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Well good for you and no water ran in. Ever since I saw that in your first back yard videos I was wondering how you would fare with a heavy downpour.
Also maybe check with a foundation / basement water leak guy. They do curtain drains, swales and the such. Even for nothing else other than getting an estimate than to talk with them and get informed on water run off from your back yard and maybe how best to clean it and things like that.
Good luck.Maintenance on homes just seems to never end.
mike in AtlantaGreat Sales as always Steve:
I had a pair of Beatle boots back in about 1969 I think. Those got dumped long, long ago and had a push button phone in every room, then the slim lines came out along with the Princess model.I still have that 5 piece JVC stereo and speakers I talked to you about last year. I have the pricing done, just never got around to listing all of it, but it does have to go. Those giant speakers along with the cabinet takes up a lot of spare bedroom space.
One non-Ebay related question. With all of the storms, down pours and heavy rains, how did that sloped back drive-way and curtain drain work for you at your new house? Hope it handled the load and you didn’t get any flooding under those sliding back doors.
later …
mike in AtlantaWelcome to you:
Glad to have you here. Many great people with a plethora of backgrounds. It is that mixture that ends up helping so many with questions.
Yes to what Jay is asking. We have had so many questions on here that revolve around the methods and processes of SEO. [Search Engine Optimization] for those who don’t know. We have had questions about best tools to find keywords, how many to use, where to place them. What is Panda and Penguin looking for, what will get one’s private Shopify store seen and traffic driven to it. I bet you will be the go to person to handle all of those questions. The rest of us usually can only say “well, we read this and that”.
So welcome, and I am sure we all look forward to your technical input into the mysterious world of SEO.
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
Hi Liz: I will give this a shot. It is simple, but with Ebay showing some things to some people and other things to otehrs who knows. But try this.
Make sure you start by going to “My Ebay”, then make sure you are on the “Seller Hub Overview tab””, then depending on how you may have customized your “view” you want to focus on the “Listings” area. Then glance down and click on the line in blue “Active Listings”. This will also show the number of current listings you have.
This now takes you to the editing section that has all of your “active Listings” listed all down in a few pages.
Now you will see close to the top of your first listing a tab-box that says “EDIT” with a drop down arrow. When I click on mine the drop down shows me 3 options. #1=edit selected [if you check this you should then check which single listings you want to edit]… BUT if you want to bulk edit, my #2 Option says “Edit Listings #1-500”, then the next line says “Edit Listings #501-882” [all that I have in our store. That should do it. You will go to the editor for each group of 500 until you work your way through all of the pages, grouped 500 at a time, depending on how many total items you have. In our case 882 items can be edited in 2 pages and two work throughs.NOW.. with that said T-Satt, Marks S and I use WonderLister and Sixbit. We can edit all of our listings at one time with no limit on the amount we want to edit. If I have 8,000 listings like J&R I could edit them all at one time, any where, any how, any field and then schedule them to all submit either all at the same time or space them out seconds, minutes or hours apart. But hours apart would take 882 hours to change. Usually if I change my description area of a small field field, I do all 882 at one shot and submit right away and it only takes a couple of minutes.
Hope this works for you and good luck.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
You asked about as far as shipping goes. So I will address that specifically. Without a photo, first are we talking about a painting without without frame? A print under glass? a three dimensional sculpture, a pastel drawing or watercolor. Depending on what you have will dictate a variation on how this is done. But for type of money and these variables I would crate the work to ship. As an artist with my own studio and work shop beside our Ebay business I know how to do all of that myself. In your case you may want to have someone else do that for you.
Crates don’t have to be big, overly heavy things like you see in the movies, but thin veneer cheap birchwood side panels or tempered masonite along with a 1×2 fir stripping frame. A nail gun or no. 6 screws and screw gun. Then of course proper corner padding, interior supports [spacer blocks] thin rigid foam board sheeting, poly sheeting, low tack tape and a few other tid bids. If a large 36″ x 36″ or larger after crating it may have to be shipped common carrier. If smaller, believe it or not, a FedEx label will do depending on it’s DIM WEIGHT and SIZE, [girth + longest length].
Of course then top of the line insurance for the total amount. The price of the paitning plus the crating.I would suggest you get the answers to the stype, size, thickness, etc. and call around for a few quotes at some nicer, higher end frame shops or galleries. Ask who they use or recommend. Maybe even FedEx may have some answers for you. But for $5,000 even if it all costs $100 to $125 it is just part of the cost of doing business. I crated and shipped a Remington Cowboy sculpture a few years ago. It was approx. 30″x18″ x20″. Crated, wrapped in a padded moving blanket, secured with crank down straps, about 40 plus lbs. incl. materials, Insurance and shipping cost for about $100.
But seriously try taking it [if not too large] to a few nice framing shops and show it and start talking about it and see what info. you can get. $5k is worth the legwork and the knowledge you gain value also.
Please report back and let us know how it went.
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art in AtlantaYes.. We have a subscription to the Scott Catalogue. Got it a few months back, knowing this stamp project was coming up. Used stamps that have been hinged and have hinge marks or missing gum on the back don’t have much value. Even if 80 years old unless it’s a rare one. Just my opinion, but probably best to let the used ones go in bulk lots. Try an auction starting with a buy it all price. It would be a waste of time to look up Scott No’s. and their prices for used stamps.
On our MINT stamps the usual going price is what is called the wholesale price. especially if we want to attract stamp dealers. That will be the Scott Mint Value less 60%. So a stamp with a dollar value we could hope to sell for about $0.40. But do that by year of 36 to 40 issues per year = about $15 per year x 80 years = about $1,200 for our US collection. But we do have various issues in various years that will go for $dollars$ per stamp which we roughly calculate the single collection going for may $1,500 and up. After that the plate blocks of all of those will go for maybe 2 to 3 times this. We are hoping for maybe $3,000 but that is just hopes. But guess you can see why we really need to go ahead and start on this project. We are creating a special stamp listing template in WL and will show our assistant how to do them and maybe let her just focus on those for a few weeks / months??
Yep.. How often has it been said here on SL. Don’t engage. Just say return it and after the item is received then make the executive decision on what you will do and block.
I hate it when buyers try to tell me how to run my business!! Inform me what I am selling, what it’s value is, what I should be selling it for, how I should ship, and basically try to justify their view point. There is only two things I want from buyers. A Fast decision to buy and fast payment. Other than that leave us alone, we are busy. Go engage someone who gives a crud.
mike in Atlanta
That will be coming, but in a few months. First thing we are going to be doing over the next 4 to 6 weeks is pull out and open up the portfolios and start to list all of the prints we have stored. Most of those I did the printing for other artists that did not have the equipment or skill sets to do their own limited edition print runs. As part of my payment I recievd a various amount of signed pieces from the limited runs I did for them. Most runs were under 250 pcs. and i usually got 10 pieces form the run. Also I printed many posters for shows that were some museums and galleries and going to list those also. those are already finished back in the 70’s-80’s and should be listed first.
Also we are going to have our assistant listing a large MINT US Commemorative Stamp Collection I have that I started when I was a teen. I have every US Stamp printed since 1920 in single MINT condition and also a complete collection of those years of each stamp in a 6 pc. block page. We have decided to do all the stamps by lots by the year, but still that is approx. 80 to 100 listings for the single stamps and then the same if not more for the plate blocks. Stamps are special in the since that there is a published value in the scott catalogue [based on condition of course and mine are all MINT and in protective sleeves]and those Scott numbers have to be referenced.
Lastly will be the paintings and constructions. The paintings are large 36″ to 48″ square and large. Most will have to be Photographed carefully for color accuracy then due to size maybe in some cases unstretched and sold rolled, especially if International.So at periodic times items will be posted.
Mike in atlanta
FindzShop:
Etsy is making some changes and for the god but it is some of the reasons you state that makes it harder for 3rd party listing programs like Ink Frog, WonderLister and SixBit to interface with them. But SixBit already has a good handle on it and WonderLister will also sometime next year.
I agree 100% about Business policies. Super Easy to use. We only have about 6 of them and that covers everything from the smallest item like earrings up to a large piece of furniture that is overweight and oversize and into DIM WEIGHT. Also super easy to use in a 3rd party app like WonderLister and Sixbit. When an item is listed, click on one of the 6 small nicknames I gave them. I think some people think you have to create a business policy for each item situation that one sells, that would lead to a lot on types of various shipping scenarios. Nope. It is simply by the type of shipping an item falls into. I won’t go into listing them. I set-up my Business policies for our whole store in less than 30 minutes a long time ago and have not had to alter them except maybe once or twice in 2 years? +/-
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Yep…As many of you guys know we closed down 6 antique booths 2 years back and began moving all that inventory to our online ventures. The closing created about a hundred bins of items and a bunch of furniture being placed at our in home storage. Well by slowly “plugging away” as you say, as of this month, all but 2 bins are gone. Either listed, donated or dumped. But during this time we have “slowly” invested into our basement studio. And also as of this month it is ready to go so we can start back to doing my abstract paintings, artwork, small sculptures, decorative clocks, mirrors and prints. Also have a a complete wood working shop set-up for sculptures, doing our own framing and canvass stretching. It was 2 years in coming, but everything is now in place and supplied. Now we can make some of the items we are going to sell. That will be more of a labor of love than listing “glass and brass, rusty old, items”.
Here’s to having a plan of action. And Again, Kudos to you for that pay off. We have a shop slogan and maybe now you too can have the time to participate..
“Live to Create and Celebrate..Buying, Creating and Selling Eclectic Fine Art and Decor”Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art in AtlantaHa-Ha.. 🙂 I don’t feel organized. But thanks to tons of apps / software tools most things are within a “search” away. Tons of items in “My Favorites”, many folders created, tons of items organized within MicroSoft’s Outlook Contact Manager and I use MS OneNote to create daily messages for things To-Do or To-Buy, etc. Also bookmark SL replies that I wish to reply to if I get time. But other than that just work 15 to 16 hours per day 7 days per week. AND that is the Gods honest truth.
mike in Atlanta
Good morning Mark S:
Interesting you bring this up. Yes, got some information on this on Oct. 7th. which I can share.
As I mentioned in my reply to T-Satt, and as we all know, [big or small, part, or full-time sellers], Ebay is on the go. They have made 3 Release Upgrade Changes this year to date. Many of the older Updates contained warnings to everyone that changes were coming. It has been discussed here on SL that we all think Ebay is trying to stay relevant in the chase along with Amazon, Walmart, Target and the such and guess we all see the prime-time TV ad campaigns of Ebay.Well those changes are hitting, and the tech team is reporting it is hitting hard and fast. When people use third party software and these software programs handle multiple platforms, then code changes that made to certain data fields within a piece of software can it can and does affect other areas, even if not directly pertinent to a specific app function. That is the beauty and the nemesis of a “relational database” structure.
Well when something doesn’t function right, the end user usually complains or creates an error report not to Ebay or Bonanza or Etsy but directly to the 3rd party software team. T-Satt probably does the same with SixBit. Something not working, ask the SB tech team not Ebay first.
Well Ebay’s huge amount of changes, updates, upgrades are creating a huge amount of inquiries to the 3rd party teams. I have had several issues over the past 6 weeks and almost every time, the answer is, yes, we discovered the same thing, it is not a WL issue but an Ebay issue. We are working with Ebay and will re-code as soon as Ebay gets it worked out.
Essential point, what I was told on Oct. 7th was the coding and engineering teams both are working full blast over time trying to keep the 3rd party apps working correctly to staying coordinated and straight with Ebay. This flurry of incoming inquires has derailed the time frame on their new projects and has pushed those further down the pike.
To my disappointment it has been decided to swap position of the Shopify and Etsy projects. I was asked to forward my Shopify credentials to the team and that the engineers will be working on the gateway to a complete Ebay store dump into the Shopify format first before the Etsy interface. The reason was that the Etsy project would require a lot of coding and the coders were busy keeping Ebay stable and working directly with Ebay, in a since helping them.
So, even though I already have set WL up with our Etsy credentials and some work has been done. We have moved 176 items over to Etsy, we have done it manually at this point and I am using WL only as a recoding vehicle at this point. The biggest problem seems to be working out the financial interface. Shopify uses any payment method including PayPal. Etsy has its own internal accounting – financial process. They only invoice every 3 months for listings, they do transfers directly to your account and bypass the PayPal process, or at least that is what I am getting from the information I have access to.
So, Shopify is going to come first, then after Ebay settles down, then Etsy will be picked back up maybe earlier to mid next year. Though I am still feeding some Etsy data into the WL Team, they seem state they will be doing internal experimentation on our Shopify Store first.Here is one big Ebay glitch and what prompted me to ask for the creation of an archival Maximum highest price data field in WL. If you place a sale on your store, either the whole store, partial or by category, whatever, then WL and SB both report both the Original – Starting price and show next to it the now reduced price. But when the Sale ends the “On Sale” price changes but to an empty field and the original price should be the only price showing. This data, of course, all comes directly from Ebay telling the 3rd party apps what these prices are, now, and as they change on sale, etc. Well, I came to find out, only because I use an app like WL and could filter everything, that in some isolated cases, Ebay was not reporting back to WL the original price after the sale ended, but reported the Sale price back again and WL picked up that price. Then when these 2 programs synchronized the Sale price was reported as the NON_SALE price and our listing was now listed at a lower price. Then don’t know if any of you have ever noticed but Bonanza will also lower the price of your listing, randomly, by 1 or 2%. Then that number goes back to Ebay and then Ebay passes that along to 3rd party apps. In other words, we found some items that were originally $20, now listed at $16 [20% off but no sale running]. Then we ran another sale and Ebay glitched on a few and that $20 original item now gets relisted at $12.80.
After WonderLister team investigated it was discovered it is entirely an Ebay glitch. The Ebay engineering team told WL team that it is a problem and are working on it, but to date they have not been able to find what causes it since it is random, and they are trying to fix. It.So, question for you. How often do you go through your complete inventory and compare what the current showing price is for your item as compared to what the original price was when you first listed it? Well, I probably think most sellers don’t. And, if you don’t cross list on other platforms, synch with Bonanza, run any type of Sales, or End and relist items at various intervals. This probably hasn’t affected anyone.
But we do, so this is what led to my request for some extra coding and for the creation of the “maximum price” column that was added to WL. I also spoke directly with one of the SixBit coders and they were not even aware of it. After I showed him how to spot check it they too now know about it and may be adding a way to check this.
Essentially how it works is within WL I have a folder that will show me any listing that is re-set in our Ebay store that re-sets back to a price lower than what we originally priced something at. If we lower a price on purpose those we are aware of and are no concern.
But all of this is to say that the Etsy project is pushed over until later along with a slower approach to Shopify until the coders and engineers can square all the Ebay glitches and get in smooth synch with them.Hope this is not too disappointing to those using WL and waiting on the Etsy interface.
By the way.. unlike what Jay and Ryanne said one time in a pod-cast, I am not a techie person, I am an artist. Abstract painter and master printmaker specializing in Serigraphy. Accounting, business acumen and computer stuff was forced upon me by way of the nature of the way my personal world evolved. A jack of many trades a master of none.Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine ArtGood Morning T-Satt: Thank Goodness for Coffee. Been getting up around 5:00 or so since Sept. Sales really started to kick in mid-Sept, so been trying to put the hours in.
Had that tool for a while. I have a folder on my desktop that I created called Utility Tools for Ebay and that has been sitting in there for awhile and i use periodically to double check WonderLister and to see if they both jive. Yes, the tool can confuse items due to the titles being similiar. Think that is why they color code them, to help with that.
Ebay is making a bunch of changes which include a lot of coding, which I will address in my answer to Mark S in a minute. But all the code changes is causing not only problems for the thrid party coders, but also within Ebay. Thus all the “it must be a glitch” coming from the reps when everyone is calling and asking for answers. Like J&R mentioned, they still have a ton of links back to old pages intertwined with all of the new pages they are creating. In the old days when Cobal, Fortran, Machine language was in use, it was called “spaghetti code”. Personally, I don’t think they even know what issues are going to be created by re-coding and just wait for the sellers-buyers=users to start complaining and they then try to fix it on the fly. But just my opinion.
Yes, and just like SixBit [which you also know does much of the same thing] WonderLister has several fields that flags things for us. It breaks out items into separate folders that flag items on sale, not on sale, at auction, active, Past end time, Potential Duplicates, Out of stock, Error in the picture gallery, missing sku No., duplicate SKU’s [helps me a lot when I create a duplicate sku in error manually], duplicate EANs, system errors, etc., etc.
And two that I am prode to say I helped motivate the WL team to include in a recent update and that is a folder that holds any listings that I edit within WL but did not hit resubmit. So this folder tells me that a have several items that need to be bulk re-submitted and WL also coded a new datafield based of a recommendation I made a few months back and that is “Historical Maximum High Price”. What this code does is identify the highest price I have ever placed on an item and holds it forever. The only time this price will change is when I enter a price that is higher than ever entered before. This is a safety net for when cross listing on various platforms, i.e. Etsy, Bonanza, Trugether, our own site in Shopify, etc. Many times we may run a sale in one platform and not the other. So if we ever get out of synch by having this column we can always reference and manually reset price back to the highest price we ever placed. This column can’t be edited by the user. It is just an archive field. Also if we ever sell something and find something down the road and use one of our old listings and click duplicate for relist, there is the historical price of that item so we don’t have to research again. It has it’s uses.
Take care and have a great day and fourth quarter…
mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine ArtLinda… Here you go.
http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/DuplicateListings.htm
Fill in the two fields in the upper left corner and then it only takes less than a minute and you will get a list of all duplicates in your store and color coded.
I run this periodically and do find dups. for whatever reason. Found 6 just yesterday. And as you said, why??
Good luck
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
