So I'm paying close to $200 a year for eBud & ePoster. Now I see in a news flash:

"Auctiva Takes Free Approach to eBay Seller Tools"

"Auctiva released the latest version of its web-based eBay services last week at the eBay Live conference, creating a free solution for sellers."

"Our customers were expressing a need for a complete seller's solution that would increase their revenue and grow their business," said Kevin Kinell, Vice President, Engineering for Auctiva Corp. "We were able to develop a more reliable, easy-to-use, free version of our web-based software, to provide our customers with a comprehensive tool that saves them money and saves them time."
[source: Auctionbytes]
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OK, so what is Auctiva giving away for free versus what I'm paying $200 a year for? Can anyone (Auctiva?) explain in simple english.

JeffS,

At this point, the new site only has a subset of the features of our existing products. People who are using eBud would actually not be able to do anything they do with eBud on the new site.

As for Auctiva Poster, there are pluses and minuses about continuing to use this software or switching to the new free online listing solution.

Auctiva Poster has the advantage of being a desktop application, so you're able to do your work offline and then submit it at the point you go online. It also has 6+ years to features that we've added to it over time. The new website has some of these features in addition to some new ones, but does not have everything Auctiva Poster has.

I suggest giving the new listing site a try and see if you like using it as opposed to using Auctiva Poster.

Hope that helps a little.

-Kevin

Re: the FREE Auctiva Poster.....I had no idea this has taken place....I also would like to know just exactly what my ePoster has extra that the eBay free poster does not have?......Also, when I bought eBud/ePoster, it was a package deal (with both together as I believe PowerTools, so if I used the FREE ebay ePoster, would the eBud that I continued to use be half the price? Please give me specifics on what the eBay ePoster does not have compared to my ePoster.....I would prefer not to have to do a new Registration with Auctiva (appears you have to register for the Free one), as I surmise there could be problems with me having TWO Auctiva registrations????
I also don't remember receiving an email from Auctiva that this huge change had taken place, and eBay was part of Auctiva....As a long time advocate and supporter of Auctiva (I have recommended many, many sellers to your business), I am amazed that I just found out about this
Sincerely
Tere Ryder
French Door Librairie

Hello again. I guess I have to say that I am still very amazed regarding this....you may be still adding features and "fixing bugs" to the FREE program, but you certainly got the "eBay" logo on your home page fast, to advertize to the world you were part of eBay now......I can't believe I have been a customer for quite some time and didn't receive the courtesy of some sort of information regarding this prior to me just happening to go to Autiva Home Page (which I must say blew my mind when I saw the "Built By Ebay"......I guess the thing that bothers me the most right now is that I have two support requests in, and I am having problems with both my ePoster & eBud not working right, and you guys are fixing bugs for a FREE version.......my programs have worked pretty well for quite some time, and now I can't even do email in my eBud, so as you can see, I would be upset, as I consider the email feature of eBud to be one of the most important features I use.....mine doesn't even work now! (and this is the FIRST time my email did NOT work in this program).....guess it makes me wonder if all the new efforts/support/techinical is going to the new Free programs.....I was told by the support person to just disable my Norton.....well, I have used Norton for quite a while (and for an important reason......the Windows Service Pack 2 did NOT keep someone from hacking into my computer.....Norton has), and again I NEVER had a problem with the email not working in the past......To tell me to just dump one of my programs that was working in the past fine with my eBud, seems to me to be a problem on your end and not my end......THAT! is why I am disppointed when I read you are working on bugs in a new FREE program.
Tere Ryder
French Door Librairie

E-bud is an amazing bargain @ $200 per year..if you have to pre-grutch Auctiva for that..you really should be doing something else...there is no "free lunch" in this world...

My concerns are this ... Which bugs/fixes are getting addressed first? A paying customer or the FREE service problems? I would hope that as someone who has been paying for the Poster tool for some time, my issues are getting addressed first(don't have any open issues at this time, just stating a point).

I'm also in agreement with "librairie" on the not receiving any type of notice about this new service. Regardless of fixes/bugs being worked on for the FREE service, this type of thing should have been brought to our attention from the get-go, even before it was released. Would have been nice to get a "By the way, this new feature is coming soon ... stay tuned!" or something.

I haven't used the new FREE service yet, but I wanted to know, can I still register with my same user name and password? I don't want to have to have 2 different names/passwords. When I create a template on the FREE service, is it stored somewhere so I don't have to do it again (web based storage)? I have over 40,000 templates I have created since joining Auctiva some time back. I would hate to have to start from scratch. Can I import templates from my desktop version of Poster to the FREE online version? If so, that would be great for when I travel from different conventions and can list from say, my hotel room!

Finally, as a paying customer using Poster, I would hope that my desktop version is the most up to date and more powerful version of the two Posters? Also, that my desktop version has everything the FREE version has and more. The FREE version should never have more features or better features than the one customers are paying for.

I don't mind paying for my Auctiva, because I love how it handles everything for my business, but I do mind getting ripped off if there's another, better version being offered for free.

VelaCards,

A few comments that will hopefully explain things:

We are planning on keeping Auctiva Poster and eBud just as up to date as the website version. Things may have slipped a bit while we were getting ready for the eBay live conference at the end of June, but you should notice prompt updates for anything that breaks from here on out again.

Both eBud and Auctiva Poster have more features than the website does. We are working on creating some of these features on the website, but some of these features are not scheduled for months down the road. Because of this and also because of the additional work that is required to maintain desktop applications, the existing programs will remain as paid applications, while the website will be free.

I do appologize for the lack of notice to existing customers. We really should have done a better job of that.

Lastly, you can create a new account on the new site using the same exact userID and password that you used before. No problem with that. However, we don't have 'custom' templates supported on the website yet. This is a feature that will be added down the road. You may want to check out the existing new templates that have been created for the website, you may like some of those.

-Kevin

Thanks Kevin, for the heads up. Much appreciated. When these new features are added down the road, will one of those features be the ability to import existing templates from my desktop version into the web based version?

Also, I understand that the free version is not as up to date as the desktop version, but what are the plans for the free version? Will it ever be as complete as my desktop version or even exceed my desktop app.? Will it have features that are not found in my desktop app.? It would be a real bummer to find that the free version has something good for me that I can't get in my desktop version. I stated before, I personally think the free version should never have more or better features than the desktop, paid version.

I will check out the new free version. I think it can be an added feature to my existing Auctiva tools for out of store listings (conventions, travels, etc.) I am glad to also know that I can use my same login/password. Now I'll be sure to give it a try! Thanks again ...

I just use ebud, are you going to make ebud web based too? Will it be free?

Web based programs are so much nicer I use one to list and I never lose any info.

I've been using the free service and am delighted with it. I'm very excited about the future offering of eBud functionality for the web based service, but am interested in immediately combining the free with eBud. If I do buy eBud, would I need to disable the automatic checkout feature of FREE Auctiva to fully use eBud? Are there any other coordination issues between the two?

Please don't ever get rid of the desktop eBud. I need an offline management as well as online.