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Hey T-satt… That’s $40 for 250 listings. If you hit 1,000 it’s $100. Big difference.
Mike at MDCGJay that app has been around for so time. Not new by any means. The draw back is the price. It costs a $100 per month for a thousand listings. Now that does not include variations and them being on other channels. That is why they call them “products” and not listings.
Thre pricing is $40 for 250 products that will cross list on 3 platforms, $100 for 1,000 products [listings to us] on 5 platforms [sales channels they call them] and then $200 per month for unlimited product-listings on unlimited platforms.
So in you and Ryannes case it will cost you $200 per month or $2,400 per year to have your items cross lsited and kept in synch with say Ebay, Etsy and Shopify [but you will have to build a Shopify web site, then heavily SEO it, market it and social media drive it. A full time job to say the least.
I think we may even not proceed with our Shopify store just for those reasons and save the monthly case, but I did get all our items in the Shopify store as a “backup” but think I may just drop it and save the monthly cost.
Now using Sixbit or WonderLister you can do this for about $20 to $30 per month BUT you have the limitations you already know about with remote assitants using these apps.
I looked for years after Turbo Lister was hitting the skids and there to date is just not a cure all for a decent price out there.
Mike at MDC Galleries
Yeah… what she says! What synch tool?
🙂 mike in Atlanta
One of the things I do, is use the Flat Rate Boxes. Seal them up. Use opaque tape for these and then I also slip the box into one of the white opaque mailer envelopes I have. I have several sizes up to about 24 x 28 [big]. I then fold them over just like wrapping a Christmas present and tape all the envelope seams tight.
This way it basically looks like a white plastic wrapped box and who knows what the internal box looks like.
Then as a back-up and for larger boxes that don fit into my largest white opaque envelope, I have a roll of 8 mil black contractors plastic I get from home depot. It is 10 Ft. wide by 100 Ft. long for about $30 bucks. Lasts a long time. Then I unroll a piece and cut it off with scissors then wrap it again, just like a Christmad present. Folding the ends in a nice triangle and sealing all seams with tape. It then looks like a plain old black box.
Then I use Priority mostly, so I print my priority label and apply, but then I also just the 2″ x10″ long Priority Decals sent to me from the USPS web site. I apply 4 of those sticker decals diagonally across two corners on the front and two corners on the back. That way all six sides of the box has a portion of the Priority Decal folded over on it. Then I apply a FRAGILE sticker to each side.
So in the end, I wind up with a white or black plastic box, neatly and tightly wrapped, with USPS logo on all six sides with a bunch of the Fragile stickers and a Priority label. Done so for years. I don’t think any one is going to go cutting open a box to discover what the inside box actually has printed on it. BTW… I also use FedEx boxes for USPS Shipments and also USPS boxes for FedEx. FedEx even allows the USPS boxes to not be covered. Seems they don’t care who’s box I use. But I usually cover them all in plastic any way.
In summary box it in anything you want. Christmas wrap it in opaque plastic, decal it with the prioity declas and ship it. Easy, Peasy…Just a thought.
Same for me SCJ: Not in Ebay Solds or a Google search. I even signed out of my account and went into Ebay as a guest and search for your title then advanced search for Solds. Nope.
mc in Atl
05/19/2018 at 9:32 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #40357Thanks for this info. Mark. I am not knowleable about the internal workings of dBase issues so maybe by pinpointing that location will help them. I forwarded it along to the team this morning.
I wonder why, when you contacted them, they couldn’t resolve the issue, especially if you provided the dBase data location you show above. Seems like your contact with them would create a series of questions back and forth, they get it corrected, and then issue a new “update”. That seems wierd. With your knowledge and background seems like a straight forward discussion and a few screen shots would have clarified the issue and concern and they would have taken care of it. Unless they don’t know how??? That would also be strange.
Sometimes it crosses my mind if I should have just gone with SixBit instead? I don’t know. Every time I get bogged down in details with WL and jump over to the SixBit site and review their data. Did so just yesterday. It does cost more, but SB has already gotten Etsy interface working where it is going to be months for WL. And I know it is going to be grueling to work through those details, just like it did with WL Shopify experience, though that is now working OK.
I am much older now, going on 70 and I just get tired sometimes. I work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and have for decades. Sometimes I just feel way too tired for all of this stuff, Ebay, buying, selling, et,. al.
Mike
And I agree also. AdvenE asked me yesterday to outline what we use when we are looking at artwork.
The answer would be just so long and detailed for a blog. Art Historians specialize in this type of serious certification – validation, chemical test, carbon analysis of the materials, wood test, aging tests, black light testing, harware and even rust testing on the hardware. That is museum level work by specialist that study a specific artists brush stroke patterns, etc., etc.But for everyday type of stuff we just go on my background and experience which is a little bit more than the average guy off the street and that is enough for us. Prints, plates, technique, paper weights, water marks, and canvass info. On the sculpture, glass and or 3-D pieces he asked about. There are some tell tale signs, and reading books and Kovels.com has helped. We have a nice library of reference books. So basically a good education in the areas of interst and specilaty.
The rest is just as you both have said, good photos, good descriptions, maybe even a little more verbose or detailed than usual and then sell it and ship it. With Hassle Free Returns the buyer is off the hook, even if they don’t like the color, which ya’ll know is a subject I have commented on in detail on SL before.
Even the high end art houses like Sotheby’s in New York and Paris have sold works that turned out later on to be forgeries. this Ebay.
And with China and the wide format Giclee printers out there it is darn hard to tell the difference these days, Even fake hundred dollar bills are getting made very easily.So yep.. to bed this one must go I think. Just way to many ways to knock off up or repro.
mike
05/18/2018 at 4:09 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #40305Just got a short reply. Both tech reps and a senior engineer is all over it. They are going through my most recent copy of my database right now. Funny they have a huge amount of my datbases because I send it to them several times amonth for the to use to work out things that are in beta for Shopify and Etsy. But both myself and them are changing stuff so much that I alwasy have to send a fresh copy almost with each question or issue that pops up.
Their message says, we got, both depts working on it. They said based on what they are seeing, they have to check to see if Ebay is in actually sending that data and WL is just not picking it up and posting to the correct columns or if for some reason Ebay’s API is haywire again like the Items on Sale glitch and not relisted at the original price. What a screw up that was and it took Ebay about 6 weeks to fix it.
They tell me that Etsy is worse than Ebay, if that is possible with internal software glitches and then getting back to the WL tea.
They end their message will be back to you ASAP with a reply. Now who knows what they are going to say, experience tells me it could be a case of each of them [WL and Ebay] pointing fingers at each other. but they didn’t seem to be argumentative about it so far. 🙂
mike05/18/2018 at 4:00 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #40302I have sent them two extra screen shots showing the “SPENT ON SHIPPING” Columns as all ZERO’s. I have had a couple of Questions back from them already. They are working on it right now. But I think you are dead on. The column saying ShHIPPING CHARGED” is what the customer should have or did pay, but the Column that says, Spent on Shipping I would think should be showing us what we actually did in reality spend on “True” shipping costs which may be either higher, lower, or spot on.
Will report back as soon as I hear more.
Mike
05/18/2018 at 3:49 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #40301I can understand the confusion buddy.
It is interesting what you have brought up so, I did a little double monitor screen and I see something I have the tech guys checking into right now.
First, I never use the chat box because I have direct access to the tech support guys, the and the Owner and Senior engineer when they happen not to be too busy. I just shot my database over to them.They do have all of that data and it is being presented in a lot od detail, but just not where I think you are talking about.
If I click on the SALES Tab, I get a fairly OK Sales Report that does have a default view showing that is a couple of screen scrolls wide to the right. When I scroll right I think I see the vertical column you are referencing and mine too is blank all the way down. iIt’s header is Order Actual Shipping, nothing in mine.
Now while they explore this because that column I don’t think should be blank like that, so we will see when they send my database back. I want you to try something different.
First on the left side bar make sure you are in the system folder that says ALL SALES [you may have to drop the directory down by clicking the dwn arrow and highlighting the ALL SALES LINE. Now, Up at the far top looking across the main tabs, click on Reports instead of Sales. On the drop down menu, click on Sales Report. Now right below the Sales Tab there are 2 fileds that need to have you to put 2 dates in. Just use 01/01/2018 and in the second box enter todays date if not already there by default. The right beside that 2nd date box, click on “Show Report”.
Now you will be presented with 3 tabs. All Sales in this time frame by Date which you can filter like crazy to your hearts content, the next tab if you will click on it will show you all of your sales in that time frame by “Region” which is actually by state, and again you can filter by state, by highest sale per state, lowest sale per state, and again shows many columns of data to the right. Then the 3rd tab when you click on it shows you a Summary of all sales made during this time frame. Again about 17 columns of data showing but all compiled into just one line..total gross for those 17 column headings.Now back to the first tab called “Date Wise”. In my data base there are 42 columns across of data which includes a column for item sale amount, shipping charged, taxes charged [and of course this only shows for my state of GA. [I use this column to get my total for what I owe to GA for items sold within GA.] Adjustments, total receipts, ebat fees, final value fees, paypal fees our cost per item [COGS] Handling fees, then the column that says spent on shipping. Mine is blank all the way down, and that is what I am having them also check into. plus dozens of other rows to thr right, right on down to all of the buyers addresses AND PHONE NUMBERS!!
So while they are checking, would you also do what i just did and see if we are now, hopefully on the same page. That “actual”, “true cost” we paid for shipping not showing up? is that waht you are referencing and if so they are checking into this right now.
P.S. If haven’t used the Reports Tab and the Sales report from within that tab, it does have a lot of info. and if you right click anywhere on the page you can save the whole kit and Kaboodle as a .CSV file and open it up in excel, create your own formatting and headers and write a few formulas to get all the columns with num,bers to total up for you at the top of those columns. But you already know that.
mike
05/18/2018 at 11:24 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #40280Hey Mark S. I shot your post off to the guys at Tech. Support.
here is their answer, which I got back within minutes.
Hello Mike,Yes, Mark S. created a ticket in our system in which he asked the following:
“I see the shipping cost paid by the buyer, but I don’t see my shipping cost in the sales Reports.”We responded like in 1 minute after this was posted:
The shipping cost you paid, is a cost you have to manually enter, for example, if you went to a FedEx store and shipped, naturally, WL has no way to know how much you actually paid unless you enter it in the system.Thanks
So reading this it reminds me that WL and SixBit both pulls data directly from EBay. They don’t pull data from PayPal. If PayPal reports info. back to Ebay and Ebay is allowed to share it, then I guess it maybe could be captured. But as the tech rep. states, if labels or shipping took place another way as FedEx or FedEx Smart Post they probably don’t get that reported to them and in turn not reported in their reports.
I also have to remind myself that WonderLister and Sixbit are not finacial / accounting programs and operate like FreshBooks, QuickBooks, Quicken or GoDaddy. Those are stand alone as you already know and tie into your bank accounts, PayPal, credit cards and the such and I personally reply on reports generated from those apps for financial reports.
So maybe those costs can be better captured by the accounting programs. Personally i try not to manually enter data in most apps.Dont know if any of this is of value, but thought I would toss it in.
Mike in Atl.
There are five listed on worthpoint. You can see the phtos and read descriptions, which may help but not the prices. The lowest one is $250 and the highest is $2,167 it is 23-1/2″ high.
05/17/2018 at 4:05 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #40216Also it must have been interesting for the roadies to haul around a Hammond double keyboard organ. Think they were Hammond B3??? and with the Lesley speakers.
Goggle Hammond organ solos and just listen to those for a short while. Boy what a sound and great solos by very famous musicians.
05/17/2018 at 1:15 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Trucker hat, MCM Tri top corner table, Schwinn Twinn, Jeanie rub, Headphones, Marantz 4400 #40188I hear you Dbl.thumbs: I have not seen anything McIntosh or Marantz in years and years. My high school friend had Mac equipment way back, speakers, equilizer, receiver, turntable and a reel to reel upright tape deck. And that also wired into [Wait for it!}, a hanging, egg shaped 60’s fall into type of chair complete with multiple speakers embedded all around the inside of that thing!. If you know what I am talking about then I can pin point your age. We would do, you know what [suffice it to say it was a smoke filled room] and then everybody wanted him to crank up the “system” as we called it and the whole house was engulfed with the vibrating bass and of course whomever got into the surround sound egg chair first, ended up staying there for hours. [So it seemed of course :-)].
Ok, now I have given away some of my youth vices, But “none of us inhaled”!!!! LOL 🙂
Doug from Whodunit Galleries in Baltimore … 🙂 see you don’t even know who I am!
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
05/17/2018 at 12:56 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #40187Actually that is sort of the way it already is now. Ebay changed the wording from “Best Offer” to “Make Offer”, then changed the amount of times a seller and potential buyer can go back and forth from 3 times to five times. So, if used correctly that is sort of a mini-acution in “reverse”. I say $100 in my listing, the buyer says $50 [1st offer], I counter offer and say half off is too low how about 20% off at $80 [2nd offer], they then say, still too high how about $70 [3rd counter offer], then I say let’s meet in the middle at $75 [4th offer] and that usually does the trick, every now and then I get a last counter at a dollar less, [5th offer], OK you win and I take it.
So the new 5 Offer status has allowed us to really offer discounts but convert a lot of sales. If it was “Make A BEST OFFER”, then only one price is offered by the buyer and it is a take it or leave it situation for the Seller. Now with the 5 opportunities to make everybody happy we convert a lot of first offers into Sold Sales but at an amount higher than the first offer they come out of the chute with.Here is an antique booth axiom [technique used many times]. The tag price sets the ceiling [you won’t get this a lot of the time]. “He who says a number first, usually looses. So by putting a price on your listing or on a tag, count on probably not getting that. Then the buyer throws a number out, that sets the floor. That takes two manuevers. With these parameters set, Ceiling and floor, we now do what I call “the dance”. We then come down 15-20%, they come up 10-15%, in other words we come off the ceiling and they come up off the floor [we are dancing]. Then one or two more downs or ups and we have ended the dance and both parties are happy. I am going to guess we have about a third of our items come in with an offer. Then I engage them in the dance and maybe convert, 75% [guessing] those into Sales.
The buyer goes low because the good lord says you have not because you ask not. So most seasoned buyers, ask. I also do the same when we buy. Last day of an estate Sale, everything is 50% off marked, well I engage, haggle and usually get 75% off. Just last Sunday, $600 of items for $150. My cost.Also ask, always try for a discount, expect, your buyers to do the same, dance with them and then close the deal.
Following AdvenE comments, it is just a cold line of SOP’s [Standard Operating Procedures. Learn the drill, recognize when they will dance and close the deal. Online or in person, buying or selling.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER, “he who mentions a number first always looses”. That is why we price so high on our store listings and used to on the tags at our booths.We run 15-20% off sales frequently, so that is the first and second offer, so to speak, we list at $100, then auto. discount at $80, [perceived value and bargain, we dance and are happy with 40% off, WHY.. We had that built into the price in the first place. Some times we sell at listing price and smile all the way to the bank. Too bad they didn’t use any of their 5 “Make Offers” Ebay now let’s a potential buyer use.
Standar Operating Procedure.. always have your dancing shoes on.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
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