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eBay seems to be increasingly concerned with aging inventory, to the point of removing some listings over one-year-old.
Sellers have been concerned with this also, but we do not have the correct tools to deal with this issue.
What eBay needs to do, in my opinion, is to implement some tools that will benefit not only eBay but also sellers and buyers.
When we list an item (buy it now), we should have the option of a decaying price listing. An example is – I would list a Widget for $199. In the optional matrix, I can specify that the listed price be reduced by 10% after 30 days, 15% after 45 days, 20% after 60 days. 50% after 6 months. Make it transparent to the buyers, so they do not delay buying waiting for a price drop.
A second implementation should be in the Manage Markdowns in the eBay store. Right now, there is not an easy way to run a sale on everything over xx months old. Yes, we can sort by end date, but we cannot search by end date. This is important because if we display sorted by date in the Markdown Manager Section and want to select items over xx days old – we have to click on each one individually. Only in search can we click all results at once, BUT it has no search by date function.
The Manage Markdown system is primitive by today’s standards and really needs a re-write.
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Everything you are asking for [with some slight variations] and more is available in WonderLister and also SixBit software. I can search and sort numerous ways all in one refined series of searches. Then once that list is presented in my final grid view I can then bulk edit all of those that met all of my filtering and sorting criteria and apply a change of price etc.
I have been having a long discussion with Jay on the benefits of using a paid, private relational database program for managing inventory, listing and manipulating those listings. Our level is up to 5,000 active listings is $25 per month. Jay and Ryanne’s level would be $50 per month for up to 10,000 listings.
We also have all of our unlisted inventory all created in smaller drafts that we use at end of year tax time. Unlisted inventory is not included so you only pay for what is active but you can still get reports on everything you have started a listing and folder for. I have one folder called WareHouse and that is where all of our unlisted inventory goes. We have 863 active listings and about another 1,000 of unlisted inventory. I also have a Donated folder where I keep all of the specs on items we removed from Ebay active and just donated. Great for tax time also.
Jay contention is why pay for something else. But as I mentioned earlier, we all pay for Selling Manager Pro but it is hidden in our store fees. SMP is $15.99 a month and that is what you are complaining about. TurboLister had to be finally abandoned due to just being obsoleted and Ebay wanting to replace it with it’s own “refinements” of SMP. But look at what you just said. It needs to be re-written and is sort of antiquated. Imagine that. They killed off TurbolIster, and was also offering SMP concurrently and now it is the only Ebay Show in town, it too is lacking in features and flexibility.
If you sell on Ebay but don’t have a store subscription you have to pay extra for SM basic and or pro level. With a Basic Store you get Selling Manager but not the Pro level. That is why we get some questions here on SL and we answer them and tell them where to go and look and they can’t find it. That is because they don’t have the SM”Pro”. That is what we all get with a Premium level and Anchor store. And that is $15.99 per month and is built into the $75 per month fee and the $350 anchor store fee. Since I I use WonderLister I wish I could opt out of the $15.99 built in cost from my $75 month store fee and that would reimburse me more than half of what WL costs me per month.
We have another 4,137 listing we can use in WL before we have to go to the $50 level like J&R would need.
But the replies I have read to the postings here on SL about WL seem to indicate no heavy interest in or desire to pay anything more for what seems to be a look alike and do alike to what Ebay already has, which is SMP. And that is perfectly fine. One will never know how great online banking is until they have several checking accounts and credit cards for both personal and business banking. Then once there becomes a need to consolidate, speed up data entry, transferring money and learning how to do it efficiency and electronically, will there ever be an interest in having an online banking account.
So, until one uses a separate app like SB or WL, has a need for more robust reports, greater depth of sorting and filtering, assigning inventory numbers and tracking, keeping track of all sales by state automatically, having right at your finger tips what you owe in Sales and Use Tax in your state moment by moment, being able to generate an immediate report of how much you have invested in inventory BOTH LISTED and UNLISTED, the value of what you have pulled and donated to date, what is in each of your bins in your storage area, what the value of the items are in each bins, how many items are in each bin, what your sales have been year after year, being able to match each month, year or quarter to the previous 5 years or longer, what it is like to have a small thumbnail photo of each item show up in any report you generate if you wish and hundreds more abilities, one will just never know what one is missing for $25 per month, just like my banking analogy.
From what you have said, one will just never know how badly Ebay falls short on handling data. And a reminder, SB and WL takes a while to learn to use and navigate just like all the cowbells and whistles on our seller dashboard and or as in learning any new software application.
I direct you to maybe do a ScavengerLife search on the phrase WonderLister and you will find a ton of topics we have discussed here on SL about it. But in any case, you can continue to use Ebay’s Selling Manger Pro [SMP] for the $15.99 built into your store fees and do very well. Also remember the average Joe is not into, see a value or into a lot of details.
“List It and Forget it”, also applies to the accounting, managing and growing one’s store. List it all, walk away and let the money just come in. When slow, as has been said before, “Rinse and Repeat”.
Now also please excuse me, while I have been vocal and an avid fan of supplementary software [especially when WL will also cross list and support Etsy, we are just chomping at the bit for that and it’s coming], I am by no means saying that this type of program is a must for anybody, that it will make you a success, that it will do everything you want it to do and will solve all your problems or even be easier for you. It is nothing more than a tool and provides those with the thirst for and the patience to work with data in multiple ways to view and track what is happening with your online Ebay store. There are others just as good, just as flexible and most are more costly.
Jay has mentioned in not exact words but round about that the extra cost jsut doesn’t seem to provide a value added for much more than what Ebay already brings to the dance. I disagree but one will never know unless they engage in a “JE”. [Jay’s Experiment]. And that is use both systems for a year or longer then compare.
Think about this, many people has a ton of buttons on there cars and Television sets but my guess is many people don’t use a lot of what is available to them.
mike at mdc galleries in Atlanta
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Oh, one other very nice feature of WonderLister is the ability to create your own “custom” fields or boxes. You can add any type of box you want in the Custom field area. Where you bought an item, what type of source it was [Thrift, Yard Sale, Auction, another category. And the entries into those fields can be sorted and filtered along with the rest.
You can create your own item specifics if you want and make it just for that one listing or duplicate into a template for future use. Drafts can be saved for as long as you want and you can have as many blank templates or drafts that you want in as many different folders as you want [hats, shoes, jackets, etc.]
With an arhive that will stay for years, you can search for an item you kow you have had before, then just click duplicate that listing and you get a new version of something you bought and sold 3 years ago. Now just drop in a new cost, a new sell price and edit whatever you want and click upload to Ebay and you have an instant new lsiting from a 3 year old one saved in your archive.
Just so much a separate relational database can do. It is the same type of form creation and search functions that any large corporation or hospital uses. Tons of standard fields to fill in, new ones you can create and you can turn all of that data upside down, any way you wish to get data reports from it.
mc in atl.-
Sounds like you really like all the extra features of Wonderlister.
I just think its strange I’d be paying them $50/month to host their software on my own server. At that price, they should host everything. If not, it should just be a single cost to download software with a license.
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Well Jay, that is the way they all work.
And think about this, Ebay’s Selling Manager Pro is not free. It is $15.99 per month and it is built into [hidden] in your monthly store fee of $350. So you are paying Ebay $191.88 per year to provide all of that nice data and the break downs on our Dashboard that we all seem to like and talk about here at SL.
If you don’t have a store you don’t get [or get to see] what the rest of us see on our Seller’s Dashboard. With a basic store you only get a neutered version of SMP which is the Basic Selling Manager and with a Premium and Anchor Store we get Selling Manager Pro and all of those Ebay analytics. So if we are paying for SMP [built in] then guess we should be telling Ebay to add all of the features one gets from apps like WL, InkFrog, & SB. But they don’t.
How many listings can Ryanne change the handling time on at one time. I think Anchor’s can only change 500 at a time and Premium stores only 250 at a time. With a private app I click one line [business policies], click on the extension of my choice [say 10 days], click apply to all listings and it’s done. Maybe 20 seconds. Now look at your 10,000 listings and think about how long it takes Ryanne to change the handling time and multiply that times the number of times you guys travel per year. With WL at 20-30 secs per change that would only be about 5 or 6 minutes per year to change 10,000 listings handling time 6 times / trips. Now add up how long Ryanne spends doing that. Consider what you think her time is per hour then you have “saved” a good portion of the app cost just in that one function alone.
We if we are paying for SMP in our store subscription, why can’t Ebay allow us to change handling time on 10,000 listings all at one time and in only a few seconds? Also for those of us that are leaning toward havong more than one platform, Etsy, Ebay, Shopify [our own store] how is one going to have to handle that one change “Handing Time” on all 3 platforms. Guess without an automated app one will have to change 30,000 listings in by whatever method each channel offers. With an auto App that can handle multiple platforms, again everything can be done by one set of “master commands” and be done behind the scenes as one continues to work within the current listings tab. Certainly worth $25 per month to me on this feature alone.
But again only my opinion. Also don’t over look Easy Auction Tracker. A glorified spread sheet but does a lot to help organize inventory and COGS sold and provides a fairly good P&L statement for the user. But fairly limited and basic and is only a spread sheet. But it is only $50 per year [$4.16 per month]. Or better yet for free, build your own spread sheet, we did that years ago, and so have many of the SL members here. I see them reference their spread sheets all the time. Some seem to have some fairly complex ones. Also you can keep adding MACROS, extra tabs and sheets to EAT if one knows how to customize it to your own way of wanting to see the data and what you want to track.
EAT has a free trial. You down load, then set it to synch with your Ebay store, then it downloads everything automatically and then you can explore it’s function. BUT the trial is limited to only 1 or 2 months of data and then it cuts / locks you off until to buy the the “unlocked” version-key, which then will allow complete access. Problem is, that it only grabs what Ebay offers and that is 90 days of data, so you won’t be able to get data from Jan 1st. It will start around early March. You will have to wait until you go through all of next year to get a whole year’s worth of data, but quarter by quarter is still a good overview P&L picture to review.
mike in Atl.
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Hi. I have been reading your insights and testing of both WonderLister and also the SixBit software. After the time you have spent with each package, which one do you feel is the one to go with at this point in time? I know they both do eBay well and I believe WL is in development on an Etsy module. Your thoughts? BTW, I am just starting on Etsy. Thanks
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Bottom line and short [which is rare for me] LOL, ha-ha 🙂
WonderLiaster and here’s why.
* SixBit is very blotted. The size of my file on SB is almost 10 Gigs. That same file is less than 1 Gig in WL. Now, why does that matter. Because as a database they both run using MicroSoft SQL app which is installed free by the app and also free from MicroSoft. BUT SQL is limited to around 10 gigs before you have to pay MS a license fee.
SixBit doesn’t tell you that up fron. So I got a message a few weeks ago from SixBit saying that my file size [866 listings with about 10 photos each] was just about at 10 Gigs and they recommended I buy a license from MicroSoft. Well that is hundreds of dollars or I would need to put everything on my own server.
With WL the same file only being less than a Gig in size will allow me to have a store at about 12,000 items or more +/- before I max. out MicroSoft Free SQL. That is going to be plenty for us for many years to come.
The reason [I believe] that the SB file is so large is more due to all of the “slick” graphics and the extra cow bells and whistle’s that WL doesn’t offer. SB will create “bar Codes” for all your items and print them out on adh. labels. That takes up room, SB has a lort of “nice color” areas and that takes up data space, SB offers a few more types of reports and also customization in some areas that WL doesn’t and again, just more coding, thus space consumption.* Now top that off with the fact that WL is $10 per month less expensive and WL wins again.
* Now customer support. Every time I have needed WL they responded very quickly. In an hour or less and sometimes, depending how busy they are, within a minute or two of my inquiry. While SixBit is very slow, usually the next day. If you want faster reply time, they have a 3 tiered plan they will sell you to get Concierge type of quick replies but that is very costly.
* The SixBit user manual is more thorough and comprehensive. WL is just OK. Explains the basics but I have never found that a problem because of their quick respond time to my questions.So those are just my opinions for what they are worth. I was very surprised to discover that I had almost maxed out the SixBit app with only 860 ++ listings and the cost of having a separate server drives the cost way up. Guess Jay and Ryanne know a whole lot more about separate server space rental issues than me.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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Markdown Manager The recent webinar on Promotions Manager strongly hinted that ebay is reviewing Markdown Manager. However, whether any changes will incorporate your suggestions, I don’t know. Sounded more like they are trying to figure out how to plug it into “sales Event” in Promotions Manager….as it is, it’s a clumsy process to use the two together.
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