Question
I may be getting ahead of myself but the YAHOO announcement made me realize I should, at least, consider an alternative listing management service.
I presently use the eBay SA Basic program and list mostly on eBay including an eBay Store.
Looking back over my track record, listings are the major bottle neck in my work flow.
I would rather travel a five state area in a Jan. snow storm to buy at auctions than sit and prepare listings.
I don't like packing and shipping either, but I do feel an obligation to customers and that gets done. Not so with listings.
Some of the vintage inventory around my place was originally purchased by me as just released new items.
My near term focus is the eBay Store and after the designer gives me a new template and revises the Store I will list about 300 additional items and redo about 200.
I'm arranging for some data entry help so that the listing work actually gets done.
But just out over the horizon is a website that's under construction, the occasional listing on other sites and finding a solution to the struggle of using Turbo Listing to take advantage of eBay promotional events.
Much of my offerings are and will continue to be items available in quantity that I can re-stock. That makes listing the same item on several sites a practical alternative.
Maybe, before I list and revise so many descriptions, I should change to a different listing management program. One that allow the near term listing of items to eBay while allowing eventual listing on my website and at other venues.
I now do a cut and paste, revise and launch approach to listing off eBay but as the number of inventory items increases, that method is less practical.
If I found a program where the listing for one item could be put into my eBay Store, occasionally launched as an eBay promotional listing, sent to my website and put on to sites like YAHOO and Overstock, life would be good.
Maybe it's time to leave SA Basic and find a service that has multi-site potential. I've heard a lot of recent positive mention of MarketWatch and will look into that company.
Other suggestions or experiences you would care to share?
Answer
Write your own to generate the exports. Most flexible.
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Hi RestonRay. I've been using SpareDollar. It's not an all-purpose listing solution, and has some drawbacks, but these are what I consider SD's strong points:
1. Community: http://community.sparedollar.com/
ALL support at SpareDollar comes from the community. There's a lot of information already posted (Search doesn't work tho, if you use a Mac); and if you don't see an answer, post a question and you'll get a lot of help quickly. I have learned a lot from the forums there. That's how I found here!
2. Templates: Nice selection, and members have contributed their own designs to a Template Warehouse site which is free to SpareDollar members. As I said, great community.
3. Price: $4.95/month includes 50 MB picture hosting. I currently have 344 pix in 4 MB, so 50's quite adequate.
Drawbacks: Lists directly only to eBay (free scheduling is nice). You can post to other sites by editing eBay references out of your template(s), then copying and pasting source. Change is supposedly coming...someday.
Not Mac-oriented. There are features I didn't know existed until I read about them in the forum.
Good luck in your search.
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Edit - typo - I meant MarketWorks not marketwatch.
I don't see a link to their fees on their very impressive site. Any info. on the basic fee structure.
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I'm a new Marketworks user, and so far I like it.
Here's a link to their fees page: Marketworks Pricing
Basically when you sell something on eBay, Marketworks charges you 2% of the final value fee, with a minimum fee of $.20 and a $3.00 maximum per item.
When you sell an item through your Marketworks storefront, you are charged 3% of the final value, with a $.20 minimum and $6.00 maximum.
There is a minimum monthly service fee depending on the amount of image hosting space you need, and each month you pay either that monthly fee or the amount of final value transaction fees you incur, whichever is greater.
The monthly fee includes a storefront for each eBay ID you have.
You can set up your inventory and list to eBay, Overstock and Yahoo, and you can set them to start anytime from five minutes from now to a year from now. Marketworks users list free with Overstock through July 25.
When you make a sell on one of these auction sites and the buyer uses your Marketworks checkout, they are taken to your storefront so they can shop with you from your store inventory. People on the FAS boards say that add on sales more than make up for the monthly fee.
There is a steep learning curve when you're getting started with Marketworks, but once you get all the profiles set up it's a lot easier. They have some good tutorials -- there's a lot to print out and read, and at times it seems like you're doing the same thing in three different places, and sometimes you'll want to chuck the computer out the window, but once the preliminary work is done it's not so bad. There's a 12-page thread on FAS to help you out as well.
I have listings pending to start each day this week at eBay, Overstock and Yahoo, and I can monitor progress on each site from one place. Very nice. It's a real time saver once you get over the hump.
You get a two-week free trial to check it out, and you'll need every day of it to see everything it will do. If you sign up as a referral, you get an extra week to try it out. You're welcome to use my ID -- allfromtheheart -- if you'd like to try them out.
Good luck!!
Lisa
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Auction Tamer and AuctionWizard2000 (AW2K) both launch to Yahoo.
They are both computer based and have inventory capabilities.
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Thanks all, I appreciate the info.
AFTH - great summary - I will be interested to hear of your progress using the service.
My main focus will be to list on eBay, both the main site and the Store, plus having a store connected to an informational website.
Being able to use the same listing, with slight editing, for both eBay and my website is the clear primary goal and one program that also co-ordinated inventory status and post sale management would be a benefit.
Secondary goal would be launch a large number of listings during eBay promotional events.
If the service also made listing on other major venues easy that would be a bonus.
With a new template I will be rewriting descriptions for my present inventory and adding a considerable number of additional items. If I'm going to make a change from SA Basic this would be a good time to make that switch.
I will eventually have to move away from the eBay listing tools so it's more a question of when and to which service.
MW seems to be getting good buzz from users and the initial monthly fee would replace services that are costing me a similar amount.
Their fees on sales above the first $1,000. each month is where they would become an additional expense for me.
Plenty of tools exist for managing eBay listing and sales but trying to find what is practical and effective for your individual needs when selling on multiple venues is a challenge.
I know suggestions about writing my own programs or designing my own system are well intended but, knowing myself, I'll more likely learn to flap my arms and fly before learning to do that.
Anyone else well satisfied with other services for multi venue selling management?