Low Cost eBay listing programs compared - Inkfrog, Auctiva, Sellersourcebook

Auctiva is likely the most popular listing tool around. I see it as frequently as Turbo Lister. As with Turbo Lister, Auctiva is completely free. Auctiva can also host your images, complete with supersized pictures, free scheduling of your listings, and offers some automation tools such as automated feedback.

You might be asking what the catch is. There isn't really a catch with Auctiva. So how does Auctiva make money?

1) Shipping insurance. You can use Auctiva insurance instead of USPS insurance for your packages. Auctiva collects this from your buyers. Can be disabled if you prefer. Their checkout can also be disabled completely

2) The eBay affiliate program. How this works is that if someone goes through an Auctiva link and then becomes an eBay member that makes a purchase, eBay gives them a kickback of over $25. Anybody can become an eBay affiliate and take advantage of this if you drive traffic to eBay. Learn more at affiliates.ebay.com

Overall pros for Auctiva:

* Completely free! Price can't be beat
* Short learning curve. Options are intuitively placed.
* Supersized images, along with some automation tools such as buyer tools and automatic feedback
* Powerful cross promotion tool that can automatically be inserted into all of your existing listings if you want
* Over 600 listing templates to choose from
* Now has consignment features! If you sell items for other people it can help you track these and create contracts

Cons for Auctiva:

* Some cite reliability issues, especially during eBay listing sales.
* They rename your images to numbers, which makes it harder for search engines to know what they're about
* Some templates can be distracting, and appear to advertise the Auctiva service more than your actual item

Other notes: They're a rapidly growing company so you can expect their feature list to increase. Hopefully reliability will increase as well.

They also default to the scrolling gallery appearing at the top of their listings. This can take some time to load on slower connections, so I advise to move this to the bottom so that your item loads first.

Learn more at Auctiva's home page

The Seller Sourcebook is a bit different than the other tools in that they've just recently launched an actual listing tool. Their primary business is in their actual templates and accompanying image hosting. They give you all of the HTML code and you just fill in the information you need to talk about your product. The templates they have look fabulous too.

Here are links to a couple of sellers who use their tools so you can get an idea of how it looks in action:

Wear Its Hat
Sew Far Sew Good

Pros for Seller Sourcebook:

* Nobody comes close to their selection of templates. At over 1600 templates and growing, they are the undisputed rulers of variety.
* Reliable. I haven't heard or seen any downtime
* Fun and professional look. Their templates generally enhance the item you're trying to sell, not engulf it in flashy stuff
* Since they give you the HTML code for the listings, can be paired with any listing tool. This is important if you plan on using eBay's giving works to donate a portion of the proceeds to charity, as most 3rd party listing tools don't offer this currently
* Just $8 a month

Cons for Sellersourcebook:

* Higher learning curve.
* Launcher tool is in its infancy so not everything may be supported yet if you use their site to launch the listings. Not a problem if you use it paired with Turbo Lister
* Just templates, image hosting and a launcher. No tracking tools or reports

Learn more at The Seller Sourcebook

Inkfrog is a complete eBay solution so it offers quite a bit. In addition to hundreds of templates, they also offer powerful tracking and automation tools. One thing that I haven't seen in the other listing tools that Inkfrog provides is the ability to enter in your cost for an item that you list. It then spits out a profit report showing how much money you actually made on the items you've sold.

Here's a seller that uses Inkfrog for most of their listings, and Auctiva for some others:

reStyle Fashion

Pros for Inkfrog:

* Extremely intuitive. The easiest to learn tool of the ones I've tried
* Lets you easily launch your items in one of 8 eBay markets including the UK, France, and Germany with a single drop down menu
* Stable service, haven't ever heard of any reliability issues
* Powerful automation tools including inventory control (I.e. Tell Inkfrog you have 5 widgets and to keep relisting them one at a time until they all sell and it'll do it)
* Profit tracker to help you analyze your sales and see what you should really be focusing on
* Keeps your file names what you named them for easy reference by you and also helps search engines like Yahoo and Google find you through your pictures.
* Has consignment features to help you keep track of orders and invoices if you're selling items for other people
* Does just about everything you'd want from an eBay listing tool

Cons:

* Higher priced than alternatives at $9.95 a month
* Does not currently support eBay Giving Works, so you cannot give a portion of your sales to charities

Other notes:

They offer a 2 week free trial so you can try before you pay. They have also purchased EliteTurnKey designs, a template company so their selection may increase, and you can also have one of a kind templates custom designed for you for a fee.

Check out Inkfrog's web site for more information