Reading the forums, you'd think the new sell-your-item (SYI) form is simply loaded with bugs? I believe a few minor bugs are causing major inconvenience. These bugs would have been discovered sooner had anyone actually been interested in a new form. Serious sellers are too busy trying to pay the bills. In the future, eBay will have to offer some financial incentive (like free/reduced fees) to encourage real testing.

Please forgive my editorial style. I'm trying to share some helpful information, but just like everyone else, I'm constantly reminded of how broken the whole system has become.

First, let's separate functionality from speed. I have fast computers with lots of memory and a broadband connection. The form does seem a little sluggish, but I've yet to experience any lock-ups. This is not to say that usability is not a major issue for many people. Unfortunately, I can't help you with speed issues. This guide will focus on functionality.

Known issues:

1. Options have been removed or are not saved/remembered as expected.
   
   These all need to be documented. However, I consider them finer points.
   
   We do know that the shipping discount box has been removed. I think eBay is cleaning house. They know the shipping discounts feature will produce almost random results given the right combination of items. The discount actually depends on the order of the items in the invoice and whether any of the purchases were multiples of the same item. Where is that documented? Only in another draft guide. We confronted eBay for months over the shipping discount feature and finally gave up. We now check the shipping discount box on each item (old form), but leave the rules under preferences unspecified. We currently send our invoices manually. It's the only way to deal with all the eBay/PayPal checkout issues.
   
   

2. The new form is complaining about my shipping section. I haven't changed anything since my last listing. THIS APPEARS TO BE FIXED 09/14.
   
   You cannot select the same shipping method more than once. If you want to list different flat-rate shipping for different countries, we can only suggest this example of multiple flat-rate shipping. It's not perfect, but at least your checkout will still work.
   
   

3. I've already fixed any areas flagged as errors, but I get the following message when I go to submit:
   
   This feature is temporarily unavailable
   Your selections have caused errors. Please click Continue below to go back and correct your errors.
   
   If you ever see this error, we recommend using [Back] in your browser. If you click [Continue], you'll likely get dumped out of the form and lose all your changes.
   
   There may be other causes, but we know you'll get this error when your gallery image does not correspond to one of your main images. Go back to the image section. eBay may have already added an image named http://pics.ebay.com/aw/pics/dot_clear.gif. This appears to be their own work-around, but it doesn't work. You need to delete this default image (click on the empty picture rectangle and then on Remove) and add your own image. The gallery image will then sync to your new image.
   
   Once you have successfully submitted your listing, you can still use the existing Change Your Item's Gallery Image link to select an arbitrary gallery image.
   
   
4. If you dislike the fact that you must now include an image beside/below your listing in order to make the gallery image work, I offer the following suggestion. Use the required space to your advantage. We created an image with our combined shipping policy. You can see an example here. I use this bright green image as a placeholder when I create the listing. I then go back and fix the gallery image using the Change Your Item's Gallery Image link. This requires an extra step, but actually turns out rather clever. I'm sure the ability to change your galley image will be removed at some point. Enjoy it while it lasts.