[Clark Frazier]

I will be there, just like eBay Live in New Orleans in 2004.

[Clark Frazier]

<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: ‘Arial’,sans-serif;”>I downloaded the beta but ran into a roadblock getting tokens for two accounts on HipStamp. I returned to regular work but encountered an Error Message Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation when moving from one item to another with the edit window open.</span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: ‘Arial’,sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;”>I have been processing HipStamp sales as OTC orders. “HipStamp + <item number> is displayed on the packing list. The HipStamp user ID is stashed in the comments section  Address records associated with orders. At least one buyer uses the same user ID on eBay and HipStamp. Others may use different user IDs. I am not familiar with other SixBit site implementations. Items listed on HipStamp via eBay Sync share SKU numbers. Unfortunately, HipStamp lost the ability to copy eBay Private ID numbers concurrent with losing the ability to end eBay listings. I hope listings from SixBit can soon replace eBay sync.</span></p>

[Clark Frazier]

 

John,

 

As you may know, I don’t use SixBit to insert Item Specifics into the database. My software creates XML directly from the inventory database. Properties defining the catalog number are derived from the stamp catalog extract table while attributes like condition and grade flow from the listing spreadsheet. By the time the description reaches SixBit it is too late to refer to eBay Item Specifics or the eBay catalog (none exists for stamps). I do not agree with eBay’s notion that Item Specifics can be dynamic and therefore undocumented. Buyers expect and familiar terminology normally used in the stamp marketplace. It is not eBay’s role to redefine philatelic terminology to fit the deficiencies of their search engine. It is ironic that many US stamp buyers use Scott catalog numbers to search without the support of left panel filters. Catalog numbers in Item Specifics do not seem to have much effect on search.

 

I have had some ongoing conversations with eBay about their item specifics and the reluctance of established sellers to alter their data to fit eBay’s model. Perhaps the sending a summary to the catalog email will speed up the conversation.

 

[Clark Frazier]

Sales tax continues to be missing on packing lists for orders combined by SixBit.

Is granularity incorrectly defined by eBay or SixBit?  Although sales tax is reported at the order level, taxable and nontaxable sales totals must be captured in each order or derived from individual sale amounts.

[Clark Frazier]

John,

When will the beta be ready? The current reporting situation is Chaos. Data in the eBay Payments Report, Orders Report and eBay Invoices is not finding its way consistently into SixBit. It would be helpful to have complete data imported by January 1, 2020, less than a month away. Information about sales tax collected by eBay is also incomplete, in part because eBay did not start reporting amounts collected until mid-April 2019, even though collections started on January 1, 2019 for Washington State.

[Clark Frazier]

Is it possible to set category defaults for required item specifics? The reason for asking is that two of the required Item Specifics in the Stamps category have default values inconsistent with standard nomenclature in the philatelic marketplace. Established sellers with price lists or inventory databases will not spend the effort to change Item Specific to new values and confuse buyers to satisfy eBay “requirements”. For this and other reasons, I expect left panel search will fail to catch on with Stamps category buyers. Chat board posts by stamp collectors suggest that catalog number search, while popular, is missing from the left panel on eBay.

[Clark Frazier]

John,

Initially, I would have wanted to end listings. After some reflection, I realize that the existing SQL Server script used to reprice listings could still work if it was possible to update listings from the Items view, or specifying in the Listings view that the Items view should update the Listings view instead of the Listings view updating the Items view. Otherwise, I will have to modify the script to update the Listings view in addition to the Items view, assuming no side effects. Once updated in the Listings view, a batch update should be possible. The reason for using SQL is automation and more nuanced updating, like setting a minimum price, possibly raising a few prices randomly to keep buyers honest, rounding prices and restricting the frequency of automated updates.

[Clark Frazier]

This seems to be long standing bug. In some cases Check Item displays a the missing image placeholder instead of the image (if the image is also displayed in the body of the listing). Uploading the image again often works. But, in some cases, nothing happens when the listing is uploaded or no listing is displayed. One fix is to clear PictureURL in the offending row in the Pictures table. SixBit could use a control to clear PictureURL. For those comfortable with SQL, check this code fragment:

USE SixBit_BT
GO

SELECT * FROM Pictures WHERE ItemID = 838

–UPDATE Pictures
— SET PictureURL = NULL
— WHERE ItemID = 838
— AND PictureID = 5479;

[Clark Frazier]

Suggestion: Separate domestic and international presets. Tying domestic and international together in one preset is like attempting to run a three-legged race. I have ended up with more than 20 named presets to capture domestic and international combinations triggered by value restrictions on various classes of mail. New UPU restrictions exacerbate the problem for sellers of small light-weight items. It would be helpful to rethink presets to better capture weight/value combinations. My insurance company also imposes value limits on mail without signature, signature confirmation and carrier.

Perhaps a rule-based approach combined with importing carrier rate tables (especially the US Postal Service). I see no value added in re-entering USPs international rates for every country group. I would prefer a preset rule to add some fixed amount to the postage rate as determined by estimated weight, estimated value and destination Country. For light-weight items under 5 ounces, rates could roll up into one rule based on value and country.

In my opinion, shipping presets in SixBit are unmanageable.

In the short term, perhaps a grid view of presets with the ability to merge presets and copy and paste parts of presets would help users gain control.

Long term: Disaggregate presets into components to be assembled into a preset. Include weight rules and value rules to help deter using the wrong preset for high-value items.

Bottom Line: A complete redesign is needed.

[Clark Frazier]

Hi John,

I will wait to see if a sale occurs before dropping the program. There is some chance that the sale will appear on the US site, assuming the process was designed before it was cobbled together. I don’t expect to stay with the program after the end of the trial because it is focused on fixed price listings. Some auctions of foreign collectibles or photographs might benefit from non-US eBay site visibility.

Site visibility issues may have been related to delays restoring store listings after a vacation. Also, eBay may not be handling cookies correctly for users who view multiple eBay sites on some browsers.

Clark Frazier
clarkphilatelics

[Clark Frazier]

I have the slider set at the right, or 100, which I assumed meant no compression. If that is not the case, the tool tip is unclear. I would prefer to default to no compression. I won’t want SixBit to reprocess (or edit) jpg images. Images are exported from Photoshop with the desired compression level. No other processing is needed. It would also be helpful if eBay published the exact criteria for displaying the message.

Images of color slides for sale are deliberately optimized for the web to reduce the incentive to “borrow” the eBay image for other uses. It is necessary to provide a large image to help sell the slide, without giving away the image.

Images of stamps are also a problem because images large enough to avoid the 1,000 pixel message often highlight paper inclusions and other tiny paper defects, visible only with magnification, that normally occur in stamps of the period.

My bottom line: Add a no SixBit compression check box in Pictures settings.

[Clark Frazier]

I have been using C# CLR functions with regular expressions for years, probably starting with SQL Server 2005. I also use CLR functions to manage image files. A setting change in SQL Server 2008 is needed to enable CLR functions and xp_cmdshell if unmanaged code must be executed. Changes in Visual Studio 2015 project definitions seem to have broken Deploy, so it is now again necessary to use SQL to deploy CLR functions. I haven’t any functions lately because I have been moving in the direction of using more C# and less SQL for flow of control when adding listings and images to SixBit. The commented out code below, can be modified and uncommented as needed and should deploy signed CLR functions.

By the way, I had forgotten about the need to tweak SQL Server Express settings to make the agent run. The settings I have are not the same as what the developers have recommended.

[code type=”markup”]
–Must build and sign StampsClrLibrary as dll first in Visual Studio

–USE master
–GO

–CREATE ASYMMETRIC KEY StampsClrLibraryKey FROM EXECUTABLE FILE =
— ‘C:\project\StampsDw\StampsClrLibrary\bin\Release\StampsClrLibrary.dll’
–CREATE LOGIN StampsClrLibraryLogin FROM ASYMMETRIC KEY StampsClrLibraryKey
–GRANT EXTERNAL ACCESS ASSEMBLY TO StampsClrLibraryLogin
–GO

–clr enabled is not the default

–EXEC sp_configure ‘clr enabled’, 1
–GO

–RECONFIGURE
–GO

–EXEC sp_configure ‘xp_cmdshell’, 1
–GO

–RECONFIGURE
–GO

–[Don’t do this!] alter database Stamps_SixBit set trustworthy on

–SQL Server Deployment Code. Normally, can use Visual Studio Build > Deploy instead of this script.

[/code]

[Clark Frazier]

Can you be more specific regarding the functions?

[Clark Frazier]

The database compatibility level should remain at 100 until the SixBit development team indicates that it is fully compatible with SQL Server 2014. Try backing up and restoring the database:

[code type=”markup”]

–Save the database somewhere:

BACKUP DATABASE Sixbit_BT TO DISK=’C:\eBay\SixBit\SQL Server Backups\SixBit_BT_20170330.bak’
GO

–Restore the database (modify the data file path first)

RESTORE DATABASE Sixbit_BT
FROM Disk=’C:\eBay\SixBit\SQL Server Backups\SixBit_BT_20170330.bak’
WITH MOVE ‘SixBit_BT’ TO ‘C:\MSSQL\MSSQL12.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Data\SixBit_BT_Data.mdf’
, MOVE ‘SixBit_BT_Log’ TO ‘C:\MSSQL\MSSQL12.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Data\SixBit_BT_Log.ldf’
–, REPLACE
GO

[/code]

[Clark Frazier]

I am talking about the regular grid. I am not sure SixBit support understands how difficult it would be to strip out all of the never used search columns. It looks like the easiest way to fix the grid is to update the GridLayouts table using a SQL query. Unfortunately, this is not an option for users without SQL database experience.

I sell one of a kind items. I suppose variations would be possible for stamps if was possible to vary across images and attributes like condition or price. Being able to vary across properties like color is not sufficient or useful.

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