posted on May 3, 2003 12:30:56 AM new
Hi all. Just curious about how everyone keeps track of their running auctions. I used to use Blackthorne's Auction Ticker, which was a terrific little program. When eBay bought the Blackthorne operation and stopped supporting "Ticker," I went with AuctionMessenger, another nice program. Now though, it seems to have stopped working, at least insofar as my current "Items I Am Selling." The company seems not to be able to fix the bug -- so I am wondering whether others have had the same problem, and just generally how everybody watches the status of their for-sale items. Thanks. Marshall
posted on May 3, 2003 08:00:43 AM new
ROFL patty!!! that is great!
I use Vendio also. I have looked at and tried many others, and Vendio is the easiest to use and has the best deal
"Be kind. Remember everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." - Harry Thompson
"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it." - A Few Good Men
posted on May 3, 2003 08:07:37 AM new
I have a kooky little set-up I use known as "My eBay" I set it up to sort by number of bids and have that sort bookmarked on my toolbar.
posted on May 3, 2003 09:34:56 AM new
"Track"? I am sorry. What do you mean by "track"?
I don't understand. Do people actually check on their auctions every day? Why? There's nothing you can do about it, either you get bids or you don't.
I don't even care when they end. Our own software sends an EOA moments after auction's end. I get a copy in my mail so I know the program is still running.
All those cute little My eBay features like totalling up the dollar amount of your current bids received...well, that seems pretty pointless. It wouldn't even be useful for cash flow planning since you don't know who actually will pay or when.
neonmania: How is it useful to know which item is getting the most bids?
Please, someone, enlighten me.
--
"It has been my great privilege to be your mother. To you, my dear and faithful son, from earth to heaven I salute you..." Julie McPhillips at the funeral of Marine 1st Lt. Brian McPhillips, killed in Iraq.
posted on May 3, 2003 09:59:59 AM new
Oh my gosh, Fluffy! You mean you launch your race horses and don't watch the race?!!! Half the fun of having a Vendio page that's easy to use is seeing how your auctions are doing.
Maybe just we hobby sellers have the time to do that, though. Gosh, I look at my list of horses more than once a day. (Sometimes every time I get into my computer -- for anything.)
posted on May 3, 2003 10:33:53 AM new
I guess I am just old-fashioned! I have printed myself tracking sheets. Each line has a column for Name, User ID, Product, Paid, Amount, Sent, Confirmed, Feedback (given and left). I like to just look at my sheet, see who paid when, when I mailed it etc. It keeps me very organized.
posted on May 3, 2003 11:06:03 AM new
Why, we do it for Market Research my Fluffy friend. I check once a day to see what is getting bids to help figure out what I will list for the following week (or the next day for the same week as the case may be).
Sorting by bid number does two thngs for me ....
1) It brings all the items that are actually getting bids together rather than having them scattered thru the multiple pages of listings.
2) It helps me to see what items have the most interest - Since with my widgets I have 2 or 3 other items related to each other I can see possible interest levels for particular items that I may want to list next.
I also use my listing sites Active Listings page to see what is actually getting hits. Some lines get huge interest for a couple weeks and then die for a month or two. If one line is gets no hits, I know not to bother listing similar items for a couple weeks. On the other hand, if it gets a lot of hits but no bids, I know to try a different item in the same line.
I definately see how with your auctions, checking back on things doesn't really accomplish anything but for other catagories it can be very useful.
In my case, the account I keep the closest eye on has rewarded me with 100% sell thru for the past three weeks and one bidder buying 3-4 new items a week. I watch what they buy, look at what I have that ties in to previous purchases and set them up for the following week.
posted on May 3, 2003 11:09:30 AM new
neonmania: I was going to respond to the "fried" but you fixed it. I was going to say I'm not fried yet but it's still early.
Seriously though thanks for explaining your rationale. I'm going to give that some thought and see if I can glean something for myself out of it.
--
"It has been my great privilege to be your mother. To you, my dear and faithful son, from earth to heaven I salute you..." Julie McPhillips at the funeral of Marine 1st Lt. Brian McPhillips, killed in Iraq.
posted on May 3, 2003 11:32:54 AM new
I use Vendio. Why not, I use the set up features & am paying for that. They store my photos free. They archive all of my closed auctions, They keep an inventory & a list of buyers. I get all of this for $12.95/month. I check on going auctions everymorning. This helps m,e decide what to sell & what isn't selling for the future.
posted on May 3, 2003 11:44:30 AM new
Fluffy - I knew I had to catch that typo quick or I would never live it down.
I hope that you are able to adapt something useful from my method (or is it madness) that you can apply to your sales. That's why we are here right? (I mean other than to vent ,release a little venom here and there and occasionally wish a pox upon a bidder or two ).
posted on May 3, 2003 01:00:32 PM new
sanmar said: They archive all my closed auctions
eBay's Selling Manager does that, too, but it's only good so long as the closed auction remains in eBay's database, which is about 3-4 months.
Is that what Vendio does, or can I archive a closed auction for, say, a year?
That is a function I sorely need. We haven't figured out yet how to do it programmatically at this end.
--
"It has been my great privilege to be your mother. To you, my dear and faithful son, from earth to heaven I salute you..." Julie McPhillips at the funeral of Marine 1st Lt. Brian McPhillips, killed in Iraq.
posted on May 3, 2003 02:03:42 PM new
I use AuctionSage. The cost is $64.95 for a 1-year license (about $5.41 per month); or, $39.95 for a 6 month license (or $6.66 per month). I can use it for more than one ID.
It handles all my post-auction management, and has an interface with Endicia and Shipping Assistant. Well worth the cost in time saved. I highly recommend it.
But, I don't care for it's ad preparation feature. For that, I prefer SpareDollar ($4.95 a month, including pic hosting).
Both are low-cost programs, but are packed with features. I used to use some of the other programs mentioned, but I didn't want to pay a percentage of sales or a high monthly fee. Not saying they're bad...just that I can't justify the cost for my business. YMMV.
posted on May 3, 2003 02:39:38 PM new
As I recall Spare Dollar had the neatest active auction counter tracking around...complete with graph of time of day of hits etc and I think you could even see the IP address of the looker... I had to stick with Vendio because it is a better "fit" with my auctions but the SD counter reports were by far better than Vendio's "active auctions"! (and cheap too)
I forgot to add that I use "my eBay" to look at my active auctions. I don't know why I look..not like looking will change anything ....but it sure is addicting!! I hardly ever even look at Vendio "active auctions" as the bid counts lag by days (it seems anyway)
[ edited by neglus on May 3, 2003 03:50 PM ]
posted on May 3, 2003 02:46:36 PM new
Thanks to all who replied. I use Vendio, too (otherwise I wouldn't be here, I guess). But the nice thing about the other programs I mentioned -- Auction Ticker and AuctionMessenger -- was that they could be set to go in and automatically refresh their information on bids and amounts.
Also, checking bids on Vendio's "Active Items" pages or My eBay is slow and cumbersome. Much nicer to have a simple listing (with color coding in Messenger's case) and to keep it running most of the time. As I said, Messenger has developed a glitch that I can't get fixed, and I was just hoping someone knew of another similar program.
As for not looking at my auction results regularly, I can't imagine that. Sure, the bids will be there or not, as someone said, but the fun is in catching new customers! I think of it as a lot like fishing, and I love to get lots of bites!
posted on May 3, 2003 03:45:59 PM new
Carguy: I've always described selling on ebay to friends as fly fishing! You choose your bait, hook it, put it out, and watch to see who/what bites.
posted on May 3, 2003 04:31:12 PM new
Omigod Marshall!
I had no idea that was you. The carguy handle sure should have been a tip, though.
How is r.a these days? I miss Ronnie's ugly mug.
--
"It has been my great privilege to be your mother. To you, my dear and faithful son, from earth to heaven I salute you..." Julie McPhillips at the funeral of Marine 1st Lt. Brian McPhillips, killed in Iraq.
