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ICanHazCrypto edited this page Jun 16, 2026 · 2 revisions

Import from eBay

The Import feature pulls your active eBay listings into WooCommerce as fully formed products — complete with titles, descriptions, images, prices, stock levels, attributes, variations, weight, dimensions, and categories.

How It Works

eBay Store → Plugin fetches listing data via API → WooCommerce Products created/updated

Each eBay listing is matched to a WooCommerce product using its unique eBay Item ID. If the product already exists, the plugin updates it (based on your Data Mapping rules). If it's new, the plugin creates it.

Running a Manual Import

  1. Navigate to TCGiant Sync → Import from eBay.
  2. Click Fetch Inventory.
  3. The plugin queries eBay for all active listings in your selected categories.
  4. A progress bar tracks the import in real-time.
  5. Once complete, you'll see a summary of products created, updated, and any errors.

💡 Tip: You can navigate away from the page — the import runs in the background via Action Scheduler and won't stop if you close the browser.

Scheduling Automated Imports (Pro)

Pro users can set the plugin to import automatically:

  1. Go to TCGiant Sync → Settings.
  2. Under Automation & Sync Schedule, select a frequency:
    • Every 15 Minutes
    • Hourly
    • Twice Daily
    • Daily
  3. Click Save Settings.

The plugin will poll eBay at the chosen interval, import any new listings, and update stock/price for existing ones.

💡 Tip: WordPress cron relies on site visitors to trigger. If your site has very low traffic, set up a server-side cron job to hit wp-cron.php every few minutes for reliable scheduling. Your web host's control panel (cPanel, Plesk, etc.) usually has a "Cron Jobs" section for this.

What Gets Imported

eBay Field WooCommerce Field Notes
Title Product Name Controllable via "Overwrite Title" setting
Description Product Description Controllable via "Overwrite Description" setting
Current Price Regular Price Sale prices from Markdown Manager are detected automatically
Quantity Available Stock Quantity Always synced from eBay
Gallery Images Product Images Controllable via "Overwrite Images" setting
Item Specifics Product Attributes e.g., Brand, Material, Scale, Graded, etc.
eBay Variations WooCommerce Variations Full Variable Product support
Store Categories WooCommerce Categories Mapped automatically
SKU / ISBN / UPC / EAN Product SKU Smart fallback chain for SKU detection
Shipping Weight Product Weight Auto-converts units (lbs ↔ kg)
Package Dimensions Product Dimensions (L×W×H) Auto-converts units (in ↔ cm)

Large Inventory Tips (5,000+ Items)

If you have a large eBay store, here's what to expect:

eBay API Rate Limits

eBay's Trading API allows approximately 5,000 API calls per day (standard limit). Since each product import requires one GetItem call, this means:

Inventory Size Estimated Import Time
Under 1,000 A few hours
1,000 – 5,000 1 day
5,000 – 10,000 2 days
10,000 – 15,000 2–3 days
15,000+ 3+ days

What Happens When the Limit Is Hit

Don't worry — the plugin handles this automatically:

  1. ⚡ When the daily API limit is reached, the plugin pauses and shows an amber "Rate Limited" status.
  2. 🔄 All progress is preserved — nothing restarts from scratch.
  3. ⏰ The plugin auto-schedules a retry in 5 minutes and keeps checking until the limit resets.
  4. 🔘 A "Resume Import" button is also available on the Import page if you want to manually kick it.

💡 Tip: You'll see the progress bar advance in chunks over a few days. This is completely normal. Once the initial import is complete, ongoing syncs are much faster because only changes (new/ended listings, stock/price updates) are processed — not the full catalog.

Optimizing Large Imports

  • Filter by category: Only import the eBay categories you actually need. This reduces API calls dramatically.
  • Run your first import overnight: Start it in the evening and let it run through the night.
  • Check the logs: Go to TCGiant Sync → Logs to see exactly which items have been imported and spot any issues early.

Duplicate Prevention

The plugin uses multiple safeguards to prevent duplicate products:

  1. eBay Item ID matching: Each product is tagged with _ebay_item_id metadata. If a product with that ID already exists, it's updated instead of duplicated.
  2. Smart SKU resolution: If an eBay SKU is already in use by a different product, the plugin appends the eBay Item ID to create a unique SKU (e.g., SKU-123-EBAY456789).

When eBay Listings End

When a listing ends on eBay (sold out, manually ended, or expired):

  • By default, the corresponding WooCommerce product is moved to trash during the next sync.
  • If you've configured Preserve Categories in Settings, products in those WooCommerce categories will instead have their stock set to 0 and be unlinked from the old listing — they stay published.

💡 Tip: "Preserve Categories" is great for items you want to keep on your website even after the eBay listing ends — like products you only sell on your own site, or items you want to relist later.

Shipping: eBay vs WooCommerce

Your eBay shipping settings and WooCommerce shipping settings are completely independent. The plugin imports product data (title, price, stock, etc.) but does NOT import or sync shipping methods or costs.

This means you can:

  • ✅ Charge shipping on eBay but offer free shipping on your website
  • ✅ Use flat rate on eBay but weight-based shipping on WooCommerce
  • ✅ Have completely different shipping zones and methods on each platform

Your WooCommerce shipping zones and methods work exactly as configured — the plugin won't touch them.

Next Steps

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