What is changing?
Starting in late May 2012, eBay Motors Vehicles sellers using the Sell Your Item form can input their car or truck’s VIN or the year, make, model, trim, engine, and drive type, and get a list of matching vehicles to choose from. Once a vehicle is chosen from the Vehicles Catalog, the listing form fields will be pre-populated with information about the vehicle, and you will also have the option to choose a standard description for your listing. The vehicle’s year, make, model, trim, engine, and drive type will be mandatory in order to list, revise or relist a vehicle on eBay. Simply inputting your vehicle’s VIN will be sufficient to pull in this information without manually entering it. If your vehicle is older than 1981, you will need to manually input these properties if you don’t have the VIN.
Why is eBay making these changes?
Choosing from a catalog of vehicles will help sellers list more efficiently, by reducing both the time it takes to list, and discrepancies within a listing. This type of standardization will improve the quality of your listing by adding relevant and standard data from the manufacturer.
What is vehicle make, model, trim, engine and drive type?
An example of make is Honda and model is Civic. Trim is the sub-model of a vehicle and is based on its unique features like body type and number of doors. An example is Si or EX that follows the make and model, for example: 2012 Honda Civic Si. Engine is combination of engine size, engine block type, number of cylinders, fuel type, cylinder type, and aspiration, but simply put, 1.6 Liter 4 Cylinder engine, for example. Drive type can be front wheel, rear wheel or four-wheel drive.
Is it mandatory to list using these properties?
By mid-June, 2012, use of these properties will be mandatory for new listings, revisions and relistings on eBay Motors, but optional for API users—although it is highly recommended, since it will streamline the listing process. In late 2012, use of trim, engine, and drive type will also be mandatory when listing via the API.
How do I sell a vehicle using the Sell Your Item form on eBay.com?
Click Sell on the top of any eBay page. In the Search box, start typing your vehicle’s VIN or make, model, trim and other information about your vehicle. eBay will process the information you provide and display graphics of matching vehicles to help you identify your vehicle in our catalog.
I use the API to list my vehicle. How will this change affect me?
Beginning in March 2012, there will be additional fields available for you to enter year, make, model, trim, engine, drive type OR vehicle eBay Product ID. Although currently optional, by late 2012, it will be mandatory to input the trim, engine, and drive type in order to list your car or truck.