Pros and Cons of Turbo Lister & Auctiva?

MSE_Jenny

Hi folks

Just doing some comparisons of Turbo Lister and Auctiva and was wondering which one you preferred?

Also, do you have to pay 6p to schedule acutions with Turbo Lister, or is it free?

Any tips much appreciated...

Thanks

StaffsSW

Turbo Lister is my favourite - Auctiva is not as reliable or user friendly in my opionion, and i am never keen on releasing usernames and passwords to 3rd parties, regardless of how cosy they are with ebay! The images have a habit of disappearing, and I get the impression that their servers are not as stable as they claim to be. But that's techy stuff.

TL is just like using a spreadsheet, and filling in the blanks with the listing details, but it does need regular updates as ebay policies and modus operandi changes, but these are automatic and usually painless. As long as files are backed up regularly, then it's nothing more than a minor inconveneience to do the updates.

It is dead easy to edit all live listings via the Turbo lister Syncronisation facility - download all listings, edit in some way, and re-upload them. ideal for mass changing of P&P rates - next month by the way!

Multiple User ID's can be stored in the same TL file, and it's easy to move listings from one selling ID to another - ideal for cleaning out slow moving lines "anonymously".

What I do not like is that it is Internet Explorer based when it uploads to eBay, rather than direct FTP - this can mean that the uploads are slower than might be expected, and prone to errors in times of high traffic.

The 6p scheduled fee is waived if you subscribe to Seller Manager Pro, otherwise it is billed. For smaller scale sellers it is more convenient to create the listings and put them in a folder within TL, and upload when you are ready, or when there is a Cheap Listing day!

MSE_Jenny

And is it right that there's no fee to use templates with Turbo lister?

StaffsSW

Correct - the Listing designer that is normally 7p, is free with TL, but in my opinion they look a bit... well...Aldi...!
I prefer to put my own borders and template designs in place using HTML, but obviously not everyone is familiar with this, so the listing designs do make the auction appear a little different from the rest.

grunnie

Turbo Lister is very easy to use even I can do it. Last weekend was free listing for 99p starts or less. I spent the week before listing about 20 or so things with TL and at 5 past midnight just clicked on upload all and they were all on ebay without any hassle. I usually list things to finish late evening but am not too awake at that time of night so TB is great as no advance fees to pay.I only started using it about a month or so ago but will continue using it as photos upload so quickly on it whereas listing on ebay may take 2 or3 minutes.

soolin

I use Turbo lister and usually keep several hundred items on it ready for various offer days. Like grunnie I uploaded around 200 items using TL over last weekend and was able to check them all before hand to make sure no nasty charges got through, so that was really convenient actually being able to double check listing fees before committing to upload.

I understand that Auctiva has much more available in terms of templates and picture shows, but TL used with photobucket suits me very well.

charlies_mum

I love Auctiva

Scheduled starts are free, hundreds of templates are free, and you can list as many photos as you like. You don't need to import your photos from anywhere, and can just browse your pictures area of your computer to load.

I have never had any problems with Auctiva, and find it much easier to use than Turbolister

jjSmiler

Auctiva uses free scheduling, (you don't hav to wait till 5 past midnight to click the button and is REALLY simple to use.
Great templates, (Free listing designer effectively)
6 Photos for free
scrolling gallery
And the best till last
Profiles and Seller details. This is a fantastic way of very quickly building very professional listings that TL just can't match.


Complete carp about giving Auctiva your log in details so ignire that advice it is wrong. Auctiva (As do other eBay approved development projects (Including mine) us tokens. When you sign up to Auctiva you are taken to a generate token process whereby Auctiva is given a token by eBay that relates to your log in details. This means that Auctiva (As do all third party approved eBay software projects) can identify you through your token and NOT through your user name and password as has been suggested in a previous post.

My advice having used both in anger is that both tools have their quirks but Auctiva is very stable (Never had any problems in over 2000+ listings) is make your own mind up.

Both tools are free so play with them and try them out to see which you prefer.

If you visit the business selling boards on eBays main forums you will see a regular called Great-Wall-Of-China who has a first class guide to getting started with Auctiva.

This can be found here

http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Using-Auctiva-for-the-first-time-a-beginners-guide_W0QQugidZ10000000005225368

She also has many other VERY good guides to using Auctiva whhich I really ought to read more thoroughly some time :-)

I am an avid Auctiva fan

chugalug

I started out with turbo lister but really couldn't get on with it. It was ok as long as it worked but there were always glitches.........

I've had no problems with auctiva so far.............. I like having the templates and profiles you can upload quickly to your listings. I just find it more user friendly (or more chugalug friendly):j

tightwadman

I use both but have had problems with Turbolister refusing to work just when I wanted to upload auctions. I never use scheduled auctions and just upload when I want auctions to appear. There is an art to working out the best day and times to finish your auctions and I wont pay ebay an extra fee for 10 day auctions when it was once a free feature. I have had to re-intall TL at least 3 times so if you are having problems that is what you need to do. I use Auctiva mainly to add to my llstings, I like the scrolling gallery and I like the Sellathon gallery which tells you what you most popular items are. By the way you cannot trust the official ebay hit counter included in TL - it overinflates your actual number of hits. I dont like the Auctiva templates and I do my own. As both pieces of software are free they are well worth having. And when ebay have a free listing day, ite great to have TL just upload your listings for you so quickly and easily. I re-priced many of my templates down to 99p just to get into the free zone and it works because they are attracting bids! I will re-price them back up when I want to use them in normal weeks.

MSE_Jenny

Thanks very much for all of this. Just another question. Using Auctiva, do you get six extra photos free free, so seven including your one free ebay pic, or six including your free ebay pic?

Hope that makes sense!