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In SixBit when you first open the App, on the Dashboard screen you will see a Blue tab on the upper left. Click on that tab, here is where you will find many things that as a user you can set SB to control certain aspects of the program.
Go down to the “Options” title and click. This will open up a main screen for Options, Then scroll down to “Creating Items” and you will see a screen with 4 horizontal tabs. These tabs cover Input Defaults, “SKU MANAGEMENT”, Business Policies and Variation Handling. Click Sku Management. Here is where you can change what SB puts in that SKU field you are talking about. You can turn off that SB enters it’s own consecutive numbers and have nothing show. Or you can create a whole custom numbering system that fits what ever you want, the amount of characters, if you want spaces or dashes between sets of numbers, letters in certain places and padded zeros in certain places. You can create a whole system or way you want SB to create a number in that space, starting with any number or letter you want, and for static numbers or letters that never change.
You can insert dashes after a given number of spaces, underline certain numbers or letters, have numbers placed in front of or at the end of static letters or numbers, just a whole bunch that would allow you to create any system or string of characters you will need to fit your bins, shelves or item storage places.
OR you can just unclick radio boxes and shut everything off and SB will leave the SKU field blank on your listing form. We turned it off and we input our pre-printed paper tag number as outline in this thread into that field on every listing we create.
When we buy new inventory, the first thing we do is take one of our paper pre-numbered tags and create what we call a “Quick Entry Draft”. We open a Vinatge Hard Goods Template and write in a quick short 2 or 3 word title to just help identify it and put in the first part of our SKU. Since our paper tags are pre-printed with consecutive numbers we jsut enter 05160 into that field. We finish that number later on as we open the draft and complete the listing for final upload.
But maybe in your case follow along above and just turn off SB from trying to help out and that SB SKU field will always be blank when you open up a blank template.
mike at MDCGFA
@ CL: We do almost the same as you. We place our SKU number in 3 places within SixBit. One is in the actual SKU number field SB offers, then we put the Bin # in the SB location field and then we copy the SKU into a custom Item Specific field which shows in the Ebay IS custom field. Easy to find on any device we use and if Ebay crashes out on us we have everything in SixBit.
Yes, you can pull inventory reports in practically any format you can think of. By BIN #, by Item number, find full bin boxes, find empty or almost empty boxes, etc., etc.
The only thing we don’t do is use “category letters” like your “J” for jewelry. There is no need for that and just makes it more cluttered. Since SixBit requires a “UNIQUE” sku for EACH ITEM, then just a consecutive numbering system is all that is needed. But we have other things embedded into our SKU.
05160150350830419g1510a
We standardized on SKU numbers of a consistent length. 23 characters. Having SKU numbers, the same length makes it easy to see a SKU number that is too short or too lo0ng which means we missed a character or added a character. But typo errors as Jay mentions can happen. Care must be taken. So, we have our tags that we attach to all items pre-numbered when we print them.
To decipher our SKU, it is this:
the first 5 numbers are the item number. Having 5 characters allows an inventory to consecutively go up to 99,999 before we start over, the next 2 characters are fake numbers and don’t mean a thing. They help camouflage our real details, then the next 4 numbers is the price we paid for that item, the next 2 numbers are again camouflage numbers and don’t mean a thing, then the next 4 numbers are the date we purchased, the g means the “G”arage, but could be “A”ttic, “B”asement, “S”hed, etc., the next 4 numbers are the bin the item is in and the last letter is the box that is in that shelf space.So, the above SKU reads and means this: Item number on its tag is item 05160 then xx [dummy], paid $03.50 xx [dummy], bought 04/19, located in the garage area, shelf space 1510, and box #1510a. We number 1 to 3 boxes for each shelf space with the same number but box A-B-or C. This allows for one large box, or two or 3 smaller boxes in that shelf space. Our shelves are spaced up/down that allows 1 big box like yours with 2 smaller boxes on top.
So, we print a “PICK LIST” form SixBit. That list shows a small thumbnail photo of the items that SOLD, THEN THE FULL sku NUMBER. we TAKE THAT LIST TO THE GARAGE AND GO DOWN THE LIST. go TO SHELF SPACE 1510, the grab box 1510a, open it and find item #05160. We don’t care if #05160 is a vase, a belt, a tie, a pair of shows or a hat. That is why SB makes you use a “UNIQUE” Number for each item. #5160 is what it is. Don’t care. It is #5160 and when we grab that item with the tag hanging on it, that is what was ordered and what we will ship.
If the tag has detached, it is easy to still find the item because SixBit provides a thumbnail photo of it.
Any helper can go to SixBit, print the “SOLDS” list, go to the garage and then go to let’s say 5 different shelf number locations and pull the item numbers from boxes on that shelf spot.
To JandR, yes, number BOTH the boxes AND the Shelf Space with the same number. Reason, we pull complete boxes off the shelves at time and take up to the office. When you go to replace that box, it is easy to replace back in the correct shelf space.
Now why include the price we paid, and date bought. well using 3rd party software we can also filter our listing very easily by date to find old inventory. Just filter using the search term 16g and we will get every item that we still have from 2016 in stock that we bought in 2016. Use the filter search term any number less than 18g “<” then SixBit gives us every item we bought before in 2018 and before that is still in stock. Great to use to find old stock. I did this the other day for any item less than 15g and found we still have 84 items in our inventory that are older than 5 years old. I then did one for 13 g and saw we still have 24 items we bought as far back as 2013. Think those need to go for sure.
Now why the price paid. Well you said you are using team viewer. We remote in but those using the Ebay app can also see that SKU number. If we get an OFFER, then right in front of us is the price we paid and how long we have had it. Perfect data for us to decide if we want to accept or decline any offer.
If I got an offer for $20 for an item we have listed at $65 while we were at a live auction and I saw that the SKU showed me I had bought it 7 years ago and only paid $2.50 I would take it in a heartbeat. But if I saw I had paid $10 for it a year and a half ago, nope, decline.
So, our SKU number works for more than telling what the item is and where it is, it also helps us make selling decisions by providing us with how old it is and what we paid for it.
I have heard Ryanne say many times, “When did we get that?” then Jay say “That long ago. What did we pay for that?”. Then Ryanne says, “I don’t remember, or guesses at a number, then states, but I am not sure.”. Well a SKU number like ours covers all of that.
Jay was right in this episode when he says, “just like Amazon”. Well an individual item ID number and shelf and BIN location is all the Amazon robots need to go and pick an item. Those robots can care less if it is jewelry, shoes, ties, a monopoly game or whatever. #05160 is #05160. Finite.
If you pull the wrong item and ship it, that is why Amazon has Free Returns. Just send it back. excuse us for having an admin error.
A tip. When you mark the shelf spaces with the same number as a box bin and you decide to not use a box, who cares, just put your tall lamps, or weird shaped items that won’t fit in a box, in that space. I have a couple of shelf slots for loose large, oversize items and they just sit in that spot, WITH THEIR TAGS on them. Go to that spot and grab the item with the tag #05160 on it and ship it.
We used this system to stock 10’s of thousands of items in our storage area at several of the large printing companies I used to work for. we stocked parts for KFC, Taco Bell, Home Depot, Michelin Tires, Stanley Hardware and others. Works great.
Here is a YouTube video by a frequent poster but he has something interesting that starts at the 16:17 mark. He lives in NY so he drove 4.5 hrs up to an Ebay Open in New Hampshire and turns out Harry Tempkin from Ebay was there as a speaker. After it was over Crazy Joe had a sit down at a table talk with him and video tapes Harry and for the next 4 or 5 minutes Harry sheds some light on what has been going on, what they are doing, and what is to come and why they are doing it. Interesting at least to me.
Also right before Harry comes on at the 16:17 mark… Joe talks about offers to watchers and gets answers from Harry at the Ebay open about the offers. There are a couple of good questions I never thought about on those offers to watchers that Joe brings up.
I think those few minutes are worth a listen. The first part and other stuff is just Joe the crazynydriver talking about his usual weird stuff. But Harry Tempkin talking is worth hearing I think.
mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries-
This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
I agree. But to the specific part of your question. We have not found [as of yet] where there is a toggle or option to set some type of default to change from the West Coast time either PDT or PST over to showing only EST. So unless someone tells us different we will just have to keep either adding or subtracting 3 hours +/-.
We usually use a standard starting time for our Sales of 6:00 AM [which of course is 3 am PST and an ending time of 11:30 PM PST which is 2:30 PM on our EST. This way we just always use the same times. On occassion we will also select to satrt a Sale using the start now option.
mike at MDCGFA in Atl.
Yes there is a BIG issue with Ebay right now. It involves changes they are making to categories, item specifics and glitches connected to searches and missing item specifics. Not going to even try to explain what I have read, but Google it and zero in on several of the better and more popular YouTube video posters and all of them seem to be saying about the thing in describing what has happened. several of the ones I follow have direct connection into Ebay and they also are confirming.
Some of the issues is Ebay has deactivated some listings from being seen but not deleted them for not having ceratin Item Specifics in certain categories. They will be making what seems to be a lot of changes. It was spelled out to a small degree in the Spring Seller update and again in the Fall Seller updates.
The better Gurus are offering about 3 ways of dealing with it. I am choosing the wait and see how long before Ebay gets it all fixed. Sales are dropping like rocks for some people. The hardest hit over the last two days are in the clothing categories, next is jewelry. Home Goods and Home decor is also on Ebay’s target list.
Some of the new item specifics have a * beside the new field indicating mandatory and some other fields do not.
Also some of the Ebay IS are also populating into the Etsy platform for those of us who cross list.
Some of the gurus I follow are posting every couple of hours and have several monitors up and running and watching what is happening and watching certains stats showing the Ebay hits and then fixes. They report that some things will change then change a second or third time within hours of each other. Then stabilize.
We have had about 35 listings pulled and put on hold by Ebay in the last 30 hours or so. There is a place on your seller hub where you can see which items you have that are being affected and which Items that need attention. I saw one of ours a few minutes ago that only needs two “mandatory fields in IS” filled in. Right below that is an item we are told we have 17 fields we need to fill in. We have many custom fields that has the info. they want but now they have added a bunch more that never existed before and if their white background fields don’t have data but you do have the data in custom fields they are stumbling all over that also.
Example: We have a custom fields that says “COLORS” [plural with an “s”. They have now added the field “color” to some categories that didn’t have it before. Well our custom data in the field with an “s” doesn’t seem to be being seen and since the new “white background” color field is empty they have “parked” that listing until we can either batch edit all of our 30 or so listings or do them one at a time.
I am just sitting tight for a few days and will see how they get it worked out.
Sorry I can’t be more specific but it seems like a fairly wide, varied and complex set of changes with down stream repocussions from those changes. And the insiders are mentioning there are a lot of categories and subcategories that will be effected over the coming weeks.
Yes sales are being lost by both the sellers and by Ebay, but Ebay is reporting that it was something that was planned and fortold in both those updates.
Jay’s response was back then he would wait and see. Well now we are seeing things stumble over themselves but have to still take the wait and see position if a seller has thousands of listings. We don’t want to get caught mid stride making batch / bulk edits and right in the middle even more categories get added to or changed.
Just what I am seeing and reading over the last few days.
Maybe others here know more of the details of what’s happening and some time frame for Ebay to pull out of the tail spin or repairs to happen and when.
So for now I would suggest a Google search for some of the YouTubers with titles what is happening to Ebay, what’s up with Ebay’s new category changes, etc.
I know personally you can do what you are asking with both SixBit and WonderLister since I have used both. I would imagine you can do it with InkFrog [if they allow multiple stores with your subscription level].
With SB and WL you can have various number of stores which will stay in synch but you have to have a higher level subscription. 1 store for x amount of dollars, 2 stores for next level up and so on.
But as Sharyn says, go to the source and ask InkFrog what you can and can’t do with your sub. level and what would it take to be able to do it.
As far as Ebay goes, yep you can have two stores, just like Jay and Ryanne did. Most people have two just to keep their buying and selling activities separate. But as Ryanne has mentioned before, the new store will most likely come with a few restrictions-limitations in the beginning, have no feedback of course. Then you will most likely want to separate the connections to PayPal so Sales and expenses will relate to the selarate stores. Also your accountant will like that and you personally can keep an eye on the numbers to see where your P&L stands with regards to both.
mike at MDCGFA
Howdy: Just had a long online “chat” with PirateShip. They are an upfront mail source. They are only integrated to the point that you buy and print labels from them and they pass your information back to Ebay and Etsy. If you want the shipping data in your WonderLister, SixBit, InkFrog program, those programs will then have to pull that data from Ebay, Etsy and Shopify.
They said that presently they do not have a way to have third party apps access them directly, control all your shipping from your 3rd party app then they report that along to Ebay or Etsy. So be it, but what one has to do is keep the PirateShip tab open in your browser and then when you are ready to ship you go to Pirateship and do your shipping from there, they send to Ebay, Etsy and Shopify for record keeping and of course SixBIt, WL, and IF will pull that data in by way of their “agents” every ten minutes using the SQL agents.
Here is the snag for us. About 30 percent or more of our packages are larger sizes which forces them into DIM Weight. And as such FedEx is a much better rate than anything USPS or UPS has to offer. PirateShip agreed and said that they can only offer USPS rates and can’t offer anything cheaper or any FedEx labeling. They are working on it for the future but have no idea when.
So, if your overall dimensions LxWxH = 1,728 cubic inches or more you are far better off with FedEx labels which you can access directly through Ebay and Etsy and as such, PS admitted we are better off going directly through Ebay, Etsy and Shopify for those.
Also, at 6.01 lbs. and higher our in-house pricing spread sheet we created and use, show that FedEx is cheaper than USPS by several dollars and of course that increases as the item gets heavier.
Any item UNDER 1,728 cubic inches from 6.01 lbs. up to 30 lbs. [where our chart ends] shows $3.39 to $51.49 cheaper by using FedEx than any USPS service at all.
Then when any item gets over the 1,728 cubic inches, DIM Weight starts to get applied depending on the weight and FedEx still comes out much better.
One of the Scavengerlife member’s Josh created the “FlipperTools” website which has 3 great shipping and pricing tools to use one for when you don’t know where a package will eventually go but you need to price it to build in free shipping, one for when you do know where the package is going but you want to know the least expensive cost to send it there and of course his dimensional weight calculator. His DIM weight calculator based on weight and the 3 sizes [lxwxh] calculates the total cubic inches and then only tells you which pricing tier to use in both USPS, UPS and FedEx. Then we look at our spread sheet and FedEx is always cheaper even though Josh’s calculator says to use the higher FedEx tier.
Here’s an example:
An 8 lb. 18″x14″x13″ box using Flipper Tools DIM weight tool shows it is 2,730 cubic inches. Too large for PirateShips Cubic pricing tiers. Then it shows us that this package falls into the DIM weight status and a “Surcharge does Apply”, then it shows us which Tiers we need to look at to get the pricing which is how USPS, FedEx and UPS price for DIM Weight. [AhHa] That is how the USPS and others calculate for the DIM weight pricing. They jump up in Tiers and charge those higher rates.Well then Josh’s tool shows us that to price this package’s shipping since it does fall into DIM weight, we are to take the 17 lb. rate for USPS and the 20 lb. rate for FedEx and UPS. Well guess what, even though the FedEx surcharge tier is higher their costs are lower.
The Flipper Dimensional Tool shows us which tier to look at and according to my spread sheet chart, the USPS price at the 17 lb. [surcharge for DIM weight tier] is $39.23 and the FedEx charge for this same package at the 20 lb. tier is $21.81] = $17.42 less expensive.
So, our chart shows anything over 1lb. 1 oz and under 5 lbs. 15 oz. goes USPS and anything over 6.01 lbs. goes FedEx. Then anything over 1,728 cubic inches goes FedEx.
PirateShip said the only thing they can offer at this time then is the “Cubic Inch” Pricing tiers and can’t compete with the larger or heavier stuff. Maybe in the future.
So, for now we will try using PirateShip for the under 6 lb. mark and under 1,728 cubic [not DIM Weight items} anything over goes FedEx.
Hopefully this will help some trying to figure all this out. I heard Ryanne say, boy all this shipping stuff is complicated. In a certain way yep, but with a few spreadsheets to use as cheat sheets and Josh’s Flipper Tools it is easy.
Oh and by the way, Josh’s other tools which will show the cost for any package by its weight and 3 sizes does show the cost with the DIM weight already figured in and it will show you what it will cost for zones 1 thru zone 9 and the best carrier to use for the best price.
We used this tool to determine what costs to build in for our whole store in switching over to free shipping. Most of our 1,200 +/- items we got repriced for a zone 6 build in cost for free shipping in about 2 days. Etsy is completely free shipping now, since they used a forceful maneuver to edge sellers into free shipping and over half of Ebay is done and the estimated shipping costs are built in.
I asked Pirate Ship if they could project costs like this and they said no. So, Josh’s tools are a great aide to SL members and BTW his site and Tools have been mentioned here on SL many, many times by other members as well as Jay and Ryanne. I also think the Flipper Tools site may be in the SL “Resources and Tools” section and if not it should be. They also did an interview with him some years ago, if I recall.
Good listing, good shipping and much success ya’ll.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta.
@ Ricker and Others: Anyone using PirateShip from within SixBit? We use SixBit as a third party listing tool to handle 3 platforms, Ebay, Etsy and Shopify. Other members here also use sixBit and a few WonderListers and Jay and Ryanne have recently started using InkFrog.
So currently SixBit has an interface with Endica, Express One, and using the UPS and FedEx programs Starship and World Ship.
I guess we could just print directly through Ebay and I suppose Pirateship works with Etsy and Shopify.
Just thought I would ask. I could also try calling someone at Pirateship directly [if I can get someone] and see what they say.
Thanks …
mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
Way to go Julie. Same size room we work out of. Ours is a bonus room over the double car garage. 12′ x 23′ long. We do everything up her except storage. That’s all in the double garage. We bring in coming goods, cleaning, photography, weighing, listings, shipping, box storage, shipping supplies, storage bins for listed items [in transport to storage area] laying around and office supply cabinet. It is tight but still can navigate OK. Also have two computer work stations with double monitors and at times we have 3 people up here working at the same time.
Good luck and remember to use vertical space. Shelf above shelf on top of table sort of thing.
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
First things first. Make sure what you got back is what you sent. You won’t be the first seller to ship a perfectly good item to a buyer, they then keep yours and then send their old broken one back to the seller. Old school scamming back to the early days of Ebay but still happens. Check your photos and see if you have a shot of the serial number tag and make sure they match or a close up of some area that you can match up scuffs or details to. If you got his old broken one and not the one you sent, you will have a tough one on your hands to untangle because it will gravitate into your word against his. Even if you have the original one back, still will most likely be your word against his.
In some cases if you can convince Ebay then they have at times left the buyer alone but then in turn reimbursed the Seller out of Ebay’s pockets and they make you whole again. But don’t hold your breath.
Ryanne or others may have thoughts on that.
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Hey IndySales: I just got a check in today from USPS for $69.37. I have had about 6 or so over the years. They have been just fine every time. I go to the USPS site and fill out their online form. It shows you everything you need.
Part of my process is when I first get the notice of damage from the customer, I have a short cut and paste blurb stating I am sorry the item did not reach it’s new home and destination undamaged and i appreciate the hpto. Then I state, in order for me to properly make an insurance claim and as a requirement for a full refund to you, I will need just a couple more photos. The USPS Claims dept. requires a shot of the item, the packaging and the outside of the box.Once I recive those I will issue you a complete refund. [This encourages them to send the extra photos thinking it is a requirement for the refund, which it really isn’t]
Every customer has complied with several extra shots.
So the other thing the USPS will require is the proof of value. All I do is go to my “Sold Items” and do a screen shot that includes the thumbnail photo of the item, the Ebay ID number, the customers, name and the dollar amount. Other times I have just downloaded the customer invoice. I have done both and they both worked.
So with all this in hand, just go to the USPS web site, find the “Make a Claim” section and fill in the blanks. You will come to the section that asks for photos and all you have to do is drag and drop and I also include the screen shot of the invoice showing the value [what customer paid] and click submit.
They usually get you a check made out to your business name in about 7 to 10 days.
It is really a quick and painless process. The key is have a couple of photos from the customer to show you did have good padding-packing inside the box and of course any exterior damage is self evident and photo of the damaged area. Youe online photos can act to show it was in good condition when you sold it.
Good luck…
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
SixBit will handle everything for Ebay, Etsy and Shopify. They have various plan levels that you subscribe to for either Ebay by itself, or choose between two platforms or all three. Also WonderLister will do Ebay and Shopify at one time and Etsy was supposed to be added by now but unsure if they finished it or not, but I see one of their pricing tiers has 3 platforms listed.
SixBit and WonderLister does complete backups automatically that includes everything in a listing plus anything you enetered into custom fields, photos, and the Notes sections along with with all customer data, name, address, email addresses, everything. You can have them back it up to your own hard drive or to an external drive, dropbox, carbonite, OneDrive or Google Drive so the database is in the cloud. I backup to multiple sources so I will hopefully never loose anything or have to re-create. A plus to offsite is that with photos attached the databases will occupy almost all of your hard drive unless you have a monster drive.
EAT or Easy Auction Tracker will do Ebay only but it is a glorified spread sheet, you will have to back it up yourself and no photos just more basic info.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Sorry Timo… Just too many things flying at me right now, about all I have time for is to duck!
This topic has been discussed numerous times here on SL and is surely somewhere in the old Blog and or Forum archives. The old threads could possibly be found, or Jay could help. He is good at searching SL for us.But without paraphrasing those whole threads, in brief, things don’t just go stale. It is matter of personal preference though combined with what has been stated on Ebay by Ebay.
An Ebay employee and engineer who worked on designing and building the Cassini search engine within eBay has spoken of this. A few years back he was a speaker at the Australian Ebay Open giving a seminar which was videotaped and is still accessible, was asked how Ebay viewed listings that were posted as Good Until Cancelled and left for a long time. His answer which you can watch, is that Cassini begins to consider listings over 90 days old as getting stale, but mostly on listings that have no activity on them [traffic in other words], no Sales if they have more than one available, or views, watchers, the seller hasn’t made any tweaks and improvements to the listing, title, description, etc., etc. Ebay knows these things via Cassini.
Another question from the audience asked well what does Ebay do about it. Back then his answer was, Cassini begins to give preference to listings which have activity on them and as a result has a better chance of selling. The list it an forget listings, do eventually sell, as many of us can attest too, but could they have sold quicker if Ebay would not have abandoned giving the listings extra exposure in search results.
Now granted this is coming from a tech engineer who worked on building Cassini, so I take it that this was not some conspiracy theory. In any case after that video was shown many sellers begin ending their listings after about 90 and then relisting them. But the choice of when to do it is more of a personal analytical survey of your own store, the season, and your inventory type.
Jay says if you have a one of kind, a real one of a kind, no comps for years and years, nothing currently listed and such, well just leave it forever. Eventually it will sell. “List It and Forget It”. But if you personally as many of have, got items you have had for years and years and you listed it 4 years ago and have never visited it again to improve the SEO of the title, have abandoned any type of description, don’t care about Google and more so don’t even care if Cassini finds it or pays any attention to it or care if it never gets any more exposure then, why end and relist at all.
BUT, if that engineer on the video was telling the truth and they built Cassini to start to not dwell on listings as they get older and older and have no traffic or interest from both the buyer side and the seller side, then why do much to promote or feature this listing. Ebay has better things to put in front of the buying public. New things, contemporary things, things they can track are being searched, for, listings where the seller has made some changes to the listing to at least do their part to improve the buyer interests, then maybe Ebay might help those who try to help themselves.
The automatic renewal of a listing just takes the Ebay e-commerce ID number and “extends the expiration date”. Ebay does not unlist it and relist it when the 30, 28, 29 day is up. Then as this concept evolved some found out that if you end a listing manually and do a complete re-list that the old listing is gone and so is any Ebay tracking of that old listing, When it gets relisted, Ebay sees it as a brand new listing and sees that item as a new posting by a seller and assigns it a new e-commerce ID number. Now eBay starts to do some of it’s behind the scenes work. It shows your relisted items in newly listed promotions. Some buyers who search for new things posted on Ebay will now see this as a newly created and uploaded listing. You will get a small icon on that image which displays in your shop for a while, until it starts to get older. Catch the drift there?
So, in order to gain Ebay’s Search Engine attention again the relisting process has been a technique used by some. But it is labor intensive for many unless you can automat the process. Ebay is even now starting to place a sentence on every sellers Hub page that when you take a look at your active listings, the blurb reads, this item is over 16 months old and we suggest you maybe do something to make this listing a little more appealing. Well I would guess after 16 months they have about given up on wasting resources on doing anything special for it.
So, I fall in between both extremes. By using SixBit I can see, sort and filter all my listings on the last modified filed. SixBit keeps track of when a listing was 1st created and each time it gets edited, improved and or modified. Then if I see no buyer traffic, no searches, watches, low impressions and low click through, that tells me first my listing was pretty much way off base, Improper keywords, wrong order, wrong description phrases, maybe price but to us we price way high and work down from there through sales, offers, free shipping and promotions.
So, I filter those older listings and if they are much older than 6 months +/-, I highlight all in SixBit and click Cancel these listings. That is done in a few seconds. Next SixBit shows me all those ended listings. Then I highlight all of them again and click “Go to Items for Selected Listings”. This is very important you get the correct “Go To” selection. This then puts them in a separate folder in “Sell Items, where I can then do bulk-batch edits to make changes to those ended listings. Make shifts on pricing by a percentage. A lot of times I go up on the price not down, or bulk change to free shipping, open up TerraPeak or Marmalade which can be used to search for better and higher-ranking keywords and make changes as I see fit. Then I resubmit back to Ebay, Etsy and Shopify [once I get my shopify store opened back up], and viola’ All platforms see these old listings now as brand spanking new listings, give them their new e-commerce ID number and they are now all considered fresh again and as far as Ebay knows, I just the item yesterday and just now listed it today. Fresh, new, get any attention of juice Ebay may want to throw at it, etc., etc.So Ebay’s relist does not do any type of changes to the listing. But if their new system does show every relist as new, then so will the SixBit relist with a new ID number and I make some personal choices about the listings and how I was presenting those items to the public and hope that my new changes may freshen up the whole listing by making changes in numerous sections.
Hope this helps and I am not so wrong on these points now that I am delving out ill advice so do some research and fact check me on everything including finding and watching that old Ebay Open video. If you get new updated data, please share. It may save me some work, though not too hard in SixBit
TTFN…
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine ArtHey J: Took a buyout. Owner/Partner did a divorce many years earlier and that was a large pay-off because the former wife had an equity stake in the business. Then for 10 years he kept messing around with female employees to the point where I almost quit hiring females knowing that as things in the world were changing that we were heading toward big or potential lawsuit issues.
Then the last straw was he ended up secretly eloping with a woman who was in our shipping dept. I had hired her years earlier and she had received several written warnings from me, and I was on the verge of letting her go and then, BOOM! I go over to his house one Sunday morning to go play golf, and of course she is there, and he announces to me they had gotten married earlier that week.
Over the course of the next month every kid and grand kid she had suddenly became instant employees, many of whom were not good employees. What a headache and I lost control of her kids in the workplace. She was promoted, her daughter became our office manager. then others dispersed throughout. I had enough. So, we agreed to end a 22-year relationship. I did a cash out and had to drag him into court to get even close to what I was into the business. Got a lot less than what I should have.
He continued for another 13 or so years then died. I saw the online photos of all the equipment listed at an Auction. Photos of many things I had built by hand. Same layout as I left it. The business never grew beyond what it was dollar wise, size wise or customer base wise [less what he lost].
So, then the buyout cash got slowly consumed not by any lavish living but did have to move and go elsewhere. So, from CT., I did several large company consulting jobs that took several moves. Then when all that was over and being in a dying industry, [silk screen printing] being replaced by more and more digital printing and then large format, big silk screen printing being replaced by wide format digital printing capabilities my skill sets became less in demand.
So, we came back to Georgia. I dabbled in a few other small ventures, a golf tournament business, some home building in spec homes and remodeling, a spray foam insulation company, and then lastly buying and selling used vintage items at 6 booths at antique malls. After realizing that was a dumb business model whereby the only person making any real money was the landlord renting vendors booths, I took everything online and the rest is history.
The why work so hard part comes from the fact that a bunch of the buyout cash we used to take care of aging and ailing parents, funerals and some of their medical expenses. Also, we like this new venture of buying and selling online, I was also able to start making some things back in the studio and by nature I have always been a person who worked tirelessly. I worked 12-16 hrs. a day 7 days a week for 22 years for the old partner. But now it is much more a labor of love.
But now with Susan having all her medical expenses that pretty much exhausts anything that could even be thought of having living expenses covered by not working. Susan had the first operation when she was first diagnosed with Cancer in April. Then after that operation she was scheduled for 32 weeks of cancer treatments. 8 weeks of chemo weekly, 16 weeks of radiation 5 days a week, then a final 8 weekly treatments of chemo again.
She finished her first 8 weeks chemo and now have found out before she proceeds with the 16 weeks of Radiation, she needs another operation in a hurry. They can’t proceed with radiation without the operation. So, we are dealing with those visit almost each day and surgery will be in a few weeks. Then she needs recovery time before she starts up again.
Lastly, even though we have Medicare and the Advantage plan supplement the costs are something else. We are seeing charges at around $7,000 to $9,000 per chemo treatment and have no idea of what the radiation amounts are going to be. It seems most is being covered, but we still have co-pays and deductible amounts every time I take her. I am guessing / figuring about $350,000 and up plus this new operation to come by early next year.
So why work so hard… well there you go. The full answer. A dumb ass partner, caring for parents, housing parents here, funerals, health issues and to TOP IT OFF car problems on both our cars AND Our house HVAC went out Thursday afternoon and had to have a new system put in yesterday.
So, what was a completely debt free situation except for our mortgage of $834 a month last year is now a situation where I will have to work 12 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week until I drop dead at the keyboard.But at least I like doing this, but I am tired of my phone telling me I have not been active for the last six hours and would I like to get up and take a walk. LOL 🙂
Mike at MDC Galleries
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
@MyCottage: Agreed. No gloom and doom about it. We are business minded people. We will do what we need to. Certinly no grudge being held against E-bay. For decades I worked for the corp. structure and in turn that was for the shareholders. Had two different companies I worked for sold off and we eventually had to move and me find new jobs. At least here I don’t have to move I just have to spread out onto other online venues.
It is what it is. And if it turns out like one of your scenarios, and Walmart were to jump in and who knows then as you state Ebay could turn back into a complete used vintage platform or who knows. We will deal with everything as it comes up.
Right now we do advertise and need to figure out how the best way to promote on both Ebay and Etsy. With free shipping we are transitioning into, managed payments and promoting having changes, we look at it as an opportunity to learn, grow and expand.
The same way my old partner and I did back in the mid seventies. We took a $10,000 original start up amount and built the business into a mutli-million dollar business, we owned 7 acres of land and built our own building. Took 22 years but we got it there.
mike at MDCGFA
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by
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