i was looking on ebay for some way to manage the consignment work that has found its way in the door..
kinda all of a sudden i have 3 or 4 people i am listing for.. and i had just been doing this for a girlfriend and writing out the item number and title and insertion fees and fvf fees and re-list etc, all by hand .. i need something that can do that and i saw that vendio is listed as being a consignment manager site.. i am already using vendio .. but where is that feature?? i accidentally signed up for the inventory management thing and that is a nightmare.. every single item is different and i don't have time to list everything twice.. any suggestions??
posted on May 28, 2008 06:45:18 PM
I don't use Vendio. I host my own pictures because it's cheaper. I do do consignment. 99% of my business is consignment. I have a spreadsheet designed using Excel. It tracks everything and it's easy for my customers to understand when they get a check from me.
posted on May 28, 2008 08:07:58 PM
why dont you put those 3.4 people to work,set up a seller id for each and ask them to keep track of them,figure the listing fee,FVF,paypal fee and your fee.
*
Google does not hire stupid people.
thanks for the info..i don't have excel .. i was hoping that there was a place on here or a seller solutions thing from ebay.. but i am glad that it does actually works out do you know if anyone has tried any of those?
posted on May 28, 2008 09:16:57 PM
Lin...Most of my sales are consignment too. I've developed some pen/paper forms which work well for me. I find (for myself anyway), doing it that way is faster and easier than using a computer program. If you'd be interested, I'll be happy to send you samples...you can e-mail me at [email protected] if you want.
hwa, thanks for the idea.. i thought of that one already.. unfortunately the reason that they want me to list for them is that either they are too busy working at other things or computer phobic..
blueyes, i think you might have the best idea.. sometimes its just easier to write stuff down.. and like i said i tried that and had the whole item number and fees and then if the item had to be relisted (like most do) then it was again with the number title and fees.. i quickly end up spending 2 hours at the end of a couple of weeks of selling doing the sorting and writing, i will email to you and trade info .. i am sure that you have a better way ..
has anyone been to the solutions directory? @
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SolutionsDirectory&page=results&subgroup=1
there are a zillion different companys from vendio and auctivia to snappy seller thing-a-majig.. some of them are broken when you try to go to the page.. some are really expensive.. some are new and don't have any user comments .. i found the lmagelogik site there and its a WOW type of image host but the first week i used it the site went down and the last 4 hours of 12 auctions i was getting emails asking for photo's cuz they just weren't there ..
its really cool to check out all the different things that you can do .. i just wanted one little one that worked
posted on May 29, 2008 03:25:11 AM
Vendio's consignment software is a phantom. They have promised to release something any day now...
Paper and pencil will work for 1,2,3,4 consignors; it is not scalable, though. When I sold the business, I had 800+ consignors, some still active. Many had different commission schedules.
[Shameless plug]: consignment software is described (and some Excel formulas provided) in a book I wrote: eBay Consignment Selling & Drop Off Stores: The Unofficial How-To Guide: Getting Started, Making Money, and Retaining Your Sanity
For what it's worth, the pre-packaged consignment solutions that I found were either deficient or expensive (or both). "Rolling your own" via Excel is still probably the best solution; it worked for me for years (fair disclosure: I'm very good at Excel and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), and I enjoy it).
[ edited by cashinyourcloset on May 29, 2008 03:27 AM ]
posted on May 29, 2008 03:39:56 AM
PS At createspace, discount code A28RKSWU should get you 40% off on the book. Or, contact me for other amazing offers
posted on May 29, 2008 03:55:41 AM
Thanks, estate_classics. I'll check it out. I'm picking up more stuff today, tomorrow and Monday so I'm sure I'll be quite busy. If this program is better, I'll definitely give it a go!
posted on May 29, 2008 03:59:47 AM
Cash - I agree on the Excel thing. Once you've become familiar with Excel, it's a remarkable program. I have fun with the "@ if" formulas.
I will have to get your book. My TA business is growing by leaps and bounds. Could be the economy.
If you're comfortable with Excel, I heartily recommend learning a bit about VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). It is a procedural language, so if you've never programmed before, it might be daunting. OTOH, it is powerful beyond belief.
I built the whole system using just Excel and VBA; it's a 2-3 spreadsheet system, and it does the whole magilla of adding a new consignor, setting their default commission rates, emailing them when their item lists, computing fees, emailing them when their item sells, printing an item-by-item "invoice" for you to pay them (with the address in the right place for a windowed envelope), etc. And it's all basically free (if you have Excel already; no charge for VBA).
The one thing that I've wanted from Vendio isn't available yet. I still need to manually enter the auction number into the spreadsheet. I want a download from Vendio that give me an identifier (consignor #) on each auction, which is input when the listing is created. It should be easy for them to do.
posted on May 29, 2008 07:16:02 AM
Cash,
when you said 'computing fees',do you store the Ebay & Paypal fee schedule in your program ?
What about postage,how does it know how much the item weighs?
*
Google does not hire stupid people.
posted on May 29, 2008 07:38:30 AM
No, the PayPal and eBay fees were never charged to the consignors, but it would be relatively easy to do so. Off the top of my head, the only PITA part would be item categories that have different fee schedules and/or if you list with different features. Probably the easiest way to do it is to get a download from eBay of all fees and (via VBA) extract the fees. There are also, IIRC, API calls that can be made to eBay to get fees (3-click, the software mentioned above, does that). All that said, I never bothered; my minimum commission was $20 and getting listing fees reimbursed didn't enter into the picture.
Postage was ignored by the consignment software. The consignor doesn't get paid any part of postage, so it didn't matter one way or the other. I used Vendio/eBay to compute shipping fees to the buyer.
edited to add: I guess what I meant by fees was commissions; I "mis-spoke."
[ edited by cashinyourcloset on May 29, 2008 07:39 AM ]
You said you like @if formulas. Here's a doozy for you:
Commission formula for a sliding scale of 35% of the first $500, 25% of the next $500, and 20% of the amount over $1000, with a minimum commission of $20 (but limited by the amount of the sale so that the consignor doesn’t owe us money) is:
where the cell two columns to the left of the commission (RC[-2] ) is the selling price.
I've done a lot of Excel, but there are enough parens there to make me dizzy
Edited to add: R[-1] is the FVF, btw. If you're not familiar with relative addressing in Excel, it can come in handy.
[ edited by cashinyourcloset on May 30, 2008 10:13 AM ]
posted on May 31, 2008 09:35:57 AM
Dramamine would be considered a performance enhancing drug during the quiz which will follow shortly, so you'd be banned for failing the drug test.
posted on May 31, 2008 10:29:52 AM
Ebay Blackthorne is the only way to go, you can put in cost of item and it figures out all of the profits you are making automatically. Good luck.
posted on May 31, 2008 10:33:12 AM
How does Blackthorne help with consignment?
Figuring out profits is nice, but not strictly necessary to run a business. OTOH, consignment selling has strict requirements to know how much to pay the consignors (or you'll soon find yourself run out of town).
posted on June 1, 2008 07:33:47 PM
i am obviously surrounded by wizards..
the excel thing was sounding like the way to go till i saw the parenthesis's from hell sentence.. i suddenly love the pencil and paper, the graphite, the nice neat lines.. yea .. paper is good.. and its already here, not like we need to cut down another tree..
you are all very helpful and quite knowledgeable and very smart.. i am going back to my little listings now..
oh btw, i used to have quicken, which i really liked and understood, is there a way to utilize that software.. it sounds like some people have already been out fishing for something kinda automated and its just not here yet...
maybe it will be invented before they get to the flying car..
i really do appreciate all your help, and thank you much.
lin
ps are any of the programs in the solutions directory on ebay any good? imagelogik assures me that the crash on memorial day weekend was a first and it will never happen again .. still an neat app..
posted on June 1, 2008 09:23:34 PM
Don't pay the $ for Excel. OpenOffice from Openoffice.org provides the same functionality as Microsoft Office and is free.
posted on June 2, 2008 04:44:34 AM
Don't be afraid of Excel because of my extreme example of an @if formula.
1. You only have to figure it out once, and it can work for you indefinitely.
2. The formula can be simplified by using more than one column to compute the commission; I did it that way for the same reason that dogs lick their privates... "because I could."
3. You can always "borrow" formulas, and there are many sources.
do you know if anyone has tried any of those?