Old "My eBay" retirement approaching (1 Viewer)

[theBaron]

Well, January 20th will be even more irritating than I thought. I just noticed this message in the "General eBay Announcements" pane in My eBay:

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200901.shtml#2008-11-20133929

If you haven't tried the new version of the user homepage, you probably should check it out, so you're not surprised. Personally, I didn't like the new features, so I've been using the old page. But it's a fact of life in the IT world-development is driven by short attention spans, and often enhancement suggestions that affect 100% of users come from a much smaller percentage of that group.

Oh, well, all we can do is to roll with it.

Prosit!
Brad

 

[thebritfarmer]

Personally I prefer the older version. I wish more people would adopt the old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

We are our own worst enemies sometimes.

 

[wadepat]

Hi Brad and Scott,

Like yourselves, I use the older version. I have tried the new version and I much prefer the older one. Oh, well. What can one do? I suppose I will eventually get used to the new version, but I do not see it as any significant improvement.

Warmest personal regards,

Pat

 

[1879fanatic]

Well, January 20th will be even more irritating than I thought.

Brad,
Well said, the new version is crap and is just meant to drive business to large volume sellers, not the small guy with a couple auctions. Ebay wants to be Amazon, and Amazon wants to be Amazon that wants to be Ebay. No one wants the little guy with his treasures. I'm very dissapointed with Ebay's profit vector structure, and paypal as well.
Mike

 

[theBaron]

Brad,
Well said, the new version is crap and is just meant to drive business to large volume sellers, not the small guy with a couple auctions. Ebay wants to be Amazon, and Amazon wants to be Amazon that wants to be Ebay. No one wants the little guy with his treasures. I'm very dissapointed with Ebay's profit vector structure, and paypal as well.
Mike

You're absolutely right, Mike! I'll add that I think that eBay's strategy leaves an opening, though, for someone to come in and start a rival site, to serve the online flea market/auction market. I think the demand would be there, especially for specialties in the collectibles field.

 

[gk5717]

I don,t know if I have the old or new version now. Do I have to set it up myself?
I guess tomorrow I,ll find out.
I called Ebay yesterday in an attempt to see what version I had, but as usual I got someone from another planet who spoke a version of English that I was never taught, so that was fruitless.
Gary

 

[theBaron]

Hi, Gary, when you access your My eBay page, towards the upper-right-hand corner, you should see a link that says something like "Try the beta version". If you click that, it will redraw the page, using the new code.

Once you have opened the page in the new version, you'll see a link in that same place that says, "Opt out", which should redraw the page in the old format.

I'm getting used to the new page, it is actually user-friendly, once you get things configured the way you like. What I don't like, in all of their updates, is losing the ability to define categories, and use those as searches. Now, all that I can find is searches. But they don't apply the search criteria in the same way that the Categories did. That is, I had two Category "searches" (for want of a better term), one for Toy solders, lead, pre-1970, and the other for post-1970. The pre-1970 category search usually returned no more than 200 items at any given time. The post-1970 search usually returned about 250 to 300.

Now, I have two searches defined, but there are more sub categories than I remember, each with its own count of records found, and all told, the search returns 2400 results. There has to be a way to filter that list, or narrow the search parameters down, but I haven't found it yet. I have to play around with the searches some more.

I've also started looking through the Discussion pages, and the FAQs. So far, after about an hour's total time on Saturday, I have not found a list of FAQs that reads, "How do I do A?", followed by an answer. Instead, the first page of the FAQs is formatted more like the intro page to a blog.

In the discussion boards, though, I have seen many, many topics that start like "Why the @#$%^&! did you guys change everything?!", followed closely by, "eBay and PayPal must be in trouble", and so on.

They won't roll back the changes, certainly, but if there is enough complaining, they may address some of the kludgier aspects of the new site.

Prost!
Brad

 

[glossman]

Hi All,

I have been configuring and personalizing the new "My eBay Summary" page.

There does not seem to be an option for "My Favourite Sellers".

Have I missed it or has it been removed?

Thanks, Raymond.

 

[GICOP]

Hi All,

I have been configuring and personalizing the new "My eBay Summary" page.

There does not seem to be an option for "My Favourite Sellers".

Have I missed it or has it been removed?

Thanks, Raymond.

Hi Raymond

Good question, I had the same problem.

One way I found was to select an item, any item, then in the column “Meet the seller” click on “Add to favorite sellers” next page click “Save” and voila your old list of Favorite Sellers appears as if by magic.

Now there must be a simple way though

Cheers

Martyn

 

[theBaron]

Hi, Raymond, any favorites you had defined in the current version should carry over to the new version of the page, except for categories, which they've abolished.

I noticed that my favorite lists appear in a panel on the left-hand side of the Summary page, about a third of the way down.

Hope that helps, prost!
Brad

 

[GICOP]

Hi, Raymond, any favorites you had defined in the current version should carry over to the new version of the page, except for categories, which they've abolished.

I noticed that my favorite lists appear in a panel on the left-hand side of the Summary page, about a third of the way down.

Hope that helps, prost!
Brad

I knew there had to be a simple way

Thanks Brad

Martyn

 

[theBaron]

I knew there had to be a simple way

Thanks Brad

Martyn

Glad to help!

I know I had a heck of a time at first, trying to configure what I wanted to display and in what order. The drag-and-drop feature is nice, but I inadvertantly dragged my "Auctions I've Won" box over to that column on the left, and didn't realize it. I kept going back to the Configure box, and checking the checkbox for it, but it didn't show up. Then I scanned the page carefully and noticed over on the left. Once I saw that I could drag things over there, it made perfect sense.

I've gotten used to the new My eBay page, but I don't like the searches. I miss the categories. I think I had them defined to show only auctions that were new that day, which brought back around a hundred in the old toy soldier category, and maybe 2 to 3 hundred in the new toy soldier category. The searches return over a thousand, and I haven't found a way to pare them down any finer.

The FAQ pages and discussion boards are filled with posts from users complaining about the new pages. I'd estimate the percentage of negatives to positives at 99.9% to .1%, against the new features. I can only imagine what a hassle it is for guys who sell, too.

Prosit!
Brad

 

[1879fanatic]

Brad,
Have you checked out the Discussion Boards? What kind of lair is this? Will I get to where I'm trying to get or succumb to the quicksands of the new non-human E-Bay?
Mike

 

[glossman]

Hi Raymond

Good question, I had the same problem.

One way I found was to select an item, any item, then in the column “Meet the seller” click on “Add to favorite sellers” next page click “Save” and voila your old list of Favorite Sellers appears as if by magic.

Now there must be a simple way though

Cheers

Martyn

Martyn,

Thanks for the tip.

eBay has renamed "My Favouite Sellers" as "Saved Sellers".

As Brad (the Baron) has written, I have found "Saved Sellers" along with "Saved Searches" on the left side of the page under "Organize".

We just need time to adjust to this new format.

Happy Configuring, Raymond.

 

[glossman]

Hi, Raymond, any favorites you had defined in the current version should carry over to the new version of the page, except for categories, which they've abolished.

I noticed that my favorite lists appear in a panel on the left-hand side of the Summary page, about a third of the way down.

Hope that helps, prost!
Brad

Hi Brad,

Thanks very much for your reply.

You are absolutely right.

The data migration between the old and new format is fine.

I have found "Saved Searches" and "Saved Sellers" on the left panel under "Organize".

It is unfortunate these two have been sidelined to the left panel.

The new "Saved Searches" in the main panel is not too user friendly.

We all need time to get used to this as this is here to stay.

Regards, Raymond.

 

[Gideon]

I have been using the ebay "pro" panel for a long time so I don' know what is so different with the standard layouts.

As far as I can tell, the main difference is that it is more of a silver color and a little more image heavy.

I hope they didn't spend a lot of money on that upgrade. Doesn't seem like they did much.

 

[1879fanatic]

Not only did Ebay not spend a lot on the new Version (simple changes), they laid off 2000 employees (15% of their workforce)! What a cost-savings at the same time they have a "new product" . They are simply playing games in their boardroom. I've e-mail them with my complaints and would suggest everyone do if they no likee!
Mike

 

[theBaron]

Brad,
Have you checked out the Discussion Boards? What kind of lair is this? Will I get to where I'm trying to get or succumb to the quicksands of the new non-human E-Bay?
Mike

Hi, Mike,

I've only just started looking through the discussion boards, and my first impression is that they're not that easy to navigate through, not like ol' Treefrog here, or most other forums we participate it. For example, I haven't found a link on the My eBay page, to get to the discussion boards, I click the FAQ link (just checked again, looking closely, to see-no such link on the main eBay gateway page or on My eBay). I would think that that is important enough of a feature that it should be a hot link on the My eBay page.

And I haven't found any feature like "My Threads" or "My Posts", either, which would be useful. I've posted twice, and the first time was a week ago. Trying to find that post, and see if anyone answered, took too long, so I never got back to it.

Some processes now just take so much time that they're going beyond hobby status, and moving into unnecessary effort

We'll have to keep swapping stories here, and give each other tips.

 

[Gideon]

The eBay forums are an outright waste of time.

eBay does not patrol nor reply to many, if any, threads, it is a perpetual 'sop box', there are some helpful people but many more opinionated and nasty users.

I think eBay monitors it loosely but treats it as the complaint section of eBay but allowing more savvy eBay users help the less savvy, thereby reducing costs further for support. Those users do not get paid nor do they any incentives from eBay. They are just nice people allowing a large comapny to use them as free support.

Don't bother. The only way eBay will make changes is if they see a dramatic drop in product listings. Even then, it depends on what types of listings drop. Anyhting outside of their competition to Amazon probably doesn't mean much to them.

In summary, if you have a complaint, don't bother them. They don't care.