active listings and file downloads

[dasarock]

hi, is there a way to download every 'active' listing i have (the complete listing info including item specifics and descriptions and such)??  i want to do some major changing to my listings and restructure them and ebay software is just 'not versatile' or time friendly enough.  then i will need to update all listings with results of edits.  

[dollybeauty]

@dasarock 

There are limited options for doing as you request. TurboLister allowed members to export listings, but Turbo is being depreciated, and discouraged for new members who are not already an active user of that package. Other listing programs allow exporting of listings. These packages are subscription based and can be pricey if you have many listings. This is the easiest method.

If you have programming talents, you could use the eBay APIs to do as you request.

If you have experience using Excel or similar spreadsheets, there is one more option. It involves extracting info from different sources. Then combining those extracts in to one spreadsheet file. Then once you have combined the info, you can make your changes, then upload those changes to eBay's FileExchange processor to 'Revise' your listings. This process requires considerable explanation. Please repost, if you wish more info.

[dasarock]

hi, i am very fluent in databases and spreadsheets up to a maybe 10 years ago.  there were few programs i couldn't figure out.  used to code some too for the navy 20 years ago, multi-user environs up to about 500 users simultaneously.  so i should be able to figure api's and such out with a little bit of coaching and finger pointing me in the right direction 🙂  or at least a broad overview of data sources and events.milestones lol

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@dollybeauty wrote:

@dasarock 

There are limited options for doing as you request. TurboLister allowed members to export listings, but Turbo is being depreciated, and discouraged for new members who are not already an active user of that package. Other listing programs allow exporting of listings. These packages are subscription based and can be pricey if you have many listings. This is the easiest method.

If you have programming talents, you could use the eBay APIs to do as you request.

If you have experience using Excel or similar spreadsheets, there is one more option. It involves extracting info from different sources. Then combining those extracts in to one spreadsheet file. Then once you have combined the info, you can make your changes, then upload those changes to eBay's FileExchange processor to 'Revise' your listings. This process requires considerable explanation. Please repost, if you wish more info.

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[berserkerplanet]

https://developer.ebay.com/docs

[shipscript]

@dasarock 

eBay's File Exchange and Selling Manager Pro can download most of the listing basics, but not the descriptions and photos. I currently have two tools that will extract and save descriptions and photos. I suspect that is the combination method that @dollybeauty  was mentioning.

The full AutoScan on this tool will extract all the eBay photo URLs:

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/BulkPhotoScanner.htm

A report option on that tool will send that list of URLs to the zip tool, which will do the hard work of fetching the actual photos and zipping them into downloadable files:

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/BulkPhotoZip.htm

This next tool can download all of the item descriptions when one of the "archive" options is selected on the scan setup screen.  The tool was originally developed to help sellers cope with all of the active content mandates and make bulk revisions to their descriptions, but will ultimately remain as a tool to bulk edit (with a versatile Regex find/replace) and bulk archive descriptions:

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ActiveContentEditor.htm

In addition to a tool-in-progress dedicated to just Item Specifics (for sellers who need to capture item specfics before the mid June category juggling), I'm also currently working on a tool to archive all the listing basics, but it really depends on what "and such" is needed. At this point, the archive tool is gathering up the description, photos, and basic data, including item specifics, but I haven't yet determined how that data should be processed for the user. The data should be presented in spreadsheet format, but adding the description to the spreadsheet might make the file too fat. The photos can not go into a spreadsheet, so they have to be maintained separately. Currently, I have a JSON array of listing data that could be fed into a program, and am trying to find my way on the GUI interface.

Unfortunately, I've been at this crossroads for some time and need some use cases to help me decide which direction to take. Sellers download and save their listings for various reasons and may have different needs. eBay's File Exchange makes uploading bulk revisions quite painless, so that is where the spreadsheet is very handy.  However, photos can not be uploaded through File Exchange. Only the URLs can be in the spreadsheet, meaning the photos must be hosted online before File Exchange can access them (and the online URLs can not be eBay URLs from existing eBay listings).

The two APIs that I use (the Finding API and the Shopping API) access publicly viewable data because I like to stay out of sellers' accounts.  If you want to capture information that the public can not see (like item dimensions and weight), you have to go to the Trading API or similar, where direct account access is necessary.

If you do decide to take on the API programming and get into the Trading API or similar, you will have tremendous flexibility with managing your account, should you need programmatic capabilities.

[dasarock]

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@shipscript 

i understand the concerns, and am thinking about purchasing the newer windows version of dbase.  with it i could manipulate all data types,, index, edit etc.  but i would need every element of listing regardless of size (aka into old memo fields of dbase).  even ms access is not a true database as such.  but am sure both access and the new debase have other methods now to import/export besides only ","delimited.  before i really start it all guess i need to do homework and come up to speed on newer languages and versions.  vbasic, debase, fortran and all are just a couple days outdated lol.  i'm fair with css and and figure most of it out just by samples.  will hit the links you gave and see what i can come up with...  thanks

[dasarock]

@shipscript 

i just went back and re-read for 3rd time and started the tools you gave above.... very insightful and helpful.  

i myself have no need for the non-public info to be downloaded, but you never know.  i have access to unlimited online storage for photos without time constraints also.  with the info you gave and what i know, i should be able to merge it all into one spreadsheet, upload the photos to storage, and format a FE file to correct layouts for upload and revision on ebay.  will let you know, and thank you very much.

[dollybeauty]

@dasarock 

You might look into MySQL and PHP. PHP is a great scripting (interactive) language. Easy to learn, for those who are programmatically trained. MySQL is an easy database language. PHP has 'easy to use' accesses to MySQL, and dBase (and many other databases), should you decide to use that.

A plus is that some of eBay's API access examples are in PHP.

You can get a package, great for beginners (beginners = those with programming knowledge) by Google'ing 'XAMPP'. There are a number of help files, tips and examples available online. You do not have to use the Apache file server that comes with this package. I have installed PHP to run my scripts from the command (MS-DOS) line.

I have not written programs for 25 years, except my PHP/MySQL scripts. I found no issues with picking up PHP/MySQL and writing my scripts.

[dasarock]

i'll look into it... i have some, very limited sql background.  mosty quit programming and such when i retired from navy in 1999.  only dabble a bit now for my own needs, but thinking about writing my own maintenance and upload system for ebay .... don't like inkfrog or the others i've found that much.  best i've found for what i want to do and how i want to do it is auction tamer, but it doesn't do everything i want ... and am currently using 3d seller aps in conjunction.  i will say today's programming is a far cry from novell networks, heh...

but i've always learned anything i wanted to .... up to and including working with another coder in equal parts to write a small program to catch hackers in a online game i used to play and capture irrefutable proof of it... little did i know that doing so would be the end of the game... sighs

thank you all again for the tips and guidance towards a starting point on my little quest here 😄

[pocomocomputing]

Are you selling or programming?

To me all of what is discussed is too much work. I would opt for a third party tool. WonderLister is $5 per month for the beginner package and can manage 1000 active eBay listings but hold as many as you want in the program. It installs on your hard drive like eBay Turbo Lister so no need to be online. Only for windows computers. 

Just 10% of the effort needed above would make you an expert in WonderLister in a week or two. More time Selling than programming and figuring things out with what described above.

Disclaimer: I never used WonderLister but my research over the past 3 years shows it to be the lowest cost to start and more features with each level available. I have used eBay Selling Manager Pro, Auctiva, InkFrog  so I have experience with third party tools. I also made my own custom templates in each of those tools some of which were advanced features. I would spend most of my time programming my descriptions instead of selling because I liked the programming too much. EBay constantly changed breaking my description code making me fix it with shipscript’s help.

Disclaimer: I stopped selling on eBay 3 years ago because of all the constant changes in the Seller Updates.

My opinion and suggestion.

PS There are other tools like SixBit Solutions but it starts at $20 a month. This tool get excellent reviews. 

[dasarock]

I've looked at wonderlister auctiva and most of them out there.  All were limited in what. They can do and how they function.   If I find just how to use the api's then I can write something that does all I want easily.  I also enjoy the challenges give in coding.  Btw I think I kept wonderlister for all of 18 min or so before I realized what garbage setup and programming it was and how limited.

[dukebannon]

Thrill-Seeker, I hope you don't mind me using your question as a seque for my own .. 

I am looking for a way to download basic data for sold listings into a format I can import into Excel or Access and I hope someone can recommend a simple and no(low) cost solution.  I don't have a store and I don't sell much so this last item is important.

Today before I sell anything of consequence I look at similar sold items to determine my asking price and my process is workable but convoluted.  I use the eBay filters to create the set of listings I want to analyze and then copy/paste them into an Excel spreadsheet.  Once there I manipulate the data into a format for min/max/percentile analysis.  This process would be so much simpler if there was a utility I could use to extract the data after supplying basic search information like description.

Does something like this exist?  Any recommendations?

Thanks

[shipscript]

@dukebannon  

There are probably tools out there to perform that function (I thought terapeak had something related). eBay does have an API call to fetch those items, but eBay's API would require using a web server to make the calls to the API.

https://developer.ebay.com/devzone/finding/callref/findCompletedItems.html

[dukebannon]

Shipscript,

Thanks for the quick response.  The API looks like it could get the data I'm after however using it is beyond my programming skills.  In this case, the pearl may not be worth the dive.

Thanks again

[ttatiana2]

May I ask if you are selling somewhere else? And if so, WHERE?!? In advance, thank you.