Power Sellers Unite

vintagecollections · Joined: 28 Jan 2011 Posts: 6

Jan 28, 2011 - eCrater Site Glitch Causing Photos To Appear Out of Order (except the 1st) on New and Existing Listings When Viewed as a Buyer.

This is probably most significant to vintage sellers utilizing 5-10 photos...

Today I created a new listing which I had not done in several days.
After I write a description and finish adding my photos, I always view the listing as a buyer will and edit as needed.

To my dismay, only the 1st of my 10 photos was in the order as placed and as displayed on the "Manage Product Images" page in my Admin.

Hoping the glitch would not affect the photos in my existing listings (almost all have 9-10 photos), I viewed as many as time permitted as a buyer would. Unfortunately, it did.

All photos except the 1st in my existing listings that I checked are now also out of order when viewed as a buyer.

This is a new glitch.
The photos are displaying in their correct order on the "Manage Product Images" pages.
They are not being displayed in that same order when viewed as a buyer.

Hopefully, eCrater will fix this glitch ASAP!

If anyone has found a temporary work-around for this glitch until it gets fixed, please share.

When you list vintage items and use 9-10 photos as I do, there are important reasons they are placed in a logical and specific order for buyers to view.

What would you do until the glitch is fixed if you referenced a photo(s) and its order placement(s) in your active listing descriptions such as to point out special features or flaws?

elpereles · Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 1478 Location: Puerto Rico

Can you write the link of the affected items? So we can understand better the glitch.

vintagecollections · Joined: 28 Jan 2011 Posts: 6

A link of the affected items? I am not certain I understand. Only a seller will know if his/her photos are now displaying out of order when viewed as a buyer and no longer match the order displayed on their "Manage Product Images" pages within their store's admin.

Perhaps I can give an example:

You have 10 photos displayed in the order you want on the "Manage Product Images" page.

Until some point this week, the photos would display in that exact same order when a potential buyer viewed your listing.

Now, they do not except for the 1st photo.

Since the photos remain in the correct order on the "Manage Product Images" pages, I cannot find a way temporarily correct the order until the glitch is fixed.

I wanted to alert sellers that may not view their active listings as a buyer will once posted...again, because the photos remain in the correct order on their "Manage Product Images" pages.

elpereles · Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 1478 Location: Puerto Rico

I just want to see your item and you tell the order you posted the photos to compare the photos actual location.

I never used all the 10 photos, but I was reading in the eCrater forum. It looks like that have happen always.

slythorne · Joined: 31 Dec 2008 Posts: 220

I rarely use more than one picture for my items, and when I do use more it never really matters the order. How about labeling your pictures A, B, C, etc and referencing the letter in the pic in the ad?

vintagecollections · Joined: 28 Jan 2011 Posts: 6

Again, once the glitch started last week, only the 1st photo in my existing and newly added listing displays where it should when viewed as a buyer. The remaining 8-9 photos now display in a random, illogical, nonsensical and confusing order when viewed as a buyer and no longer match the order on the "Manage Product Images" pages.

If you only use 1-2 photos, this information would probably be confusing since 1-2 photos would not be affected by this glitch.

The Key Factors of the Out-of-Order Photo Glitch:

In other words, only the 1st photo remains in the same order on both the "Manage Product Images" pages and when viewed as a buyer.
The remaining 8-9 photos continue to display in their correct order on the "Manage Product Images" pages.
However, they no longer display in that same order when viewed as a buyer.
The photos orders have and should match.
That is the glitch.

Consequently, there is nothing I can do to correct how they display to a buyer until the glitch is fixed.

It is important for sellers of antique / vintage items to place their ...8, 9, 10 photos in a specific order for reasons mentioned above
as well as other reasons.

I have placed my eCrater store on hold (all vintage items) until the glitch is fixed.

I have used eCrater for years and almost all my listings have 9-10 photos.
I am fully aware how to list and place photos in the order I want as that is a significant factor.

Even if my store was not on hold, all you would see if you viewed my listings as a buyer, would be the logical proper 1st photo.
The order now displayed for the remaining 8, 9 photos (when viewed as a buyer) would at minimum be confusing.
It would serve no purpose since you cannot view my "Manage Photo Images" pages to see that the photo orders no longer match.

elpereles, I think I know the eCrater forum topic you are referring to which I will look for later today or tomorrow when I have more time.
Can you tell me the name of the topic you are referring to?

If it is the same photo glitch topic I saw, there was incorrect / outdated information provided by a forum mod in response to the OP.

slythorne · Joined: 31 Dec 2008 Posts: 220

So basically you do not think your buyers are smart enough to figure out the pics for themselves? And for that reason you are no longer offering the items to the buyers? Sounds a little.... I don't know... Paranoid??

love2shop · Joined: 31 Mar 2008 Posts: 680

donaldjr wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")
So basically you do not think your buyers are smart enough to figure out the pics for themselves? And for that reason you are no longer offering the items to the buyers? Sounds a little.... I don't know... Paranoid??

I agree.

There arn't many sellers, no matter what site I'm looking on, that have more than 1 or 2 pictures. So, I would think any one looking at your items would be thrilled to see 8-10. I've purchased several vintage items, and up until I read this post I had no idea there was certain order for pictures :roll:

Wilbere · Joined: 26 Apr 2010 Posts: 2

I posted the same problem in the ecrater forum. There, I was told by the mod that it had always done that. This was surprising to me, as I had never noticed the problem before. http://community.ecrater.com/viewtopic.php?t=26764&highlight=

It is interesting to find this thread asking about the same glitch, which OP noticed recently, as did I. I am also particular about photo order in some of my listings. Often doesn't matter to me, but when it does, I want to be able to set the order in which my listing photos display.

The temporary workaround that I used with one of my new 10-photo listings was to re-shuffle the photos back into the order that I want by using the "default" under the photos the eCrater Admin Manage Product Photos area.

Hope this helps.

elpereles · Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 1478 Location: Puerto Rico

vintagecollections, it is the link that Wilbere added.

I sell trading cards. It is very rare if I use 3 or more photos. So I never noticed the glitch until I read it in the forums. I believe that the most important is #1. If I use photos to describe a defect or damage I write it in the description and the buyer can search in the photos to see it.

vintagecollections · Joined: 28 Jan 2011 Posts: 6

Glitch Fixed

I had updated this topic that the glitch was fixed about a week ago, but see it did not successfully post. Sorry for my delay in re-checking.

Apparently the out-of-order photo glitch occurred during eCrater's site maintenance that simultaneously caused the photos of seller's other items not to be displayed.

donaldjr - So basically you do not think your buyers are smart enough to figure out the pics for themselves? And for that reason you are no longer offering the items to the buyers? Sounds a little.... I don't know... Paranoid??

No, but that is what occurs when you make assumptions. My vintage listings each contain multiple items (often 4-10+) and had you read my posts, you would know they contain references to some of the 10 photos by their order placement in the descriptions. If I had left the listings active, they would have appeared 1) mistake ridden, 2) un-edited, 3) carelessly prepared, 4) confusing and, consequently, unprofessional in addition to 5) photos being displayed in an illogical order. It was a very easy decision to put that 1 store on hold until the glitch was fixed.

Why do you think venues, 3rd party photo hosting/listing sites, and webstore templates allow for photo placement?
They recognize the importance and the demand particularly by vintage sellers.

Another reason of many and an example...On a zoomed-in photo a of flaw displaying out-of-order as #2 of 10 when the glitch was active instead of immediately following the full-sized photo of that 1 piece, a potential buyer would have had to guess which piece had the flaw and where on a piece it was located or waste time trying to figure it out. No vintage seller would want that photo to appear as #2 regardless.

There are many other reasons why the order placement of 10 photos is significant for vintage sellers as well as the quality of photos, providing a seamless and logical flow (which also reduces the chance of buyer error), ease-of-use etc. Most sellers learned the importance of providing professional appearing online listings in their early years. This may not seem significant to sellers of mass-produced new items with 1-3 photos or inexpensive items with short descriptions, but it makes a big difference for obtaining top prices on expensive vintage collectibles when you appear professional which, naturally, can lead to greater buyer confidence.

slythorne · Joined: 31 Dec 2008 Posts: 220

I could see if there was specific photo placement within the ad, but eCrater doesn't allow that. So I stand by my initial statement.

I had figured it happened during the site maintenance and wasn't an ongoing thing, but I like watching people overreact sometimes.