eBay[c] The Missing Manual

2017-07-07 02:10:07

A.1. eBay Updates

In its ongoing quest to become the perfect online marketplace , eBay is constantly tweaking the site: adding new categories, putting mysterious checkboxes on the Sell Your Item form, creating search options that you didn't even know you wanted. Just when you think you've learned your way around, something changesand you want to know why. To help eBayers keep up with what's going on, eBay posts frequent announcement bulletins to keep eBayers informed of changes, new features, and problems.

The three most recent announcement bulletins appear on your My eBay page. (To bring up your My eBay page: on the navigation bar, click My eBay and then sign in, if necessary.) But if you need to get caught up on announcements, or if you just know you read something in an announcement but you can't find it in My eBay, go to the Announcements page. You can access the Announcements page (shown in Figure A-1) from anywhere on the site by clicking Community "See all Announcements." You can also find an Announcements link at the bottom of any eBay page.

Figure A-1. Another way to go to the Announcements page is to go to My eBay, find General eBay Announcements, and click See All eBay Announcements. A new window opens with current bulletins in descending chronological order; the most recent announcement is at the top of the page. You can scroll down the page to read any announcement sent out during the current month. Use the left-hand menu to read announcements from previous months or to check the system announcements for information about technical issues, such as scheduled maintenance of eBay's computers.

eBay posts two kinds of announcements:

General announcements . Upcoming workshops (Section A.5.1), new features, category updates, and other changes to the site fall into this category. General announcements also contain some public relations stuff, like reminding you to listen to eBay Radio (Section A.3) or to check out a new issue of eBay's online newsletter, The Chatter (Section A.2).
Tip: For sellers, one of the best reasons to keep an eye on general announcements is that this is where eBay announces listing sales (promotions that offer reduced listing fees). Often these promotions are short and the announcement appears just one day before the listing sale starts. Check announcements regularly to save yourself some money on listing fees.

System announcements . These bulletins have to do with the technical side of eBay. If a technical problem is interfering with your ability to use the site, eBay announces it here and puts up another announcement when they've fixed the problem. This is also where you can find notification of scheduled site maintenance; during the times eBay does this maintenance, the site can feel a little sluggish . Find out when maintenance is happening so you can avoid the frustrations of trying to list a couple dozen auctions when the system is slow.

POWER USERS' CLINIC

Testing, Testing

The fourth time you beat your head against the wall trying to get used to some unasked-for "improvement," you might wish eBay would just leave well enough alone already.

On the other hand, you might enjoy getting to play around with spanking-new features. And if that's the case, you might appreciate the fact that eBay takes its community into consideration before it overhauls the way things work. To participate, visit the General Announcements page (Community "See all Announcements) and watch the General Announcements page for bulletins that begin with the words "Input Wanted." You can sign up to test new site features, like changes to the Search engine or the site map.

Another way to get your voice heard is to sign up for surveys. From time to time, eBay sends out email surveys looking for feedback on new features and changes they're considering. To participate, click My eBay eBay Preferences. Look for Notification Preferences and click View/Change. On the eBay Change Your Preferences page that appears, turn on the checkbox next to eBay Product Surveys. When you click Save Changes, youve signed up.

A.1. eBay Updates

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