eadeals
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posted on September 13, 2000 08:29:57 AM
I am starting to fall prey to the number of auctions I'm managing.
I don't mind listing the items by hand, but the aftermath - the emailing, the checklist (first get payment, then ship item, then leave feedback, etc) is hard when you have 5-10 a day and you only have an hour to do it all.
What's the best software out there?
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dawlsgrl
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posted on September 13, 2000 03:56:20 PM
Hi! I really haven't found any "software" but I have found a wonderful auction service! Go to auctionrover.com, they will create auctiomatic invoices for you, send your winners auto emails, post your auctions at any specific time, add counters, give you an inventory, image hosting, ect! You have full control over everything and they make it so easy! Best of all its COMPLETELY FREE! They even send you a sellers kit when you sign up, it comes with packing tape, labels, pens and even letters to include in your packages! It's so awesome, I don't know how I got along without it!
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mballai
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posted on September 13, 2000 04:14:19 PM
I currently use a homemade Access 97 database that puts prints my labels, letters, EOA notices, checks etc. in Word 97 via Mail Merge. This is obviously not a real simple thing to do, but I had a course in Access and three years of database programming experience, so it was easy enough for me.
A simple Excel spreadsheet can track your auctions and it's not difficult to mail merge it with Word. (I see no reason why you can't do this with a WordPerfect or Lotus software suite as well) You really don't "need" more than this to log your sales. If you know the basics of these programs, it's very easy to create what you need.
The specialized programs are for high volume sellers, those who don't know office software, or those who don't mind paying money for things they think they need but really do not.
The only thing you might want is free: a good bulk lister--Auction Manager is fine!
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kimchi
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posted on September 25, 2000 10:01:09 AM
Hi there,
I have tried eBud, AAPro, Goto Auctions and a few others. The best client side program I have found is Invenna AuctionAmigo from www.invenna.com. They do all the things you want, plus they have some reporting and stuff.
AuctionWatch does a good job too.
-Kim
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mrpotatoheadd
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posted on September 25, 2000 10:30:49 AM
mballai-
You have posted this comment before...
The specialized programs are for high volume sellers, those who don't know office software, or those who don't mind paying money for things they think they need but really do not.
and I'd like to ask a question. You said all you really need is Access 97, Word 97 and Excell to manage your auctions. I've asked a number of people I know, and most do not have them (I don't), so I'd assume that most people in general don't, either. I checked these titles on completed auctions at eBay and came up with these totals: Access- $91, Word- $57 and Excel- $152, for a total of $300.
Considering that there are auction management software programs available for around $30 or so, wouldn't buying the programs you recommend be "paying money for things they think they need but really do not" when there is an alternative available to do the precise job required for about 10% of the cost?
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amalgamated2000
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posted on September 25, 2000 10:39:46 AM
Anyone using methods such as mballai suggests should check out the Mr Lister Developers' specs. You can enter all of your auction info into your spreadsheet or database, then merge it with word into an email that is automatically submitted to Mr Lister.
I then use the Lister service at Vrane.com to easily launch or schedule my collections.
It's certainly not for everyone, but the amount of work that it saves me is amazing.
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All rights reserved. All wrongs reversed.
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mballai
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posted on September 25, 2000 11:47:41 AM
mr potatoheadd
A lot of business users as well as many students have spreadsheet and word processing software. One can download Sun Staroffice for free. Copies of WordPerfect Office are inexpensive and my computer came with Lotus SmartSuite, many have the same or Microsoft Works. All of which are quite adequate.
Anyone who is really in business should have this sort of software--you might be able to do much of what you need with some pre-fab auction software, but everyone sooner or later uses traditional business software.
One sticking point for much pre-fab stuff--it's usually for eBay only.
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debbielennon
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posted on September 25, 2000 11:58:10 AM
I have to agree with kimchi--Auction Amigo is awesome------and it's a free download! I still use AW for image hosting & auction listings, but you can do that through Auction Amigo. The thing I like best is that it calculates your gross profit and gross profit percent. It also keeps track of your ebay fees for each item, allows to to input your actual shipping and shipping charged, item costs, etc.....it really saves me a lot of time!
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Joanne
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posted on September 25, 2000 02:10:03 PM
The thing I like the best about AuctionAmigo is the ability to create my listing ahead of time and post it when I want 
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labbie1
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posted on September 25, 2000 02:18:13 PM
Using Ebud for Ebay for the moment.
Using Auction Tamer for all others.
Auction Tamer and I are really getting friendly and I love it! It works on a LOT of different auction sites including Ebay, Yahoo, Amazon, Ubid etc.
By the time that my 2 year grandfather period is up with Ebud, I will be completely on Auction Tamer.
I use AW to list.
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dave_michmerhuizen
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posted on September 25, 2000 02:29:03 PM
I have just lately switched to A.I.D. from epigroove.com - it only handles ebay tho... I still use re-sale for yahoo auctions. You can download it and try it for 25 auctions, then pay to unlock.
It is for just those things you mention. After-sale accounts payable tracking. If you are closing 5-10 a day like I do you have to have such a thing or you'll go nuts.
ebay: [email protected]
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Murph
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posted on September 25, 2000 04:50:00 PM
Question for the AuctionAmigo users--does the program automatically create letters for customers who win more than one auction? That's what I like most about eBud is its ability to create custom letters for multiple auction winners with no input from me.
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debbielennon
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posted on September 25, 2000 04:54:34 PM
Yes--it recognizes a multiple auction winner & asks you whether you want to combine all the wins into one email notice.
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amalgamated2000
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posted on September 25, 2000 04:55:46 PM
Murph, yes Amigo will auctomaically create a combined email for winners of muplitiple auctions.
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All rights reserved. All wrongs reversed.
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mballai
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posted on September 25, 2000 08:40:25 PM
I've changed my mind about Auction Manager Pro. Since the auctions want to sit in midair before launching whenever it is done "processing" I cannot depend upon it to reliably launch. Back to designing a homemade program.
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Murph
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posted on September 25, 2000 08:51:30 PM
Thanks for the info on Auction Amigo. I've downloaded it and will try it in tandem with eBud to track this week's auctions.
I've been using ePoster to launch auctions, which works well for me since they also have a zShops auction launcher as well. I'll see how Auction Amigo does with eBay ads--perhaps I'll just use ePoster for zShops.
Thanks again!
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rnrgroup
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posted on September 25, 2000 09:39:02 PM
ManageAuctions.Com is another alternative. As is the Collector Online Info Management System. Both Invenna's AA and GotoAuction (formerly know as auctionrover) are good, and though I have not tried it, lots of folks like AW's tools. -Rosalinda
TAGnotes - daily email synopsis about the Online Auction Industry
http://www.topica.com/lists/tagnotes
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AnonymousCoward
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posted on September 25, 2000 10:09:30 PM
I'm trying Auction Amigo and I get this error message when I start it.
runtime error 13
type mismatch
What can cause this?
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mballai
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posted on September 25, 2000 10:42:35 PM
runtime error can mean almost any kind of error that a program encounters and doesn't recover from. A type mismatch normally refers to two kinds of data that are incompatible--like the name: "John Doe" and the number: 125. If they changed 125 to "One Hundred Twenty Five", you could combine or otherwise process these chunks of info together.
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thewizofoz
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posted on September 25, 2000 11:06:31 PM
Effective for hundreds of auctions: Mister Lister pre-saved templates with HTML generated from AOLpress or Frontpage Express. All Public domain, FOR FREE. Many of my auctions are similar, so I work from about 50 different templates and only have to modify a very little bit of information between each item. Also, all of my auction descriptions look uniform in design, which is very professional. Image hosting does not work for me, because there is no way to MASS-UPLOAD hundreds of images at once with these image hosting services. They are too cumbersome. All of my pictures share a common root URL and are numbered sequencially from uploading them directly from my flash card for my digital camera with my flash card reader on to my FTP space. I do not pay extra for my private FTP space, as my ISP has given me 15 meg for free to host images and webpages, quite handy and they are quite reliable.
This is what works for me anyway...
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill
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nokternl
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posted on September 26, 2000 01:36:59 AM
You might also want to check out the free 30 day demo of "Shooting Star". You can check out the features and download it at www.foodogsoftware.com. I've been using it for about 2 months and it's a great program. I've tried about 15 auction management programs and it is the best by far.
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cougar1972
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posted on September 26, 2000 02:35:07 PM
I'm trying out Auction Amigo, and I have a question about the automated emails. How do you set it up to add shipping costs into the Congratulations email? Am I missing something?
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smw
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posted on September 26, 2000 02:54:26 PM
Could someone tell me if there is a relationship between Invenna and Auction Amigo ? Thanks.
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debbielennon
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posted on September 26, 2000 02:57:08 PM
There might be an easier way that I haven't found yet, but once the auction is completed, go to Task Manager. Under "Enter Payment Info" you can enter shipping charges. Then when you send your automated Congratulations email your shipping will be calculated into the <Total Breakdown>.
[ edited by debbielennon on Sep 26, 2000 02:58 PM ]
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mrpotatoheadd
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posted on September 26, 2000 08:34:09 PM
Could someone tell me if there is a relationship between Invenna and Auction Amigo ?
Invenna Software, Inc. (the company) owns Auction Amigo (the eBay auction management program).
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kimchi
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posted on September 27, 2000 10:51:34 AM
Hi cougar. There are a couple of ways Invenna says you can do this. One is to enter the shipping cost into an auction that you are creating with their auction creator. Second is add the shipping cost into an auction that has ended in the Task Manager.
Then, when you open up the congratulations email, you have the ability to see the shipping! Also, you can edit the email with the email editor in the tools menu.
Pretty cool. Hope this helps.
-K
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kimchi
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posted on September 27, 2000 10:53:24 AM
Hi anonymous coward (nice name),
I just got done talking with Invenna's support people. you can email them at their support address. They have been very quick to respond and [email protected].
-K
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labbie1
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posted on September 27, 2000 11:19:17 AM
kimchi You should really ask AnonymousCoward about the name! ROFL!
But then, again, do we want to get THAT started again? 
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junkthis
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posted on September 27, 2000 11:20:24 AM
Help Help Help (I've got a headache) over which auction software to choose that also LISTS WITH EBAY MOTORS. Seems I read all these posts and get all excited only to usually find they do not support the imfauous EBAY Motors website. Anyone know off hand if any software supports the EBay Motors site? Thanks a plenty.
JunkThis
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labbie1
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posted on September 27, 2000 11:21:15 AM
And that reminds me, where in the heck is Bloviate these days? 
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