IMPORTANT EBAY CHANGES - no more "Pre-1990" MLP category

[Sweet Daes]

I think it has to do with this:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Grouped-Listings-Gives-Buyers-an-Improved-Search-Experience/ba-p/27592154

I think they are trying to dumb things down passed the Joe Shmoe level and creating a "catalog", but I can't figure out how this is supposed to be better considering eBay is a gigantic eFlea-market with all sorts of sellers and all sorts of buyers.

I see how this could be useful when searching for some new items but it's going to be a disaster for pony stuff.

Yuh.

I don't know why they need to remove search options at all since I would think it would be a preference to be able to refine right from a click-by-click menu.

And if it's that awful then why don't they have it as an account preference to search between the two if it would be that much of an improvement for a certain set of users. This is now more toward Etsy levels of poor search refinements.

Oh, wait. I am using logic...
I shouldn't try to muddy the water with such sacrilegious talk.

[KarentheUnicorn]

Thanks Ashlyne for the link,

I did my part and complained, not sure what good it will do.

[heftysmurf76]

I did my part and complained, I can't believe they have done this, my searches are ALL messed up now, I told them they are going to lose my business!!! so angry! 

[Taffeta]

Thanks Ashlyne for the link,

I did my part and complained, not sure what good it will do.

I did so too. It's stupid. I already have problems with navigating websites. Removing the MLP category is just going to make it worse.

[goddessofpeep]

And yet again ebay "fixes" something that was never broken in a pathetic attempt to become a crappy version of Amazon.

Ebay: 
You're not Amazon.  You never will be. 
Get over it. 
You're an online garage sale. Stop trying to be something you're not.  You want to be Amazon?  Invest in the overhead Amazon has like distribution networks, tens of thousands of employees,  and actual products and stock.  Don't want the expense?  Don't have the space to store millions of items?  Don't want the responsibility or the work required to actually get something into a customer's hands?   Want to keep taking a cut of everyone else's work while doing nothing yourself? 
Then stop trying to be Crappy Amazon!

[Sweet Daes]

And yet again ebay "fixes" something that was never broken in a pathetic attempt to become a crappy version of Amazon.

Ebay: 
You're not Amazon.  You never will be. 
Get over it. 
You're an online garage sale. Stop trying to be something you're not.  You want to be Amazon?  Invest in the overhead Amazon has like distribution networks, tens of thousands of employees,  and actual products and stock.  Don't want the expense?  Don't have the space to store millions of items?  Don't want the responsibility or the work required to actually get something into a customer's hands?   Want to keep taking a cut of everyone else's work while doing nothing yourself? 
Then stop trying to be Crappy Amazon!

Preach.

[banditpony]

*shrug*
To be honest, this doesn't affect my way of using eBay so I don't care. I just put my search terms in and get what I need.



Anyway, I found this.
https://www.ebay.com/b/My-Little-Pony-Toys/47227/bn_1924159
Which looks dumb, but maybe it's a WIP.
eBay> Toys & Hobbies > TV, Movie & Character Toys > My Little Pony Toys
(although I cannot ADD to this category if I "sell" something)

And ETA:
https://www.ebay.com/b/Kenner-My-Little-Pony-Toys/47227/bn_1924145

eBay> Toys & Hobbies > TV, Movie & Character Toys > My Little Pony Toys > Kenner My Little Pony Toys
(A category for G2?)

ETA#2  (From the first link I showed).

What are the generations of My Little Pony?
Hasbro began production on My Little Pony dolls and toys in 1982 and have since made four generations. Fan favorites such as Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack were introduced in the first generation. For collectors, it is important to know these generations so that you can collect from the generations of your choice.

First generation: These My Little Ponies were released in 1982 and produced until 1982. These are the most valuable to collectors.
Second generation: The second generation of ponies began production in 1997.
Third generation: The third generation of ponies began production in 2003.
Fourth generation: The fourth generation began in 2010.

It's somewhat of an attempt, but... *face palm* ... 1982... to 1982... Rainbow Dash...

eBay appears to be aware of the different generations, so yeah, looks more positive then negative.

[KarentheUnicorn]

If they've got other brands that have breakdowns...Example, barbie still has her breakdown that was in some ways similar to MLP:

Dolls
Barbie Contemporary (1973-Now)
Barbie Vintage (Pre-1973)

Although barbie had a even better breakdown because they had a few more breakdowns for the barbie category which to me seemed like they were allowed to many.

Tonner dolls, has a good breakdown for his different dolls and he's hardly producing dolls anymore under his name...he stopped making Ellowyne last year but Tonner still gets multiple categories associated with his dolls.

All MLP had was 2 fricking breakdown in it's category, hardly a reason to remove it and leave the others up.

So all I'm looking for is fairness. If the other toys/brands have their breakdowns then ponies should have theirs as well.

EVEN my child dolls have their own category and they were only made in the USA for a couple years back in the 80's. I'd rather see their category removed and simply have them listed under mattel dolls, because a lot of times people don't even realize what a MC doll is anyway.

I've never even liked MLP under the TV toy category, I always thought they should simply list by the company. Hasbro, then drop down to the various brands of toys, MLP, Transformers whatever else junk they sell. Then if needed do breakdown by generation.

[banditpony]

Did you read my post Karen?

It looks like they are in the middle of making categories.
Brand categories are like:
My Little Pony Toys > Hasbro My Little Pony Toys
My Little Pony Toys > Ty My Little Pony Toys
My Little Pony Toys > Playskool My Little Pony Toys

Type categories:
My Little Pony Toys > My Little Pony Figures
My Little Pony Toys > Doll My Little Pony Toys
My Little Pony Toys > My Little Pony Toys Playsets

It's all wrong, and it's very unorganized. It looks like a WIP.

But they mention generations on the new MLP category page... so I'm THINKING maybe they'll add generations as a sorting tool like before.
eBay > Toys & Hobbies > TV, Movie & Character Toys > My Little Pony Toys
https://www.ebay.com/b/My-Little-Pony-Toys/47227/bn_1924159

Pokemon too looks like it's in the middle of a revamp.

Also found this.
*twitch* Which looks less positive then what I was poking around at.
https://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/growing/categorychanges/toys.html
although maybe they just had to move it first before branching it off... ... I mean, by the sounds of that page DISNEY got all merged. ETA: yeah double checking -- it looks like Disney all got merged, and you know that's stupid. so I am still hopeful there are better changes coming.

[Clipper]

It just got removed on the app on my phone. I checked earlier when I saw this post, and it still had the sub cat. Now it’s gone. I think there needs to be a g1, g2, g3 and fim sections. Also a merchandise section would be nice too. I have requested it to eBay in the past but it didn’t get approved.

[LadyMoondancer]

Banditpony, unfortunately I think that page with the categories was created by a user who was a MLP fan, rather than being an "official" eBay breakdown or plan. Like a bare bones faux-Wikipedia entry for the brand.

[invaderhorizongreen]

So glad I dont use ebay at this point, so very glad of that. Still what a huge pain the searching will be. Are they trying to drive it to the ground?   

[goddessofpeep]

It looks like they're currently working on it.  It's all shifting around, and it keeps getting worse:/

I swear, the people that run ebay do not understand what makes ebay unique.  They have been putting policies to drive out smaller sellers of unique items in favor of drop-shippers from China for years - but those unique items from smaller sellers are why you go to ebay in the first place!  This is just another symptom of that.  You go to ebay for the stuff you can't get anywhere else.  If I want brand new stuff that's available for retail, I'll just go to Amazon.  There I get access to excellent customer service(no matter what I buy or where it's coming from), and a hassle free system if I have a problem with my item. 

The changes so far have basically made ebay useless for me now.  I search the MLP section for general things I'm looking for("accessory", "brushes", "sticker", etc) in the hopes that I'll get lucky.  Sellers don't always know what they have, or even if they do, a lot of times things are just vaguely titled.  So a vague search within a limited category usually produces what I'm looking for.  They don't even have a section for me to just sort by newly listed and go item by item. 

20+ years I've been on ebay, and this might be the straw that breaks the camel's back for me.  I did an accessory search just now, and it pulled up 90% single loose G3 ponies with no accessories at all, and as far as I can tell, no accessories mentioned in the listing.  It's not even pulling up the right items!  I'm supposed to buy things this way?   Are they hoping I'll find so many other unrelated items while I try to find the one thing I'm actually looking for that I'll just start a shopping spree?

[heftysmurf76]

you know what else really pisses me off about this change??? Not only am I disgusted as a buyer, but I am currently trying to SELL MLP stuff and its going to get lost in this shuffle. I am seething!

I wish we could have a concise complaint that gets sent to them repeatedly, like put together something and copy and paste it like a campaign...

[banditpony]

Banditpony, unfortunately I think that page with the categories was created by a user who was a MLP fan, rather than being an "official" eBay breakdown or plan. Like a bare bones faux-Wikipedia entry for the brand.

How does a fan have the ability to create paths to different categories... and it's pulling information from the tagging that people are inserting when they list.

The page I got to everything was from eBay's official link for TV, Movie & Character Toys...
(There's Disney, Pokemon, Thomas, Star Wars, and MLP-- other things that got merged). I just don't find it a coincidence.

And I just don't see HOW they'd merge Disney without expanding on that. Ponies... sure. Disney, no.

Anyway, I don't meant to trivialize ... How does this affect people using eBay so bad?
Like it's no change to me and I just want to understand why many people are so upset