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I use Sixbit and it has worked well for me. It allows me to cross list pretty quickly between eBay and Etsy. It also allows the creation of templates, which is nice, and it has inventory management built in so I can print a pick list when it’s time to ship items that have sold. It has a lot of features if you are willing to dig in and learn them. It’s a desktop program (not web based), which is good because you have more control over everything, but also stinks because you have to have your PC online at all times so it can detect when something has sold and end the listing on the other platform. Your database of listings and photos is also kept local on your own machine.
If you are interested in giving it a shot, let me know and I’ll post my referral code here.
Yeah, eBay was restricting views on my listings, but they didn’t send me a message or anything telling me about it. Only way I found out was by talking to customer service. They restricted my views because of various VERO strikes over the years in combination with some items that were taken down due to other issues (most notably the emissions policy thing). I guess it was a cumulative penalty. It’s like your account gets a little check mark every time you screw something up. Get too many and they start thinking you are a bad seller.
I looked at the numbers for a month before the “guard rails” were lifted and the month after and sales were up about 20 percent. Not really sure that’s enough to say it had a direct effect, but at least sales improved. Overall, my sales this year have been very slow. Seems like mainly very low dollar items are selling. My store really relies on higher dollar sales to make money, since I don’t do much volume.
eBay for business seems like it is helpful most of the time. However, eBay customer service over the phone has improved dramatically lately. I haven’t talked to a foreign rep for the last 4 or 5 times I’ve called, where before it was only foreign reps (and usually poorly trained ones with terrible call quality to boot).
The VERO strikes could have triggered some kind of restrictions on your account. Best way to tell is to try and list something from a well-known brand and see if you get an error message.
Update: I won an appeal with eBay to remove the restriction on my account! I’m so relieved.
I contacted eBay for Business on Facebook. They explained that these restrictions are generally not something they appeal and the “guard rails” can only be removed manually by a special team at eBay. I carefully laid out my case why I felt this was an unfair restriction on my account and asked if the rep could forward my appeal to the proper department. Finally, after talking to and messaging so many eBay CS reps, this one listened, understood my situation, recognized that I was not the enemy, and actually knew who to contact to remedy the problem. He forwarded it to the proper team and the team responded in less than 2 hours that I had won the appeal (he estimated to hear back in 48-72 hours). Looks like it was an easy decision for them. It just required a human actually looking at it rather than an algorithm.
Actually, eBay is being sued by the feds for $2 billion for selling emissions defeating devices (notably the “rolling coal” modifications).
Anyway, I guess I’ll see how things go. I’m now getting paranoid since I’ve only made 1 sale in the 3 days since that listing was blocked, which is very unusual for me. In July, it will be one year since the initial violation, so I’m hoping it might drop off my account. Fingers crossed.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>I did not start selling on Etsy until after the pandemic started, so I don’t have any numbers to compare, but you probably have a good point. Definitely my eBay numbers are down versus the covid sale frenzy.</p>
I also think the Hollywood strikes are affecting my Etsy sales (and eBay, too). I mainly sell vintage hard goods and many of the high dollar purchases in my store were from prop houses and various productions.You might try joining some vintage rug collector groups on Facebook and see if you can post your item directly to those potential buyers.
I tried using Chat GPT to write some listing descriptions based on the title. The results remind me of stuff I would write in a high school essay when the assignment required a word minimum. Basically, long winded promotional bull crap text that says nothing of value.
Also, it kept reusing certain phrases. Apparently, Chat GPT assumes anything vintage is “meticulously crafted” and helps conjure memories of “yesteryears.”
I did have better luck when I was more specific in the tone I wanted. For example, I had a vintage airline item and I told it I wanted the promotional text to be written in the style of a pilot making an announcement to the passengers. That text blurb was at least a little more fun.
So far so good. For Sept 1st to 5th, I’ve already hit 30% of my total from the prior month on 10 sales (vs only 46 transactions all of last month). It’s a bit early to draw any conclusions, but it feels closer to my normal sales levels.
I used the online Help & Contact system and got into the chat and then asked to have a representative call me. I think I was transferred to 5 different people before I made my way to the Item Restrictions department (I think that is the name of it). Unlike the other departments, they could see right away that my selling privileges were being restricted. After they looked up my pristine selling history, they removed the restrictions from my account without me even asking. Could be the same thing happening to you. It’s not like eBay gives you any way to find out otherwise.
Secretly restricting someone’s sales is a pretty nasty trick. At least they could inform you so you could call and try to work it out with them, if possible. At the very least, it would allow people to seek other methods of earning income rather than thinking they are doing something wrong.
But yeah, trying to put things in more vintage categories is a good idea. I think I may avoid marking any vintage items that have a name brand as New condition. That seems to trigger eBay’s automated systems.
While this was a low-priced item, I was happy I quickly sold this brand new vintage Sears AM radio to CB converter (which allows you to pick up CB radio frequencies from you car radio). Using Terrapeak for research, it looked like these just don’t sell well at all. Some had been up for sale for years, even in new condition, at about the $40 mark. I priced mine $20 with free shipping (it fits in a priority padded flat rate) and it sold within a few days. I only had $1 in it, so it was nice to just get a small return on my investment and not store it forever waiting for a $40 sale that likely would never materialize.
Sometimes, for items that just aren’t that special or rare, it’s better to sell things quickly for less money.
Vintage Sears CB Monitor Car AM Radio 40 Channel CB Converter Woodgrain | eBay
No, I didn’t try to promote my Shopify site much on social media. I don’t really specialize in any one item type, so I was mainly hoping for Google Shopping and Facebook Marketplace search hits to drive some sales. I think it would be difficult to attract people to consistently visit an online store that sells often-weird random stuff.
Since I shut down my Shopify store, I went ahead and signed up for the paid version of Truegether (which imports from eBay). They had given me a 3-month trial earlier and I made a handful of sales (more sales than I had using Shopify and Facebook Marketplace), so I decided to give it a go. Truegether is about $20 a month and promotes your items on Google Shopping. You also set your Google Shopping budget (which I put at 15%). I’ll trial it on a paid basis for at least a few months here and see what results I get.
I haven’t checked out Wix. I may have to take a look.
