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Hi guys… Here is a copy and paste of an in house analysis I did of the Ebay Tape back in May 2nd, 2016 when the Ebay tape first came out.
copied: “All pressure sensitive materials (decals, tapes, sheets of sticker material for printers, etc] are sold by the MSI [that stands for thousand square inches]. The last order of Duck Tape I got [which is listed here on SL as a source, was 2″x55 yds = 3,960 MSI [thousand sq. inches] per roll x 24 rolls or 95.4 MSI for $62.27 [Tape that Ryanne states she uses]. It is HD [heavy duty at 2.6 mils thick]. It is one and a half mils of plastic base material and 1 mil. of adhesive for a total of 2.5-2.6 mils total. That comes out to a cost to us at $.655 per MSI or approx. $2.60 per roll.
The new “Ebay Tape” is 5.4 MSI per roll x 8 rolls for a total of = 43.20 MSI for $15.99. The Ebay Tape only 2 mils thick instead of 2.6. So it is thinner than HD [heavy duty]. The base material is 1.5 mils thick and only has 1/2 mil of adhesive as compared to the HD tape Ryanne and we use. The cost difference is that the Ebay Tape comes out to $.37 MSI or about 43% less for the Ebay Tape.
But here is the quality difference. The thickness of the two base materials is the same, but the HD tape has a half a mil thicker adhesive to it. That extra adhesive allows it to “grip” better to cardboard surfaces. A thicker material actually oozes down into the irregular / coarser surfaces of cardboard and other porus surfaces and thus grips and holds much better.
So if the Ebay tape is working for you it is cheaper. But it is also technically an inferior product to the thicker adhesive tapes. Actually the best tapes are the nylon reinforced paper tapes that are water activated but are messy to deal with.
So bottom line, The thicker tape is better but costs more the Ebay tape is lesser quality but also is cheaper.
Personally, we use both. The HD tape to seal the tops, bottoms and side seams of our boxes and the Ebay tape for one wide strip across the bottom and top for branding and advertising the Ebay logo and to save a few strips of the HD tape. Trust the Ebay tape or the HD tape in various temperatures, various stress factors, bursting / tensil strength our vote goes to the HD Heavy Duty Duck tape. Don’t forget you can find discounts on the HD tape also.
Good luck with using your tapes.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.12/28/2016 at 12:23 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 290: Experimenting with your eBay Store #8980Hey Linda or other members:
As we have been going through all the inventory we pulled out of our former antique booths we have been setting off to the side all mold made glass. We kept the crystal, Waterford, Tiffany and all high end glass for our listings. But now with a table full of just plain glass items any suggestions on getting those moved out of inventory?
I know that a yard sale this spring is an option or donation back to whence they came is the final thing we could do, but any better ideas from you guys? Does big lots of multiple pieces of glass together work? Or maybe all of it, but what a wrapping and shipping issue that would be and also maybe just a big waste of time.
We have sugar-creamers, mint-candy dishes, ashtrays, compotes, relish trays, cake plates, deviled egg trays, trinket boxes. Just way too much “plain old molded no name” glass stuff. Uggh, my wife and I just roll our eyes every time we open a new plastic tub of our old antique booths and uncover all of this glass stuff.
Just thought we would ask to see if anyone had any good suggestions other than the obvious.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
12/28/2016 at 12:07 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 290: Experimenting with your eBay Store #8978Here is a copy and pasted link from our saved SL Episodes from way back in May 2015.
It came up when I did a search of our SL folders for Ebay Ripoffs. Thought it may be interesting reading for those that have dealt with rip offs in the past and it’s Ebay History.” this came from a Dusty Miller a year and a half ago I think: Some very iteresting info on how ebay sellers are getting ripped-off and how the ripp-offs learn to ripp-off.
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Internet-sites-tell-buyers-how-to-rip-off-sellers-/10000000176961781/g.html” ….mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
I sure would also. Very hard to find those that have an Ebay store and are also running there own domain named store. Would love to see your structure and format. Shopify left so much stuff that it didn’t pull over into the store template I selected.
Etsy is the same issue so you have to cut and paste each listing from your Ebay store into your Etsy listing and then type in everything you have in the Ebay Item specifics area into the Etsy description area and that is what would have to be done on Shopify. A big time investment. And every time you add a new item, that would have to be duplicated in your own store.
Would love to also hear what your process is for listing in your domain store and for keeping things synched with your Ebay store, if you care to share.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
As a secondary experiment I was going to try one or two of the other big e-commerce site like BigCommerce, Magento or Volusion. But Volusion is also very expensive. I know of one artist that set up a Volusion site and ran it simultaniously while she had her Ebay store. She finally got so well known and had so many repeat customers that she dropped her Ebay store and now sells only through her own site and does extremely well.
mike in Atlanta-
This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
I think I posted about my experiment with Shopify a few weeks ago but maybe not.
In any case, I tried their two week trial. I talked for hours with their reps about the Ebay to Shopify transfer, which template would be best for the type of products we sell, tons of stuff especially including their Ebay to Shopify transfer. I was assured that it would work well.
Well, NOT! It will only pull over the Title and description text from your Ebay listings. It does not pull in the Item Specifics or any Variations for those that use that feature.
Since Ebay has been pushing all of us to use the item specific areas for things like material, sizes, where made [country], then all of that and more was missing in Shopify. So I called again and asked what was up and they said their Ebay Importer did not pull all of that in and that it was just an infant in the world of data transfer and recommended a 3rd party app to do it. After I checked that app it was very expensive. Hundreds of dollars.
So I let the two week trial elapse last week. Ryanne, I would suggest you only do the trial, set-up just a basic store and import [transfer] over only a couple of dozen listings and then go and preview what they look like in the new template. Try a few of your old format and then some of your newer listings. The ones with very little copy in the description area and a lot of item specifics. I will be interested in what you see.
Now this is not to say that each listing can’t be fixed up, but from what I saw, it would mean doing each one manually. And we all know what a pain and time and laborious task that would be.
Keep us posted on what you find out or if you research out a good [cheap] transfer [exporter-importer] app that will do the trick.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Steven… Don’t forget Taghauer as a high end brand also.
I still have two fake Rolex watches from the 90’s. First thing that is easy to spot if they are running is most fakes are digital or Quartz movements and as such the second hand “jumps” at one second intervals, whereby a real Rolex has a “Sweep” second hand that runs smoothly and continuously around the dial non-stop and doesn’t tick-jump at the second intervals.
Also most Rolex watches are 21 jewels which means they had real rubies in them as do most old Swiss watches. But point is those Swiss movements usually have the word “jewels” on the
back.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta-
This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Howdy:
We have been a sub S Corporation since 2001 and have also had a Sales Tax Exemption Certificate. I would like to bring to your attention “Resell Exemption”. Note the word “Resell”. We use our Certificate all the time for the purchase of inventory that we are going to resell. We use at all thrifts [that take them], estate sales, auctions [especially auctions] and any retail or wholesale distributor.BUT THEY ARE NOT NO TAX Cert. They are to be used only for merchandise that you are going to resell. Each state places sales tax on items but with a cert. they will with hold that tax and the burden of collecting the tax for the state then falls of you. There is where when you resell, you then have to charge the tax and then file monthly and send it to the state. No the BIG ISSUE that is political right now is that most of us sell online and across state borders and we currently don’t then have to charge that tax, re-coup it and send it in. BUT who knows what the future holds on that topic.
If you are buying supplies for your business, like shipping, cleaning, shelving, storage stuff, anything other than for resale then you can’t use your Tax Exempt certificate and you have to pay tax on the goods bought. So in other words, tax exempt only for COGs.
Here is another tid-bit that is a downer. Once you file with your state and get a number, you then have to file a monthly report to your Dept. of Revenue and declare all of your Sales for the month. Then you have to declare how much of it is “exempt” from state sales tax. Since we sell everything we buy online the only sales that have to have state sales tax paid on them [as of this time until congress changes things or [IF] is what we sell right here in the state of Georgia.
So be-prepared that as you move into the world of operating like a real business for all the extra administrative chores that come along with it. So think hard if you buy enough and would save enough to make the hassle of filing 12 monthly Dept. of Revenue reports, listing all your monthly sales, them subtracting all that are exempt, then shopwing and paying the state tax you collected on it to your state. So far this year we have only paid about $15 sales tax to GA but had to file 12 reports. And if you are late, there is a $30 penalty. All because we have a Resell Tax Exempt Certificate.
Just food for thought mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
12/18/2016 at 1:43 pm in reply to: Remote into your Desktop from Ipad – Hand Held – Quickly add Custom BIN Fields #8340Yep, I do exactly the same thing only I use TeamViewer and my laptop. Take it into the garage storage area and as I find empty spots in my plastic bin system, I place the item in a bin that has enough space and then, enter that BIN Number into my spread sheet.
Team Viewer is a remote access program that allows one to connect to any other computer. Many tech reps use it to connect to clients computers to repair problems remotely. I just click on TeamViewer, enter my master P/W and then I have complete control of my whole office desktop PC. I can do my accounting in QuickBooks, open Excels Inventory spread sheet and enter the BIN number there and also I keep WonderLister open and can enter anything I wish like the custom sku number or start, end or edit listings if I am on the road.
I like it because I have a big screen on my laptop, not a cell phone screen and I have access to all of my MicroSoft Office programs, Publisher, Outlook e-mail client for 6 different e-mail servers all in one spot. I also use two monitors on my office rig and with TeamViewer I can switch back and forth between both of those two monitors and see everything I have running on either of those. Anything I can do on the office PC I can do on the laptop as I am tied into that computer. I can even set-up multiple people on an open session and then they can watch me do demonstrations on how I use various software to run my business or I can even take control of their cursor-mouse and trouble shoot their computer or solve their problems for them from here. I have created several spread sheets for my friends right on their rigs from my office for them, wrote all the formulas and then showed them how to enter data.
Remote Access is great. Also I think MicroSoft even has it’s own version of this as well as there are other program that compete with TeamViewr. It is FREE by the way. mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
It is a Windows based program. It is a very powerful relational database and runs on MicroSoft’s SQL [Structured Query Language .. SQL stands for Structured Query Language. SQL is used to communicate with a database. According to ANSI (American National Standards Institute), it is the standard language for relational database management systems.] This and other good information is on their web site’s FAQ page along with other Tabs and Screen Shots. This program can do so much it is just hard to cover everything in any type of synopsis.
At $25 per month I believe it is the most powerful, flexible, comprehensive program out there for the price. I have previewed programs that can do what WonderLister does but at a cost of over $100 and even more per month. I have learned how to program it by setting up my own rules to create my own inventory system like I used to have in Turbo Lister. And ways to handle all of my templates [about 75 different templates] in various category specific folders. I can sort filter, view any way want and it also handles financal matters also. but it is not an accounting program like our Quickbooks and Quicken programs. mike in Atlanta
Guess now that you hit the 5,000 level you would need the GOLD Plan. We use the Silver Plan at $25 per month which allows for up to 5,000 listings which gives me and many others plenty of room to grow. Currently with about 700 current listings we can have about 4,300 more.
mike in AtlJay: Found some of my old posts on WonderLister from back around May of 2016. So to make some of that data available to new members and also searchable in this new forum format I am posting so spliced information from a much longer thread and follow-up discussions on listing software.
I spent over 3 years using TurboLister and all that while was always looking for something better. tried several through the years and WL just blows all of them away. It took years to find. These are the same management team that built BlackThorn for Ebay. They were on Ebay’s Payroll for years. Then Ebay left TurboLister long ago, then several years ago, stopped there financial interest in BlackThorn [which Ebay offered prior to SMP] and abandoned the Blackthorn team. I found them by chance about a year and a half ago and they had formed this new company and built WonderLister. It is TurboLister and Blacktorn all rolled into one then shot up with Steroids.
There are just so many good things that WonderLister does that I would do it an injustice to try to remember them all and list here, but here is a bullet list.
Why Wonder Lister?
Save money by preparing and saving your listings in advance, then, submit to eBay during free listing promotions
Customizable data export is suitable for import into any eCommerce website around the world such as Amazon, Etsy, etc.
Twitter Integration boosts your sales as your listings receive extra exposure through social networking websites
Stores all your data on your local network for as long as you want
World class technical support – at absolutely no cost to you!
Subscriptions start at just $10 per month!
Cassini friendly, which results in greater visibility of your listings in eBay searches
Covers every aspect of your online business – from creating listings to managing orders to leaving feedback
Ultra fast performance – 300,000 listings show up in the grid in under 10 seconds! Competitive products take as much as 28 minutes on the same hardware.
Works on most Windows platforms – Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 / 2012, Windows 10,
Features you don’t get on eBay
Social media marketing and submission to Twitter automatically from WonderLister
Handle Multiple stores [accounts] and automatically synch between them.
State by state tax information for tax time
Permanent emaill, home address and phone numbers of every one of your customers
Reach additional buyers using social networks. Wonder Lister is fully integrated with Twitter, so, you can tweet your eBay listing on your twitter account(s).
Customizable views
Create listing, listing templates and sales views to display focussed information. For example, an active listing view, an ended listing view, an ended – unsold listings view, etc.
Bulk Duplicate
Create a master listing and bulk duplicate, edit each duplicated listing in Simple Editor and submit all at once to eBay!
Powerful Search Capability
While eBay allows you to search by a few pre-defined fields, Wonder Lister allows you to choose one and more fields to search.
Export your data to Amazon/Etsy
Export your templates and listings as a flat file. All columns as well as their names are fully customizable. Thus, you can create your export data files such that they can be directly imported in Amazon, Etsy, and other merchant sites.
Custom fields
Allows you to define your own fields for Listings and Sales. The values entered in such fields can also be used in creating eBay’s description!
Customizable Invoice Template
Customize how you want your invoice to look, and use custom fields in the template, if you’d like.
Multiple eBay accounts
Add as many eBay User IDs to Wonder Lister as you wish. Wonder Lister’s is capable of showing all your listings and sales for all user IDs together or by a specific User ID.
Data retention
Keep your data on your computer for as long as you want! One year, two years, however long, it’s your call.
Excel style editing
Edit your listing inside the grid they are displayed in, similar to an Excel spreadsheet.
User defined folders
Create your own folders and sub folders at any level. Define your own criteria for which listings (or sales) should automatically be displayed when you click on the folder.
Bulk Editing
I can create as many templates for as many different categories as I want and save for as long as I want
I can create as many drafts as I want and again they will save for as long as you want.
You can create different named folders to store your templates and drafts in like Women’s Shoees, Men’s Jewelry, clocks, plates, you just have no limits with this database with regards to drafts and templates and their storage.
Customize different views so you can see your data in many different ways. Save and name those views so at the click of a button you can view your sales, inventory, fees, COGS, Active, sold listings any way you want and with as many various columns as you want..So, WonderLister can do a ton of stuff and if you want things a little different, shoot an email to tech support and they will change or add your suggestions very quickly. I have had them make changes to their program to accomodate us Ebay Unique, One of Kind Sellers and they have done it in a quick time frame. Sort of like they customized the program to fit my needs.
Here is their web site. You can also call these guys, they list a contact phone number which is darn near impossible on other venues. http://www.wonderlister.com/
Their phone number: (1) 408-471-6886So now hopefully all this data will be searchable and available to members who are interested in using more powerful listings tools.
Hope this provides some alternatives to those members interested in such.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Jay, I have posted numerous times to this type of topic over the last year. Please go to the WonderLister.com web site and check them out. If you have any questions shoot an email to them and you will get an answers within a very short time. I did a post [will see if I bookmarked it] earler this year or end of last year which outlined everything I do with WonderLister. Tons of reports, financials, listings, everything Ebay allows and more. My wife works in the Template area I created for her downstairs while I work on other listings and submissions to ebay and photos upstairs. On the Wonderlister.com web site there is a chart that shows what all it can do. But I invite you to check it out. Plus they have a Trial period, everything in your stores will import into the program. Give it a look see. mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
We are in the process of opening up an Etsy Store and because of that we have just started to shoot all of our items with “props”. We have a 20% neutral gray back drop with a thin wire zip line that we can pull various colored cloths across to give a textured and varied colored combination in the background. We combine that with items “props” such as floral bunches, wood, fruit, wine bottles and such. We are going to use these curated shots for both Ebay and Etsy. It only takes a few seconds to pull a prop or two out of the prop box under our photography table and we are good to go. We think these look much better than the stark white floating look.
As a disclaimer we have a fine print line in the description area of our Ebay listings that states all extraneous items other than the object described in the title are props and are photography purposes only and are not included with the purchase. mike in Atlanta
12/09/2016 at 9:26 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 287: How Is the Holiday Selling Season for You? #7702Hey MP from TN. I used to live in Collierville, TN and worked in Memphis for a few years, long ago.
To answer your question [on a computer-unsure how this will work on a cell phone]. But from your dash board their is a major area called, “Listings”. In this area it has a line that says “Active Listings” and shows the numbers of “Active Listings” you have in your store. Click on this and it brings up a “grid structure view”, [much like a spread sheet view] of all of your listings. There should be a column that says “start date”. If not this whole area can be customized by clicking the “Customized” word up toward the right side off to the right of the Large Font saying “Manage Active Listings”. Here you can select to add the column “Start Date”, but you only have to do this IF you don’t already have the column “Start Date” showing. Now, notice there is a small arrow beside the column name, “Start Date”. Click on this button and it will sort your complete listings [everything you have active] by date. Click it once to sort from oldest to newest, click it again, and it reverses the order and shows you the newest to oldest. Then from there you can click any item you wish to take any action on, either as a single item or in sme sort of “bulk action” if you wish.
That should do it for you. mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by
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