Question
I understand that certain software like the eBay Toolbar does not work on Mac. Can anyone advise what software tools do work for Mac or what you are using to help with your auctions?
On a positive note, my wide screen iMac looks way cuter than any old IBM would!
Thanks!
Answer
You don't need the eBay toolbar, unless I'm missing something. In fact, stay far, far away from anything that calls itself a toolbar and you'll save yourself untold grief.
In fact, do yourself a huge favor and stay away from all auction management software and third party functions until you have a rock-solid idea what your needs will be. Say, six months after you start selling on a daily basis. They're a money drain. Very little of it is worth what you pay. I've been on eBay since 1997 and I don't use any auction management software at all.
Basic eBay functions -- which are all you need -- work just fine on any browser that any Mac will run with the exception of ancient versions of Netscape. Get Mozilla Firefox. Safari is OK but creaky. Get Firefox.
fLufF
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P.S. "IBM?" Is Canada even farther behind than I thought?
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I don't list much anymore but I really liked the elister program for Macs from Blackmagic software. They are an authorized, paying member of the ebay programmers or whatever-- this translates into paying a fee for using the API and hopefully getting quick updates for ebay changes. The user fee for elister is very low and well worth it to me to avoid using the nasty sell your item pages on ebay. But there are many features elister does not accommodate so it might not be what you want.
Lois
Answer
What toolbar?!
Been selling on ebay 6 years. I'm just about to get a new MAC, but believe it or not, I've been using an old 1994 Mac Centris 650 (68040 processor running at a whopping 25mhz), with a dial-up connection, and Netscape 3.0 (thank you) the whole 6 years. It's not nearly as slow as you might think, but I'd rather be on a slow Mac than a fast PC anyday.I've done perfectly fine on ebay despite the lack of support they provide for Macintosh. I don't sell fulltime anymore but had been for a few years.
I have never used an auction management program but if the volume you intend to list tops more than 50 or so items a week it would probably be a good idea. The ebay "Sell Your Item" pages are very tedious. Especially when listings alternate single and dual categories. The most signifigant thing I can think of that I've had to do as a Mac user is list items by category NUMBER, not by the actual category. For some reason, ebays category drop down menus have never allowed me to select a category. No matter though, I've found using the numbers VERY easy, easier, I would imagine, than wading through an enourmous list each time. It might not be an issue with an Auction Mamnagement Program, not sure on that.
Though I'm really tempted to get an iMac G5, I'll probably get the last version of the iMac G4, they're such a pleasing design and new units get outdated so quickly, I'm hesitant to spend the money on them.
Enjoy your MAC!
Answer
Originally Posted by long-gone
I have never used an auction management program but if the volume you intend to list tops more than 50 or so items a week it would probably be a good idea.
I list 135 items a week currently simply by using eBay's Sell Your Item and relisting sold auctions, modifying the text and pictures if necessary. And I don't do this full-time any more. Auction management companies usually require you to use their image hosting, which is a horrible idea. Host your own pictures. Learn how to use ftp. It ain't rocket science.
fLufF
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Answer
I've been a Mac user since the Quadra days (68040 processor).
I now use a G4 Mac with 450 speed 64 bit processor from several years ago, with much added memory and hard drives since then and running the latest OSX 10.3.8. (Lots of room left for future expansion & I feel no need for a faster chip yet - equivalent to a 1 gig Pentium3 chip in working speed).
I do all of our Ebay ads and website design and website updates/maintenance on it using Adobe GoLive and Graphic Converter (free) software. All of our images are housed at our website hosting company, Hostway without any problems.
We use Andale as our eBay listing and sales management source and also for our website checkouts and sales management. They are expensive if you run a lot of auction ads only, but we do about 90% of our eBay sales thru eBay Store listings (re-running monthly at least) and thereby keep our Andale costs down to less than $40 per month, usually. Their big advantage is that all listings can be set to automatically relist as per yourt preferences and sales follow up management features are excellent.
Have I ever missed using any Windows "toolbars" of any sort? Heck no.
Have I EVER had ANY kind of a virus problem? Heck no.
Definitely do get an added hard drive for complete main hard drive backups!
Otherwise you WILL eventually have a drive failure & lose lots of essential business info. LaCie offers free software for Macs online called SilverKeeper that can schedule and run automatic complete backups to a separate hard drive each night (or whenever you choose). After the first, it takes about 10 min's to update the backup for two drives in my computer onto a third external drive via Firewire connection.
We also have a second computer in the house networked to the Mac and sharing a fast cable web connection. That one is a two year old AMD chip running Windows. We have it because we got it for free and my wife uses it. I've not felt the need to bother, although I've used Windows systems fluently at work.
The new G5's are true techno wonders with lots of flashy aspects, but I'd rather spend less on a later G4 if I were in the market for a newer computer. I've found that the built-in upgradeability of Mac hardware and operating systems has meant useable operating lives in excess of 5 years are common.
Answer
Thanks for all your replies! It sounds like everyone is a little bit different so I’ll have to find my way.
I have been a Mac head since the Mac Plus days. I use to work for an Apple dealer and was able to buy my machines under the employee program. My boyfriend and I paid our mortgage each month by renting two Mac SE’s to some government agency for $500 a month each! I wish I could do that now.
I have the largest screen G4 and I really love it. I also am similar to some of you in that I don’t feel I miss out not having access to certain Windows software. We do have an “IBM” (that’s for you fluffy ) that my boyfriend uses upstairs but I try not to look at it.
Fluffy, I use Safari and couldn’t live without the “tab” feature. I actually didn’t know about this until I heard Griff talk about it on eBay radio ... he has a G5. While on the internet, you can click on anything (an eBay listing or forum thread or whatever) and it opens it in a separate window in the background which shows up as a “tab” at the top of the window you are in. While looking at auctions, I just click the ones I want to view and they load in the background while I look for more. Then I can instantly click on the tab I want to view and close it when I’m done without interfering with the window I’m in. NO MORE BACK BUTTON or switching windows! It has cut down loading auction pages probably in half. Check it out if you haven’t already.
Long-gone, I think we have two or three old Mac’s in the basement. I paid peanuts for my new IMac compared to what I paid for some of the machines I am no longer using! Oh and thanks for the tip on listing items by category number.
SummerB ... you are so right about the virus thing. Running on Unix certainly helps in that area! I have never had a virus either. I have to give some thought to backup though and immediately felt guilty when you brought it up. I have only backed up ONCE since I bought my iMac a year ago.
It’s very nice to know you guys are out there if I run into trouble. Thanks!