The fastest way to bulk list auction lots on eBay from a catalog is eBay's own "Create new drafts" CSV template, uploaded once at Seller Hub > Reports > Uploads. eBay's bulk-listing guide allows up to 12 images per listing in that file and up to 2,000 drafts per day, and every row lands in Listings > Drafts, where nothing goes live until you publish each draft. Gavelist writes that drafts file for you: after the AI cataloging pass, the eBay export is a drafts CSV with Gavelist's own title (cut to eBay's 80-character limit), description and up to 12 photos per lot, with the image URLs hosted by Gavelist for 90 days. This guide walks through eBay's template rules, what the file must contain, and the 1,000-lot upload step by step.
Published October 2026 by Ben Cope, founder of Gavelist. Gavelist sells the cataloging tool described in the second half of this guide, so read it that way. Every eBay rule below is quoted from eBay's own help pages, accessed October 6, 2026.
What "bulk listing" on eBay actually means
eBay has no catalog importer for auction houses. What it has is a file upload under Seller Hub > Reports > Uploads that accepts a CSV built from one of eBay's templates. According to eBay's Seller Hub Reports template page (accessed October 6, 2026), the "Create new drafts" template lets you "Upload draft listings in bulk to your eBay Drafts folder," as distinct from the "Create new listings" template that posts live listings. Drafts are the right target for auction lots because a draft is not a listing: you still choose price, format, shipping and condition before anything is visible to buyers.
The practical difference matters for an auction business. A live-listing file needs every required field correct on the first try, or the row fails. A drafts file needs far less. According to eBay's inventory onboarding guide (accessed October 6, 2026), "Action, and CategoryID are the only required fields" for a drafts upload, and after the upload finishes you "Click 'Complete listings' which will take you to your Drafts folder on your eBay account."
eBay's template rules, from eBay's pages
| Rule | What eBay says | Source page |
|---|---|---|
| Header row | The #INFO row "indicates the latest template version, type and country site" and "This row is to remain on the file." | Seller Hub Reports templates |
| Required fields for drafts | "Action, and CategoryID are the only required fields" | Inventory onboarding guide |
| Condition in a drafts file | "NEW or USED (all caps)"; other values such as New other or Open box "will need to be edited in your Drafts folder" | Seller Hub Reports templates |
| Photos per listing | "Up to 12 images per listing is supported by Seller Hub Reports," with multiple URLs pipe-separated | Inventory onboarding guide |
| Image URLs | "If an image URL has blank spaces, you must replace the blank spaces with %20; otherwise, the image will not appear." | Inventory onboarding guide |
| Daily cap | "You can create up to 2000 drafts per day." | Inventory onboarding guide |
| Drafts folder | "Your Drafts folder can hold up to 1000 drafts" | Seller Hub Reports templates |
| Title length | "Remember to use all 80 characters" | eBay Seller Center listing best practices |
| File type | Save as "CSV (comma delimited)" before uploading | Seller Hub Reports templates |
Two cautions. First, eBay's pages disagree on how long a draft lives: the onboarding guide says drafts "will expire and be deleted from 30 days up to 45 days," while the templates page says "Drafts are valid up-to 120 days." Plan to publish within 30 days and you are safe under either. Second, the templates page separately mentions "Up to 24 images per listing" for some templates; the 12-image figure above is the one eBay states for the Seller Hub Reports drafts path, and it is the figure Gavelist's file follows.
Step by step: catalog once, upload once
- Catalog the lots. Upload your lot photos to Gavelist. Gavelist reads every photo attached to a lot together and writes the title, description and value estimate in one pass, at 1,000+ lots in about 10 minutes on the description pass.
- Review in Gavelist, not in eBay. Fix any title or description before export; editing 500 drafts one at a time inside eBay is the slow path. According to Gavelist production data through September 22, 2026, 96.3% of the 58,134 lots clients exported through Gavelist went out with no client edit to the AI-written title or description; one client supplied about 70% of those lots at 99.8%, and across every other Gavelist client the figure is 88.2%. A lot counts as edited if the client saved a change to its title or description in Gavelist before exporting.
- Export the eBay drafts file. Choose eBay in Gavelist's export panel. The file is named
{job}_ebay_drafts.csv. A job over 1,000 lots comes as a ZIP of CSV parts, one part per 1,000 drafts, which matches the 1,000-draft capacity eBay states for the Drafts folder. - Upload at Seller Hub > Reports > Uploads. Choose the file and submit. eBay processes the file and reports any rejected rows in its result file.
- Open Listings > Drafts. Every lot is there with Gavelist's title, description and photos. Set price, format (auction or fixed price), shipping and condition, then publish each draft. Nothing is visible to buyers until this step.
What Gavelist's drafts file fills, and what it leaves to you
| Column in eBay's drafts template | Gavelist's file | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Action | Draft | eBay's drafts action; no listing is created |
| Custom label (SKU) | Gavelist lot number | So the draft maps back to your catalog |
| Category ID | Chosen from the title by eBay's own category suggestion service; "Everything Else" if no match | Category ID is required, so no row is skipped |
| Title | Gavelist title, truncated to 80 characters | eBay's hard limit |
| Item photo URL | Up to 12 Gavelist-hosted image URLs, pipe-separated, hosted 90 days | eBay's cap for this path; no photo download needed |
| Description | Gavelist description as simple HTML; the Market Comps block is removed | Comps are auctioneer research, not buyer copy, and eBay's links policy bars off-eBay links |
| Quantity | 1 | One lot, one listing |
| Price, Condition, Format | Blank | Set in Drafts; eBay's draft screen prompts for each |
The file is plain UTF-8 CSV with eBay's #INFO row on line one, so it can be inspected in a text editor before upload. Condition is left blank on purpose: eBay accepts only NEW or USED in a drafts file, and most auction lots need a more specific value that eBay says must be edited in the Drafts folder anyway.
What it costs
Gavelist charges $0.15 per lot pay-as-you-go, or $79, $160 and $250 a month for 1,000, 2,500 and 5,000 lots, with $0.09 per lot over the plan, and takes 0% of auction sales. The eBay drafts export is included in the per-lot price. A 300-lot estate cataloged and exported to eBay drafts is $45 pay-as-you-go. The optional Market Comps and value estimate add-on is a separate 15 cents per lot and shows current asking prices on eBay, Chairish and other marketplaces next to each lot, linked so you can check them; it is a starting range, not an appraisal.
eBay's own selling fees are separate and start only when a draft is published. Two out of three Gavelist customer accounts that exported a catalog from June to September 2026 exported a HiBid file; the eBay drafts file is for the lots you want in front of eBay's buyers rather than in a timed auction. Many estate firms run both: according to the EstateSales.NET 2024 Industry Survey, 22% of estate sale companies now combine traditional estate sales with online auction formats.
Common failures and fixes
- Rows rejected for missing Category ID. Gavelist assigns a category to every row; if you edit the file by hand, keep that column filled.
- Photos missing on the draft. eBay requires %20 in place of any space in an image URL; Gavelist's file encodes this. Publish within 90 days, while the hosted image URLs are live.
- More than 1,000 lots. Publish or clear the Drafts folder between parts, since it holds 1,000, and watch the 2,000-draft daily cap.
- Market Comps text on eBay. It is not there; Gavelist strips the comps block from the eBay file even when the add-on is on.
For the same catalog on a bidding platform, see how to list one auction on multiple platforms and the guide to importing a catalog CSV into HiBid through Auction Flex.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I bulk list auction lots on eBay without an API integration? Yes. eBay's Seller Hub > Reports > Uploads accepts a "Create new drafts" CSV; every row becomes a draft in Listings > Drafts, and you publish each one. Gavelist produces that file from your cataloged lots.
Does Gavelist list directly to eBay? No. Gavelist exports an eBay drafts file: one Seller Hub upload, every lot lands in your eBay Drafts. Nothing goes live until you publish each draft inside eBay.
How many photos can an eBay drafts upload carry per lot? eBay's inventory onboarding guide states "Up to 12 images per listing is supported by Seller Hub Reports." Gavelist sends up to 12 per lot, hosted for 90 days.
What condition value goes in the drafts file? eBay's templates page says drafts accept "NEW or USED (all caps)" and that other condition values "will need to be edited in your Drafts folder." Gavelist leaves condition blank so you set the exact value when you publish.
Sources
- eBay, "Seller Hub Reports: Uploadable Templates," accessed October 6, 2026. pages.ebay.com
- eBay, "Inventory Onboarding Guide: Create Listings in Bulk," accessed October 6, 2026. pages.ebay.com
- eBay Seller Center, "Listing best practices," accessed October 6, 2026. ebay.com
- EstateSales.NET, "2024 Estate Sale Industry Survey." estatesales.net
- Gavelist production data: export edit rate through September 22, 2026; export logs June to September 2026 (first-party).
- Gavelist, "Pricing." gavelist.com/pricing