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@tatertot2u57 wrote:Ebay is a very frustrating venue, I for one am just about to throw in the towel.
Took a 2 month break, just now wanted to try again only to find my unsold listings ( for 2 months to the day ) are toast.
eBay only keeps your records available to you for 60 days. After that, they are moved off the visible site and become just more data in eBay's "Big Data" dreams. Big Data is great - but you have to be willing to use it impartially. Otherwise it's like creating a survey with limited answers designed to return the results you want to see. Like most of eBay's surveys...
If you want your data to stick around longer, look into desktop automation for online sellers. Since the data resides on your computer, you get to decide how long to keep it around. For example, I have well over 6 years of data currently in my SixBit database, and I have previous major release databases that go back almost all the way to 1999, when I first started using what is now SixBit.
There are a lot of options out there. I looked for something that presented my data to me in a format that made sense to me. If you can't understand what you are looking at, how can you use it effectively? I also wanted flexibility - I didn't want to control everything, but I wanted the ability to create templates that I designed, that I liked. I wanted to be able to organize my data in a way that was useful for me and not be locked into a format that I couldn't work with. I wanted to be able to export my data in a layout of my choosing, and be able to import new data from a layout from somewhere else. I wanted to be able to retain my data as long as I choose, within reason.
Make a list of absolutely everything you want a desktop app to do - everything. Now break that list down into "show stoppers", "annoyances", and "that would be nice". Show stoppers (gotta haves) mean that if you don't have this or the ability to do this, your business cannot effectively function and is pretty much at a standstill. For example, if you sell on eBay, you simply must have an application that can interface with eBay. Over-simplified, but you get the idea.
Annoyances (like to have) are just that - things what you find annoying today and would rather your automation do those things for you. If they aren't included, that's ok, but annoying.
That Would Be Nice (day dreams and flights of fancy) are those things that would really simplify your life, but probably wouldn't be wanted/needed by anyone else and are therefor likely to be found in any application package.
Now take your lists and score the different applications you find by their ad copy. If you have questions, contact them and ask -- if they don't respond, what does that say about their customer service overall?
And don't forget price. Some software is one flat rate for the month, regardless of your volume. Other software will have a monthly fee connected to the number of live listings, the number of sales, the total dollar amount of sales -- the price will vary and generally will increase as you grow.
Multi-venue is good, but generally not immediately necessary. Good in that you may want to expand into other venues as your business grows and you get more comfortable running it. But don't pay extra for something you might not use for a while to a very long while. Money not spent is money still in your pocket!
When I started looking around, I must have tried a dozen different "solutions" (back in '99, everyone was sure they had the next great thing) - none really pushed the right buttons for me, and some just plain didn't work. Don't get discouraged -- you're going to find a lot of "not what I want" before you find any "this seems to actually be working". And summer is a good time to do this for most sellers -- sales are slower, so there's a bit of free time to actually do the work of finding/learning automation.
-Bob.
@nuclearomen wrote:because people are employed to do a job and if everything stayed the same then I guess there would be no need to employ them so things get changed.
eBay is trying, as only eBay can, to re-invent itself, to become something that will offer more growth, more activity, more interest from shoppers. They are trying to convert the dependable VW Bug they started racing with into a top-notch McLaren racer... at the track.... during the race... using parts swiped from other vehicles.
The 'disruption' they so counted on to stimulate growth has also stimulated issues, glitches, and headaches. Yes, some things do eventually start working as promoted, but at what cost to the members? What was meant to be a kick in the butt has missed slightly and landed squarely between the legs. No time to stop tho -- each new update introduces a host of new issues that require new updates that introduce more issues.....ad nauseam ("Ad nauseam is a Latin term for argument or other discussion that has continued to the point of nausea.")
But fear not -- eBay is not alone! Problems of this type plague all large/mega-large software-based sites. Computers are just as fallible as the humans who create their code. Computers are amazingly stupid, being restricted to simple yes/no on/off 1/0 thought. They are also amazingly fast - so if you tell them to muck up something by mistake, they will do so at lightning speed -- usually much faster than you can hit the abort button (if you remembered to code one into the system).
But... this is eBay.
-Bob.
