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If you want peanuts, Uline is probably the most expensive place to get them unless you are picking them up, but even then they charge you for that. Open google maps for your closest big city and search for shipping supplies. There is probably a local place that sells bulk bags of peanuts you can pick up or have delivered to you for next to nothing. I bought 10 big bags of peanuts in Indy for about $18 a bag and they delivered for $15. These companies usually have delivery routes around the state anyway delivering to business and factories.
I don’t understand exactly what issues you were having. The storage location field is where you would put your bin number. You can just let the SKU field do it’s own thing.
I am wondering about your errors as well. I have found that if I try to open any of my previous listings that might have contained java script (from inkfrog!) the whole program crashes. Sometimes I can get it open and delete the code out before I open the text editor and it works. Other times the listing just has to be abandoned or deleted.
I don’t do anything with the SKU for SB. It auto populates some random number in there. After I list a batch of items I export the listings to excel and fill in the relevant information about when and where. I am sure I could do all of this in SB, but I haven’t tried to figure that out yet. I keep all of my sales records in excel and then at the end of the year it is easy to run pivot tables to get all of the data for taxes.
So what happens when eBay randomly deletes your custom sku field? Food for thought. I also feel like it would be very time consuming to lkocate those custom sku fields post sale. Do they transfer to the shipping screen? Or do you have to open each listing, fight the ads that pop up, then locate the sku yourself?
As far as inventory… Not to beat a dead horse, but here is where sixbit comes in handy again.
My system is to label every shelf/area in my warehouse with a number/letter designation. I also label every box with a number. The boxes have two adhesive business card holders on them. One has a tag that classifies the items in the box (misc, parts, fragile, etc…) and the other one I place a pink tag in if the box has a lot of room in it, that way if I am taking pics I know boxes I can grab to fill. I also put the box number on the box and lid. If there is a little bit of room in the box I turn the lid backwards so the number doesn’t show. If I use a box I disregard the shelf number, but if no box then I use the shelf number for location. I have standardized on the uline economy storage file boxes with lids (S-6521/S-9879). There are also file cabinets that would be like FC1A for file cabinet 1 drawer A then each folder in the file cabinet is 1-? so the location would be FC1A-23. I also have shelving units that have small boxes about the size of medium flat rates that are lettered so each box on the shelf is like “C23”. These are good for small items. I have a few jewelry boxes too, they would be like JB1, JB2, etc…
When taking photographs I do groups of items in the same box. The first picture I take is of the box number. Then I proceed to photograph everything until that box is full. Then I take a picture of the next box number and repeat. If it is going on a shelf I take a pic of the shelf number. Then I take all of the pictures and put them in folders by their storage location.
When listing on sixbit you can put the storage location in the entry, you can choose as well to have that location carry across to t a duplicated listing if you like (I do since I am usually listing groups of similar items together). After you have listed an entire folder of pics you can easily glance at all the listings to verify that the locations are correct. It is also easy to go through your existing inventory and add locations. You can easily see what is missing a location and add it. You can also add the custom field from sixbit to your listing if you like. When you do your pick list each time you ship, items are sorted by inventory location which is awesome.
If an item has the incorrect location you can go back and look at a few clues to find it. You can easily look at the items that were listed before and after the missing item to see where they are stored. You can look at items that were listed on a specific day, etc…
I haven’t done an inventory yet, but I can see how on sixbit you could sort by items in a certain location and quickly verify what is there and what is not.
I have also started using the teamviewer as suggested to remote in and it is working really well. I am going to get a new desktop with more hd capacity to transfer my sixbit database to so I can work a little faster and go to a laptop to remote in to it when I’m away. Can’t wait to retire that macbook.
MDC Galleries,
I am now looking into the shopify thing and thinking I want to give that a try.So to do the shopify, I have to upgrade to the Duo which is $65 more a month. I also have to pay for the shopify $29. I am guessing (maybe) I also have to pay for TaxJar which is $17. TaxJar is the sticking point for me. I am a little confused as to whether I need to collect sales tax at all for other states since I will be a rather small presence. I believe the threshold for South Dakota was $200k in sales to that state alone. Can you let me know how you are handling this? Once I am comfortable with the sales tax issue I think I am ready to give it a try.
Jay,
Actually Between about 200 items and 5,000 items I was about the same. Year over year my sales were +/-1%. I’m fairly convinced that eBay categorizes sellers and allows a certain volume. I have gone months on end selling the exact number of items with the exact average price per item and the exact total sales. All while steadily growing my inventory year over year. No way that happens in nature.I am hoping this year is better, I am working on upping my price per item that I list. We’ll see how it goes. I am investing a lot into that inventory though. It takes about the same amount of time to list a $1,000 item as it does a $5 item. Being part time that’s the only way I can up those numbers.
Jay,
I haven’t been on InkFrog for several years so it is hard to say how it has changed.As I recall, waiting for things was an issue. I don’t have exceptionally fast internet, perhaps those who do would have another experience. SixBit saves the waits for the submit time. Helps me list more in less time. I think if SixBit was cloud based I would actually like it less.
Customization of the interface on SixBit is huge. Each employee can have their own UI setup to their liking.
I recall having to scroll while listing on InkFrog. I hate scrolling, A lot of why I hate the new eBay shipping UI among many, many other things.
I found it more difficult to organize the work on InkFrog.
SixBit is basically an SQL server so it has a lot of features you would find in Microsoft Office suite. You can easily export data to excel. I believe you can import too, but I have a fear of things going wrong with almost 6,000 listings so I wouldn’t attempt that.
Filtering and searchability is really good in SixBit. It has some issues I don’t like, but I am hoping some day they will fix those. When you search you have to type fast because it will finalize your search with the slightest pause and then select all and start typing over it. Another issue is you can only search exact strings, you can’t put two random words in from a listing title and return any results.
The moral of the story is speed. Time is money you know. Whatever cranks out the most listings in the shortest amount of time is biggest KPI in my book!
In that previous post I meant to say 3 seconds to do 12 photos, but the forum won’t let me edit the post.
Slipslope,
SixBit is really easy to set up for multiple users on your home network. Basically you pick one PC to be your “server” and you want it to have a very large hard drive because all of your pics and listings will be stored there. Personally I use my MacBook because it is basically worthless to me for functionality. Any other PC’s you have will link to the server across your network. I have the MacBook server, a 3 screen desktop I work on, 2 employee computers with three screens (although since I no longer have employees I don’t use them), and a shipping PC. All of those seats of SixBit can be used at the same time. The main issue I had starting out was firewall issues with the server, but SixBit remoted in and fixed me right up in like two minutes.Each employee is given a login and password and you decide what functions they can use. For instance, you can let a person list new items, but not edit old items. You can choose if they can submit listings to eBay. You can choose if they can see your messages, sold items, shipping, etc…
You are basically tied to that server for anything you want to do (and it will back up to a location of your choice every night). If I want to travel and work on listings I just take the MacBook, which I used to do, but it is so fast to do at home I now leave the computer behind when go on vacation. It is just too clunky to work on a little screen like that. I know they have a VPN solution, but I haven’t had a strong enough need to set it up. Theoretically, I could set up the VPN and have employees work from home or I could work while travelling.
I keep all of my photos on an external drive that is shared to my network so whatever computer a person is listing from they have access to the same photos. I prefer to work on a 3 (27″) screen setup for speed. One screen has Windows Explorer up with my pictures, one screen has SixBit, one screen has eBay or google up research.
I previously used InkFrog and I am much happier with Sixbit.
1. InkFrog put ads in all of my listings. When eBay freaked out about scripts in listing descriptions the only issues I had was all of the left over InkFrog crap. SixBit will also put ads in your listings, but you can pay like $3/month for them to not do that. I would recommend that.
2. Latency. Listing is all about speed. I have some issues with latency on SixBit because I list on a different PC than my “server”, but it is minor. Like adding photos takes a pause, maybe 3 seconds to add 3 photos. Opening a listing can take like 3 seconds too, but simply inputing data and text is instant.
3. I can organize my entire workflow into one screen. No scrolling through the listing when I am working on it. I can organize the process so it flows to my liking. Flipping from listing to listing is easy to go back and tweak things you forgot or messed up.
4. Once I am comfortable with a “batch” of listings I just select them and hit submit. Then I can go about my business while SixBit uploads all the info. I am not using listing time to do that. Uploading basically locks you out of SixBit, but just on that computer that you are submitting on. I can easily go over and do my shipping while the listings upload.The SixBit version I use is $37.99/month including the no ads thing. Worth every penny.
Timo,
I think a separate thread would be good to discuss it. I did not find it extremely difficult to start using. You just import all of your eBay stuff into it and you are ready to go. I did struggle with some of the server settings and whatnot at first, but the tech support helped me set everything up. After the import I just had to go fill in storage locations for everything I already had. I am sure I don’t know the half of what it can do, but I manage. When I had employees it was really nice since they each could have their own account and they could do all the work without ever being in my actual eBay store.When I knock out 150 a day or so it is usually like items. Books or shot glasses or car parts etc… Basically you just do a duplicate of your last item and change the title, upload pics, tweak the specifics and set the price. I’m talking all pics taken and everything stored and I am simply doing data entry. I am knocking on the door of 6k items in my store and I basically work part time at it.
One very useful item I wanted to mention is how it puts all of your listings in a spreadsheet sort of look. It makes it easy to scan for screw ups before you submit. I can see easily if I put wrong storage location in or maybe picked wrong shipping policy etc… You can also verify quantities of each listing with a glance.
I keep all of my books separate from sixbit because I don’t really know how to use it for that purpose. I love being able to export my listings to a CSV file. You have to take advantage of the customization of the screens too. The standard setup probably isn’t best for anyone, but it is easy to move stuff and organize it to your flow. I am by no means an expert or an paid advocate, but I wouldn’t want to be without it.
I have to get up at 4AM to ship my sales before I leave for work and the pick sheet having all the info for each item is a lifesaver. I still ship from eBay, but since they screwed up the shipping page so bad I should probably learn how to ship from within sixbit now. I also love how if I have an item that I can mail with a stamp it will print out the address info on my zebra thermal. That has saved me some coin.
I would like to see them add support for cross posting on several other platforms, but right now it is just eBay and Amazon I think. I would also love to see the pick list be a mobile app component.
It was also nice a while back when eBay deleted a bunch of pictures. I just had to filter by list date, select all the listings in that range and click update and all of the pics got sent back over.
If you are looking for a different forum that is easier to control and you can still keep control of who is on it you might look into Discord. I personally don’t get it, but I think it is what you are looking for. I coach robotics and I know there is a lot of forum type stuff on there and private groups that appear to be easy to administer. I think a lot of streamers use it for comments during streams as well. If you do figure it out maybe you can teach the rest of us how to use it 😛
I’d also put my two cents in on using sixbit. I can crank out 150 listings a day on it and it makes it really easy to organize your drafts. Every listing you have ever made is saved on it and you can easily pull up old stuff you sold years ago to re-list if you get another one. You can do employee accounts as well. I know the whole non-online thing isn’t what you are looking for, but I think here is a way to do VPN with it. I just don’t really need that functionality. I think you would really like the pick list feature. It will also help you with your inventory if you start working on organizing your barn. I’d at least recommend doing the free trial and give it an actual go.
Nasty Gal worked out well for me. Set up my new eBay building for a couple grand at their liquidation auction at the distribution center. Tables, Chairs, Desks, Printers, computers, shelves, Ship stations, box sorters, etc… Filled a 28′ car hauler and my truck bed!
I’m using Sixbit on a Mac book Pro because I have Parallels installed with Win7. Actually makes a Mac book useful. Even allows it to print to my Zebra printer.
I still think you guys should give Sixbit a chance. It does all of the stuff you are wanting to do. You have total control over every employee account, you can choose every item they are allowed to access or change. Plus you can create all the drafts you want. I haven’t figured out all of it’s capabilities yet, but my favorites are as follows.
-You can export the data to csv in any combination you want, since I keep my info in an excel file this is handy.
-You can print shipping labels with the buyers address and your return address on to a 4×6 thermal which makes it easier to send items with stamps.
-You can print pick lists when you ship that shows a picture, the location, and the other details that are handy when you gather your sales. (be nice if they had an app for that though)
-I know you can use it to actually print postage, but it doesn’t integrate with eBay that I know of so you would have to use a third party service. I don’t use it to actually ship.
-You can categorize drafts.
– It makes it easy to scan over your drafts looking for issues like wrong shipping rule or qty. If you are listing like 100 widgets in a ow you can crank through them fast and scan back to see if you missed something.
– Templates can be set up for anything and you pick what is in it.
– “duplicate” has a great feature that allows you to choose what elements you want to take from a listing when you duplicate it. When I duplicate I take the storage location, item specifics, category, and shipping info. I have it drop things like pictures and qty to list. It is all customizable to what you want to do.
– eBay motors listings have the ability to import compatibility data from eBay(when it works).I know you want remote access, which I believe you can set up a VPN for that, but I have a laptop that I keep the master database on which all the computers in my shop can connect to. If I am traveling I just take that laptop and use it to create listings on the road. It does have the capability to link photos from the web, but I don’t know how to use that.
It is quite buggy, but I have found they do address issues when you bring them to their attention. It would also be nice if it integrated on more platforms. I have to manually reduce my inventory if I sell an item on Truegether or Bonanza. I have also not found a way to get good category recommendations like you get on the eBay listing tool, but it is possible that I haven’t figured that out yet..
It was fairly easy to fix the photo bug (other than figuring out which ones were bad) I basically tried to identify the date range on active listings, selected them all, then hit “send revisions to site” and BOOM the pics were back.
I feel like maybe you aren’t getting how the business policies work. I have about 6,000 items from tiny one ounce things to gigantic local pickups and I have about 8 shipping policies. Really all they do is say how fast you will ship (handling time), how you will ship (carrier, or type), and if yo will do global shipping. The rest of the data is in your listing like size and weight.
For example: I have 3 calculated shipping business policies. USPS, FedEx or UPS, and USPS or FedEx or UPS. Basically if it’s a small item I apply the USPS policy. Medium size item I apply the Fedex or UPS policy. If it is a giant item I apply Fedex or UPS. So when a buyer sees the medium size item it gives them the option to pick the carrier and shows the price for each.
I also have 2 free shipping policies. One for “expedited” which means I am shipping first class or priority and one for “media” which means I am shipping media mail.
I also have one for local pickup.
I would recommend you play with setting some up and picking items to apply to them and start cleaning that up because ebay is already doing it for you. It takes me less then 5 minutes to change handling on 6,000 items.
I would also recommend doing sixbit before you begin doing your inventory organization. You will thank me later.
Look around for liquidations of businesses for shelving. I bought the entire warehouse full at my local sears for $1750. We had an MC sports going bankrupt at same time. They had some nice shelving unit in their shoe room they were selling. HH Gregg had some, but not much. Great way to fill a warehouse cheap. Just go in and ask for the liquidator and tell them you want to see what they have in the warehouse.
