eBay

direct_laine · ‎12-03-2015

Hi there. I'm amazed and quite pleased to see a lot of familiar Canadian eBay sellers (pierrelebel , westernstargifts, recpd) still active on these threads!

I am setting up a business selling account for my employer. I operated an eBay store of my own for almost 10 years but it has been almost 2 years since I closed it and I am trying to refamiliarize myself and get caught up on all the changes. When I sold, I used SELLERSOURCEBOOK to host my images and to make my listings with templates and I used Turbo Lister as my listing uploader. I am wondering however, if I want to go that route now since there have been so many extra upgrades to normal eBay listings. We are more in a testing stage right now where the product range will be limited to discontinued items we want to clear our of our inventory. We don't yet quite know where this will all eventually lead in terms of expanding our selling channels. I am also thinking of making the listings more cleaner/generic than what I did in my own personal store but since I have never used eBay's own listing set-up, let alone with the 12 free images upgrade, I only have half of the information to compare with.

Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of just using a basic eBay listing template vs using a 3rd party for image hosting and templates?

pierrelebel · ‎12-03-2015

Welcome back.

1) I never used any template. Never felt a need for it.

2) All my images are stored on my own website (3rd party) and this is what I have used in my eBay listings for eighteen years using the appropriate URL to load the image(s).

3) Never used Turbo Lister (first tried it in beta stage way back in 2002 and again a few years later) and never liked it. I never felt I had control over my listings.

4) I have always used "Sell your Item" form (SYI3) and used the "sell similar" to minimize the workload and repetition.

Good Luck.

reallynicestamps · ‎12-03-2015

The most important thing to explain to the boss is that his customers' cleared payments will be Held by Paypal for 21 days as a Buyer Protection against good performance.

Those payments can be accessed to buy Paypal shipping labels, There are good discounts from PO counter prices for those shipping labels.

The longer Advanced Sell Your Item form is on the Sell dropdown.

It allows a choice of US or CDN currency but the darn thing will not set up US as a default.

The only purpose I can see for TurboLister is that you can choose the time to start your listing for free instead of a dime. But since you will likely be listing (and uploading) during normal business hours, that should not be a problem.

I've never used TurboLister because I am a Mac user.

mr.elmwood · ‎12-03-2015

Never use a template. eBay "best practices" are black type on white background. Never ever use colours or clever fonts. Very hard on the eyes.

Never used Turbolister. Tried and found it a waste of time.

I upload my pictures directly to eBay. Why would I save one-off pictures on a third party site? That increases my steps.

What is more important? Great pictures. Use all twelve. Keywords have lost a lot of their importance. Correct category is more important. Item specifics properly filled in boosts search.

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pocomocomputing · ‎12-03-2015

@reallynicestamps wrote:
The most important thing to explain to the boss is that his customers' cleared payments will be Held by Paypal for 21 days as a Buyer Protection against good performance.
Those payments can be accessed to buy Paypal shipping labels, There are good discounts from PO counter prices for those shipping labels.

The longer Advanced Sell Your Item form is on the Sell dropdown.
It allows a choice of US or CDN currency but the darn thing will not set up US as a default.

The only purpose I can see for TurboLister is that you can choose the time to start your listing for free instead of a dime. But since you will likely be listing (and uploading) during normal business hours, that should not be a problem.

I've never used TurboLister because I am a Mac user.

Turbo Lister does not have free ebay scheduled listings.

If you have a stores, there is a 10 cent fee per listing to use the ebay scheduled listing feature. Non-store get free scheduled listings.

femmefan1946 · ‎12-03-2015

Well, then there doesn't appear to be any reason to use TurboLister at all.

Is this something like how PitneyBowes talked thousands of businesses into using their expensive and hard to operate meters instead of simple stamps?

pjcdn2005 · ‎12-03-2015

I don't use Turbolister as I use auctiva but I'm sure that there are some very good reasons for using it.

Turbolister users can store their listings for longer than they can on the ebay site. Some sellers also use it to make and store listings ahead of time so that when there is a promotion they have hundreds of listings ready to go.

I know that some users have mentioned having problems with Turbo but just based on what I've read here, it seems to be a lot more stable than it was a few years ago.

westernstargifts · ‎12-04-2015

I have used Seller Source Book for a few years. They now have a Listing Launcher in which you can schedule and launch your listings at no extra charge. It is quick and easy to use.

I have simplified the template that I use and am beginning to streamline my listings but I like the fact that my store can have its own unique look. I rarely have a problem with SSB and, if I do, it is usually of my own doing. Customer service there is excellent.

rose-dee · ‎12-04-2015

I've used Auctiva for years and love it -- it sounds much like what 'westernstar' describes above for SellerSourceBook. Tons of photo storage and great management features, free scheduling of listings, and seamless integration with eBay. There is a small monthly fee ($2.95) for the basic service level, which gives you a lot. I agree that having templates can give a store a polished, custom look -- mind you, I know most of my buyers still use PCs/laptops so they see those templates.

I find Auctiva great for preparing and storing "template" listings, which I can then simply copy within eBay using "Sell Similar" (SYI form). I never have to worry about losing a critical template.

Keep in mind that eBay is apparently planning to completely revise the SYI form in early 2016 I believe, as well as introducing a new consolidated "Seller Hub", so things will change fairly radically here in terms of listing and listing management come the spring.

pocomocomputing · ‎12-04-2015

@rose-dee wrote:
I've used Auctiva for years and love it -- it sounds much like what 'westernstar' describes above for SellerSourceBook. Tons of photo storage and great management features, free scheduling of listings, and seamless integration with eBay. There is a small monthly fee ($2.95) for the basic service level, which gives you a lot. I agree that having templates can give a store a polished, custom look -- mind you, I know most of my buyers still use PCs/laptops so they see those templates.

I find Auctiva great for preparing and storing "template" listings, which I can then simply copy within eBay using "Sell Similar" (SYI form). I never have to worry about losing a critical template.

Keep in mind that eBay is apparently planning to completely revise the SYI form in early 2016 I believe, as well as introducing a new consolidated "Seller Hub", so things will change fairly radically here in terms of listing and listing management come the spring.

I am using the new eBay Seller Hub and the new eBay SYI form on ebay.com. I like the new SYI form as it is a one page lister (like Auctiva) and it is an improvement over the current SYI form. The new Hub is okay and some improvements and some not so good. Both will take time to learn and get use to the new look and feel but that is just a few hours of use.

There is a relatively new forum for discussing the new eBay Seller Hub and the new SYI form here:

http://community.ebay.com/t5/eBay-Seller-Hub/gp-p/eBaySellerHub

Very few have found it as it is a special group that you have to join. You may want to bookmark the group and read about the new Hub so you have an idea of what it is like when it goes live one day on ebay.com and eBay.ca.

I made quite a few posts on what I thought about it and suggestions. The eBay Hub development team is reading and responding to the posts so I am hoping to have some impact on what may be added or changed. Very rare to have an opportunity to make suggestions on eBay and know someone is reading them! At least a chance to influence the direction of the new tools.

Sadly, few are participating. I do think it is because the forum group is not the way to go about this. It should be a regular forum on the Inside ebay section of forums and not a hidden group to join. I hope by posting this message, a few Canadian selelrs who are trying the new Hub and SYI form on eBay.com will post there.

ricarmic · ‎12-04-2015

I sell stamps to stamp collectors.

I have always (ie since eBay) self hosted pictures as well as use eBay hosted (once they became available).

Today, some "non-ebay" sites have stopped allowing self hosted pictures within listings, and self hosted pictures do not always show well, if at all on phones, (and I figure self hosted inside details is soon to leave ebay) so I am slowly migrating away from self hosted pictures. Eventually, given my almost geologic transition rate, likely 5-7 years from now I will be able to retire my self hosting site, if I choose to do so. Many things could change before then.

I have always used Turbolister. I continue to use it because it allows me to get items ready in advance (I reuse listings, often only having to change the pictures and minor wording) and list them when I want (but not scheduled listings). So far in the last 15 years I have only had significant problems a couple times.

In the last year or so I have come to believe that relisting sold items is more advantageous than relisting from Turbolister because I believe that the people (watchers) that didn't buy the item get a note that it was relisted. It seems to have had a minor positive impact so I continue to do it.

So: a new to me item gets listed from Turbolister, and anything that I sell that I have more of gets relisted.

I have always so far avoided 3rd party sites like Auctiva because I am concerned that it is yet another thing/link that can cause problems and there are 2 sources of possible problems (ie ebay changes that don't work with the 3rd party or 3rd party changes that don't work with ebay). I do envy things like the rotating auctiva listings in the template.

I have always tried to maintain a "plain" description, I've always believed my buyers don't care about fancy borders etc, if they even bother to read the description at all they just want facts.

Everyone has their reasons for why they do things they way they do, I've described my reasons, others will feel differently and do things differently.... and what works for me in stamps probably won't work in some other categories.....