List book with Pre-Filled info, does it ever work for you?

[johnwash1]

Is it just me, do I have especially eclectic taste in books? Or is the eBid Pre-Filled info option when listing a book for sale, um, how shall I put this... utterly useless?

I've given up trying it, it never ever works for me.

[Spyder1942]

If you use pre-filled and it dont sale you have to search pre-filled again before you relist.

[bykimbo]

I stopped using it virtually before I started. It never had anything in it, and I wasn't prepared to do the add your own info' thing. I'm prepared to do quite a bit to help support ebid and make this a working environment... but I draw the line at doing their data input for them unless they start paying me.

[Idealproductsales]

I stopped using it virtually before I started. It never had anything in it, and I wasn't prepared to do the add your own info' thing. I'm prepared to do quite a bit to help support ebid and make this a working environment... but I draw the line at doing their data input for them unless they start paying me.

ROFLMAO! Agree . A solution: they should have a way to IMPORT information on a book, such as a website that offers this service (I cant think if it at the moment!? ) will post back here if I come across it again, but you can enter an ISBN and if it isnt in database, you can query the remote site's database and import their information regarding that ISBN or UPC code (cant remember either if you had to buy a subscription to it)

[klj]

Is it just me, do I have especially eclectic taste in books? Or is the eBid Pre-Filled info option when listing a book for sale, um, how shall I put this... utterly useless?

I've given up trying it, it never ever works for me.

They seem to have quite a few of the jacket covers, but very few of the descriptions. Every so often, especially if I am listing something new, popular, or common, I add the pre-fill information. The way I see it, if each bookseller does a book or two every so often the pre-fill eventually becomes useful.
Back in 1998, that is exactly what we all did on feebay too!

If you use pre-filled and it dont sale you have to search pre-filled again before you relist.

All of the pre-filled book descriptions that I have used have come back complete when I've relisted them - without me needing to search again.

[Idealproductsales]

http://www.muze.com/ that's the site I was talking about... Might be an option for Ebid to look at , eventually....

[johnwash1]

http://www.muze.com/ that's the site I was talking about... Might be an option for Ebid to look at , eventually....

Interesting site, I'd never heard of it, thx. Looks like it needs some kind of subscription or payment, so as you say it would be something for Ebid to look at.

Meanwhile... I wonder if a Firefox add-on might be possible? Something one could put an ISBN into and it might go screenscrape from Amazon or suchlike?

[Idealproductsales]

Interesting site, I'd never heard of it, thx. Looks like it needs some kind of subscription or payment, so as you say it would be something for Ebid to look at.

Meanwhile... I wonder if a Firefox add-on might be possible? Something one could put an ISBN into and it might go screenscrape from Amazon or suchlike?

Awesome idea.. Or, at the very least, have a tab open to amazon search, you can just pop in the ISBN and copy/paste whatever description info comes up... Probably works at any other bookseller site as well (Barnes and Noble, for example)

[Rednicke]

I attempt to fill in as much as I can...I'm working on the basis that in the long term this benefits everyone. Currently its very rare for me to find that when I enter an ISBN that there is any pre-filled info but hey if we all kept plugging away - who knows!

[johnwash1]

Awesome idea.. Or, at the very least, have a tab open to amazon search, you can just pop in the ISBN and copy/paste whatever description info comes up... Probably works at any other bookseller site as well (Barnes and Noble, for example)

Yes, I do the copy/paste thing already, just looking for ways to cut down the work. Never got into programming Firefox extensions myself, hoping someone else round here might be a dab hand at it.

Rednicke, I admire what you're doing, and I try to do my share of helping old ladies across the road etc, but is building the database this way realistic?

I'm not a pro bookseller, so I don't know the numbers. But I'm getting the impression from this thread that the database had no initial import from elsewhere, and, astonishingly, is reliant solely on our efforts. How many millions of book titles are there in the world? How many eBid users fill in the info each day? Divide the first by the second... this feels to me very like setting out to polish the grains of sand on a beach and just as fruitless.

I'd like to hear some more encouraging news, then I'll gladly join in filling in the data.