Time Savings with AMPRO By Louis Rouse AuctionBytes.com
May 06, 2001
So you have all this great stuff and are going to make a killing on eBay? Here's all you have to do:
Make photos and "clean" them up using your imaging software.
Open your FTP program and patiently wait as the photos are uploaded to your server or an image hosting service.
Compose auction descriptions that will make potential buyers chomp at the bit to start bidding.
Go to the Auction Site's "Sell Your Item" page and either enter the information directly into the description block or use a template that you copy and paste into description block. (In the process, you open a browser and find the location of the photos, open them and then copy and paste the URLs into your description. Back and forth you go, waiting for the pages to load until you have all the URLs entered.)
Click "Continue" and wait for the Preview Page to load.
Oops, you see a mistake. Click the "back" button and after the page loads, correct it.
Click on "Continue" once more and wait some more.
After making sure everything is correct, click "Submit", wait and when the confirmation page comes up, sit back and think: "One down, nine to go."
There has to be a better way!
Well, there is with a program called Auction Manager Pro (AMPRO). AMPRO is available from http://www.auctionwatch.com as a free download. However, if you elect to use it you will be charged a minimal fee of 5 cents for each auction listed and one percent of the final value fee of each auction. I certainly consider the time-savings provided by the use of AMPRO to be well worth the cost. I found that it reduces the time required for posting auctions by as much as 50%. What took me four hours the "old fashioned" way now takes only two hours.
What makes AMPRO so much faster is that once you have downloaded it and set your preferences on AuctionWatch's Web site, everything is done right on your hard drive, eliminating the time it takes for Web pages to load.
There is no longer a need to use an FTP program to upload your photos to your server. With just a few clicks of the mouse, you add your photos to the AMPRO folder. Then, rather than find, copy and paste your photo URLs to your auction description, two mouse clicks will add the photos to the auction template you have chosen.
The program will automatically resize your photos so that your auction pages will load at optimum speed for your prospective bidders. It will also provide a link so they can view the full size pic. Add your description and title, set your starting bid, choose your category and the auction is ready to submit. Almost all other required information can be set by default so that you don't have to enter it for every auction. There is an "Instant Preview" available that lets you see what the auction will look like and make any needed changes.
Once you have completed composing all your auctions, you upload them to the AuctionWatch server for submission to the auction site. Your photos will be uploaded to the AW server at the same time. You can save the batch so that if you have more of a certain item for sale at a later date, you can resubmit them without having to rewrite the auction.
There is another great feature within AMPRO, the ability to schedule auctions to be launched to eBay, Yahoo or Amazon on a given date and time. You get up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep. Might as well write a few auctions, but you certainly don't want them closing at that time of night seven days later. No Problem. Schedule them to launch at 8 P.M. the following day, and then they will close in "Prime Time." Going on vacation? Schedule auctions to launch while you are gone so they will close after you return. Imagine sitting on the beach, your feet propped up, sipping on your Pina Colada and making money on eBay all at the same time.
There are a host of other features available at no additional charge on the Auctionwatch Web site for AMPRO users. Auction Management and Tracking, Counters and a complete Post Sale service that even includes auto emails at the end of the auction. Another feature is the storefront (free, at least for now) that will showcase all the auctions you have listed on eBay, Yahoo and Amazon using the AuctionWatch service.
But to me, the biggest feature is the time saved! Just think what you could do with all that extra time. List more auctions? Read a good book? Go on a hot date with your spouse? Play with the grand kids? Excuse me, but my auctions are done and I think I hear Li'l Red calling "Pappy." Thanks, AMPRO!
About the author:
Louis Rouse lives in Tennessee with his wife Charlotte, who is the collector in the family (Fenton Silver Crest). In addition to selling on eBay, they offer their "finds" in malls and spend weekends at Tennnessee's largest indoor market at Sweetwater, Tennessee, where they offer an array of old pottery, glass, collectibles and new giftware. Louis maintains a Web site (http://theshowcase.freeservers.com) with an extensive list of glass and pottery links to help others in their research. You can email Louis at rousemar @ usit.net (auction id: rousemark).
