Alternatives To Ebay's Turbo Lister?

I have had many issues with ebay's Turbo Lister over the past year and having to export them to my desktop, deleting the program and then re-installing and adding back everything...making corrections etc. Its just becoming too much of a headache.

I was wondering what others are using and the experiences they've had both good and bad. Are there any good options available?

I'd really appreciate any input forum members can provide.

Thanks much,
Don

Six-Bit Software

Unless you are willing to pay for an app, Turbo Lister is it. As I found out. I can understand your frustration just having re-formatted my HD and having done the same thing. It took me 3 tries to get Turbo Lister back to where I wanted it.....sorta.

I highly recommend Sixbits. It's not for the occasional seller, but I think you have plenty of sales to justify the cost.

Ken

Ken

You've mentioned Six Bits before. I've never used any listing accessories. Assuming a few dozen ebay sales per month, is it worth it? How does it make life easier?

Regards.

Geoff

Clark recommended Sixbits to me about 5 years ago, so he could explain it better but I'll try. Sixbits can be used to list items, revise listing, process Invoices, do mailing labels and probably a lot more, I only use the listing functionality. Sixbits is based on a series of templates that are overlaid on each other to create an auction. Once you have developed your templates it's just a few clicks to create an auction.

After I take my pictures and have them processed and ready for ebay I open Sixbits. I have a template for each collection that I am selling. I open a template choose the appropriate pictures, choose the ebay category and type in the name of the country that I'm selling and I'm done. Sixbits will upload the pictures to either ebay or my ISP and I can review my auction. If some of the stamps will be mailed in a glassine I click a "snipptet" to add that sentence to the description. If I need to use a different shipping charge that is another preset I can choose. It takes me less than 2 minutes per auction to get them ready, I can keep them for listing on Thursday when I start my auctions or I can submit the to ebay to be scheduled in the future.

One thing that I really like about Sixbits is that all my sales are recorded in a SQL Database that is accessible from Sixbits. I have a record of 5600 different things I've sold and I often use this for research. As I sell a collection I accumulated the sales in a folder which I export to Excel so I can easily determine the total sales for that collection, or I can search for every France collection I've sold, or every Sc #65 cover. It's very useful. The Small Business version I use costs $35/month with free month trial. Their support is quick and excellent, it supports Bidstart and there is no additional charge for multiple computers. Sixbits does an occasional upgrade to their software, these are always free and Sixbits works fine if I don't get around to installing the upgrade.

I hope this helps give you an idea of Sixbits. I've never used Turbolister so I can't do a comparison.

The SixBit ecommerce solution is published is subscription software that can be downloaded to the desktop. It has multiple levels, including the free Home and Hobby edition with somewhat limited capabilities. It can be downloaded from

https://www.sixbitsoftware.com/clie....php?aff=018

It will also download and install Microsoft SQL Server Express to power the SQL Server relational database used by the product. (SQL Server Express is free.)

SixBit has many advantages over TurboLister including the ability to manage orders including sending invoices, printing packing lists, posting feedback and sending shipped status to ebay when the order is mailed.

I stopped using the old version of TurboLister after some listings disappeared after I had accidentally hit some obscure key combination. I started with SA Pro, moved to Blackthorne and then migrated to SixBit when John Slocum and his crew were laid off from ebay. Subsequently, ebay terminated Blackthorne with prejudice, forcing remain users to jump ship to other software like SixBit. The upgrade to SixBit was probably the least difficult choice.

Why is SixBit needed? The ebay Sell Your Item Form and their web site doesn't scale very well, besides being slow. Store users with access to Selling Manager Pro are not much better off. Records of listings and sales disappear after a few months. Having a desktop application with a true relational database means that sales data can be retained indefinitely. Knowledge of SQL is helpful but not required. Unlike TurboLister, the SixBit database is open and can be queried from other applications like SQL Server Management Studio, giving it almost unlimited flexibility.

While it has long been rumored that TurboLister will disappear, ebay has stopped talking about any sort of replacement software. They may just shut it down anyway.

Clark

Can you import TurboLister listings into Six Bit?

I appreciate all the responses. Today I deleted and re-installed the entire Turbo Lister for the 6th time in the past 8 days. I had the Geek Squad check and my computer is running just fine and even the support at Turbo Lister is baffled about the problems I've had. Does Six Bit also synchronize like Turbo Lister? Will unsold and sold lots come back into the database showing what has sold and what can be listed again or does the user have to monitor and manage the data base?

Yes, you can import from TurboLister or active listings directly from ebay. I am not sure if TurboLister will export running listings, another annoyance. Start with a TurboLister import and then synchronize with ebay.

When using SixBit it is very helpful to assign a unique SKU (your inventory number) to each item. Also include the SKU (and catalog number) in associated image file names. The SixBit SKU can be mapped into the ebay Custom Label. This will insure that listings with duplicate titles are not confused or merged into one SixBit item. If ebay Custom Labels are not used, having duplicate titles is one way to attract the ebay Duplicate Listing Police. Even if no duplicate titles exist, assigning inventory numbers to the SixBit SKU is highly desirable.

Clark