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Which item specifics eBay actually uses for comic books

By Winston, Comic Collector Enthusiast. 11 September 2026.

A raw comic listed in eBay's comic book category, number 259104, uses 25 item specifics. Several of them are the filters down the side of a buyer's search, and a bulk upload that names one wrong does something worse than fail: it quietly creates a custom field with your data in it and leaves the real one blank. This is the list, what goes in each field, and the mistakes that have cost this store real listings.

The list

These are the column names as eBay's bulk upload expects them, with the C: prefix that marks an item specific. Every one of the 25 has been through live uploads under exactly this name.

Series versus title

C:Series Title is the series: "Amazing Spider-Man", nothing else. The listing's own title is a different thing, an 80 character line the buyer reads in search results. The shape this store uses, and the product builds, is the series, the issue number and any variant, a hook if the issue has one ("1st Venom"), the words "Comic Book" (or "Comic Lot", or "Magazine"), a character or two, a creator, the publisher's full name and the year, in that order, with the optional middle dropped first when the line runs long. So the title reads "Amazing Spider-Man #300 1st Venom Comic Book Marvel Comics 1988" and C:Series Title is "Amazing Spider-Man". The whole title in the series field is a value no series filter will ever match.

Issue number and variants

C:Issue Number is the bare number: 300, not #300. C:Variant Cover is a column name people invent, and a C: name eBay does not know becomes a custom field. A variant lives in the title, right after the issue number ("Primortals #4 Cover B"), where a buyer comparing two copies can see it, and again in the description. Two variants of one issue listed under identical titles look like duplicate listings to a buyer, and to any duplicate check you run yourself.

The era bands

C:Era takes eBay's exact wording, range included. The bands are:

The 65 character rule

Every item specific value is capped at 65 characters, and for a pipe separated field such as C:Character the cap is on each name, not on the joined string. Over the cap, eBay refuses the whole row at upload with error 21919308, "Enter a value of no more than 65 characters". Because a bulk upload processes each row on its own, the rest of the file goes live while that one listing does not, and the only place it is mentioned is the upload report.

The two that have done it to this store are C:Story Title on a lot that named every story in it (72 characters; the row was skipped and the rest of the box went live), and C:Artist/Writer on a jam issue with nine pencillers (141 characters). A lot's story title should name the shared subject once. A credits list should keep the whole names that fit, writer first, and drop the rest.

Column names that create a custom field

A C: column that does not match a built-in field exactly is not refused. eBay takes the row, files the value under a custom item specific at the bottom of the listing's edit page, and leaves the real field empty. The listing looks finished and is missing its year, its publisher and its characters as far as any filter is concerned. These are the names this store has used or seen used, and where the value belongs; the last two are not C: columns and simply fail the header:

Which fields never to leave blank

C:Character, C:Artist/Writer and C:Story Title are the three worth inventing a fallback for rather than leaving blank (this is a ranking habit of this store, not an eBay rule): the series name as the character, "Various" for creators you cannot name, the series and issue number as the story title. "Various" is fine in an item specific and never belongs in the description a buyer reads; leave the sentence out instead. C:Cover Artist is the exception: blank is better than crediting the writer with a cover they did not draw.

The two that cost real listings

Neither is an item specific, and both sit in the same row of the same file, so they belong here.

Store categories are numbers. The *StoreCategory column takes the numeric id from the end of the category's URL in Seller Hub, never the name. A file with the names in it is refused row by row with "Input data for tag StoreCategoryID is invalid". On this store's first box through the product that was 24 of 24 rows; the same 24 went through on the second upload once the ids were typed in.

A lot is not priced like a single. When a box of $2.99 comics has an eight issue lot in it, the lot needs its own price typed in. It is the easiest thing in the file to miss, because a lot row validates perfectly at $2.99.