Tech Support Alert: Upcoming Required Changes to Ad Format Listings

As of late February, developers building applications using eBay Web Services should be aware of required changes related to our Ad Format listings.

Ad Format listings bring interested buyers and sellers together without enabling the actual bidding or buying process through the site. Originally only available in our Real Estate category, early last year eBay enabled it in a small number of other categories where more time and communication is common before a deal is closed.

Several additional enhancements to Ad Format will be available in late February to categories enabled with Ad Format.  The enhancements include:

• Name change to “Classified Ads.”  Ad Format listings will now be called Classified Ads, and all Help and other text will be updated to reflect the change.
• Contact, Payment & Shipping Information on the Item page. Sellers will be able list their phone number and business hours, which buyers will see near the top of the item page. Buyers will also see any payment method and shipping options that the seller has chosen (in those categories where these options are applicable).
• Best Offer Support.  Best Offer is now supported for many categories supporting Classified Ads.
• Improved Lead Management. More robust Lead Management functionality has been added to MyeBay.

Developer Impact: As of late February, categories that currently use the "AdType" ListingType will require the new "LeadGeneration" ListingType and "ClassifiedAd" ListingSubtype for all new and relisted items.  Active items and revisions will not be affected by this change.  Applications that list items using the "AdType" value for Item.ListingType will need to change their calls to use the new values for their AddItem, RelistItem, and ReviseItem calls.  See the KnowledgeBase for information on how to update your code and the API documentation release notes for more details on these important feature changes.