posted on January 16, 2004 05:33:21 PM new
on a good company to use for a small to medium volume lister. Main needs are a nice choice of templates, ease of use, and image hosting. I've asked this question before, and took the advice to give SpareDollar a try. I have, and they're good, when they work. But they're still going through a growth process and the all too common errors are becoming annoying. Price is not a big concern. Any other thoughts?
posted on January 16, 2004 05:35:37 PM new
Have you tried Vendio? I have used them since they were AW and free. I have looked at every other one out there - downloaded this one and that one to look at, and find that overall Vendio is the best all-around. Just my two cents
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"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to the people who sleep under the very blanket of freedom I provide, and then question the manner in which I provide it. I'd rather you just said 'thank you' and went on your way." - A Few Good Men
posted on January 16, 2004 05:51:05 PM new
I would suggest you at least check out AuctionWorks. They don't have decorative templates but you can customize the listing style color combinations etc. Listing and inventory tracking is extremely simple and their reporting options to evaluate successful items, profit margins, etc are fantastic and even include calculating of ebay fees. They offer a 2 week trial period (anything listed in the two weeks, not just what closes in the two weeks) so it's a riskless venture. They also let you know when it is expiring a few days in advance so that you can load the listings if you wish and it is extremely simple to cancel your account (at any time, not just before your trial period expires)
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on January 16, 2004 06:10:13 PM new
I know this is Vendio that I am posting on but I don't use it. their auctions look great though!!
Check out Sellers Assistant.. the price wasn't bad, but now they've raised it as of Feb 1.(course I get a freebie ) But no per item fee, you can use your own FTP (I do!), the whole shebang is there.
posted on January 16, 2004 06:12:24 PM new
Are you a vendio user now, or just visiting the board?
I came to Vendio a little over a year ago for primarily their templates, their image hosting and their automated postsale management. The Vendio template choices and their new template workshop which allows you do do just about anything you can conceive of is truly amazing, and there is nothing much else like it out there. Even their stock templates are in a league apart in both quality and quantity.
And if you don't like their templates and layouts and are willing to do the extra work and take the extra time the embedded and blank template choices limit you to only what you are willing to create and paste in. It can take some time to learn how to use everything and set all the defaults up, but after that things go really fast. The image hosting is as or more reliable than most and you can do anything you want--clickable images, non-clickable images, custom sizes, imbedded images, zoom images--you name it.
Every software program gets glitches and they can be extremely aggravating, but the image and template features compared to other services really excell here--especially for the price. You can even get it all (all the listing, image hosting custom templates, postsale management, a checkout if you want it, etc) for no monthly fee, no extra image fees, just 10 cents per listing or relisting and a 1% final value fee if you decide to pay as you go. This is the only place I know you can still profit if you only want to run one auction a month even if it is a low ticket item.
Do sign up for the free trial and then go to the My Account tab-->Template Preferences-->Template Workshop, and play around. There's no obligation and you won't be out any moolah. If you pick the pay as you go plan when your month is up there won't be any standing monthly fees to eat you up, and you can tweak and play around with the stuff as long as you like before you launch auctions and not lose any money.
(No, I don't work for Vendio, and I don't benefit if you sign up. And, yes, I get as bummed out as everyone else when there are hangups, but I stay for the templates and custom graphics and postsale).
posted on January 16, 2004 08:19:29 PM new
I am REALLY SOLD on Vendio. Love it. I've used it for at least a couple of years (lost count long ago!). But Fenix, I'd really like to know your success rate with AuctionWorks. Care to tell us more?
___________________________________
"I have resolved to allow my friends their peculiarities." -- Samuel Johnson
posted on January 16, 2004 08:55:40 PM new
Rad - you mean my sales ratio? That depends entirely on the particular line of products. I have two lines that get a 95-100% sell thru rate. Two niche catagories I list in when I have inventory that have 100% sell thru but one has about a 25% deadbeat ratio. My filler stuff (please just get this out of here type things) have about a 50% rate. I'm also usually trying out new things, testing the water on new items and those ratios are all over the place.
Works has been great for me when I test new inventory items. I click a little button beside the item and it brings up all of the auctions I have run for it, shows individual profit margins and percentages on sales and then total average profit margin, shows how many unsuccessful, etc. Thats not even a report, that's just an inventory feature. Then there are the reports where I can ull up each month and my sales and final profit numbers individually and in total with Works and eBay fees subtracted.
As far as the difference between have graphically intensive templates like I had as a Vendio user vs. simple color based templates.... I have seen no difference is sales numbers.
Basically, as long as you have a professional looking ad, good pictures, a complete or at least amusing description and a decent item I don't think that how interesting or pretty the surrounding template is. I dumped Vendio for Works not because I thought it would increase my sales but because it would help me decrease my workload. I don't have to manually figure out sell thru rates and profit margins to figure out if I want to reorder items, listing is incredibly simple, inventory tracking is simple. Post sale aspects are super simple.
Oh yeah there is one thing I keep forgetting to mention.... their storefront is included in the basic subscription. So is their customer manager but I have not used it yet.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
[ edited by Fenix03 on Jan 16, 2004 08:57 PM ]
posted on January 16, 2004 09:40:13 PM new
I have tried several. And, certainly Vendio has its faults. But, on the whole, Vendio is the best I have found.
posted on January 16, 2004 10:05:24 PM new
I've been with Auctionwatch/Vendio since they started. When they started charging fees, the freeloaders published lists of every competitor on the net trying to get users to switch in protest. I couldn't find a single one that could begin to measure up at that time. I realize that some of the others have added bells and whistles and matured in the interim, but so has Vendio. In my book, they're #1, I've made money using them, and to their chagrin, they are stuck with me.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on January 17, 2004 01:38:00 AM new
I dumped SD back in DEC -- can no longer recommend them, as the technical problems became too exasperating -- NTM his doing a complete system overhual during NOVEMBER!! Ruined the most important mo of the year
I went back to CA -- good software, but veeeery expensive ($30/mo) considering that they too have spped problemos
Landed at INK-FROG, which I believe is the old ?? BayPal??
So far, I'm very impressed with the site for their $12.95/mo price.
The image uploader & image editor work great.
They have a number of auction-creation tools that are KEWL!
posted on January 17, 2004 07:10:16 AM new
Fenix said: "I click a little button beside the item and it brings up all of the auctions I have run for it"
Fenix, I've use Auctionworks for years, and between your post and two on the Powersellers board I've learned at least three new things about AW this week!
I always assumed the little "?" was a help button and never clicked it. This is unbelievable useful!
The "auto-relaunch when item sells" profile was another feature I'm just learning about.
I especially like the "automated relist" feature. I just pick what I was to sell, and if I qualify for a free relist, it'll do it for me automatically. I don't have to track that at all.
Auctionworks has just SOOO many features, you'll never master them all.
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Replay Media
Games of all kinds!
posted on January 17, 2004 07:12:34 AM new
Also... Any auction system can launch beautiful auctions with nice tempplates if you know a little HTML. It's really the reports and post-sale features that help profitability.
"knowledege is money."
-------------------
Replay Media
Games of all kinds!
posted on January 17, 2004 07:26:26 AM new
Fenix: Thanks for the detailed explanation and description of AuctionWorks. I may give it a try someday; for now, I'm pretty hooked on Vendio. But we shall see!
___________________________________
"I have resolved to allow my friends their peculiarities." -- Samuel Johnson
posted on January 17, 2004 08:17:21 AM new
Questions for Fenix and replaymedia on Works:
I switched to Vendio from Auctionworks over the template issue because the kinds if items I sell are actually selling art as an example of potential creativity, dreams, and nostalgia as a collectible ---and my templates require more than just a little html. Even if the items don't sell at all I get private requests for restoration and reconstoration services that I don't get if my templates look like they could professionally sell batteries and auto parts just as well.
There were no blank or embedded listing templates if I wanted to control all the html and there was no way to handle the titles in my own description. They said they might change that in the future--do either of you know if they have added any more flexible template features or at least a blank template option yet?
I also cnanged over because they were set up to switch everything in and out of the storefront automatically at auction close, a real boon for a store as an auction sell-thu enterprise or ebay store competitor, but I wanted to keep my store merchandise and my auction merchandise separate so I could attract 2 different kinds of clientelle. Has that changed or is it still the same as far as you know?
posted on January 17, 2004 10:05:46 AM new
Passed - you can enter custom HTML into the template profile in the settings area if you cant something more dynamic.
As far as the inventory/store issue - I'm not sure I understand your question but you can choose when you build your inventory record whether or not an item goes into your storefront which would allow you control of what exists in the store itself. Is that what you were referring to?
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on January 17, 2004 10:17:19 AM new
Vendio has certainly met my needs for 3 years. I tried AW but it was just too expensive for a lower price and volume seller like me. I know you said cost was not a concern for you, but why pay more if you don't have to?
posted on January 17, 2004 02:15:22 PM new
Thanks Fenix. Custom html roll in won't fix the templates themselves. When I was there the templates were really incredibly abominable colors--maybe they are much better now. Also when I was there, to get a gallery you had to have a store (like Vendio) and if there was a store open all the auction items at close automatically rolled into the storefront. Plus, there was no way to disconnect the titles and descriptions so they could be run differently in the store and auctions. Now that I have an offsite gallery I wouldn't need either their gallery or their store, so from what you have said I may go back eventually and check them out, especially if glitches in the Vendio/paypal checkout integration recur with any of my current batch or the customers complain they can't check out.
Thanks again.
posted on January 17, 2004 02:15:36 PM new
I have Vendio from the very start as Auction Watch,. (it was free for a while) Haven't ever tried another. I am completely satisfied with the service, price & ease of using it. I have set up boilerplate TOS in pending files & all I have to is put in the header, price & description of item. Everything is canned except Gallery & sometimes I use it & sometimes not.
[ edited by sanmar on Jan 19, 2004 12:27 AM ]
posted on January 17, 2004 04:30:12 PM new
I appreciate all the helpful input. I had used Vendio in the past, but it's been at least 2 years and I imagine it's gotten easier and more reliable. Any thoughts on Andale vs. Vendio? In my own research Andale seems like an option that fits the bill for me. Please remember, this thread is just specific to my case.....a small to medium user...about 50 auctions a month. Looking for nice templates and ease of use, and reliability.
) But no per item fee, you can use your own FTP (I do!), the whole shebang is there.
