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EU Product Identifiers
Summary: the_vinyl_and_shellac_shack expressed concern over an email from eBay requiring product identifiers for all items sold to the EU starting November 1st. They sell second-hand vinyl records and have over 3000 listings, questioning whether barcodes are necessary for all items and how to handle those without barcodes. They are also concerned about the time-consuming nature of this requirement and the challenges of overriding eBay's pre-filled specifics when scanning barcodes.
I received an email from Ebay today stating that product identifers will be required on all items being sold to the EU by 1st November. I sell mostly second hand vinyl records and have over 3000 listings. Does this mean I need to enter a barcode number for all applicable items and some other identifer for vinyl records which don't have barcodes? This would be very time consuming and possibly not worth my time. I'm also reluctant to scan barcodes because Ebay pre-fills the item specifics and I sometimes have issues overriding what has been pre-filled.
rainbowtrax
·1 week agoYeah, couldn't agree more, complete waste of time and I won't be bothering. Yet again it's a case of the bureaucrats who dream up the ridiculous legislation having no idea of how the real world works.
Ok, so number 1 is the listing number - that's fine for all items.
Number 2, in the case of records, is covered by the catalogue number. But there are many second hand items where there is absolutely no PID of any description whatsoever.
Number 3, the EAN or ISBN, again no such thing for older records and for all older items of any description. Then, as you rightly say, even when there is one, adding it to an ebay listing is generally the worst thing you can do as their catalogue data is always full of errors. It's so bad that, for items that do have an EAN/ISBN, I always enter "Does not apply" in that field as I can't risk entering it and misleading potential buyers with incorrect info.
So, all in all, this latest fiasco is just another reason to keep the EU blocked as it's not possible to comply. I appreciate ebay telling us about it but I certainly shan't be taking any action. The EU is doing everything in its power to make sending goods there as inconvenient and time consuming as possible so I've given up. It's just not worth the effort - which is probably the reaction that they want but I really can't be bothered with them. Everybody loses.