My question is more ebay related and things that I may not be doing correctly and adding Activa has now made them worse. So hopefully a seasoned ebay seller can help me out.

Ive been an ebay seller for many years, just not that consistantly. I always get fed up with the fees, small profits and countless hours of time invested. I figure it has to be something Im doing wrong...otherwise ebay wouldnt have so many sellers.

I figured Id give it another try, with the help of "Auctive" Im told it will help streamline the selling process.

Maybe this just comes with time but I am really confused about what feature does what...for ebay and auctive...(checkout related)

When I used only ebay, every item I listed and every customer I sold to ment at least 6 or more emails sent to my inbox...multiply that by several items, figure in customers questions and HOLY COW, my inbox was FULL of 100s of emails that I had to sift through. Now with auctive, there is even more. Most seem to be duplicates and redundants.

Ive turned off what I thought needed to be turned off on ebay's side, but it didnt seem to help much.

Is this normal? Or have I been doing something wrong on ebay all these years?

Like I said, maybe time will make it easier to grasp what does what, what emails I do and dont need but it just seems so overwhelming right now. And is each of my customers getting this many emails as well?

Seems like there should be an easier way. Any time Ive bought something on ebay, I get alot of emails. Anytime Ive bought from some other internet site, I get a order confirm. email and a receipt email when it shipped. That is so much easier.

What are the main emails that need to be sent to the seller?
To the buyer?
Do I really need to "Invoice" them if they have already paid?
Should I use ebay checkout or Auctive or both?
What should I turn on/off on ebay and auctive
Almost forgot...Paypay sends emails too, what do I do there?
Maybe I just need a better way to organize the emails.

Thanks

well, here's my lil crappy opinion..

i don't use auctiva checkout. for some reason, my endofauction emails went in my junkmail and i couldn't stop it from happening, cuz they were supposed to be from me! lol... also, i find it a bit redundant (buy via ebay, checkout via auctiva, pay via paypal, ugh). i love auctiva for listing & templates, for the store window and store, and for the helpful community. (hi! ) and the insurance deal is good, too.

i agree about the emails, there are a ton. congr., item sold
congr., you won
congr., payment rec.

and i as the seller get them all too! i just delete them (quickly!) i never invoice unless asked, or if they are taking their sweet time paying

i think the buyer should get one invoice when they buy, and one receipt via paypal when they pay. seller's should get one when something's purchased, and one when someone paid. but that's my opinion, and it's likely to change nothing. and of course, none of this takes into account a buyer w/ a lot to ask/say.

also, i have a paypal email addy that's diff. from my reg. addy, so that now leaves me w/ only ebay notices in my inbox.

and here's some advice someone once gave me... "wasting time deleting emails?? doesn't the email program delete them eventually?" so, yeah, i have prolly 600 emails in my inbox, but if it gets down to the bottom, and then the next page before i look at it, it was prolly a dumb email anyway!!

I think Im starting to get the feel for what emails are for what, which ones I need and which ones I can delete right away.
Im still on the fence about auctiva checkout, it does seem a little redundant...on the other hand, it does have a link to my auctiva store...but isnt the active store just filled with your active listings on ebay(in which case, wouldnt the buyers see them anyways from ebay)? or can you put stuff in there that is not an actual actively running listing?
Thanks for your help

I'm not on the fence at all I don't like and I don't like that all of the sudden without notice they "fixed it" and it started working and really messed up a sales relationship and scr**d me out of payPal fees that I got charged for Auctiva's antics

One of the biggest problems with emails are the filters that send them into the trash bin. Of course, I appreciate that on my end, but it is sometime annoying when it is on a customers site. That ususally is the reason for delayed payments, the notices went into their filter.