eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B in Community Help Boards in Community

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Last Post May 2, 2006 2:00 PM by: nino@ebay.com

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eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

Mar 30, 2006 3:29 PM

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Topic: eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne Basic

Host: eBay Staff
Date: Tuesday 05/02
Time: 13:00 to 14:00 PT
Location: Workshop Board

Description: If you're using eBay's Seller’s Assistant Basic, you’ll want to join us for this workshop geared towards helping you move your sales and management processes to the newest seller tool: Blackthorne Basic. Blackthorne Basic will replace Seller's Assistant Basic, so take advantage of this interactive workshop to ask questions and get answers directly from the Blackthorne team. John Slocum, Founder of Blackthorne Software, will discuss the steps for transferring your data over and walk you through the key features of this new seller tool.

Cheers,

Deirdre
eBay Community Development

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eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:01 PM

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Welcome and thanks for joining us today!

We love workshops to be interactive, so please feel free to ask your questions that directly relate to this topic.

Added note: If you click on the "Watch this discussion" link, you will receive an email each time someone posts to the workshop.

Stop Watching: If at any time you no longer want to receive updates on a thread you are watching, just click on the link titled "Stop Watching Thread" found in the specific thread being watched. Also you can remove any watched thread by clicking on the "Watched Discussions" link located in the log in bar and deleting the watched thread.

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Cheers,

Nino
eBay Community Development

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:01 PM

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Hi, I’m John Slocum. During today’s workshop we’ll first discuss how to migrate your data from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne Basic and teach you how to use some of Blackthorne’s key features. Then, we’ll open up the forum for any questions you may have.

I don't expect that you will be able to follow along with all the steps. I would recommend instead that you get a general idea of what we are discussing and then refer back to this archived workshop when you are actually going through the migration steps. The "Migrating from Seller's Assistant Basic to eBay Blackthorne Basic" guide (Link) will also be invaluable as you work through your migration.

I’d like to ask you to hold any questions that aren’t related to getting started with Blackthorne to the end of our workshop. We have sellers who joined this workshop primarily to see how to get started with Blackthorne. Thank you!”

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:02 PM

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The first thing I want to mention is that we recently announced an extension to SA Basic support to allow users more time to migrate. We still encourage you to start looking at Blackthorne as soon as possible though. The extension announcement can be found at Link

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:03 PM

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Before discussing the migration, let me discuss a few reasons for migrating. First and foremost are the new features that you will gain for the same subscription fee. With eBay Blackthorne (eB), you can:

- send emails and feedback in bulk
- edit information directly into the grid view
- customize your email templates
- quickly create duplicate items from templates
- track your listings by their status

Your first impression may overwhelm you, but if you learn it a step at a time, you'll be up and running in no time.

If you find that eB is more than you need, we recommend you try Turbo Lister. Turbo Lister is another eBay listing tool and another option available to you as a replacement for SA Basic... and best of all, it's FREE.

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:04 PM

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The first step in migrating is to prepare your SA data. To prepare your data, you should:

- Run the SA Basic Database Repair Utility to compact and clean your data.
- Make a backup of your SA Basic database file for archival purposes.
- Remove any records in SA that you don't need anymore.

By preparing your data, you'll get better results from importing.

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:05 PM

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Next, you will need to download and install eB. You can download it from Link. Once downloaded, you will simply double click the downloaded file to begin the installation, then follow the prompts.

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:06 PM

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After installation, you're ready to run eB. You can run eB by clicking the "B" icon that was placed on your desktop during the installation.

The first time you run eB, you will be guided through the Setup Assistant. The Setup Assistant will collect data from you and import your SA database. Because eB uses your SA settings and data during the Setup Assistant, you should NOT uninstall SA until you have ported your process over to eB.

After completing the Setup Assistant, eB will load and display your SA data.

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:08 PM

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Let's do a brief overview before we start to list our first item.

One of the first things you will notice is that eB no longer is contained on a single screen. The process of "Creating Items", "Monitoring Listings" and "Finalizing Sales" are now each performed on a different tab on the main screen.

On the "Create Items" tab, you will enter all the information for the items that you want to list. When you are ready, you will submit the items to create Listings. The items on this tab will act as original copies. You can use them over and over to submit multiple listings from a single item. By using two separate tabs, you can now easily see the difference between items that haven't been listed and those that have.

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:09 PM

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Once your listings are created, you will track your listings on the "Monitor Listings" tab. In "Monitor Listings", you will be able to see just the listings that are running, the listings that have ended and are eligible for relist credit, or the listings that have ended. By using the new statuses available on "Monitor Listings", you can easily separate your listings that are running from those that are closed.

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:10 PM

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How's everyone doing? Are there any questions so far?

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:12 PM

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When a listing is completed, a sales record is created. You will see the sales records on the "Finalize Sales" tab. This is where you will manage all your post sale activity including sending emails, leaving feedbacks and filing disputes.

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:13 PM

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Now, let's go back and discuss the process of listing an Item.

From the "Create Items" mode, you will use the "New" button to create a new item. You can also select any existing item and use "Duplicate" to get a copy of that item as a starting point.

If you list a lot of similar items, you can even create an "Item Template" and use it to create new items. Let's say for instance that you sell glassware quite frequently. Since many of the elements of your listing are the same for every piece of glassware you sell, you can create an item template that has all of the common glassware settings already filled in. Then to create a new item for a pitcher you are ready to sell, you would select the "New Item" dropdown and choose your "Glassware" Item template. Now all you will have to do is to fill in the fields that are different for this particular piece of glassware.

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:15 PM

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Filling in the information for an item should be very familiar. All of the common elements (title, description, pictures, categories, etc.) are present.

You may notice though that some of these settings have been grouped into "field presets" to make data entry faster.

Listing upgrades are an example.

Suppose that for most items, you use just Bold on your listings, while for some of the higher end items you use Bold, Highlight, Border and Gallery. You can create a preset called "Standard Upgrades" that has just "Bold" set, and a preset called "High End Upgrades" that has Bold, Highlight, Border and Gallery turned on. Now, when assigning your listing upgrades, you would simply choose either "Standard Upgrades" or "High End Upgrades" from a dropdown box.

Of course the use of presets is optional and you are always free to enter any listing upgrade combinations you'd like without having to create a preset.

Presets are available for listing upgrades, shipping, and payments.

eBay Workshop: Transitioning from Seller’s Assistant Basic to Blackthorne B

May 2, 2006 1:16 PM

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Another improvement in eB is the way we handle Ad Templates. In SA, if you wanted text in several different Listing Templates, then you had to add the text to all the templates. If you wanted to change the text, you had to find it and change it in all the templates. In other words, the "theme" or appearance of the listing was tied to the text of the listing.

In eB, we have separated the appearance and the text. This will make it very easy for you to keep the same text and quickly change the "themed" appearance. Then later if you need to change your payment message, you need do it only in one place.

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