Best Listing Tools for Small Seller

[auctionworks1]

I've been selling on eBay for years, and used to use Turbo Lister many years ago.  I stopped using it and just listed free style on my own.  I'm realizing it would probably boost my sales if I ramp up my listings and use some fancy templates, but I have no clue what's the best tools to use.

Any recommendations?  I checked out Crazy Lister but it seems to be better suited for sellers who list at a higher rate than I.  I usually try to keep anywhere from 25-75 listings active.  Any help would be appreciated!

[buyselljack2016]

@auctionworks1 

Don't know anything about  Turbo lister, or Crazy lister.

We have 200 + listings(3 selling accounts.  over 100 currently on wife's account) going most of the time, and after putting up a few,  have never had a need for any thing other than just putting up a listing.

When doing a new item we just use "sell similar", and then make the needed changes.

We have never felt there was a need for any fancy templates, or fancy listings.

Using the sell similar gets all the text in there about shipping, returns, reading, knowing what you are buying..........

Just have to load the new item photos, and item description.

[frodobagginskennedy]

Most sellers no longer use fancy templates.  Fee Bay wants plain white background and text.  the simpler the better,

[mam98031]

Fancy templates do not increase sales.  In fact often they do the exact opposite.  The busier your listing looks or is, the less likely the buyer is to look at the entire description.

That doesn't mean you can't make your description cosmetically look good without some template.

[luckythewinner]

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@auctionworks1 wrote:

I've been selling on eBay for years, and used to use Turbo Lister many years ago.  I stopped using it and just listed free style on my own.  I'm realizing it would probably boost my sales if I ramp up my listings and use some fancy templates, but I have no clue what's the best tools to use.

Any recommendations?  I checked out Crazy Lister but it seems to be better suited for sellers who list at a higher rate than I.  I usually try to keep anywhere from 25-75 listings active.  Any help would be appreciated!

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I still use TurboLister.

Fancy templates are so 1990s.

Simplicity for mobile users rules the day.

[m60driver]

You can always use Notepad or another plain text editor to create a basic or a fancy HTML template and then just copy and paste as the advanced listing option allows you to insert HTML code. 

[slippinjimmy]

I use SixBit (have for years). It might be too "rich" for you.

Another very similar alternative is Wonderlister (I've never used it), they have a cheap ($5/month) basic edition that might work for you.

Both are similar to Turbo Lister in that they use a local database instead of web based like most of the other too

[auctionworks1]

Thank you!! I've been overwhelmed just searching online for the best option. Would prefer to just continue listing as usual without paying some company for their template.

[auctionworks1]

What I hoped to hear! Thank you!!!

[auctionworks1]

Excellent, it appears I got some bad info from someone trying to make a buck! I'm just going to stick to the basics that eBay has and not give someone else my money for something I dont need! Thanks!

[auctionworks1]

Thank you, I've never used the advanced option because I don't know too much about HTML code. Is it very difficult to use?

[membersinceaug2001]

File Exchange works good if you have some knowledge of spreadsheets.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi, i am a small seller, and i use the Advanced Listing tool to create my listings. It gives more options to sellers that often do not appear in the Quick Listing tool.

There used to be a pop-up notation when i’d navigate to the Advanced format that encouraged small sellers to use the Quick listing tool instead, but i disregarded this advice.  (Sometimes eBay’s recommended choices are not in line with my needs.)

[anthology-of-treasures]

GarageSale is the best inventory and listing tools for eBay on the market!

Its Macintosh only. It would be worth buying a Macintosh if you don't already have one just to own GarageSale as it will pay for the Mac and itself by the time you save.

You can run circles around any other listing tool. It really does matter if you are small or big seller. You can manage multiple eBay accounts.

My original listing tool in the early 2000s was A.I.D. for Macintosh. eBay then had the bright idea of charging publishers to use their API, which ironic since eBay itself didn't create its own API - another company did. This publisher could not afford to do that and went out of business. That left no Mac software so I opted to run Turbolister on one of my new dual processor G4 Macs, which was running Mac Classic, Mac X and Windows XP at the same time back then. At some point I recall eBay buying Blackthorne, which was Macintosh, but after seeing Turbolister I didn't want to use anything owned by eBay as they don't eat their own dog food.

Started some initial work on my own listing tool, but GarageSale came out. I also stopped selling on eBay for several periods of time since 1999. I've also moved most of my inventory off eBay years ago as I make more money that way.

I have other posts here discussing GarageSale, which you can search for.

The basic concept is that you can create a series of templates for various shipping scenarios, types of items, categories which you can reuse for listings by simply duplicating them (press the Command and "D" keys).

You customize these templates with CSS & HTML if you want. You can also use another free application from the company called Design Utility to create custom.

You can schedule listings for a later time.

You can export or import single or groups of listings as files - a perfect tool for collaboration.

You organize your listings and templates in the program as you wish, instead of following eBay one-size-fits-all approach to everything.

You can bulk edit listings within the program. You can also use AppleScript to create a external application to instruct GarageSale to make changes to one or more listings based upon specific conditions that are met or not met by such listings.

It also has a bunch of features I don't use such as editing images (I use Photoshop); sales reports; eBay messages; feedback checklist; etc...

[anthology-of-treasures]

Here we have a new order from a group of GTC items - its turned green. I end these at 28 days so they are not automatically rolled over by. You could put the end date right in the folder name by clicking it and editing. I; however, just use a series of folders called Fixed 1, 2, 3 , etc. and write the end dates for each group down of a eraser board. Select the whole folder and tell GS to end all the listings at once and its done.

Here I am starting to drag the sold item down to the Sold folder to remove it from my current inventory.

Its been dropped in the Sold folder.

I can reuse any of the sold items to create a new listing as opposed to blank templates at any time.

The text below the description in brackets is a placeholder for my TOS to be inserted automatically when the item is uploaded to eBay.

GS allows you to turn listing creation into a assembly line.