My eBay classic retired, new My eBay rolled out
20/01/2009 at 19:41
Be prepared for a bit of a shock next time you log into eBay, it’s been announced around the world (although not in the UK) that My eBay Beta is about to become the default for all users. Today the old or “classic” version is set to be retired for good.
Back in August we took a first look at the new My eBay Beta and found it good for buyers but lacking in functionality for sellers, but many of our complaints addressed with added functionality. There are a few differences worth calling out:
Best Offers
Items with outstanding Best Offers aren’t as visible as in the old version. Whereas they’d be highlighted at the top of the selling tab in the classic eBay, in the new version they only appear in “Selling Reminders” on the “All Selling” summary view. If you’re on the “Selling Tab” you don’t get selling reminders and so won’t see any prompts to accept, decline or make a counter offer.
Even in Selling Reminders Best Offers could be handled better, if you counter offer to a buyer it still displays as “1 item with offers from buyers”. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve gone to respond just to find out I’m waiting for the buyer to make a decision.
Unsold Items
Another major display change to be aware of is with unsold items. The quantity displayed will now be the starting 
quantity, regardless how many items have been sold on a listing. In the classic version of My eBay the unsold item view displayed the quantity remaining when the listing ended. It’s a minor change, but a frustrating one for those who rely on these numbers for stock control.
Sort Options
The old My eBay was highly configurable with sort options for almost every attribute displayed. The new My eBay is severely limited with sorting limited to just the Watchers, Bids, Price and Time left columns.
In the past I’ve used sorts such as for highest/lowest shipping charges, to look for listings with outstanding questions to answer, or even available quantity. That’s no longer possible which makes managing your eBay listings that little bit more difficult, and TurboLister that little bit more attractive.
The biggest change facing most buyer and sellers is that the focus of the new My eBay shifts to the listing title rather than the User ID. This is somewhat perturbing at first although in fairness I soon got used to it when using the Beta.
Currently those who use Selling Manager Pro will escape the worst of the changes, but we’ve managed to get a sneaky preview (shown left) of what the new SMP tabs will look like when they get a minor makeover in the near future.
If you’ve been using the new My eBay let us know what you think of it. If you’re still using My eBay classic today is the last day it’ll be available on many eBay sites.
krakit says
6:31 am on 21/01/2009
I’ve been using the new My eBay for awhile, but I haven’t done
any selling. I use eBay only to buy products, but I hope to be
selling soon.
Long ago (about a year maybe) I took the offer to try the new
My eBay and it was absolutely terrible. I sent them an e-mail
letting them know how furious I was and I gave example after
example of what a failure it was. I went back to the old version
and was much happier. I guess half a year went by and they
offered it again but with promises of improved updates so I
checked it out without any mindset of embracing it. I tested
it out enough to see it was much better than before and so
I stuck with it.
My main problem with it is that when I try to edit a “saved
search” nothing can be done to cause an edit. So to get around
that I have to redo a search from scratch with the changes I
wanted and then I save that search and then delete the old
saved search that I wanted to edit.
I wish I could give you some perspective of selling using the
new My eBay, but I don’t have any experience yet in that
area.
M F says
9:39 am on 21/01/2009
I still hate it. Slow, kludgy, unwieldy. Supposedly more “configurable” than classic, and yet you can’t “configure” it to do what the old My eBay did so well and so quickly.
Savvy Paul says
11:26 am on 21/01/2009
Ther was nothing much wrong with ‘classic My eBay, and there is nothing much wrong with the existing Selling Manager Pro.
I use Selling Manager Pro mostly and my only complaint is poor reliability of late. I’d be interested to understand what consultation has taken place with experienced sellers about any changes to SMP. Chris’s post is the first I’ve heard.
Paul.
pete says
11:40 am on 21/01/2009
Tabbed browsing will be seen on a lot of the bigger sites over the next few months. It enables faster load times etc in general.
One question I would like answered is why eBay ever removed the posting date, now it can only be viewed by going through SMP/view order details. A pain in the b*m.
Steve says
11:53 am on 21/01/2009
“makes managing your eBay listings that little bit more difficult, and TurboLister that little bit more attractive….”
Anything that makes Turbo Lister look like a more attractive option scares me!! I only use TL for backing up listings, as I do not rely on it for creating or managing listings. It has failed far too many times for my liking in the past.
My eBay selling is at a level where it pretty much runs itself – I come home from work, check sales, print labels, pack, and post the following day. No more than 30-45 minutes per day, and a tidy up and stock replenish at weekends. As long as it is still easy and painless for me to administer, then I wont be complaining.
Change happens, cheese moves. The world keeps turning whether we like it or not!
Adrian (vzaar chief geek) says
12:46 pm on 21/01/2009
Does this mean seller manager is dead?
I can’t seem to find the seller manager stuff.
That aside I do like the new design, cleaner and clearer.
allotment says
12:50 pm on 21/01/2009
No Selling Manager is still there (happily)
try http://k2b-bulk.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyEbaySellingSummary
Seller in USA says
3:02 pm on 21/01/2009
I hate this crap! Slower than dirt. I honestly can’t believe they would impliment such a thing that is this ridiculously slow to load. Also, customization sucks severely as well!
John Lindauer says
3:26 pm on 21/01/2009
We used to be power sellers with 5000 or more listings on ebay on an average day. The ever changing terms and conditions and the ever higher fees caused us to move to Amazon and to our own website and reduce our listings to about 2000. Yesterday we used “bombed” more listings and are now down to a couple of hundred listings. Ebay is one of the most short-term oriented public companies in America. Each time it makes changes to help it make its profit and listing numbers for the current quarter it drives away more sellers. The trend has become irreversable as the sellers such as our company find other venues in which to sell and despair of the integrity of Paypal which refunds money to criminals who pretend to return items but don’t, then immediately relist them on ebay to reap the reward for their crime. Or, for example, gets listings from Sellers based on their expectation of a listing ranking and offers a ‘special” that immediately puts subsequent listings ahead in the rankings ebay earlier promised. All this pumps up ebay’s sales reports for that quarter but discourages listings in the next. Summary: A company whose business plan is to constantly and retroactively screw its primary customers (the sellers who pay its fees) to prop up its share prices does not have a bright future. The arrogance of its management thinking that Sellers will stick with it even if they are treated badly reminds me of the American airlines such as Pan Am, Eastern, and TWA which ignored their customers and gouged them with ever higher prices because they thought their customers had no other way to fly. Same future for ebay.
Hate It! says
3:50 pm on 21/01/2009
eBay claims 10% did not switch voluntarily. I have been reading a lot of negative posts. Are they so big that they can afford to loose 10% of their users? They have lost me!
Patricia013 says
4:41 pm on 21/01/2009
I found myself in the new MyEbay months ago and opted out. Last night it was back for good and it took me an hour to make it anywhere near as handy as the old one. Seller’s perspective???? At first I couldn’t find the blasted seller’s dashboard. Found it on another page – found instructions on one of the forums to bring it to the front page (since we’re all supposed to check it constantly to see if our money is good enough to sell on ebay). As usual its different….it slows down listings and sales because its just one more piece of carp Ebay threw at us in order to feel they are making advances. Their new glitchy listing form is another piece of carp. For years I’ve been waiting for them to address their business and stop redecorating their site – I suppose that’s useless effort on my part.
I’m sticking to Bonanzle.com these days – no stress, low fees, free shop and free listings
Edgar says
5:31 pm on 21/01/2009
I am very displeased with the low density approach — fewer items on the visible screen, more “whitespace”. An 8 second task now takes thrice the time. I’ll join Patricia and vote with my feet.
Ed (BuildaSkill) says
6:42 pm on 21/01/2009
opted in and out of this so many times during the beta – still don’t like it
Will stick it out with SMP as long as possible, but unless they do a roll back on this and revert to SMP classic, then I’ll be right behind Patricia and Edgar
When I look at a data screen, I want to see DATA, not white space, 3rd-party adverts, and all the gubbins they throw onto seller’s admin pages nowadays.
Oh, and I despise having to scroll horizontally to read each line – just because eBay gives it’s developers 60-inch wide screen monitors does NOT mean the rest of us are on wide screen monitors – I’m still using 1024×768 resolution and format – I object to a quarter of my screen disappearing off the right hand side of the monitor.
1-star all round on this one for eBay ?
John says
12:41 am on 22/01/2009
I was one of the 10% forced to change….
I hate the new My eBay to pieces but can live with it but what really bothers me is that it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo friggin slow…
It lags when scrolling, lags when loading, and well it just always lags…If they’d fix that I’d be happy…
Fuck you eBay and you too PayPal…All this when eBay announced today that their 4th quarter profits were down 33% to only $393 million and their 2008 revenue was only a measly $1.8 billion…Poor fucking billionaires..my heart is bleeding…
Ken says
3:59 am on 22/01/2009
The new my eBay is absolutely terrible – Not to mention SLOW! They have made it look like some kind of social gathering site as opposed to a selling/buying site. Add your picture here, make the page your own, rearrange boxes, oh! …we gave you crayons to change your colors to reflect the real you….or design your own My World Page…meet up with other coffee drinkers etc. eBay is looking more like a Social scene than a business/selling environment.
I have been with eBay since the beginning and have watched a fantastic idea reduced to rubble. It amazes me that no one AS OF YET has come up with a good alternative to eBay…instant billionaires if a person had the knowledge and the financing to start something up (Sign me up!). Anyways…back to the NEW USELESS MY EBAY issue.
OLD MY EBAY: You had the ability for example to view…say 75 auctions on one page at a time – simple, effective, streamline, informative and it held most…if not all the the important seller information on the same page – Great for sellers!
NEW MY EBAY: Same 75 auctions – can only view 8 items per page, have to click 8 different pages to view the same 75 auctions. Not only that….it is slow and has all those boxes with grade 2 size text surrounded by so much wasted space. I have viewed the new my eBay on a 24″ iMac and after scrolling past the 8 auctions on the page…the rest is white-wasted-space – 20″x12.5″ to be exact! A FULL 250 square inches of prime property/auction information space for sellers….GONE!…and replaced with white clouds! In a couple words: GREATNESS reduced to RUBBLE! Thanks for listening and good luck to fellow eBayer’s
GL says
5:44 am on 22/01/2009
Besides the fact that it wreaks of design inexperience, and the fact that there’s so much wasted screen real-estate what about all the hours times millions of users that are lost “relearning” a new layout? Where’s all the outcry over this fact? Does anyone at ebay understand what lost productivity means?
Pete says
8:14 am on 22/01/2009
The speed “could” be down to your PC/Mac. Try updating your browser, java etc.
jake says
2:28 pm on 22/01/2009
Sorry just don’t like the feel or look of it , I also opted in & out of the beta ; now I really don’t enjoy loggin into ebay as I know it’s going to take longer for the most basic task..things just look hidden and a real run-a-round.
Bad idea eBay, but hey what do we know as sellers
Chris Dawson says
7:17 pm on 22/01/2009
One thing that’s still annoying me is notes – in the past you could add notes to multiple sales at the same time. Now you can only add a note to one item at a time.
Sure it’s a cute pop up, but it doesn’t half take a lot longer to add notes to multiple sales
unknown says
10:00 pm on 22/01/2009
Slowness is caused by using IE. Try another browser.
Max Stein says
11:44 pm on 22/01/2009
I have been a buyer on EBAY since 2000 and really hate this new My eBay page. It waste my time and has turned what was a fun experience into a pain. I had nearly 1500 postive transactions but have not bought a thing since they forced this change. Sellers-I’m sorry but it’s not fun to buy from you on EBAY any more. The management made sure of that. I’m now searching for a new place to shop from.
ma says
6:35 pm on 23/01/2009
Really its my computer? is that why its tabbed? I checked and I dont use tabbing. Really you think its my browser? oh well Carp is Carp in any browser. why move see my reports to manage my store? or my world to some unknown location, and whats with the meet people page. Heck you cant even email your customers on ebay without typing in the secret code. Oh I did figure out how to set the number of items on the page, you can increase at the bottom left, click 50 or 100 and that is what you will see. Of course when you sign in the next day or later you do have to Reset it all. what fun. Oh but only if you can read 8pt type because if you enlarge the text size it all runs off the page. or hided behind the columns. Ebay knows we all have different computers and browsers. They need to right their programs to work with most everything.
There is sooooo much Wrong with ebay that I no longer have time to deal with it.
Yes the white space…. really we dont want to look fancy we just want to work. Ebay is in trouble but they are scrambling the wrong direction. Hellooooooooo be nice and listen to your sellers who pay you (with listing, fvf, & paypal fees and pict fees and…) And quit trying to please your stock holders because in the end when the sellers are gone the stock holders will be right behind them.
Sue Bailey says
10:31 pm on 25/01/2009
http://reviews.ebay.com/How-to-use-the-new-My-eBay_W0QQugidZ10000000009469992
Excellent guide to the new My eBay.
chris-or-christopher says
10:56 pm on 25/01/2009
It is so refreshing to read the uncensored, vulgar, and totally spot-on comments by John in post #14. The first grin I’ve enjoyed all week since the My eBay beta fiasco has been forced on us all–in the U.S. (I’m using the Canada site for My eBay.)
But ebay will be done (stick a fork in its ass and turnn it over, it’s done) when they force the “New Search Experience” with “Best Match” on the whole site. Nobody will find the items from small sellers; it’s all going to be fixed price crap from buy.com.
Honestly, I want the auction (with buy it now option) format: please Amazon, Yahoo, google, Bonanzle add that functionality (back) in. I know that amazon and yahoo auctions were trounced by ebay 6-7 years ago but right now: as John said, ANYBODY with the web traffic say of amazon or yahoo could kill ebay in weeks: like Lenin said in during the revolution: power was lying around on the street just waiting for somebody to pick it up.
chris-or-christopher says
11:05 pm on 25/01/2009
Correction to the above: I need to give Ken credit for raising the only question that at this point matters:
“It amazes me that no one AS OF YET has come up with a good alternative to eBay…instant billionaires if a person had the knowledge and the financing to start something up (Sign me up!).”
board_surfer says
2:00 pm on 26/01/2009
There will never be anything to match ebay as a whole
what might happen is there may be better sites to sell specific types of item that are better than ebay
problem they will have is ebays habit of buying them up.
being first into the online auction game has given ebay a practically unassailable advantage.
Buyers do not buy things from George Brown of Basingstoke, they buy things “on Ebay”
Pete says
5:05 pm on 26/01/2009
eBay had a new concept…simply starting another online auction site, no matter how big (google etc) wouldn’t be good enough.
You need to find the next new way to buy and sell online….
Chris Dawson says
9:13 am on 27/01/2009
Looks like the next round of countries retiring My eBay Classic will be the first week of February. I’m kinda gonna miss it even though I’ve mainly been using the new My eBay for over six months now.
Former seller/buyer says
2:39 am on 03/02/2009
Let’s see, painfully slow in every browser I’ve tried – you’d think that experienced web developers would realize all that generated javascript s l o w s a page d o w n.
Buggy – it is still beta, after all. Horrendous clickability – try it on a mac (and I’m sorry, it makes no difference on my cable ISP what I use, and I have all the latest browsers)
Gives you stuff you don’t need that you can’t get rid of.
Items I’m watching is now triple the number of pages it used to be.
Clunky, ugly, worst design I’ve seen in a long time – seriously, who designed this?
Yes, this is SO much easier to use than the old one – while I’m waiting for the page to load I’ll go somewhere else to do my shopping and selling.
eBay’s spin doctors really expect people to believe their lying statistics. You want the truth? Visit eBay’s forums – no one likes this garbage.