posted on March 5, 2001 01:56:30 AM
I currently use AW and AM Pro just to schedule my auction launch times to spread them throughout the evening. I have found that I get much more exposure this way and many more multiple bidders. It has meant so much extra sales that I just can't go back to the old way of using Mr. Lister and having all the auctions end at the same time.
I create my own templates and I have my own domain for image hosting. I don't use AW's clunky, unreliable post auction features. (Tried it - my customers hated it.)All I use AW for is for the convenient launching & scheduling features.
With the impending demise of this site, I have been seeking other methods of scheduling the launch times of my auctions. I've used another very similar auction service before and thier price is right ($19.99/mo.) but they have problems launching any auctions with an item description of over 7,000 characters. (Anyone know if they fixed this bug yet?) I would love to keep using the AW site and would glady pay a flat-rate monthly fee of up to $20 per month. I can't justify paying the $66+ per month that AW's new plan would cost me on the low profit items that I primarily sell.
Tonight, I tried the combo of using Ebay's Mr. Lister program and a free service that schedules the launching of Mr. Lister batches. (I put one item in each batch and submitted them to Ebay. I then went to the other site and pulled up a list of my Mr. Lister batches and scheduled them to launch 15 minutes apart.) This works very well but takes a little longer to schedule and is more difficult than using AW's AM Pro. You have to go through two steps instead of one. On the plus side: The timing is much more exact using this method. (If you schedule for 7:00, your auction is launched at something like 7:00:11. AW was almost always several minutes behind.) Another plus is that by using Mr. Lister, you get all of the latest Ebay options, such as Billpoint instant purchase.
Anyone out there have any other easier methods or ideas for us folks who use just the scheduling feature only of AW and can't afford to pay for all the other fluff? What I'd really like is an offline auction management program that I could set up to dial in, launch an auction and disconnect at scheduled intervals. It would be nice to have the option to be able to schedule 30 days or more in advance too. Anyone have any better free or reasonably priced soulutions for scheduling auction launch times only?
posted on March 5, 2001 03:19:16 AMYES! www.theotherlaunchsitethatworksgreat.com
has fixed the 7000 limit! Your auction can be as long as ya like & mine are pretty wordy!
It has yet to take me longer than about 1 minute to launch an auction!
posted on March 5, 2001 11:08:05 AM
Thanks tomwiii for letting me know that they got the 7,000 charachet problem fixed. I'll check it out.
I may just stick with Mr. Lister and the service that schedules Mr. lister batch launches. At least that method is free. Once I get all my auctions saved into Mr. Lister it won't take much longer that using AM Pro anyhow.
Why should I have signed up before 3/1? Was it cheaper before then? Last time I used them, the site was very clunky to use and you had to click through a lot of pages to get anything done. Have they improved this with the new system?
posted on March 5, 2001 12:30:56 PM
Hi, How do I access Mr. Lister. All I want to do is write up my auction during the week and launch them on Saturday or Sunday. I can not seem to find a free site to do this on. AW fees, ebays fees, paypals fees, are eating my profits up. I am a small time seller, just trying to make a few. Any help from all you would be appreciated.
posted on March 5, 2001 12:41:11 PM
That is all I am looking for also. Something to schedule with. Can someone e-mail me about the free product that schedules the auctions with MR. Lister. That would be a great help.
posted on March 6, 2001 03:57:09 AM
"Tonight, I tried the combo of using Ebay's Mr. Lister program and a free service that schedules the launching of Mr. Lister batches. (I put one item in each batch and submitted them to Ebay. I then went to the other site and pulled up a list of my Mr. Lister batches and scheduled them to launch 15 minutes apart.)"
If you place UNRELATED items in each batch, you could launch multiple auctions and still make it possible for the buyers to snipe at the end. Or put the "snipe me" button from that site into your text.
posted on March 6, 2001 06:23:55 AM
ebay has hinted that seller-specified launch times are coming. Wish they'd hurry up. No excuse, imho, for not doing it long ago.
