Do you find it hard to create auctions? Are you envious of sellers with fancy fonts, beautiful tables, animated graphics, and pretty backgrounds? Do you struggle with HTML? Heck, do you struggle with spelling "HTML"? Perhaps what you need is some help, maybe a little, maybe a lot. Fortunately, there are many software packages available to help you! This review won't cover them all, but if nothing else, it'll show you what you can expect to find out there.
All of these programs can be downloaded via the Web - no surprise there! Some run on your machine, and some are Web-based (so you're using their machine, a subtle distinction). Some are free, some have 30-day trials, and some are "regular" purchases; as you'll see, price usually has more to do with how many features are offered than with quality!
WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?
Here's how auction software programs can help you. If you've got an image of your item (from your scanner or digital camera), and you've got a description all written out, these auction software programs will help you turn those pieces into a fully-constructed auction. For example, using AuctionPoster98 (I'll call it "AP"), here's what you do:
Choose a Theme
There are several themes to choose from, with different layouts, fonts, and decorative images.
Enter your info into the program
Click on the "Description" tab. There are separate text-boxes for Headline, Description, Reserve, Payment, Shipping, and other standard parts of a description. Each of these parts gets a different HTML treatment, according to which of several Themes you've chosen.
Add your image
Some programs assume you've already put the images on a Web site; AP and others let you select an image on your computer, and they'll upload it to the Web site of your choosing. AP's "Preview" window lets you see how the text and images will look before sending the info to eBay.
Fill in the listing form
With programs such as AP, you can save a default set of information to be used on eBay's "Sell Your Item" form, such as your location, forms of payment accepted, and who pays shipping. Depending on the program, you may also be able to specify a default Category to put your items in; AP has you select the category for each item.
List your item
To me, this is the big difference between fancy and plain packages: How much work does the software do, and how much do you do? Most of the software reviewed here takes you directly to eBay's form, with some or most of the fields filled in. At the very least, the software will put the HTML for your text, images, and layout into the "Description" field. This step is also where several packages upload the necessary images to your Web site. AP uses the information you provided to fill in eBay's entire form; all you have to do is check the results (always a good idea!), and click "Submit my listing!"
THE PROGRAMS
AuctionAssistant (http://www.blackthornesw.com/bthome)
$59.95, 90-day free "Beta" available (their term, not mine)
A full-featured product to assist you with every step of selling: describing and pricing the item, handling images, posting the item, tracking it before it closes, contacting the buyer after the auction's over, and even generating mail and feedback! There are more features than I can mention here; I encourage you to visit their Web site.
I found a few minor aspects that surprised or disappointed me. For example, to select a category for an item, they take you to eBay's list of all categories, which seems awkward to me. However, this product is quite well done overall. Due to the large number of features and the many parts to an auction (from creating to posting to tracking to finishing), this is a complicated program, but the time it takes to learn is well worth it.
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AuctionPoster98 (http://www.auctionposter.com)
Flexible pricing - see explanation below or go to http://www.auctionposter.com/Purchase) (A posting pass ranges from $6.95 for a 1-month pass to $29.95 for a 1-year pass (no images); tokens are 7 cents - 15 cents each.)
This company has taken an interesting approach to pricing their software: the program is free, but you purchase a "posting pass" to list auctions and "tokens" to use features such as image hosting. It comes with a 1-week pass and 20 tokens, which are enough to get a feel for what it can do.
And what it can do is quite nice! I found it very easy to set up the various sections of an item (description, price, shipping info, etc), and the program was quite good at letting you know what you need to do now and what can be done later.
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MyItem (http://www.myitem.com)
Free
This Web site offers image hosting and auction-listing help, but I have to say that I disagree with their approach in a few ways. For the text portions of your description, they allow choices in colors and sizes of fonts, but no choice of font face (e.g. Arial). They do image hosting, but the auction item gets an image that says "Click here to view this item" - why not a picture of the item itself?
MyItem provides a counter, but it's a smiley-face image; you don't get to choose the image, and you have to visit the MyItem page to see the count. I also had trouble setting up an account (do they have trouble with "dot-org" email addresses?), and got little assistance from their Technical Support. They do provide minimal layout assistance and minimal help with eBay's listing form, but all in all, their methods did not sit well with me.
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OneStep Lister (http://www.honesty.com)
Free
Honesty (what a great name - why didn't I think of that one?) is a Web site best known for image hosting and hit counters, but they also offer Onestep Lister to help you post items. Frankly, I think their home page is just a bit overwhelming, but I eventually found their "walk-through" page, and easily added counters and images to my existing auctions, then moved on to creating auctions. This was not much different from just using eBay's form, but as you'd expect, Honesty's handling of counters and images is quite good.
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The Form (http://fanciful.hypermart.net)
Free
I can hear you asking now: "What's this? Just a form?" Yes, but sometimes that's all you need! This Web site does one thing quite well: It helps you lay out your text and pictures, and hands you the HTML to put in your auction's description. It sometimes offers more choices than you thought you might need, but there are several examples to help you. It doesn't offer image hosting, but it does provide links to sites that do, and it does offer counters. And you can't beat the price!
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TABLE: ONLINE AUCTION SOFTWARE PROGRAMS & FEATURES
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Auction Assistant
($59.95
Free 90
Day Trial) |
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Auction Poster98
(Pay-As-You-
Go Pricing) |
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KEY TO FEATURES Graphical Layout:
Does the software help you design your auction's appearance?
eBay Form: Does it automatically fill out eBay's "Sell Your Item" form?
FTP Images:
Does it automatically transfer images from your computer to an image-hosting site?
Add Counter: Does it automatically add a hit-counter to your item?
Multiple Auctions:
Can it post multiple items in a single step?
Item Database: Does it keep track of items you've posted?
Batch Feedback: Does it help you post feedback to eBay? |
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