Not unexpected at this point. Guess it's too late but if I was Bill, I'd...

Integrate Ebay's TurboLister instead of constantly making patches everytime Ebay changes the listing routine. This would eliminate 50% of the builds.

Patch the program to get it basically operational again and then try to sell the program and his business. Depending on the number of customers he has, it could be a valuable asset. Also he could sell the program and have the new owners retain him on retainer. This way, he offloads the headaches and responsibilities of running the business and then he gets a steady paycheck plus some cash up front for selling the business.

Increase the value of the business by setting an annual or monthly subscription fee and this way you will establish a cash flow and can then easily estimate a value of the business.

Renew the domains, the cost is peanuts and may be valuable part of the business. Also if there's some components of the business on the expired domains, it might be a pain to have to reprogram to new/other domains.

The worst thing Bill could do is to just shut down the business. he gets no cash, no paycheck and a whole lot of angry customers whose business depends on him.

Okay, stepping down from my soapbox.

Uh...YEAH....I RECEIVED THE SAME MESSAGE FROM GARY TODAY:

"TIMBERCREEK SOFTWARE IS OUT OF BUSINESS".

I'VE BEEN USING THIS SOFTWARE FOR 5 YEARS, SO IMAGINE MY NEAR HEART-ATTACK! I CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE WHAT BILL IS THINKING...WE THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN LOYAL ALL THESE YEARS...NOW DUMPED WITH NO WARNING OTHER THAN THE HINT ABOUT TWO MONTHS AGO WHEN THE WEBSITE WENT DOWN.

I AM TRULY DISAPPOINTED. I PAY EBAY SO MUCH IN FEES EACH MONTH I REALLY CAN'T SAY I'D LIKE TO PAY THEM ANYMORE OF MY EARNINGS BY USING ONE OF THEIR AUCTION SOFTWARES. DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY OTHER PROGRAMS AS GOOD AS SOLD V?? I'D SURE APPRECIATE ANY INPUT.

THANKS SO MUCH

MD

I'm using Ebay's TurboLister module and it's FREE. It will import your old listings into a database and it's not too bad. No inventory module and the html editor is pretty crude. But hey, the price is right.

I can still use the sales and purchase modules from Sold. I just hope they don't change much on those modules.

Hi Darrell - I've used Turbo Lister for quite a while....for some reason never used SOLD for that because I didn't want ALL of my resources tied up in one program in case SOLD became obsolete...hmmmmmm...glad I did that.

Anyway, I too really like the Sales/Purchase modules in SOLD..I've become quite spoiled because I had my own personalized invoice & label format. I just downloaded Auction Wizard 2000 to give it a whirl & see if it will work for me in that way. I truly like the way SOLD combined purchases for my customers & allowed me to keep track of everything so easily.

It's nice we can all rely on each other. I guess I've always thought Bill Hilton was a real nice guy, but you don't treat your customers the way he just did.

BTW..thank you so much TekGems for this forum...I just found it this evening while Google-ing in a panic after Gary's "Out Of Business" email.

MD

I like TurboLister as well. I hope SOLD V's CA does not break any time soon. That's the only thing that I depend on. But I am going to investigate downloading eBay Sold items via File Exchange and plugging them into SOLD V. Then I don't have to depend on SOLD's Current Auction and continue using the software forever. :)

Yep...got the email too and am not happy!

I've been giving Turbolister a try for listing and find it very easy to use. Of course I miss the Sold/Purchase modules from SOLD though.

When people figure out File Exchange and other features of Turbolister, could you please explain it here?

Thanks, Sun, for this forum!

OKAY - ALL THIS TIME I THOUGHT I WAS A FAIRLY INTELLIGENT COMPUTER OPERATOR....WHAT THE HECK IS "FILE EXCHANGE" FROM EBAY?

DOES THIS MEAN IF WE FIGURE OUT HOW TO USE "FE", WE CAN STILL USE SOLD V, EVEN WITHOUT BILL'S SUPPORT?

I'VE DOWNLOADED THE AUCTION WIZARD 2000 TRIAL VERSION...IT TOTALLY SUCKS..NOT USER FRIENDLY AT ALL...AWFUL FORMAT.

ALSO DOWNLOADED AUCTION SAGE...BETTER THAN AW2000 BUT VERY PRIMITIVE...EVEN AFTER YOU COMBINE A BUYERS ITEMS TO AN INVOICE, THEY'RE NEVER COMBINED ANYWHERE ELSE...THE ITEMS ARE ALWAYS SHOWN AS SEPARATE AUCTION NUMBERS ON THE "CONGRATS SENT" SCREEN. I CAN SEE THIS AS BEING A REAL HINDERANCE IN THE FUTURE.

I KNOW, I KNOW...I'VE BECOME WAY TOO SPOILED WITH SOLDV.

ANY OF YOU SMART ONES OUT THERE WHO FIGURE OUT FILE EXCHANGE...PLEASE HELP US DUMMIES.

THANKS AGAIN!!

MD

File Exchange... not sure, tried to D/L but you have to list at least 50 auctions per month and with all the problems of Sold Listing Module, I wasn't listing much so they wouldn't let me d/l it. With TurboLister I've cranked up my listings and hopefully they'll let me d/l it and check it out.

Thank you,guys! I thought it was just me who was having problems understanding what FE was. Guess I don't qualify at this point.

CA will break at the next Ebay My ebay page change.. wont be long.. best to move from Sold ASAP

Here are the details on eBay's File Exchange:
http://pages.ebay.com/file_exchange/

Looks like you can download successfully ended listings. If CA breaks, I'll look into importing it directly into SOLD's Sales Manager screen. Unfortunately, you need Microsoft Access to do any of this stuff. I am happy to share any hack I make to SOLD V when I do them.

Thanks Tekgems,

I listed a bunch with TurboLister and this time ebay let me into file exchange and d/l file templates.

We'll still be able to access our Inventory Manager files, won't we? I'd like to be able access inventory to use for future eBay listings if necessary.

I list about 110 auctions per week but I thought maybe "File Exchange" was something that could help with importing files to SOLD CA - evidently not. Has anyone out there downloaded the Trial of "Shooting Star" auction software by Foo Dog? So far, it's the only program I've tried that even remotely resembles SOLD.

Turbo Lister works fine for me for listing - I thought about just using Ebay's Sales Manager for invoicing but they purge everything after 90 days so you wouldn't have a database of anything, including invoices.

MD

When I was looking for replacements I emailed a few asking about Paypal integration. I received a reply from Shooting Star and they do not have any integration with Paypal.

We setteled on AuctionSage mainly because the learnign curve is very low compared to other programs we tried.
A comment for moondancer -
If you click on any one of the individual items of a combined sale, they will all come up on the invoice.

We also have begun using their auction extender (SDDT) and can't believe how much it improves our sell through rate.

the AuctionSage forum is like AT and SOLD were in the beginning....lots of help and no crappy remarks or personal digs.

VERY IMPORTANT - If you do use AuctionSage or try it, be sure to download V7 which uses eBay API. Version 6.10 scrapes like SOLD did and will soon be scrapped.

I know everyone has different needs and different work processes so my opinions may not count for much. I did spend a lot of time trying other programs in 1999, though there weren't as many, before I chose AT (what SOLD was in the early days) because AT seemed to be the best overall for sensible workflow. I actually tried 7 or 8 different programs over the last three weeks befor choosing AuctionSage. the learning was much easier transitioning from SOLD to AuctionSage than from AT to SOLD.
I wish all well in their quest. Now if only eBay would get it together!?

To Weisbaden: Thanks for the heads up on Auction Sage. I guess I'm just so spoiled the way SOLD would combine multiple purchases by one Buyer so you didn't see 25 different lines for that one buyer on the screen. Maybe someday these other developers will advance to the level Bill Hilton was at...we all have to admit he WAS the best. I don't know how Gary ever got to be the moderator with his short temper & all. Ah well....

I think since SOLD is probably going to become obsolete soon (even the CA function), I too will try to use Auction Sage. I used AT also before it became SOLD, so I've been thru the loops & hoops of learning.

Good Luck to all...if you find a miracle program out there (like SOLD) please post.

MD

Please remember that Gary was a volunteer for TimberCreekSoftware before and after Gin (windmillent) closed her eBay business. He was very smart at troubleshooting. I think he went above and beyond as a volunteer. He wrote tutorials, answered help desk tickets, and posted to the knowledge base. As far as I know, he did not get a penny from TimberCreekSoftware. SOLD V would not have made as far without Gary helping out.

I agree, I think Gary did great in supporting the users. For the last few months I know he had to be discouraged when questions were asked and he knew that Bill wasn't working on it anymore.

Sun, your correct. But he didn't have people skills and that was needed and the reason that I think he (Gary) closed the forums, Bill didn't make him do it because he threatened many times since the forums were left up to him. However that is over.

I would think that he would/should let us know what really is going on with Timbercreek and Bill.

If we really knew we might not be pizzed but have some sympathy!!

btw I meant to mention that Relist aren't working with SOLD! now.

Hi Binkie - as far as I recall, Gary was able to keep the forum open longer even though Bill wanted to close it long before. Gary had no power over whether the forum stayed open or closed. Bill owns the server and only Bill can decide to have a forum or not. Give the poor man a break. He was doing everyone a favor by even replying to the help desk inquiries...

I know its frustrating to read a rude reply, but I'm sure he was doing his best and his intentions were good.

Whatever the reasons are, we'll all miss SOLD! I'm feeling kind of lost right now, but I'm checking new things out to see what I want to do. Meanwhile, I'll use Turbolister.

As someone had suggested, it's just a shame that Bill didn't sell SOLD to someone else who could have kept it running.

Please don't get me wrong...I wasn't bashing Gary in my last post...I just kept reading some very negative posts by him and several of the SOLD Forum members, but I'm sure it was hard for Gary to deal with all that, not having control over anything. I agree 100% he was very knowledgeable & a great help in times of trouble. Sadly enough...it didn't get any of us anywhere except in a boat without a paddle (that paddle being Bill Hilton). I hope someday we are all able to find out why were left holding a bag with no handle. Perhaps Bill got ill...maybe he died..geez...maybe he went to work for Bill Gates or Ebay.

Whatever the story, it's now up to each one of us to be our own support, and hopefully the support for each other in this forum. I plan on passing on any good information I run across, as I'm sure you all will too.

I'm a bit more concerned right now about finding a new program that will take care of the Current Auction/Sales Order part of things than the listing side because Turbo Lister has always worked great for me. So far nothing out there does the job like SOLD for keeping track of that CA/SO information. Auction Sage jumbles everything together (current listings, Store listings, completed auctions, etc.) ALL on one screen. What a mess. They do have a good forum though - one where we can make suggestions for improvements so that's a plus.

Take care y'all...we'll all make it thru this together.

MD

Here are the details on eBay's File Exchange:
http://pages.ebay.com/file_exchange/

Looks like you can download successfully ended listings. If CA breaks, I'll look into importing it directly into SOLD's Sales Manager screen. Unfortunately, you need Microsoft Access to do any of this stuff. I am happy to share any hack I make to SOLD V when I do them

Tekgems - I would be very interested in hearing from you how to use Microsoft Access for importing sold items into SOLD V in the future.

You will be a life-saver!

Thanks for offering that info when yo figure it out. AND..thank you again for this forum.

MD

Ebay Motors Help - Another Sold user left out in the cold. Does anyone know of a program like Sold to manage the auctions after they are closed. I

I tried Auctiva but I do not understand where to go after the auction ends. Seems complicated.

Any help would be appreciated,

yenko69chevelle

You may want to check out Auction Sage. I saw something on their message board about their new API version now supporting ebay motors.

I worked on it last night and is does support ebay motors. Actually after using it for awhile I like it better then Sold. Especially the part where it automatically inserts the address. Tired od cut and pasting.

Hopefully I can get the Paypal integrated. It may be a little more then Sold but it looks like it is worth it.

The Paypal integration is very easy to use with AuctionSage. After you have your sales you just click on the green money bag on the main page. On the next window click download then process.

It seems that SOLD has completely locked up on us. Wont let us get the the outbox, process completed, anything....oh well....life goes on. Anyone hear if something not good has happened to Bill?

I also will miss sold after 4 years using it mainly for buying. I buy 10 to 20 items daily on ebay, multiple ids,sniper, automatic retrieval of seller email, batch email confirmation to sellers, batch feedback are time saving features.
Anyone willing to continue his work??
i have been checking many auction management software and sniper and nothing come close to Sold V functionality, the best i could find was Shooting Star but will miss Sold V.

So far & as of today, my SOLD is still drawing in info on the Current Auctions & I'm still able to print invoices/labels.

I've downloaded & tried about 5 different programs so far...Auction Sage has some good points but the fact it doesn't really combine multiple items into one invoice (except to email it) makes it so jumbled I can't deal with it. Hopefully their programmers will get a clue to this & fix it.

The only other one that I liked a bit was Shooting Star but it seems it doesn't format invoices/labels correctly AND much to my surprise, when I downloaded my CA & Completed items, the selling prices were all messed up, plus it doesn't give you control over the range of dates you download...I believe it goes back one month. I may be mistaken on that...I've tried so many & nothing seems to work at all like SOLD.

It would be great if a miracle worker came onto this forum & told us all not to worry because they're going to take over the programming of SOLD, but at this point I wouldn't hold my breath....it never hurts to have HOPE though.

MD

I've been a SOLD! user for about a year. When the software began to have problems that weren't being solved with new versions, I did a bit more research, including reading earlier posts in this Tekgems site (thanks!), and to me it was clear that SOLD! was threatening to fold after the "Catastrophic" warning was put on the timbercreek website.

So I spent time in late July to find a replacement.

I downloaded Shooting Star and at first I didn't like its look and feel, because it was different than Sold! (I too was a "spoiled?" Sold! user).

But after trying Shooting Star out longer, and climbing the learning curve (about 5 hours total time for me) there were ADVANTAGES with Shooting Star over Sold!

I have a part-time admin staff to do all my eBay back office admin. She was well familiar with Sold! and I taught her to use Shooting Star in less than an hour. She immediately liked Shooting Star better than Sold! because it takes her less time to complete a sale - and so she gets more done in less time!

Some differences with Shooting Star compared with Sold!:

1. Download/Updates with eBay are faster - so you can get on with your backoffice work.

2. Stage progression is logical, automatic, intuitive with fewer mouseclicks needed from the point of an ended eBay item, to communicating with Customers via email, to recording payment received, to giving feedback, to receiving feedback!

3. Multiple seller IDs is possible, by downloading a separate instance for each ID. The fee (very reasonable) is per COMPUTER and so an unlimited number of IDs is possible on one computer for that fee. It took a while to toggle between my multiple seller IDs but after a while I got used to it, and it made downloads faster rather than going through the whole thing at once with Sold!

4. Profit and Loss reports don't seem right, and so I use the download data function and read the text with Microsoft Excel as a tab delimited file, with the symbol | (the one above the backslash \ key using SHIFT) as the separator. From there, I can sort by any date or other criteria.


For listing new items, I just use Turbo Lister I didn't like using Sold! for it, and I don't know how to use Shooting Star for listing.

...and so, I wanted you to know that I found a GREAT ALTERNATIVE to SOLD! in Shooting Star. I used it for the month of August, and it's saved my e-Bay business from a complete meltdown in the backoffice.

And no, I don't get paid for, nor benefit from, this endorsement.

Kindest regards,
RAY(retrorescue)

www.goodstv.com

P.S. So there you have it. I won't be looking at this Forum much in the future, and so I might not be able to answer any subsequent questions via this Forum.

P.S.S. I am grateful to Sold! for a great program, I appreciated the direction they were going, I liked the support of Gary for every issue I raised with their ticketing system. I empathize with the problems they were facing with their systems problems - all businesses face problems, many of them insurmountable - and so they unfortunately pay the price, along with their lost customers. But I wish them, and their Customers, much success in the future.

Sun - Thank you for hosting this forum. It is so nice to know that there are a few businesses in same boat with their eBay auctions. We have been with SOLD since 2000. What a way to end a business relationshiop.

I have been reading everyone's post today on where to go from here. I am very interested to see where everyone goes. I am just starting. Please keep the post coming. I will let you guys know what I find out, but it would appear that everyone is a step ahead of me. I certainly have missed you guys on the old AT forum.

Patricia

retrorescue

How are you getting your Paypal info into Shooting Star? I emailed them a few weeks ago and they said that it didn't download the Paypal info into the program.

Can turbolister schduel your listing for free like Sold? Can it relist the unsold items by itself?
I am looking for a program which use MS Access just like Sold , so I can update my inventory with my home made Access data base which is mainly for my wholesale business. The reason of using a separate program and not using only Sold is because Sold only support USD.
Any input will be appreciate.
Thanks

Trying AuctionSage - so far my first problem is that we are not MAPI. We use Outlook. Why can't this be easy.

Also, the program didn't bring in my current eBay stores sales. I did find a work around for those. We will see how this goes on future sales.

Any input from the experience of others would be appreciated.

I really enjoy the ability to end a listing from the program. This is so fast.

OK - Upgraded to version 7 of Auction Sage and email works great!

Have been using InkFrog for over a week and everything works great. Of course there are some problems as we will find in anything new. But their support is responsive and extremely fast.

SHOOTING STAR and PAYPAL

Blondie, it's true that with Shooting Star I have to manually input payments received. It's easy and I do it by:

1. Identifying all Paypal payments that arrive by checking my emails - using Microsoft Outlook I've color-coded all Paypal communications, so I can easily identify them.

2. In Shooting Star, I search for the Item Sold by customer ID or by item#, then I click "Payment Received".

3. I choose "Paypal" as the form of payment, I enter the Shipping Fee and Insurance amount.

4. Shooting Star asks for a shipping address automatically, which I copy from the email I get from Paypal, and Shooting Star has a nice PASTE button that formats perfectly the First Name and Last Name and address - something that Sold! had difficulty with, I recall.

5. Then Shooting Star automatically pops up an email template filled with my type of "Payment Acknowledged" message to my Customer, which I can Send with one click.

6. Then Shooting Star automatically pops up a window to give Positive Feedback which I can send with one click.

7. Then Shooting Star automatically prepares a packing slip for the customer - with address, content, and message - all customizable - which I can choose to Print.

I've taken you through more steps than you asked, but I wanted you to know how automated and logical Shooting Star's progression is - these things I used to have to "remember" to do in Sold!

..hope that answers your question to your satisfaction?

RAY(retrorescue)
www.goodstv.com

Well after all these years using sold I was quit surprised the way Bill just abandoned us. I have been using Auction Wizard 2000 (the API version) for about three weeks now and really like it. It takes about as much time to learn as Sold did. It doesn't offer any buyer support but works great for me as a seller.

Alex