No More FREE Auctiva!!!

[axe_n_gear_music]

This announcement by Auctiva yesterday is sure to get alot of sellers attention (including mine!!!) X-(

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y09/m05/i28/s01

Thanks to Surplusdealdude for providing this info to us in another thread. I figured it was significant enough to post it as it's own thread, as it will affect alot of sellers' bottom line.

For example, one of the pricing packages looks like this:

The Professional Seller plan will cost $34.95/month plus 12 cents/listing, with zero transaction fee.
So for a seller like me with say 250 listings, the cost would be 250 x .12 for the listings, = 30 dollars/month + the plan package at 34.95/month + an additional fee for the size of megabyte storage I will require over 1 meg. for a minimum fee total of 64.95/month!!!

Auctiva tout themselves as eBay's largest third-party Certified Solutions provider, with over 1 million users. They estimate that 70% of current users will stay on board with them and pay these new fees.
Any thoughts or alternatives?

Cheers,
AXE

[ds2286]

I think I only have 10 or 20 listings through them. So not to worried.
I don't think I will continue to use them.
There's getting to be to many people dipping there fingers into the pie.

[pjcdn2005]

"They estimate that 70% of current users will stay on board with them and pay these new fees"


I think they are delusional. They have made a lot of people angry with their short notice and their over the top prices.

The idea of having to transfer all of my images and listings and learn a new listing system is pretty intimidating but there's no way I can afford their fees. A smaller flat fee would be manageable, but their fees are far from manageable for me.

What do others use and how do they like it?

[coxengines]

Time to have another look @ Blackthorne.

Anyone out there call tell us aprx. cost for 200 listings, no scheduling, 2 pics per listing?

Bernie

[recped]

Blackthorne Pro is 24.95/month, 1 listing or 1 million listings.

There are NO additional fees whatsoever, you host your own images.

[pjcdn2005]

Ben, is Blackthorne user friendly?


Pam

[pjcdn2005]

Oops, just saw your reply in the other thread about it having quirks. I can live with quirks..Auctiva had many of those the last while.
I see that Blackthorne Basic is $9.99/month which is quite a bit lower than Pro though I'll have to look at the perks each one has.

[recped]

You could start with the basic version, upgrading is simple, you just upgrade your subscription level and the additional features become available. No additional downloads or changes to your database are required.

[coxengines]

Thanks recped.

Bernie

[axe_n_gear_music]

So.....the question is, who do we give our money to, and what level of service do we get for the cost?........and what choices do we have.......seriously?

Let's see......eBay owns eBay, and they get ALL of our listing and final value and store fees, etc, etc, etc.....
.....eBay owns Paypal, and are making it pretty obvious that they want our buyers to pay mostly via Paypal so that they get more of a percentage on top of what they are already getting (anywhere else, this would be considered criminal)......
......eBay owns Blackthorne and because Auctiva has been forced by eBay to charge its customers for their services, as a result, many will look towards Blackthorne as their new alternative = more money for eBay.......???

Personally, I'm not closing my door on Auctiva just yet. I like the level and quality of service that I get, and to me they blow Blackthorne out of the water for their templates, design, and innovation. Honestly, almost all of those sellers including myself that have been using Auctiva's services the last bunch of years have ALL been saying- "man I can't believe I get all this all for free!!!!"
If you have been using Auctiva and have liked it up until now, I know you're saying exactly the same thing. Many of us have been turning well over 6 figures using FREE Auctiva as our auction platforms and picture hosting service.....so I will take my time and weigh it all out before I give eBay more of my money for these extra services that I have already been enjoying for so long for free with Auctiva, whose company has been forced by eBay to charge a small amount for their excellent services.
I wonder......... if Auctiva had charged sellers even half or even the same as what Blackthorne has charged over the last few years how much money most sellers would have still SAVED!!!!
I think that people sometimes forget that.
Just my take.

Cheers,
AXE

[surplusdealdude]

Someone suggested a company called eVendor.

I don't know anything about it, but it's free ( and about to experience significant growth I would say, so service might be spotty.

You can host pictures for free on photobucket and there are supposed to be lots of free templates available on the HTML board on .com. -------------------------------------------------------------------

"To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can ever fight; and never stop fighting." -- e.e. cummings

[surplusdealdude]

And I agree with you, axe, I think Auctiva will be lucky to retain 30% of its base.

Someone in the management over there is sure having a bad year - first the stores virus disaster, now this. Seems they can make the right decisions to save their soul. -------------------------------------------------------------------

"To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can ever fight; and never stop fighting." -- e.e. cummings

[pjcdn2005]

Grrrr..just wrote a long post and it disappeared...will try this again.


Thanks for the information recped. 🙂


Axe, I don’t have a problem paying for auctiva or another listing service and I have really appreciated the free services that I have used at auctiva the last 2 years. I do understand why they have to start charging but I truly do not understand why they are doing things the way that they are

--Only a month’s notice! A month is not a long time to change everything over, even ebay usually gives more than a month’s notice. I can usually accept change well but this is overwhelming me to be honest. I have at least 600 pics in listings right now which I will have to change if I decide to not list with auctiva anymore. I’m not sure if I can do that live or not or if I have to end each listing or wait until it ends to do that. If I have to do it using html I might want to look into getting some valium or something. B-) Even if I continue to use auctiva I might have to move the pics as I have no idea what they will be charging for image space. No matter how things have to get done, its daunting and being given just a month makes me angry.

--According to auctiva’s “what is my best plan calculator” [url http://auctiva.com/about/pricingcalc.aspx?how=ptva_an]here[/url] my estimated fees will be $73 U.S. a month plus fees for image storage. That’s almost $1800 over a 2 year period. If I had used inkfrog for the last 2 years instead of auctiva, my 2 year fees would have been about $240 with no extra image fees. Two years with Blackthorne Basic would have been $240 as well and Pro would have been about $600, a third of what auctiva will be. So I have saved some money in the last two years but I’m still not willing to pay auctiva 7 times more than what I would pay for a service like inkfrog.

--They want a percentage of my sales?? Sorry, not in this lifetime. Ebay and paypal already take plenty.

--From 12 - 44 cents to list a store item for a month?? And ebay charges 5 cents..hmm…is it possible that auctiva is making ebay look good? :^O

Anyway, thank you for reading my rant. As I said, I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed right now & haven’t figured out yet which way to turn or how the heck to get there once I do decide. I guess I’ll see what auctiva decides to do on Monday and then decide from there. Things always work out in the end.:-)

[surplusdealdude]

Only a month’s notice! A month is not a long time to change everything over, even ebay usually gives more than a month’s notice.

I think ebay rushed them on this.

I’m not sure if I can do that live or not

You can do it live in most cases. If you want to do it in a hurry and don't mind spending the $$ to relist all your store items, you could download the US form of turbolister, add Canada as a selling site, then import all your listings and change them in turbo, then relist them.

600 listings would only cost about $20.

DON'T use the Canadian turbolister - it has lots of problems. -------------------------------------------------------------------

"To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can ever fight; and never stop fighting." -- e.e. cummings

[pjcdn2005]

Thanks for the suggestion Surplus, that would make it a lot easier.

How do you like inkfrog, do you recommend using them?

Pam

[momoftwingles2]

I use BT Pro and honestly could not live without it. It has a learning curve, but you can be up and running in a matter of minutes and then learn as you go!

I also use Seller Source Book which is located here for hosting my pics.

http://www.sellersourcebook.com/

However, please know that you can list directly from SSB without using BT if you wished to!

SSB does charge a fee. Always have.

THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS THE ULTIMATE.

Just my thoughts!
Susan
momoftwingles2

[pjcdn2005]

Thanks Susan. 🙂 Darn that learning curve... It's funny how learning new things was so much easier when I was younger but I'm sure I can figure out BT eventually. Without knowing much about it or SSB, its hard for me to imagine how both can be used together but its obviously doable.

When I was checking out SSB they mention scheduling ebay listings on .com and on the uk site but don't mention .ca so I've sent them an email asking if I would be able to schedule on .ca

Maybe this whole auctiva change is a good thing. I'm certainly learning about a lot more options and some may end up being a lot better for my business in the long run.

[surplusdealdude]

> Thanks for the suggestion Surplus, that would make it a lot easier.
>
> How do you like inkfrog, do you recommend using them?
>
> Pam


I've never used it myself, but the people that have used it seem to like it. I think there's a reasonable flat fee per month, about $10. -------------------------------------------------------------------

"To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can ever fight; and never stop fighting." -- e.e. cummings

[pjcdn2005]

Sorry Surplus, I thought that you used inkfrog. I think that I misread another post of yours on another thread.
Or, maybe its those darn voices in my head again! ?:O

[surplusdealdude]

I just suggested it on the basis that other people have praisd it. -------------------------------------------------------------------

"To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can ever fight; and never stop fighting." -- e.e. cummings