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06/11/2017 at 10:31 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Prince & Wendy picks, Engineer boots, Coleman Cooler, Video switcher, Jeanie Rub massager #19262
Way to go Paul. Great Sale.
My wife plays Mah Jong and is always looking for sets. She learned to play over 30 years ago when we were up Connecticut. But hasn’t played since we have come back home to Georgia. We have seen only two sets over the past few years down here.
She is going to flip when I show her your Sale this morning. This will renew her yearning to play and also BOLO for it constantly now.Keep up the good work
mike at MDC Galleries in AtlantaBottom 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
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.
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.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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This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Hi Picker Chick …
Going to give you an opinion base on some art, printing, research, and personal opinion all rolled into one.If it is thin as you say, but “if” it does have just a little rigidity then it is propberly “gold Leaf” which is onion skin thin and delicate laminated onto a thin sheet of foil. Then embossed and die cut out on a press [foil stamped & die cut all in one process in other words] to form the embossed and debossed areas. Very much like a gold foil seal is made for documents or on the cover of foil stamped folders. This can also be done on an Hot Stamping press and roll dies also.
The “extremely thin layer” probably really is 22 kt gold but is just a “whisper” of a coating, the balance of the thickness is “foil”. Foil is needed to hold the shape and image of the stamping.
As to gold value, there would be so little gold content as to be probably worthless because it is probably unmeasurable in terms or “scrap weight”. If you don’t know, the gold leafing is used in picture framing to “gold gilt” wood moulding pieces and then made into picture frames. Real 22 kt gold is used in ceramic glazes and painted onto older fine asian pieces. We have sold several Weeping Gold Vases all covered in 22 kt gold but the whole object [vase] only sell in the $15-$20 range.
The words are Vietnamese and best I can find in a few translators is something in the area of “You are my Happiness”, which I am going to guess is a wedding type sentiment statement.
So I am going to take a stab at “guessing” this is some type of wedding decoration that may have been carefully placed on top of a cake or a table place setting on put onto a cloth banner ,etc. You didn’t mention any dimensions so sort of use your imagination as to where it could have been “transferred to” and go from there.
As to overall value, unless it is some rare, old antique Vietnamese decoration, I think it is just a foil stamped decoration that is similiar to a pack one would find at HobbyLobby with the words Happy Birthday on it.
BUT… just a first glance opinion and that, just like my Masters in Fine Art Degree and $.50 will get you half a cup of coffee. Man, I should have listened to my parents and become a lawyer instead of an artist. LOL 🙂 🙂
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta-
This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
05/30/2017 at 3:56 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 312: Is eBay Removing Old listings? #18785Now that you mention it, your right Brazil is listed but just not for certain categories. Probably the time I had issues was the type of item not so much as where it was going.
mc in atl.05/30/2017 at 2:49 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 312: Is eBay Removing Old listings? #18783Hey Steven:
Two items:
One is we had a similar thing happen this weekend with a buyer only sort of reversed. He first notified me he had paid but Ebay won’t show it as paid, but his PayPal account showed it was paid to us. I checked our PayPal account and no deposit been made and also no notice from PP either. So I messaged back and said we could only ship once we got official notice of the receipt of funds and a confirmed address. Also our Ebay dashboard showed unpaid.
I was a whole day later before we got the PayPal notice and everything was fine there. But Ebay didn’t show it as paid. So knowing we had the deposit in our account I went ahead and an official PayPal receipt of funds I packaged and labeled it for today’s shipment. This morning, still no evidence of payment on our Ebay dashboard. I had to go to the Sale and check off that the item had been paid in order to get it to clear off our Ebay page and the item to be moved into the “sold” area.
First time that has ever happened.#2) Brazil!!! Worst place to ship to IMHO :-). All sorts of internal, political stuff happens there and a lot of stuff gets messed up. I think the GSP program doesn’t even ship there. I know some people [not to mention names Ryanne] will ship to TimbuckTu, but we stick to all GSP countries only. Ship to Erlanger, KY [not far up the interstate from Atlanta] and that’s it. So question is did you ship that unit out on your own [non-GSP]? If so how. And for such a large amount what admin. procedure did you follow insurance wise to CYA?
Just curious. That unit may wind up being in a grass hut in the jungle of some type of drug lord or gun runner communicating landing spots for a rogue plan flying under radar for a night time shipment or they are going to pipe out loud hard rock music to the field hands harvesting “Poppies” in the jungle as they work!!! LOL…
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
05/30/2017 at 2:47 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 312: Is eBay Removing Old listings? #18782Hey Steven:
Two items:
One is had a similiar thing happen this weekend with a buyer only sort of reversed. He first notified me he had paid but Ebay won’t show it as paid, but his PayPal account showed it was paid to us. I checked our PayPal account and no deposit been made and also no notice from PP either. So I messaged back and said we could only ship once we got official notice of the receipt of funds and a confirmed address. Also our Ebay dashboard showed unpaid.
I was a whole day later before we got the PayPal notice and everything was fine there. But Ebay didn’t show it as paid. So knowing we had the deposit in our account I went ahead and an official PayPal receipt of funds I packaged and labeled it for today’s shipment. This morning, still no evidence of payment on our Ebay dashboard. I had to go to the Sale and check off that the item had been paid in order to get it to clear off our Ebay page and the item to be moved into the “sold” area.
First time that has ever happened.#2) Brazil!!! Worst place to ship to IMHO :-). All sorts of internal, political stuff happens there and a lot of stuff gets messed up. I think the GSP program doesn’t even ship there. I know some people [not to mention names Ryanne] will ship to TimbuckTu, but we stick to all GSP countries only. Ship to Erlanger, KY [not far up the interstate from Atlanta] and that’s it. So question is did you ship that unit out on your own [non-GSP]? If so how. And for such a large amount what admin. procedure did you follow insurance wise to CYA?
Just curious. That unit may wind up being in a grass hut in the jungle of some type of drug lord or gun runner communicating landing spots for a rogue plan flying under radar for a night time shipment!! LOL…
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
I forgot to also address the “without gaining control” part. I can check with the IT guys and see if only the “User created” tab can be accessed while the rest it blocked out. It would have to probably be set-up with a password type system whereby only the Warehouse Folder and your helpers Ready for Review folder could be accessed and nothing more. I will check on that or see if maybe the team could write code to make it happen. Will let you know.
mc in atl.Couple of things here.
One is with the amount of listing you guys have, who knows how large that database would be with SixBit. If over 10 gigs then the Micro Soft SQL free server won’t handle it and you would have to then buy your own SQL version for several hundreds of dollars so that would take you wayup and over the $50 month level. Or you would have to buy more space on your current server which you are familiar with, but who knows how much with that blotted size of SixBit files and you would have to check your server guy for a cost. Who knows you could run into terabytes of data.On Wonderlister as you say the $50 a month plan would let you go up to 10,000 listings and that would handle your current store and leave you room for 4,000 +/-. So some room to grow.
How I work our current situation is you have to have one computer dedicated as the “main server” where the SQL database is stored. Our laptop has a version of WL installed and we have a “local network” set-up so when we fire up the laptop it automatically opens, sees the desk-top file in the network and connects. All done seamlessly. We can use the laptop and the desktop both at the same time and do anything we want EXCEPT work on the same LISTING AT THE SAME TIME. But that’s no bigger.
So as soon as we buy some items we bring them home. I open WL on my desktop and open a folder I created a long time ago called Warehouse Inventory. This is where I always keep about 50 blank templates of several types always on hand as well as all of our unlisted inventory. Great at tax time. So, again, I open a blank template and do a very fast basic entry. Not more than sixty seconds. A rough title, a create our SKU number [ a process I can show you in 60 seconds some day when you and Ryanne are ready and drop that into the SKU box and then hang a tag on the item with the same number and place the item on the needs photography table. From there our “former” helper would work from the laptop. When she came in all she would do is open up the laptop and go to the Warehouse folder and open it. Then she could select any line item she would want to work on, click to open and then fill in the weight, item specifics, and description, and leaving the price blank for the time being. Then she would type RFR in the note section and click save. What this did was create a duplicate of the listing into a folder I created especially for her called RFR=Ready for Review”. This is where she “parked” all of the listings for my review. My wife, Susan, does photography and we, just like you, do photos in batches and save from a card into dated folders. When time for listings, I open the RFR folder, select which ever ones I want to list and open them. I look over everything she has done, correct if needed, attach Susans photos and drop in the price and done. From there I can upload immediately or schedule them for specific intervals in between listings or set them to up load on certain days or times.
Now to your direct request. That laptop acts just like a “slave” computer in any corporation. It accesses WL by way of a wireless net work, operates just like any individual and separate database, only it is tying into my desktop as it’s main host server.
With the amount of listings you guys have and as many photos you will probably just want to go ahead and set it up your server instead of a laptop. Think about it if you hit 10,000 kisting even at an avg. of 10 photos per listing that is over 100,000 photos [frined that is 1/10th of a million photos.]So here is the question, can WonderLister be set-up on a separate file server…Yes, can the second version that you put on a laptop access it along with a desktop, unsure but I can ask. Don’t forget, I am a Beta Tester for WonderLister and have access to the Support and Engineering team. Many suggestions I have made over the last couple of years has made it’s way into the intergration of WonderLister. The newest release 3.0 which is really slick by the way and jsut out a few weeks ago, has many of my inputs active in it.
On a final note, if you just want to have one PC, then get one and have your WL database stored on your private server. P.S. WL support team will also help you get it all set up. At this time Sixbit has several “paid support plans”. WL does not, unless they get just swamped with future growth, for now atleast their support is free and fairly quick.
Hopefully I have answered some of your questions. If you have other questions throw them up on the table and I can get answers directly from the team I report to. Heck maybe if you want to talk to Support I may be able to arrange for you to talk directly to them or maybe even contact the owner Chavi. That might make an interesting interview, remote control on an Ebay by other means rather than using Ebay’s system-method. Don’t know.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
SixBit has the Etsy option checked off on all of it’s subscription levels, so think it is bundled in. Also SB just flat out costs more than WonderLister.
mc in atl.
Jay, actually I use SixBit also in addition to WonderLister. Why is a longer story for another time, and that won’t last too much longer.
I got my notice of the update and upgrade to SixBit on April 26th. Then they had a week or so of a ton of fixes and patches. As I also reported some many months ago when I was comparing WonderLister and SixBit I mentioned then that Etsy interface was coming from both companies. SixBit just beat WL to the punch. WonderLister is also working on having this option available. WonderLister also had an Amazon interface for a while but they said Amazon kept altering and changing the rules so much it wrecked havoc on trying to keep the Amazon model correct.
Also as a reminder.. SB & WL are head to head direct competitors. Both of the owners and some of their employees all used to work together for Ebay on the “Blackthorn” project for Ebay. Blackthron was a TurboLister type program only with many more bells and whistles and inventory management modules than TurboLister. Then Ebay abandoned Blackthorn and then later TurboLister but all of the Ebay employees split off and now Chavi owns SixBit and John owns Sixbit. Funny that they all used to work together as a team. They all can write code and have created propriatory relational databases.
SixBit looks a little slicker visually but all those graphics comes at a price and that is that SB is a space and data hog. My same store on both systems with the same exact data has two different foot prints. The SixBit footprint is 10 times bigger than the WonderLister file with the same data. I can download and back up my WL database in about 1 to 2 minutes. Last time I did my SixBit it took over an hour.And last thing, got a notice from SixBit the other day saying my database had almost reached the 10 gig limit. Well I didn’t know I had a limit. So guess what, the email had links to how I could set and buy / pay for more storage capability or could buy my own subscription to MS SQL database for about $200 or more dollars. That is one of the reason SixBit is going bye bye shortly. Can’t wait until WonderLister gets Etsy interface set up.
Jay your big caveat is the use of a Mac instead of a PC. But you have addressed that before also.
So, la tee dah!!
mike at mdc galleries in atl.
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This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
05/29/2017 at 6:07 pm in reply to: No Annoucement, but ebay has increased Best Offers from 3 to 5 and 10 #18740One other thing flashed into thought. When a seller gets an offer and then the seller counter offers the item gets semi-locked up. Someone else can buy it by offering a higher price and you accept. But a seller can’t go and change anything much in the listing until the offers expire. I think you can’t change anything in the title, description , specifics or put it on sale, etc., etc. So having so many potential back and forths that could tie up chnages for numerous days if Ebay sticks with the 2 day response time between offers.
mc in atl.
05/29/2017 at 5:58 pm in reply to: No Annoucement, but ebay has increased Best Offers from 3 to 5 and 10 #18739I agree Jay and one other thing. On the old 3 offers Ebay allowed 48 hours to reply. If an offer should go the distance back and forth 10 times [can’t imagine that] potentially would it drag out to 20 days?
I too just noticed it this week end, which we have had great sales BTW, a few offers that came in then stated 9 more offers left. I thought that was strange and now I know.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.
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This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by
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