Status of Turbo Lister

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Does anyone know the current status of Turbo Lister or if it is no longer supported, why is it still available for download but unable to fully install?

-CM

[momcqueen]

I never used Turbo Lister but I thought support was discontinued long ago. 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

I've used off and on in the past and found very helpful. Went to try to retrieve some older listings that had ended  and it wouldn't let me open without the updates. When you try to update it just hovers. You would think if it is no longer supported the link for the download would not be available? Was nice because of the built in free tools. Hoping some of those tools may be in Seller Hub when it arrives this ______.

-CM

[kawartha-ephemera]

I'm still using TurboLister to create and upload all my listings.

The "created with TurboLister" link and logo must be removed from the bottom of the description but I have encountered no other issues with it.

It has been quite awhile since I've had a need to reinstall the program... might have been sometime last fall... had no problems with the installation then.

After installation it will automatically try to update but like you describe the update doesn't do anything. I just cancel out of the update. The program runs fine.

There have been a few category changes since the EOL announcement but none that impact my categories.

Last year around the time they announced it wasn't going to be supported I saved an installation file to my computer. Maybe you'd have better luck installing the file I have stored here?

[mrdutch1001]

Up until several months ago, I too was still using Turbo Lister. However, several months ago, all of my pictures disappeared from my Turbo Lister files along with some of the category and item specifics information, so I gave it all up as a lost cause and removed Turbo Lister from my computer. I had used Turbo Lister for many years and found it very useful. However, I have since found other ways to store my item listings and photos, so giving up Turbo Lister was not so difficult.

[kawartha-ephemera]

---

@mrdutch1001 wrote:

Up until several months ago, I too was still using Turbo Lister. However, several months ago, all of my pictures disappeared from my Turbo Lister files along with some of the category and item specifics information, so I gave it all up as a lost cause and removed Turbo Lister from my computer. I had used Turbo Lister for many years and found it very useful. However, I have since found other ways to store my item listings and photos, so giving up Turbo Lister was not so difficult.

---

Been waiting for the program to break since the EOL announcement last summer but so far so good.

Since last year I have kept a "Sold" folder in the Inventory section, after every sale I drag the item over and place it in "Sold" to maintain an accurate record of what is in inventory.

I then "export" the Turbo Lister inventory every week in csv format. In that form the file can be edited in excel or uploaded to many of the Turbo Lister replacement candidates. 

The search for a suitable replacement has been frustrating ... there are many options available but for one reason or another most have been firmly crossed of my list. Most often because I'm a little "tight" lol.

Seller Hub isn't among the candidates because of the short shelf life of unsold listings.

There are only two that are still in the running, better get moving and make a decision soon.

[mrdutch1001]

I have no plans to find an alternative and/or replacement for the free Turbo Lister. All my 1400+ item listings are "stored" on another selling venue that is free to list with no expiration and the listings only get deleted if I manually delete them...as well as storing them on eBay in "draft" mode where they are "updated" every month to maintain the photos and all relevant information and/or pricing,etc updated as needed ....plus all of my photos are stored in files on my computer. I use the Seller Hub on dotCom for its use and convenience. Due to more policy changes coming to eBay that include the loss of the option to accept PayPal only as payment for sales, which will be replaced with eBay's payment system, that is being introduced over the next couple of years, I plan to be gone from eBay when those changes become mandatory.

[cumos55]

Turbolister (TL) died for me about three years ago....

eBay personnel concluded that I had too many listings stored on TL

Right now I cannot access anything on  TL

Auctiva became my listing tool.....  and I could never be happier....very easy to use, and my listings show well on eBay... 

All of the Auctiva listings, plus  all of my other listings  have been adjusted  http to https... and are mobile app friendly....

eBay wanted to get completely rid of TL....  but then backed down

Available but without any updates......  and... I suspect that TL could be dead any ... day, month, year...

Do not conclude that TL will be there... forever.....and ever......

[kawartha-ephemera]

@lotzofuniquegoodies

I stumbled across a recent thread on the .com forum ... it seems there was a post announcement update to Turbo Lister. BUT for some reason the https compliant update was not posted to the normal locations. 

Below is a link to the .com thread, I've chosen a mid thread page, dated 31 Jan 2108.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Tools-Apps/Only-the-latest-version-of-Turbo-Lister-creates-listings-th...

This is the link to the Turbo Lister 2 version 9.924.101.0 download page, all languages, all countries included.

This is the https compliant version which corrected problems associated with having images  and links included in descriptions etc.

https://download.ebay.com/Turbo_Lister2/TurboListerInstall.htm

Personally, I'm still using version 9.922.101.0 which is not compliant but it still works fine since I never have placed photos in descriptions and I removed the non compliant Turbo Lister link and logo at the bottom of description pages. 

I gathered from the thread discussion that in order to update to the newest version the user has to re-install the latest version 9.924.101.0 over top of the older version, the "check for updates" tool will not work. Which we already knew.

I just thought those with old Turbo Lister backup files, including myself, might find this info helpful in future.

No one would answer the "how long will limited support last" question. 

[kawartha-ephemera]

---

@mrdutch1001 wrote:

I have no plans to find an alternative and/or replacement for the free Turbo Lister. All my 1400+ item listings are "stored" on another selling venue that is free to list with no expiration and the listings only get deleted if I manually delete them...as well as storing them on eBay in "draft" mode where they are "updated" every month to maintain the photos and all relevant information and/or pricing,etc updated as needed ....plus all of my photos are stored in files on my computer. I use the Seller Hub on dotCom for its use and convenience. Due to more policy changes coming to eBay that include the loss of the option to accept PayPal only as payment for sales, which will be replaced with eBay's payment system, that is being introduced over the next couple of years, I plan to be gone from eBay when those changes become mandatory.

---

@mrdutch1001

Is this site named after an old TV show? If so, I've been considering that option but have no experience with it ... would you give it one of these

[dutchman48]

---

@kawartha-ephemera wrote:

---

@mrdutch1001 wrote:

I have no plans to find an alternative and/or replacement for the free Turbo Lister. All my 1400+ item listings are "stored" on another selling venue that is free to list with no expiration and the listings only get deleted if I manually delete them...as well as storing them on eBay in "draft" mode where they are "updated" every month to maintain the photos and all relevant information and/or pricing,etc updated as needed ....plus all of my photos are stored in files on my computer. I use the Seller Hub on dotCom for its use and convenience. Due to more policy changes coming to eBay that include the loss of the option to accept PayPal only as payment for sales, which will be replaced with eBay's payment system, that is being introduced over the next couple of years, I plan to be gone from eBay when those changes become mandatory.

---

@mrdutch1001

Is this site named after an old TV show? If so, I've been considering that option but have no experience with it ... would you give it one of these

---

Yup, Hoss was there.

It is a great storage site as sales are very slow.

If you are going to continue with Ebay, there is no easy way to get the listings from there to Ebay unless you pay a % of the sale to that site.

I use inkFrog Open which is similar to Auctiva but allows for multiple ID's and unlimited images.

[kawartha-ephemera]

Thank you.

[vintagenorth]

I’m still using TL and it’s working well right now although I have had a couple of problems in the past. I am able to do updates on a regular basis and there is still excellent help given from the TL team. You can contact them by phone or via your TL page and they answer quickly. I do hope they will give sufficient notice if closing down so we can move our info to a new storage site.

[kawartha-ephemera]

@vintagenorth  I take it from your comments that you are using the latest version 9.924.101.0 which is https compliant.

May I ask whether or not that version includes the line mobile friendly code at the top of each description?

The older version I'm using operates OK so I'm reluctant to try and fix something that isn't broken, that said there is one small problem with it.

When I paste the mobile friendly code copied from a "friendly" live listing into a Turbo Lister template description, the html editor immediately removes that line of code.  This omission does not have much impact on how my descriptions appear on mobile but it is a little annoying.

Does the latest version include that line of mobile friendly code or at least allow the user to add it to the top of the description?

How about the new mobile summary tags, does the html editor support the insertion of that code?

[vintagenorth]

Hi kawartha, I am using the latest TL version and it is https compliant. It does not include the code at the top of the description and my items seem to be mobile friendly. At least, tyler or Raphael told me they were as I don’t have a cell phone. However, I use a fairly simple description on all my items which makes it easy to be mobile compliant. They look okay to me on my iPad. Feel free to tell me if they are not.

Not really sure what the mobile summary tags are.  Are they the ones that specify the width and size? If so, I haven’t needed to use those (again, simple description).

[kawartha-ephemera]

I had a look at a few of your listings on my cell phone, of the 6 or 7 viewed only one of them had a very minor display problem.
Listing 222898612995 displays with zero cell / table padding, as a result the description text begins at the absolute edge of the viewing area, everything is visible but adding a few pixels of padding would improve the appearance. All the other listings displayed nicely with appropriate padding and a comfortable font size.

Have you run those through the Mobile Friendly tool? if so you must have set the mobile font size to "3" instead of ebay's default of "4". Personally, on a cell I prefer "3".

Currently, the "mobile summary tags " are not relevant to listings created on ebay.ca.

Sellers listing on .com will be aware of fairly recent changes in the way mobile descriptions are being displayed there.

Ebay has introduced an algorithm that scans the listing description and pulls a short "snippet" from it and displays the "snippet" below the Description page link. The intention is to provide the mobile user with a hint of the Description contents. The "snippet " is quite short, generally only 3 to 5 words.

The problem is that left alone to run free, ebay's algorithm is unpredictable, it may choose a string of words from anywhere in the Description, the end, the beginning, the middle... anywhere.
The result being that most of the time the "snippet" is at best unhelpful and at it's worst can make the seller appear silly and unprofessional.

Ebay's proposed solution is to have the seller insert some code using the html editor , this is where the "mobile friendly tags" enter the discussion.

Using these mobile friendly tags the seller can by-pass ebay's algorithm and instruct mobile browsers to display useful Description "preview" text in place of ebay's nonsense "snippet".

For now I've decided not to play along... I'm hoping ebay will come to their senses and ditch their algorithm. To expect sellers to rework every Description like they're proposing is not practical.

Why they don't get rid of the ridiculous algorithm altogether is a mystery to me. Those sellers interested in going to the trouble of using the tags to provide a mobile Description preview would still be free to do so.

I'll search out one of my .com listings displaying a nonsense "snippet" and provides a link for those interested in seeing what's happening on .com mobile listings.

[kawartha-ephemera]

Here's an example of a nonsense mobile snippet when viewed on .com.

"https://m.ebay.com/itm/Pioneer-Hybrid-Seed-Corn-Crib-BULGING-Yield-Garst-Thomas-Co-1958-Print-Ad/292... ".