Welcome to eBay Blackthorne (eB)! If you are an existing Seller's Assistant (SA) user, this guide will walk you through the steps needed to get you listing with Blackthorne in no time.

When you install Blackthorne, you will have the option to migrate your data from

Seller

’s Assistant to Blackthorne. You do not need to uninstall Seller’s Assistant, and can continue to use it while you learn Blackthorne.

An online version of this document with working links is available at http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/eBay_Blackthorne_

-_Seller_s_Assistant_Migration_Guide.htm

Preparing for Migration

Deciding Whether to Transfer Data from SA to Blackthorne

Before migrating your data, the first question you must answer is if you want your

Seller's Assistant data migrated to Blackthorne.



If you sell thousands of items, or you sell the same items over and over, then you will probably want your inventory imported into eB.

 f you only sell unique items occasionally, then you may opt to just finish any existing listings with SA and start only new items in eB.

If you choose to import your database to Blackthorne, you should prepare your SA database before downloading, installing and importing it into Blackthorne. By preparing your database, you will be ensuring that any invalid or outdated data is removed.

If you decide not to import your database, go to the Downloading and Installing section.

How to Transfer Data from SA to Blackthorne

Step 1: Run the SA Pro Database Repair Utility

The database repair will clean and compact your SA data.

To run the database repair:

Make sure you have exited from SA

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Run Start|Programs|eBay|SA Pro Database Repair Utility.

Follow the prompts to complete the database repair.

Step 2: Make a backup of your SA database

By making a backup of your database you will always have a snapshot of your data that you can reference and return to if necessary.

To backup your SA database:

Start Seller's Assistant.

Select File|Maintenance from the menu.

On the

Backup

tab, select "

Backup Now

When prompted, enter the path and name of the backup file. Be sure to give it a meaningful name like "saproPreMigration.mdb".

Step 3: Remove any old data that you no longer need

By cleaning up unused data before importing it to Blackthorne, your import will be faster and more efficient.

To remove old data:

Start Seller's Assistant.

From the

Multiview

tab, select any records that you no longer need to track.

Choose File|Delete Listing(s) from the menu.

Repeat for any other unused records.

Downloading and Installing

If you have not already done so, then you should now download and install the latest version of eBay Blackthorne. Both the Basic and the Pro versions use the same installation process. When you run Blackthorne, it will automatically show you the features that are available based on your subscription level

To get the biggest benefit from the migration, do NOT uninstall SA first. eB will use settings and data from SA when running through the Setup Assistant.

To download and install eB:

Go to http://www.blackthornesw.com/bthome/InstalleBayBlackthorne.exe

When prompted,

Save

the file to your hard drive. This is recommended over running the installation directly from the server.

Save the file in a location where you can easily locate it later.

When the download finishes, use Windows Explorer to locate the folder that it was saved in.

eBay Blackthorne - Seller's Assistant Migration Guide

Double-click the file to start the installation process.

Follow the on-screen instructions.

Already have Blackthorne Installed?

If you already have Blackthorne installed, check to make sure you have the latest updates.

Select Help|Check for Updates and Messages then follow the instructions.

Importing SA Data and Setting Your Preferences

Once Blackthorne is installed, you are ready to import your data and set up your preferences. The easiest way to perform both tasks is by following the Setup Assistant.

The Setup Assistant will run the first time you start Blackthorne.

To start Blackthorne:

Double-click the eBay Blackthorne icon on the desktop or select Start|Program

Files|eBay|Blackthorne Software|eBay Blackthorne from the Windows Start button.

Follow all prompts to import your existing data and set your preferences. A Help button is available for many of the preferences if you need further assistance.

You can also refer to the following topics in the User's Guide if you have any difficulty.

Using the Setup Assistant -

( http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Part_1/Using_the_Setup_

Assistant.htm

)

Setting Options and Preferences -

( http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Setting_Options_and_Pref erences.htm

)

Changes from Seller's Assistant

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Before you begin, there are some changes in the way eB works compared to SA. You should take a moment to familiarize yourself with these changes.

Submit from Items

In the past, listing records were created from item records and then the listing records were submitted. We have streamlined this process. You now will submit listings directly from items thereby reducing the number of steps. The one exception is scheduled listings: if you schedule a listing to be submitted by Blackthorne, a listing record is created to be submitted by the

Servant

(see below). This means that there are no longer listings in "Ready to List" status since all Items are in effect, ready to list.

After importing SA data, any listings that were in the Ready to List status will not be imported. Before or after importing, you may want to list any items that are "Ready to

List" from SA.

User Profiles vs. Field Presets

In Sellers Assistant, we stored default input data in the User Profile. Unfortunately a number of things including

FTP

(File Transfer Protocol) settings, shipping defaults, payment info, etc., were all stored in the same profile. Changing any single value required a completely new profile and led to an explosion of User Profiles. In

Blackthorne, we have broken the User Profiles out into multiple Field Presets. Now there are separate

Field Presets

for shipping, payment info,

FTP

settings, etc. This makes it much easier to store individual preferences and easily select them when creating items.

We have carried over information from the old User Profiles whenever possible, but after importing your data, you should double check the new

Field Presets

. Any Field

Preset dropdowns that contain "

Not Specified

" should have their values properly set.

The Servant

In previous versions, Sellers Assistant was manually triggered to get or send information to eBay. In Blackthorne, we have implemented a background feature we call the

Servant

. The

Servant

automatically interacts with eBay for you. It can keep your

categories

item specifics

and all other information from eBay up to date. It also will refresh listings and sales automatically on a schedule. It also automatically submits your scheduled listings. With the

Servant

running, your intervention should not be necessary any longer to keep your data up to date. However, you still have the ability to force updates at any time.

Because of these new features, you might consider leaving Blackthorne running 24 hours a day. That way, whenever you want to work with the program, you will know that you are working with relatively current information.

Ad Template Studio

eBay Blackthorne - Seller's Assistant Migration Guide

We have also made some major improvements to the

Ad Template

Studio. In previous versions, you would create a Listing Template. This template included the general appearance of your listing along with boilerplate text that went along with it. The problem was that if you wanted to change your boilerplate text, you had to change it in all your templates. In the new version, we have broken out the text and graphical parts of the template. You can now create Ad Templates that identify the text you want in the ad, and then apply a Theme which provides the graphical elements. Ad Templates are now much more powerful because you can edit them in a pseudo-WYSIWYG (What You See

Is What You Get) fashion. With an HTML editor, you can add highlighting, lists, font color and size changes, even tables. In addition, you have access to the fields in your

Item record

(including the new

custom fields

) for use in your listing. In other words, you can write one

ad template

, apply it to 100 items, and the text will automatically change for each item.

You can also create standard text messages (called Global AutoText messages) and use them over and over in your Ad Templates. An obvious use would be to create one that contains your warranty and return policies.

Finally, if you have some particular item that needs special treatment, you can bypass

Themes and create a special

Ad Template

using all the power of HTML to create virtually any style of listing.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to import existing SA listing templates into eB. These new changes require you to recreate the listing templates you use. Although it will take a little effort up front, it will save you time in the long run by allowing you to make changes to all your listing templates at once.

Combined Sales

In previous versions,

combining sales

was implemented in the Email Studio. This allowed you to combine shipping and insurance amounts when sending out notification emails. Later, eBay implemented Combined Sales, so we ended up with two methods of combining sales. We have simplified this by returning to one method. The Combine

Sales feature lets you combine and distribute the cost of shipping over all selected sales.

If you want emails to be combined for a seller, use the Combine Sales feature. When you send emails later, they display data based on how you combined the sales.

Listing Your First Item

Now that you have imported your SA database, we recommend testing it out by listing one of your items.

If you did not import a database, and want to start by listing a new item, please follow the

Quick Start - Listing Your First Item .

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

(http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Part_1/Quick_Start_-

_Listing_Your_First_Item.htm).

To List an Item:

Make sure you have run the Setup Assistant and have created your Seller

Account.

Click on the

Create Items

tab.

From the grid at the top of the page, select the item that you would like to list.

The details for the selected item will appear below the grid. Or, double-click the item in the grid to view the entire item.

In the

Item Details

group, you will see the Title and SubTitle. You can change them now if you wish.

eBay Blackthorne - Seller's Assistant Migration Guide

When your data was imported, eB created Seller and Email Accounts for you. You should ensure that the

Seller

and

Contact Email

dropdowns are filled in. If you would like to change the name of the automatically generated accounts, select

Manage .... Accounts

" from the dropdown and use the

Rename

button on the resulting window.

In the

Categories

group, you will see the category for the item. Use the

Select

button to choose a category from the Category Selector if you want to change it.

The

Description

group contains your items description. If you would like to give your listing a finished look, select a theme from the

Theme

dropdown. After choosing a Theme, you can use the

Preview

button to see what it looks like. You will notice that with the

Simple

Ad Template chosen, the only text in the listing will be the text in your Description box. If you choose the

Enhanced

Template, some standard messages will appear. You can customize the standard messages and the rest of the Ad Template by clicking the

Edit

button next to the

Ad Template dropdown. Ad Templates are very powerful and can be used to easily include blocks of text and formatting in your listings. To learn more about the power of Ad Templates, we recommend you read Customizing Ad Templates

( http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Customizing_Ad_

Templates.htm

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide other web space that you have available to you. If you host your own pictures, then you must set up a

Picture Host

account for it first. You may have done this during setup. If not, you can set one up now by choosing "

Manage Picture

Hosts

" from the Picture Host dropdown.

Verify the

Format and Pricing

information.

The next few steps involve using Presets to enter data. A

preset

is a group of settings that you can define and use over and over. Presets speed up data entry and prevent errors. When your data was imported, eB could not create all of your presets. Instead, it assigned a

Custom

value to each preset. You can keep the custom value, or create your reusable presets now. When you are more comfortable with item creation, you can learn more about using presets in the

Creating Items Faster with Field Presets topic.

( http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Part_2/Creating_

Items_Faster_with_Field_Presets.htm

)

eBay Blackthorne - Seller's Assistant Migration Guide

10.

If you would like your listing to stand out, you may want to select one of the

preset

Listing Upgrades

. Otherwise, leave it set to

Custom

. Listing Upgrades incur additional listing fees. If you would like to know more right now, see

Listing Upgrades under Entering Item Details

( http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Part_2/Entering_Ite m_Details.htm

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

13.

This completes the item entry. Next, you will check your item for errors, and then submit it. To check for errors, select Items Actions | Preview and Check Errors from the main menu. The

Preview

window will open, showing a summary of fees and errors. If there are no errors, click the

Submit

button to submit it to eBay. If there are errors, click

Close

to return to the main screen and select Tools

| Activity Log. The errors are listed under the

Listing History

tab.

eBay Blackthorne - Seller's Assistant Migration Guide

15.

Once the item is submitted, the

status

of the item changes to Listing Created and a listing record is created. To view the listing record, click on the

Monitor

Listings

tab and select Listings by Status | Running filter from the

Views

sidebar on the left. The listing will appear in the

grid

Congratulations! You've now listed your first item with eBay Blackthorne.

Once the item is submitted, a listing record is created. To view the listing record, click on the Monitor Listings view and select

Listings by Status | Running

filter from the

Views

sidebar on the left. The listing will appear in the grid to the right.

To understand the item creation process in greater detail, we recommend you continue by reading Creating and Managing Items

( http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Part_2/Creating_and_Man aging_Items.htm

Post Migration Recommendations

Because we added new features to Blackthorne, you will need to review your newly imported data and to identify any missing information as a result of the differences in the two products.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

"Not Specified" Fields

When creating your new Blackthorne database, Blackthorne will create and assign most presets based on your SA data, but some of the presets cannot be created because there isn't enough information in the SA database to accurately assign a preset.

When a preset could not be assigned to an Item record, the dropdown will contain "

Not

Specified

". This most often occurs in the

Contact Email

Payment

and

Shipping

presets.

When you come across a field with "Not Specified", all you need to do is select a value from the dropdown, or create a new entry from the dropdown to complete the data record.

Emails

In eB, HTML emails are supported. In addition, emails are much more flexible and even allow for math calculations. Unfortunately this means that your existing email templates will not work. eB is shipped with new email templates that are equivalent to the email templates shipped with SA. Before sending any emails, you should review the email templates and make any changes you'd like.

To review your emails:

Select Tools|Options from the main menu.

In the Options sidebar, select

Email Templates

under

Templates

Click on each Email Template and click the

Edit

button to view and modify the email.

You should consult the Customizing Emails

( http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Customizing_Emails.htm

) topic in the User's Guide when you are ready to review your emails.

Packing Lists and Labels

Packing Lists and Labels have also been simplified in eB. If you customized your packing list or labels in SA, you will want to make the same customizations in eB.

To customize your printing templates:

Select Tools|Options from the main menu.

In the Options sidebar, select

Printing Templates

under

Templates

Click on each Printing Template and click the

Edit

button to view and modify the template.

Getting Help

eBay Blackthorne - Seller's Assistant Migration Guide

You should now be well on your way to learning all the features that can help save you time.

To learn more about how to use Blackthorne, you can view the following topics:



Monitoring Listings

(http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Part_2/While_Your



_Listing_is_Running.htm)

Processing Sales and Shipping

(http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Part_2/Processing_

Sales_and_Shipping.htm)

Navigating Modes

(http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Navigating_Modes

.htm)

In addition, there are several ways you can get help:



Common Troubleshooting tips

– For common troubleshooting tips, view the

Support Troubleshooter under Help|Support from the main Blackthorne menu. It

’s a good idea to check the common causes before submitting your issue to our support teams.

User

’s Guide – Review the User's Guide, an invaluable resource when you have questions about how the software works. Select Help|User's Guide from the main

Blackthorne menu.



If you are having problems with your connection to eBay or your FTP space, consult the Connections topic in the Knowledge Base in the User

’s Guide: http://www.blackthornesw.com/robo/projects/blackthornepro/Connection.htm

Discussion Boards

– Many of our most savvy users and Blackthorne Tech

Support can be found at the Blackthorne Discussion Boards: http://www.blackthornesw.com/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi

. The Discussion Boards

 are often the quickest way to get an answer to your problem.

– To contact our support team select Help|Support|Contact Support from the main Blackthorne menu.

Thank You!

We thank you for your continued support and are committed to putting in as much effort into eBay Blackthorne as we have with Seller's Assistant so that we remain the premiere offline listing tool for eBay sellers.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Introduction

Welcome to eBay Blackthorne!

eBay Blackthorne is the premier desktop tool for managing your eBay business. This guide will teach you all you need to know to get started down the path to increased sales and a more efficient business.

Overview

This guide has been designed to take advantage of online capabilities while still allowing you to print topics you'd like to read on paper. If you prefer to read a guide from front to back, then start at this topic and continue to click through all the topics. Hyperlinks in the document will take you to other sections that offer more detailed information, but you can always use the

back button

to return to your original topic.

This guide is broken down into several major sections.

In the " Introduction " section, we provide an overview of the document, discuss system requirements and publish the release notes. We also discuss how to use this document.

In " Setting Up eBay Blackthorne ", we discuss what you need to know to download and launch the software. We also cover differences and information on migrating from

Seller's Assistant. Finally, we walk you through the Setup Assistant to help you set your preferences.

In " Getting Started ", we'll take a quick tour of the main window . We also include a

Quick Start to help you list your first item as well as discussing important information you need to know when importing data .

In "Creating and Managing Items", we cover all the tasks involved with adding and organizing your item information.

"Monitoring Listings", will guide you through the basics of watching and modifying your listings while they are running.

The " Processing Sales and Shipping " topic will discuss all post sale functions like invoicing and shipping .

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

And finally, in Advanced Topics, we cover all the finer points of the program. A good understanding of these topics will make you much more efficient.

Thank You!

We at Blackthorne have been in the online auction management business longer than anyone else and we strive to provide you with the best auction management tool available. We hope your business reaches its full potential using eBay Blackthorne, and whether you are a new user, or have been part of our legacy, we want to thank you for being part of the Blackthorne community.

System Requirements

The following are minimum requirements. If your business is high-volume, we recommend you improve upon these minimum requirements.

 1.5 GHz microprocessor (AMD, Intel)

 512 MB RAM minimum (768 MB or more recommended)

 50 MB free hard drive space

 Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP (SP2)

Some convenient form of backup is also highly recommended, whether it be a tape drive,

CD/DVD burner, or (simplest and quickest of all) an extra hard drive. If you have a fast internet connection, an online backup facility would be a viable alternative.

Conventions Used in this Guide

The following conventions are used throughout this guide.

Many features are called from cascading menus. The simplest example is exiting the program from the File menu. In this guide, we will indicate cascading menu options separated by a vertical bar like this: File|Exit.

Frequently, we reference different buttons, modes or input boxes. We will highlight those buttons like this: the

New Item

Action Button, the

Seller Dropdown Menu

, the

Monitor Listings

mode.

All acronyms are explained in the glossary. In the print version of the guide, each acronym is also spelled out when it is used in a topic for the first time, like: "Upload the images using

FTP

(File Transfer Protocol)." In the online version of the manual, each acronym is also a "

push-out

" link that expands in place with an explanation of the acronym, like

FTP

. To remove the extra text, click the link again.

Another type of link is a pop-up. When you click on the link, a small window will pop up with explanatory text or an image. To get rid of the pop-up, click anywhere on the pop-up or main window.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Whenever a real life example is used, it looks like this.

Things that are really important and shouldn't be missed look like this

Tips are little tidbits of information to help you work faster or better. Tips are highlighted in yellow like this paragraph.

Notes provide additional important information and are highlighted like this paragraph.

Printing this Guide

Although this guide is primarily written for electronic delivery, a printable version is available in PDF format. PDF files are viewable using Adobe Reader. You can download Adobe Reader from http://www.adobe.com

The Pro version of the documentation is available at http://www.blackthornesw.com/bthome/Pro/eBay_Blackthorne_-

_The_Official_Guide.pdf

, and the Basic version is available at http://www.blackthornesw.com/bthome/Basic/eBay_Blackthorne_-

_The_Official_Guide.pdf

We HIGHLY RECOMMEND you use the electronic version whenever possible.

Hyperlinks and other electronic conventions do not always translate well to the printed page. In addition, the documentation is changed on a very regular basis, and it will be outdated shortly after you print it. If that isn't enough to convince you, then you should only print the pages that you are interested in as the complete document is over 300 pages long.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Changes From Seller's Assistant Pro

Since 1998, Blackthorne Software has been providing auction management software to the eBay community. Our previous product, Seller's Assistant, has been redesigned and rewritten from the ground up to take advantage of more recent technology. With its new face comes a new name: eBay Blackthorne.

For Sellers Assistant Pro Users

Many of the concepts from Sellers Assistant are carried over into eBay Blackthorne, but most have been significantly improved upon. Because of the improvements, existing users of Sellers Assistant may have to do things a little differently. Let's discuss some of those changes. If you are not a previous user of Sellers Assistant, you can skip this topic.

Submit from Items

In the past, you created listing records from item records and then submitted the listing records. We have streamlined this process. You now will submit listings directly from items thereby reducing the number of steps. The one exception is scheduled listings: if you schedule a listing to be submitted by Blackthorne, a listing record is created to be submitted by the

Servant

(see below).

User Profiles vs. Field Presets

In Sellers Assistant, we stored default input data in the User Profile. Unfortunately a number of things including

FTP

Blackthorne, we have broken the User Profiles out into multiple Field Presets. Now there are separate

Field Presets

for shipping, payment info,

FTP

settings, etc. This makes it much easier to store individual preferences and easily select them when creating items.

We have carried over information from the old User Profiles whenever possible, but after importing your data, you should double check the new

Field Presets

. Any Field

Preset dropdowns that contain "

Not Specified

" should have there values properly set.

The Servant

In previous versions, Sellers Assistant was manually triggered to get or send information to eBay. In Blackthorne, we have implemented a background feature we call the

Servant

. The

Servant

automatically interacts with eBay for you. It can keep your

categories

item specifics

and all other information from eBay up to date. It also will refresh listings and sales automatically on a schedule. It automatically submits your scheduled listings. With the

Servant

running, your intervention should not be necessary any longer to keep your data up to date. However, you still have the ability to force updates at any time.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Ad Template Studio

We have also made some major improvements to the

Ad Template

Is What You Get) fashion. With an HTML editor, you can add highlighting, lists, font color and size changes, even tables. In addition, you have access to the fields in your

Item record

(including the new

custom fields

) for use in your listing. In other words, you can write one

ad template

, apply it to 100 items, and the text will automatically change for each item.

You can also create standard text messages (called AutoText messages) and use them over and over in your Ad Templates. An obvious use would be to create one that contains your warranty and return policies.

Finally, if you have some particular item that needs special treatment, you can bypass

Themes and create a special

Ad Template

using all the power of HTML to create virtually any style of listing.

These new changes require you to rework your existing listing templates.

Combined Sales

In previous versions,

combining sales

Sales feature lets you combine and distribute the cost of shipping over all selected sales.

If you want emails to be combined for a seller, use the Combine Sales feature. When it sends emails, it displays data based on how you combined the sales.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Setting Up eBay Blackthorne

Before you can run eBay Blackthorne, you must subscribe, download it and install it on your computer. The first time you launch the program, you will be presented with the

Setup Assistant. The Setup Assistant will help you migrate from Seller's Assistant if you are an existing user or import your listings from eBay if you are a new user.

Subscribing

eB is offered on a subscription basis. You subscribe to either the Basic or the Pro version on eBay. When you run eB, it checks your subscription level and shows you the version of the program that you have subscribed to.

To subscribe/unsubscribe to the software:

Go to the Blackthorne Basic or Blackthorne Pro home page on eBay.

Click the

Subscribe Now

button.

If you are not currently subscribed, you will be prompted to choose the subscription level and click

Continue

. If you are already subscribed, you will be given the option to unsubscribe instead of choosing a subscription level.

Read the terms and conditions and click the "I agree to these terms" if you agree.

Click the

Subscribe

button.

Downloading the Software

eBay Blackthorne is available for download from: http://www.blackthornesw.com/bthome/InstalleBayBlackthorne.exe

To download the software:

Click on the above link to start the download.

When prompted, click

[Save]

to save the file to your hard drive. This is recommended over running the installation directly from the server.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Save the file in a location where you can locate it later.

If your internet connection is by dial-up modem, the 24 Megabyte (approx) download might take an hour or more. If your connection is broadband (cable,

DSL, etc), it will take just a few minutes.

Installing the Software

When the download finishes, use Windows Explorer to navigate to the folder that it was saved in. Double-click on the file to start the installation process. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Launching the Software

To launch eBay Blackthorne:

Double-click the eBay Blackthorne icon on the desktop.

Select Start | Program Files | eBay | Blackthorne Software | eBay Blackthorne

from the Windows Start button.

When eBay Blackthorne starts for the first time, the Setup Assistant will step you through configuring the software for your business, and importing data from the previous version of the program.

Testing Your Connection to eBay

eB performs many interactions with eBay. Therefore, it must be able to communicate with the internet. If you are running a firewall or other security software, it may be blocking eB from reaching the internet by default. The first thing you should do after launching is to test eB to see if you can get to the internet.

To test your connection to eBay:

Select Help|Support from the main menu.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Select the

2. Connection

tab.

Click the

Test Connection to eBay

button.

If the test is not successful, then verify you are online by opening your browser (Internet

Explorer, Netscape, etc. ) and making sure you can view web pages. If you can view web pages, but eB cannot connect, then the problem is most likely a firewall or some other program on your computer blocking access. The following topics should help you troubleshoot the problem.

KCON001 - Common firewall settings

KCON002 - DirecWay Satellite user connection problems

KCON003 - Blackthorne Cannot Send or Receive Data to/from eBay

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Using the Setup Assistant

Using the Setup Assistant

The Setup Assistant automatically runs when you first start eBay Blackthorne. It will walk you through getting the program configured correctly with your business and eBay account information. It helps you import data and set your important options. If you later need to add to or change any of your option preferences, you can do so by selecting

Tools|Options from the main menu.

Part of the setup procedure requires communicating with eBay, so make sure that you are currently connected to the Internet before proceeding.

You can choose to skip some of the steps, but it is highly recommended that you enter as much information as you can, especially your eBay seller account(s) and the E-mail addresses that your business uses. Blackthorne cannot operate properly without this information, so it will close if you choose to not enter it.

If a problem arises, and you wish to run the Setup Assistant again, close

Blackthorne. Then use Windows Explorer to open the folder that the program is installed in (usually C:\Program Files\eBay\Blackthorne\bin) and delete the file

System.pvt. When you restart Blackthorne, the Setup Assistant will run.

The first screen to appear will be the

Welcome

screen. When it appears, click

Next

to continue.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Importing Seller's Assistant (Pro and Basic) Data

eBay Seller's Assistant (

) is the predecessor to eBay Blackthorne. The Setup Assistant automatically searches your computer for an existing

(Pro or Basic) database.

If it finds one, you are asked if you wish to import data from it. You can choose yes or no or you can guide the program to a specific

database to import from. You can also choose to import data at a later date, see Importing Data .

The SA database file is called sapro.mdb or sabasic.mdb. By default, it is installed in the

C:\Program Files\eBay\Seller's Assistant Pro\sapro.mdb or C:\Program

Files\eBay\Seller's Assistant Basic\sabasic.mdb.

If it did not find one, it asks if you have one you would like to import from.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

If you select

Yes

, then you will be allowed to browse for your existing database. The following page will import your data and then you will move on to setting your preferences. For more information, see Migrating From Seller's Assistant to eBay

Blackthorne and Importing Data.

If you select

, then you will begin entering your preferences.

Setting Preferences

Next, the Setup Assistant asks you to set your preferences:

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

We strongly advise that you take the time to set up your preferences now, with the help of the Setup Assistant. As you click

Next

, you will pass through the following input forms.

Seller Accounts

The first thing to set up is your seller account(s). If you imported an

database, your seller account information may already be entered.

See Accounts - Seller_Accounts for help creating your first account.

Picture Hosts

Next to be configured is

Picture Hosts

. If you always use eBay Picture Services to host your pictures, you can skip this step. If you use your own web space or Picture Manager to host your pictures, see Accounts - Picture_Hosts for help creating your picture hosts.

E-Mail

Next, you will be asked to set up your email accounts. See Accounts - Email_Accounts for assistance in creating email accounts.

Inventory Management

To specify how your business manages inventory, see Business Setup - Inventory

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Tax Table

If you collect tax, see Business Setup - Tax_Table for information on specifying the states in which you collect tax.

Business Settings

By indicating whether or not you consign items or track suppliers,

will customize the item entry process and the user interface to hide or show the appropriate features. See

Business Setup - Settings for a description of these fields.

Importing Other Data

Finally, if you did not import an

database, you are asked if you want to import any other data. If you choose to import from eBay, remember that eBay only keeps information about listings posted in the last 30 days.

And that's all there is to it. If you later need to make changes to your settings, click

Tools|Options.

If you want to import data at any time, click File|Import.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Setting Options and Preferences

Setting Options and Preferences

eBay Blackthorne is designed to be very flexible and efficient. We strive to adapt to the way you do business and to help you do it faster. As a result, we collect a lot of information about your business and allow you to predefine many settings and templates.

We collect the following information on the Options window.



To allow us to interact with other providers, we must collect information about your accounts at eBay, your mail provider and your picture host if applicable.



We also need to know about your business and whether you track inventory,

 collect taxes, etc.

To help you enter data more quickly, we allow you to create Presets which



 contain a collection of fields with values already filled in.

You can also create custom email templates, printing templates and ad templates .

You can also specify connection information including whether you synchronize your time with eBay and whether you want to receive beta notices.



Finally, you can modify the appearance of the user interface.

If you ran through the Setup Assistant, many of these settings will be familiar, and possibly already filled in. The Setup Assistant walked through the important Options. This section covers all possible options and preferences.

To modify your options:

Select Tools|Options from the main menu. The

Options

window will appear.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

The

Options

tree on the left contains the different groups of options you can change. Select a node on the left and the available options will appear on the right. A description of the options will appear at the top.

The

Restore Defaults

button will return all settings to their original default. This will not remove any accounts, templates or presets you have added.

Click on

Done

when you are finished.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Accounts

eBay Blackthorne works with other parties on a day to day basis. It must interact with eBay, your mail provider, and your picture host provider. Before eB can interact with the other providers, you must provide information about the different accounts you have at those providers.

Seller Accounts

For each eBay User Account you want to list with, you must create a Seller Account in eBay Blackthorne.

To create a Seller Account:

From Tools|Options, select

Seller Accounts

under

Accounts

in the Options tree.

Click the

New

button. The

New Seller Account

window will appear.

Enter the

eBay User ID

. This is the id on eBay that you want to list to.

Enter your

Subscribed User ID

. To use eB, you must be subscribed to use it on eBay. With each eBay User ID that is subscribed, you can list with up to five eBay Seller Accounts that you own. Enter the eBay User ID that is paying for the subscription in this box. If it is the same as the eBay User ID, then leave the

same as eBay User ID

box checked.

Enter the name of your

Business

. This is the name that will appear on shipping labels and in reports.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Enter your Return Mailing Address. This also will appear on shipping labels and in reports.

Click

when you are finished.

eB does not store your eBay Password. In lieu of that, you must authorize eB to post listings to eBay on your behalf. The Blackthorne Authorization window will appear next.

After a few moments, your

eBay User ID

will appear. Enter the password for that eBay User ID and click

Sign in Securely

. You may have to scroll down to see this button. The

Agree and Continue

form will appear.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

10.

Read the authorization form and then click the

Agree and Continue

button if you agree. The confirmation window will appear.

11.

Click

Close

to complete.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide eBay Blackthorne allows you to work with only one seller account at a time, or with all accounts visible. See Managing Multiple Seller Accounts for more information.

Email Accounts

For each Email Account you want to send emails with, you must create an Email Account in eBay Blackthorne. You can also create different email accounts for the same email provider using different email addresses. This lets you easily associate different email address contacts with different listed items.

To create an Email Account:

From Tools|Options, select

Email Accounts

under

Accounts

in the Options tree.

Click the

New

button. The

New Email Account

window will appear.

If your existing mail program supports the MAPI interface, then eB can use your existing mail program to send email. By using your existing mail program, you will get a copy of all emails sent in your "Sent" folder. However, if using

Microsoft Outlook, you will also be required to approve each email before it is sent.

If your email provider supports SMTP and can provide you with the SMTP settings for sending emails, then you can set eB to send your emails. This is the faster method of sending emails, but you will have to include yourself in the CC field if you want a copy of any emails that you send.

As a general rule, you should choose

Use Blackthorne to send emails without the need of another program

if your email provider has an SMTP server setting.

Otherwise, use your existing mail program.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

If you choose the SMTP method, then enter the

Outgoing Mail Server

provided by your email provider and click the

Test Mail Connection

button to make sure it is valid. You can get this from other mail programs you use with the same Email account (here's how to get the information from Outlook , for example), or by asking your mail provider.

A list of Email Account settings for different email providers is maintained on our Discussion Board. If you are having trouble with your settings, you may want to consult the Email and Picture Host Settings thread. Also, if you successfully enter your settings and they have not already been added to the thread, then we appreciate it if you could post those settings for other users.

Click the

Addressing

tab and fill in the requested fields as follows:



From: The email address that you will use to send messages.

Reply-To: The address that you want customers to reply to. This will usually be the same as the one you send from.



(Carbon-Copy): An address that you want a copy of your messages sent to. This address will be visible to all recipients of the message.



BCC (Blind Carbon-Copy): An address that you want a copy of your messages sent to. This address will be invisible to all other recipients of the message.

Click the Advanced tab. The settings on Advanced tab will be different depending upon whether you selected to use a MAPI or SMTP connection. Fill in the fields as follows:

MAPI



Send HTML vs. Text Emails Only - MAPI does not support the ability to send HTML emails. When sending through MAPI, the text version of the email is sent, and the HTML version is sent as an attachment. If you do not want the attachment sent, then select

Send Text-Only Emails

, otherwise select

Send HTML Emails

SMTP



Secure Password Authentication - If your mail server requires Secure

Password Authentication, then enter your email user name and password provided by your email provider.



Outgoing Mail Server Port Number - Most mail servers work on port 25.



If your email provider uses a port other than 25, enter it here.

Delay between emails - If you send a large number of emails simultaneously, your server may think they are spam and will block them. If that happens, try

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide setting the delay to five seconds, or ask your

ISP

what an acceptable figure would be (be sure to tell them you're running a legitimate business).

After you have correctly entered all the Email Account settings and clicked

, the final form asks you to name the Email Account. Give it a descriptive name that describes what you will use it for. You may also want to include the email address associated with it in the name.

Picture Hosts

Pictures can be hosted by eBay using eBay Picture Services (ePS) or with a Picture

Manager account. You can also host pictures on your own web space if you have it. If you use ePS, then you do not need to set up a picture host. If using Picture Manager and/or your own web space, you will need to set up a picture host for each location you upload pictures to. When creating an item, it is then very easy to identify where you would like the pictures for that item uploaded.

To create a Picture Host:

From Tools|Options, select

Picture Hosts

under

Accounts

in the Options tree.

Click the

New

button. The

New Picture Host

window will appear.

Start by selecting whether you will

Create new FTP Picture Host

, or a

Create new Picture Manager Host

. To create a Picture Manager Host, one of your Seller

Accounts must have a Picture Manager subscription on eBay. If not, this Picture

Manager option will be disabled. Depending upon the option selected, the rest of the process will be different.

Creating a New FTP Picture Host

Fill in the

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

settings as follows (your web space provider can help with any settings you don't know):

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide



Username/Password - The user name and password you use to access your picture hosting server.

Host Address - The

FTP

(File Transfer Protocol) address of the server you use to host your pictures. This is usually something like

ftp.myserver.com or www.myserver.com.

Test Connection - Click this button to verify that your username, password and host address settings are correct.

Host Subdirectory - The subdirectory (sub-folder) that you upload the pictures to. The most reliable way to set this option is to use the "

Browse

" button to connect to your

FTP

site and select the subdirectory. This will help accurately set the Host Subdirectory and the

Path is relative

box.

Path is relative - This option is checked by default. If the Host

Subdirectory path you entered is relative to the default

directory

you log in to, then keep this box checked. If you entered an absolute path from the root of your

FTP

site, then uncheck this box. If you use the "

Browse

" button to select your subdirectory, this box will be correctly set for you.

Pictures Web Address -This is the

HTTP

(Hyper-Text Transfer

Protocol) version of the host address, with the relevant subdirectory tacked on the end. It is the URL that points to files that have been uploaded to your

FTP

space. Your

ISP

can help you with the first part, but if you organize your space on the server by creating your own subdirectories, you might have to supply the last part of the address yourself. In short, it is the internet URL path to your images minus the image name itself.

A list of Picture Host settings for different web space providers is maintained on our Discussion Board. If you are having trouble with your settings, you may want to consult the Email and Picture Host Settings thread. Also, if you successfully enter your settings and they have not already been added to the thread, then we appreciate it if you could post those settings for other users.

Click the

Advanced

tab and enter the settings as follows:



FTP Port - Most ftp servers work on port 25. If your web space provider uses a port other than 21, enter it here.

Use a passive data connection - Most ftp servers use a passive connection. Leave this box checked unless your web space provider tells you otherwise. Also, if you are having trouble uploading through a firewall, try unchecking this box to see if it solves your problem.

Automatically Upload/Do not Upload

- When submitting listings, eB will ensure your images are uploaded. If you upload your images manually and do not want eB to upload your images automatically, check the

Do not upload...

option.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Click

to save your settings and enter a name for your Picture Host in the window that appears.

Creating a New eBay Picture Manager Host

From the dropdown, select the

eBay Userid

that has the Picture Manager subscription you want to use.

Enter the

Folder Name

of the folder the pictures should be uploaded to. You can use the Browse button to view your folders on Picture Manager and choose from the available list.

Click

to save your settings and enter a name for your Picture Host in the window that appears.

Carol uses Picture Manager to host her pictures. Some of her items are always listed. She doesn't want to accidentally delete those pictures, so she created a folder called

Permanent

for those pictures. All the others she puts in a folder called

Scratch

. She then created two Picture Manager Picture Hosts. One points to her Permanent folder and one to the Scratch folder. She can now easily assign the location of her uploaded images when creating an item.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Business Setup

If you are running a business on eBay, you will also have to provide some information about your business including how you track inventory, where/if you collect taxes, and whether you track your consignors and suppliers.

Inventory

Some users track inventory while others do not. If you do not track inventory, then you do not want inventory information cluttering up your user interface. If you do track inventory, then you may have specific rules about what you want to do when eB senses you are low on inventory. This information can be provided in the Inventory settings.

To set your inventory preferences:

From Tools|Options, select

Inventory

under

Business Setup

in the Options tree.

The following settings will appear.

Fill in the settings as follows:



I use the Inventory Management feature - Turn this on or off to hide or show the inventory fields in the interface.

When creating a listing...



Do not create the listing - This prevents you from listing more than you have.



Create the listing with the available inventory - This lets you still list, but won't list more than you have.



Create the listing regardless... - This will not check the available inventory when submitting items. Use this if you have an easily replenishable supply.



Show a warning... - In the case where eB submits more items than you have on hand, you can choose to see a popup warning or simply have the warning written to the log file.

Tax Table

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Depending upon the laws in your state/country, you may be required to collect taxes.

Much of the tax collection process is handled by eBay's Checkout process. In the cases where Checkout is used, eB will store the tax that was calculated at eBay. If Checkout is not used, tax is calculated based on the information entered into the Tax Table.

To fill in your tax table:

From Tools|Options, select

Tax Table

under

Business Setup

in the Options tree.

The following settings will appear.

Fill in the table columns as follows:



Sales Tax Authority Type - There are different taxing authorities that you may have to collect taxes for. Select the State, City, Zip or Country that you must collect taxes for. When a sale is recorded, if the State, City,

Zip or Country field in the buyers information is exactly the same as the value provided here, the tax will get calculated.

Sales Tax Authority State - Enter the state, city, country or zip that you charge tax for. This must match exactly the value in the buyer record for the tax to be calculated.

Tax Percent - Enter the tax percent to collect to the nearest thousandths.

Include tax on shipping? - Depending upon the laws in your state (taxing authority) you may or may not be required to collect tax on the shipping portion of the sale. Please consult local codes.

Much of our tax implementation is collected in anticipation of future tax requirements and eBay features. Currently, eBay supports charging taxes in multiple states, but not by city or country. If they implement this in the future, then it will already be in eB. Also, the Simplified Sales Tax plan being considered in many states will require sellers to charge tax based on the zip code of the buyer. When/if this is implemented, you may be required to store the taxes that are charged by zip code. At that time, eB will support the ability to do that.

Settings

To fill in the business settings:

From Tools|Options, select

Settings

under

Business Setup

in the Options tree.

The following settings will appear.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Fill in the settings as follows:



Do you consign items? - Answer yes or no to show or hide the consignment functions.

Do you track suppliers? - Answer yes or no to show or hide the supplier functions.

Work week - Set the day your work week begins on. This will be used when generating filters for the

Last Week

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Presets

Presets allow you to predefine sets of values that are used later in the program. Upgrade

Presets, Payment Presets, Shipping Presets, and Destination Presets are all used to make the entry of items faster. Positive Feedback Messages are used to quickly send feedbacks without typing them in each time, and Consignment Plans are the rules that you use to calculate consignment fees.

Item Entry Presets

Upgrade Presets, Payment Presets, Shipping Presets, and Destination Presets are all item entry presets. They are used to make the item entry process faster. Each preset corresponds to a set of values that must be sent to eBay when submitting a listing. The details of what each preset value is used for can be more aptly described from the eBay

Sell Your Item form. Please consult the SYI form for any item entry preset values you are unfamiliar with. All item entry presets can be created, duplicated, deleted, edited and renamed in the same manner.

For more information on using presets to create an item, see Creating Items Faster with

Field Presets .

Creating an Item Entry Preset

You can create any number of new presets.

To create an item entry preset:

From Tools|Options choose Presets|(Upgrades Presets/Payments

Presets/Shipping Presets/Destination Presets).

Click the

New

button. The Preset entry form for you type of preset will appear.

Enter the values for your preset. See Shipping , Listing Upgrades , Payment and

Shipping To/From for information on the specific fields in a preset.

An input form will open asking you for a name. Provide a short, detailed name for your preset and click

Duplicating an Item Entry Preset

You can create a item entry preset using an existing preset as a baseline also.

To duplicate an item entry preset:

From Tools|Options choose Presets|(Upgrades Presets/Payments

Presets/Shipping Presets/Destination Presets).

Select the preset you would like to duplicate from the list and click the

Duplicate

button.

An input form will open asking you for a name. Provide a short, detailed name for your preset and click

The new preset will now be in your Presets list. Click on the preset and click the

Edit

button to edit the new preset.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Modify the values for your preset accordingly. See Shipping , Listing Upgrades ,

Payment and Shipping To/From for information on the specific fields in a preset.

Deleting an Item Entry Preset

When you no longer need a preset, you can delete it. Deleting a preset will revert each item using the preset to being a <Custom> preset. It will not harm your data to delete a preset.

To delete an item entry preset:

From Tools|Options choose Presets|(Upgrades Presets/Payments

Presets/Shipping Presets/Destination Presets).

Select the preset you would like to delete from the list and click the

Delete

button.

Renaming an Item Entry Preset

You can also rename a preset at any time.

To rename an item entry preset:

From Tools|Options choose Presets|(Upgrades Presets/Payments

Presets/Shipping Presets/Destination Presets).

Select the preset you would like to rename from the list and click the

Rename

button.

An input form will open asking you for the new name. Provide a short, detailed name for your preset and click

Editing an Item Entry Preset

To edit an item entry preset:

From Tools|Options choose Presets|(Upgrades Presets/Payments

Presets/Shipping Presets/Destination Presets).

Select the preset you would like to edit from the list and click the

Edit

button.

Positive Feedback Messages

If you have several different feedback messages you tend to leave, you can enter them only once and then be used over and over again. Every feedback message created will appear in the list of feedback messages that can be left from the Finalize Sales mode. See

Completing Sales - Leaving_Feedback for information on leaving feedbacks. When leaving Random Feedbacks, all feedback messages in the list will be used in random order.

Since leaving negative and neutral feedbacks should not be taken lightly, you cannot leave them in bulk. You can also not store negative or neutral feedback messages for use later. You must manual write the negative/neutral feedback when leaving it.

To manage feedback messages:

From Tools|Options choose Presets|Positive Feedback Messages. The Positive

Feedback Messages list will appear.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Click the

New

button to create a new feedback message. When the prompt appears, enter the text of your message and click

. You could also create a new message using the

Duplicate

button.

If you want to modify one of your messages, choose it from the list and click the

Edit

button. Make your modifications and click

to save.

To delete a feedback message, choose it from the list and click the

Delete

button.

If you would like, you can make leaving feedbacks automatically change the status of the sale. To set a status change, enter a status in the

When Submitting to eBay Change the Sale Status

dropdown.

If leaving feedback is the last step in your process, it is a good idea to have feedbacks set the sale status to

Successful

. This will help you identify which sales have had feedback left for them.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Templates

Templates are pre-formatted layouts for your Ad, emails, or printable reports. Templates let you customize the look of an ad, email or report. The Ad Template Studio, Email

Studio and Print Studio are custom interfaces used to edit templates. Templates can be created, duplicated, deleted, edited and renamed.

Working with Templates

To view your templates, select Tools|Options from the main menu and then select

Ad/Email/Printing Templates

under the

Templates

header in the Options tree on the left. You will see a list of your templates.

Creating a New Template

You can create any number of new templates.

To create a new template:

From Tools|Options choose Templates|(Ad Templates/Email

Templates/Printing Templates).

Click the

New

button.

An input form will open asking you for a name. Provide a short, detailed name for your template and click

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

The appropriate studio will open to your new empty template. See Customizing

Ad Templates , Customizing Emails , or Customizing Reports and Labels for information on using the studios.

Ben sells custom signs. At the end of one of his sign auctions, he must contact the buyer to find out what font and text the buyer would like on their sign. He created a custom email called

Request Details

. He sends this email to all buyers of signs in the

Ready for Payment Request

filter each day.

Duplicating a Template

You can create a template using an existing template as a baseline also.

To duplicate a template:

From Tools|Options choose Templates|(Ad Templates/Email

Templates/Printing Templates).

Select the template you would like to duplicate from the list and click the

Duplicate

button.

An input form will open asking you for a name. Provide a short, detailed name for your template and click

The new template will now be in your Templates list. Click on the template and click the

Edit

button to edit the new template. The appropriate studio will open showing your new template. See Customizing Ad Templates , Customizing

Emails , or Customizing Reports and Labels for information on using the studios.

A template called Basic Email Template is provided as a starting point for new email templates. You can duplicate this template so you don't have to create your email templates from scratch.

Deleting a Template

When you no longer need a template, you can delete it.

To delete a template:

From Tools|Options choose Templates|(Ad Templates/Email

Templates/Printing Templates).

Select the template you would like to delete from the list and click the

Delete

button.

Renaming a Template

You can also rename a template at any time.

To rename a template:

From Tools|Options choose Templates|(Ad Templates/Email

Templates/Printing Templates).

Select the template you would like to rename from the list and click the

Rename

button.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

An input form will open asking you for the new name. Provide a short, detailed name for your template and click

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Connections

Connections lets you specify parameters to different connections that eB makes.

Updates

At any given time, there is a finalized version of eB and a beta version of eB available.

Finalized versions have completed testing and have been released to the general public.

Beta versions are versions that have newer fixes and enhancements that are still being tested. You can choose which type of update notifications you will get.

Beta versions are likely to contain bugs and may not work as you expect. Only experienced users or users who have been specifically instructed by support should get beta versions. A good beta tester understands that things will go wrong and will have adequate database backups.

Network Role

If you have multiple computers sharing data on a network, then you can assign the role of each computer. Each computer on a network will be either the server or a client. The server is the computer that hosts the database for the clients and will also perform other automatic background tasks like scheduling listings and downloading the latest categories. The clients will get the data from the server and can optionally assist with the automated tasks.

By setting the role of each computer on your network, you can optimize your network performance.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

For each computer on your network, set the network role as follows.



This computer is the Server

Each network must have a server. The server is the computer that will host the database. The server also will perform synchronizations with eBay.



This computer is an Intelligent Client

A client is any other computer on the network that is not the server. The client will access the database from the server. The server will interact with eBay to perform actions like submitting scheduled listings and refresh categories. An Intelligent

Client can also help the server with the automated tasks. Updates on the server will be performed faster since the data doesn't have to be accessed across the network. If you have a server that is being used for other tasks, or doesn't have a lot of RAM, you can use Intelligent Clients to help with the automatic updates.



This computer is a Dumb Client

A Dumb Client will access the data from the server, but will not perform any automated tasks. If your server is powerful enough to handle the autmoted tasks on its own, or if it is a computer dedicated to eB, you will get better performance by using Dumb Clients.



This is a standalone computer

If you do not run on a network at all use this option.

For more information about configuring your network, please see HOWTO: Optimal

Network Configurations.

Endicia

Postage can be automatically printed using Endicia's Dazzle. When printing postage for different shipping methods, Dazzle allows you to specify different label layouts. Please consult the Dazzle documentation for more information on label layouts and how you can customize your own postage.

Because eB automatically loads and prints postage, it must know what label layout to use for each type of postage. Use this screen to enter all the layout files that you would like associated with each shipping method. You can specify defaults for both Domestic and

International labels.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Getting Started

If you are reading this, you've probably just downloaded eBay Blackthorne and are eager to get started. We hope that you will take the time later to read about all the time-saving features we have to offer, but for now let's get you up and running.

In this section, we will give you a tour of the interface , and then walk you through a

Quick Start so you can create your first item and list it on eBay. When your auction ends, you will also need our Quick Finish to help you through your first sale.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

A Tour of the Main Window

Let's take a look at the different areas of the main window. Click on each labelled area to see a short explanation of its function.

Take the Tour

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Importing Data

Importing Data

The fastest way to get up and running is to import your existing auction data. You can import from Seller's Assistant Basic or Pro, Turbo Lister or directly from eBay. You probably imported your data when you first ran the Setup Assistant. If you did not, you can import it now from File|Import on the main menu.

Different programs will contain different amounts of useful data for eB. Depending upon how you imported your data, you may need to perform some more tasks to get your database in shape.

Importing from Seller's Assistant Basic

In order to extract as much information as possible from Seller's Assistant Basic, it must still be installed. Seller's Assistant Basic stores a lot of information in the Windows

System Registry, and that information is removed when the program is uninstalled.

To import from Seller's Assistant Basic, choose File|Import|Import from SA Basic. It can also be imported as part of the Setup Assistant which is run the first time you run eB.

If you have already uninstalled Seller's Assistant Basic, then simply reinstalling SA will not restore the lost information. The data would have to be re-entered into SA just as it was originally. Instead, it would be better to enter the data directly into eBay Blackthorne.



E-mail Templates: You could not create custom email templates in SA Basic, so no email templates are imported.



Ad Templates: Not imported. Ad Template is set to "Simple."



Themes: eBay themes are correctly imported.



Categories: Are imported correctly.

Inventory: Since there is no inventory in SA Basic, inventory info is not imported. For inventory to be tracked for specific items in eB, it needs to be turned on individually for each one.



Part Number: Does not exist in SA Basic so it is not imported.



Picture Host: Set to EPS. You will need to create your Picture Hosts and use

Bulk Change to add it to your items.



Cost: Not imported.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Items, listings and sales records are created. The status of each item is set as best can be determined (if there is a currently-running auction, for example, the status will be set to

"First Run," even though the item may have been run before).

Importing from Seller's Assistant Pro

Seller's Assistant Pro does not need to be currently installed in order for data to be imported from it.

To import from Seller's Assistant Pro, choose File|Import|Import from SA Pro 2.X. It can also be imported as part of the Setup Assistant which is run the first time you run eB.



E-mail Templates: Not imported. You must create new email templates in eB.



Packing Lists: Not imported. You must modify the stock packing list if you want it customized.



Labels: Not imported.

Ad Templates: Not imported. Ad Template is set to "Simple." You will need to create new Ad Templates and use Bulk Change to assign the templates to your items.



Theme ID: Is imported correctly.

Categories: Are imported correctly.

Feedback: Only positive feedback messages are imported. Because negative and neutral feedback is rare, and will not be done in bulk, you must enter negative and neutral feedbacks manually.



Status: Is imported correctly, with the exception of "Ready to List" and

"Pending" statuses, which have no equivalent in Blackthorne.

Importing from Turbo Lister

Turbo Lister doesn't export its entire database all at once. Instead, it exports one folder at a time. The best way to import from Turbo Lister is to create same-named folders, one at a time, importing data into each of them separately.

To import from Turbo Lister, select File|Import|Import Turbo Lister CSV File.



Images: Images are lost, except for images that reside on the local hard drive with the same letter and folder (e.g.: "C:\Images") as that used by Turbo Lister.



States (Status): Turbo Lister doesn't use the concept of states (or status) of items, so when Blackthorne imports, it tries to estimate and assign a rough status (if the item has a currently-running auction, for example).

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide



Inventory/Part Numbers: Turbo Lister also doesn't handle inventory, so when items are imported into Blackthorne, the inventory section is set to: "Don't track inventory for this item." The Part Number field is not set.



Seller/E-Mail Contact: The E-mail contact field is not available.

Neither is the Seller field, so Blackthorne assigns the current seller (if the "current seller" is set to "All Sellers", then the seller field is not assigned).



Shipping: International shipping details are not importable from

Turbo Lister.



Item Specifics: Item Specifics are imported correctly.

Templates: E-mail and Ad templates are lost. Ad template is set to

"Simple."



Picture Host: Is set to EPS by default.

Importing from eBay

In the very best-case scenario, if the listing was created using Blackthorne, just about every piece of information, including information that is completely independent of eBay

(e.g.: part numbers) will be imported.

To import from eBay, choose File|Import|Import from eBay.

When importing eBay listings that were created with other programs, more information will be lost:



Images: Not imported.



Inventory: Not imported. When the listing is created, inventory is turned off by default and needs to be turned on individually for each item.



Part Number: If the listing was created by Selling Manager or Blackthorne, part numbers are imported, otherwise they are not.



Dispute Status and ID: These are both imported.



Templates: Not imported.

Archiving While Importing

Archiving reduces clutter and speeds up operation of the program, while keeping all information still available if needed.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

With this in mind, the import program automatically archives data, subject to the following criteria:



Sales older than 6 months are archived.



Listings that ended more than 6 months ago are archived.



Items that were last used to create listings more than 6 months ago are archived.



Store listings that haven't been used in more than 6 months are archived.

In addition to the six-month boundary, incomplete items (no listings ever created from them; missing user information and option settings) are also archived.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Quick Start - Listing Your First Item

eBay Blackthorne is a very powerful application. This tutorial is designed to get your first auction up and running as quickly as possible. It just tells you what to do without taking any time to explain what you are doing or why. All of the functions are described in much more detail later in the documentation.

To List Your First Item:

Before beginning this tutorial, you should have completed the Setup Assistant with as much information as possible.

Click on the

Create Items

Mode tab to switch the program into Create Items

Mode.

Make sure you are viewing only the

grid

by clicking the

Grid Only

button on the

Layouts

toolbar.

To create an empty

item record

, select

(Untitled)

from the

New Item

dropdown.

When asked how many items to create, enter "1" and click OK.

A new

item record

will appear in the item entry window.

In the

Item Details

group, highlight

(Untitled)

and replace it with your title.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Also, from the dropdowns, enter a Seller and Contact Email from the accounts you created during the Setup Assistant .

From the

Categories

group, use the

Select

button to choose a category from the

Category Selector.

From the

Description

group, enter your description. If you would like to give your listing a finished look, select a theme from the

Theme

dropdown. After choosing a Theme, you can use the

Preview

button to see what it looks like. Ad

Templates will help you minimize duplicated text in all your descriptions, but we will save that for another day. For now, leave it set to

Simple

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Enter the

Format and Pricing

information.

The next few steps involve using Presets to enter data. A

preset

is a group of settings that you can define and use over and over. They speed up data entry considerably, and reduce errors. For this demonstration, just enter the data directly, without creating any presets. When you are more comfortable with item creation, you can learn more about using presets in the Creating

Items Faster with Field Presets topic.

10.

If you would like your listing to stand out, you may want to select one of the

preset

Listing Upgrades

. Otherwise, leave it set to

None

. Listing Upgrades incur additional listing fees. If you would like to know more right now, see Listing

Upgrades under Entering Item Details .

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide there are errors, click

Close

to return to the main screen and select Tools |

Activity Log. The errors are listed under the

Listing History

tab.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

15.

Once the item is submitted, the

status

of the item changes to Listing Created and a listing record is created. To view the listing record, click on the Monitor

Listings tab and select Listings by Status | Running filter from the Views sidebar. The listing will appear in the

grid

Congratulations! You've now listed your first item with eBay Blackthorne. When your auction has ended, you will need to close out your sale. To understand the item creation process in greater detail, we recommend you continue by reading Creating and Managing

Items .

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Closing eBay Blackthorne

When you are finished, you can close eBay Blackthorne using File | Exit from the Main menu. You can also use

Alt-F4

or click the Windows close window button in the upper right hand corner of the eBay Blackthorne window.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Overview of eBay Blackthorne

eBay Blackthorne is an automation tool for eBay Sellers. It helps automate all steps in the sales process from a single application with an easy to use interface.

There are 3 major stages in the lifespan of an eBay sale. You will

Create Items

Monitor

Listings

and

Finalize Sales

. Those three stages are managed by the 3 primary mode tabs on the main window.

The following diagram illustrates these stages.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

You will start the process by creating an item record in the

Create Items

mode. The item record contains all the information about an item to be listed on eBay. You will enter

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide your description, pictures and all the auction settings in the item record. You can even enter the number you have and track inventory from your item record. Once you have an item created, you can quickly and easily submit a listing to eBay. If you have more than one copy of the item, you can use the same item record to create another listing as many times as you'd like. In the topic Creating and Managing Items you will find all you need to know to create items quickly and keep them organized.

While a listing is running you monitor it from the

Monitor Listings

mode. In Monitor

Listings, you can keep track of the current bid price and the high bidder. You can also add to your description, end a listing early, submit second chance offers and relist closed listings. The topic Monitoring Listings describes all the ways you can keep track of your listings while they are running.

Once your listing sells, it generates a sale. The sale will be saved and finalized along with the buyer information from the

Finalize Sales

mode. In Finalize Sales, you will perform all of the tasks that occur after the sale is completed including, emailing buyers, receiving payments, leaving feedback, etc. You can even run reports from Finalize Sales to help you keep track of your profit and loss. The Processing Sales and Shipping topic contains all the information on what to do after the sale.

There are many more functions of eBay Blackthorne, but once you have an understanding of these three primary stages, the rest will fall into place. Mastering the content in the three topics described here is the best place to start.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Creating and Managing Items

Before you can create an eBay listing, you must first create an

Item

in your inventory.

Your Items will be displayed on the

Create Items

mode. Your item will pass through different

statuses

as you fill in all the information for your item, check the item for errors, submit it, and organize the item so it is easy to get to later. Statuses help you keep track of what stage your items are at in the creation and submission process. You can easily see all the items in a particular status from the

Filters Tree

in the Views sidebar.

The following diagram shows the actions that you will perform over the lifespan of an item in the light blue boxes. It identifies the status of the item as it progresses through the process in the purple boxes.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

The first step in the process is to create an item record . A brand new item record has a status of

In Process

. The

item record

contains all the information about the item you want to list. You will enter ...

 the information that you need to send to eBay (Title, Description, Starting Price,

Shipping Options, etc.)



 any pictures that you have taken of the item inventory information if you track inventory information about the supplier if you track the suppliers of your items

consignment

information if you are a Trading Assistant or selling the item on

consignment

If your pictures are hosted on your own web space, then you may want to upload your pictures during the creation process so you don't have to wait for them to upload at submission time.

After entering your data, you will move your items into the

Entry Completed

status.

Once entry is completed, you may want to preview your formatted description, check your listing for any errors or review the fees for submitting your listing .

The

Entry Completed

status is most useful when there are different users who create and submit items. By moving items into the Entry Completed status, the data entry person is signalling to the submitter that the items are ready. If the same person creates and lists the items, then you do not need to move items into the Entry Completed status. You can simply review them while they are

Process

When you have reviewed your item, you are ready to submit your listing. If you item failed submission for any reason, it will be moved into the

Submission Errors

status.

You will need to fix it and resubmit it . If your item submission was successful, then your item will be placed in the

Listed

status and a Listing record will be created. See the

Monitoring Listings topic for details on tracking a listing through its process.

If you have more than one of each item, you now have an efficient way to enter item information and submit it all from one screen. If you are a commodity seller (someone who has many copies of an item to sell), you can use this same

item record

to submit the item over and over again while it remains in the

Listed

status.

After you have sold the last copy of your item, and you have been paid for it, you will archive your item . This will make it easier for you to navigate through your items and it will make the program run faster.

How do I keep all my items organized?

As you list more and more items on eBay, it will become important for you to organize these items so that you can easily find them and list them again in the future. Folders, lists, and

filters

are all different methods for you to easily view and manage your items.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

The most common way to organize your items is to create and name folders to place your items in. You can then create lists of items without having to remove them from their folder. Finally, there are predefined filters that will show you groups of items based on something they have in common.

For instance, if you sell electronics, you may want to create folders for DVD players, and VCR's. You could then create a list that includes some DVD players and some VCR's to be submitted next Sunday. The items would still exist in their original folder, but they would also be referenced by the list. A filter called "New and Unlisted" could also be used to show you all the items you have created, but have not listed yet.

If you sell under multiple eBay User ID's or if multiple people list under the same User

ID, you can create Seller Accounts in Blackthorne to help separate your information.

If all else fails, you can use the good ol' Search function to find the items you are looking for.

Creating and Submitting Items

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Adding a New Item Record

Adding a New Item Record

Before listing an item, you have to create an

item record

that contains all the needed information for the item. Entering information about an item tends to be one of the most time consuming tasks that eBay sellers are faced with. This is why we have spent a lot of time streamlining the item entry process. If most of the fields are already entered when you create a new

item record

, it will save you a lot of time. There are three different ways you can create new item records.

If you are creating your first item, or an item that isn't like any other you've listed before, you can create a blank item. If you have a similar item already in your database, you can create a new item from an existing item. Finally, you can also create an item from an item

template

. An item

template

is a special type of

item record

that you can create and fill out in advance. Later, you can generate new item records from that

template

The topic " Creating Items Faster with Item Templates " later in this section describes this in more detail.

Creating an Item from Scratch

If you don't have any items yet, or you don't have any items that are similar to the new item you are going to list, you may want to create an item from scratch.

To create an item from scratch:

From the

Create Items

tab, Select Items Actions|New Item|

(Untitled)

from the main menu.

You can also use the

New Item

button on the Actions toolbar to create an (Untitled) item.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Depending upon the current layout, the new item record will display in the details pane, or in a popup window. Proceed to " Entering Item Details " for information on filling in the new

item record

Carlos is a brand new user of eB and has never created an item before. He uses

Items Actions|New Item|(Untitled) to get his first item record.

Creating an Item from an Existing Item

If you have a similiar item record already created, you can create a new one by duplicating the first.

To create a new item from an existing item:

From the

Create Items

mode, select the item you would like to duplicate from the

Grid

and click the

Duplicate

Action Button.

A new record will appear in the

Grid

and the Details Panel if it is shown. Also, depending upon your set preferences, the new Item may instead appear in a popup window.

Modify the new record to make any changes for the new item.

Camille sells football jerseys. She just created an item for a Philadelphia

Eagles jersey and now wants to create a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey. She selects the Eagles jersey and clicks on Duplicate. It gives her another Eagles jersey.

She clicks on the new item and modifies the description to say "Pittsburgh

Steelers" everywhere it said "Philadelphia Eagles". She now has an item record for each.

Creating an Item from an Item Template

If you find yourself creating the same types of items over and over, you can simply create an Item Template for the item. You can then easily create items just like it from the Item

Templates folder. The topic " Creating Items Faster with Item Templates " later in this section describes this in more detail.

To create an item from an item

template

From the

Create Items

mode, click the dropdown menu arrow on the

New Item

Action button and select the desired item

template

from the dropdown menu.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

You can also create an Item from an Item

Template

by choosing File|Items

Actions|New Item and choose the desired item

template

from the dropdown menu.

A new record will appear in the

Grid

and the Details Panel (depending on your display settings). Also, depending upon your set preferences, the new Item may instead appear in a popup window.

Modify the new record to make any changes for the new item.

After a while Camille realizes that she will be selling a lot of jerseys over the next several months so she should make an Item Template. She selects an existing jersey, right clicks it and chooses "Save as Item Template". She then changes the title of the Item Template to "Jersey". Later she goes to the

New

button and chooses "Jersey" to get a new item record.

An astute user will notice that all three of these methods are really just different ways of duplicating an existing item record. When you are creating an item from scratch, you are simply duplicating an empty item record that was provided. When using an Item Template, you are simply duplicating a special

type of item record. eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Entering Item Details

Entering Item Details

There are many pieces of information that must be entered when creating an item. This topic assumes a good understanding of the eBay listing process and listing features. If you don't understand what a field is for, please consult the eBay online documentation for the Sell Your Item page.

Item information can be entered directly in the

Grid

, or in the

Details Pane

of the Create

Items mode.

Item information is entered on two different tabs in the

Details Pane

or the

New Item

pop-up. The

Item

tab contains all the fields that are necessary for listing an item on eBay. The

Inventory

tab contains all other information about the item.

If you would prefer to scroll rather than tab within the

Details Pane

, you can make the Details Pane one long scrollable entry panel from

Tools|Options|Appearance|Entering Data.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Item Details

The Item Details group contains general information about the item.

Enter the

Title

and optionally, the

Subtitle

. Then select a Seller Account for the item from the

Seller

dropdown menu. By assigning Seller Accounts to your items, you can separate your items by eBay User ID or by the person listing the item. The Seller dropdown menu will only be visible if you have more than one Seller Account created.

You can learn more on using Seller Accounts in the topic " Using Seller Accounts to

Organize Your Items ". You can also assign an Email Account under the

Contact Email

dropdown menu. By assigning an Email Account to your item, you can identify which email address will be used for any contacts relating to this item.

If you track your items by

Part Number

, you can also enter it optionally. The part number field is used to identify the unique inventory item this item record is for. If multiple items share the same part number, then the inventory will be shared by all those items. If you leave the part number blank, it will be assumed to be its own unique inventory item.

Sonia has 20 leather wallets to sell. She wants to sell some of them as auctions, some in her store, and some at fixed price. She starts by creating an item record for the auction. She sets all the properties she needs to sell it as an auction and then assigns a part number of LW001. Then, she sets her inventory at 20. To create the store and fixed price items, she duplicates the original auction item and changes the listing format and other necessary fields to list as a store and fixed price auction. She makes sure that all three have the same part number of

LW001.

When she lists one of the items as an auction, the Qty Listed for all three item records changes to 19. When she then adds 5 to her store, the Qty Listed drops to 14 for all three item records and when she lists 2 as fixed price, the inventory drops to 12 for all three.

By sharing part numbers, she can now easily create an auction, fixed price auction or sale record while maintaining proper inventory counts.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Geoffrey sells unique items and only gets one of each so he doesn't need to track inventory. He simply leaves the Part Number field blank.

The Title and SubTitle fields are spell checked in real time. See " Spell Checking " for information on using the spell checker.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Description

The Description group allows you to enter your description and select how it will appear in the listing.

Enter all text of your description in the

Description

box.

You can enter plain text or HTML in the description box. When using HTML however, you must ensure it adheres to eBay guidelines for HTML and

Javascript .

If you would like to edit your Description in a larger window, click the

Edit

button to open the full screen

Description Editor

. The

Description Editor

contains a

WYSIWYG

(What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor to allow you to add custom formatting such as bold or highlighting. To learn more about the

Description Editor

, please see

" Using_the_Description_Editor ". The Description field is spell checked in real time.

See " Spell Checking " for information on using the spell checker.

Next, enter the

Theme

you want to use for your description. The

Theme

is a graphical layout for your item that can make it more attractive. There are literally hundreds to choose from, with more being added all the time. Themes are the equivalent of eBay's

Listing Designer templates. To help you select a theme, there is a

Preview

button to see what your listing will look like. Simply choose a Theme and then click the

Preview

button to view a formatted version of your listing.

Themes are free when you are listing using the same eBay userid that is subscribed to eB. When using another userid, using themes will incur the

Listing Designer fee on your auctions.

There are different themes for the regular site versus the eBay Motors site. Use the themes marked with a checkered flag on the eBay Motors site and any other theme when listing on the non-Motors eBay site.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Finally, select an

Ad Template

. Whereas the Theme assigned the graphical appearance for your listing, an

Ad Template

can assign default text for your description. Initially, there are two Ad Templates. The

Simple

template provides no additional text. Only the text entered in your description box is included in your listing. The

Enhanced

template will add standard messages for shipping, tax, payment etc., but requires you to edit the template before you can use it.

Ad Templates are very powerful. Using a

WYSIWYG

(What You See Is What You

Get) editor, you can enter text once in an

Ad Template

, and have it included in all your listings. To find out more, see " Customizing Ad Templates ".

Ad Templates allow you to include the text from your description using an

Item Fields

variable. However, it doesn't allow you to change the font style or color within the description itself. It also doesn't allow you to enter other HTML formatting like tables and lists into the description. If you want more control over the appearance of the description itself, then click the

Edit

button to open the Description Editor. The topic

" Description - Using_the_Description_Editor " discusses this in more depth.

By using the

Description

and

Ad Templates

properly, you can greatly reduce the amount of text you must enter. Whenever possible, the Description field should just contain information that makes a particular item different from other items. Any text that is repeated in multiple listings should be in an Ad Template. For example, if you are selling a Fenton Vase, then you should include information about this particular vase in the

Description. This includes color, style, scratches, chips, etc. Information that appears in all your glassware listings like shipping messages, payment messages, how you grade glassware, and the history of your company should be part of an Ad Template called

"Glassware". This allows you to use the "Glassware" template anytime you list a piece of glass, leaving you to simply enter the specifics of that piece of glass.

Using the Description Editor

If you have a simple Description, then you can simply enter it in the

Description

box on the

Item Details

form. When used with an Ad Template, the Description you enter in the Description box will be included in your listing when it is created. The Description box allows you to include simple text or you can enter HTML if you desire. If you are unfamiliar with HTML, yet you still want more advanced formatting in your Description, then you can use the

Description Editor

. The

Description Editor

is a

WYSIWYG

(What

You See Is What You Get) editor that allows you to easily create formatted text. When included in your Ad Template all the formatting created in the Description Editor will appear along with the other elements from the Ad Template.

By using the

Description

and

Ad Templates

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

"Glassware". This allows you to use the "Glassware" template anytime you list a piece of glass, leaving you to simply enter the specifics of that piece of glass.

To open the

Description Editor

, simply click on the "

Edit

" button in the Description group, or double-click the Description input box.

Enter the text of your description in the main Description input box.

You can enter plain text or HTML in the description box. When using HTML however, you must ensure it adheres to eBay guidelines for HTML and

Javascript . You can also enter any of the Item Fields available in the Ad

Template Studio, however you must manually enter the names of the Item Field tags.

You can use the

Design View

and

HTML View

tabs to swap back and forth between seeing the formatted appearance and the source HTML. Spell checking is not enabled in the Design View since the Design View is supposed to show exactly what will be displayed and the red wavy lines violate that rule. However, you can spell check in the

HTML View. HTML tags will be ignored by the spell checker. See " Spell Checking " for information on using the spell checker.

You can add formatting by placing your cursor or selecting text and then clicking on one of the format buttons on the toolbar. The buttons perform the following formatting:

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Icon Description

Cut the selected text

Copy the selected text

Paste the selected text

Undo the last action

Redo the last action

Make the selected text bold

Italicize the selected text

Underscore the selected text

Set the font

Remove all formatting from the selected text

Set the color of the selected text

Increase the size of the selected text

Decrease the size of the selected text

Left align the selected text

Center the selected text

Right align the selected text

Indent

Outdent

Start/Stop an numbered list

Start/Stop a bulleted list

Insert a horizontal line

Insert a table

Insert a hyperlink

Perform a search and replace

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Categories

Categories

The Category group allows you to enter one or two

categories

to list your item under. If you have a store, it will also allow you to enter the store categories.

There are three ways to enter a category:



Type the category number directly into the category number box. If the category number is valid, the category description will automatically fill in.



If available, you can choose a favorite category from the category dropdown

 menu.

Click the

Select

button to bring up the Category Selector.

Some

categories

have

Item Specifics

or may be selected from a catalog. By specifying the

Item Specifics

information or choosing the item from a catalog, the item is more accurately identified for your buyers. If the chosen category has

Item Specifics

Catalog information available, the

Edit

Item Specifics

window will appear after the selection of the category. Follow the instructions in

" Entering_Item_Specifics_and_Catalog_Info " to complete this information. Once specified, the

Item Specifics

/Catalog information is displayed below the category selection. You can use the

Edit

button to change Item Specifics or Catalog information in the future.

If you have a store, you can also enter one or two

Store Categories

that you want your item listed under.

If you have more than one Seller Account, the store category dropdowns will only appear when a seller account with a store is selected in the "Seller" dropdown in the sidebar.

If you recently modified your categories on eBay, or if you don't see the store category dropdown in the Category group, then select Refresh|eBay Store

Categories from the main menu. This will refresh your list of store categories.

The Category Selector

Items are listed on eBay by category. There are over 100,000 categories on eBay.

Placing your item in the proper category is important because it helps buyers more easily find your items. If desired, you can even list your item in two different categories. The

Category Selector helps you quickly find and select categories using:



a hierarchical category tree

a list of your favorite categories

by searching through category names.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

To open the Category Selector, simply click the

"Select"

button next to the category input fields.

The Category Selector will appear. By choosing the Category 1 or Category 2 radio button at the top, you can specify which category you are entering. Use the

"Clear"

buttons to remove any categories you don't want to list in anymore.

Choosing a Category from the Tree

From the

Browse

tab, you can select your category from a hierarchical tree. Simply choose the highest level category in the input box on the left, and lower levels will appear on the right. Continue to drill down until you reach the leaf category you wish to list in.

Some categories may have associated

Item Specifics

. Item Specifics are additional pieces of information to further categorize your item. For instance, the Women's Shoes category may have color and size as Item Specifics. Additionally, you may be able to fill in some of the Item Specifics for a category using

Pre-Filled Item Information

. Pre-

Filled Item Information is Item Specific information that can be automatically entered for you from a catalog. For instance, eBay maintains a catalog of information on DVD's and

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide can automatically fill in a description of the DVD for you. Any categories that contain

Item Specifics or Pre-Filled Item Information will be marked with small icons as described in the lower left corner of the Category Selector.

If you would like to view the category on eBay to see what other types of items are in that category, then click the

"View on eBay"

button.

If you would like to add this category to your favorites list, then click on

"Add to

Favorites"

. All categories in your favorites list will be available from the Category

Name dropdown on the Item Details page and will save you from having to load the

Category Selector the next time you want to use this category.

Choosing a Category from Your Favorites

The

Favorites

tab contains a list of all categories that you have added to your Favorites list.

The easiest way to select a favorite is from the Category Name dropdown on the Item

Details. That dropdown contains the same list as shown here. You can also select the category simply by clicking it here.

If you would like to remove a category from your favorites list, then simply select it and click the

"Remove"

button.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Choosing a Category from the Category Search

The

Search

tab allows you to search for categories that have a particular word in the name.

Simply enter your search word(s) into the search field and click the

"Search"

button. A list of possible categories will appear. Simply click the category you desire.

To add the found category to your favorites list, click the

"Add to Favorites"

button.

Single clicking a category on any tab will enter it into the category field at the top. Double-clicking a category will enter it as the category and exit the

Category Selector.

Entering Item Specifics and Catalog Information

Some categories may have associated

Item Specifics

Pre-Filled Item Information

. Pre-

Filled Item Information is Item Specific information that can be automatically entered for you from a catalog. For instance, eBay maintains a catalog of information on DVD's and can automatically fill in a description of the DVD for you.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

When selecting a category from the Category Selector , any categories with Item Specifics and/or Pre-Filled Item Information will automatically display an input form for you to fill in more data. The fields that appear on that form will be different depending upon the category selected.

Item Specifics

can be entered for both

categories

, but catalog information can only be entered for the first category.

Entering Item Specifics

The Item Specifics input form will look something like this form for the Women's Shoes category.

Simply fill in as much data as you can and click the

"OK"

button.

A summary of the information you entered will appear under the Category input fields.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Entering Pre-Filled Catalog Information

When a category also has Pre-Filled Item Information, it will give you the option of entering the Item Specifics yourself or using the catalog information.

If you want to just enter the Item Specifics yourself, choose

"Manually enter Item

Specifics"

at the top of the screen. You will then see a typical Item Specifics screen and can enter the values manually.

To search for information within a catalog, select

"Search for pre-filled catalog information"

at the top, and then enter values under the "Product Search" header to help locate the catalog information. Click the

"Search"

button when you have entered your search criteria, and a list of matching catalog entries will appear at the right.

To see the details of any of the matches, click the

"Show Details"

link. The link will show you all the catalog information for that entry to ensure you have selected the correct entry.

When you have found the entry that matches your item, click it to select it. This will show you the Item Specifics input form with much of the data already filled in. You should continue to fill in any other data that you have available.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Select

"Include Stock Photo in this Listing"

if you would like the photo from the catalog to be used in your listing.

Select

"Include Additional Information"

if you would like the description from the catalog added to your description. You may even decide to include this information in lieu of your own description. This saves you time by not having to add your own description.

Select

"Use Stock Image as Gallery Image"

if you would like the photo from the catalog to be used as your gallery image (if you have chosen to list with a gallery image).

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

If you would like to use all three stock photo settings specified as your default for future catalog listings, click the

Set as Default

button.

When finished, click

"OK"

. A summary of your catalog information and a thumbnail will appear under the Category input fields.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Pictures

Pictures

The

Pictures

group allows you to enter up to 12 pictures for your item.

These pictures are included in your formatted listing based on the Layout chosen in your

Ad Template

You can enter images in any of the following ways:

 drag and drop images from any open Windows folder directly onto an

image well

. Dragging multiple images is allowed. The images will be added in the order they

 were selected. drag and drop images from any open Windows folder directly onto the picture path text fields. Dragging multiple images is allowed. The images will be added in the order they were selected.

 click an

image well

images. The order of the images when placed in the image wells cannot be guaranteed.

to navigate to your image folder and select one or more

 use the browse button (the button with the three dots on it) to navigate to your image folder and select one or more images. The order of the images when placed in the image wells cannot be guaranteed.

 manually enter the path to the image directly into the picture path fields. You can include pictures that are on your hard drive, or you can use pictures on the internet by entering the URL in the picture path text field.

You can either use eBay Picture Services to host your pictures, or you can host your pictures on your own web space. Choose your hosting preference from the

Picture Host

dropdown menu.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

If you have chosen to list with eBay Picture Services, you can also choose additional picture options from the

EPS

Picture Options

dropdown menu.

Your listings will load into your potential buyer's browser much faster if they are properly compressed and formatted. The

Picture Studio

allows you to compress, crop, scale and rotate your images so they are more efficient. You can access the

Picture

Studio

by clicking the

Edit

Actions|Edit Pictures...

button in the

Pictures

Group, or by clicking

Items

from the main menu. You can learn more about the Picture

Studio in the topic " Editing Pictures ".

Uploading Your Pictures

One of the best ways to ensure a better price for your items is to list them with pictures.

Earlier, you learned how to identify which pictures were associated with your item. For your pictures to appear in your listing, however, they must be uploaded and available on the web. There are basically three ways you can host images on the Web: eBay Picture

Services, eBay Picture Manager or you can use your own Web space.

Uploading pictures to eBay Picture Services is fast and easy, however you will incur a fee after the first picture on each item. Using eBay Picture Manager will allow you to use eBay's image hosting feature to store your images. Picture Manager provides you will a specified amount of web space for a set fee, and you manage what images are available at any given time. If you have your own web space on your ISP or through another provider, you can use that to host your images also.

When using eBay Picture Manager, or your own web host, you will need to first set up a

Picture Host account .

Uploading Pictures to eBay Picture Services (ePS)

The simplest way to include pictures is to use eBay Picture Services (

ePS

). eBay currently charges a fee for every picture after the first one, but if you are not comfortable with managing images on your own web space, it could be well worth the cost. To use

ePS

, all you have to do is select

eBay Picture Services

from the

Picture Host

dropdown menu in the Pictures group.

If you choose

ePS

, you can also select other eBay features such as Picture Show, Super

Size and Picture Pack from the

EPS Picture Options

dropdown menu in the

Pictures

group.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

When you submit your item, Blackthorne sends your pictures to eBay along with your listing. You don't need to do anything else.

Uploading Pictures to Picture Manager or Your Own Web Space

Picture Manager and hosting on your own web space are very similar. Both provide you with space that allow you to upload images. Both must have a Picture Host account set up to use, and both will have images uploaded the same way. The main difference is in the setup. When using Picture Manager, you simply have to identify the eBay Userid that is subscribed to Picture Manager. When hosting your own images, you will need to set up your FTP settings with information provided by your web space provider.

To use your own web host or Picture Manager for any given listing, simply select the

Picture Host account you want to use in the

Picture Host

dropdown on the Item Details

Pane.

If you host pictures on your own web space or use Picture Manager, then you need to make sure your images have been uploaded to your web space before your listing starts.

By default, Blackthorne will upload any missing pictures for you, or you can do this manually if you prefer. You don't have to remember so much if you let Blackthorne upload the images when it submits the item, but the time it takes to check for missing pictures and then upload them could greatly increase the time it will take to submit items.

If you want your items to be submitted quickly, then you may want to upload your pictures manually in advance.

Deleting images from Picture Manager is not currently supported by the eBay

API Interface. You will need to delete images from Picture Manager on eBay.

Uploading Pictures Manually

To upload pictures manually:

From the

Create Items

Grid

, select the item(s) to have the pictures uploaded.

(How to select multiple items.)

Select Items Actions - Manually Upload Pictures from the menu or click the

Upload Pictures

Action Button.

You can view the

status

of pictures as they are uploaded in the

status

bar.

If you use your own FTP tool to upload your images, and you do not want eBay

Blackthorne to do anything with your images, you can set it to not upload your pictures during submission from the Advanced tab of your Picture Host account setup .

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Format and Pricing

The

Format and Pricing

group contains various fields that eBay requires for your listing.

Enter the

Listing Format

Duration

Starting Price

Reserve Price

Buy It Now Price

Fixed Price,

Size

whether the listing is

Private

or allows

Best Offer

Quantity

and the

Lot

If the Listing Format is Auction, the Buy It Now Price is listed. If the Listing

Format is Fixed Price or Store, the Fixed Price displays instead of the Buy It

Now Price. These prices are saved separately. If however, one of the prices is set to 0, it will default to the other price. For example, if you enter a Buy It

Now Price of $9.99 and have never entered a Fixed Price, then if you change the Listing Format of the listing to Store, the Fixed Price will be $9.99 also. If you then change the Fixed Price to $14.99, and switch the Listing Format back to Auction, the Buy It Now price will still be $9.99.

The Quantity is the number of items you can sell to different bidders. If the quantity is greater than 1, the auction is a

Dutch Auction

Lot size

is the number of items that are all being sold together to the same buyer.

Joe purchased 10 identical pairs of wooden shoes at an auction. He listed all 10 in a single auction with a quantity of 10. Eight different people bid on and won

8 of the pairs of shoes. This is a

Dutch Auction

that used the Quantity field.

Sarah bought a collection of 300 Mercury dimes, and wants to sell them all at once to a single bidder. She started an auction with a quantity of 1, and a

lot size

of 300. They were all won by the single high bidder.

Marilyn bought out a video stores remaining stock when they went out of business. The video store had 11 sets of Apollo Mission DVD's. Each set had

6 DVD's in it. She listed a

Dutch auction

as "Apollo Mission DVD's" with a quantity of 11 and a

lot size

of 6. Each of the Dutch winners received 6 DVD's.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Listing Upgrades

The Listing Upgrade group allows you to choose the upgrades you would like for your listing.

Upgrades make your listing more noticeable and incur additional fees at eBay. You can choose one of the

Preset

groups of listing upgrades, or use the

Edit

button to select custom upgrades for this listing. See " Creating Items Faster with Field Presets " for more information on using Field Presets.

The

Edit

button displays the

Edit Listing Upgrades

window. Simply check any upgrades you would like to use for your listing. To set the Listing Upgrades for this item only, leave the radio button set to "

Change this item only

". If you want to modify a

preset

or create a new

preset

, please consult " Creating Items Faster with Field Presets " for more information.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Payment

The Payment group allows you to choose the payment information you would like for your listing.

If any payment

Presets

are defined, you can choose one from the dropdown menu, or you can use the

Edit

button to bring up the Edit Payment form. See " Creating Items

Faster with Field Presets " for more information on creating and using Field Presets.

The

Edit

button opens the

Edit Payment

Preset

window.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Shipping

The Shipping group allows you to choose the shipping charges and weights.

Shipping Preset

If any shipping presets are defined, you can choose one from the dropdown menu, or you can use the

Edit

button to bring up the Edit Shipping form. See " Creating Items Faster with Field Presets " for more information on using Field Presets.

The

Edit

button next to the Shipping dropdown displays the

Edit Shipping

Preset

window.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

You can choose from three different types of shipping for your listing. Calculated, Flat, or Self Managed.

Calculated Rate Shipping

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

When using calculated shipping, tell eBay what shipping services you provide for domestic and/or international shipments. Also specify any packaging and handling fees you may charge and the

Package Size

. When your auction is complete, eBay will use this information along with the buyer's location to automatically calculate the shipping costs.

Changing the Package Size will change the list of available Shipping Services.

If you have previously chosen a Shipping Service that isn't valid for the

Package Size you choose, you will have to re-enter the Shipping Service.

You can also specify your

Domestic Handling Time

and whether or not you offer

Get it

Fast

. Get it Fast is an eBay option that lets your users know that you ship quickly. In order to use get it fast, you must offer a domestic expedited shipping service and a 1 day handling time. It also only applies to Fixed Price and Buy it Now auctions.

If you have checked the "

Apply a shipping discount when buyer purchases multiple items

" box, then eBay will use your shipping discount settings in My eBay to calculate the discount.

Entering international shipping is similar to domestic shipping except you must also specify what destinations you ship to for each shipping service.

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You can also specify a Package Size. Package Size is optional with Flat Rate shipping.

It is not sent to eBay and is only used if you are used to send to 3rd party postage programs.

Changing the Package Size will change the list of available Shipping Services.

If you have previously chosen a Shipping Service that isn't valid for the

Package Size you choose, you will have to re-enter the Shipping Service.

You can also specify your

Domestic Handling Time

and whether or not you offer

Get it

Fast

Self-Managed Shipping

With Self-Managed shipping, the input fields look just like Flat Rate Shipping, except no information is sent to eBay. The seller will include any shipping information in the listings itself. It is left to the seller and the buyer to decide upon the shipping amount at the end of the auction. By entering shipping information in this

Preset

, you can later use variables in your Ad Templates to have the shipping charges automatically included in

your listings. Please see " Using Ad Templates " for more information.

Weight and Dimensions

You can also enter the weight and dimensions of your item.

When using calculated shipping, eBay will use the supplied weights and dimensions to calculate the shipping weight. If you are using any shipping type, the weight and dimensions are not used, they are merely for your reference when shipping later.

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Shipping To/From

The Shipping group also allows you to choose the destinations and origin.

Ship to/from

is a separate group with its own customizable presets. If you have defined any

Ship to/from Presets

, you can choose one from the dropdown menu.

Clicking the

Edit

button next to the Ship to/from dropdown menu allows you to provide your location(s) and the locations you ship to.

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Enter the locations that you ship to, and the

Ship from Location

. The

Location

field is the field that shows on your eBay listing as the location.

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Inventory Details

In addition to the information that you will send to eBay (as specified on the

Item

tab in

Items Details), you may want to track other related information. The

Inventory

tab allows you to track additional information such as:



 the source of the item (either your supplier or a consignor) inventory information custom fields the item status any notes you would like to keep

Source

You can keep track of where you received the item in the

Source

group. Usually, you get the item from either a supplier or a consignor. A supplier can be someone you always purchase from, or it could simply be someone who had a garage sale. A consignor is someone who gives the item to you to sell for them.

If the item is consigned, then click the "

Consigned

" box. This will allow you to enter the

Consignor and the Consignment Plan. See Consigning for information on tracking consignments.

If your item is not consigned, then you can enter the supplier. Simply choose a supplier from the Supplier dropdown list. If you would like to view or edit the information for a supplier, then click the

"Edit"

button next to the Supplier dropdown. If this is a new supplier, then choose

"New Supplier"

from the dropdown list. A Supplier input screen will appear and you can enter the information for the supplier.

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If you want to keep track of how much you make on this item, you should enter what you paid for the item in the

Cost

field. eBay Blackthorne will use this value later when calculating your profit and loss.

Finally, you can record the date you acquired the item for your records.

Inventory

The

Inventory

group helps you keep track of how many items you have in inventory.

Since you may track inventory on some items, and not others, with each item, you can specify whether you

"Track Inventory for this Item"

. If checked, you then specify your

Qty on Hand

. Quantity on Hand is the physical number that you have in your possession.

The number that you currently have

Scheduled

or are

Active

(Running) will be displayed as well as the number that you have

Sold Waiting to Ship

. The Qty on Hand -

Scheduled - Active - Sold Waiting to Ship is the

Qty Available

to List without running out of inventory. With these calculations, you will always know where your inventory is committed and how many you have left to sell.

If you would like to be notified when your inventory is low, then enter a value in the

Low

Inventory Level

dropdown. You may consider to be low on DVD's when you have 10 or fewer, and low on DVD Players when you have only 2 left. Whenever the Quantity

On Hand is less than the Low Inventory Level, the item will appear in the

Low Inventory

filter.

If you store your items in numerous locations or a warehouse, you can save the location in the

Storage Location

field.

You can customize how your inventory system operates from

Tools|Options|Business|Inventory. See Using the Setup Assistant - Inventory

Management for more information.

Custom

The

Custom

group lets you enter your own custom information for an Item. This information can then later be used in Ad Templates and Email Templates. For instance, if you sell T-Shirts, you can use the Custom 1 field for the size, and Custom 2 for color.

As you enter a new item, you might put

in Custom 1 and

Heather Gray

in Custom 2.

You can then have these values dynamically entered into your listing by using the

[[ItemsCustom1]] and [[ItemsCustom2]] variables in your Ad Templates.

Item Status

The

Item Status

group lets you manually specify the status and shows you some important dates including the date the item was created on, the date of the first listing, the date of the last listing and the date the item was last modified on.

Notes

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The Notes group is for you to record any notes about an item. It can be used for any purpose you want to use it for.

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Creating Items Faster with Field Presets

Entering information about your item can be one of the most time consuming tasks faced by eBay sellers. By using

field presets

, you can make the job of entering items much faster.

When you list a lot of items, many of your settings tend to be the same. For instance, the types of payments you receive are often the same no matter what type of item you are listing.

While some settings are almost always the same, some other settings may change depending upon the type of item you are listing. You may have several different common settings you use. Your baseball cards may offer one set of shipping options, while your more valuable signed photographs have another set of shipping options. Field presets allow you to store these common settings for frequent use.

There are

field presets

for Listing Upgrades, Payment, Shipping Charges and Shipping

Locations. We will use Listing Upgrades as an example, but all

field presets

work the same.

You can select existing presets , use a custom preset , create new presets , modify existing presets , or manage all your presets .

Selecting Existing Field Presets

The Listing Upgrades, Payment, and Shipping groups have dropdown menus for selecting a field preset. To use an existing preset, simply choose one from the dropdown menu. All the values saved in that preset will be sent to eBay when the item is submitted.

Creating a New Field Preset

If you have a set of input values that you enter frequently, you should create a field preset so they are easily selectable.

To create a field preset:

Click the

"Edit"

button next to the preset dropdown.

When the preset values appear, set your desired values.

Ensure the

"Create New ... Preset"

option is selected in the lower left of the preset window.

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Click

"OK"

to exit. You will be asked for a name. Specify a name that helps you remember what you will use that preset for.

Click

"OK"

, and your new preset will be created and available to be used on any future item.

Karen doesn't usually use any listing upgrades, but on expensive glassware, she likes to use Gallery and Bold. She uses the predefined

None

Listing Upgrade preset for everything but the expensive glassware. She then created a Listing

Upgrade field preset called

"Expensive Glassware"

with Bold and Gallery turned on. Whenever she lists expensive glassware, she quickly chooses this preset.

Customizing a Preset

If you have a preset that is close to the settings you want, but isn't exactly what you want

AND you will only be using this setting once, so there is no need to save it, you can use a custom preset. A custom preset is simply a set of preset values that you won't be saving for future use.

To specify a custom preset:

Select an existing preset.

Click the

"Edit"

button next to the preset.

When the preset values appear, make any desired changes.

Ensure the

"Change this item only"

option is selected in the lower left of the preset window.

Click

"OK"

to exit. Your preset dropdown will say <Custom> and the summary of your selections will appear under the dropdown.

James normally lists all of his paper ephemera (postcards, baseball cards, etc.) with Bold and Border. He has a signed baseball card that he would like to also add Highlight to, but he doesn't expect to do this very often. He selected his

Paper Ephemera

listing upgrade, edited it and added

Highlight

. He specified that he would

Change this item only

, and exited. This one listing will use Bold,

Border and Highlight when listed.

Modifying an Existing Field Preset

If desired, you can change an existing Field Preset at any time.

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Changing a Field Preset will in effect change all items that use the Field Preset.

You should be sure this is what you want to do before changing a Field Preset.

If you really only want to modify it for the current item, then you should simply use a custom preset .

To modify an existing preset:

Select the preset to be modified.

Click the

"Edit"

button next to the preset.

When the preset values appear, make any desired changes.

Ensure the

"Update ... Preset"

option is selected in the lower left of the preset window.

Click

"OK"

to exit. You will be required to confirm that you are replacing the existing preset. Click

"OK"

again and your preset will be updated.

Harold accepts Visa and Mastercard, which is what his

"My Payments"

Payment preset is set up for. He now will also accept Discover. He wants this to affect all future items he lists. He does this by updating his "My Payments" preset to also accept Discover. Any item that uses this preset will now accept

Discover also.

Managing Field Presets

Editing and adding Field Presets as well as duplicating, deleting and renaming them can also be done from the Presets feature of the Options panel. To open the Presets Options, select Tools|Options|Presets.

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Select the preset type that you would like to work with from tree on the left. Then select the preset from the preset list and choose

New..., Duplicate..., Delete..., Edit..., or

Rename...

to perform the desired action.

If you delete a preset, all records that used that preset will be set to <Custom>, and the values from the preset will be maintained. It won't harm your data to delete a preset.

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Creating Items Faster with Item Templates

As discussed before, entering information about your item can be one of the most time consuming tasks faced by eBay sellers. Item Templates are another way you can reduce time when creating items.

Field Presets

allow you to group several

item record

fields together to save repetitive entry. Item Templates carry that concept one level higher and allow you to store an entire

item record

to be used for creating item records.

Creating and Managing Item Templates

To use Item Templates, create a separate

template

for the different types of items you sell. Generally, you only need to create different Item Templates if a significant number of fields are different from other templates. Item Templates are just a special type of

item record

. They look just like an

item record

, but they are only visible in the Item

Templates folder. The Title field of any Item

Template

that is created will also show up in the list of templates you can use to create a new item record from an Item Template .

Thomas sells mugs and glow in the dark lightsticks. Mugs are sold one at a time at auction, and lightsticks are sold by bulk in his eBay Store. In addition, the shipping costs and methods are different for mugs vs. lightsticks. Thomas created two Item Templates. One called "Mug" and one called "Lightstick".

The "Mug"

template

has a listing format of "auction", a starting price of $3.99 and the shipping costs for a mug entered in the Shipping Preset. The

"Lightstick"

template

has the listing type set to "store", the quantity set to 10, and the starting price set to $99. He also sets the lightstick shipping costs in the

Shipping Preset. Now, whenever Thomas wants to create a new

item record

for a mug, he clicks the New Item dropdown menu and selects "Mug". He would select "Lightstick" to create a new lightstick item.

To create an Item

Template

From the

Create Items

Grid

, you simply select an existing

item record

that you want to use as a starting point.

Right-click

the

item record

and select

Save as Item

Template

. The new item

template

is created.

If you want to view or modify the

template

, you can find it by selecting the

Item

Templates

folder in the Views Sidebar.

Customizing the <Untitled> Item

By default, eBay Blackthorne ships with an Item

Template

called "

<Untitled>

" . You can use this whenever you want to create a new

item record

that has no default values filled in yet. This is probably only useful for the first

item record

you create. No matter what type of item you are going to create, there will most likely be some fields that will always be the same for you. For instance, you may only ship within the US, or you

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide always accept PayPal, etc. It makes sense for you to modify the "

<Untitled>

template

to include any values that are always the same for you. When you come across an item in the future that you don't have an Item

Template

for you can at least use your modified

<Untitled>

template

to get some of the information filled in.

To customize the Untitled

template

From the

Create Items

mode, select the

Item Templates

folder in the Views

Sidebar.

Your Item Templates will appear in the

Grid

. Select the

<Untitled>

template

It will then appear in the Details Pane. If the Details Pane is hidden, then doubleclick the

<Untitled> template

row to open the

template

in the full screen editor.

Modify any settings that are the same for all your items.

If using the full screen editor, click

to exit.

Your

template

is now updated and ready to be used.

You can even change the value in the Title field if you want to rename

<Untitled> to something else like "My Blank Item".

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Previewing the Item Description

Before submitting an item, you may wish to preview the description to make sure the text is correct, your images are uploaded, and that you have used the proper Theme and Ad

Template

To preview item descriptions:

From the

Create Items

Grid

, select the item(s) to preview.

Select Items Actions - Preview Listing from the menu or click the

Preview

Action Button. The

Preview Listing

window will appear:

Use the

Navigation Arrows

in the upper right corner to move between all selected items.

If you have uploaded your pictures and want to ensure that they will display correctly, then choose "

Preview using images from the Internet

" in the lower left. If you haven't uploaded your images yet, or you want the previews to load faster than choose "

Preview using images from the Hard Drive

Click

Close

when finished.

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Checking an Item for Fees and Errors

Once your items have been created, you are ready to submit them. You can either submit them immediately , or you can check them for any errors and get an idea of what the fees will be first.

To check an item for fees and errors:

From the

Create Items

Grid

, select the item(s) to be checked.

Select Items Actions - Preview and Check Errors from the menu. The

Preview and Check for Errors and Fees

window will appear.

When it is first loaded, the window will send your items to eBay to have them checked for any errors and to retrieve the fees. It will take a little while to check all your listings, and you will see the grid at the top fill in with information as each item is checked. When complete you will see a grid that contains a row for each item record you are checking. The ItemID and the Title identify each item.

If there were any errors in any of the items, they will be indicated by an error icon in the

Status

column. The description of the error will appear in the

Errors

column. If there were no errors, then the

Total Fees

column will contain the fees for each listing and will be totalled at the bottom of the grid. A

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide breakdown of each fee is also on each row, and can be viewed by scrolling the column to the right.

You can now preview and check each item by clicking on its row or by using the navigation arrows in the upper right corner of the window. If you have uploaded your pictures and want to ensure that they will display correctly, then choose

Preview using images from the Internet

" in the lower left. If you haven't uploaded your images yet, or you want the previews to load faster than choose

Preview using images from the Hard Drive

If any of your items have errors, then you can fix the error without having to exit the preview. Simply click the icon, and the item will appear in a popup window.

The

Error Description

case, the user forgot to add a

Price and clicking

will be returned to the

will appear at the top to assist you in fixing the error. In this

Starting Price

. The error is fixed by adding the Starting

. When exiting, the item will be sent to eBay once again, and you

Preview and Check for Errors and Fees

window. If your fix was successful, then the status icon will change and you will see the fees for the listing.

If another error exists, then you may need to repeat the process.

Continue through all items until all errors have been fixed. If you'd like, you can submit your items after you preview each one using the you have previewed all the items and use the the items at this time, then click the

Close

Submit

Submit All

button.

button, or you can wait until

button to submit them all at the same time . If you want to save the changes you made, but do not want to submit

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Submitting an Item

After you've entered all the data for your item, you are finally ready to submit it to eBay.

Submitting an item is a simple process. In fact, once the

item record

is created, you can return to it and submit another listing from it in just a few seconds.

When you submit a listing you can either submit it to start running immediately, or you can schedule it to run later. There are two methods of scheduling that we will discuss: scheduling with eBay, and scheduling with Blackthorne.

Scheduled listings have been built into the eBay process for a while now. You can submit an item to eBay and tell eBay when you want it to start. This method has a small fee, but it is very reliable and worry-free. You can also use Blackthorne to submit your listings at a scheduled time. While Blackthorne is running, it will continuously check to see if it has items scheduled to be submitted now. When the time comes, Blackthorne will submit the item in the background for you. Scheduling listings with Blackthorne is free, but you must ensure that Blackthorne is running and that you have a valid internet connection when the scheduled time arrives.

Another advantage to scheduling submissions is that you can specify an interval between listings. This is useful if you have a lot of repeat buyers.

Each time an item is submitted, a listing record is created in the

Monitor Listings

mode.

You can track the progress of your listings from the

Monitor Listings

mode. For more information on what can to do while your listing is running, start with the topic

" Monitoring Listings ".

Abigail sells baseball cards. Every Monday, she submits 200 auctions. She tends to have a lot of repeat buyers, and her buyers like to watch her listings as they close and bid at the last second (in other words, they like to

snipe

). When she submits her listings, she schedules them using Blackthorne. She sets them to start at 7:00PM and places a one minute interval between them. When she leaves her shop, she leaves her computer on. At 7:00PM, Blackthorne starts submitting her items 1 minute apart and is finished 3 hours and 20 minutes later. She didn't have to pay anything for this type of scheduling, and as long as her electricity didn't go off, or her internet connection didn't go down, her listings were successfully started.

Next week, starting on Sunday, Abigail is going on vacation. She doesn't want to leave her computer on all week, and she doesn't want to miss a weeks worth of listings. On Saturday she will submit her 200 listings, and use eBay to schedule them. eBay gets the listings on Saturday and holds them til Monday night. Abby had to pay a little extra, but was able to enjoy her vacation because she knew her items would be listed.

To submit items:

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From the

Create Items

Grid

, select the item(s) to be submitted. They will be submitted in the same order they are sorted in the grid.

Select Items Actions|Submit Listing from the menu or click the

Submit

Action

Button. The Submit Listings window will appear.

Select the number of copies of each item you would like submitted.

If you submit multiple copies and combine that with a scheduled interval, you can have eBay Blackthorne submit an item multiple times in the future.

For instance, to submit a T-Shirt once a day for the next week, you submit it with 7 copies and an interval of 1 day.

Next choose the submission method as described above. If you chose one of the scheduled methods, then set a

Start time

and an

Interval between listings

. You can manually type a date and time, or you can use the dropdown menu and time selector to set the date and time. You can also move your cursor to any area of the Start time and Interval input boxes and use the arrows to change the values.

The interval allows you to space your listings out up to 99 days 23 hours and 59 minutes apart. Set the

Listings per interval

to the number of listings that should be submitted for each interval.

On Fridays, Abigail receives new shipments of baseball cards. She receives about 1000 unique cards. She would like all of them listed between 6:00PM and 8:00PM Friday night. At one minute apiece, that would take 1000 minutes or about 16 hours and 40 minutes. If she sets the start time to 6:00PM, the interval to 1 minute, and the listings per interval to 10, it will list 10 cards per minute and only take her about 100 minutes (1 hour and 40 minutes) to list.

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Click

to submit your listings. A status window will inform you about the progress of your submissions. If you had errors, a message box will appear telling you how many submissions failed. Proceed to Fixing and Resubmitting

Items with Submission Errors to learn how to fix them.

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Fixing and Resubmitting Items with Submission Errors

When you attempt to

Submit

items, or perform a

Preview and Check for Errors

on an item that has incomplete or incorrect information, then the listing may fail. If the listing fails, then the item will have an error description associated with it. eBay Blackthorne makes it easy to find the items that failed, fix them and then resubmit them.

To fix and resubmit items with submission errors:

First, locate the items that you would like to resubmit. If you know where they are, you can select them from the Items grid. You can also load the

Submission failed

filter under the

New and Unlisted

filter to see all items that have failed submission.

As you select each item, the description of the error will appear in a yellow box at the top of the Item Details pane. Make the appropriate changes to the item and then submit the item again.

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Organizing Items

Organizing Items

If you list hundreds of items on eBay, then you know how important it is to keep track of those items and to be able to quickly find an item again when you need it. Blackthorne understands how important it is to keep your items organized, so we provide many different methods to allow you to organize your information.

You can create a folder structure to organize your items much like you would organize files on your computer. You can also use lists to organize your items very much like a playlist in your favorite music software. In addition to folders and lists, eBay

Blackthorne provides filters to show you items that match a predetermined criteria such as items that are low on inventory.

For users who have more than one seller account on eBay, we also offer the ability to view and manage your items based on seller .

Finally, if all else fails, we offer a sophisticated Search tool to help you locate your items.

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Using Folders to Organize Your Items

You can use folders to organize your items in much the same way that Windows Folders can be used to organize files. Folders can contain items, and they can also contain other folders (sub-folders). If organized and named with a little care, the folder structure can exactly mirror the way that your items are organized.

If you are already familiar with Windows Folders, you should be quite at home here. You should still read this section because there are a few significant differences. Please also note that Blackthorne does not use actual Windows

Folders to organize items - all items are kept in a single, large database file.

Folders are shown at the top of the sidebar on the

Create Items

mode. Each folder can contain items and/or other folders. All folders display a count of the items in the folder in parenthesis after the folder name. The folder count will include all items in the folder plus all items in all subfolders. In the example below, the Media folder count is 20 because the two subfolders under Media each contain 10 items. Ultimately, at the top of the tree is the All Items folder which contains everything.

Folders work a lot like eBay Categories, helping you drill down to find an item based on how they are hierarchically stored.

There is a special folder called

Item Templates

. Item Templates does not contain actual item records, but instead contains templates to be used to create item records easily. See

Creating Items Faster with Item Templates for more information.

The All Items Folder

The All Items folder can be thought of as the root of the folder tree. All other folders are sub-folders of it. It has several unique characteristics:



It can not be deleted.

It can not be renamed.

Items cannot be explicitly moved into it.

When you delete a folder that contains items, the items themselves are not deleted but are instead moved to the All Items folder.

There are many features that help you manage your folders. You can view the contents of a folder , insert items into a folder , move items between folders , create new folders , delete existing folders , rename folders and move folders .

Viewing the Contents of a Folder

To view the contents of a folder, click once on the name or the folder icon. All items in the folder are displayed in the Items grid. The number in parentheses to the right of the folder name is the number of items contained in the folder and all subfolders. This allows you to view information in a hierarchical grouping. For instance, you may have a

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide folder called Jewelry that has 3 subfolders called Watches, Pins and Rings. You can see all your Watches, Pins and Rings individually, or you can click Jewelry to see all of your jewelry (watches, pins and rings) together.

If the folder being viewed has a "+" sign to its left, it contains hidden sub-folders. To display them, click once on the "+" sign to open the folder and display the sub-folders. A click on the "-" sign will close the folder.

Inserting New Items in Folders

When a new item is created, it is automatically inserted into the current folder. If the current view is a List or a Filter, then the new item will be created in the All Items folder.

When an item is duplicated, the copy is inserted into the same folder as the original item.

Moving Items Between Folders

To move items to a folder, select the items to be moved and drag them over the name of the folder they are to be moved to. When you release the mouse, the items will be moved into the folder and the folder counts should change accordingly.

Creating Folders

To create a new folder, simply right-click the folder you want to be the parent of the new folder and select

Create New Folder

. A new folder will be created as a child of the selected folder. It will be called

My Folder[X]

where X is a unique number. You can then rename the folder to anything you'd like.

Deleting Folders

To delete a folder, right-click the folder and select

Delete Folder

. All child folders of the folder will also be deleted. A popup will ask you what you want to do with the items in the folder and its subfolders. You can delete them also or move them to the

All Items

folder.

Renaming Folders

To rename a folder, right-click on the folder and select

Rename Folder

. The name will change into an editable format allowing you to make the desired changes.

Moving Folders

To move a folder, you can simply drag and drop it to the new location. When moving between folders that are open, a horizontal bar between folders will indicate where the folder is being moved to. To move a folder into another folder, place the cursor directly over the folder until no horizontal bar is showing.

Folders, Lists and Filters are all considered Views. Views can be customized, allowing you to choose which columns are showing, or whether a Total row

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Using Lists to Organize Your Items

If folders are best thought of as a way to group related items together, lists are perhaps best thought of as a way to group otherwise unrelated items together because of a single characteristic that they have in common. Lists can be found in the sidebar on the left side in

Create Items

mode directly under folders.

Items reside in folders, and are referenced in lists. You would use folders to organize and catalog your individual items, and you would use lists to group them together for any other purpose. A typical use of a list would be to make a record of all the items that are going to be submitted on a particular day. The number to the right of the list name is the count of items in the list. Items can exist in more than one list.

Cassandra sells jewelry. She has created a folder structure to help her organize her jewelry. She has a Jewelry folder, and under it she has a Watches folder, a

Pins/Brooches folder and a Rings folder. In the Pins/Brooches folder she has a

Butterfly Pin. Cassandra finds that jewelry sells best when it is listed on

Sundays, so she created a list called

Sunday

. She places the Butterfly Pin and other jewelry in this list. Each Sunday, she clicks on the Sunday list to display all the items in the list. She then uses Ctrl-A to select all the items in the list and submits them.

Cassandra also wants to be prepared for free listing days when they occur so she created a list called

Free Listing Day.

She adds the Butterfly Pin and any other items that she always has on hand to the the Free Listing Day list. The

Butterfly Pin is now in two different lists, but still resides in the Pins/Brooches folder.

There are many features that help you manage lists. You can view a list , create a new list , add items to a list , remove items from a list , duplicate a list , delete a list , rename a list or move a list .

Viewing a List

To view a list, click on the list name to select it. The items in the list will display in the main

grid

. The main

grid

title will change to the name of the list.

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Creating a List

Right-click on

Item Lists

to bring up the List Actions Menu. Select

Create New List

An empty list is created and given the name "My List[n]". You can rename it to anything you'd like.

Do not select the items in the list and press "Delete" - that will bring up the

Delete Item confirmation dialog box, which is not the same as removing items from a list.

Duplicating a List

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To duplicate a list, right click the list name and select

Duplicate List

. The new list will have the same name as the original list followed by [X], where X is an incrementing number. The new list will contain all the same items as the original list.

Deleting a List

To delete a list, right click the list name and select

Delete List

. The list itself will be deleted, but all items in the list still reside in their original folder and are still referenced by any other list they are included in.

Renaming a List

To rename a list, right click the list name and select

Rename List

. The list name will change into an editable format.

Moving a List

To move a list, click on the list and drag it to within the Item Lists section of the sidebar.

You cannot move a list outside of the Item Lists section. You also cannot have nested lists.

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Using Filters to Organize Your Items

Another useful way to view your items is by using Filters. Filters can be thought of as

smart lists. Instead of manually adding items to a filter, you can simply specify some criteria that identifies items you want in a list. For example, you can create a filter of all items that have the word "ring" in the title. Whenever you view the "ring" filter, a list of current items that match your criteria will be displayed in the grid. As you add or delete items with "ring" in the title, your filter contents will dynamically change. That's what makes them smart, the ability to continually update their contents based on the criteria you specified.

Because filters create their contents based on a predefined set of criteria, you cannot manually add or remove items from a filter.

Filters

, Lists and Folders are located in the Items Views Pane. You may have to scroll down in order to see the list of

Filters

. eBay Blackthorne ships with many different filters. Some of the filters are for reporting purposes and some are for tracking statuses of Items, Listings and Sales. The filters that are for status tracking are special for several reasons. First, they always appear at the top of the list of filters. Second, they are organized into status families. Status families are hierarchical groupings of statuses. For instance, the status family

New and Unlisted

includes all items in the

In Process

and

Entry Completed

statuses since the items you are current working on (In Process) and the ones you've completed (Entry Completed) are both New and Unlisted. This hierarchical grouping helps you view records at different levels of status.

With eBay Blackthorne, you can view filters , create filters , duplicate filters , delete filters , rename filters , move filters , edit filters , and hide and show filters .

Viewing a Filter

To view a filter, click on the filter name to select it. The items in the filter will display in the main

grid

. The main

grid

title will change to the name of the filter.

Creating a Filter

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To create a filter, right-click anywhere in the Filters area of the sidebar and select

Create

New Filter

. Since creating a filter is the same thing as modifying the rows in a view, the

Customize View

window will open to the

Rows

tab.

Add any conditions for your filter as described in Customizing the View - Selecting the

Records to be Included.

Creating a filter is just like performing an

Advanced Search

is just like creating a filter, except when you create a filter, you give the filter a name and it is saved.

Duplicating a Filter

To duplicate a filter, right click the filter name and select

Duplicate Filter

. The new filter will be named

Copy of YourFilterName[1]

. The new filter will contain all the same criteria as the original filter. You can rename the filter to anything you'd like. You cannot duplicate the filters that come shipped with eBay Blackthorne.

Deleting a Filter

To delete a filter, right click the filter name and select

Delete Filter

. The filter itself will be deleted, but all records in the filter still reside in their original folder and are still referenced by any other filter they are included in. You cannot delete the filters that come shipped with eBay Blackthorne.

Renaming a Filter

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To rename a filter, right-click the filter name and select

Rename Filter

. The filter name will change into an editable format. You cannot rename the filters that come shipped with eBay Blackthorne.

Moving a Filter

To move a filter, click on the filter and drag it to within the Filters section of the sidebar.

You cannot move a filter outside of the Filters section.

Editing a Filter

To edit a filter, right-click the filter and select

Edit Filter

. Since editing a filter is the same thing as modifying a view, the

Customize View

window will open to the

Rows

tab.

You can make any condition changes, column layouts changes or advanced option changes you would like. See Customizing the View for more information. You cannot edit the row criteria in the filters that come shipped with eBay Blackthorne, but you can modify the column layouts and advanced options.

Hiding and Showing Filters

The filters that are shipped with eBay Blackthorne try to accommodate many different users. You may find that there are some filters that we provide that you do not use. To make your program less cluttered, you can hide any filters that you do not use.

To hide or show filters, right-click any filter and select

Hide/Show Filters

. The

Hide/Show Filters

window will open.

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Searching for a Record

Even though folders, lists and filters help you organize your information, sometimes a search can help you find a particular record faster. eBay Blackthorne provides a search tool for each of the major modes. You can find it in the sidebar, and it works virtually the same in all major modes.

To perform a search:

Select the

field

you want to search on from the first input box. The most common fields are listed near the top of the dropdown and all other fields are listed in alphabetical order under them. The list of fields will change depending upon the mode you are in. If you have a text string that you want to search on, but aren't sure what field it may be in, you can choose

Any Text Field

In the second dropdown, choose your

comparison operator

. The comparison operator values will change based on the data type of the field chosen in the first dropdown.

Enter the

value

you want to search for in the last box. Depending upon the data type of the field the last entry may be a checkbox, a numeric editing field or a text editing field. If you are searching for a text string, you do not need to add quotes around it.

Finally, click the

button to perform the search. All records that match your search will appear in the grid, and the grid title will change to identify the search.

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When you perform a search, a special filter called

Search Results

is created.

You can use this filter to return to your latest search results at any time.

Advanced Search

If you want to perform a more complex search where you are searching on more than one field at a time, then you can use the

Advanced Search

To perform an Advanced Search:

Click the

Advanced Search

link in the Search pane.

The Customize View window will open to the

Rows

tab.

Performing an

Advanced Search

is just like creating a filter, except in the case of the Advanced Search, you are creating a special reusable filter called

Search

Results

. If you decide that you want to keep your search, you can simply rename it and it will become a filter that you can run at any time in the future.

Add any conditions you want for your search as described in Customizing the

View - Selecting the Records to be Included.

Click the

button. All records that match your search will appear in the grid, and the grid title will change to identify the search.

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Archiving Items

Once you have sold the last copy of an item you have, and you have been paid for it, you no longer need immediate access to the item. By archiving the item, you can make it easier to find your active items because there will be fewer items to sift through.

Archiving items also has the added advantage of making the program perform better because there is less data loaded into memory.

Archived items remain in your database, they are simply flagged as inactive so they are not kept in memory. You can always get to your archived items to reference them or even restore them .

You can even modify your folders, lists and filters to hide or show archived records , though you will see slower performance when showing archived records.

To archive, select all the items that you would like archived and select File|Archive

Selected Items from the main menu. You can also right-click on the grid and select

Archive Selected Items

from the context menu. Since items can have listing records associated to them, and listing records have sales records associated to them, archiving items will also archive all the associated listings and sales records. If they were not archived then you could have listing and sales records in memory that had no corresponding item record. Likewise, archiving listings will archive the associated sales.

Because the inventory counts rely on the listings and sales records to exist, you cannot archive sales records. You should archive the listing record instead which will also archive all the sales for that listing and keep the inventory counts straight.

Restoring Archived Items

To restore archived items, select the

Archived Items

filter to display all the archived items. You can also select any other view that has been customized to show archived items. Archived items will be identifed by the archive icon ( ) in the Archived column of the grid. Then select all the items that you would like restored choose File|Restore

Selected Items from the main menu. You can also right-click the grid and select Restore

Selected Items from the context menu.

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Printing Items

Printing Items

Although much of your work can be done directly within eB, sometimes it becomes necessary to print information about your items to help with other tasks. Any view that is displayed in any grid can be printed to your printer. You can setup your printer to choose the paper size and orientation beforehand. If you'd like, you can also print a detailed sheet for each item.

Print Grid Setup

Before printing the grid, you can set it up how it will print. Any settings you specify will stay set until you make changes.

To setup the way your grid prints:

From the main menu, select File|Print Grid Setup... to display the Print Grid

Setup window.

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Select the Printer that you will be printing to using the

Printer

... button.

In the Paper group box, select the

Size

of your paper and the

Source

Select the

Orientation

to use for printing. The sample page at the top will change to reflect your setting.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Specify the Margins. The sample page at the top will change to reflect your settings.

Click

when finished.

Printing the Item Grid

Any grid can be printed. The printed grid will look just like the grid on the screen. To save paper, you should adjust the column widths and not include any more columns than necessary.

To print the grid:

From the main menu, select File|Print Grid... to load the

Print preview

window.

From the Print preview window, you can print the grid , zoom in display multiple pages , go to a specific page

, or close without printing .

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When you click the

Print

button, it will be printed to the printer specified on the

Print Grid Setup window.

Every month or so, James likes to double check his inventory numbers with his actual inventory. He first loads the

Inventory Items

filter on the

Create Items

mode. This shows him all the items he tracks inventory for. A long time ago, he created a special column set called "

Printing Inventory

" for printing his inventory. It includes just the title, part number and the quantity on hand fields.

His

Inventory Items

filter is set to use the

Printing Inventory

column set. By combining a filter with a custom column set, James has created his own report that he can print using File|Print Grid...

Printing Item Details

All of the details about a specific item can also be printed out on a single page.

To print the item details:

Select all the items you would like detailed pages printed for from the Create

Items grid.

Sort the grid in the order you would like the items printed. You can sort by clicking on the column header.

From the main menu, select

File|Print Details

. The Report Studio will open with the Item Details report loaded.

Click the

Print

button.

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Monitoring Listings

Monitoring Listings Overview

Once your item has been submitted to eBay, it will now be tracked as a

Listing

. Your

Listings will be displayed on the

Monitor Listings

mode. The listing record is created when you submit an item, and it will exist until you delete or archive it. During its lifespan, a listing will be running, and then at some point be over. It may have ended with a sale or not. If it did not sell because the reserve price was not met, or if it didn't get any bids, you can relist it on eBay which qualifies you to get the listing fees back if the item sells the second time. If it does sell, a sale record and a buyer record are created and the listing record becomes a permanent record of the listing on eBay. All of the steps in the lifespan of a listing are identified by

statuses

. A status is assigned to a listing depending upon where it is in this overall process and it helps you keep track of what is selling, what sold, and what is eligible to be relisted. You can easily see all the listings in a particular status from the

Filters Tree

in the Views sidebar.

Clicking on any status in the Views sidebar will load all listings with that status into the

Listings grid. For example, to see all listings that are running for the first time (not a relist) click the

First Run

filter as shown above. The

Relisted

filter would show all running listings that have been relisted, and the

Second Chance Offered

filter shows all running listings that are second chance offers.

Statuses are grouped into status families. A status family is shown by the hierarchical structure in the Views sidebar. In the example above, the

First Run

Relisted

and

Second

Chance Offered

statuses are in the

Running

status family. A running listing can be either a listing that is being run for the first time, a relist or a second chance offer. With status

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The Lifespan of a Listing

The following diagram shows all the details of a listings lifespan. In this diagram, a listing record is identified by a yellow round cornered rectangle. Statuses are identified by light purple boxes and status families are the darker purple boxes that surround them.

Actions and events are represented by pink ovals.

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Let's walk through this process together. Listings are first submitted from the

Create

Items

mode. When submitting an item, it can be scheduled or started immediately. If it is started immediately, it is placed in the

First Run

status of the

Running

status family.

First run indicates that it is not a relisting of a failed auction. If the listing is scheduled, it will be placed in either the

On eBay

By Blackthorne

status of the Scheduled status family depending upon how it was scheduled. See " Submitting an Item " for more information on the different types of scheduling.

When the time for a scheduled listing occurs, the listing will be submitted by the Servant , and the status of the listing will change to either

First Run

Relisted

depending upon whether it was a scheduled relisting or not.

While your listing is running, you can view any of the filters in the

Running

family to monitor your listing information like who is bidding on it and what the bid has reached.

In addition to viewing your listings, you may occasionally find that something has changed, and you need to modify your listings description. If your listing has received bids, you can add to your listings description. If it hasn't received any bids yet, then you can revise the description. If necessary, you can even end your listing early.

Once your listing ends, a Sale record will be created. If the listing was successful, then a

Buyer record will also be created for the buyer of the auction (if he/she doesn't already exist in your buyers database). If your listing was not sold, then an

Unsold Sale

record will be created. An Unsold Sale record records the fees associated with unsuccessful sales. This is used when generating profit and loss reports to ensure that all your costs are being tracked. The Unsold Sale record also helps you keep a history of how many times an item sells successfully which can be useful in deciding which items to continue selling. You will read more about tracking Sale records in the " Processing Sales and

Shipping " topic.

All successful listings are moved into one of the statuses in the

Completed Sales

status family depending upon whether it was a relisting, second chance offer, or neither. The status that an unsuccessful moves into is based on whether it was a relist or not. If it was a relist, then it is not eligible for relisting on eBay and it will move into the

Relist Unsold

status. If it was not a relist, then it is relistable and will be placed in the

No Bids

Reserve Not Met

status based on the reason it was not successful.

Any listing in the

Relistable

status family can now be relisted again and will qualify for listing fee reimbursements if sold. When it is relisted, it moves into the

Relisted

status of the

Running

status family.

At any time after a listing has ended, regardless of whether it sold or not, you can make a second chance offer to another bidder of your listing. Making a second chance offer in essence creates a new listing on eBay that only one person can bid on. In eBay

Blackthorne, we create a new listing record for this listing and set it to the

Second

Chance Offered

status.

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An additional status of

Unsold

in the

Completed Sales

status family is provided for you to identify listings that initially sold on eBay, but for some reason the transaction never concluded (i.e. you lost the item, the buyer backed out, etc.). When situations like this occur you can manually set the listing status to

Unsold

from the

Listing Status

dropdown on the grid.

If a listing is no longer eligible to be relisted, but you want to submit another listing just like it, you have two choices. You can either return to the Create Items mode and submit another listing for the same item record, or you can choose to submit the listing to eBay again from the Monitor Listings mode.

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Viewing Listings

Viewing Listings

The Monitor Listings mode contains a listing record for every listing you have ever created. This is great for historical recording and reporting purposes, but would be very hard to find information you are looking for without some way of choosing the listings you want to view. Fortunately, eBay Blackthorne provides many ways to choose which listings you are viewing.

Viewing Listings by Status

As illustrated in The_Lifespan_of_a_Listing , each listing is assigned a status. All of the steps in the lifespan of a listing are identified by statuses. You can easily see all the listings in a particular status from the

Filters Tree

in the Views sidebar.

Clicking on any status in the Views sidebar will load all listings with that status into the

Listings grid. For example, to see all listings that are running for the first time (not a relist) click the

First Run

filter as shown above. The

Relisted

filter would show all running listings that have been relisted, and the

Second Chance Offered

filter shows all running listings that are second chance offers.

Statuses are grouped into status families. A status family is shown by the hierarchical structure in the Views sidebar. In the example above, the

First Run

Relisted

and

Second

Chance Offered

statuses are in the

Running

status family. A running listing can be either a listing that is being run for the first time, a relist or a second chance offer. With status families, you can view all the running listings no matter what type they are, or you can view the types of running listings separately.

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At the beginning of every day, Sharon has a ritual she likes to go through. First she likes to see what her current bids are, so in the Monitor Listings mode, she clicks on the

Running

status family in the sidebar. This shows her all her currently running listings where she can view all the current bids in the grid.

Next, she wants to make sure that she has the right listings scheduled, so she clicks on the

Scheduled

status family and quickly verifies the listing records that are waiting to be listed. Finally, she wants to relist any listings that are relistable so she clicks on the

Relistable

status family, hits Ctrl-A to select all listings in the Relistable filter and then selects the

Relist

button from the

Actions toolbar. In just a few minutes she is updated on what has happened overnight and has relisted her eligible listings.

Viewing Recent Bidding Activity

In addition to being able to view listings by their status, a special filter has been created to let you view all listings that have received bids today. It can be found under the

Listing Filters

section of the Views sidebar.

Throughout the day, Sharon will also occasionally select the

Listings that received bids today

filter to keep track of her bids. She often clicks the column headers to sort them by their

End Date

and

Current Price

Bid Count

and the number of

Watchers

Viewing Listings by Format

Listings can be run on eBay in several different formats. They can be run as auctions, fixed price, or as store items. By default, the Monitor Listings mode shows you all listings regardless of their status, but if desired, you can use the

Show

dropdown to change the formats that are included in your views.

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From the

Show

dropdown, you can view either all formats, or selected subsets of formats.

When you change the formats shown, the filters will only include listings with those formats. You will see the listing counts change at the end of any affected filters. If you saw your store items yesterday, but they are gone today, don't panic. The most likely cause will be that you forgot to change your

Show

dropdown back to

All Formats

Viewing Listings by Seller Account

eBay Blackthorne allows you to set up and run listings for multiple seller accounts. This process is described thoroughly in Using Multiple Seller Accounts . The Seller dropdown on the Views sidebar allows you to choose which sellers listings you are viewing.

From the

Seller

dropdown, you can view either all sellers at once, or a selected seller.

When you change the seller shown, the filters will only include listings for that seller. You will see the listing counts change at the end of any affected filters.

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Searching for Listings

Like all other modes, you can perform a search from the Monitor Listings mode using the

Search

area of the Views sidebar. See the topic Searching for a Record for details on how to perform the search.

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Modifying Listings

Modifying Listings

From time to time, it becomes necessary to modify some of your listings. You may want to add more information to your listing, correct an error, or cancel the listing altogether.

If the listing was scheduled, you may even want to modify the time that it is supposed to start.

Revising a Listing

Making changes to an item's listing using is subject to a few restrictions, depending on whether any bids have been placed on the item and whether the change is being attempted within twelve hours of the end of the auction. A complete list of the restrictions can be found in the Listing Modification Rules. In general, you can make most changes if your item has not received any bids. If your item has received bids, or is near the end, there are more restrictions on the modifications you can make. The simplest way to approach it is to try to make the modifications. If they are not allowed, then an error will appear. If you still want to identify changes in your listing, then you can add to your listings description .

To revise a listing:

Select all the listing records you would like to revise from the

Monitor Listings

grid.

Select Listing Actions|Revise Listing or click the

Revise

button on the Actions toolbar. The

Revise Listing

window will appear.

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Make any modifications that you would like to the listings. The

X of Y

message in the upper right corner identifies the listing record that you are modifying. Use the navigation arrows next to it to navigate between the selected listings. You can view the listing on eBay by clicking the

eBay ID

link in the upper left corner.

After you have made your modifications, choose whether to

"Apply changes only for this item"

, or

"Apply changes to all future listings for this item"

from the options in the lower left. If you choose "Apply changes only for this item", then only the listing record will be modified. The original item record that was used to create the listing will remain unchanged. If you choose "Apply changes to all future listings for this item", then both the listing and the original item record will be changed. All future listings created from the item will have the same modification.

Howard listed a pair of tennis shoes for 7 days. Before his item received any bids, he decided to extend it to a 10 day auction since he was going to be out of town when the 7 day auction would have closed. He only wants to change this one listing and not all future listings of these tennis shoes, so he chooses

"Apply changes only for this item". Later, Howard discovers that he spelled tennis wrong. He goes back to revise his listing, only this time he chooses

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"Apply changes to all future listings for this item" because he wants it to be spelled correctly on all future listings.

Click

Revise

to send the changes to eBay for the listing that is currently displayed in the Revise Listing window. If you want to send all the changes at once, click

Revise All

. If you want to exit without saving any changes since the last time you clicked the Revise or Revise Listing button, then click

Close

Adding to a Listing Description

If you item has received bids, then the only way to modify your description is by adding to your description. When you add to your description, the original description remains in the listing and any text you add appears at the bottom of the listing.

You cannot modify your listings after it has received bids because it really isn't fair to the bidder. Changing a description from "mint condition" to "nearly mint condition" could lead to a lot of problems.

To add to a listings description:

Select all the listing records you would like to add text to from the

Monitor

Listings

grid. All selected listings will have the same message added. If you would like to add different messages to different listings, you must select them and add to your description one at a time.

Select

Listings Actions|Add to Description

from the menu. The

Add to Item

Description

window will appear.

Enter the message that you would like to add and click

. The message may include HTML if you desire. A status message will appear in the status bar to let you know if it was successful or not. Additional details will be added to the

Activity Log if there was a problem.

Ending a Listing Early

You can also end your listing early if you need to after providing a reason for ending the listing early. If your listing has at least one valid bidder, then ending the listing early will

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To end a listing early:

Select all the listing records you would like to end early from the

Monitor Listings

grid. All selected listings will be ended for the same reason. If you would like to end listings for different reasons, you must select them and end them one at a time.

Select

Listings Actions|End Listing Early

from the menu. The

End Listing Early

window will appear.

Select the reason for ending the listing early and click

. A status message will appear in the status bar to let you know if it was successful or not. Additional details will be added to the Activity Log if there was a problem.

You can use End Listing Early to end "Good til Cancelled" store items also.

Simply choose "The item is no longer available for sale" as the reason.

Rescheduling Listings

Scheduled listings are listings that have not yet been submitted. To make a modification to a scheduled listing, you would simply use the same procedure you used for revising a listing .

Scheduled listings frequently have staggered start times to give buyers time to bid on multiple items. Changing the start times of a lot of scheduled listings could be very time consuming without the ability to reschedule in a batch.

To reschedule listings:

Select all the listing records you would like to reschedule from the

Monitor

Listings

grid.

Select

Listings Actions|Reschedule

from the menu. The

Reschedule Listings

window will appear.

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Enter the

Start time

of the first listing to be rescheduled. You can use the arrow keys on each date component or type the date manually.

Specify the

Interval between listings

if you want the listings to be staggered.

You can use the arrow keys on each time component or type the time interval manually.

Click

when finished. All selected listings will now have new scheduled dates/times.

Bulk Changing Listings

You can also make changes to many listing records at once using

Bulk Change Fields

under

Listings Actions

on the main menu. To learn more, Making Bulk Changes.

Any listings that are Scheduled or Running can be bulk changed. Any listings that are

Relistable or Completed cannot be bulk changed. When Running listings are bulk changed, the changes will be made immediately in your running listings on eBay. It may take some time to perform all the changes on eBay, so please be patient.

Since Relistable listings must maintain the information of the original listing, you cannot make bulk changes to a Relistable listing. There is a way to modify your relistable listings before you submit them again though. To make bulk changes before relisting a listing, you can simply use the Relist feature and schedule them with Blackthorne for 10 minutes in the future. You will then have relist records in the Scheduled by Blackthorne filter. You can then bulk change those records and let the scheduler submit them.

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Resubmitting Listings

Resubmitting Listings

Although Create Items is the primary mode for submitting listings, it can often be convenient to resubmit a listing while you are in the Monitor Listings mode. There are several types of resubmissions that you may want to perform. If your listing ended without any bids or the reserve was not met, and it is within 90 days of closing, then you qualify for free relisting on eBay . This means you can list the item again, and you will not be charged the listing fees if the item sells the second time around. If your item sold, or it is past the 90 days, you may simply want to just submit another copy of the item .

Finally, whether your item sold or not, you can make second chance offers to other bidders .

For the purposes of our documentation, we will use the term

relist

only for those items that are being sent to eBay again and qualify for free relisting. We will use the terms

resubmit

submit again

to refer to any other means of sending a listing to eBay again.

Relisting

Any listing that ended without any bids or the reserve was not met, and is within 90 days of closing, qualifies for free relisting on eBay. If a relisting is sold, the listing fees on the relist are refunded.

To relist a listing:

Select all the listing records you would like to relist from the

Monitor Listings

grid.

The

Relistable

filter will contain all listings that are relistable. You can easily select all relistable listings by clicking on the Relistable filter and selecting

Ctrl-A. For more information on the Listing filters, see

The_Lifespan_of_a_Listing .

Select Listing Actions|Relist Item... or click the

Relist

button on the Actions toolbar. The

Relist Listing

window will appear.

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Make any modifications that you would like to the listings before relisting. The

X of Y

message in the upper right corner identifies the listing record that you are modifying. Use the navigation arrows next to it to navigate between the selected listings.

Click

Relist

to send the changes to eBay for the listing that is currently displayed in the

Relist Listing

window. If you want to send all the changes at once, click

Relist All

. If you want to exit and save any changes that you have made without relisting now, click

, and if you want to exit without saving any changes since the last time you clicked the Relist or Relist Listing button, then click

Cancel

Submitting to eBay Again

If your listing does not qualify for free relisting, but you want to submit it anyway use the

Submit Again

feature. Submitting a listing again will perform the same steps as submitting a listing from the

Create Items

mode, but it saves you time by not having to go to the

Create Items

mode.

To submit a listing to eBay again:

Select all the listing records you would like to submit again from the

Monitor

Listings

grid.

Select Listing Actions|Submit to eBay Again... or click the

Submit Again

button on the Actions toolbar. The

Submit Again

window will appear.

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Make any modifications that you would like to the listings before submitting them again. The

X of Y

message in the upper right corner identifies the listing record that you are modifying. Use the navigation arrows next to it to navigate between the selected listings.

After you have made your modifications, choose whether to

"Apply changes only for this item"

, or

"Apply changes to all future listings for this item"

Click

Submit Again

to submit the listing that is currently displayed in the Submit

Again window. If you want to submit all the listings at once, click

Submit All

. If you want to exit without saving any changes since the last time you clicked the

Submit or Submit All Again button, then click

Close

Submit Again will start another listing based on the values in the current listing.

The original listing will remain as a historical record of the original listing. A new listing record will be created to allow you to track the new listing.

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If you clicked Submit or Submit Again, then the Submit window will appear. Fill out this window as you would when submitting listings from items. For more info see Submitting an Item .

Making Second Chance Offers

Regardless of whether your listing sold or not, if you have additional copies of an item, and the item had other bidders, you can make a second chance offer to those other bidders. A Second Chance Offer is simply an offer to your bidder to purchase another copy of your item at their highest bid. Making a Second Chance Offer to a bidder will start a new listing at eBay just for that bidder. No other bidders will be able to see the second chance offer. The Buy It Now Price will be set to the highest bid that bidder placed on your previous auction.

To submit a listing to eBay again:

Select the listing record that you would like to send a second chance offer to from the

Monitor Listings

grid.

Select Listing Actions|Send Second Chance Offer... or click the

Second Chance

button on the Actions toolbar. The

Second Chance Offers

window will appear.

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The grid in the Second Chance Offers window shows all the non-winning bidders and their highest bids. Select a bidder that you would like to send a second chance offer to.

Choose whether

"The original buyer completed their purchase"

"The original buyer FAILED to complete their purchase"

Set the number of days that the second chance offer is valid for from the

Duration

dropdown.

If you would like a copy of the email sent to the bidder, check the

Send me a copy of the Second Chance email

box.

Click

to send the offer, or Cancel to exit. You can continue to select bidders and click OK to submit multiple offers.

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Printing Listings

Printing Listings

Although much of your work can be done directly within eB, sometimes it becomes necessary to print information about your listings to help with other tasks. Any view that is displayed in any grid can be printed to your printer. You can setup your printer to choose the paper size and orientation beforehand. If you'd like, you can also print a detailed sheet for each listing.

Print Grid Setup

Before printing the grid, you can set it up how it will print. Any settings you specify will stay set until you make changes.

To setup the way your grid prints:

From the main menu, select File|Print Grid Setup... to display the Print Grid

Setup window.

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Select the Printer that you will be printing to using the

Printer

... button.

In the Paper group box, select the

Size

of your paper and the

Source

Select the

Orientation

to use for printing. The sample page at the top will change to reflect your setting.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Specify the Margins. The sample page at the top will change to reflect your settings.

Click

when finished.

Printing the Listings Grid

Any grid can be printed. The printed grid will look just like the grid on the screen. To save paper, you should adjust the column widths and not include any more columns than necessary.

To print the grid:

From the main menu, select File|Print Grid... to load the

Print preview

window.

From the Print preview window, you can print the grid , zoom in display multiple pages , go to a specific page

, or close without printing .

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When you click the

Print

button, it will be printed to the printer specified on the

Print Grid Setup window.

Printing Listing Details

All of the details about a specific listing can also be printed out on a single page.

To print the listing details:

Select all the listings you would like detailed pages printed for from the Monitor

Listings grid.

Sort the grid in the order you would like the listings printed. You can sort by clicking on the column header.

From the main menu, select

File|Print Details

. The Report Studio will open with the Listing Details report loaded.

Click the

Print

button.

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Viewing Related Pages on eBay

To help make you more efficient, many of the common eBay pages can be accessed directly from the Main menu under the eBay menu. Following is a list of those pages and what modes they are available in.

eBay Page

Listing

Description

Loads the eBay listing for the active record.

Bid History Loads the bid history page for the active record.

Modes

Listing/Sales

Respond to

Questions

High

Bidder/Buyer

About Me

High

Bidder/Buyer

Feedback

Running

Listings

Pending

Listings

Counters

Dispute

Console

Buyer/Bidder

Mgmt

Loads the interface that allows you to respond to outstanding bidder questions.

Loads the About Me page for the buyer of the active record.

Loads the Feedback page for the buyer of the active record.

Loads the running listings for the seller of the active record.

Loads the scheduled pending listings at eBay for the seller of the active record.

Loads the counter page on My eBay.

Loads the dispute console.

Loads the buyer/bidder management page.

All

Listing/Sales/Buyer

Items/Listings/Sales

All

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Responding to Questions

While your listing is running, buyers can submit questions to you through the eBay site.

These questions can be managed and answered through the

my eBay

pages on eBay, but you are also notified of them in Blackthorne and can answer them without leaving the program.

When you have questions waiting to be answered, you will see a message on the status bar of the main panel.

Your count of messages may not be the same as the count on eBay. They may differ for any of the following reasons.



The Blackthorne count will only include messages for the seller chosen

 in the Seller dropdown.

All Sellers

is chosen in the Seller dropdown, it will total the messages for all sellers.



Messages for archived listings will not appear in the eBay Blackthorne count.



Only messages for listings that are tracked in eBay Blackthorne will appear.



Only messages for the last 7 days will appear in the Blackthorne count.

To answer the questions, simply click the link or select eBay|Respond to Questions... from the main menu. The, and the

Respond to Questions

window will appear.

Insert image here

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Processing Sales and Shipping

Processing Sales and Shipping Overview

Create Items

mode, you enter your inventory information and submit listings. In

Monitor Listings

mode, you track and manage those listings. Once a listing has ended, you will perform all post processing of the sale in the

Finalize Sales

mode. If the listing was successful, then the Servant will automatically create a Successful Sale record for the listing. It will also create a buyer record (if you don't have one already for the winning bidder) and link that buyer to the sale. If the sale was unsuccessful, then the Servant creates an Unsold Sale record. An Unsold Sale record sets the quantity sold to 0 and records all of the fees associated with the listing so all profit and loss reporting will remain accurate.

During the lifespan of a sale, you will perform many operations on the sale. You will contact the buyer, record payments, pack and ship items, etc.. All of the steps in the lifespan of a listing are identified by

statuses

. A status is assigned to a sale based on where it is in the overall process and it helps you keep track of who you have to email, what items you need to pack and who hasn't paid you yet. You can easily see all the sales in a particular status from the

Filters Tree

in the Views sidebar.

Clicking on any status in the Views sidebar will load all sales with that status into the

Sales grid. For example, to see all sales that have just been created, click the

Ready for payment request

filter as shown above. The

Payment received

filter would show all sales that you have been paid for but not yet shipped, the

Payment Cleared

folder shows payments that have been received and cleared, and the

Shipped

filter shows all sales that have just been shipped.

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Statuses are grouped into status families. A status family is shown by the hierarchical structure in the Views sidebar. In the example above, the

Payment Received

, and

Shipped

statuses are in the

Paid

status family. Sales that have been paid may or may not have been shipped yet. With status families, you can view all the sales no matter what type they are, or you can view the types of sales separately.

The Lifespan of a Sale

The following diagram shows all the details of a sales lifespan. You have a lot of flexibility in managing your sales. This diagram is only one of many possible work processes. Whenever possible, alternative paths will be pointed out. In this diagram, a sale record is identified by a rose colored round cornered rectangle. Statuses are identified by light purple boxes and status families are the darker purple boxes that surround them. Actions and events are represented by pink ovals.

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Let's walk through this process together. Sales are initially created automatically when a listing ends. All newly created sales are added to the

Ready for Payment Request

status family.

If you have a lot of repeat buyers, you will probably want to combine your sales into orders. Combining sales into orders will group your sales in eBay Blackthorne and on eBay to allow combining shipping charges and correspondence.Next, you will send an email notification to the buyer. Emails can be customized to set the status of any sales records included in the email, and in this case, sending the

First Notification to High

Bidder

sets the status of the sale to

Payment Request Sent

in the

Awaiting Payment

status family.

If you specified all your shipping fees when you submitted the listing and you have requested eBay to notify your bidder when the auction is over, then sending the

First Notification to High Bidder

is optional. Instead, you would simply use Sales Actions|Update Sales Status to... to change the status of the selected sales to

Payment Request Sent

. Since you can highly customize your

First Notification to High Bidder

and sending the email will automatically set the status for you, we recommend you take advantage of the notification email in eBay Blackthorne. It really isn't any more work, and you can give your customers a personal touch.

After sending your first notification and while you are waiting for a response, you can choose to send one or more follow up notifications. At any time while you are waiting for payment, you can choose to manually move set the status of a sale to

Past Due

When you feel that you have given a buyer ample time to pay, but have not yet received payment, you can open a dispute. Eventually the buyer will pay, or you will move the sale into the

Unpaid

status of the

Completed Sale

family.

Once a buyer has paid for an item, you will record the payment and set the status of the sale to

Payment Received

in the

Paid

status family. If at any time, the buyer paid using eBay Checkout and PayPal, the Servant will automatically record the payment, save the buyer address and set the sale status to

Payment Received

By accepting PayPal payments, you can greatly reduce the amount of work involved with each sale. If a buyer goes immediately to PayPal to pay once the auction is over, your sale will bypass all other steps up to this point and appear in the

Payment Received

status.

Once you have received payment, you can optionally send a

Received Payment

email.

You can then print a packing list, shipping labels, and postage if you use a supported 3rd party postage solution.

Next, you will retrieve the items from the packing list, pack them with the packing list, slap the shipping label and postage on the box and ship the item. Sorry, we have no

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Printing packing lists, shipping labels and postage are all optional. You can ignore any of these steps if they are not part of your normal process.

Once shipped you will record the sale as being shipped by changing the status yourself, or sending the

Item Shipped

email which will set the status for you. Once again, since it takes about the same amount of time to change the statuses as it does to send the emails, we recommend you send the email. It can provide your buyer with an update on when it was shipped as well as including the tracking number if you have it.

There are only a few things left to do after you have shipped the item. You will probably want to leave feedback, and delete any pictures that you have uploaded to your web space.

Leaving feedback is a very flexible feature. In the diagram above, we show the seller waiting until feedback is received before leaving feedback, but the seller is free to leave feedback at any time. The same is true of deleting pictures. You can do it anytime you'd like, or go through once a year and manually delete them if you'd like.

At any time in the future, you can easily submit another copy of the item to eBay. You can also look at various grid and printable sales reports at any time.

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Viewing Sales

Viewing Sales

The Finalize Sales mode contains a sale record for every listing that has ever closed.

This is great for historical recording and reporting purposes, but would be very hard to find information you are looking for without some way of choosing the sales you want to view. Fortunately, eBay Blackthorne provides many ways to choose which sales you are viewing.

Viewing Sales by Status

As illustrated in The_Lifespan_of_a Sale , each sale is assigned a status. All of the steps in the lifespan of a sale are identified by statuses. You can easily see all the sales in a particular status from the

Filters Tree

in the Views sidebar.

Clicking on any status in the Views sidebar will load all sales with that status into the

Sales grid. For example, to see all sales that have just been created, click the

Ready for payment request

filter as shown above. The

Payment received

filter would show all sales that you have been paid for but not yet shipped, and the

Shipped

filter shows all sales that have just been shipped.

Statuses are grouped into status families. A status family is shown by the hierarchical structure in the Views sidebar. In the example above, the

Payment Received

, and

Shipped

statuses are in the

Paid

After checking on her listings each morning, Sharon likes to process her sales.

First, she selects the Ready for Payment Request status family, hits Ctrl-A to select all, and sends the First Notification to High Bidder email. Next, she clicks on the Awaiting Payment filter and sorts them by the date the payment

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide was requested (oldest dates first). She then evaluates the oldest requests to see if she needs to send out follow up emails or file disputes. She continues to use filters to record payments and show her sales that need to be shipped.

Viewing Sales by Format

Items can be sold on eBay in several different formats. They can be sold as auctions, fixed price, or as store items. By default, the Finalize Sales mode shows you all sales regardless of their status, but if desired, you can use the

Show

dropdown to change the formats that are included in your views.

From the

Show

dropdown, you can view either all formats, or selected subsets of formats.

Show

dropdown back to

All Formats

Viewing Sales by Seller Account

eBay Blackthorne allows you to set up and sell under multiple seller accounts. This process is described thoroughly in Using Multiple Seller Accounts . The Seller dropdown on the Views sidebar allows you to choose which sellers sales you are viewing.

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From the

Seller

dropdown, you can view either all sellers at once, or a selected seller.

When you change the seller shown, the filters will only include listings for that seller. You will see the listing counts change at the end of any affected filters.

Viewing Sales that are Ready for Feedback

In addition to being able to view sales by their status, format or account, some special filters have been created to help find sales that have outstanding feedback tasks. The

Ready for feedback reminder and Ready to send feedback filters can be found under the

Sales Reports

section of the Views sidebar.

The

Ready for feedback reminder

filter will show you all sales that have a status of

Successful, but have not yet left feedback for you. The

Ready to send feedback

filter will show you all the sales where you have received positive feedback, but have not yet left feedback.

The last thing Sharon does each day is to take care of her feedbacks. She first loads the

Ready for feedback reminder

filter, hits Ctrl-A to select all, and sends the

Feedback Reminder

email from the Email Buyer dropdown on the

Actions toolbar. Hopefully this will trigger a few more people to leave her feedbacks. Then she loads the

Ready to send feedback

filter, hits Ctrl-A and leaves feedback from the

Feedback

dropdown button on the Actions toolbar.

In just a few minutes, she has left all of her feedbacks and sent out all of her reminders.

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Most sellers wait until they receive feedback before they leave feedback. If you don't want to wait, you can modify the

Ready to send feedback

filter to remove the conditional check to see if you have received feedback yet.

Searching for Sales

Like all other modes, you can perform a search from the Finalize Sales mode using the

Search

area of the Views sidebar. See the topic Searching for a Record for details on how to perform the search.

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Requesting Payments and Invoicing

Requesting Payments and Invoicing

After a listing is sold, it is up to the seller and the buyer to complete the transaction. The buyer needs to know exactly how much to pay, what his shipping options are, and where to send the money. The seller needs to know where the item is being shipped, and what method the buyer prefers to be able to calculate postage. There are many ways this information can be exchanged. They range from using the fully automated checkout process on eBay to the more manual process of contacting the buyer and requesting payment. The method that you use depends upon many factors including whether or not you know the shipping charges when you list the item, whether you package items together for a discount, and whether or not the buyer chooses to use the automated checkout.

If a buyer has purchased multiple items, then both the buyer and the seller have the option to combine the sales into a single order before the sale is paid for. This makes it easier to track and ship for the seller and often makes shipping less expensive for the buyer.

In some circumstances, it must be necessary to create an over the counter sale and combine it with existing eBay sales.

Occasionally, you will have an unresponsive buyer and may have to send follow up notifications . In the worst possible scenario, your buyer never pays and you have to submit a dispute to get your fees returned.

Automating the Payment Process

Automating the payment process is one of the biggest time savers that a seller can implement. As mentioned earlier, the buyer needs to know exactly how much to pay, what his shipping options are, and where to send the money. The seller needs to know where the item is being shipped, and what method the buyer prefers to be able to calculate postage. If this information is exchanged in an efficient manner it can save both buyer and seller a lot of extra work.

To automate the process, the seller must provide all the information that the buyer needs at the start of the auction. This information is provided in the

Shipping Preset

when creating an item.

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By choosing either

Calculated

Flat

rate shipping, and specifying all the shipping options in your listing, eBay will have enough information to total the sale for the buyer.

See Entering Item Details - Shipping for more information on the differences between the two methods.

If you do not know what your shipping will be and have chosen the

Self-

Managed

shipping method, then eBay will not have enough information to total the fees for the buyer and you will have to contact the buyer yourself.

In addition to sending the information with your item, you will also need to tell eBay that you want them to provide the checkout pages. You can do this from

Preferences

under

My eBay

. Edit the

Payment from buyers

and turn

Use Checkout

on.

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When you have turned on Checkout, your Buyers will have the option to checkout immediately after the auction is over. This will allow them to choose their preferred shipping method, provide their shipping address and indicate how they will pay for the item. If the user indicates they will pay with a check or money order, then your sale record in Blackthorne will have its status set to

Payment Request Sent

, indicating that you are still waiting for payment. The

Type of Payment

field in your sale record will be set to the payment type specified by the buyer in checkout.

If you accept PayPal, then the user can pay you immediately. If the user pays with a

PayPal eCheck, then the sale status is set to

Payment Received

. Once the check clears the status will be set to

Payment Cleared

. If the user pays with a credit card through

PayPal, then the status of the sale is set to

Payment Cleared

Jonathan lists all of his auctions with a Calculated shipping method and has turned on Checkout. He had 12 auctions close last night and needs to process them this morning. From Sales, he takes a look at his

Payment Cleared

filter.

He sees that 7 of his buyers paid with a credit card through PayPal. These sales are ready to be shipped.

He then checks the

Payment Received

filter and finds that 2 more buyers chose to pay with a PayPal eCheck. He will leave these sales alone until the checks

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Payment Cleared

filter.

A check of the

Payment Request Sent

folder shows that 2 of his buyers used checkout and indicated that they will be sending payment. One of the buyers specified they are sending a money order (as seen in the

Type of Payment

field on the sales record), and the other buyer indicated they would be paying with a personal check.

Finally, he checks the

Ready for Payment Request

filter to find that the last buyer has not performed Checkout yet. Since the auction closed late last night, he decides to wait until the afternoon to see if the buyer will use Checkout. If after refreshing that sale in the afternoon, the buyer still has not checked out, he will send him a

First Notification to High Bidder

email.

Notifying the Buyer

If you do not use Checkout, or if some of your buyers do not choose to use Checkout, then those sales records will have their status set to

Ready for Payment Request

Buyers who don't use checkout will either email you or wait for you to contact them to work out the details of payment. For these sales, you may want to send a

First

Notification to High Bidder

email to each buyer.

When an item is sold, eBay will automatically send a notification to your winning bidder. For many sellers, this notification is adequate. If you prefer a more personal touch or want to provide more details, then you should send your own

First Notification to High Bidder

email.

If you have buyers that have won more than one of your auctions, then you will want to combine your sales into an order before sending your emails.

Combining sales lets you work with multiple sales together. You can combine the shipping costs and send only one email for all sales in the order.

To send a First Notification to High Bidder email:

Select all the sales records you would like to send the email to.

From the

Email Buyer

dropdown button on the Actions toolbar, choose

First

Notification to High Bidder

. The

Email Buyer

window will appear.

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The Email Buyer window contains a composed email for each buyer of the selected sales. The

X of Y

message in the upper right corner indicates which email you are viewing. You can use the navigation arrows next to it to browse through the emails. The To, CC, BCC, From, and Reply To fields along with the Subject and Text of your email will be filled in. You may want to take a moment to view each email for accuracy.

By default, the

From

and

Reply To

information will be the values from the Email

Account that was associated with the item when it was listed. If you would like to change the Email Account that is sending the email, you can choose one of your existing Email Accounts from the

Account

dropdown.

The text of the email is created from the First Notification to High Bidder email template. If you would like, you can edit the note text on this Email Buyer form before sending the email. Any changes made will not apply to the email template or any other future email. For more information on creating and modifying email templates, see the E-Mail Templates topic.

If you would like a copy of the email printed on your printer when you send it, check the

Print copy of email

box.

You can make any changes to the body or subject of an email before sending it.

Changes made on this screen will not be saved in the template and will only be sent with the current email.

When you are ready to send your email, click the

Send

button to send them one at a time, or click

Send All

to send them all in a batch. The act of sending an email can be customized to automatically change the status of the sale when the email is sent. A note on the status bar identifies what status changes will occur when

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide sending the email. By default, this email will set the status to

Payment request sent

When all emails are sent, the window will close, or you can hit

Cancel

at any time to return to the main window.

Leslie does not use Checkout on her auctions. When the auction is over, she prefers to contact the buyer directly to develop a relationship with the buyer.

For each sale that ends, she sends a customized

First Notification to High

Bidder

email. This email includes a little bit about her and her company as well as the important information about shipping and payment. She can send out all of her emails very quickly by viewing the

Ready for payment request

filter, hitting

Ctrl-A

to select all sales and then choosing

First Notification...

from the

Email Buyer

button. After a quick check of the emails, she hits

Send All.

Sending Follow Up Notifications

Unfortunately, not all buyers are as quick to respond as sellers might like. If buyers do not respond to the first notification, then you may need to send a second or even a final notification. Each notification may be worded more strongly than the last. eBay

Blackthorne provides two additional emails and statuses to help you manage this process.

If you do not receive a response to your first notification, you may want to send a

Second

Notification to High Bidder

email. Sending a second notification will set the sale status to

Second payment request sent

. If you still do not get a response or a payment after the second request was sent, you may choose to send a

Final Notification to High Bidder

email before beginning the dispute process .

By default, the filters for

Second payment request

and

Final payment request

are hidden. You can show them by right-clicking on the

Sales by Status

area of the sidebar and choosing

Hide/Show Filters..

. Check any filters you want shown and uncheck any that you want hidden.

To send a Second or Final Notification to High Bidder email:

Select all the sales records you would like to send the email to.

From the

Email Buyer

dropdown button on the Actions toolbar, choose

Second

Notification to High Bidder,

Buyer

window will appear.

Final Notification to High Bidder.

The

Email

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The Email Buyer window contains a composed email for each buyer of the selected sales. The

X of Y

By default, the

From

and

Reply To

information will be the values from the Email

Account that was associated with the item when it was listed. If you would like to change the Email Account that is sending the email, you can choose one of your existing Email Accounts from the

Account

dropdown.

The text of the email is created from the Second or Final Notification to High

Bidder email template. If you would like, you can edit the note text on this Email

Buyer form before sending the email. Any changes made will not apply to the email template or any other future email. For more information on creating and modifying email templates, see the E-Mail Templates topic.

If you would like a copy of the email printed on your printer when you send it, check the

Print copy of email

box.

You can make any changes to the body or subject of an email before sending it.

Changes made on this screen will not be saved in the template and will only be sent with the current email.

When you are ready to send your email, click the

Send

button to send them one at a time, or click

Send All

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide sending the email. By default, this email will set the status to

Final Payment request sent or Final Payment request sent.

When all emails are sent, the window will close, or you can hit

Cancel

at any time to return to the main window.

Each day, Leslie checks to see if there are any unresponsive bidders. First, she loads the

Payment request sent

filter and sorts by the

Date Status Changed

in descending order to see who hasn't responded for the longest period of time.

She selects all sales that had the status changed more than 3 days ago and sends the

Second Notification to High Bidder

from the

Email Buyer

button on the Actions toolbar. She then loads the

Second payment request

filter and looks for anyone who hasn't responded in 3 more days since the second notification was sent, and sends them the final notification.

Combining Sales

When a buyer purchases more than one item from a seller, it is usually in both of their best interests to combine the sales into an order. By combining the sales into an order, all of the sales will be treated together as a single transaction. There will be a single payment, a single shipping charge and frequently the items will even be packaged in the same box. When combining sales, the buyer can save on shipping, the seller can save time packaging, and they both save time in communications by dealing with all the items at once.

Combining on eBay versus Combining Locally

A combine feature has been available on eBay for several years now. Regardless of whether you use eB or not, sellers and buyers can combine sales into orders using the eBay interface. Any items combined on eBay will be automatically combined in eB.

Likewise, when items are combined in eB, the information may be sent to eBay to combine the items on eBay as well. When items are combined on eBay, the buyer can see and in some cases modify the information about the order.

There are several rules that dictate which items can be combined on eBay. If you try to combine items that do not meet these criteria, then eB will not be able to combine them on eBay, however, you will be given the option to combine the items locally. When combining locally, eB will treat the items as an order and will ensure they are all included together in emails, but the information will not be sent to eBay, and your buyer will not be able to see the order. You can also force an order to not use eBay Checkout and create a local order instead.

The following requirements must be met to combine sales on eBay:



The sale cannot be part of another order if the order was buyer-created and the item has been paid for already.



The seller in the sale must be the same user as the seller in all other sales in the same order.

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

The buyer in the sale must be the same user as the buyer in all other sales in the same order.

Sales combined into an order may come from different types of item listings. For instance, one sale might have come from a Chinese auction, one from a Dutch auction, and two from a Stores fixed-price item. So long as all of the sales meet the conditions described above, they can be combined into the same order.

Sales resulting from the following types of item listings cannot be combined into an order:



Over the counter sales generated in eB

Live Auctions items

Seller auto-pay items

Real estate items

Ad-format items (special non-auction, real estate advertisement listings)

Sales combined into an order must all originate from the same eBay site. For instance, sales on the US site cannot be combined with sales on the UK site. Also, since eBay

Motors is considered a different eBay site, eBay Motors sales cannot be combined with non eBay Motors sales.

To combine sales into an order:

Select all sales that you would like to combine into orders. The selected sales do not have be for the same buyer. Any selected sales for a buyer that has only one sale record will be ignored.

Select Sales Actions|Combine Sales from the main menu, or click the

Combine

button on the Actions toolbar. The

Combine Sales

window will appear.

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The Combine Sales window contains an order candidate for each buyer of the selected sales. The

X of Y

message in the upper right corner indicates which order you are viewing. You can use the navigation arrows next to it to browse through the orders. The header bar and the yellow information pane provide information about the buyer of the order.

Below the information pane is a grid that contains all the selected sales for the buyer of the current order. Check the

Selected

box next to any sales you wanted included in the order. This will most frequently be all the displayed sales.

Choose how you want the shipping costs to be calculated in the

Shipping Details

group.



To have the shipping costs for all items totalled and included in full choose "

Calculate shipping cost and options in full

". The buyer will receive no discount in this case.

Select "

Calculate shipping cost and options applying discount of:

" to apply an across the board percentage discount on the shipping.



If you would like to customize the shipping methods and costs, select

Edit shipping cost and options

". The fields in the

Checkout Details

group will be enabled when selecting this option.



If you would like to use the existing shipping amounts in the sales records choose, "

Combine shipping costs using values specified in the sale

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

records

". This is useful when you want to specify the shipping for each individual item separately.

If you would like to assign a shipping cost to the first item and an cost for each additional item, then select "

Calculate shipping cost based on cost of first item.... and cost of each additional item.

When the shipping costs are divided among multiple sales, the handling costs are included in the shipping costs and the handling cost is set to 0.

If you chose "

Edit shipping cost and options

" then continue to fill in the

Checkout Details

. The insurance and shipping information will be filled in as follows:

Use eBay Checkout: If you want to use eBay Checkout and have this order combined on eBay also, check this box. If you do not check this option, then the order will be combined locally. When unchecked, you will only be have to enter one of the shipping methods.

Insurance:



If all sales had required insurance, the insurance will be set to

Insurance Required

" and the value will be the total of all sale insurances.

If at least one sale had optional insurance, the insurance will be set to "

Insurance Optional

" and the value will be the total of all sale insurances.

If all sales did not offer insurance, the insurance will be set to

Insurance Not Offered

" and the value will be $0.00.

Shipping Methods:



Any shipping methods that are present in all sales will be included in one of the shipping dropdowns. The value will be the total from all sales.

Enter the insurance option and amount that you want to apply to the entire order, then enter the shipping methods and totals that you want to apply to the entire order.

Click the

Combine

button when you are ready to combine the sales.

Navigate to each subsequent order and combine in the same way. Click

Close

when you are completed.

Lester sells baseball cards and tends to get a lot of repeat buyers. Each day, before sending out email notifications, he selects the

Ready for Payment

Request

filter and uses Ctrl-A to select all the sales in the filter. Then he

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide selects

Combine

from the Actions toolbar. The Combine Sales window opens and he navigates through each order making sure the right shipping and insurance discounts get applied. He combines each order and clicks

Close

when finished. He then sends his

First Notfification to High Bidder

email, and all the sales to the same buyer are included in the same email.

Viewing an Order

All sales in the same order will have the same Order ID. The Order ID field can be added to any column set by customizing the column set . By sorting or grouping on the Order

ID, you can see all the sales for an order together in the grid. The Order link on the

Details pane header identifies sales that are in an order. The Order link specifies how many sales are in the order, which sale you are looking at, and the Order ID of the sale.

To verify or view an order:

Click the

Order link

(Order C20 in the example below) on the Details pane header. The

Verify Order

window will appear.

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The Verify Order window contains a grid with each sale in the order and all of the details of the order, including the total sale, costs and shipping information.

Recombining an Order

If after combining an order, you find that the same buyer has purchased another item, then you can recombine the order.

To recombine an order:

Select all the sales from the previous order AND the new sale.

Select Sales Actions|Combine Sales from the main menu, or click the

Combine

button on the Actions toolbar. The

Combine Sales

window will appear.

Enter all the order information just as you would for a new order and click the

Combine

button. All the sales will now be in the same order.

Recording an Over the Counter Sale

An Over the Counter (OTC) sale is a sale that occurs off the eBay site. eB is primarily a tool for managing eBay sales. It is not intended to manage off-site or OTC sales, however, sometimes there are cases where you have sold an item on eBay to a buyer who purchased another item from you that was not listed on eBay. To allow you to manage the eBay sales with their associated OTC sales, we allow limited recording of OTC sales.

To record an over the counter sale:

Select the items that you would like to generate a sale for. All selected items must be for the same buyer and will included in the same order.

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Select

Items Actions|Generate Sale

from the main menu. The Generate Sale window will appear.

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Select the buyer in the

Sold To

field. You can choose from existing buyers using the dropdown, or you can enter a new buyer by clicking the

Edit

button. When clicking the Edit button a new buyer record will be created. You fill it in exactly as you would when adding a new buyer in the Buyers mode.

Choose the status that the generated sale records should be set to. If you have been in contact with the buyer via email, and he is waiting for you to send him a notfication, set the status to

Ready for Payment Request

. If the buyer is in your store, is paying you now in cash, and will be taking the items with him, set the status to

Successful

. There are many various scenarios that require you to generate a sale. Set the status properly for your particular scenario.

Under the

Payment

group, select the

Billing Address

of the buyer from the dropdown list. If the address does not yet exist, click the

Edit

button to create one. If you have received payment already, specify the

Type of Payment

, otherwise, leave it set to

None

Under the

Shipping

group, select the

Shipping Address

of the buyer from the dropdown list. If the address does not yet exist, click the

Edit

button to create one. If you know how you will ship it, enter the

Shipping Company

. If you have a

Tracking Number

already, you can add it as well. If the buyer would like insurance, check

Insurance Requested

In the

Sale Total

group, enter the

Shipping

Handling

Insurance

Sales Tax

and

Other

adjustment if you know their values. The values entered should be the total for all items in the grid.

In the

Costs

group, enter the

Actual Shipping

and

Other

adjustment if you know the values. The values entered should be the total for all items in the grid.

10.

If desired, you can also fill in the

Custom

fields and any

Sale Notes

. These values will apply to all sales records created.

11.

When completed, click the

Add

button. A sale record for each item will be created. All sales records will be grouped into an order.

12.

If you are selling the OTC items with existing eBay sales, you can select all of the

OTC sales and the eBay sales on the Finalize Sales window and combine them into an order like any other sales. Once combined, you can easily invoice, track and ship the items together.

Dealing with Disputes

Occasionally, you may have a dispute with a buyer. Either they never contacted you or they simply refuse to pay for the item. It's always best to try to resolve the dispute between the buyer and seller before resorting to leaving negative feedbacks. eBay has a built in dispute resolution process to help solve these issues. Using eBay Blackthorne, you can manage these disputes.

If you are not satisfied with your interaction with a buyer, the first step is to report a dispute . Reporting a dispute is like logging a formal complaint at eBay. It identifies why you are unhappy and what has happened so far in the dispute. When you file a dispute, the sale status is changed to

In Dispute

. While the dispute is open, both you and the buyer may exchange messages to try to resolve the dispute . These messages are logged by eBay. Finally, when you come to an agreement, (or even if you don't), you will close

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide the dispute . If the buyer never paid at the conclusion of the dispute, your sale record will get a status of

Unpaid

in the

Completed Sales

status family. If you were eligible for a refund on your final values fees, then eBay Blackthorne will automatically update the fees when they are updated at eBay.

Reporting a Dispute

To report a dispute:

Select all the sales records you would like to dispute.

Select Sales Actions|Report Unpaid Item Dispute... from the main menu. The

Report Dispute window will appear.

The Report Dispute window contains a dispute form for each sale selected. The

X of Y

message in the upper right corner indicates which dispute you are viewing.

You can use the navigation arrows next to it to browse through the disputes. The yellow box at the top provides the details of the disputed sale.

Enter a value for

Why are you reporting this unpaid item dispute?

Enter a value for

What has happened so far in the dispute?

Click

Add Dispute

to add the current dispute, or click

Submit All

to add all disputes.

When all disputes are added, the window will close, or you can exit at any time by clicking

Cancel

After sending out second and final notices each day, Leslie looks to see if she wants to submit any unpaid item disputes. She loads the

Final Payment request sent

filter and sorts by the

Date Status Changed

in descending order to see who hasn't responded for the longest period of time. She then selects all

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide sales where the final request was sent more than 3 days ago and calls

Report

Unpaid Item Dispute

from

Sales Actions

on the main menu. When the form appears, she enters the reasons for each dispute using the navigation arrows to view all the disputes and clicks

Submit All

Managing a Dispute

While a dispute is open, you and the buyer can leave and read messages for each other.

To manage a dispute:

Select the sale record for the dispute you would like to manage. You can only manage one dispute at a time.

Select Sales Actions|Manage Disputes... from the main menu. The Manage

Dispute window will appear.

The details of the dispute will appear in the yellow box at the top. A history of messages between you and the buyer will appear below it. To add a message, enter it in the message box, select

Add Information

from the

Action

dropdown, and click

Closing a Dispute

A dispute can be closed...



 if the buyer does not respond within 8 days when the buyer pays for the item when the seller and buyer mutually agree to close the dispute

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 when the seller no longer wishes to wait for communication from the buyer

Depending upon how the dispute was closed, the seller may be eligible for a refund of the final value fees, and the buyer may receive an Unpaid Item Strike. For the complete rules on how eBay handles disputes, read eBay's Unpaid Item Policy and the Unpaid Item

Process .

To close a dispute:

Select the sale record for the dispute you would like to close. You can only close one dispute at a time.

Select Sales Actions|Manage Disputes... from the main menu. The Manage

Dispute window will appear.

The details of the dispute will appear in the yellow box at the top. A history of messages between you and the buyer will appear below it. To close the dispute, select either

Close - We've completed the transaction and we're both satisfied

Close - We've agreed not to complete the transaction

, or

Close - I no longer wish to communicate with or wait for the buyer

from the

Action

dropdown, and click

You cannot close a dispute until the buyer responds. If the buyer does not respond within 8 days, eBay will close the dispute. A complete description of this process can be found on eBay's Unpaid Item Process page.

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Receiving Payments

Receiving Payments

Depending upon the payment methods that you allow, there are different ways that you can receive payments. If you accept PayPal, your payments may be made electronically .

If you accept credit cards , the buyer may call you on the phone with their credit card information. If you accept checks or money orders, your payments will come in the mail .

No matter how you accept payments, it is very important that you record them accurately.

Recording payments allows you to track your profit and loss and helps you keep track of which items need to be shipped. Any sales that have their status set to

Payment Cleared

will indicate that payment was received and is ready to be shipped. Any sale with a status of

Payment Received

means the payment has been received by has not cleared

(checks and eChecks) and shouldn't be shipped until you verify the payment has cleared with your bank.

Automatic Payments

If you accept PayPal, then your buyers may choose to pay with an electronic check, directly from their bank account, or by using a credit card through PayPal. When paying from their bank account or using a credit card, the funds will show up immediately in your account. The next time eBay Blackthorne refreshes sales, it will automatically record that payment for you and set the status of those sales to

Payment cleared

. If your buyer uses an electronic check, then the money will show up in a few days when the check clears. When the buyer first specifies they will use an electronic check,

Blackthorne will set the status of the sale to

Payment received

. Later, when the check clears, the status will get set to

Payment cleared

. Any sale with a status of

Payment cleared

means the money is in your account and you can ship the item.

The

Type of Payment

on the sale record will get set to either Check or PayPal accordingly. In addition, the

Shipping Address

of the buyer will be retrieved from

PayPal and saved in the sale record.

For information on how to set up your listings to accept electronic payments, see the topic Requesting Payments and Invoicing - Automating_the_Payment_Process .

Credit Card Payments

If you accept credit cards, then you will have to modify the sale record manually to record the payments.

To record a credit card payment:

Gather the information from the buyer that you need to process a credit card transaction and process the transaction through your credit card service. This information includes the credit card number, expiration, billing and shipping

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Locate and select the sale record for the payment. You can find it by looking in the

Awaiting payments

filter, or by performing a search for the buyer, sale id, eBay ID, etc.

From the Details area of the sale record, choose an existing

Shipping Address

from the dropdown or add a new one using the

Edit

button.

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The

Default Billing Address

will be set to the Shipping Address if it did not previously exist. You can change it or click

Edit

if the Billing Address is different than the Shipping Address.

In the

Type of Payment

field, choose

Credit Card

. The

Default Credit Card

input box will appear.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

If the credit card info is not already entered, then click the

Edit

button to enter it.

Click

to save and exit.

Finally, change the status of the sale to

Payment Cleared

in the status dropdown.

Receiving Checks and Money Orders

If you accept checks or money orders, then you will have to modify the sale record manually to record the payments.

To record a check or money order payment:

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Locate and select the sale record for the payment. You can find it by looking in the

Awaiting payments

filter, or by performing a search for the buyer, sale id, eBay ID, etc.

From the Details area of the sale record, choose an existing

Shipping Address

from the dropdown or add a new one using the

Edit

button.

In the

Type of Payment

field, choose

Check

Money Order

If the payment was a money order, change the status of the sale to

Payment

Cleared

in the status dropdown.

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If the payment was a check, you may want to send the buyer a

Received Payment

email to let them know that you have received the payment and you will ship once the payment has cleared. You can send the email by choosing

Received

Payment

from the

Email Buyer

button on the Actions toolbar. then wait until the check clears. Sending this email will automatically set the sale status to

Payment

Received

. If you do not send the email, you will have to set the

Payment Received

manually.

Sale Status

For payments by check, wait several days until the check clears. When it clears, you can set the

Sale Status

Payment Cleared

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Shipping Items

Shipping Items

Perhaps the most labor intensive task of selling on eBay is packaging and shipping the items once they have sold.

After receiving payments, you need to ship your items. Whether you store your inventory in a warehouse, or on a shelf in your family room, you will need to print a packing list to help you retrieve all the items and organize them by buyer. All items to the same buyer can then be packaged in the same box (or multiple boxes if necessary).

Depending upon your business, you may have to wait for delivery or for an item to be completed before you are ready to pack it. After packing the boxes you need to put the shipping address and return address on the package. You can do this by hand or you can print shipping labels and apply them to the packages. The last thing to do before shipping the items is to place postage on the package. You can take the packages to the

Post Office, FedEx, UPS or any other shipper an they will put the proper postage on it for you, or you can print the postage yourself using a 3rd party program. Finally, you will ship the items and then return to eBay Blackthorne to update the sales records to reflect they have been shipped either manually or by sending an

Item Shipped

email.

Waiting for Delivery or Fabrication

Some sellers obtain their inventory from a readily available supply. They often wait until an auction is over before ordering the item. Other sellers take custom orders in their auctions. They may need monograms for a shirt, or a choice of ring size before they can build or make the item. Usually an item that has been paid for is ready to ship, but in these cases the item must wait for something else to be done before it can be shipped. A status called

Ready to Ship

in the

Paid

status family can help keep track of these types of items.

The

Ready to Ship

status is hidden by default. To show it, you must right-click the

Sales by Status

area in the Views sidebar and select

Hide/Show Filters

Check the Ready to Ship filter and click

When using the

Ready to Ship

status, you do not ship sales until they are placed in the

Ready to Ship

status.

Dennis and Clare sell custom made jewelry. Dennis handles the listing and sales end of the business, and Clare makes the jewelry. Clare doesn't start making the jewelry until payment has arrived. Clare created a custom filter called

Ready for Production

to show her all the sales with a status of

Payment

Received

Production

Payment Cleared

. Each day, Clare checks the

Ready for

filter to see what items she has to make. As she completes an item, she places it in the Out box on her desk and changes the status of the sale to

Ready to Ship

. At the end of every day, Dennis gathers all the jewelry from the

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Out box, and looks in the

Ready to Ship

filter to find all the sales that he needs to ship items for. He can easily print his packing lists and labels from this filter also.

Printing Packing Lists

To help you retrieve items from your inventory, you can print a packing list. A packing list contains a list of all items that a buyer has recently purchased. The list can be carried to your inventory to collect all of the items that are to be shipped together to a buyer.

You can then include the packing list with your shipment so your buyer can clearly see what has been shipped. The upper left corner of the packing list contains the shipping and return address. It can be folded and placed into a clear plastic shipping label to act as your shipping label, or you can print separate shipping and return address labels if desired.

To print packing lists:

Select all the sales records you would like to print packing lists for. They will be automatically grouped by buyer and printed with one page for each different shipping address.

From the

Print

dropdown button on the Actions toolbar, choose

Packing List

The

Print Packing List

window will appear.

Select the type of packing list you would like to print. There are 3 different types of packing lists you can print.



The

Friendly

method is the most trusting method. When printing Friendly packing lists, all items for a buyer that have been paid for, and all items that have been sold and not paid for yet will be included in the packing list. Use this when you trust the buyer and are willing to ship items before they have paid for all of them or when you want to package all items before they have been paid for.

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

The

Safe

method is the most common method. The packing list will only include items that have already been paid for. Use this when you want to make sure you don't ship anything before you have received payment.

The

Conservative

method can save you extra work. When printing conservative packing lists, if a buyer has an item that hasn't been paid for yet, then no packing list will be printed. This helps prevent you from sending a shipment today and finding out that the same buyer just paid for another item and you have to ship another package.

The

Order Based

method can be used if you process your shipments by order. When printing order based packing lists a separate packing list will be printed for each unique order. PayPal users who must ship all items in the same order together should use this option.

If you don't need to see the packing list before you print it, then uncheck the

Preview before printing

box and click

. The print dialog will appear. Select the printer and click

If you would like to see a preview, then check the

Preview before printing

box and click

. The

Print Studio

will open with the

Packing List

loaded.

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Use the arrow keys on the toolbar to scroll up and down through a preview of all available packing lists. See the topic The Print Studio -

Previewing_a_Print_Template for more information. Usually, any changes to a printing template are performed by editing the Printing Template from the

Options window, but if you want to make a quick change, you can click the

Design

tab and make the modifications. See The Print Studio -

Modifying_a_Print_Template for more information. Any changes you make will be saved with the template when you click the

Print

button.

Click

Print

to print the packing lists, or

Cancel

to exit without printing. The print dialog will appear. Select a printer and click

After printing packing lists, you will be asked whether or not the packing lists printed correctly. If you select

Yes

, then the Packing List Printed value on the selected sales record will be set to True. This will prevent them from appearing in future packing lists. If you select No, then the Packing List Printed flag on the sales will remain False.

Printing Shipping Labels

Printing shipping labels can save a lot of time over manually writing addresses on your packages. You can print shipping labels to any printer using one of several different label types. If you use some of the larger labels, the return address can also be included on the label.

To print shipping labels:

Select all the sales records you would like to print shipping labels for.

From the

Print

dropdown button on the Actions toolbar, choose

Shipping Labels

The

Print Shipping Label

window will appear.

Select the shipping label format that you would like to print from

Print the following Shipping Label

. Each format has been designed to fit on the specified label.

Select the printer to print to from

Select the printer for this label

. If you chose a

Dymo label style, then you should choose the Dymo printer.

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Owning a label printer like the Dymo Label printer can be an incredible timesaver. With a label printer, you are always ready to quickly print any label without having to swap out paper for label sheets. If you send a lot of packages, a label printer could quickly pay for its modest cost.

If you have already used some of the labels on your current label sheet and would like to skip over the used labels, then provide the

Number of labels to skip

If you would like multiple copies of the label printed, then select the number of

Copies

If you don't need to see the shipping labels before you print them, then uncheck the

Preview before printing

box and click

. The labels will then print to your printer.

If you would like to see a preview, then check the

Preview before printing

box and click

. The

Print Studio

will open with the

Shipping Label

loaded. It will be contain one label for each unique buyer of the selected sales records.

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Use the arrow keys on the toolbar to scroll up and down through a preview of all available labels. See the topic The Print Studio - Previewing_a_Print_Template for more information. Usually, any changes to a printing template are performed by editing the Printing Template from the Options window, but if you want to

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide make a quick change, you can click the

Design

tab and make the modifications.

See The Print Studio - Modifying_a_Print_Template for more information. Any changes you make will be saved with the template when you click the

Print

button.

Click

Print

to print the labels, or

Cancel

to exit without printing. The print dialog will appear. Select a printer and click

Printing Postage

There are many companies that provide solutions for printing your own postage. Some companies provide you with PC based software, and possibly a scale and/or printer to help you print the exact postage you need right from your desk. Other solutions are web based and are just as convenient for printing postage on your own. In fact, PayPal has integrated the ability to print postage online and then return the information to eBay.

Currently, eBay Blackthorne has integrated with Endicia's Dazzle product for printing

USPS postage. In the future, we will be integrating with the PayPal solution and possibly other third parties. By integrating with a postage printing solution, the process of printing postage becomes faster. eBay Blackthorne can send all the information necessary for printing postage (like shipping method, weight, package size, etc.) directly to the third party program to be printed. Once printed, the final cost and tracking numbers can be retrieved back into Blackthorne to keep the sales records accurate.

Printing Postage with Endicia's Dazzle

Dazzle is a PC based software program from a company called Endicia. For a fee, it allows users to print USPS postage from their desktop. eBay Blackthorne's sales records already contain all the information necessary to print postage. Blackthorne can send this information to Dazzle, and then load Dazzle with it ready to print the postage. After reviewing the postage and printing it in Dazzle, information about the postage including the cost and tracking information will be imported back into eB.

When printing postage with Dazzle, you can either preview the postage first and make changes before printing, or you can batch print all postage without intervention.

To print postage through Dazzle with Preview:

Select all the sales records you would like to print postage for.

From the

Print

dropdown button on the Actions toolbar, choose Print Shipping

Postage|Endicia|Dazzle with Preview. The Endicia Preview window will open.

If you do not have Dazzle loaded on your computer then the

Print Shipping

Postage|Endicia

option will not be available under the Print button.

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Choose how you would like the weight entered into Dazzle. If you have the weight correctly entered on your Item record, choose "

Use weight from Item when printing postage

." If you want to weigh the item when Dazzle opens, choose "

Enter weight in Dazzle when printing postage

Select how you would like the insurance filled in. To use the insurane value from the sales records, choose "

Use insurance option form the Sale Record

'. If you always use the same insurance option, you can select it from the "

Use

" dropdown. If you would like to manually enter the insurance for each item when

Dazzle opens, then select "

Enter insurance option and value in Dazzle

After printing a label, you have the option to "

Automatically close Dazzle after printing postage

" and move to the next label. If you need to print Customs forms or want to change other Endicia settings after printing, then you should leave this option unchecked.

Click

Start

to begin printing the labels. Each label will be loaded into Endicia one at a time. You can then make any modifications before printing the label.

Once you print the label and exit Dazzle, eB will load the next label. Between each printing, eB will retrieve the cost of postage and tracking information.

To print postage through Dazzle with No Preview:

Select all the sales records you would like to print postage for.

From the

Print

dropdown button on the Actions toolbar, choose Print Shipping

Postage|Endicia|Dazzle (no preview). The Print Endicia Batch window will open.

If you do not have Dazzle loaded on your computer then the

Print Shipping

Postage|Endicia

option will not be available under the Print button.

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Select the Dazzle label layout that you would like to use for all labels in the batch.

The default layouts for each type of shipping method are specified on the Options window.

Click

to print the labels.

When completed, the shipping cost and tracking information will be imported into eB.

If you use a shipping method that provides tracking numbers, you can modify your

Item Shipped

email to include the tracking number returned from Dazzle.

Recording Sales as Having Been Shipped

After shipping your items, the sales records should have their status changed to

Shipped

You can do this manually, simply by changing the status in the

Sale Status

dropdown, or you can send an

Item Shipped

email which will set the status for you automatically.

Unless you have a reason not to, you should send the

Item Shipped

email. It is an easy way to update the status of your sale while letting your buyer know the item was shipped and the tracking number if applicable.

There is one more way a sale record can be marked as shipped. If you are a

Selling Manager Pro user on eBay, and you have marked the sales as being shipped in Selling Manager Pro, the Blackthorne sales will be marked as shipped the next time the servant refreshes the sale records.

To send an Item Shipped email:

Select all the sales records you would like to send the email to.

From the

Email Buyer

dropdown button on the Actions toolbar, choose

Item

Shipped

. The

Email Buyer

window will appear.

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The Email Buyer window contains a composed email for each buyer of the selected sales. The

X of Y

By default, the

From

and

Reply To

information will be the values from the Email

Account that was associated with the item when it was listed. If you would like to change the Email Account that is sending the email, you can choose one of your existing Email Accounts from the

Account

dropdown.

The text of the email is created from the Item Shipped email template. If you would like, you can edit the note text on this Email Buyer form before sending the email. Any changes made will not apply to the email template or any other future email. For more information on creating and modifying email templates, see the

E-Mail Templates topic.

If you would like a copy of the email printed on your printer when you send it, check the

Print copy of email

box.

When you are ready to send your email, click the

Send

button to send them one at a time, or click

Send All

to send them all in a batch. The act of sending an email can be customized to automatically change the status of the sale when the email is

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide sent. A note on the status bar identifies what status changes will occur when sending the email. By default, this email will set the status to

Shipped

When all emails are sent, the window will close, or you can hit

Cancel

at any time to return to the main window.

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Completing Sales

Completing Sales

After an item is shipped, there are still a few housekeeping tasks that need to be taken care of before the sale is complete. It's a good idea to leave feedback for your buyers.

Not only does it help the buyer, but it helps you build a relationship with your buyers which may make them more likely to return. If you host your own pictures, you might also want to remove them from your computer and/or web space to make room for more pictures. You can also choose to submit another item to eBay . Since you just sold the item, you may want to list another one.

Leaving Feedback

With eBay Blackthorne you can automate the task of leaving feedbacks. After creating a library of feedback messages, you can leave a single message or randomized messages to all your buyers. Since leaving negative or neutral feedbacks should be carefully considered, you cannot leave neutral or negative feedback in bulk. They must be left one at a time.

Creating Feedback Messages

Before you can leave a new feedback message, you must add it to your list of Positive

Feedback Messages.

To create feedback messages:

From the

Finalize Sales

mode, right click the

Feedback

button on the Actions toolbar and select

Edit Feedback Messages...

You can also get to the Feedback

Message list from Tools|Options then choose Presets|Positive Feedback

Messages. The Positive Feedback Messages list will appear.

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Click the

New

button to create a new feedback message. When the prompt appears, enter the text of your message and click

. You could also create a new message using the

Duplicate

button.

If you want to modify one of your messages, choose it from the list and click the

Edit

button. Make your modifications and click

to save.

To delete a feedback message, choose it from the list and click the

Delete

button.

If you would like, you can make leaving feedbacks automatically change the status of the sale. To set a status change, enter a status in the

When Submitting to eBay Change the Sale Status

dropdown.

If leaving feedback is the last step in your process, it is a good idea to have feedbacks set the sale status to

Successful

. This will help you identify which sales have had feedback left for them.

Sending Feedback

You can send either a specific feedback message, a random message or a negative/neutral message.

To send a feedback:

Select all the sales records you would like to send feedback for. If you will be sending a negative or neutral feedback, then you must only select one at a time.

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To leave a specific message... From the

Feedback

dropdown button on the

Actions toolbar, choose the feedback message that you want to leave. A message will appear asking you if you want to leave the feedbacks. Click

Yes

. The same feedback message will be left for the buyer of each selected sale.

To leave a randomized message... From the

Feedback

dropdown button on the

Actions toolbar, choose

Random Positive

. A message will appear asking you if you want to leave the feedbacks. Click

Yes

. Each buyer selected will receive a random feedback message from your Feedback Message list.

To leave a negative or neutral message... From the

Feedback

dropdown button on the Actions toolbar, choose

Negative/Neutral

. A prompt will appear allowing you to choose the type of feedback (negative or neutral) and the message itself.

Click

to submit the feedback.

Deleting Pictures

Once your sale is complete, you no longer need the pictures, unless you have multiple copies of the item and you will be selling more in the future. Pictures take up space on your computer's hard drive and on your web site if you host your own pictures. A little bit of housecleaning at the end of your sale can keep you from getting overrun with unneeded pictures. Pictures can be removed manually, or you can set your preferences to remove the pictures automatically when your sale is completed.

To manually delete pictures:

Select all the sales records you would like to remove pictures for.

Select Sales Actions|Manually Remove Pictures... from the main menu. The

Delete Pictures from Web/Computer

window will appear.

Use the checkboxes to choose whether you will remove pictures from the web, your computer or both. Click

to delete. The status bar on the main window will display a message informing you how many pictures were deleted.

To have pictures automatically deleted:

Select

Tools|Options

from the main menu.

Select

Pictures

under

Appearance

from the Options tree.

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Check the

Automatically delete pictures when Sale Status is set to Complete?

box.

Check

Remove the pictures from the web

and/or

Remove the pictures from my computer

to indicate which pictures should be deleted.

Anytime a sale is moved into a status in the Completed status family, the pictures for the sale will be deleted.

Martina sells unique one of a kind items. She hosts the pictures for those items on the 10 megs of space that her ISP gives her with her internet connection. To make her process more automatic, she customized her

Item Shipped

email to set the status to

Successful

in the

Completed

status family. She then customized her pictures so they would delete whenever the status of a sale was set to Completed. Now, when she ships an item, she sends an Item Shipped email. The email changes the status to Successful which in turn triggers the deletion of her pictures, so just by sending the email, all of her cleanup tasks are done automatically.

Submitting the Item to eBay Again

If you have multiple copies of an item, you may want to list another copy each time one sells. From the Finalize Sales mode, you can easily submit another copy of an item.

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To submit an item again:

Select all the sales records you would like to submit again from the

Finalize Sales

grid.

Select Sales Actions|Submit to eBay Again... or click the

Submit Again

button on the Actions toolbar. Fill out this window as you would when submitting listings from items. For more info see Submitting an Item .

Click

to submit the items again.

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Reporting on Sales

Reporting on Sales

There are a couple of different ways you can view reports on your business. There are printed reports, grid reports and screen reports.

Printed reports are pre-defined reports that you print from the Print Studio. Printed reports can be modified in the Print Studio, but new printed reports cannot be created.

There are two printable sales reports, a Profit and Loss Report and a Sales Tax Report.

Grid reports are created using custom column sets and filters. In fact, every filter provided is really a grid report. It shows a specific set of data with a specific layout.

Grid reports can be modified or created from scratch using Customize View .

Screen reports collect data and display it on the screen. The Sales History report is currently the only screen report.

Profit and Loss Report

The Profit and Loss report prints a summation of your income and expenses.

To print a profit and loss report:

From the

Finalize Sales

mode, select

Profit and Loss Report

from the

Print

button on the Actions toolbar. The Print Profit and Loss dialog will appear.

Select the records to be included in the report

. The profit and loss report can summarize the selected records in the current grid, all records in the current grid, or all sales records including those that aren't in the current grid.

If you don't need to see the report before you print it, then uncheck the

Preview before printing

box and click

. The print dialog will appear. Select the printer and click

If you would like to see a preview, then check the

Preview before printing

box and click

. The

Print Studio

will open with the

Profit and Loss Report

loaded.

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Click

Print

to print the report, or

Cancel

to exit without printing. The print dialog will appear. Select a printer and click

Using reports in conjunction with custom views give you many customization options for your reports. To get a profit and loss for last year, you can customize your view to show all sales for last year and then print the report including

all sales in the grid

Sales Tax Report

The Sales Tax Report prints a summary of the amount of sales tax you have collected by state over a period of time.

To print a sales tax report:

From the

Finalize Sales

mode, select

Sales Tax Report

from the

Print

button on the Actions toolbar. The

Print Sales Tax Report

dialog will appear.

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Select the records to be included in the report

. The sales tax report can summarize the selected records in the current grid, all records in the current grid, or all sales records including those that aren't in the current grid.

If you don't need to see the report before you print it, then uncheck the

Preview before printing

box and click

. The print dialog will appear. Select the printer and click

If you would like to see a preview, then check the

Preview before printing

box and click

. The

Print Studio

will open with the

Sales Tax Report

loaded.

Click

Print

to print the report, or

Cancel

to exit without printing. The print dialog will appear. Select a printer and click

Using reports in conjunction with custom views give you many customization options for your reports. To get a sales tax report for the last three months, you can customize your view to show all sales for the last three months and then print the report including

all sales in the grid

Grid Reports

A grid report is simply a customized view that includes a selection of records and a column set. To view a grid report, you simply select it from the

Views Sidebar

under the

Sales Reports

heading. There are several grid reports provided for sales.

Sales Report

Profit and Loss

Report

Description

Contains all sales in the Paid status family or those with a status of Successful or Unpaid in the Completed status family. The date period dropdown, and totals row is shown. The column set includes sale, cost and profit columns.

Sales Tax Report Contains all sales in the Paid status family or those with a status of Successful or Unpaid in the Completed status family. The date period dropdown, and totals row is shown. The column set includes sale tax, cost and profit columns.

Consignments ready to payout

Unsold consignments

Contains all consignment sales where the consignor has not yet been paid and the status is in the Paid status family or Successful.

The column set includes the consignment related fields.

Contains all consignment sales where the status is unsold. The column set includes the consignment related fields.

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Ready for feedback reminder

Ready to send feedback

Contains all sales with a status of Successful or Shipped and have not left feedback yet. It contains the date period dropdown showing all sales closed in the last 31 days. The column set includes feedback related fields.

Contains all sales that have received feedback but feedback has not been sent yet.

Sales History Report

The Sales History Report will provide you with an overview of how many times an item has been listed, and how well it has sold in the past. You can view a Sales History

Report for a single item or multiple items.

To view the Sales History Report:

From the

Create Items

mode, select all the item records you would like to view the Sales History for.

From the

Items Actions

menu, select

Sales History

to open the Sales History window.

Auction/Fixed Price Tab

The Auction/Fixed Price tab shows statistics for all the times you have listed the item(s) as an auction or fixed price listing.

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Listings:

Number of times listed: This totals the number of times you have listed the item. If you list 5 items in a single Dutch listing, that will count as a single listing.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Number of listings ending in a sale: This is the total number of items that ended with a sale. For Dutch Auctions, if at least one item was sold, it will be included in this count.

Listing Success Ratio: The percentage of listings that ended in a sale.

Sales:

Qty Listed: The total quantity listed. All quantities in Dutch Auctions will be included in this count. For example, a Dutch Auction with 5 items will result in a

Qty Listed of 5.

Quantity Sold: The total quantity sold. A Dutch Auction with 5 items that ended with

3 sales will result in a Quantity Sold of 3.

Sales Success Ratio: The percentage of the quantity listed that ended in a sale.

Store Tab

The Store tab shows statistics for all the times you have listed the item(s) as a store.

Quantity Sold in Store: The total quantity sold from the store.

Average Sale Price: The average sale price of items sold in the store.

Include Archive

Check the Include Archive box to include all archived listing and sales records in your statistics.

Holly sells riding boots. Every once in a while she wants to re-evaluate which boots she is selling so she spends a little time with the Sales History report.

First, she selects a single size of a boot and runs a Sales History report to see

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She sometimes wants to know how well a style of boot is doing, so instead of selecting just a single size of a boot, she selects all the item records for all sizes of the boot and runs a Sales History on all at once. The Sales History report then gives her compiled information for all the items selected. This will help her decide if it is a style of boot that she wants to continue selling.

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Printing Sales

Print Grid Setup

Before printing the grid, you can set it up how it will print. Any settings you specify will stay set until you make changes.

To setup the way your grid prints:

From the main menu, select File|Print Grid Setup... to display the Print Grid

Setup window.

Select the Printer that you will be printing to using the

Printer

... button.

In the Paper group box, select the

Size

of your paper and the

Source

Select the

Orientation

to use for printing. The sample page at the top will change to reflect your setting.

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Specify the Margins. The sample page at the top will change to reflect your settings.

Click

when finished.

Printing the Sales Grid

Any grid can be printed. The printed grid will look just like the grid on the screen. To save paper, you should adjust the column widths and not include any more columns than necessary.

To print the grid:

From the main menu, select File|Print Grid... to load the

Print preview

window.

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From the Print preview window, you can print the grid , zoom in display multiple pages , go to a specific page

, or close without printing .

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When you click the

Print

button, it will be printed to the printer specified on the

Print Grid Setup window.

Printing Sales Details

All of the details about a specific sale can also be printed out on a single page.

To print the sale details:

Select all the sales you would like detailed pages printed for from the Finalize

Sales grid.

Sort the grid in the order you would like the sales printed. You can sort by clicking on the column header.

From the main menu, select

File|Print Details

. The Report Studio will open with the Sales Details report loaded.

Click the

Print

button.

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Managing Contact Information

When running a business on eBay, you must deal with a lot of different people.There are people who buy your items, people you get your supplies from, and maybe even people you consign items for. With eB, you can easily keep track of all these different people using the Buyers, Suppliers and Consignors modes (known collectively as the Contact

Modes).

The Contact Modes are accessible from the tabs on the Main window. There is a tab for your Buyers , Suppliers and Consignors .

If you indicated during the Setup Assistant that you do not track Suppliers or

Consignors, then you may not see all three tabs. Your system administrator can turn them back on from the

Data Access

tab under

Tools|User

Administration..

Each contact mode is very much like the Create Items/Monitor Listings/Finalize Sales modes. Each has a grid view showing a list of the contacts, a details area showing the details for the selected contact and a sidebar allowing you to choose a set of contacts.

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Managing Buyers

Each successful sale will end with a buyer. It may be a new buyer or it may be a buyer who has purchased from you before. When the sale ends and eB retrieves the sale information, it will automatically create a buyer record for the buyer if one does not already exist. If the buyer did not use eBay's Checkout then the buyer record will only contain the buyer's eBay User ID and their zip code. When a buyer uses eBay's

Checkout, eB will know a lot about the buyer, including their name and address.

Most of the buyer information that is used on a daily basis is shown on the

Finalize Sales

mode making the buyer mode necessary only when you want to analyze more detailed buyer information.

Since buyers might by from you again sometime in the future, buyer records are never archived.

Creating a New Buyer

Most buyer records are created automatically. If you are recording an over the counter sale, you may need to create a new buyer.

To create a new buyer:

Select

Buyers Actions|New Buyer

from the main menu or click the

New Buyer

button on the Actions toolbar. If the Details Pane is shown, the new buyer will be created and selected in the grid. You can enter the buyer information in the

Details pane. If the Details Pane is not shown, then the new buyer record will appear in the Buyer Edit window.

Enter the buyer information.

Viewing Buyer Filters

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The Views sidebar contains several filters. Selecting a filter will limit the buyers shown in the grid. The following table identifies which buyers are shown for each view.

Filter

All Buyers

Displays...

All buyers.

Buyers with

Pending Sales

All buyers for sales in the status families Ready for Payment

Request, Awaiting Payment or In Dispute.

Repeat Buyers All buyers who have more than one sale record attached to them.

Search Results The search results from the latest buyer search performed. This may not be present.

All Buyers for

....

All buyers that from the last QuickLink performed on the Buyers mode. See Finding Related Info with QuickLinks for more information.

Searching for a Buyer

Like all other modes, you can perform a search from the Buyers mode using the

Search

area of the Views sidebar. See the topic Searching for a Record for details on how to perform the search.

Viewing the Buyers Feedback

To view a buyers feedback:

Select the buyer from the buyers grid.

Select

Buyers Actions|View Feedback

from the main menu or click the

View

Feedback

button on the Actions toolbar. The eBay page with the buyers feedback will appear.

Copying Addresses to the Clipboard

If you need addresses in other applications like 3rd party shipping apps, then you can easily get them from eB.

To copy buyer addresses to the clipboard:

Select all the buyer records you whose address you would like to copy.

Select

Buyers Actions|Copy Shipping Address Fields

Buyers Actions|Copy

Billing Address Fields

from the main menu. You can also copy shipping addresses from the

Copy Shipping

button on the

Actions

toolbar. All selected addresses will be placed on the clipboard with a blank line between them.

Paste (Ctrl-V) the addresses into any other application.

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Managing Suppliers

Items you sell on eBay usually come from someone else. Whether you get every item from a different supplier, or all of your items from the same supplier, you may want to record who you obtained an item from and some information about that supplier.

When creating items, you can specify the supplier of the item from a dropdown list. If the supplier does not exist, you can create it as you enter your item information. If you need more access to your supplier information, you can use the

Suppliers

mode.

Creating a New Supplier

Creating a new supplier is usually performed from the Create Items mode, but it can also be performed from the Suppliers mode.

To create a new supplier:

Select

Suppliers Actions|New Supplier

from the main menu or click the

New

Supplier

button on the Actions toolbar. If the Details Pane is shown, the new supplier will be created and selected in the grid. You can enter the supplier information in the Details pane. If the Details Pane is not shown, then the new supplier record will appear in the Supplier Edit window.

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Enter the suppliers information.

Viewing Supplier Filters

The Views sidebar contains several filters. Selecting a filter will limit the suppliers shown in the grid. The following table identifies which suppliers are shown for each view.

Filter Displays...

All Suppliers All suppliers.

Active

Suppliers

All suppliers for items with a quantity on hand > 1.

Search Results The search results from the latest supplier search performed. This may not be present.

All Suppliers for ....

All suppliers from the last QuickLink performed on the Suppliers mode. See Finding Related Info with QuickLinks for more information.

Searching for a Supplier

Like all other modes, you can perform a search from the Suppliers mode using the

Search

area of the Views sidebar. See the topic Searching for a Record for details on how to perform the search.

Copying Addresses to the Clipboard

If you need addresses in other applications like 3rd party shipping apps, then you can easily get them from eB.

To copy addresses to the clipboard:

Select all the supplier records you whose address you would like to copy.

Select

Suppliers Actions|Copy Address Fields

from the main menu. All selected addresses will be placed on the clipboard with a blank line between them.

Paste (Ctrl-V) the addresses into any other application.

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Managing Consignors

When you accept items from another person and sell them for a commission, it is known as consigning an item. You are the consignee, and the person you are selling the item for is the consignor. You can learn more about consigning items in the Consigning section.

If you sell on consignment, then you will deal with many consignors. For each consignor, you need to keep track of their contact information and details about the business arrangement you have with them.

When creating consignment items, you can specify the consignor of the item from a dropdown list. If the consignor does not exist, you can create it as you enter your item information. If you need more access to your consignor information, you can use the

Consignors

mode.

Creating a New Consignor

Creating a new consignor is usually performed from the Create Items mode, but it can also be performed from the Consignors mode.

To create a new consignor:

Select

Consignors Actions|New Consignor

from the main menu or click the

New

Consignor

button on the Actions toolbar. If the Details Pane is shown, the new consignor will be created and selected in the grid. You can enter the consignor information in the Details pane. If the Details Pane is not shown, then the new consignor record will appear in the Consignor Edit window.

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Enter the consignors information.

Viewing Consignor Filters

The Views sidebar contains several filters. Selecting a filter will limit the consignors shown in the grid. The following table identifies which consignors are shown for each view.

Filter Displays...

All Consignors All consignors.

Active

Consignors

All consignors for items sold within the last 90 days.

Search Results The search results from the latest consignor search performed. This may not be present.

All Consignors for ....

All consignors from the last QuickLink performed on the Consignors mode. See Finding Related Info with QuickLinks for more information.

Searching for a Consignor

Like all other modes, you can perform a search from the Consignors mode using the

Search

area of the Views sidebar. See the topic Searching for a Record for details on how to perform the search.

Copying Addresses to the Clipboard

If you need addresses in other applications like 3rd party shipping apps, then you can easily get them from eB.

To copy addresses to the clipboard:

Select all the consignor records you whose address you would like to copy.

Select

Consignors Actions|Copy Address Fields

from the main menu. All selected addresses will be placed on the clipboard with a blank line between them.

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Paste (Ctrl-V) the addresses into any other application.

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Navigating Modes

During your daily chores, you will find yourself switching modes and looking for data frequently. In addition to using the mode tabs to switch between modes, you can use the

Previous View button, the View History and QuickLinks to switch from mode to mode and view to view.

Previous View

Each time you change modes, filters, folders or lists, you are loading a new view. The

Previous View button will return you to the last view. You can click it repeatedly to go further back in your view history.

View History

You can also use the Previous View button to display and choose from your last 10 views. Simply click the down arrow next to the

Previous View

button to display the list.

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QuickLinks

Depending upon your business and subscription level, you may have up to 6 primary modes (Create Items, Monitor Listings, Finalize Sales, Buyers, Suppliers, Consignors) that all display different types of data. Although the data is different, it is often related to data in other modes. Listing and Sale records were created from an Item record, Sale records are associated with a buyer record, Item records can be associated with a Supplier or Consignor and so on. QuickLinks will allow you to get to this related data easily.

To QuickLink to related data:

From any mode, select the records that you would like more information about.

From the

Actions

menu for the current mode, select

Go To

. A list of available

QuickLinks will appear. Alternatively, you can right click the grid selections and choose

Go To

from the context menu that appears. Select the cross reference information you would like to see.

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After executing the QuickLink, you will be shown all related records in the linked mode. For instance, selecting item records and clicking the Listings Quicklink will load the Monitor Listings mode and show you all the listings ever listed for the selected items. The sidebar will now contain an additional filter for the

QuickLink.

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This temporary filter will exist until you perform another QuickLink to the same mode. You can switch filters and return to the QuickLink filter as long as it still exists.

Once the QuickLink view is displayed, you can customize the view or sort to further refine the data you are looking for.

QuickLinking to Sales from Items, is similar to looking at a Sales History report. It shows all sales for the selected items and can include total information in the Totals row. It doesn't show the average sale price and other stats that a Sales History report run from the Item would show.

QuickLinks are very powerful. With a little creativity, you will be able to find just the right data you are looking for.

Samuel sells caps with football and baseball team logos. He stores his hat items in a folder called Caps. He would like to see all the running listings for his football caps. To do this, he opens the Caps folder and selects all of the football caps. He then QuickLinks to the

Listings

. This shows him all football cap listings he has ever submitted. He then clicks the

Listing Status

column to sort by status, and can easily find all the football caps with a status family of

Running

Debbie sells DVD's which she can get from her supplier on one days notice.

She does not order her DVD's until an auction is over and the DVD is actually sold. She needs a way to see all the items that she needs to order, broken down by supplier. To do this, she loads the

Ready for Payment Request

filter in

Finalize Sales

. This shows her all her recently completed successful auctions.

She QuickLinks to Items to see all the items for those sales and then sorts the items by Supplier ID. She exports to Excel and now has a list of all items she needs to order from each supplier.

Other uses for QuickLinks include:



Finding all sales for an item

Finding all sales for a Dutch listing

Finding the items for all relistable listings to ensure there is adequate inventory remaining



Finding all items you get from a particular supplier or consignor

Finding all running listings for a consignor and anything else you can think of...

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Customizing Ad Templates

When creating an eBay listing, much of the text of the listing is usually the same for every listing. There will be some part of the description that is different for each item, but the shipping message, payment message, tax message and many other components are repeated in every listing. Ad Templates are designed to minimize the amount of data entry you do entering these duplicate messages.

With an Ad Template, you specify all the common text in the template and intersperse tags where the unique data should be placed. By creating an Ad Template and applying it to your item, you will simply need to enter the unique description and not all of the other text. eBay Blackthorne comes with two pre-made Ad Templates that you can use to generate your listing layout. The Simple Ad Template provides no additional text. It simply has a

[[Description]] tag that gets replaced with whatever you enter in the Description field in your item record. The Enhanced Ad Template contains the [[Title]], [[SubTitle]] and several other messages that you can customize.

One of the first things you will want to do to customize eB for your business is to create your own Ad Template. It will give your listings a personal touch. From the Options window, you can create new ad templates, duplicate existing templates, delete templates or rename templates. See Templates for more information on managing your templates.

The Ad Template Studio is where you will edit your Ad Templates .

Within the Ad Template Studio, you can customize the text that is included in your template using a WYSIWYG editor. Interspersed with your text, you can insert field tags to act as a placeholder for information that comes from your database. When the listings are generated, your text is merged with the data from your database to create a complete listing. You can also maintain and use common strings known as Global AutoText .

Inserting Global AutoText is an easy way to get a common string or paragraph into an

Ad Template.

If you are familiar with HTML, you can view and edit the source HTML if you desire.

You can also modify some of the layout options including the image placement, image width and the counter to use.

Editing an Ad Template

Editing an Ad Template is performed in the

Ad Template Studio

. The Ad Template

Studio is a WYSIWYG editor that allows you to create the custom text for your listing

Ad.

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To edit an Ad Template:

From Tools|Options choose Templates|Ad Templates.

Select the template you would like to edit from the list and click the

Edit

button.

You could also edit the Ad Template by clicking the

Edit

button next to the

Template

input box on the Item Entry pane.

The

Ad Template Studio

will open with your template loaded.

Viewing an Ad Template

By changing the tab at the bottom, you can view your Ad Template in a number of different formats.

The

Design View

is a WYSIWYG HTML Editor that lets you view your text in a semiformatted layout. This mode is used to create your template. The

HTML View

will show you the raw HTML source of the Ad Template. It is available as a reference or if you want to add your own custom HTML to the template. The

Preview

will show you what

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Template from the Options window, all Field tags will be resolved using a sample record from your database.

Spell checking is not enabled in the Design View since the Design View is supposed to show exactly what will be displayed and the red wavy lines violate that rule. However, you can spell check in the HTML View. HTML tags will be ignored by the spell checker. See " Spell Checking " for information on using the spell checker.

You can enter plain text or HTML on the

HTML View

tab. When using HTML however, you must ensure it adheres to eBay guidelines for HTML and

Javascript .

Formatting Text

In the Ad Template Studio, you create the text for your listing in the

Design View

editor.

You can add text anywhere in the editor. You can add formatting by placing your cursor or selecting text and then clicking on one of the format buttons on the toolbar. The buttons perform the following formatting:

Icon Description

Cut the selected text

Copy the selected text

Paste the selected text

Undo the last action

Redo the last action

Make the selected text bold

Italicize the selected text

Underscore the selected text

Set the font

Remove all formatting from the selected text

Set the color of the selected text

Increase the size of the selected text

Decrease the size of the selected text

Left align the selected text

Center the selected text

Right align the selected text

Indent

Outdent

Start/Stop an numbered list

Start/Stop a bulleted list

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Insert a horizontal line

Insert a table

Insert a hyperlink

Perform a search and replace

In addition to the toolbar, all of these common functions as well as several other common functions can be accessed from a context menu by right-clicking anywhere in the

Design

View

editor. Some of the additional features under the menu include:

Edit|Find and Replace - Performs a search and replace.

Formatting|(Normal/Heading1-Heading5/Formatted) - Sets the heading level for hierarchical titling.

Document|Properties|Background Color - Sets the background color of the document.

Document|Open - Opens an HTML file in the Design View editor.

Document|Save As - Saves the current file being edited.

Document|Print - Prints the current HTML file being edited.

Document|Toolbar - Toggles the display of the toolbar.

In the Design View, the

Enter

key will start a new paragraph which performs double spacing. To get a single line break, use

Shift-Enter

You can also drag any text file (with or without HTML in it) directly onto the

Design View

to load it.

Robert has been conversing with Sylvia on the eBay Blackthorne Discussion board about the great new Ad Template he has created. Sylvia asks Robert if she can use it to. Robert opens the Ad Template, right clicks the

Design View

and selects Document|Save As to save his template. He calls the file

ForSylvia.htm and sends it to her. When she receives the file, she creates a new, empty Ad Template and drags the ForSylvia.htm file onto the

Design

View

and the new template is there.

Adding Item Field Tags

Item Field Tags

allow you to create a placeholder in your Ad Template for information that will be filled in from your database when the listing is created. Item Field Tags appear with double brackets ([[ ]]) around them.

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In this example, [[Title]] and [[Description]] are Item Field Tags. When the listing is created, the Title and Description from the item record will replace the item field tags.

The result will look like something like this:

Notice the Item Field Tags were replaced, and the "Shoe Size Conversion Table" text and table remained as specified in the template.

To enter an Item Field Tag into an Ad Template:

Place your cursor at the location where the tag is to be entered.

Select the field you would like to enter from the

Item Fields

list and click the

Insert Field

button. Your tag will appear in the editor. You can also simply double-click the field to enter it at the cursor location.

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When applying any formatting to an Item Field Tag such as bold or font changes, make sure the entire tag is selected before applying the formatting. If only a portion of the tag is selected, then the HTML will split the tag and cause it to not resolve properly.

By using Custom Fields from the items record, you can make your Ad Templates even more intelligent. For instance, if you sell T-Shirts, you might create an Item with the following Item Details.

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Notice there is no description, and it uses an Ad Template called

Hanes T-Shirts

. You can then use the Custom 1 field for the size, and Custom 2 for color. As you enter a new item, you might put

in Custom 1 and

Heather Gray

in Custom 2.

You can then have these values dynamically entered into your listing by using the

[[ItemsCustom1]] and [[ItemsCustom2]] variables in your Ad Templates. The following template...

... would look like this when formatted.

If there are only a few different variations in your listings, you could replace your

Description with just a few Custom fields.

Adding Global AutoText

There are often large chunks of text that you tend to include repeatedly in your communications and listings. You may have a paragraph describing how and when you ship that you include in several different emails and your listings. By placing that text into a

Global AutoText

variable, you can easily add this text to any email or listing.

Global AutoTexts can also be used to add commonly used scripts to your listings. A

Global AutoText called "Countdown" has been provided so you can include a countdown message in your listings. i.e. "Only 21 more days until Christmas!!!". It is easily modifiable to other special days by following the inline comments.

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To enter Global AutoText into an Ad Template:

Place your cursor at the location where the Global AutoText is to be entered.

Select the Global AutoText you would like to enter from the

Global AutoText

list then click the

Insert AutoText

button. Your tag will appear in the editor. You can also simply double-click the Global AutoText to enter it at the cursor location.

When applying any formatting to a Global AutoText such as bold or font changes, make sure the entire tag is selected before applying the formatting. If only a portion of the tag is selected, then the HTML will split the tag and cause it to not resolve properly.

You can also edit existing Global AutoTexts or even add new ones.

To edit a Global AutoText:

Select the Global AutoText you would like to edit from the

Global AutoText

list.

Click the

Edit AutoText

button. The Edit AutoText window will appear.

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The requested AutoText will be selected from the list on the left, and the text will appear in the edit box. Make any modifications you desire.

You can also select any other AutoText from the list on the left and edit it at this time.

If desired, use the

New

button to create a new AutoText, the

Rename

button to rename an existing one, or the

Delete

button to remove an AutoText.

Click

when you are finished.

If you want to use HTML formatting in your GAT, you can double click the text entry box to open an HTML editor.

You can nest Global AutoTexts. In other words, GAT's can contain other

GAT's. You can also include Item Field Tags in a Global AutoText.

The same set of Global AutoTexts are shared between Email Templates and Ad

Templates.

If you change the name of a Global AutoText, all occurrences of it in the Ad and Email templates will be changed automatically.

JavaScript Global AutoTexts

Most of the GAT's are simply string replacements, but some JavaScript GAT's have been included. A JavaScript GAT can add special formatting to your listings using JavaScript code. You can often easily change some of the parameters of its behavior by modifying the GAT as described in the comments at the top of each GAT. They are described in the following table.

Name

Countdown

Description

Displays a countdown to a special day. You can set the special day and the colors of the messages.

Prohibit Picture

Copying

Falling Snow

Prohibits other users from copying the pictures in your listing.

No method is foolproof, but this should discourage most attempts.

This will display falling snow over your listing. The amount of snow can be modified.

You are also free to create any other JavaScript GAT's you can think of. If you create one and would like us to consider including it in future versions, just send it to us.

Setting Ad Template Options

There are several options you can set for your Ad Template. These can be changed from the

Options

tab at the bottom of the Ad Template Studio.

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Image Layout

The image layout setting lets you determine where your images will be located. The sample images show how the layout will appear. The Standard, Right, Bottom, Left and

Top placements are straightforward. The Manual placement requires a little bit of explanation.

If one of the provided image placements does not meet your needs and you want a more customized location for your images, then you will use the

Manual

Image Layout. When using Manual, eBay Blackthorne will not place any images into your listing automatically. Instead, you must add [[Picture1]] - [[Picture12]] tags where you would like the images to be placed.

Emily wants her listing to have the Title, SubTitle and Description at the top. She would then like her first image to appear followed by a shoe size chart and the rest of her shipping and payment info. Since there is no image layout that supports this, she chooses the manual layout and modifies her Ad Template to contain a

[[Picture1]] tag like this:

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When formatted, the picture appears where she requested it.

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Image Width

When displayed, images can be set to show in their original width, or a custom width in pixels. Pixels are units of screen measurement. An 800x600 monitor is 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels high. If you set a custom image width, then all your images will be the same width. This can be used to give your listing a more uniform look, or if you want to simulate thumbnails and fit more pictures on the screen at once.

When the image width is set to a custom image, the viewer can get an actual sized image by clicking on the image.

Counter

There are four options for including a counter in your listing. Counters are provided by

Andale, through an agreement they have with eBay. Since eBay does not have the

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Andale.

Alternate Methods of Displaying Pictures

In addition to using the Image Layout to specify how you want your pictures displayed, there are a few other methods that can be used.

Adding a Link to a Picture

If you would prefer to display a link to your picture instead of the picture itself, use the

[[Picture1Link]] - [[Picture12Link]] tags instead of the [[Picture1]] -[[Picture12]] tags.

This template example: looks like this when formatted:

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Building Your Own Link to a Picture

The [[PictureX]] tags and [[PictureXLink]] tags resolve to an HTML string that is an

IMG or HREF tag. There is not a tag that resolves to just the path of an image. If you need to use just the path of an image, then you can apply the TrimHTML() function to either the [[PictureX]] or [[PictureXLink]] tags. Using the function would look like this.

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When formatted, the function will resolve to the value specified in the PictureX input box on the item record.

This is most useful when you are building your own HTML or Javascript to perform special functions such as a picture swapper.

Using JavaScript in Ad Templates

You can use JavaScript in Ad Templates, but it must be used in a Global AutoText variable. The WYSIWYG editor does not understand JavaScript and will strip it out, but if placed into a Global AutoText the editor will not modify it. There are several sample

Global AutoTexts provided that use JavaScript. The "Countdown", "Prohibit Picture

Copying", and "Falling Snow" GAT's all use JavaScript. Here is an example of what it looks like.

Wherever you place the GAT in your Ad Template, the associated JavaScript will be placed.

Using Stylesheets in Ad Templates

The Design View editor does not support the inclusion of stylesheet information.

Stylesheet information will be stripped out of the template when you view the template in Design View. With a little creativity, you can still use stylesheets.

To use stylesheets in your templates, simply create the stylesheet in a separate file and include a link to the stylesheet in a Global AutoText. Therefore, you may have a Global

AutoText called

LinkToStyleSheet

that contains text similar to < link href="style.css"

rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" > . When it is included at the top of your template, it will not get removed.

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Customizing Emails

eBay Blackthorne comes with several pre-made email templates that you can use to quickly send emails to your buyers. You can create new email templates, duplicate existing templates, delete templates or rename templates. See Templates for more information on managing your templates. Using the Email Studio, you can even edit your email templates to fully customize the emails you send your buyers.

Within an email template, you can customize the subject and text of your message using a

WYSIWYG editor. Interspersed with your text, you can insert field tags to act as a placeholder for information that comes from your database. When the emails are generated, your text is merged with the data from your database to create a complete email. You can also maintain and use common strings known as Global AutoText .

Inserting Global AutoText is an easy way to get a common string or paragraph into an email. Custom calculations can even be performed on different database fields using the

Math functions provided.

To minimize the number of emails you send, the Email Studio has been designed to create combined emails when your buyers have purchased more than one item. The

RepeatBlock

and

RepeatTotal

constructs let you specify what information should be included for each sale in a buyers order.

Editing an Email Template

Editing an email template is performed in the

Email Studio

. The Email Studio is a

WYSIWYG editor that allows you to create the custom text for your email.

To edit an email template:

From Tools|Options choose Templates|Email Templates.

Select the template you would like to edit from the list and click the

Edit

button.

The

Email Studio

will open with your template loaded.

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide emails as the primary format. When using MAPI, you must send text emails with the HTML email as an optional attachment. The

Text Only Preview

will show you what the text email will look like. Tables and other formatting will not appear as expected in the Text Only Preview, so if you are using MAPI to send emails, you should verify your email format in the Text Only Preview.

Formatting Text

In the Email Studio, you can add the text of the subject and body of your email. The subject is entered in the

Subject

text box, and the body of the email is entered in the

Design View

editor. You can add text anywhere in the editor. You can add formatting by placing your cursor or selecting text and then clicking on one of the format buttons on the toolbar. The buttons perform the following formatting:

Icon Description

Cut the selected text

Copy the selected text

Paste the selected text

Undo the last action

Redo the last action

Make the selected text bold

Italicize the selected text

Underscore the selected text

Set the font

Remove all formatting from the selected text

Set the color of the selected text

Increase the size of the selected text

Decrease the size of the selected text

Left align the selected text

Center the selected text

Right align the selected text

Indent

Outdent

Start/Stop an numbered list

Start/Stop a bulleted list

Insert a horizontal line

Insert a table

Insert a hyperlink

Perform a search and replace

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In addition to the toolbar, all of these common functions as well as several other common functions can be accessed from a context menu by right-clicking anywhere in the

Design

View

editor. Some of the additional features under the menu include:

Edit|Find and Replace - Performs a search and replace.

Formatting|(Normal/Heading1-Heading5/Formatted) - Sets the heading level for hierarchical titling.

Document|Properties|Background Color - Sets the background color of the document.

Document|Open - Opens an HTML file in the Design View editor.

Document|Save As - Saves the current file being edited.

Document|Print - Prints the current HTML file being edited.

Document|Toolbar - Toggles the display of the toolbar.

In the Design View, the

Enter

key will start a new paragraph which performs double spacing. To get a single line break, use

Shift-Enter

Adding Field Tags

Most emails require some details about the item you have sold or the buyer that you are sending it to.

Field Tags

allow you to create a placeholder in your email for information that will be filled in from your database when the email is sent. Field Tags appear with double brackets ([[ ]]) around them.

In this example, [[BuyereBayUserid]] is a Field Tag. When the email is sent, the buyer's eBay userid from the sales record will replace the field tag. The result will look like this:

To enter a Field Tag into an email:

Place your cursor at the location where the tag is to be entered.

Select the field you would like to enter from the

Fields

list and click the

Insert

Field

button. Your tag will appear in the editor. You can also simply doubleclick the field to enter it at the cursor location.

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When applying any formatting to a Field Tag such as bold or font changes, make sure the entire tag is selected before applying the formatting. If only a portion of the tag is selected, then the HTML will split the tag and cause it to not resolve properly.

Adding Global AutoText

Global AutoText

variable, you can easily add this text to any email.

To enter Global AutoText into an email:

Place your cursor at the location where the Global AutoText is to be entered.

Select the Global AutoText you would like to enter from the

Global AutoText

list then click the

Insert AutoText

button. Your tag will appear in the editor. You can also simply double-click the Global AutoText to enter it at the cursor location.

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To get a link in your email that sends your buyer to the eBay checkout page where they can pay for the item, use the

Pay Now

AutoText.

You can also edit existing Global AutoText or even add new ones.

To edit a Global AutoText:

Select the Global AutoText you would like to edit from the

Global AutoText

list.

Click the

Edit AutoText

button. The Edit AutoText window will appear.

The requested AutoText will be selected from the list on the left, and the text will appear in the edit box. Make any modifications you desire.

You can also select any other AutoText from the list on the left and edit it at this time.

If desired, use the

New

button to create a new AutoText, the

Rename

button to rename an existing one, or the

Delete

button to remove an AutoText.

Click

when you are finished.

You can nest Global AutoTexts. In other words, GAT's can contain other

GAT's. You can also include Field Tags in a Global AutoText.

The same set of Global AutoTexts are shared between Email Templates and Ad

Templates.

If you change the name of a Global AutoText, all occurrences of it in the Ad and Email templates will be changed automatically.

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Using Math Functions

When sending emails that request payments, it is handy to have fields from the database totalled automatically to let your buyers know what is due without having to calculate it themselves. The

Math() Function

in the Email Studio makes this possible.

Math() is a function that prints the result of whatever basic arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) operation is passed to it. It can handle integers and decimals, and it will automatically format the results properly.

Template

(Design View)

Math( 3 + 5 )

Math( 3 - 5 )

Math( 3.0 * 5.0

)

Math( 3 / 5 )

Math( 3 + 4 + 5)

Math(1.4142135

* 1.4142135)

Preview

-2

0.6

2.0000001064249604

Math() can also handle currency. If at least one of the terms given it is currency, the output will be in currency.

Preview Template (Design

View)

Math($3 + $5)

Math($3 - $5)

Math($3/5)

Math($3 * 5)

$8.00

($2.00)

$0.60

$15.00

Any Field Tags that resolve to numbers can also be used.

Template (Design View)

Math([[SalePrice]] + [[Shipping]])

Math([[SalePrice]]*[[QtySold]] )

Preview

$12.00

$20.00

Math([[SalePrice]]*[[QtySold]]+[[Shipping]]) $22.00

Multiplication and division operators will always take precedence over addition and subtraction. Therefore...

Math(3+[[SalePrice]]*2) will resolve to the same thing as Math([[SalePrice]]*2+3)

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To force your own precedence, you can use nested Math() functions like this:

Math(Math(3+[[SalePrice]])*2)

In this example, 3 will be added to the sale price and the result will be multiplied by 2.

Math() can handle any parameters that are numeric. You can even add the sale price to a part number (Math([[SalePrice]] + [[PartNum]])) though that would make little sense. If the contents of Math() does not contain all numbers, then it will show as a blank when it is resolved in the email.

When using Math(), do not place a space between Math and the first parenthesis or your equation will not resolve properly.

Math() can be used in the both the Body and the Subject of the Email Template.

Building Combined Emails with Repeat Block

Frequently buyers purchase more than one item from a seller. When this occurs, it is convenient to send a single email to a buyer that contains information about all of his purchases. Combined emails need to show information about multiple sales. The

Repeat

Block

allows users to specify which tags should be repeated for each sale.

A Repeat Block looks like:

Begin Repeat For Each Item

Item Title: [[Title]]

Item Number: [[eBayItem]]

Quantity: [[QtySold]]

Winning Bid: [[SalePrice]]

End Repeat For Each Item

It prints out everything in between Begin Repeat For Each Item and End Repeat For Each

Item , and it repeats this for each item in a combined sale. If there is only one item in the sale, it doesn't do any repeating at all.

The Repeat Block above will resolve to something like this:

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To insert a Repeat Block in the Description:

Highlight all the text and tags that you would like repeated.

Right-click and select Insert|Repeat Block.

The template editor allows only one Repeat Block per message template. If you attempt to add a second block, the first block will be removed and the second one added in its place.

The right-click menu also duplicates most of the standard text-editing functions that are available on the toolbar directly above the editing window.

You can also get the same RepeatBlock functionality in the message subject, but you must manually enter the RepeatBlock tags in the subject line. To get a subject that says

"You've won! eBay Item(s) (12345678901 09876543210)" enter the RepeatBlock as shown below.

Adding Combined Totals with RepeatTotal

In addition to displaying information about multiple sales, you may also want the total of some fields for all sales included in the email.

RepeatTotal()

is a function that will sum up the total value of whatever field is fed to it inside the parentheses.

RepeatTotal([[SalePrice]]) adds the sale prices of all the items in a combined sale. If there's only one item in the sale, RepeatTotal([[SalePrice]]) simply prints out the value of the field it is given.

If you pass an non numeric field to RepeatTotal(), it will resolve to nothing.

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Editing Pictures

A picture is worth a thousand words, but to an eBay seller, it could make the difference between an item that sells and one that doesn't. Good quality, small images will make your listings look better and load faster. eBay Blackthorne's Picture Studio can help you custom tailor your images for an eBay listing, and it can do it to multiple images at the same time.

The Picture Studio provides functions for rotating , cropping , zooming , scaling , adjusting the brightness and contrast , compressing and sizing of pictures. Rotating and scaling can be performed on multiple pictures at the same time. Auto-compressing and Auto-Sizing can be performed automatically just by loading the pictures in to the Picture Studio.

Overview of the Picture Studio

To load the Picture Studio:

From the

Create Items

mode, select all the items that you would like to edit the pictures for and choose Items Actions|Edit Pictures from main menu. You can also click the

Edit

button in the Pictures group on the Item Entry pane. The

Picture Studio will appear with all pictures from all selected items loaded.

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Across the top of the Picture Studio is the

Item Record Grid

. It contains a row for each item that was selected and loaded into the Picture Studio. You can click on an individual row or select multiple rows to work with only the pictures in the selected rows.

On the left side is the

Picture Selection Pane

. It displays a thumbnail for every picture in all of the selected rows in the Item Record Grid. It allows you to further narrow down the selection of items to work with. Click on a picture to select it. Rotating and scaling will work on multiple pictures at the same time. To select multiple pictures, you can hold down the

Ctrl

key and click on each additional picture you want selected. Holding down the

Shift

key while selecting two pictures will select all pictures between the two clicked pictures. You can even drag and drop an imaginary box to surround the pictures you want selected.

To the right of the Picture Selection pane is the

Picture Editor

. The Picture Editor displays the last picture selected. It will show the effects of rotating, scaling and changing the brightness and contrast, and it is used to set the bounds for cropping.

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Immediately below the Picture Editor is the

Picture Editor Dashboard

. It contains the controls used to modify the pictures.

At the bottom is the message bar. It contains information on how many items are selected from the total, which item the selected picture is used in, the size of the picture, width and height of the picture and the scaling percentage.

Rotating

If you rotated your camera when taking a picture, you will need to rotate the picture to make it display upright.

To rotate pictures:

Select the pictures that you want to rotate.

Click one of the rotation buttons on the

Picture Editor Dashboard

. You will see all selected pictures rotating in the direction of the arrow.

Cropping

Cropping a picture will remove unnecessary parts of the picture. Cropping is a good way to reduce the size of a picture without losing any important information.

To crop a picture:

Select the picture to be cropped from the

Picture Selection Pane

Use your cursor to drag and drop a selection box around the area to be saved.

Click the crop button to remove everything outside of the selection box.

Cropping cannot be performed on multiple pictures at the same time, so if when multiple pictures are selected, the crop button is disabled.

Zooming

Zooming a picture will let you view more or less of your picture without actually changing its physical stored size.

To zoom a picture:

Select the picture to be zoomed from the

Picture Selection Pane

Select a value from the

Zoom

dropdown, or enter a zoom percentage directly into the dropdown. The values behave as follows:



 values below 100% show a smaller version of the picture. This is useful if you have a large image and want to see it all so you can crop it.

100% (Actual size) will display the image in the same size that it will appear in your listing. values > 100% will zoom in on your picture. You can use the scrollbars to move to different areas of your picture.

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

Fit to Window will size the image so that it fits perfectly in the current window size.

Zooming only changes your view while you are editing it. It does not change the size of the picture as it appears on eBay. You need to use scaling to change the actual size of the picture.

Scaling

Scaling an image will reduce its size and still keep all the original content. When scaling, you may lose some resolution quality but the image will load faster.

To scale pictures:

Select the pictures that you want to scale.

Move the

Scaling

slider on the

Picture Editor Dashboard

to the desired picture width. The slider ranges from 1 to the width of the selected picture in pixels. All selected pictures will be scaled to the specified width.

If you will be scaling and cropping a picture, it is better to crop it first, then scale it. The result will have a higher resolution.

Brightness and Contrast

Adjusting the brightness and contrast can make your image look better.

To adjust the brightness and contrast of a picture:

Select the picture to be adjusted from the

Picture Selection Pane

Move the Brightness and Contrast sliders to the desired settings. The relative change will appear as a number on the right.

Compression and Sizing

A compressed image will appear to be the same size on the screen, but will be a smaller file. Depending upon how aggressive or mild the compression is, you may or may not see any noticeable difference in the pictures appearance after a compression. Most pictures taken with digital cameras today can be greatly compressed without a noticeable difference. Pictures as large as 3-5 megs can frequently be reduced to 100-200k. All pictures taken with a digital camera should be compressed before posting on eBay.

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Pictures from digital cameras also tend to be very large. Usually the smallest setting on a camera is 800x600 and goes up from there. Many computer users still use an 800x600 monitor, so any pictures larger than that will require those users to scroll to see your image. Therefore any pictures posted on eBay should always be scaled to less than 800 pixels, and preferably down to 700 or less. eBay Blackthorne makes compression and sizing easy. You can turn on automatic compression and sizing, and every time a picture is loaded into the Picture Studio, it will be automatically processed or you can manage compression and sizing manually.

To turn on automatic compression:

From Tools|Options, select

Pictures

under

Appearance

in the Options tree. The following options will appear.

Check the

Auto-compress pictures when opening the Picture Studio

box.

Set the

Quality after compression

slider. Smaller images load faster but will be of lower quality. Adjust this setting based on how much detail you need to show in your pictures. To test this value, make a copy of an image that has come from your camera and load it into the Picture Studio. If it is still of acceptable quality, lower the slider value, make another copy of the master image and load it into the

Picture Studio. Repeat this process to find the setting that gives you acceptable results with the smallest file size.

Check the

Automatically size my pictures to

box and set a value. Any image larger than this value will be automatically reduced to this size when it is loaded into the Picture Studio.

To manually compress or size pictures:

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From Tools|Options, select

Pictures

under

Appearance

in the Options tree. The following options will appear.

Make sure the auto-compression and auto-sizing are turned of by unchecking the

Auto-compress pictures when opening the Picture Studio

Automatically size my pictures to

box.

box and the

When you open the Picture Studio, the

Compress

button will now be available.

After making any modifications to your pictures, click the

Compress

button.

Sizing can be performed using the Scaling feature.

Joe sells cars and wants to include a picture of the odometer reading in his listings. He takes a high-res picture of the instrument panel for each car and loads them into eB. If Joe had auto-compression and auto-scaling on, then the pictures would be resize and compressed when he loaded the Picture Studio.

When he then cropped the odometer, he would not get a very good picture, because it was already resized and he has lost most of the resolution.

To get the best possible picture, Joe turns off the auto-compression and autosizing. When he loads a picture of the instrument panel, he uses a Zoom of "Fit to Window" and then crops the odometer. Once it is cropped, he uses the

"Compress" button to compress the image and still maintains the high quality.

Undoing Changes

While working with pictures, you may find at some point that you need to undo some changes you have made. You can use the

Revert

button on the

Picture Editor Dashboard

or the

Cancel

button on the Picture Studio window.

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The

Revert

button will revert the picture in the

Picture Editor

to what it was before the

Picture Studio was opened. The

Cancel

button will revert all pictures in the Picture

Studio to what they were when the Picture Studio was loaded.

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Managing Multiple Seller Accounts

Many users organize their business using separate eBay Seller Accounts to sell different types of goods. Support for managing multiple accounts is built in to eBay Blackthorne

Pro. You can have as many eBay Seller Accounts as you need and manage them all with eBay Blackthorne.

Although you can manage as many seller accounts as you'd like, you will need to have a different subscription to eBay Blackthorne for every 5 accounts. For instance, if you manage 5 seller accounts, then you will need only one subscription. If you have 6 accounts, you need two subscriptions, and at 11, you would need three subscriptions.

To organize your information by seller account, you will first create an eBay Blackthorne seller account for every eBay Seller Account that you have. You will give each seller account a name. This name may be the same as the eBay userid or it can be something different. You will also specify the eBay userid that is subscribed to eBay Blackthorne.

Since you can use up to 5 seller accounts with one subscription, the first 5 seller accounts you create should have the same

Subscribed Userid

Once you have created your accounts, you simply need to identify which seller account an item is being created for . You will normally do this as you create new items.

As listing and sales records are created from the items, you will be able to use the Seller dropdown in each of those modes to view just the information for an individual seller or all sellers .

When importing items from eBay or Seller's Assistant Pro, the proper Seller Accounts will be created and associated with the item records.

You cannot create more than one seller account for a single eBay UserID.

Creating Seller Accounts

Before you were allowed to use eBay Blackthorne, you were required to add your first seller account. You can add and manage seller accounts from

Tools - Options - Seller

Accounts

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Use the corresponding buttons to add a

New

account,

Duplicate

an existing account,

Delete

an account,

Edit

an account, or

Rename

an account. You can also select an account and click the

Subscription

button to check on the status of the accounts subscription on eBay.

To create a new account, simply click the

New

button to open the

New Seller Account

window.

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eBay User ID

The eBay User ID of the new seller account.

Subscribed User ID

The eBay User ID that is subscribed to use eBay Blackthorne. You may create up to 5 seller accounts with the same subscribed userid. When the eBay User ID and Subscribe

User ID are the same, you can save time by clicking the

"same as eBay User ID"

option.

Business Name

The full name of your business. This will appear in reports, email templates and ad templates.

Return Mailing Address

Your complete return mailing address. This will appear in reports, email templates and ad templates.

Associating an Item with a Seller Account

When creating an item, you must associate it with the seller account that you want to list it with. The Seller dropdown in the Item Details group provides a list of all seller accounts for you to use.

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Viewing Information by Seller Account

To view the Items, Listings, or Sales for a particular seller account, simply choose the account from the Seller dropdown in the sidebar. Choose "All Sellers" if you want to view all your data together.

When you change seller accounts, all folders, lists and filters will include data for the selected seller account only. You will see the counts in sidebar change as you change seller accounts.

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Managing Multiple Users

Even though eB can automate many tasks and save you lots of time, it may still take more than one person to manage everything. As a business grows, taking pictures, listing, emailing, shipping, etc. may have to be split across multiple users on multiple computers.

Each person may have a specialized task, and all users need to have access to the same data. eBay Blackthorne is designed to handle the growth of your business.

Administering Users

With eB, you can create multiple user logins. Each person in your organization can have their own login id and password to access eB. Logins are managed by an administrator.

The administrator can customize the data and features that a user has access to as well as what user interface customizations they can make. This will allow different users to see the features and data that they need to perform their job, but nothing else.

Endless Mountains Enterprises is a small business that sells items on eBay.

The owner, Rob, has two employees, Brendan and Emily. Brendan, lists all of the items, and Emily performs all the after sale processing. To keep his customer data confidential, he has set up a user account for each employee and turned off the ability to see reports and buyers credit card info for those accounts. Also, since Brendan only lists the items, he is not allowed to see the

Finalize Sales

tab, send email or leave feedback. Since Emily only handles the shipping, she is not allowed to submit items or edit pictures. By creating user accounts, each employee has a user interface tailored to their job, and can't accidentally harm or view sensitive data.

Logging In

Initially, there is a single user called

Admin

with no password. As long as there is only one user without a password, you will not be required to log in to eBay Blackthorne.

Once a second user is created or a password is created for the Admin account, then a login box will appear when starting the program. You must enter a valid

User ID

and

Password

to gain access to eB.

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If you added a new user before you fully understood the User Administration feature, you will be presented with the login screen the next time you run eB. If you get to this point, enter a User ID of

Admin

, and leave the password blank to get in. Then open the User Administration window and set the passwords and accounts properly.

Logging Out

If you want to use a computer that someone else is logged into, you will need to logout and then re-login.

To logout:

Select File|Logout from the main menu. The

eBay Blackthorne User Login

window will appear.

Enter your

User ID

and

Password

to log in under your own account.

To administer users:

From the main menu, select Tools|User Administration. The User

Administration window will appear.

The User Administration option on the main menu is only visible if you are a user administrator or if there is only one user.

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Creating multiple user accounts will only limit the access users have to data from within eB. If you want to lock your database file so users cannot see the data through Microsoft Access, you must password protect your database .

DO NOT FORGET THE USER ADMINISTRATORS PASSWORD.

Without it, you will be unable to modify the permissions for all users including yourself. If you do forget it, you must open the data file in Microsoft Access and modify the UserLogins table to reset the Administrators password. You will need to know the database password to do this on a password protected database.

Creating a New User

For each employee that will have access to eB, you will create a User Account.

To create a user account:

Click the

New

button in the lower left corner of the User Administration window.

New User(X)

will be added to the Users list.

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Enter the

Name

of the new user. This is usually their full name.

Enter the

User ID

of the new user. This can be a nickname or shortened version of their full name. This is what the user will enter to login.

Enter a

Password

for user. When you tab out of the Password field, you will be required to enter the Password again.

If the new user is an administrator and is allowed access to the User

Administration window, then check the

Administrator

box.

Deleting a User

To remove an employees access, you can delete their user login.

To delete a user:

Select the user to be deleted from the

Users

list.

Click the

Delete

button under the Users list.

Managing a User's Data Access

The Administrator can control what types of data a user has access to.

To manage the data a user has access to:

Select the

Data Access

tab on the User Administration window.

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Uncheck any data the user should not have access to. The following table describes the options.

Option

Allow user to Create

Items

Allow user to Monitor

Listings

Allow user to Finalize

Sales

Allow user to edit

Buyers

Allow user to edit

Suppliers

Allow user to edit

Consignors

Allow user to view reports

Allow user to view credit card numbers

When turned off...

the user cannot view the Create Items mode. the user cannot view the Monitor Listings mode. the user cannot view the Finalize Sales mode. the user cannot view the Buyers mode. the user cannot view the Suppliers mode. The user also cannot set the Supplier on the item record. the user cannot view the Consignors mode. The user also cannot set the Consignor on the item record. the user cannot view the Profit and Loss Report, Sales

Tax Report or Consignor Payout Report. the user cannot view the buyers credit card information on the sale or buyer records.

Managing a User's Access to Features

The Administrator can also control what features a user has access to.

To manage the features a user has access to:

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Select the

Allowed Actions

tab on the User Administration window.

Uncheck any features the user should not have access to. The following table describes the options.

Option

Allow user to submit listings

Allow user to change fields in bulk

Allow user to send emails

Allow user to edit emails

Allow user to leave feedback

Allow user to delete records

Allow user to edit pictures

When turned off...

the user cannot submit listings. The Submit and Submit

Again functions in all modes will not be available. the user cannot access the

Bulk Change Fields

commands in any mode. the user cannot send emails to buyers. The Email Buyer functions will not be available. the user cannot edit emails. The Options window will not display the email templates. the user cannot leave feedback. The Leave Feedback functions will not be available and the Options window will not display the Positive Feedback Messages. the user cannot delete records in any mode. The Delete function will not be available in the menus. the user cannot edit pictures in the Picture Studio.

Managing the Customizations a User Can Perform

The Administrator can also control what customizations a user can perform.

To manage the customizations a user can perform:

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Select the

Appearance

tab on the User Administration window.

Uncheck any features the user should not have access to. The following table describes the options.

Option

Allow user to create and modify filters

Allow user to create and modify Ad Templates

When turned off...

the user will not have access to the right-click menu that allows modifying, filters, folders and lists. the user cannot modify Ad Templates. The Options window will not show the Ad Templates and the Edit button next to the Ad Template selector will not be available.

Networking

When multiple users want to share data on multiple computers, it is called networking.

Networking involves physically connecting the computers via a Local Area Network

(LAN). Setting up a network is beyond the scope of this document. If you are not familiar with setting up a network, you can reference the Microsoft documentation, search the internet for advice, or visit a local consultant.

Once all of your computers are on the same network, they will be able to share files and your data across the network. Each computer on the LAN can share different files or resources (like printers). Any computer on the network that is sharing a file is referred to as the

Server

of that file. Any computer retrieving a file is referred to as a

Client

. In

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide practice, one computer is usually chosen as the computer that holds all the common data and shares it with the others.

Sharing Data

Sharing eB data is as simple as placing the database file (BTData.mdb) somewhere on the network and allowing all the other computers to have access to it. We recommend you designate one of the computers as the eB Server. The eB Server should be the most powerful computer, with the most RAM memory on your network. Once the data is shared, all the clients can open eB and point to the shared database.

When sharing data, there are two ways you can access it from another computer. One way is by explicitly pointing to the networked computer using the UNC (Universal Naming Convention) path. A UNC would look something like \\OurServer\data\BTData.mdb. The other way is by creating a Mapped

Network Drive to the shared folder. By mapping the K: drive to the

\\OurServer\data folder, you can then access the data using K:\BTData.mdb.

We recommend you use a mapped network drive because you can easily change the location of your data and image files without having to make massive changes to your image paths in the eB database. In addition, Microsoft recommends you use mapped network drives when using Access databases.

To share a database:

Place your data file (BTData.mdb) into a folder on your server. The easiest way to do this is to install eB on the server itself. This allows you to easily update the database when future versions come out. Once installed, the database will be in the C:\Program Files\eBay\Blackthorne\data folder. You can leave it there, or you can move it to another folder on the server. If you move it, you should run eB on the server, and then go to

File/Switch Database

and switch to the database in the new location.

For Windows XP Users:

Share the folder containing the database file by right-clicking the folder and choosing or

Sharing and Security

. The

Folder Properties

window will appear.

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Click on the

Sharing

tab.

Under

Network sharing and security

, check

Share this folder on the network

Provide the

Share name

. This is what other computers will see when they want to view your data.

Check

Allow network users to change my files

. This will allow other computers to make updates to the database.

Click

, and your database will be accessible to other computers on the network.

To access the data from the clients, you will create a mapped network drive to the database location on the server. From each client computer open the

Computer

folder, and select Tools|Map Network Drives... from the menu.

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On the Map Network Drive window, choose an unused

Drive

letter.

10.

Then, select the

Folder

on the server that contains the database you want to share.

You can use the

Browse

button to navigate to it if you don't know the full UNC path.

11.

Make sure

Reconnect at logon

is checked.

12.

Click

Finish

For Windows 2000 Users:

Share the folder containing the database file by right-clicking the folder and choosing or

Sharing

. The

Folder Properties

window will appear.

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Click on the

Sharing

tab.

Select

Share this folder

Provide the

Share name

. This is what other computers will see when they want to view your data.

Click the

Permissions

button. This will open the Permissions window.

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In the top box, choose the group of users you will be granting access to.

In the bottom box, check Allow for all permissions (Full Control, Change, Read).

This will allow other computers to make updates to the database.

Click

, to return to the

Folder Properties

window, then click

again and your database will be accessible to other computers on the network.

10.

To access the data from the clients, you will create a mapped network drive to the database location on the server. From each client computer open the

Computer

folder, and select Tools|Map Network Drives... from the menu.

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11.

On the Map Network Drive window, choose an unused

Drive

letter.

12.

Then, select the

Folder

on the server that contains the database you want to share.

You can use the

Browse

button to navigate to it if you don't know the full UNC path.

13.

Make sure

Reconnect at logon

is checked.

14.

Click

Finish

To open a shared database:

Run eB, and select

File/Switch Database

from the main menu. The

Switch

Database

dialog will appear.

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Navigate to the database on the your mapped drive using the

Browse

button.

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If the database is password protected , uncheck the

Blank Password

box and enter the

Password

Click

, and you will be using the shared database.

Sharing the Servant

The Servant is a process that performs automated tasks in the background. See Keeping

Data Synchronized with eBay - The_Servant for more information. When multiple computers are sharing the same database, each computer will independently run servant functions to keep the database up to date. Some servant functions are always on, and some of the more time consuming functions can be turned on and off.

All computers running eB at any given time will share the load for any servant functions.

If you have 100 listings scheduled to submit one a minute, they will be submitted by the first computer to get to them at any given scheduled time. This helps the performance on all computers.

Some of the more time consuming servant functions can be turned on and off on each computer by unchecking Refresh|Refresh Automatically from the main menu. By controlling which computers have these extra functions on and off, you can also improve your performance. Since all servant functions interact with the database, it makes sense that the server would perform the functions the fastest since it doesn't have to go across the network to access the data. Therefore, the server is a good computer to leave the servant on at all times. Other older computers with slow connections to the network should leave the servant off when someone is using it.

Kyle runs an eBay business with 10 employees. The employees share 6 different computers. The computers range in age from almost new to 4 years old. In addition to the employee computers, he also has a server. The server has the fastest processor and 2 gigs of RAM. eB is installed on the server, but no one uses it on a day to day basis. On the server, the automatic refresh is left on at all times. All other computers leave automatic refresh off while they are in use. When a computer is not being used, or when everyone goes home at night, automatic refreshes are turned back on.

Sharing Pictures

Pictures can also be shared across a network. They can be hosted on the same server as the database, or a different server.

When sharing pictures, there are two ways you can access them from another computer. One way is by explicitly pointing to the networked computer using the UNC (Universal Naming Convention) path. A UNC would look something like \\OurServer\photos\glassware\FentonPitcher\Image001.jpg. The other way is by creating a Mapped Network Drive to the shared folder. By mapping the

K: drive to the \\OurServer folder, you can then access the data using

K:\photos\glassware\FentonPitcher\Image001.jpg.

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We recommend you use a mapped network drive because you can easily change the location of your data and image files without having to make massive changes to your image paths in the eB database. In addition, some users have reported better performance using mapped network drives over

UNC. The tutorials below show how to set up mapped network drives.

When associating pictures with an item on a network, you must point to the UNC or mapped network drive, and not the local path to the images. For example, if you store pictures on your server on the K:\pics folder, and then place K:\pics\mypicture1.jpg in the picture path on the item record, then the server will be able to see the pictures, but none of the clients will. They will be looking for pictures on their K:\pics folder and will not find them. If you create a mapped K: drive on each client and point it to the K: drive on the server then all computers on the network will be able to see the pictures equally.

To create a mapped network drive:

From each client computer open the

My Computer

folder, and select Tools|Map

Network Drives... from the menu.

On the Map Network Drive window, choose the

Drive

letter that the photos are stored on the server.

10.

Then, select the

Folder

on the server that contains the pictures you want to share.

You can use the

Browse

button to navigate to it if you don't know the full UNC path.

11.

Make sure

Reconnect at logon

is checked.

12.

Click

Finish

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When you have the Thumbnails column displayed in a grid, then the images are loaded into the grid just like they are loaded into a browser. The grid data may load first, and the thumbnails will appear as they are retrieved from the server. If your network is slow, or your network traffic is heavy, the thumbnails may take a while to load. Since thumbnails are loaded in a background process and you can still use the program while they are loading, this is not a big deal, but if you find that it is affecting your performance or it is annoying, you can remove the thumbnail column from your column set by right-clicking the Thumbnail column header and selecting

Remove Column

Tammy works for Kyle. Her primary responsibility is to take all the pictures for the listings. Two other employees create the listings and submit them.

Tammy has created a folder structure on the server to host all the pictures. All pictures are in a folder called Pics. The Pics folder has subfolders for each type of item (Glassware, Books, Clothing, etc.). Each subfolder has a folder for each item. The folder is given the same name as the Part Number of the item.

She places anywhere from 3 to 12 pics in each folder for each item. At any time after the pictures have been taken, the 2 listers can look in the Pics folder on the server and find the pictures for the listings they are creating.

Sharing Settings

When running on multiple computers, you will most likely want many of the options on the computers to be the same. There are several files you can copy between computers to make them all behave the same. All of those files are stored in the

data

folder, so they can all be easily copied at once. The files in the data folder are described in the table below.

File(s)

Settings.pvt

Location Purpose

root This file holds all options set on the Options window.

This file can be shared between computers to easily transfer option settings to another computer. See

Private Registry Files for more information.

BTCustomEN.dic root This is the custom spell check dictionary. It contains all the custom words added to your dictionary. It is simply a text file listing all the words that have been added. You can combine dictionaries into one by copying the words from one to the end of another.

BTData.mdb

Reports root

Reports folder

This is the default database that is shipped with eB. If you are using a database on a network, this database will not be used on the clients.

All reports are in this folder. Each report is in a separate file. You can copy reports between computers.

Sounds

Baseline

Sounds folder

All sounds are in this folder. Sounds can be copied between computers.

Baseline This is an empty database exactly as it was shipped

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BTData.mdb folder with eB. It is used to create a new database if you want to run with one or more databases. See Database

Management - Creating_a_New_Database for more information.

Backing Up on a Network

eB provides an automatic daily backup. See Database Management - Backing Up and

Restoring a Database for more information. When running on a network, the it is not necessary that all computers perform the daily backup. The automatic backup should be turned off on all the clients and left on for the server.

As an added precaution, you can have one of the clients make automatic backups as well as the server. This will give you backups on two different computers in case something happens to one.

Upgrading a Network

Frequently, a new upgrade will introduce a new field into the database. When this happens, the upgrade will automatically add the field the first time it is run on a database.

There are some guidelines you should follow when upgrading a network installation to a new version.

To upgrade on a network:

Close eB on all client computers. The server should be the only computer accessing the database during the upgrade.

Install the upgrade on the server by going to Help|Check for Updates and

Messages and following the prompts.

If you were required to exit the program, then run eB again to ensure the updates to the database are applied.

Start eB and perform the upgrades on each of the clients from Help|Check for

Updates and Messages.

Refreshing Data

Each user may be changing data at the same time. Because of the nature of a database, changes to a record are not saved to the database in real time and changes by other users are not retrieved in real time either. This means that you may not have the most up to date data at any given time. The good news is that you will probably never notice this since the updates and retrievals are performed frequently enough.

Any changes you make to the data will be saved to the database when:



 changing records changing filters changing modes

Information is retrieved from the database when:

 changing filters

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

 changing modes every 5 minutes by the servant when using

Refresh|Refresh Database

from the menu. See " Keeping Data

Synchronized with eBay - Manually_Refreshing_and_Updating " for more information.

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Customizing a View

Customizing the View

There are many different ways you view data in the grid pane. You may be looking at a folder, a list, a filter, search results or QuickLink results. For each of these different views, you may want to see data in a different format. The fields that are visible, the order of the fields as well as the sort order are all very dependent upon what data you are viewing. There are many different aspects of a view that you might want to change in different circumstances.

Fortunately, eBay Blackthorne provides you many different ways to modify any view of data. When defining filters, it allows you to customize which rows you are viewing. It also allows you to choose which fields are visible and their order. In addition, you can...



 choose the sort order of a view display a totals row at the top of the view save and load custom column sets that define fields to display and their order allow for quickly changing column sets from a visible dropdown choose whether you will include archived records in your view specify a date range of data to include choose to group rows by a particular field

To customize a view, you simply select the

Customize

link in the grid pane header.

This will open the

Customize View

window.

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If the view you are editing allows you to change the name, then the

Name

field will be enabled. The

Customize View

window has 3 tabs. The

Rows

tab will allow you to specify which records are to be included in your results . The

Columns

tab allows you to choose a saved column set or manually modify which columns are displayed . The

Advanced

tab allows you to add additional information to your view like Totals and specific date ranges.

Let's look at each tab function in more depth.

Selecting the Records to be Included in Your View

When customizing a view, the first thing we will look at is how to customize which records (or rows) are included. By limiting the number of rows you are viewing, you will be able to find the data you are looking for much more quickly. This is performed on the

Rows

tab of the

Customize View

window.

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The task of limiting the rows that you are looking at is called filtering. In fact, when you change the rows that are included in a view, you are really modifying the

Filter

that was used to create the view. You will modify the included rows by adding conditions. A condition is a rule that limits what is shown. It might be something like "Quantity on

Hand < 5" or "Title contains 'Print'". You can add as many conditions as you'd like to a filter.

Since filtering is only allowed on Filters, all other views including Folders and

Lists will not allow you to modify the rows included. In addition, there are pre-defined filters provided with the program that are hard-coded and do not allow you to modify the Rows tab. When either of these cases is true, you will see a message that says "The conditions for this folder/filter/list cannot be modified."

Matching 'All' or 'Any' Conditions

Before adding your conditions, you should specify whether you will "

Show items that match Any/All of the following conditions:

". If you choose

All

from the dropdown, then all of the conditions you specify must be true for a row to be included in the results. If you choose

Any

, then only one of the conditions must be true for a row to be included in the results.

Adding Conditions

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To add a condition, click the

Add Condition

button. A new condition row will appear. In the first dropdown, select the field that you want to compare. This will be one of the fields from the current mode. In the second dropdown, choose a comparison operator.

The comparison operator choices will change depending upon the data type of the field you are comparing. For instance, text fields will have a "contains" comparison operator, and numeric fields will have an "is greater than" operator. Finally, in the last field enter the value that you are comparing to. The type of input box will change based on the type of data you are comparing.

Removing Conditions

To remove a condition, click the

Remove Condition

button. This will remove the last condition entered.

When naming a filter, you should choose a name that will help you easily understand what rows are included in your filter.

Modifying the Column Display in Your View

The next task we will look at when customizing a view is how to customize the field columns that are shown. This is performed on the Columns tab of the

Customize View

window. eBay Blackthorne comes installed with several default column sets for each mode. A column set is a subset of columns from the current grid that have been grouped together for display purposes. The width of the columns and their order are also part of the

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide column set. For example, the "Inventory Management" column set will have columns that you would use when managing inventory like Qty On Hand, Qty Available, etc.

For each view, you can choose the column set that you would like to use from the

Column Set

dropdown. Once chosen, you can then modify the column set if you desire.

Adding or Removing Columns from a Column Set

To add columns, select one or more fields from the

Available Fields

list. You can use

Ctrl-Click to select individual fields or Shift-Click to select a range of fields. Once selected, click the

Add

button. To remove columns, reverse the process by selecting one or more fields in the

Columns

list and clicking the

Remove

button.

When viewing the grid, you can quickly Add or Remove fields by rightclicking a grid column header and selecting

Add Columns

, or

Remove Column

Reordering Columns in a Column Set

To reorder columns, select the columns that you would like to move from the

Columns

list, and click the

Move Up

Move Down

buttons. You can also select a column and drag and drop it within the

Columns

list.

When viewing the grid, you can easily reorder columns by dragging and dropping the column headers on the grid.

Changing the Width of a Column in a Column Set

You cannot change the width of a column from the

Customize View

window. You must change it on the grid itself. When viewing the grid, move your cursor over the line between grid column headers until the resize cursor appears.

Then drag and drop the column edge to change the width. All width changes will be saved with the currently loaded column set.

Sorting Columns in a Column Set

You cannot change the sort order of a column set from the

Customize View

window.

You must change it on the grid itself. When viewing the grid, single click a column header to sort on the column. A small arrow as shown in the Item Status field below will indicate the sort column and the direction of the sort (ascending or descending).

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Click the column again to toggle the sort direction. To sort on more than one field, hold the shift key and click on multiple column headers. The last header clicked will be the primary sort, the previous one clicked will be the secondary sort, etc.

All sort changes will be saved with the currently loaded column set.

Resetting a Column Set

There may come a time when you simply want to start over and reset a column set to its original settings as shipped. To reset a column set, right-click the grid header and select

Reset Column Set

Creating a New Column Set

To create a new column set, choose a column set that you would like to use as a starting point for your new column set from the

Column Set

dropdown. Then click the

Save

Column Set As

button and you will be prompted for a name for your new column set.

Enter a name and click

. Your new column set will be created and available in the column set dropdown list. You can now select it and modify it as you wish.

Advanced Display Options for Your View

The Advanced tab provides several additional customizations you can make to your view.

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Adding a Totals Row to Your View

If you would like to use a view for reporting purposes, you may want to see some of the numeric fields totalled. To display a Totals row on your view, check the

Display Totals

box. This will add an extra row to the top of your view that will contain totals for all relevant numeric fields.

Adding the Column Set Dropdown to Your View

If you would like to easily change the column set on a view, then you can check the

Display Column Sets menu above Grid

box. When checked, the Column Sets menu will be available on the main grid, and you will not have to open the

Customize View

window to change column sets.

Including Archived Items in Your View

By default, your view will not show archived records. If you would like archived records to be displayed in a view, then check the

Include Archived Items/Listings/Sales

box.

Showing archived records in a view will slow down the time it takes to load and display the view. You should only include archived items if you have a good reason.

Specifying a Date Range for Your View

Another useful tool to add reporting capabilities to a view is to add a date range. To add a date range, choose the date that you would like to compare from the

Date Field

dropdown. This dropdown will include all available date fields for the current mode.

You can then choose the period over which to display from the

Date Period

dropdown.

The Date Period dropdown lets you choose pre-defined ranges like the last 24 hours or the past year. If you would like a custom date range, choose

custom

at the bottom of the

Date Period dropdown and then add the starting and ending dates. The starting and ending dates are inclusive.

If the Date Range is set to anything other than "All", then the Date Range selection boxes will appear above the grid whenever the column set is loaded.

When specifying a date range, you are limiting the number of records in a filter, folder or list that you are seeing. The count next to the filter, folder or list on the sidebar will always be the number of records in that folder, filter or list without the date range applied. Therefore, you may see that you have 36 listings in your

Running

filter, but when you view the Running filter with the

Date Range

Date Last Bid

in the last

24 hours

applied, you only see 4 listings. To see all 36, you would have to set the Date Range to

All

Grouping Your View

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If you would like to see your view grouped by a particular field, check the

Group Rows by

box and add the field to group by afterward. This is useful if you want to see a crossreference on any other field. It allows you to see how many items you have in each category or how many are consigned versus unconsigned, etc.

If you would like to be able to change the grouping on the fly for comparison purposes, then you can add it to your view by checking the

Display Group menu above Grid

box.

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Database Management

All of the information stored in your program is in a file called a database. The file is named BTData.mdb and is located in the Blackthorne\data folder. It is a very important file. It contains all of hard work, so you want to ensure its safety. It is common practice to backup important information like a database on a daily basis. This can be done automatically or manually with eB. You may also need to restore a backed up database at some point if your existing data is corrupted.

The database is in Microsoft Access format and is not locked in any way initially. You are free to open it in Access and perform any operations on it that are allowed by Access including writing your own queries, reports, macros and input forms. With the full power of Access, you can import and export to almost any format.

If you manipulate your data directly in Access, then be sure to not change the structure of the data. You can add tables, but do not delete any tables or fields or it may no longer work in eB. Also, you should backup your database before performing any manipulations directly in Access just in case something goes wrong.

The information in your database can be private also, so if you don't want anyone else opening your database, you should password protect it .

Because all of your data is in a single file, it becomes very easy to manage multiple businesses with different databases. You can create a new database for each business and switch between the databases with just a few key clicks.

Businesses with more than one computer can share the database file across a Local Area

Network. See Managing Multiple Users - Networking for more information.

Database Administration

You can manage your database tasks in the Database Administration window.

To open the Database Administration window:

Select Tools|Database Administration from the main menu. The Database

Administration window will appear.

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Backing Up and Restoring a Database

Backing up your data is essential to ensure your businesses safety. By default, eB will make automatic daily backups for you and keep the last 3 days worth of backups. It stores these backups in a folder called "

Blackthorne Backups

" in your "

My Documents

" folder. By storing them in "

My Documents

", it prevents them from accidentally being deleted on an uninstall. If your data becomes corrupt, you can restore one of your existing backups.

You can also force a manual backup from eB at any time, or even backup your data using your own process. If you have an existing tape backup system or automated backup of any sort that backs up your data on a regular basis, all you need to do is add the

BTData.mdb file to your automated process. In fact, you may want to back up the entire

data folder to save your settings, reports and custom dictionary as well.

To set the automatic backup options:

If you would like daily backups made, check

Make Automatic Daily Backups

We HIGHLY recommend you leave this checked on at least one computer that is sharing the database.

Set the

Number of Automatic Backups to keep

. Databases can be large files, so the more backups you keep the more space you will need. They are also very important files, so the more backups you can keep, the better off you will be.

Choose a number that is a balance between the amount of disk space you have available on your computer and the size of the safety net you want.

To manually backup a database:

Click the

Backup Now

button. The

Backup Database

window will appear.

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A unique file path will be generated by default. It will be in the path to your "My

Documents\Blackthorne Backups" folder, and will be given a unique name.

You can leave this name, modify it in the text box, or select a new path with the

Browse

button (...).

Click

and the backup will be saved.

To restore a backup:

Click the

Restore Now

button. The

Restore Database

window will appear.

Use the

Browse

button (...) to locate and select the file you would like to restore, or you can type it directly into the input box.

Click

and your currently loaded database will be replaced with the specified database.

Although, the previously loaded database has been replaced, it is not lost. It has been placed in the My Documents\Blackthorne Backups folder and given a new name. The new name is in the format

OldName_Unrestore_MM_DD_YYYY_HHMMSS. If you did not mean to perform the initial restore you can rename the unrestored database and load it again. Also, if the database is corrupt, support may request you send the unrestore database to them.

Password Protecting a Database

There are two ways an intruder can get to your data. They can open eB and look at it, or they can open your database file in Access and look at it. You can prevent them from looking at your data in eB by implementing user logins. See Managing Multiple Users for information on creating password protected user accounts. When the database is initially shipped, it is not password protected. To prevent someone from opening your database in Access, you must password protect the database.

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If you password protect your database, DO NOT FORGET THE

PASSWORD. If you forget the password, there is nothing we can do to unlock your database. You will have to go to a 3rd party and pay to get your password back. If you have forgotten your password, you may want to do an internet search on "forgot Microsoft Access password" to find a list of companies that provide this service.

To password protect your database:

Select the

Password

tab on the

Database Administration

window.

If you have an existing password, enter it in the

Old Password

field. If the database is not currently password protected, then this field will be disabled.

Enter the

New Password

Enter it again exactly in the

Repeat Password

field.

Click the

Set Password

button. Your database will now be password protected.

The icon in the lower left corner will change from an unlock icon to a locked icon to signify the database is password protected.

To remove password protection on your database:

Select the

Password

tab on the

Database Administration

window.

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Enter the

Old Password

Click the

Remove Protection

button. Your database will no longer be password protected. The icon in the lower left corner will change from a lock icon to an unlocked icon to signify the database is password protected.

To change the database password:

Select the

Password

tab on the

Database Administration

window.

296

Enter the

Old Password

Enter the

New Password

Enter the new password again exactly as before in the

Repeat Password

field.

Click the

Change Password

button. Your database password will be changed.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Repairing a Database

From time to time, data in your database may become corrupt for various reasons.

Therefore, it may become necessary to occasionally repair your database. The database repair can be performed while running eB, or with eB closed. Also, if eB identifies a problem and attempts to close the program, it will prompt you to repair the database in an attempt to solve the problem.

To repair a database while running eB:

From the main menu, go to Help|Support to load the

Support Troubleshooter

In the Support Troubleshooter, select the

3. Fix Database

tab.

Click the "

Repair the Database

" button and follow the prompts.

To repair a database while eB is closed:

From Windows, choose Start|All Programs|eBay|Blackthorne Software|eBay

Blackthorne Database Repair.

Follow the prompts.

Creating a New Database

If you run multiple businesses on eBay, you may want to store each business in a separate database. When installed, eB provides an empty database that can be used to start a new database.

To create a new database:

From

C:\Program Files\eBay\Blackthorne

or the location where you installed the program, open the

data\Baseline

folder. Make a copy of the BTData.mdb file and place it wherever you want your new database to be. To differentiate it from the other databases, you might want to rename it to something meaningful.

You now have an empty database you can start using. Open eB and switch databases as described below.

Switching Databases

If you have multiple databases, you can easily switch between the databases without exiting the program.

To switch databases:

Select

File|Switch Database...

from the main menu. The

Switch Database

window will appear.

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Enter the path to the database you would like to open, or navigate to it using the

Browse

button.

If you have set up

User and Group Permissions

in Access, then enter your

Windows

User ID

. Otherwise leave this field blank.

If you have password protected your database, then uncheck the

Blank Password

box and enter the

Password

Click

to open the database.

Casey works from home for a local antique dealer placing listings on eBay. At night, she also sells her kids old clothing. Casey copied the blank BTData.mdb file and renamed it Caseystuff.mdb. During the day, she switches to her bosses database, and at night she switches to her Caseystuff.mdb database. This helps her keep all of her listings separated and organized.

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Spell Checking

The path to any professional listing or email starts with ensuring that everything is spelled correctly. The text input boxes for entering listing information and emails have real time spell checking built in. This includes the Title, Subtitle, and Description fields in Create Items, and the HTML View tabs in the Description Editor, Email Studio and Ad

Template Studio (the HTML tags will be ignored and not flagged as incorrectly spelled).

All words will be checked against an English dictionary file that is built into the program. When a word is spelled incorrectly, it will immediately be flagged with a wavy red line underneath it. You can correct the word from a list of suggested spellings, add the word to the dictionary or choose to ignore the misspellings . You can also turn off spell checking completely.

Correcting a Misspelled Word

When a word is misspelled, you can correct it from a list of suggested spellings.

To correct a misspelled word:

Right click the misspelled word. A list of suggested spellings will appear.

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Click on the correct spelling from the list. The misspelled word will be replaced with the correct spelling.

Adding to Your Custom Dictionary

If you come across a word that you know is correctly spelled, but is flagged as misspelled, you can add it to your custom dictionary. Once it is added to your custom dictionary, it will be considered a valid word for all future listings.

To add a word to your custom dictionary:

Right click the word you would like to add. A context menu will appear.

Choose

Add

. The red wavy line under your word will disappear.

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The custom dictionary is a readable text file called BTCustomEN.dic. It is stored in your

Blackthorne\data

folder. You can edit this file if you want to add a lot of words from another source (like another users BTCustomEN.dic folder. Just ensure that you place just one word on each line of the file.

Ignoring Words

If you come across a word that you know is incorrectly spelled, but you don't want to add it to your dictionary and you don't want to be bothered with the red wavy lines, you can choose to ignore it. Ignored words will be ignored only for the current text box you are entering data into.

To ignore a word:

Right click the word you would like to ignore. A context menu will appear.

Choose

Ignore All

. The red wavy line under your word will disappear for all occurrences of the word.

Enabling and Disabling Spell Checking

Spell checking can be turned on or off.

To turn off spell checking:

From Tools|Options choose Appearance|Data Entry from the Options tree. The

Data Entry options will appear.

Set the

Enable spell checking

box.

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Add links from Item entry, email studio, ad templ studio.

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Consigning

When a seller sells an item for another person and keeps a portion of the proceeds, this is called a consignment. The Consignor is the person who provides the item and the consignee is the person who sells the item. eBay also refers to Consignees as Trading

Assistants. eB provides some of the fundamental features required to track consignments. With eB, you can create and maintain information on all your consignors . You can also set up multiple consignment plans . A consignment plan is a formula for how you charge your consignors. Each consignor will have a default consignment plan, but you are always free to associate any consignment plan to any items from a consignor.

When you create item records for consigned items, you will simply associate a consignor and a consignment plan to the item . This will allow eB to calculate the fees and consignor payout when the item sells.

Once a consigned item sells, eB will calculate the fees and display them in the consignment equation .

If your item was imported from eBay, then it will not have any consignor information assigned to it. In these cases, you will have to assign the consignor and consignment plan in the sales record, after the sale .

When you are ready to pay a consignor, you can print a Consignor Payout Report . The

Consignor Payout Report will breakdown all the items sold for a consignor since the last time the consignor was paid and tell you how much you owe the consignor.

Entering a Consignor

Consignors are managed from the Consignor tab on the main window.

If you do not see the consignor tab, then there are a few possible reasons. First, you may have specified that you do not track consignors. To turn consignment functions on, go to Tools|Options|Business Setup|Settings and select "

Yes

" to

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Do you consign items?

The other possibility is that your eB User login has not been given permission to view consignors. If this is the case, your eB Administrator must go to

Tools|User Administration and check "

Allow user to edit Consignors

" on the

Data Access

tab for your user settings.

For each unique consignor that you sell for, you will maintain a contact record in the

Consignors mode. This will allow you to easily retrieve contact information for your consignors. In addition, for each consignor you will assign a default consignment plan.

Whenever you create a new item record to sell for this consignor, your default consignment plan will be assigned to the item. You may change it after it is initially assigned if you wish. Please see Adding a Consigned Item below for more information.

To add a new consignor:

From the

Consignors

mode, select Consignors Actions|New Consignor, or click the

New Consignor

button on the Actions toolbar.

If you are viewing the grid only, the new consignor window will appear as shown below. If you are viewing the grid and details area, then the new item will be created and you can enter the details in the Details area. In either case, the entry fields are the same.

304

Enter all available contact information for the consignor, including name, eBay

ID, email address, company information, address and a default consignment plan

(see Creating a Consignment Plan for information on creating consignment plans).

Two custom fields are present that allow you to store any custom information that you would like. For instance, you may want to keep track of which consignors you send holiday cards to. You can do this by entering "yes" or "no" in one of the

Custom Fields.

eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide

Click "

" when you are finished.

Managing Consignment Plans

A consignment plan is a formula for calculating how you charge fees on your consignments. You can have a different plan for each consignor or each type of item you sell, a plan for different values of consigned items, or anything else you can think of.

Once you create and define the consignment plans you can use them whenever you create a new consigned item.

You can create, duplicate, delete, edit and rename consignment plans.

Creating a Consignment Plan

You can create any number of new consignment plans.

To create a consignment plan:

From Tools|Options choose Presets|Consignment Plans.

Click the

New

button. The

New Consignment Plan

window will appear.

Follow the instructions for "

Editing a Consignment Plan

" below.

Duplicating a Consignment Plan

You can create a consignment plan using an existing consignment plan as a baseline also.

To duplicate a consignment plan:

From Tools|Options choose Presets|Consignment Plans.

Select the consignment plan you would like to duplicate from the list and click the

Duplicate

button.

An input form will open asking you for a name. Provide a short, detailed name for your consignment plan and click

The new consignment plan will now be in your Consignment Plans list. Click on the consignment plan and click the

Edit

button to edit the new plan.

Modify the plan accordingly.

Deleting a Consignment Plan

When you no longer need a consignment plan, you can delete it. Deleting a consignment plan will revert the associated consignment plan for existing items using that plan to "Not

Specified". You will need to assign a new plan to each of those items.

To delete a consignment plan:

From Tools|Options choose Presets|Consignment Plans.

Select the consignment plan you would like to delete from the list and click the

Delete

button.

Renaming a Consignment Plan

You can also rename a consignment plan at any time.

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To rename a consignment plan:

From Tools|Options choose Presets|Consignment Plans.

Select the consignment plan you would like to rename from the list and click the

Rename

button.

An input form will open asking you for the new name. Provide a short, detailed name for your plan and click

Editing a Consignment Plan

To edit a consignment plan:

From Tools|Options choose Presets|Consignment Plans.

Select the consignment plan you would like to edit from the list and click the

Edit

button. The Edit Consignment Plan window will appear.

The fees you collect are broken down into 2 types. Base fees are what you collect to cover costs of your operation, and the commission is what you collect as a reward/payment when the item sells. Enter the values as described below.

Base Fees

Consignor Reimburses

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Check all fees that the consignor should reimburse you for. If you pass on all eBay fees, then select the "

All

" checkbox.

Consignor Pays

Base Fee: - Enter the base fee that the consignor will pay. This is usually the minimum fee that you collect for attempting to sell an item.

Charged

If you charge the Base Fee in addition to any commissions you collect, then select

"Base fee charged in addition to Commission". If you do not charge the base fee if the item doesn't sell, then select "Base Fee only charged if item doesn't sell". This allows you to treat the Base Fee as a minimum fee that you will collect if the item doesn't sell, or as a fee that always gets tacked on to any commission on items that do sell.

Collected

Specify when you collect the Base Fee. If you collect when the item is dropped off, then the consignment calculations will assume you already have the Base Fee and will not add it into the amount due from consignor. If you do not collect it before the sale, then it will add it in as an amount due.

Joanne likes to reduce confusion, so she includes all eBay fees in her "Gold

Plan" and charges a Base Fee of $20. She just wants to make sure she gets some payment if the item doesn't sell. If the item does sell, she simply collects the commission, so she sets

Base Fee charged only if item sells

She collects the $20 as a deposit so she sets

Base Fee collected when item is dropped off

When a piece of art sells using her Gold Plan, she collects only the commission minus the $20 deposit that she already has collected. If the piece of art does not sell, she keeps the $20.

Sonia wants to keep very close track of her expenses and profit. In her

"Standard Plan", she passes on all of the eBay fees to the consignor. She pays her daughter $10 to place a listing. She wants to make sure she covers that cost and an additional $5 for her trouble, regardless of whether or not the item sells, so she has a Base Fee of $15, and she sets

Base Fee charged in addition to Commission

. She wants to handle money all at once, so she specifies that the

Base Fee is collected after the sale

She sells a set of dinnerware using her Standard Plan, and collects the $15

Base Fee plus $3.50 in eBay fees plus the commission after the items sells.

If it did not sell, she would have collected the $15 Base Fee plus the $3.50 in eBay fees.

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Commission

Consignor Pays

Specify the commision you collect when an item sells. This can be a flat amount or a percentage of the sale price. If it is a percentage of the sale price, then enter your sliding scale in the table. The scale table allows you to charge a higher percentage on the initial amount and a lower percentage as the price increases. In the example above, the commission would be %25 of the first $99.99, PLUS %20 of the amount between $100.00 and $499.99, PLUS %15 of the amount above $500.00.

Minimum Commission

To ensure that your commission is at least a certain amount specify it in this field.

This is useful if there is a chance your item only sells for a few dollars. It ensures that you make more than just a few cents for the trouble of listing the item.

Maximum Commission

To ensure that your commission is at least a certain amount specify it in this field.

This is useful if you are selling a high ticket item for someone. For instance, you may collect up to $500 for selling a car instead of the $1200 that would be collected if you collect a percentage.

Consignor Reimburses

If your item sells, there are additional fees that you may want to pass on to the consignor. Check

The eBay Final Value Fees

PayPal fees

to pass along these fees to the consignor. If you have other fees such as costs for cleaning or fixing an item before it is listed, you can pass that along in the

Other

field.

Ajay sells extra stock of the older iPod Minis (now replaced by iPod

Nanos) for a local electronics store. He worked out a deal with the store to collect $20 for each iPod sold, and all eBay fees for any listings sold or unsold. He created a consignment plan called "iPods". This consignment plan charges no Base Fee, but does pass on

All

eBay Fees to the consignor.

If also charges a Flat Commission of $20 that gets charged when an iPod sells.

For all iPods that sell, he gets $20, plus the eBay fees. For any iPod that doesn't sell, he just gets reimbursed for the listing fees.

Adding a Consigned Item

Adding a consigned item is very much like adding any other item. You create a new item record, enter all the listing parameters and in addition must specify the consignment information on the item.

To specify consignment information on an item:

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From the

Create Items Detail

area or the

New Item

window, click on the

Inventory

tab.

In the

Source

group, check the

Consigned

box.

Select an available

Consignor

, or click the

Edit

button to create a new consignor.

Select a

Consignment Plan

, or click the

Edit

button to create a new consignment plan.

Viewing the Consignment Equation on a Completed Sale

Once a sale is completed, the amount

Due Consigno

r will appear in the Sales record

Activity Area.

To view the Consignment Equation:

Click on the underscored amount due to the consignor. The Consignment

Equation window will appear.

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It shows a breakdown of fees for the

Consignment Plan

selected. You can change the consignment plan for this sale by selecting another

Consignment Plan,

or you can modify the existing plan by clicking the

Edit

button.

Click

Done

when you have finished reviewing the plan.

Assigning a Consignor After the Sale

Occasionally it may be necessary to modify the consignor or consignment plan on a sale after the sale has been made. For instance, if you imported a sold item from eBay, it would never have had a consignor and you will need to add the consignor to the sale record.

To assign a consignor after the sale:

From the

Finalize Sales

window, select the sale record and click on the

Consigned

checkbox to identify the sale as a consigned sale. The

Consignor

dropdown will appear.

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Enter the

Consignor

or select

New Consignor...

from the dropdown to create a new consignor. You can also

Edit

the existing consignor info if necessary. The default consignment plan for the consignor will be used for the sale. To change it, see the instructions immediately following.

To assign a consignment plan after the sale:

From the

Finalize Sales

window, select the sale record and click on the underscored Due Consignor amount. The

Consignment Equation

window will appear.

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Select the

Consignment Plan

from the dropdown. You can use a custom plan by selecting

<Custom>

from the dropdown, or you can

Edit

an existing one.

Click

Done

when finished and the new consignment plan will be applied to the sale.

Paying Consignors with the Consignor Payout Report

After selling items for a consignor and receiving payment, you will need to pay the consignor the sale price minus your commission and fees. The Consignor Payout Report is designed to compile all the sales for a particular consignor that have not yet been paid and provide you with a total to pay the consignor.

To print a Consignor Payout Report:

From the

Finalize Sales

mode, select Sales Actions|Print|Consignor Payout

Report... or use the

Print

button on the Actions toolbar and select

Consignor

Payout Report...

. The

Print Consignor Payout Report

window will appear.

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Choose whether you want to include just the sales that you have selected in the sales grid, all the sales in the sales grid, or all sales in your database. This allows you to choose the scope of the sales included in your report.

Check the box if you would like to

Preview before printing

. This will allow you to view the report before it is sent to the printer.

Click

to print. If the

Preview before printing

box was checked, the

Print

Studio

will appear with the Consignor Payout Report loaded.

Use the arrow keys at the top to view each page, and click the

Print

button when you are ready to send it to the printer.

Select a printer and settings on the

Print Dialog

page that appears and click

The Consignor Payout validation form will appear.

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Once you print out a Consignor Payout Report to give to your consignor with payment, you do not want the same items included on any future reports, so eB will check the

Consignor Paid

box on the sale record when you select

Yes

. If you are only printing the report for your own uses, or if the report did not print correctly and you do not want the sales flagged as having been paid, then select

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Synchronizing Data with eBay

eBay Blackthorne is different than most auction management solutions since it runs on your local computer, and not on the internet. Because it interacts with eBay which is an internet application, there must be a lot of communication between the two applications.

The most obvious interaction is when you click the

Submit

button to send listings to eBay, but there are many more times when the two programs must talk. eBay

Blackthorne needs to get bidding info, lists of categories, buyer message info, and much more from eBay. There are also several housecleaning functions that must occur like making automated backups, and getting shipping information from 3rd party shipping programs. It would be very annoying if these tasks were manual and required user intervention so we created the

Servant

to perform these tasks for you.

Automatic Synchronization Using the Servant

The Servant performs all the tasks necessary to keep your data in synch with eBay and other housekeeping tasks so you don't have to. The functions performed by the Servant include:



 performing automatic backups refreshing your listings, sales, buyers, feedback, fees and dispute info incrementally



 submitting scheduled listings checking for new updates and messages to eB getting your buyer messages from eBay making sure your list of store categories is in synch with eBay saving your work to the master database auto retrieving shipping info from Endicia after sending Endicia mail making sure you have the latest categories and item specifics making sure the list of finance offers is current

The Servant is always running. If you are not connected to the internet, then it simply doesn't perform any internet actions, but it will continue to run until you are connected.

The Servant is a pretty intelligent tool. It will perform each task at different intervals so you only update data as needed. For instance, it checks to list scheduled items every minute, and checks for new versions of the program only every 4 hours. It also prioritizes its tasks. Scheduled listings will always override any other tasks, and tasks like refreshing the finance offers are very low and only occur if nothing else is pending.

The Servant can also wait until your computer is idle for a period of time before performing some tasks. Since downloading categories can take several minutes, the

Servant waits until your program has been idle for 10 minutes, and then it assumes you

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Most of these functions are very quick, and are hardly noticeable in the interface. Some of those that take longer, like getting categories are scheduled for times when your computer is not in use. There are a few important tasks that can be time consuming and reduce your performance while they are occurring. Refreshing listings, sales, buyers, feedback and disputes are all very important tasks, yet can slow your computer down while they are working. To improve performance of users with very large databases, we have added the option to turn off these automatic tasks. To turn off the processor intensive tasks, toggle

Refresh|Automatically Refresh

from the main menu. When these tasks are turned off, it is up to the user to perform them manually from the

Refresh

Activity

window .

Manually Refreshing and Updating

Although the Servant is keeping your data relatively up to date, it may not have performed some tasks for several hours. The

Refresh Activity

window allows you to force immediate updates to some of the data normally maintained by the Servant. In addition, there are some Servant tasks that can be turned off and will need to be refreshed manually. The Refresh Activity window also allows you to perform those manual refreshes. eBay Blackthorne is designed to take care of all these tasks for you. Ideally, you should simply leave all functions of the Servant on, and only perform a particular refresh when there is a valid reason.

To refresh activity manually:

From the main menu, select

Refresh|Refresh Activity...

or click

. The Refresh

Activity window will appear.

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Select the type of information that you would like refreshed in the

Data to

Refresh

group.

The following table describes what each refresh option will do.

Refresh Menu

Item

All

Listings

Action performed

Sales

Checks all types of refreshes to be performed all at once.

Performs a refresh of your listing data. Any new bidder information as well as any changes you make to your listing on eBay will be updated and saved in your listing record. If a listing ends, then a sale record will be created for the listing. If the listing was successful, a buyer record will be created also. When retrieving information for the new sale record, all activity for other running sales will be retrieved and stored at the same time. You can choose to update all

Running and Completed listings or just the Completed listings. If you run many listings, and you do not care to see bids as they change, you should choose to only update

Completed listings. This will make the refresh faster.

Performs a refresh of the sales data. All new activity on

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Listing Fees

Feedback

Combined Sales

Disputes sales will be retrieved and saved in your sales records.

Performs a refresh to update listing fees for listings. Listing fees will automatically be retrieved when the listing is over and a sale record is created. If you would like to have them updated before then, use this refresh.

Performs a refresh of any feedbacks you have received.

Performs a refresh of combined sale information. Any sales combined on eBay will be downloaded and recorded as combined orders in eB.

Performs a refresh of dispute information. Any activity that has taken place on eBay regarding disputes will be downloaded and updated in your database.

Select the

Period

to be refreshed. By default, you should always refresh

Since last refresh

. This will get you all the data since the last time you refreshed. If however, you are missing some data, you may want to force the refresh between certain dates using the

From/To

option and selecting a past date range.

Click

Start

to begin the refresh.

Steve has a very large database and a slow computer and internet connection.

When "

Automatically Refresh

" is turned on, his computers performance gets much slower. Since Steve only needs a refresh of his data in the morning, he sets "

Automatically Refresh

" off. Each morning, he selects Refresh|Refresh

Activity. He chooses to refresh only his completed listings, sales, and combined sale information since this is all he needs to perform his shipping tasks. He does this while he goes for his morning coffee. When he returns, his listings, sales, buyers, and orders are updated.

You can also perform a refresh on selected listings or sales as well as refreshing category and other types of information.

To refresh other information:

From the

Refresh

menu, choose the type of refresh to perform.

The following table describes what each refresh option will do.

Refresh Menu

Item

Refresh Selected

Listings

Action performed

Refreshes all listings that are selected in the Listings grid. It will perform a separate call to eBay for each selected listing.

If refreshing a large number of listings, it will be faster to

Refresh All Listings. The break even point will depend upon your connection and computer speed. Any changes to the listing performed manually on eBay will be recorded in eB.

Refresh Selected Refreshes all sales that are selected in the Sales grid. It will

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Sales

Refresh Endicia perform a separate call to eBay for each selected sale. If refreshing a large number of sales, it will be faster to Refresh

All Sales. The break even point will depend upon your connection and computer speed.

This menu item will only be available if you are running

Endicia Dazzle on your computer. eB will retrieve tracking and shipping cost info from Endicia every 5 minutes. If you need it more frequently, you can force a refresh with this menu option.

Update eBay

Troubleshooting

When you experience problems or have questions, it is important that you get the help you need as quickly as possible. The Support Troubleshooter is provided to help solve your problem as soon as possible. In addition, many of the functions performed by eB are recorded in the Activity Log . By viewing the Activity Log, you may be able to identify any problem you might be having.

The Support Troubleshooter

When you experience problems or have questions, it is important that you get the help you need as quickly as possible. The Support Troubleshooter is designed to do just that.

Ideally, the Support Troubleshooter will be able to solve your problem before you ever have to contact email support. If it can't, then by performing all the steps in the troubleshooter before contacting support, you can reduce the time it takes to solve your problem. Traditionally, a user will contact support with a problem and support will respond with several suggestions or questions to narrow down the problem. The Support

Troubleshooter replaces these initial emails by helping you run through the suggestions before sending a support email.

The Support Troubleshooter performs the following tasks:

 verifies your computer hardware to make sure you have enough resources to run eB.

 helps you download the latest operating system updates to ensure you have the necessary software pre-requisites.

 checks to see if you are running the latest version of eB and helps you download the new version if not.



 checks your eB subscription and connection to eBay. repairs your database helps you search the documentation and discussion boards for an existing answer to your question.



 gives you the option of trying the latest beta to see if it solves your problem. if all else fails, it collects the necessary information about your problem and sends it to customer support.

To run the Support Troubleshooter:

From the main menu, select Help|Support. The Support Troubleshooter will appear.

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Starting with the first tab, you will check your

Prerequisites

. This is to verify that you have the proper hardware and software for running eB. The Hardware group will check to see if you have a fast enough processor and enough memory to run eB. Ideally, you should have at least a 1.5GHz processor and 512 MB of

RAM. If you do not, then you may experience slow response times. Upgrading to more RAM will help reduce this if the performance is unacceptable.

Many problems can occur if you are not running the latest Windows updates. These problems include failing to start, slow responses, and program crashing. Clicking the

Run Windows Update

button in the

Operating System

group will take you to

Windows Update. You should regularly verify that you are running the latest updates available. We recommend you check the "

Turn on Automatic Windows Updates

" box. When checked, your copy of Windows will automatically download the latest updates when you aren't using your computer.

If you are not running the latest version of eB, then your problem may already be fixed. The

Latest Version

group will check to see if you are running the latest version of eB. If not, click the

Download Update

button.

You should always verify you are running the latest Windows updates and the latest version of eB before contacting support. If you are not, then the first thing

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide support will recommend is to perform these updates.

To use eB, you must have a valid subscription, and eB must be able to communicate with eBay over your internet connection. Click on the

Connection

tab to validate your subscription and connection.

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Simply click the

Repair the Database

button to repair the database. A message will appear when it is complete. Repairing your database performs the following operations:



 performs a compaction and a Microsoft Access database repair fixes any missing indexes, primary keys or errors in the table structure validates data relationships and removes dead links fixes any missing default field values rebuilds the sidebar tree views for all the modes, removing any incorrect nodes

Most common errors and questions will already have an answer in the documentation or on the Discussion Board. You can check for an answer to your problem on the

Get a Quick Answer

tab.

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We are constantly adding more information to the documentation as we identify trouble spots to users. Click the

Search the Documentation

button to load the documentation. You can enter keywords or a question into the documentation search and it will provide you a list of related topics.

The most knowledgeable eB users hang out at the eB Discussion Boards. The

Discussion Boards can be a great place to get a quick answer. Click the

Go to the

Discussion Board

button to view the boards.

In addition to the released version that is available, most of the time, the next version is available in Beta test. The latest beta can be downloaded from the

Try the Latest Beta

tab.

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A Beta test version of the software is a version that has not been fully tested, but may contain a solution to your problem. When downloading a beta version, you should be aware of the possibility that it may contain bugs and you may need to revert to a previous version if you have problems. You should also always backup your data before loading a beta version.

The Try the Latest Beta tab displays the latest release notes for eB. If you see the word "Beta" next to the Version as in the above example, then it means a beta version of the product is available. The bullets below indicate fixes made in that version. You may be able to determine if your problem is already fixed. If so, use the

Install the Latest Beta

button to upgrade to the beta version.

If none of the previous actions fixed your problem, then you should send an email to support. Please make sure you have checked everything on tabs 1-5 before emailing support since that is the first thing they will recommend if you haven't performed the checks. You can email support from the

Contact Support

tab.

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Enter one of your existing email accounts in the

From

dropdown. This email account must be correctly setup and able to send emails.

Select an appropriate message

Subject

or enter your own.

Enter a

Detailed description of question or problem

. The more accurate anc complete the information, the better we'll be able to help you.

Enter your

Firewall software

Internet Connection

type, and

Network

Environment

If you check

Include saved settings and logged information in email

, then your settings files and activity log will be sent with the email. This can be very valuable to us in helping identify your problem.

Click the

Send

button when the form is complete.

If your email account is not properly set up, then you will not be able to send a request this way. Instead, you should use the "

submit a support request from eBay

Help

" link to submit your request directly through eBay.

The Activity Log

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Appendices

Getting Mail Settings From Outlook

1) On the top-level menu, select Tools | E-Mail Accounts.

2) On the E-Mail Accounts form that comes up, select "View or change existing e-mail accounts" and click "Next."

3) Select the relevant E-mail account by clicking on it, then click "Change...

4) The outgoing

SMTP

(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) mail server is listed

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Supercharging the Listing Process - An Extended Example

(Scenario: Robert Northrop, proprietor of Endless Mountain Enterprises, acquired a large collection of rubber stamps, which he knew nothing about. This example takes you through the whole process of how he learned about them, then listed them en masse. The example shows how various advanced eBay Blackthorne features can greatly speed up the process.)



Step 1: Research

Step 2: Plan of Attack.

Step 3: Setting up Templates/Presets.

Step 1: Research

To gain some familiarity with rubber stamps, Robert logged on to eBay, clicked on

"Advanced Search" and searched for closed auctions of the same items he had received.

This quickly gave him an idea of what these items are currently fetching (as opposed to what some sellers fancifully believe they might fetch), so that he could price his accordingly. He read the descriptions to find out what people consider important about this type of item. In the case of rubber stamps, it seems that some of the important things are:



Brand name - there is one enormous manufacturer (Stampin' Up!), a few major manufacturers, and hundreds of one-person boutiques.



Is it a set, or just an individual stamp?

How many stamps are in the set, and is it a complete set?

Is the set/stamp still available new, or is it retired?

What is its overall condition?

Step 2: Plan of Attack

Robert's goal was to enter these items into his database, spending as little time as possible in the process, then place all of them up for auction without investing any more time at all. He wanted each ad to explain all the unique characteristics of each item, but he wanted it done completely automatically.

To do this, he wanted to use several Item Fields to store extra, unique information about each item. He knew that he could use Custom Field 1 and Custom Field 2, but if he was going to totally automate the listing process, he would need more.

So he "borrowed" some fields that he didn't normally use. When creating each listing, he planned to store the following into these fields (all of which accept text input):

Item Field Contents

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Description

Custom Field 1

Custom Field 2

Part Number

Storage Location

Lot Size

Condition of item

"set of stamps"/"stamp"

Brand Name

Name of item or set

Retired/Still available

Count of items in set

In the next release of eBay Blackthorne, users will have the ability to create and name their own

custom fields

. This will obviously streamline the process described here.

He checked to see if eBay could supply

Item Specifics

for rubber stamps, but they weren't available. Robert experimented with photographing the stamps, but then settled on simply scanning in the "business end" of each one.

Step 3: Setting up Templates/Presets

With the plan of attack in place, Robert started by creating a new

template

. Templates are listed by whatever is in the Title field, so Robert typed in "Rubber Stamp." He wants the actual item titles to describe the unique characteristics of each stamp, but he also wants to enter each piece of information exactly once.

When he got to the "Seller" field, Robert further refined his plan. His research had shown him that rubber stamps are quite a hot ticket, so he was seriously thinking of adding them to his regular inventory. He went to eBay and registered "StampTillUCramp" as a new

Seller Account. He likes to keep the different sections of his business distinct, and using different eBay account names is a handy way to accomplish that without any added overhead. He added "StampTillUCramp" as a new seller account in Blackthorne, giving his normal eBay account as the "Subscribed UserID."

In the

Part Number

field, he typed: "Enter Item Name" as a placeholder to remind himself that this field was going to be holding the item name.

For category, Robert brought up the Category Selector, and searched for "Stamp":

In the search results, he double-clicked on Crafts > Stamping > Stamps >

This automatically switches the display to the Browse tab, and fills in the category tree:

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Crafts > Stamping > Stamps > is not a

fully-resolved category

, so Robert clicked on

Mounted> in the next column, and then Other Themes.

His intention here was to pre-select a general stamp category for the

template

, so that when he was entering actual items, selection of the specific category for that item would be very quick. in the "Description" field, he entered "CONDITION OF ITEM" to remind himself what was going to be stored there.

Q: "But doesn't the "Description" field need to contain the full description of the item?"

A: "Not at all, little grasshopper - watch and learn."

Even though he planned to use a theme, he skipped the "Theme" selector, knowing that there's a better way to select a theme. He moved on to the "Ad

Template

" field, and

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eBay Blackthorne - The Official Guide selected "Manage Ad Templates..." He highlighted "Enhanced," clicked "Duplicate," named the duplicate

template

"Rubber Stamps," then clicked "OK" followed by "Done."

Preparing for Photos

Using Windows Explorer, Robert created a new folder for rubber stamps, then a subfolder for images. Using an image-editing program, he created a sample rubber stamp image, and inserted it into the

template

. Later, when entering individual stamps, he'd be able to quickly find their images because the image finder would automatically start in that folder.

Format and Pricing

His research having told him that rubber stamps are very popular, he set the

template

up as a 3-day auction, with a $0.99 starting price and no reserve. He thought it best to risk occasionally having to "give one away" in return for the added interest that people bring to auctions with low opening bids and no reserve.

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Custom Fields

He chose "Gallery Only" as the default listing upgrade, and entered "SET/SINGLE" and

"BRAND NAME" in the two custom fields to remind himself what he planned to store in them.

(Later, when he realized that 90% of the stamps in circulation come from the company

Stampin' Up, Robert went back to the

template

and replaced "BRAND NAME" with

"Stampin' Up!" - thus even further reducing the amount of typing he needed to do.)

He likewise entered "RETIRED/STILL AVAILABLE" in the Storage Location field.

He set up shipping and payment to match his normal business practices. That takes care of the last of the dull details. Now we get to the fun part.

The Fun Part

On the Ad

Template

menu, he selected "Rubber Stamps" and clicked "Edit."

First thing he wanted to do was set up the item title exactly the way he wanted it, without needing to write in the details of each item himself. He clicked on "Edit AutoText..." followed by "New..." He named the new AutoText "TitleText":

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For the actual title text, he entered: [[Custom2]] "[[PartNum]]": [[StorageLocation]]

[[Custom1]]

Next, at the top of the

template

body, he inserted [[TitleText]] on a line by itself, then clicked "Preview." The actual text that appeared was: "BRAND NAME "ENTER ITEM

NAME": RETIRED/STILL AVAILABLE STAMP/SET OF STAMPS," which was exactly what he wanted.

While he had the preview window open, he used the on-the-fly theme picker at the top of the window to select a theme. This is a convenient way to select a theme because the actual themes immediately display in the preview window.

He quickly set up the

template

body by inserting mostly item fields and AutoText:

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Then checked his work by clicking the Preview tab once more:

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With the

template

in place, Robert settled down to a short day of data entry, made significantly more efficient by his preparatory work. When he got into his stride, he found that he could enter all the information about an item in about one minute.

To generate the title for the ad, he clicked "Preview." What came up typically looked like:

Before closing the preview, he copied the title, then pasted it directly into the Title field, checking carefully that it didn't get truncated in the process (the Title field only accepts the first 55 characters, then ignores the rest - this is because eBay only allows 55character titles).

In a little over an hour, Robert submitted 100 sets of rubber stamps to eBay, using the

Blackthorne scheduling feature to start a new auction every five minutes.

The advertising copy here is not Shakespearean (it's difficult to come up with consistently correct syntax when some items might be singular and others plural), but it gets all the relevant information across efficiently.

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Private Registry Files

eB stores a lot of information related to how you use the program. It keeps track of your option settings, preferred window sizes, default options, database paths, and internet paths to different functions. Some programs (like our predecessor Seller's Assistant) store this information in the Windows registry. We have chosen to store them in our own private registry files. This makes it easier for users to interchange settings between computers and it also helps with program support. Private registry files have an extension of .pvt. They are text files and are readable in a text editor. We do not recommend you modify them in any way.

The following table describes the private registry files created by eB.

Name Location Purpose

Settings.pvt

data

folder

Holds all options set on the Options window. This file can be shared between computers to easily transfer option settings to another computer.

System.pvt

bin

folder

Holds all state information related to the local computer. This includes information on window sizes and locations, default directories, and operational settings (like "Don't show this window again"). This file should not be shared with another computer. bt.pvt

bin

folder daily.pvt

bin

folder

Holds encoded information about the database currently loaded. This file should not be shared with another computer.

Deleting this file will reset eB to using the BTData.mdb database in the

data

folder.

Holds paths to internet web sites. Each day it is rebuilt by the servant with the latest internet paths.

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Adding Pictures to Print Templates

By default, the Packing List contains a picture of each item included in the list. If you have chosen to remove this, or you are running with an older packing list and now want to include it, you can follow the steps below.

There are four components necessary to get pictures to show up in your print template.

Pic1Loc Field

First, the list of available fields must include the Pic1Loc field. This is not customizable by the user. The print template will either include this field or it will not. Any print template that includes this field can have a picture displayed.

ItemPicture Control

A picture box control must be placed on the form where you would like the picture to appear. You can place it anywhere in the

Details

group, and size it to your liking. The example below is taken from the Packing List.

The

(Name)

must be set to

ItemPicture

, and the

SizeMode

should be set to

Zoom

to get the largest available image without losing the aspect ratio. You can set these properties by selecting the

ItemPicture

and filling in the properties in the lower right hand corner of the Print Studio. An example is shown below.

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In addition, you can also choose a

LineColor

LineStyle

and

LineWeight

to get a box around your image. You should not need to change any of the other properties.

txtPic1Loc Field

You must also place an invisible text box called

txtPic1Loc

in the

Details

group. The

txtPic1Loc

text box will contain the path to the picture and is used by the Script to fill in the

ItemPicture

control. The control does not have to be visible since it is only used by the script. It can also be any size, but its best to make it small so it doesn't get in the way.

You must also set several of the txtPic1Loc properties in the lower left. To set the properties, select the txtPic1Loc text box and set the

(Name)

property to

txtPic1Loc

, the

Visible

property to

False

, and the

DataField

property to

Pic1Loc

. You should not need to change any of the other properties.

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Print Template Script

To make this all work together, the Print Template must contain some internal script coding. All current versions of the print templates that support pictures contain this script already. If you happen to have an older print template and want to add the scripting, you can open the rpx file and include the following code.

<Script><![CDATA[public void Detail_BeforePrint()

{ try { string u = @" " +

((TextBox)rpt.Sections["Detail"].Controls["txtPic1Loc"]).Text.ToString();

System.Net.WebClient clientAHB = new System.Net.WebClient();

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System.IO.Stream dataAHB = clientAHB.OpenRead(u);

System.IO.StreamReader readerAHB = new System.IO.StreamReader(dataAHB);

((DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Picture)rpt.Sections["Detail"].Controls["ItemPicture"]).I

mage = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(readerAHB.BaseStream);

} catch {}

}

]]></Script>

As shown in this example:

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Glossary

<Blank Item>: The special item template that ships with this program. It contains no information, just blank fields.

Activity Log: A text log that Blackthorne keeps, showing all program activity, including communication with eBay and any picture hosting sites.

Ad Template: A pre-formatted ad description that can be reused.

Automation: a Blackthorne utility that schedules and executes tasks automatically.

Back Button: A button at the top left of the Blackthorne application window. The back button "remembers" the most recent views and can instantly return the user to any of them.

BCC: Blind-Carbon-Copy: An e-mail address (other than the main addressee) that is sent a copy of outgoing mail. The BCC address is INVISIBLE to all other recipients of the message.

Bid History: A record of all bids made in an auction, showing who made the bids, how much they were for, and exactly when they were placed.

Browse Buttons: Small buttons on the Help window that allow the user to browse back and forward between related help topics.

Bulk Editing: The ability to make the same changes in multiple auction items simultaneously.

Categories: Everything on eBay is assigned to one or two categories - descriptors that start with the most general term and become increasingly more specific. Example:

Antiques > Asian Antiques > Chinese > Statues > Buddha.

CC: Carbon-Copy: An e-mail address (other than the main addressee) that is sent a copy of outgoing mail. The CC address is visible to all recipients of the message.

Combining Sales: Combining shipping expenses for a buyer who bid on (and won) multiple auctions.

Consignment: A quantity of items belonging to a third party, given to you for auction under the terms of a Consignment Plan.

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Consignment Plan: A specific agreement between an auctioner and a consignor, spelling out the financial and other terms between the two parties.

Consignor: A person who gives you items to sell at auction for him.

Counters: a Javascript applet that shows how many page views have been requested

CSV: Comma-Separated Values: A popular way for unrelated programs to exchange data with each other - each piece of exported data is separated by a comma. Each row and column is labelled so the importing program (usually, not always!) knows how to interpret the data.

Custom Fields: Each item has two custom fields that you can use to store arbitrary information about that kind of item: shoe size; country of origin; year of manufacture...

Description Editor: A "pseudo-WSYIWIG" editor for ad descriptions that includes a

Preview feature.

Directory: Another name for a folder or sub-folder, either on your hard drive on on your

FTP server. The terms "folder," "directory," "sub-folder," and "sub-directory" are used interchangably.

DPI: Dots Per Inch: A measure of the fineness of output of a printer or computer monitor. Sometimes used to describe the amount of detail in an image.

Dutch Auction: A special type of auction where identical items are offered to separate bidders.

eB: eBay Blackthorne

eBay Time: eBay Time is the same as Pacific Zone time (the time of day at eBay headquarters in San Jose, California in the United States). Starting and ending times for all auctions are listed in eBay time.

ePS: eBay Picture Services

Field Presets: Pre-filled out information, ready to be inserted in some of the fields of a form.

Filters: Pre-defined or customized views that display only items that match a set of criteria. Filters automatically update their display when any changes are made to the database.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol: Another Internet protocol similar to TCP/IP, but specially suited to large file transfer. Blackthorne uses FTP to upload photographs to servers.

346

Glossary

fully-resolved category: eBay categories are of the form "Antiques > Furniture > Desks

> Post 1900" Starting with a very general category, it gets more and more specific, ending with the most precise sub-category available. Any category that ends with ">" is not fully resolved.

FVF: Final Value Fee: an eBay fee that is a percentage of the selling price.

Grid: The grid pane shows information about auction items in a compact, tabular format.

Click on any item in the grid to get an expanded listing of that item in the Details pane.

Hiding Fields: Fields that you don't use can be removed from the display area, reducing the amount of clutter onscreen.

Hosting Pictures: See Picture Hosts

HTTP: Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol: the file-transfer protocol that allows the World

Wide Web to exist. Invented in its entirety by a character named Al Gore (played by Tim Berners-Lee).

Image Well: An input box (titled: "Click to Insert Picture") that also allows for insertion of an image by dragging and dropping it onto the well. Once dropped, the image appears in the well.

ISP: Internet Service Provider - a company that provides internet access and space on their web server to upload pictures, etc.

Item Record: All of the information about a particular auction item.

Item Specifics: An eBay service that automatically supplies most of the information about common items like DVDs

Lot Size: The number of items being sold to a single bidder, in a single auction. See also

"Dutch Auction."

Low Inventory Level: A number you can set for each inventory item. The item will appear in the Low Inventory Filter when the quantity on hand drops below this amount.

Multiview: See Grid

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NPBA: Non-Paying Bidder Alert

NYI: Not Implemented Yet: A program feature that is intended for a future release.

Part Number: A field provided for part numbers you many use in your business to track inventory.

PCMCIA: An industry-standard peripheral hardware interface for laptop computers.

Also the Founding Father of the too-cute acronym Movement: People Can't

Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms. (Almost lost in the mists of time is the original derivation: Personal Computer Memory Card International Association.)

PDF: Portable Document Format - used by Adobe Corp for documents that can be read using their free Acrobat reader.

Pending Listings: Items that are ready and scheduled for listing at some future time.

Items can be scheduled using eBay's (for fee) service, or scheduled using

Blackthorne.

Picture Hosts: Web servers that allow photographs to be uploaded to public directories. the "address" of the photograph in the public directory can then be sent to eBay.

This is sometimes a cheaper option than uploading the photograph to eBay directly.

Preset: A named set of field values that can be block-assigned.

Push-out: A special link that, when clicked on, inserts extra explanatory text into the page, pushing the existing text out of the way. A second click on the link removes the extra text.

QuickLinks: Small icons at the top of the Details Panel that link to more information about the current item.

Radio Buttons: A group of option buttons that are mutually exclusive - only one can be selected at a time. Named after the station-selector buttons on older car radios.

Relistable auction: An auction that received no bids, or no bids that matched the reserve price. eBay allows a one-time free re-listing in such cases.

Right-Click: Clicking the lesser-used button on the mouse. For right-handed people, this is the right mouse button. Right-clicking often brings up a context-sensitive menu that varies depending on where the mouse cursor is on the screen.

348

Glossary

SA: Seller's Assistant, either Pro or Basic

Scheduled Submissions: Auctions that have been scheduled to begin at some point in the future.

Screenshot: An image of a running computer program that is taken directly from the computer display.

Second Chance Offer: Offering the auction item to a losing bidder. A second chance offer is unlikely to be accepted if the asking price is more than the amount bid by that bidder.

Seller Assistant: The previous version of eBay Blackthorne.

Servant: The Servant is a Blackthorne utility that allows you to precisely schedule (e.g.) auction starts without any need for you to be present.

Shill: In the context of auctions, a shill is a acquaintance of the seller who bids on an item for the sole purpose of raising the price. Sometimes it is the seller himself, using a separate eBay account. Sometimes, multiple shills will bid on the same auction. Shill bids are illegal, and if uncovered will result in eBay sanctions and/or prosecution. eBay uses sophisticated software to uncover suspicious bidding patterns.

SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol: A common E-mail protocol.

Stage: For an item, its current point in the sales process.

Stage family: A group of stages (in the lifespan of an item) that share certain characteristics. For example, "Listed" and "Relisted" both belong to the same stage family.

Status: For an item, the current stage in the sales process (used interchangably with

"stage")

TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol: The unwieldy name given to the set of protocols that unrelated computers use to communicate with each other.

Without TCP/IP, there would be no Internet.

Template: A named document with a preset format, used as a starting point for an auction item so that the format does not have to be recreated each time it is used.

You can create as many different templates as you need.

TWAIN: A standard protocol that allows computer programs to communicate with imaging devices like scanners and cameras. Popularly thought to be the too-cute acronym: Technology Without An Interesting Name. In fact, it's not an acronym at all. A reference to how difficult it previously was to connect imaging devices to computers, It was taken from Rudyard Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West" :

"...and never the twain shall meet..."

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WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get: an editor that shows what the final copy will look like while you are in the process of creating it. Before WYSIWYG came along, editors were WYGIAG: What You Get Is Anybody's Guess

350

Index

Ad Template.............................. 107, 342

Advanced Search .............. 132, 294, 342

All-Items Folder................................ 126

Assigning

Email Account ................................ 76

Seller Accounts ............................... 76

Assigning ............................................ 76

AutoText ........................................... 342

Back button ............. 15, 23, 76, 126, 132

Blackthorne Pro ................................ 272

Blank Item........................................... 72

Column Set................................ 126, 294

Consignment Plans............................ 107

Context-sensitive menu............. 126, 129

Conventions Used ............................... 15

Creating Filters.................................. 132

Custom Field..................................... 107

Customize View................ 126, 132, 294

Description Editor............................... 76

Display

Column Picker .............................. 294

Display .............................................. 294

Duplicating

Lists............................................... 129

Duplicating........................................ 129

Dutch Auction ..................................... 76

EBay Seller Accounts ....................... 272

E-mail templates ....................... 107, 255

Endless Mountain Enterprises........... 342

Exit...................................................... 63

Extended Example ............................ 342

Field Presets

Managing ...................................... 110

Field Presets ...................................... 110

Field Presets ...................................... 114

Filter

Deleting......................................... 132

Duplicating.................................... 132

Moving.......................................... 132

Renaming ...................................... 132

Viewing......................................... 132

Filter.................................................. 126

Filter.................................................. 132

Filter.................................................. 136

Filter Actions Menu .......................... 132

Folders............................................... 126

Format Selector................................... 52

Free Relists........................................ 157

FTP site ............................................... 23

Getting Started .............................. 15, 51

Group By menu................................. 294

Hide/Show Filters ............................. 132

Hide/Show Sidebar ............................. 52

Hotmail ............................................... 23

Importing

Data ................................................. 53

Other Data ....................................... 23

Importing............................................. 23

Importing............................................. 53

Installing ............................................. 23

Introduction......................................... 15

Invoicing ........................................... 177

Item

Lifespan......................................... 132

Item ................................................... 132

Item Templates............................ 72, 114

Items

Creating................................. 110, 114

Submitting..................................... 121

Items.................................................. 121

Items Views Pane.............................. 132

Lifespan............................................. 132

List

Creating......................................... 129

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Deleting......................................... 129

Duplicating.................................... 129

Moving.......................................... 129

Renaming ...................................... 129

Viewing......................................... 129

List .................................................... 129

Listing Upgrade .................................. 76

Listing Your First Item ....................... 57

Listings

Monitoring .................................... 148

Viewing......................................... 148

Listings.............................................. 148

Low Inventory filter .................. 107, 294

Low Inventory Level......................... 107

Main Window ..................................... 52

Manage Ad Templates ...................... 342

Manage Presets ................................. 110

Manage Seller Accounts ................... 272

Math() ............................................... 255

Mode Tabs .......................................... 52

Monitor Listings........................ 121, 143

Multiview Grid.................................... 72

Multiview Panel .................................. 52

Navigation Toolbar ............................. 52

New Item Action button...................... 72

Organize Items

Using Filters.................................. 132

Using Folders ................................ 126

Using Lists .................................... 129

Using Seller Accounts................... 272

Organize Items .................................. 125

Payments

Receiving ...................................... 196

Payments ........................................... 196

Picture Studio.................................... 342

Preset................................................. 110

Previewing

Item Description............................ 116

Previewing ........................................ 116

Previous Version

Changes From ................................. 18

Previous Version................................. 18

Printing

Address Labels.............................. 201

Items.............................................. 140

Listings.......................................... 162

Packing Slips................................. 201

Profit ............................................. 216

Sales .............................................. 216

Sales Tax Report ........................... 216

Printing.............................................. 140

Printing.............................................. 162

Printing.............................................. 201

Printing.............................................. 216

Quick Finish........................................ 51

Quick Start .................................... 51, 57

QuickLinks.......................................... 52

Repeat Blocks

Inserting ........................................ 255

Repeat Blocks ................................... 255

RepeatTotal ....................................... 255

Resubmitting Items ........................... 124

Sales Tax Report

Printing.......................................... 216

Sales Tax Report ............................... 216

Searching........................................... 136

Second Chance Offers....................... 157

Seller Accounts ........................... 67, 272

Seller's Assistant

Importing......................................... 23

Seller's Assistant ................................. 23

Setup Assistant

Using ............................................... 23

Setup Assistant.................................... 23

Setup Assistant.................................... 51

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.......... 340

Submission Errors............................. 124

Submitting

Item ............................................... 121

Second Chance Offers................... 157

Submitting......................................... 121

Submitting......................................... 157

TCP/IP................................................. 23

Templates .................................. 114, 255

352

Theme choosing .......................................... 57

Theme ................................................. 57

Using Folders .................................... 126

Using Seller Accounts............... 125, 272

Using the Setup Assistant ................... 23

Viewing

Completed ..................................... 173

Disputed ........................................ 173

Filter.............................................. 132

List ................................................ 129

Listings.......................................... 148

Index

Recent Bidding Activity ............... 148

Related Pages on eBay.................. 165

Relistable Listings......................... 148

Running Listings ........................... 148

Scheduled Listings ........................ 148

Viewing............................................. 129

Viewing............................................. 132

Viewing............................................. 148

Viewing............................................. 173

Views Pane........................................ 126

Views Sidebar ..................................... 52

Windows Folders .............................. 126

WYSIWYG......................................... 76

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