Pockets of dissatisfaction are bubbling up on eBay due to changes in the way items are categorized on the site. The latest complaints are coming from the Pottery & Glass merchants. One user who buys and sells glassware on eBay said, "I just tried to browse my favorite category, I love 40s 50s 60s glassware, but now there is no separate category for that, or Fenton, or Depression glass, I must try to wade through tons of stuff I have no interest in."

eBay has been rolling out Item Specifics on its site for some time, but this year began making changes to categories that have some sellers seeing red. In March, we reported on eBay's category "rollups" in the entertainment categories (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y204/m03/abu0115/s03). For example, where previously sellers might have listed an item under "Entertainment: DVDs & Movies: VHS: Action & Adventure: Adventure," now, all videos are found under "DVDs & Movies: VHS." eBay is telling users they must use the Product Finder tool to input product attributes that will help them narrow down their searches instead of drilling down into subcategories.

Many sellers in movies and music categories objected to the category rollups, and since then, booksellers have complained about rollups in their category, including when eBay combined Fiction and Nonfiction books into one category (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m06/i04/s01). Now it is clear that collectibles categories are not immune from category rollups. Glass forums and discussion groups were full of complaints about the changes on Wednesday.

Sellers are asking, how do you educate buyers on new shopping techniques, literally forcing them to change their behavior? Indeed, buyers who had saved searches have lost them and have to learn how to use new search techniques and spend time recreating their old favorite saved searches (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jsp?forum=75&thread=410093468&modified=1081468745399).

One poster in the eBay boards stated those instructions for saving searches using the new system "should be sent to every buyer of pottery and glass and not just hidden on this little-viewed board." (And for sellers who aren't filling out Item Specific fields when listing their items for sale, Product Finder searches won't display their items in results.)

Another poster expresses skepticism over the reasons for the change, stating a much better system could have been implemented. "One that didn't limit search options, but rather utilized a more sophisticated search system with greater cross-search potential, rather than a less sophisticated system dependent on the searcher knowing all the specifics of an item they seek in order to find it."

One of the biggest complaints glass and pottery dealers have about the new system is that while movie buyers may know they want a comedy on DVD, buyers of collectibles are unlikely to know specific attributes like colors, origin and product type of a desired collectible. In the past, they say, they found "treasures" by browsing, which they say is harder due to the changes.

"I can no longer browse the going gone stuff in a hour or so," a glass buyer stated today. "When I tried, there were 78 pages of going gone in glassware, rather than the usual 10 or so that were of my direct interest."

Many eBay users have come to the conclusion that eBay is making change for large sellers like manufacturers and retail chains, but eBay says it is making the changes due to buyer and seller feedback. You might not know it from recent threads on the discussion boards.

eBay's Glass Chat Board http://chatboards.ebay.com/chat.jsp?forum=1&thread=34

eBay's Pottery, Glass & Porcelain Discussion Forum http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jsp?forum=75