Visual Introduction to Turbo Lister

Related Resources • Selling Effectively • Troubleshooting Listings • Make a Sale on eBay • eBay Glossary • Frequently Asked Questions • eBay Supply and Demand • Time Your Listings

eBay's online listing tool is the only tool many sellers use when listing auctions. The online tool, however, suffers from a series of limitations that mid- and high-volume sellers are sure to encounter:

• Only one auction can be listed at a time
• The online form is somewhat slow
• Managing or updating multiple auction listings can be cumbersome and require many clicks

To help to mitigate these limitations, eBay produces a free software application called Turbo Lister. Turbo Lister is a Windows application that you download and install on your own computer. After installing Turbo Lister, you can use it to interface with the eBay website much more quickly in order to create and manage your listings one at a time or in large batches. Because Turbo Lister is a native Windows application (it does not require a web browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox in order to work), it is much faster than the online form.

Getting Turbo Lister

To obtain and install Turbo Lister, follow these steps:

1. Visit the Turbo Lister home page and click the large "Download" button at its center.
2. If you are prompted by your web browser, choose to save the download to your desktop.
3. Once the download is complete, double-click on the "setupUS" icon on your desktop. This will launch the Turbo Lister installer.
4. Follow the prompts to complete installation.
5. After installation, select "Turbo Lister" from your Start menu to launch the application.

Starting Turbo Lister for the First Time

The first time you use Turbo Lister, you'll be shown a progress bar as Turbo Lister configures itself and prepares to manage your auctions.

Once Turbo Lister has completed configuration, it will ask what you would like to do. Since this is your first time using Turbo Lister, select "Set up a new Turbo Lister File" and click "Next." A new database will be created to manage your listings.

Next, Turbo Lister will ask you for your eBay account login information. Turbo Lister needs this information in order to be able to access your account and auction listings on the eBay website.

Once you have entered your eBay ID and password, Turbo Lister will notify you that it is about to connect to the eBay website in order to manage your auctions. Click "Connect Now" in order to connect to your account on the eBay website.

Once the connection has been established, you'll be shown the current contact information that eBay has on file for you. Check it to ensure accuracy, since this is the information that eBay makes available to your buyers.

After you have verified your contact information, Turbo Lister will present you with two options: either to start a new listing or to download your existing listings into Turbo Lister.

At this point, if you already have a body of active listings that you'd like to begin managing with Turbo Lister, select "Import my eBay listings" and click finish. Your eBay listings will be downloaded and made available to you through Turbo Lister. Note that if you do this, you will still be able to access them through the standard method via the eBay website.

If you do not have existing listings that you'd like to download into Turbo Lister, you can simply select "Create a new item" to begin creating a new item listing. Note that if you have downloaded your existing listings into Turbo Lister, you can click the "New" button at the upper-left of the main application window to follow along with the rest of this article.

Next page: Using the Turbo Lister Auction Editor

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