Product Display - Similar Products Grouped Together

Shopify Apps
, ,

Topic summary

Seller of vintage baseball cards needs Shopify–eBay sync that lists each physical card separately on eBay while keeping Shopify collections de-duplicated and grouped.

Current setup and constraints:

  • 1955 Topps set: 250 unique cards. Inventory example: 3 conditions (good/excellent/mint) per card → 750 potential eBay listings; actual inventory ~810 physical cards.
  • Newer sets (e.g., 1968 Topps): 600 unique cards, ~5,000 physical copies (some duplicates 4–20 each).
  • eBay requires each card/grade (condition) to be its own listing; variants grouped under one listing won’t work.

Apps tried and limitation:

  • CedCommerce, LitCommerce, Marketplace Connect only list Shopify variants as a single eBay listing; they cannot convert variants to separate eBay items (confirmed with support).

Desired outcome:

  • Shopify: show 1 entry per card in a collection, expandable to reveal multiple individual products (physical copies) with their own images/prices/grades. Screenshot mockup provided to illustrate grouping UI.
  • eBay: list each physical card as an individual listing.

Status:

  • Clarification complete; no solution identified. Still seeking an app that groups multiple products under one card on Shopify while syncing as separate listings on eBay.
Summarized with AI on December 19. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi!

I’m building out a store that will sell vintage baseball cards. I also need to integrate to eBay but have run into a problem.

Here’s an example: I have created:

  1. A collection called “1955 Topps Baseball Cards”

  2. I have 250 products in this automated collection, 1 for each card in the set.

3 . As an example, I have a product for “1955 Topps #1 Dusty Rhodes” which is part of this collection. I have 3 variants of this item (in different conditions - good, excellent and mint). I can’t list a variant as it’s own product on eBay as the integration apps only support listing a product with variant options.

I have decided to simply create each card as its own product so I can automate the listing to eBay.

Now the problem is that in my collection page I would have 750 products (3 variants x 250 baseball cards). I would like to simply show the 250 Baseball cards and have the ability for customers to pick the card # and then see the 3 products for that card.

is there an App that can help with this? I’ve spent hours trying to figure it out and am stuck.

Thanks!

2

Here’s a screenshot showing the idea I’m trying to replicate.

  • The collection is “1955 Topps Baseball”

  • Each player card (i.e. “1955 Topps #1 Dusty Rhodes”) can have multiple products. I wouldn’t want my collection to show all of Dusty’s cards but rather show 1 for him and have customers expand that card to see the individual cards, each of which are a product)

  • Each individual card is its own product.

IMG_6288.jpeg
IMG_6288.jpeg1150×2311 233 KB

3

Please elaborate a bit more. As I understand it, the problem is not getting things to display in your desired format on your Shopify website but how things get displayed on eBay. So are you not having any checkout in your own website? Are you just redirecting the traffic to eBay to complete the final transaction? Also, which integration app are you using?

4

I can get my collections to display perfectly on Shopify if I create each card as a product - and then create each physical card as a variant for that product.

So, using my example above:

  1. 1955 Topps is a baseball card set with 250 cards.
  2. In Shopify I have created 250 products - one for each possible baseball card in that set
  3. For each physical card I am selling I create it as a variant for the product with its own image, price, etc

In Shopify this works perfectly with the help of a few apps.

I have tried CedCommerce, LitCommerce and Marketplace connect. None of those support listing variants as individual products on eBay - you have to list the single product with variants on eBay.

This requirement does not work for Sportscards as you have to pick a grade for each individual sports card on eBay (I.e. grade being physical condition such as poor, good, excellent, etc). So if I have 3 variants of a single card I need to list those as 3 separate eBay listings - the integration apps do not allow this - they allow listing on eBay as a single product with variants. I have spoken with all 3 support desks to confirm that they cannot list variants as separate products on eBay.

However - in the baseball card industry eBay is the King - the vast majority of online sales come from that platform. I’m looking to list there and over time convert my customers from eBay to my Shopify site. In essence - once someone buys from me on eBay I would include marketing collateral in the package to get them to view my website with the intention of converting them to my site to buy direct. EBay is also a challenging place to sell lower value products - the fee structure is prohibitive leading to list prices much higher than I could sell for directly.

So in order to make the eBay integration work I have to create each physical card as a product. The issue in doing that on Shopify is that my collection will show many copies of the same card - polluting the collection by showing many of the same cards over and over again. There is only 250 cards in the set and I’d like to show 1 “product” for each card with the customer being able to then drill down into the unique copies for sale for each. In my 1955 Topps example there are 250 unique cards in the set - my inventory is 810 cards total - with many copies of each one - showing each one separately as a product makes the collection needlessly long. I’d prefer to have the customer have an ability to expand on each card to see the various inventory.

the issue becomes even more problematic with newer cards like 1968 Topps - that set 600 unique cards but my inventory is 5,000 physical cards - some with 4 copies, some with 20.

I will be using Shopify for payments.

1 Like
5

I understood the concept of the condition variant for your cards. But it wasn’t clear from your initial question if you wanted to show the variants grouped under a single entry in eBay also. After your further comment, what I gather is that on your Shopify site, it will be listed as 250 cards only, with the customer getting to see the 3 variants once they click the base item, but on eBay, you need to show them as 750 listed items, with each variant as one item they can buy. The other apps are displaying the variants grouped under one line item on eBay also, and you don’t want that. Is my above understanding correct?

6

Yes, that is correct.

1 Like