This is an update on the Listings we are making to LiveDeal!, Ioffer, and eBid.net.

First, some time after making the blog Friday about having listed 228K on LiveDeal, with 198K showing, something went wrong. We don't know what happened, just that it was not something we did on our end. We are not able to find any of our postings, not in listing management area, nor the public area. We have a support request in with LiveDeal, yet when they respond that listings are only active for thirty days, and these are up for less than ten, makes you wonder what kind of support we are going to receive. If we have to relist everything again we just may take our business elsewhere.

We have started posting to iOffer, and you can see our listings and general information at http://awev.ioffer.com/ To jump direct to the store go to http://www.ioffer.com/selling/awev So far we have uploaded 30K+ items, yet only 2100 are showing. Seems as if their processor is slow, so lets hope it isn't another repeat of LiveDeal, where we loose all of our listings.

That brings us to our sites at eBid.net - Awev Trading Co, LLC Exterior Parts, Awev Trading Co, LLC Interior Parts, and Awev Trading Co, LLC Performance and Diesel
. Between the three we will have 30K listings in the next couple hours.

There are a couple nice things that eBid.net has over LiveDeal and iOffer. The first is that multiple instances does not upset things. LiveDeal will let you browse with one instance and upload with another, yet you can not upload two files at once without it causing problems and confusion. iOffer is the same - singe instance for bulk loading of files - one at a time, and it seems as if it has to be 2800KBs or smaller in size. If there is any problems with the transfer speed - say congestion on the internet, then even a small file can be problematic. eBid.net also seems to handle the processing, validation, and listings better. iOffer is slow about it, yet they remember what you have uploaded, and sooner or later get around to it, with less intervention on your part. With LiveDeal it is best to just activate everything when it is finished doing it's thing.

Both iOffer and eBid.net lets you create your own categories in your store. eBid is better, in that if you do have custom categories you can still populate your store with just one bulk upload, while iOffer would force you to list the auctions separate from the store if you use custom categories in your store. eBid.net's store(s) have their pros and cons. The pros being you are able to upload everything to both auction listings and your store as noted above, and lets you create up to five stores, each store with a combination of thirty categories and sub-categories. For some things, like the interior and exterior parts stores this doesn't pose a large problem, yet with the performance and diesel store it is a bit limiting. The main drawback I see to the eBid.net store feature is the combined limit of 30 categories and sub-categories per store.

Well, have a look around, and let us know what you think.