was previously using 7.0.16, which was named “GarageSale 7” in the Finder, thus my previous scripts used “GarageSale 7”.

After also installing installing version 7.0.21, and keeping 7.0.16 also installed, I renamed the later version “GarageSale 7.0.21” in the Finder thus I needed to change the script slightly to target that version. Changing it to “GarageSale 8” works for the demo of 8.1.1.

Since attributes don’t show up unless you pick a category you should use a default category for your master templates so when you change the category later the attributes can remain. If you list in a wide variety of categoires as I do then use something that you would never normally use for a category as an instant indication that the category needs to be changed before actually listing it. I like to use Everything Else > Weird Stuff > Totally Bizarre. As soon as I see “Totally Bizarre” under Category 1 I know it needs to be edited.

If you create a new listing via File > New > New eBay Listing the scripts can’t add attributes since there is no category set.

Hope that helps.

This will display a small dialog of commonly used attribute phrases.

When you choose one its copied to the clipboard.

You then can paste it into any troublesome attributes you want to quickly dismiss.

Compile it as a applicaiton using Apple’s Script Editor and place it on the edge of a screen. When eBay decides to spring a new attributes on you that you don’t want to bother with doubleclick the compile app, make a selection, and paste it in the GS attribute fields and quickly move on.

Screen Shot 2020-10-05 at 4.24.27 AM

set YourChoices to {“Not Applicable”, “N/A”, “Does Not Apply”}

set theChoice to choose from list YourChoices with prompt “Make a Selection:” default items {“Does Not Apply”}

if theChoice is false then

else

get the clipboard

set the clipboard to item 1 of theChoice

end if

LOL

eBay sends a email saying “X” items are missing item specifics that will be required soon.

But eBay says they have this nice friend called Optiseller who help you out by analyzing your items for free for missing item specifics. Buts its only free until December 31, 2020. After that a starter plan of up to 5,000 items is 25 pounds per month which is about $40.

Reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon panel in which Dilbert’s boss admits the company intentionally sells defective software in order to make money off selling technical support plans to its users.

Looking at the item specifics eBay is planning to add in the near future really calls for GS feature which works in a similar fashion to my script. The feature nullifies all item specifics by inserting generic terms such as “N/A”.

The utter delusion at eBay is great. eBay is run by extended family of Baghdad Bobs (i.e., Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf).

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