If you could only ask for ONE thing to improve AW2000 - what would it be? There are so many great ideas out there and I am sure Thom and crew are working on some of them, but if I had any say in the matter, the one thing that I would love to be able to do is LIST AUCTIONS WHILE I AM AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER. Those of you who have never used this feature will be amazed at how tied down you have been - appointments missed, vacations unplanned, extra time spent babysitting the process while 30 or 40 pictures are uploaded and auctions listed. This can all be automated and auctions listed weeks in advance while you are on vacation or gone for the weekend. This is my wish - hope it comes true some day. :>)

Lenny

My biggest current wish would be the implementation of html code that disables right clicking photos in the auction. It's easy code widely available on the internet and prevents others from easily stealing your photos or bandwidth. I've caught several other sellers with photos in their listing and the photos are actually linked in the html to display from my domain !!! My bandwidth costs have gone up $25 a month already just listing 20 - 30 items a day.

On a side note... if that could be implemented via a checkbox to turn the right click disable html code on or off, that would be even better. I imagind this would be implemented fairly easily from where ever Auction Wizard generates the final html for the auction lot. Plus the ability to use html in the lot description box would also be nice.... :)

Thank you so much for answering - I guess everyone else feels that the program is perfect and wouldn't change a thing!! :>)

Lenny

It wouldn't solve your problem ! You are mixing two things; stealing a photo with a right click and 'Save picture as' only saves the picture and not the link. This you can see with 'properties' after a right click but also and more easily by simply viewing the whole source of a webpage. This will probably be the way those people steal your pictures AND link to the file on your domain. Implementing a dozen scripts which prohibit a right click won't solve this.

It would be great if you could add html code to the actual advertisement. Perhaps by right mouse clicking on a word and "add link" would appear where you could enter the url and mak it a live link. For the moment it seems you can ONLY do this by adding it to the template. If you need to do this for different items and each one is different. (Like pointing them to the url where the product is sold retail to show price) it makes it unmanageable and tedious. . . . suggestions?

Will ebay cars be included in the Ebay categories?

My big request:

It would be nice if the AW2K could import the purchaser's shipping address and name from a paypal instant payment notification email!


- John

I have some javascript code that will disable all right clicking. It disables the "hold down left mouse button, then click right mouse" trick too. No right click pop-ups whatsoever. Email me if you want this code tekdeals@hotmail.com . Of course, if someone knows what they are doing they will just click View(up top) then View Source and they'll see the links to all your pics. :\

1) "Bidder Identities Hidden" (some of us do sell to closet crossdressers ya know ;)

2) The ability to have a smaller image show up in the auction and have the viewer be able to "supersize" it (there are several programs that let you do that - they just have a crappier interface) in another window ...

3) be able to paste HTML Code DIRECTLY into the auction text area (I used to write my auctions in dreamweaver and loved the freedom of being able to format things like wish#2 above)

Just for the record, unless they have changed this REALLY recently, eBay FORBIDS the use of Javascript in the auctions and has been known to end auctions arbitrarily if a user had Jscript in their ad ... unfortunately its usually the little people and not the powersellers who get their *$$ capped for this. Ugh ... I just love how ebay plays favorites! (NOT)

- Lil Sorepaws

For #3, you CAN paste html code directly into the description box, but you must not be using a template in order for it to work. I do all my auctions that way.

My #1 wish - more automatic emails - hehe...my broken record request. If we batch notification emails, why not auto-create and que emails when someone pays and when we ship? All auction sellers should be doing this anyway. It would make everything so seamless....

GREAT IDEA! So many use paypal now and this would save a ton of hour of typing.

Actually, you can do that. Just highlight the name and address in the email and press the Store Buyer Address button (toward the right side of the tool bar).

One of the things I do to keep people from copying my photos is to import the photo into a photo editing program, (I use photoshop), and with a text tool I insert my company name and the copyright symbol and the year. For instance, Worldwide Decor (c) 2003. Then I set the opacity real low to where you can see the picture clearly, and just barely make out the words. Nobody will want to copy your picture then because everybody would know they stole it.

I also have the code for disabling the right click if anybody needs it. But I think putting your name on the picture is the best way to stop theives.

Actually you can use a template AND paste HTML. I do so in all my auctions because I want my pictues "in-line." I do keep the template very simple however. I use 1 generic template that sets the basic color and puts a border around the auction.

I wrote a MS Access program to generate the html because we use simlar but distinct formats for different types of clothes because picture formats are different and the shipping and insurance are different for each type.

I can't keep it to 1 because there are 2 big ones that cost me a huge amount of time.

In no particular order:

There are times that we want to either update our look and feel, add a special link or otherwise update our auctions. For example we have recently changed where our pictures are hosted. We are getting ready to change our preferred shipping partner so all the shipping and insurance rates will be wrong.

For auction items this is no big deal. At least every 10 days every auction gets re-listed so I can make my changes in Auction Wizard and they will get propegated to the auctions when re-listed. The problem comes with store items which are listed at a minimum of 120 days and usually good until cancelled.

It is a ROYAL PAIN to go into every item on eBay and edit the html, even when it is just a select all, then cut and paste the new code. It takes a very long time to update over 400 items in that fashion. I WOULD LOVE to see an update auction lot feature added to AW2K. I realize it would require some API programming on your end but if you could provide a new status "UPDATE LOT DATA" or something similar I could make all my changes in AW2K and propegate them to my store while I go get some coffee. (As opposed to thousands of clicks involved in finding items on eBay and updating the appropriate fields.)
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Support for good until cancelled store listings. We list almost all of our store items as good until cancelled. We have almost 400 store only items and put up a pretty big number every week.

The way it is now I have to list my auction items as a batch, then list my store items individually and go through the tedium of changing the listing period and clicking submit twice. This takes at least 30 seconds per listing on broadband. It may not sound like a big deal but it really adds up and creates another opportunity for a listing to get messed up.

I wish AW2K would support eBay's new feature of showing the photo at the top of the page.

If AW2K can interface with eBay for Gallery photos, why not also use their one free photo host to give my customers a photo at the top of the screen?

I'll second that wish...
I would really appreciate having the photo back in the upper corner instead of just in the description.
Now that eBay says the pic must be 'iPix' seems that AW could fix that for us.

Seems this should be automatic especailly if you pay for gallery listing that the picture would show at the top of the listing page. what to do? what to do??

I'll second the OP's wish -- I'd like nothing better than to be able to schedule auctions through AW2K with the added ability to separate lots by 1 or 2 minutes (as we can do now). I enjoy being able to walk away from the computer while 40 or 50 auctions are being launched over the next hour, but to be able to schedule them to start while I'm away on a trade show trip or vacation (what's that???), would be awesome! I doubt if that's do-able because we'd have to leave the computer on while we're away -- I don't think eBay's Pending feature will let us launch lots with a space of time between them -- :(

Glenda

If you want to pay the .10, Ebay does, in fact, let you space out your auctions however you'd like. What I do (when I use the feature, which is rare now) is tell AW2K to upload them all at once for a future scheduled time. Then I go to My Ebay and select all the pending auctions for time edit. It's at this point that you can set a start time and a spacer. It's one of the few things Ebay made that's efficiently edited :)

For what it's worth, when I know I'll be out of town, I pay the .10/auction and setup for the whole time I'm gone. For 4 or 5 days, thats about 80 auctions, or about $8.00. Not bad for peace of mind AND you don't have to worry about computer crashes, blackouts, or some huge storm killing your pc. I'm so paranoid when I am out of town I would never feel good about letting my pc do the work - not nearly as reliable as the Ebay method.

Hope that helps!
Rich

I've run into the same exact problem, and since January have had to re-upload at least 500 store itmes twice now.

If there is no easy way to allow automated editing, then some automated way of ENDING the auctions would be a godsend. At least then you could mass kill the store items, then use aw2k to mass re-upload them. If you think about it, it's a lot simpler than most of AW2K other automations - Ebay only asks 2 questions - ID#, and Explanation.

BTW...last time I re-uploaded I went with the AW2K supported 120 day auctions. I just didn't have it in me to hand edit every auction AGAIN ;-)

Rich

Thanks for that info Rich! I didn't realize you could do that -- I agree, definitely worth the .10 price tag to have things launched at the time you want them whether you're there to oversee it or not!!!

Glenda

I wish we only had ONE GRID to deal with. There's a lot of confusion that exists between the Lots and Invoices grids, and the Show/Hide status' are not the same in each, so its 'good luck' in finding in Lots the auction you're looking at in Invoices. Also, it would be nice if the Invoice number was the same as the Lot number. And not being able to identify an auction on the Invoices grid is awful because that's the screen I work with for all ended auctions...only in Lots can we click on the Icon to actually go to the auction. I've never needed it in Lots, but need it every day in Invoices, and its not there. There's no way to go to Lots and easily find that auction, so I just use my browser and go to ebay and locate it there.

The bottom line is I'd like to see the after-auction management part of the program made a whole lot easier and faster to use. But If I could be granted only ONE wish, it would be to have only ONE grid.

"it would be nice if the Invoice number was the same as the Lot number"

I have to disagree with that one -- I have bidders who win 5, or even 10, lots per auction and if the invoice # was the same as the lot #, I'd have to send 5 or 10 invoices to just one bidder -- you couldn't merge lots at all and that's one of AW2Ks strengths that I particularly like!

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to do --

"not being able to identify an auction on the Invoices grid is awful because that's the screen I work with for all ended auctions...only in Lots can we click on the Icon to actually go to the auction. "

-- while you're in the Invoices window, you can switch from "grid" view where you have the invoice number, to "invoice items" view where you have all the auction lot numbers, along with the titles, that are associated with that invoice. You also have the hammer icon that takes you to the individual lot, plus the globe icon that takes you to the page on eBay so you can check your buyer's country and or/feedback. Seems very efficient to me, and I can always see quickly what lots I'm dealing with for any invoice number. Am I misunderstanding what you're trying to do?

Glenda

Glenda, You are right...the hammer...the globe, in the Invoice Items view. I never saw them. You're also right about the numbers having to be different if you have a winner of more than one auction. Chalk that suggestion up to a seller who very rarely has a buyer of multiple auctions. So...I've learned something that's going to help me alot. Thanks! I've had a great deal of difficulty seeing how the Lots grid works with the Invoices grid...I think my main hang-up is due to not being able to see what auctions are in the Invoices grid list, just line after line with boxes with numbers in them. I really dread having to find out where a particular auction is in that grid, whereas if it had a title it could just be seen, like it is in the Lots grid. Maybe AW will give us that one of these days. Thanks for your help!

Jeannie

While we're wishing for added columns in Invoices - grid view, I'd like a column that gives me the buyer's name or ID. That'd make it a lot quicker to match payments to invoices when they haven't included the invoice # (which they hardly ever do!). They always include the eBay ID number(s), which doesn't help me much at all.

Glenda

Oh, it is doable all right - when the current SAPro that eBay owns was owned by Blackthorne, we had that capability and it did not cost anything extra. Yes, one had to leave the computer on but as so many of us eBayers have broadband or 24 hour service, it was not a problem. I went on several trips and was able to list auctions while I was gone. Did you know that you can do it now with eBay? - they just charge extra for the service. Check out the AW2000 listing window when you list your auctions, - you will see under the check mark and small box for how many minutes apart your auctions should list, another box where you can pre-list ahead and pick any day and time.

Thanks Chad. It's good to know that there is a way using AW2K -- I hadn't noticed that checkbox for future launching! I don't mind (at least not too much) paying eBay an extra .10 for the service -- I had a drive fried once because of a thunderstorm and I don't ever want to repeat that experience, so I shut 'er down when I'm going to be away! Actually, it was the "floppy disk control board" back in the days before hard drives had been thought of for home computers! A TRS-80 with 48Kb of RAM and the internet wasn't available for anyone except scientists and the government ... does that date me or what??!!!!

Glenda

I can beat you on that one - I remember when there was no television. Horrors!! You are welcome. Lenny

Lenny, I wasn't going to admit to that, but I used to do my homework for school while listening to "Inner Sanctum" and "Lux Radio Theatre" on the radio. I also remember when 45 rpm records were a wonderful new innovation! Now, kids don't even know what a record is!!!

Glenda

In reply to:

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Just for the record, unless they have changed this REALLY recently, eBay FORBIDS the use of Javascript in the auctions and has been known to end auctions arbitrarily if a user had Jscript in their ad ... unfortunately its usually the little people and not the powersellers who get their *$$ capped for this. Ugh ... I just love how ebay plays favorites! (NOT)

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There are ONLY certain javascripts that eBay does not allow. Their listing pages will even disable any listings being submitted with those particular javascripts. Among these are scripts that capture personal data from visitors among others. Not all javascripts are against eBay policy. The protective scipt is fine to use and does not cause problems with eBay's system. Believe you me, PowerSellers are not above having their listings shut down! I've suffered from no notification over the past few weeks to 6 listings shut down due to changes in listings policy!

this is the single most needed feature for auction watch and the ONE thing that seperates it from many of the online auction servies in a bad way. not being able to schedule an automated batch of listings.

most of the online auction services offer time delay auction listings and if AW2k did this as well itd probably outsell every auction service out there...

not being able to schedule an automated listing with aw2k
is its most serious drawback and one of the few things that it doesnt equal or beat vs. online auction services.

i list alot of similar items and dont want them conflicting with eachother too much, having to list each one individually is often a headache and not very efficient.

this feature would benefit everyone tremendously.

be able to list in the cureency of my choice.

be able to list in the currency of my choice.

Well, this is an old post here but it seems to be alive still. I second the automation idea - across the board. It'd be real nice to automate postings, fetching emails, updating auction lots and yes, posting feedback as well! ;-)



Cheers,
Andy

I agree but Thom says its against ebay spam policy

I'd love to see three things happen:

1. Be able to see the Title of the auction in the Invoice grid. To me this is imperative.

2. Have the auctions dumped into the right categories...after payment is made the auction is put into "shipped" and "feedback not left." That just ain't so. I'm having to manually change all those to "Hold." So auctions aren't really in the proper categories...

3. I'd like to see color-coding...so we can color-code our auctions and see at a glance where each one stands in the full "all auctions" grid. It would also make the grids less boring.

Jeannie