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Yes there is a cell phone app. But using it on a cell phone to remote control my home office rig, which has double monitors is like trying to fly a passenger jet plane using a Wii controller! LOL 🙂
The phone app is like all type of complex apps, the print and screen layout is just too small to be able to handle things comfortably. But some people still do it, but we just prefer a larger screen. I have never been one to try to run a business only using a phone, but some do.
Mike at MDC Galleries & Fine Art in Atlanta
So sorry to hear about this DoublyThumbs. Our prayers go out to you and your girlfriend and your neighbors. We had a basement flood many decades ago in Ct. and the water came up to the upstairs floor. Totally covered the basement and ruined everything, so we can relate to your heartfelt pain.
As Scavengers we all are sort of Troopers and organizers. I am sure after you get all of the administrative details out of the way, you will just start to “pick” the situation, save and clean what you can, and inch by inch, will start to rebuild the inventory. God has strange ways to test us at times and the one thing you can do is to simply keep going, through the tears and pain, just pick up and keep going.Like the mantra ABL [always be listing], switch to JKG [Just Keep Going] mode.
Keep us all informed and if you have any questions, shoot them out to the SL community, even though we are all mostly far away, we can still maybe provide some answers for you.
Take care…
Mike and Susan at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Good Morning T-Satt: Thank the Lord for Coffee! And I hear drinking it everyday now prolongs one’s life and staves off Alzheimers.
Yep.. we use TeamViewer also. Our home office rig has to stay on when we are gone. Each computer has an ID number assigned to it. We set the office rig up as the “host” so to speak and we “allow” the separate ID number that is on the laptop “access” to the office number. Sort of like computer “A” allows” “B” to access. You have a password for each computer so when on the laptop, from any location-anywhere, we click on the TeamViewer Icon, input the office password and it then connects.
Tip-Trick. We bought a second monitor for the home office rig. So with two screens, on TeamViewer it recognizes that and all we do is click the 2 screen button to switch back and forth. If I am listing on the road, I keep a browser open on the second monitor and WonderLister open on the first and just click back and forth to switch monitors and multi-task that way.
Nice thing is also you can also transfer files between our laptop and the office rig. If we need a printout of anything we “transfer” our file to us [laptop], then print it out on any local available source or put on a thumb drive and take to a printer locally. Don’t have a small travel printer because hardly ever need a printout.
We can also do a re-start of the home office rig, TV will disconnect for a few seconds, then auto reconnect when the office rig is back online.
WARNING: The only thing you can’t do or have happen is for your home rig” to be turned “off” while you are gone. There is no way to turn it on remotely unless you call a friend-family and have them go turn it on.
Check it out at the TeamViewer web site. We use the Free version, no ads, fully functional. Good luck with it.
Yep, the screen customization is a nice function of SB, but you can only do a couple of sections and WL does have a 3 view split screen now. We also keep all of our photos now on Google drive which also cuts down the space. We only pay $25 a month for WL as compared to your $70 was it? But SB did have a little bit of a “Jazzier” look to it but not worth over twice as much and WL is always making a lot of improvements. BUT both are great to use and they do so much more, faster than Ebay, especially when soon we will be able to do Etsy and Shopify along with Ebay / Bonanza all from one master dashboard-intergrated piece of software.
Here’s to automation and using your brain and not your back!! 🙂
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc in Atlanta
MDC Galleries & Fine Art and SmartParts Equipment divs.Yeah I am curious also. SB cost more, the database is way larger, takes way more time to back up, uses up the MS allotment of the SQL server due to it’s size, WL is going to handle etsy and Shopify [which is one’s own store], so yes, I am super curious also.
T-Satt I saw your statement about working remotely. I will do a short post, maybe tomorrow outlining the App / software we use, how we do it and what our process is and the other things one can do with remote access software. It is really cool. While we were down in Orlando visiting my daughter, I was up hours before anyone elase and I was running my store from there each morning in full screen and full power mode.
mike at mdc galleries in atlanta
I absolutely agree that there needs to be a store level / tier in between the premium and the anchor store and many others also agree. I think Jay even has it listed in the forum section of suggestions for Ebay to consider. That is just too large of a gap to jump in my opinion. Even just one at a 5,000 tier would be better than what the jump is now.
mike at MDC Galleries Inc. in Atlanta
Hello again Sandra KC: I have a little more information for you with regards to your questions above. I decided to go straight to my friend who is the CEO / Owner of WonderLister and copied your questions along with my answers to you for verification. I also included the ones I was not sure about and his reply back to me is copied below.
Hello Mike,
All your answers are absolute on target. Regarding the Sales Promotion, yes, WL lets you create your own sale promotion and add listings to that promotion. You can also take listing OFF sale anytime you so wish.
Kind regards,
ChaviSo, hopefully this all helps you and I guess since he verified eveything, that may also include the fact that they are going to be out in Vegas. Look them up and if you see or talk to Chavi tell him you got the info. on WL from Mike in Atlanta and also plug Jay and Ryanne and Scavengerlife.com
Good luck and anxious to here all about the Vegas scene after you get back.
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc. in Atlanta
MDC Galleries & Fine Art and SmartParts Equipment divs.To determine what some metals might be. What is cast iron [especially if it is painted and we can’t see the raw metal] and Steel and Stainless Steel, all are magnetic. Cast aluminum, brushed aluminum, nickle, and all alloy’s are non-magnetic.
Also we use it when quick checking out in the field if sterling silver jewelry has sterling clasps or not. Magnet testing of silver is “iffy” but it is good as a quick test. Real sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver; the most common alloy used to harden it is copper, and neither of these metals is magnetic. A chemical test is best but that is not something we can do when walking an auction or estate sale.
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc. in Atlanta
MDC Galleries and Fine ArtOne of the ScavengerLife members created this “GREAT” web site a few years ago and it is very useful in determing what shipping should be, what alternatives you have, which way is cheapest for both you as a seller and also as a buyer.
I even belive Jay and Ryanne have this “tool” listed in the SL section of “Tools and Resources. I have it book marked and use it all the time on my heavier and larger packages when creating my listings and selecting which shipping policies I should offer as options. I put in a 12x12x12 and your weight. But, since I don’t know the actual box size or the ship from or ship to zip it is probably not accurate. You can go to the site and put in the correct numbers and it will show you which box to use, what carriers are available and what the associated costs are.
I suggest you also bookmark the site and use it often in your listing process. I play “what if” with it all the time. What if I use this size box, what if a pound more or less in weight, etc., etc.
Hope this helps somewhat…
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries & Fine ArtHey theMezz: Yes there is a lot of articles to Google but most do repeat themselves. Here is a link to data that explains very simply. The comparison chart in the middle is short and simple. BUT it has the same flaw as all of the other information we have found through the years. There seems to be no difinitive test, and all the tests recommended, seems to have to be done before the pieces are glazed or fired. But I do have a test I run in the field and it has helped us the most.
First here is the link to an Ebay article that is pretty good. Also Wiki has very good information on the Caolin clay, where it comes from, it’sa properties and why it is a better material for fine pieces.
We carry a fanny pack with us when we go out to procure inventory, sales, auctions, thrifts, etc. In it besides our cash, sales cert., we also carry a magnet, tape measure and a small LED flashlight. When you find a piece of Ceramic [All Porcelain is ceramic by the way in it’s loose generic material category, but all ceramic pottery is not Porcelain] turn on the flash light and shine it up into the hole, usually found in the bottom of all figurine type of pieces. If it lights up like a light bulb, we usually say it classifies as porcelain and meets the criteria that “Porcelain is thin and transparent to some degree”. If when shining the light up and into, or on the side and through a piece and it doesn’t “glow” or you see light pass through it, we usually go with the thought that it is the rough, coarser, thicker type of white clay and is thus “Non-Porcelain”. Other than that it is tough to find a test that doesn’t require a waterproof test of the piece before it gets fired.
By the way when we list ceramic items that we think is Porcelain, in the item specific area for “Materials”: we usually use both terms and list it like this. Porcelain / Ceramic. That way no one can argue with us. We have been challenged twice by a someone via email that our item was not a Porcelain piece so we started using the term ceramic after it and have never had a challenge since. In other words only an expert could possibly tell the difference. Is there a chemical test for Kaiolin Clay?? don’t know, but who cares..not us.
Hope this helps somewhat..
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries & Fine Art in AtlantaI too do not get all responses to various Forum topics. I have to go to each topic and subscribe to each and everyone, only then will I get the replies to that specific topic thread.
So Linda and Amatino were right on it. Here are others from Worthpoint. Maybe the variance in price may have to do with the type of stones in it. Several are shown on this page. Like Linda said, different type of service pins for varying years of service and each was different. Maybe 3 diamonds would be like a 30 year service award pin and go for more money or also maybe the metal type and or gold content vs. bronze alloy or silver?? Just a guess.
https://www.worthpoint.com/inventory/search?query=mcdonnell+douglas+logo+pin
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
I found 6 or 7 listed on Worthpoint. Highest one sold for $26.95 and the lesser for $10 and several in the middle for $14 to $19 +/-. So, unsure about that $125 number. But that does bring up a question I have been thinking about for several years when Jay mentioned way, way back about pricing high. The question is how high is high and if only using Ebay Solds then what if the solds were let go fro prices way below many that have sold much higher but there is just no quick accessible prices for them. Jay says he doesn’t care for prices a year old, but what if you find 30 items sold a year and a half ago for $45 and then nothing in the last 9 months have sold. Then I would use the $45 prices as what I will eventually get, then list them “higher” like 40-50% higher to allow for running Sales at 15% to 30-35% off and or taking offers at 30% off.
So “How high is Price High” if you know that one Sold for $29.95 in 2013 and then again one sold for $24.99 in June of 2017 [both listed in Ebay]?
Great topic Jay for a Pod Cast.. “How High is High” given known resources of varying price levels and ages?
In any case for what it’s worth…
Mike at MDC Galleries in AtlantaAgree with above but also if you bought several items from a single seller, when you are maing selections in the future, put them into your “Shopping Cart”, then do a “Time to Check Out” and if they are like kind items, Ebay will do an automatic combo shipping anyway and present the seller with a total. They in turn combo pack and print out on label. But Ebay at times will get ‘wonkey” on this. Also another suggestion is to contact the seller, inform them that you would like several of there items, make a “bundled price offer” on them dircetly in the message and then remind them of combo shipping, and request an “Invoice” from them. That way it forces them if they accept, to combine shipping and look up the costs and also confirms everything in writing to you on the invoice.
Or follow the above suggestions.
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries & Fine Art in AtlantaHi Sandra KC: I’ll try to answer a few of your questions.
After installing Wonder lister – How much if any of the process are you doing within eBay? MDC Galleries answer: ..I don’t do too much of anything within Ebay any longer. Way too much provided by WL. All orginization, inventory management, financials, photo management, everything from within WL. But I do look at my Ebay Dashboard each today but more to make sure it corresponds to WL rather than anything else. Also there is a lot of WL that I don’t use as of yet, more from just wanting to concentrate on getting over 1,000 listings in our store as opposed to working on expanding my knowledge of WL.
If I do not know how to do something in wl (learning curve stages) will I be able to go to the eBay hub and complete that particular task – and will the changes automatically sync in wl? MDC Galleries answer: No. When you start a listing, it all stays within the WL database until you click the tab “Submit to Ebay”. Until that time you are basically filling in a WL Database form or a template you have created for your specific type of category. You can open and close, leave and come back to your WL listing creation as many times as you want, [WL has a “work in process” folder, but until you “Upload your listing” to Ebay, Ebay does not know anything about what you are working on off line. But after you upload / submit your listing to Ebay, THEN it resides in both places. And if you make any changes, edits, alterations either within WL or Ebay they will constantly be in sync. [within a few minutes of course]. In order to increase performance WL does do stay in “constant” sync with Ebay. You have a “preference setting” and I have mine set to synch every few minutes, but you can choose whatever synch time you want.
How often do you create a backup of your data? MDC Galleries answer: WL has a “preference” tab and you set it to whatever you want. I do mine on a daily basis. It saves it to a local folder on my hard drive C:. Then also every day I have a Carbonite backup run. Those are my two places. You can also have an external hard drive as a third BU source. The footprint of a WL database is very small. especially as compared to SixBit which is 10 to 15 times as large. SixBit will kill you on space requirements. We have 874 items in our store and about 50 + specially created templates in WL, plus we also do an Archive of ended / sold listings in WL [every item we have sold in the last 3 years with complete total information about each sale] and the database is approx. 54 MB [zipped] which WL does automatically. They do a very good job of compiling, compacting and crunching the data]. We keep about 8 to 12 weeks of data backed up, but really no real need for that many and we will not do so as the Db grows. But 10 backups only uses approx. 540 MB. WL also has a manual Backup option and you can crunch the database and save it at your desire.
How big is the backup? (I currently have 1500 listings) MDC Galleries answer: So your database may be approx. twice what ours is, so about 1,000 MB +/-. We also use all 12 photos in all our listings. But WL has a great new process that they handle automatically. When you do your photos instead of keeping them on your own computer, you just create a Google Drive account, create a photo folder or folders and place all your photos there. Then when you go to attach photos within WL, just like you do within the Ebay app, WL accesses your Google drive account, populates the photos within WL for all the small thumbnails that WL keeps for you as well as automatically submits all the photos to Ebay when you click the submit button.
What type storage would It require to back up the data off the server? MDC Galleries answer. You don’t need a separate server unless you get ten’s of thousands of listings. Your own computer is your server. WL is a down loaded app onto your own rig. They do have a cloud based service but it is really for the Enterprise type of business and WL would have to provide you with a personal quote. But with up to 4 to 8 thousand listings you will never need it. This solution is for very big companies with large quantities of the same [new items] and many variations of colors, sizes. A big brick and mortar type of stores or chains. For us single item, vintage sellers, right on your own computer. Very easy.
in case my computer takes a dump? Would a usb terabyte hard drive be sufficient? MDC Galleries answer: Yes, at 54 MB I could keep many copies of my database on a USB thumb drive. Or as I sad, we also use Carbonite to back-up our whole computer everynight, so all of my files, including WL are there for immediate access and re-download if needed.
Is the Markdown manager and the promoted listings incorporated in WL? Or do you perform them outside of WL? MDC Galleries answer: We don’t use Promoted Listings as of yet, but will soon since Ebay is now allowing “silngle vintage type items” to be used within the “Promoted Items” arena. So can’t answer how WL will handle that.As far as creating Sales within our Ebay store, we have just recently started to offer “Store wide” percentage off Sales and we did those within Ebay because we already knew how to do it and wanted to get some up as an experiment, so unsure as of yet about WL. BUT I can certainly ask the tech team and find out. WL makes chnages as it is growing, and it is growing “fast” especially since “Turbo Lister” was dropped by Ebay. Many users seeking alternative “offline” listing and inventory management solutions. Also WL will be rolling out the Etsy interface this fall [if no delays pop up] and also they are currently working on the coding for interfacing with “Shopify”. So the WL is great about responding to their customers / users needs, wants and desires but the changes just take time.
Thanks for all the great info. After the Vegas conference I hope to have info I can contribute as well! MDC Galleries answers: I think that the CEO of WL, Chavi Rastogi, told me in one of his emails, that they were going to be at the Vegas show. Please, by all means if they are,try to attend and ask them all of these great questions plus more. Then post their answers after you get back.
Thanks for the interest and hope our replies helped..
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc. in Atlanta
MDC Galleries & Fine Art and SmartParts Equipment divs.Thanks everyone for the input. Everything is broken out into 8 pc lots. Now we have to do some quick polishing before photog. They are really tarnished, but a test showed that the salt, baking soda, hot water and vinegar liquid did a quick, great clean up of the two test pieces, so tomorrow comes a couple of gallons of “silver dip” and we should be good to go to photog. and then listing.
Appreciate all the suggestions.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Thanks Inglewood and So Cal Joe. SCJ funny you mention flatware. At this Estate Sale we also got a whole cabinet-box with 3 lift out trays of bronzeware flatware at approx 160 pcs. So we will follow your suggestion and break up into the various categories such as teaspoons forks, fruit spoons, knives, etc., etc. It comes in a nice wooden box and will also do as you did and list it separaetly.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
