The Hobby Network · Member Guide

Put your cards on the right shelf in your store

A card only appears in your Hobby Network store once you give it a Store Category — the shelf a shopper browses. Your eBay category is a separate setting on a separate screen, and changing one never touches the other.

One dropdown per card Or set it once per template Nothing to do with eBay
Why it matters ·

No category, no shelf

Marking a card public and for sale puts a price on it. It does not put it in your store. Your storefront is built from categories — the list shoppers filter by down the side — so a card with no Store Category has nowhere to sit, and quietly never shows up. Give it one and it appears immediately, under that heading, with your other cards.

Two settings, two different stores. Store Category is your Hobby Network shelf. eBay Category is where eBay files a listing in eBay’s own catalog, and it lives on your listing template. They are set in different places, they can say completely different things, and neither one changes the other.

SettingWhere you set itWhat it actually does
Store Category On the card itself Decides whether — and where — the card shows in your Hobby Network store
eBay Category On your eBay listing template Tells eBay which part of its catalog a listing belongs in
eBay Store Category On the same template, optional A shelf inside your eBay store, pulled from your eBay account
Step by step

Four steps

1

Build your shelves

From the menu bar choose Store, then Categories. You will already see the shared categories every member can use. Add your own with New Category when you want a shelf that is yours — a set, a player, a price band, however you like to sell.

Tick Suggest as global category only if you think every member would want it. We review those; your own category works right away either way.

☰ Store ▸ Categories ▸ New Category
New Category
Category Name *
Vintage Basketball
Description
Optional: Describe what products belong in this category
Suggest as global category — check this to suggest making this category available to all users.
CancelCreate Category
2

Give the card its category

Choose Collection, then My Collection, and open the card you want to sell. At the top of Card Identification there is a Store Category dropdown, sitting right beside your eBay template. It lists the shared categories plus every one you made in step 1.

☰ Collection ▸ My Collection ▸ Edit card
Card Identification
Selected eBay Template▾ Store Category: Vintage Basketball▾
Always assign this category to cards with this template
3

Make it buyable, then save

Scroll to Listing & Sale Details. A card needs three things to reach a shopper: a Store Category, Is public ticked, and Is this item for sale? ticked with an Asking Price ($). Miss any one of them and the card stays in your collection only.

☰ Collection ▸ My Collection ▸ Edit card
Listing & Sale Details
Is public    Is this item for sale?
Asking Price ($)
1,250.00
Sold, reserved on a live invoice, or hidden cards drop off the store on their own — you do not have to remember to pull them.
4

Set it once, not fifty times

If the cards you list with one template always belong on the same shelf, tick Always assign this category to cards with this template when you save. From then on, choosing that template fills the Store Category in for you — you can still change it on any individual card.

Check your work under Store ▸ My Products: the Vault in Store tile counts the cards that made it, and Vault Items in Store lists them with their category.

☰ Store ▸ My Products
Vault Items in Store
Vault in Store · 3
CardStore CategoryPrice
1986 Fleer Michael Jordan #57 PSA 8Vintage Basketball$1,250.00
1972 Topps Julius Erving #195 PSA 7Vintage Basketball$640.00
2003 Topps Chrome LeBron James #111 BGS 9Modern Basketball$2,100.00

The other kind of category

Where eBay categories live

If you sell on eBay as well, your eBay categories are set on the listing template, not on the card. Choose eBay ▸ Listing Templates and open a template: step 2 is eBay Category, picked through Category Level 1, 2 and 3 until you reach the exact one eBay wants. Step 4 is eBay Store Category (Optional) — the shelves from your own eBay store.

☰ eBay ▸ Listing Templates ▸ Edit template
2. eBay Category

Select the eBay category this template will list to.

Sports Mem, Cards & Fan Shop▾ Sports Trading Cards▾ Singles▾
4. eBay Store Category (Optional)
—— No Store Category ——▾
⚖

They do not talk to each other. Filing a template under Sports Trading Cards ▸ Singles on eBay says nothing about your Hobby Network store, and putting a card on your Vintage Basketball shelf here never changes an eBay listing. The one connection is a convenience: a template can remember which of your store categories to fill in, and that is the tick box in step 4 above.

Worth knowing

A few tips

Shoppers see only what you useYour storefront lists the categories your live cards actually sit in — empty shelves never appear, so you can make as many as you like.
Rename freelyEditing a category you own updates it everywhere it is used. The cards stay exactly where they are.
One shelf per cardA card sits in a single Store Category. Pick the one a buyer would look under first.
Your own categories are privateNobody else can pick your categories unless you suggest one for everyone and we approve it.
Questions

Common questions

My card is public and for sale, so why is it not in my store?
Almost always the Store Category is still blank. Open the card, set it, and save — the card appears straight away.
Do I have to set an eBay template to use a Store Category?
No. The two dropdowns sit side by side but work independently. Sell here only, and you can leave the eBay template empty.
I deleted a category. What happened to the cards in it?
The cards are safe — nothing is deleted with the category. They simply have no shelf any more, which means they drop out of your store until you give them a new one.
Can I suggest a category for everybody?
Yes — tick Suggest as global category when you create or edit it. We will review it. Until then it stays yours and works normally.

Thank you for your support and God Bless ~ Otis