Well I sell exclusively on HipStamp so I cannot speak from any direct experience. But I have noticed that in the last year or so, there appear to have been issues with those who sell on both platforms and use the sync feature. It just seems to me, based on many forum posts, that there are still issues with it. Someone who has both a HS and EBay stiore and uses sync should be able to elaborate.
LOL :-) sorry had to add this! I would suggest you read a few of the threads in the bugs forums here , John. also note not one comment in those threads from Management... not one -- in thousands of posts.
That's not true. Mark chimed in about the ebay sync problems several times. It's one thing to be cynical. It's another to be dishonest. Like Michael said elsewhere to Kathi, take Jerry's words with a grain of salt.
Yes there are a number of threads in the forum that address the sync issue and I know for a fact that HS admin and Mark himself responded on a number of occasions. I'm still not clear on what exactly the issue was in terms of being from the HS side or the EBay side or maybe a little of both....but i don't need to know anyway.
Just a suggestion, you might want to look at the sellers forum on Ebay. There are a number of threads where other sites have had problems with the Ebay sync also. There are even a number of threads where people were having problems with Turbo Lister 2 syncing. (That's Ebay own bulk lister)
Otherwise you can jut type in Ebay sync problems in your browsers search bar and the very first link should be this
ebay not syncing with firefox. That will take you in the community forum and you can then do a search for sync and you can see all the threads.
This way you can have a bit more information to make an informed decision.
Actually it was July 2020 when they finally retired it. (I goofed on the sort on the threads. I had used best match and not by date) My point was that Hipstamp is NOT the only site that has had problems with the Ebay sync. Now whether or not they are ongoing or a reoccurring problem with some of the sites I don't know.
I'm sure Ebay thinks it is not such a great idea to sync with some sites. :-) I used to Love Turbo lister- i had no idea it was still working in 2020. but yes! "An eBay employee named Jacob replied to sellers' questions: “Turbo Lister will still run on your computer as an offline application as long as it exists on your computer. After July 13th though, you will not be able to use Turbo Lister to upload items to eBay, even the Hub.”Jun 6, 2020"
HipStamp no longer use any syncing software they had developed that used the eBay API. eBay blocked them from using it. Read into that what you like. This means that all syncing problems are Hipstamps, nothing to do with eBay issues.
Whatever they have since 'developed' is about 95% useful. Possibly syncs okay for US sites but certainly not sellers in Australia, for example.
There is no longer any syncing of changes made to eBay listings, such as price, description, image, or whatever.
There is no longer any syncing of sales / closed HipStamp listings back to eBay. You have to use a provided utility that addresses these.
The current syncing is either by a third party that uses the eBay API, so a backdoor to the HipStamp seller listings on eBay (this would be a deceptive approach), or my pet theory is they are using scraping utilities which would explain why the syncing process can often take days and is not 100% accurate.
Of course, there would be no need to theorise if HipStamp were transparent and explained the 'technology' they've had to employ and its limitations.
i had reopened my store and the only way to get the marginal sync to work was to contact support and request that they do it for me. This is after paying store fees that stated the sync was included. I can see their problems are much and that the whole process is like a big bandaid that is labor intensive and very inaccurate & faulty. The reason pictures are missing on the site. The only way to fix problems is to re-contact HS and request a new download of Ebay inventory. Nothing can be downloaded by the seller. After all of these issues- their increasing of fees was the icing on the cake. :-) Then they had the nerve to use some type of weird math to claim the increase was super low and not the huge increase it actually was. the math was totally incorrect and a lie. must have learned this tecnique from the news services posting polititical BS. a total insult to the seller's intelligence
That would be correct on the 95%, you're leaving out others factors that can become a problem just due to the designed and function of the sync. The syncs will ideally work best when you are selling multiple items off of the same listing with, very limited lag times.
The main problem that is not addressed is that the syncs were mainly set up for NIBs where one is selling multiple quantities of an item. It is NOT ideal for one of a kind item listings especially if you factor in at times there are lag times with the sync.
Second once you get outside of items where you have standardized descriptions. It becomes really noticeable when you are dealing with items that are less standardized in how they can be classified and described. That becomes a bit more obvious when one has listed postcards on multiple sites. At one time I was on a site called Playle Postcards, Ebay and Hippostcard. Each one of those had different ways of describing them, and the time frame frame they were issued at. Playle for the oldest time frames used undivided backs, and white borders, Hippostcard uses lithograph and unspecified. And the early cards some of the white borders and undivided backs are either sepias or lithographed and how can that be determined from the limited information that is on the listing form? . And if anyone can figure out how those are suppose to be synced 100% properly, be my guest. Then throw Ebay into the mix and then you something slightly different. Now which site do you optimize the listing for, or do you go back and edit the listing to optimize it for the other site?
The problem you are having with the fee increase is that you are comparing apples to oranges. While it is correct the the store subscription portion of the total fees went up quite a bit. the rest of the fees were NOT increased. You are looking at a PORTION of the fees and not factoring in that the store fee increase is only a PART of your total fees for the year. They are correct when they are talking about the total increase for the entire year, based on the total fees that one would pay for the year. You are not factoring in the FVFs that are a part of the total fees that one would pay for the year.
So...bottom line....I was delusional. There is no such thing. I apologize for creating a time waster. I switched bourbon recently, and am just not thinking as clearly. I was trying to save some money to buy more stamps for my store.
I am not quite sure how you would save money because you would have to set up a store on Ebay to even be able to use that function. You would have to be paying for 2 store fees and not 1. The whole purpose of the sync feature is to be able to handle your listings between multiple sites.
We do have an eBay Sync feature on HipStamp, of which we currently have over 300 sellers who are using this feature, and who are very happy with the feature and the convenience that it provides. If you're currently listing stamps on eBay, this is a great way to easily bring over your listings from eBay to HipStamp. You can learn more about the feature, and how it works, here: https://www.hipstamp.com/members/tools/ebay-sync
The first step to get started, which is noted on the above page, is to send our support team a request to verify your eBay username and get your sync started with us. You can make this request by sending a simple email to support@hipstamp.com along with your eBay username.
If you have any additional questions on this feature, our support team will be happy to help you as well.
I use the Sync system, but it does have an issue. If a stamp sells on Ebay the Sync system removes it from the Hipstamp site - but if the stamp sells on Hipstamp I have too manually remove it from the Ebay site.
Mark, as you have read my post above you would know I cannot be 'very happy' with its problems. So enough of the spin please AND FIX THE SYNC ISSUE I described where all my listings are not syncing, reported months ago directly to you at the same time I reported it to support.
Rod - I am aware that you reported to our support staff that we were only able to currently sync 99% of your listings from eBay, which our support staff informed you that we apologized for the inconvenience, but we are currently unable to sync the remaining 1% of your listings due to some challenges we faced with the eBay Australia site. We hope to be able to address this in the future, but it's not an item we can resolve at this time.
Larry - We do have a process to remove listings that you've sold on HipStamp from eBay in bulk at any time. We recommend that sellers complete this process once or twice a week, which takes about 30 seconds to complete. Please see our eBay Sync page for additional details. If you have any questions, or need any further assistance, please feel free to reach out to our support staff.
Okay Mark. It's 3% to 4% for the record. There's no explanation as to why it cannot be resolved. Seemingly just shoved in the too hard basket to be forgotten.
Comments
It's one thing to be cynical. It's another to be dishonest.
Like Michael said elsewhere to Kathi, take Jerry's words with a grain of salt.
Just a suggestion, you might want to look at the sellers forum on Ebay. There are a number of threads where other sites have had problems with the Ebay sync also. There are even a number of threads where people were having problems with Turbo Lister 2 syncing. (That's Ebay own bulk lister)
Otherwise you can jut type in Ebay sync problems in your browsers search bar and the very first link should be this
ebay not syncing with firefox. That will take you in the community forum and you can then do a search for sync and
you can see all the threads.
This way you can have a bit more information to make an informed decision.
do we have a post from Mark or IT dept in this thread?
"An eBay employee named Jacob replied to sellers' questions: “Turbo Lister will still run on your computer as an offline application as long as it exists on your computer. After July 13th though, you will not be able to use Turbo Lister to upload items to eBay, even the Hub.”Jun 6, 2020"
Whatever they have since 'developed' is about 95% useful. Possibly syncs okay for US sites but certainly not sellers in Australia, for example.
There is no longer any syncing of changes made to eBay listings, such as price, description, image, or whatever.
There is no longer any syncing of sales / closed HipStamp listings back to eBay. You have to use a provided utility that addresses these.
The current syncing is either by a third party that uses the eBay API, so a backdoor to the HipStamp seller listings on eBay (this would be a deceptive approach), or my pet theory is they are using scraping utilities which would explain why the syncing process can often take days and is not 100% accurate.
Of course, there would be no need to theorise if HipStamp were transparent and explained the 'technology' they've had to employ and its limitations.
The main problem that is not addressed is that the syncs were mainly set up for NIBs where one is selling multiple quantities of an item. It is NOT ideal for one of a kind item listings especially if you factor in at times there are lag times with the sync.
Second once you get outside of items where you have standardized descriptions. It becomes really noticeable when you are dealing with items that are less standardized in how they can be classified and described. That becomes a bit more obvious when one has listed postcards on multiple sites. At one time I was on a site called Playle Postcards, Ebay and Hippostcard. Each one of those had different ways of describing them, and the time frame frame they were issued at. Playle for the oldest time frames used undivided backs, and white borders, Hippostcard uses lithograph and unspecified. And the early cards some of the white borders and undivided backs are either sepias or lithographed and how can that be determined from the limited information that is on the listing form? . And if anyone can figure out how those are suppose to be synced 100% properly, be my guest. Then throw Ebay into the mix and then you something slightly different. Now which site do you optimize the listing for, or do you go back and edit the listing to optimize it for the other site?
The problem you are having with the fee increase is that you are comparing apples to oranges. While it is correct the the store subscription portion of the total fees went up quite a bit. the rest of the fees were NOT increased. You are looking at a PORTION of the fees and not factoring in that the store fee increase is only a PART of your total fees for the year. They are correct when they are talking about the total increase for the entire year, based on the total fees that one would pay for the year. You are not factoring in the FVFs that are a part of the total fees that one would pay for the year.
We do have an eBay Sync feature on HipStamp, of which we currently have over 300 sellers who are using this feature, and who are very happy with the feature and the convenience that it provides. If you're currently listing stamps on eBay, this is a great way to easily bring over your listings from eBay to HipStamp. You can learn more about the feature, and how it works, here: https://www.hipstamp.com/members/tools/ebay-sync
The first step to get started, which is noted on the above page, is to send our support team a request to verify your eBay username and get your sync started with us. You can make this request by sending a simple email to support@hipstamp.com along with your eBay username.
If you have any additional questions on this feature, our support team will be happy to help you as well.
I use the Sync system, but it does have an issue. If a stamp sells on Ebay the Sync system removes it from the Hipstamp site - but if the stamp sells on Hipstamp I have too manually remove it from the Ebay site.
Regards,
Larry
Larry - We do have a process to remove listings that you've sold on HipStamp from eBay in bulk at any time. We recommend that sellers complete this process once or twice a week, which takes about 30 seconds to complete. Please see our eBay Sync page for additional details. If you have any questions, or need any further assistance, please feel free to reach out to our support staff.