Blackthorne Questions

• What is Blackthorne?

• How can Blackthorne help me sell on eBay?

• How do I know whether Blackthorne Basic or Pro is the right selling tool for me?

• What is the difference between Blackthorne Basic and Pro?

• What is the difference between Blackthorne and eBay's other tools: Turbo Lister and Selling Manager?

• How much does Blackthorne cost and how will I be billed? Is there a free trial?

• How do I get Blackthorne?

• Can I use Blackthorne to sell on international sites?

• If I subscribe to Blackthorne Pro, do I also get to use Blackthorne Basic?

• What operating systems does Blackthorne support?

• How much memory and processing speed does my computer need to run Blackthorne?

Seller's Assistant Questions

• I am a Seller’s Assistant subscriber. Why do I have to transition to Blackthorne? When will eBay end support for Seller's Assistant?

• Why is eBay ending support for Seller’s Assistant?

• Why did eBay redesign Seller’s Assistant and rename it Blackthorne?

• How is Blackthorne different from Seller's Assistant?

• If I am currently subscribed to Seller's Assistant, do I have to subscribe to and pay a separate fee to use Blackthorne?

• What support is eBay providing to help Seller’s Assistant subscribers transition to Blackthorne?

• How do I transfer my Seller's Assistant data into Blackthorne?

• I am subscribed to Seller's Assistant. Will I notice anything different on my invoice?
  

Support Questions

• Where can I get help to learn how to use Blackthorne?

• How can I provide feedback on Blackthorne or report an issue?

• How do I change or cancel my subscription to Seller’s Assistant or Blackthorne?

Blackthorne Questions

What is eBay Blackthorne?

Formerly known as Seller's Assistant, eBay's Blackthorne products have been redesigned and improved to give sellers more customization and greater flexibility in managing their growing business. eBay's Blackthorne products come in two versions: Blackthorne Basic and Blackthorne Pro.

Blackthorne Basic and Blackthorne Pro are offline listing and sales management tools that sellers can use on their computers. Each is an all-in-one software application that helps sellers save time creating listings and managing sales on eBay.

Blackthorne Basic costs $9.99/month and Blackthorne Pro costs $24.99/month. New subscribers are eligible for a 30-day free trial.

How can Blackthorne help me sell on eBay?

eBay Blackthorne enables you to:

• Save time listing and managing your eBay sales.

  • Create professional listings with easy to use HTML templates.

  • Create, edit, and list items in bulk.

  • Send emails and leave Feedback in bulk.

• Manage your sales in a way that fits with the way you do business.

  • Customize views of your listings and sales data.

• Scale as your business grows.

  • Manage sales for multiple User IDs.

  • Create consignment plans and track suppliers.

• Reduce the cost of selling on eBay.

  • Free Listing Designer.

  • Free scheduled listings.

• Manage your business securely.

  • Determine which information your employees can access.

How do I know whether Blackthorne Basic or Pro is the right selling tool for me?

Blackthorne is ideal for you if you are a seller, who lists at least 25 items a month, and prefers an end-to-end desktop tool for creating listings and managing sales. Blackthorne might also be the right tool for you, if you:

• Prefer a tool that is customizable to the way you do business.

• Need a tool that can operate in a networked environment.

• Prefer an Open Access database.

• Prefer to have all your sales information archived on your computer.

• Are a trading assistant and need an efficient way to create consignments.

What is the difference between Blackthorne Basic and Pro?

What is the difference between Blackthorne and eBay's other tools: Turbo Lister and Selling Manager ?   

Turbo Lister is eBay's offline bulk listing tool. This free tool only enables you to list items; you cannot manage your sales with Turbo Lister. Blackthorne goes beyond bulk listing and offers you powerful sales management features, such as tracking the status of your sales, sending email in bulk, leaving Feedback in bulk, and much more.

Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro are eBay's Web-based tools that are accessed through My eBay. Selling Manager can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection. Selling Manager helps you track and manage your eBay sales while Selling Manager Pro helps you to create listings, manage inventory, and track and manage sales. Selling Manager Pro also enables you to automate the listing and post-sales process.

How much does Blackthorne cost and how will I be billed? Is there a free trial?

If you are a first-time user, you can try Blackthorne Basic or Blackthorne Pro free for the first 30 days. After the free trial ends, Blackthorne Basic subscribers will be charged a monthly subscription fee of $9.99/month while Blackthorne Pro subscribers pay $24.99/month.

As a new subscriber, you will see three lines of activity in your next invoice:

• A one-time prorated charge based on the number of days left in your billing cycle when you started the subscription.

• The regular monthly subscription fee covering the next billing cycle in advance.

• A one-time credit for the free one-month trial that is equal to the regular monthly subscription fee.

Note: Although it may appear as if you are being charged for the first 30 days, a one month credit is posted to your account to offset the charge. If you decide to cancel your subscription anytime during the free trial period, the remaining subscription balance is credited to your account and appears on a subsequent invoice.

If you unsubscribe before your free trial ends, and decide to resubscribe at a later date, you will begin paying the monthly fee upon resubscribing.

Subscribe to Blackthorne now!

How do I get Blackthorne?

You can subscribe to Blackthorne Basic or Pro on eBay.

Can I use Blackthorne to sell on international sites?

You will be able to use Blackthorne to sell items in eBay Canada, eBay UK, and eBay Australia starting May 2006.

If I subscribe to Blackthorne Pro, do I also get to use Blackthorne Basic?

Subscriptions for Blackthorne Basic and Pro are completely separate. However, all the functionality of Blackthorne Basic is offered in Blackthorne Pro.

What operating systems does Blackthorne support?

Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows XP

Please note that Blackthorne does not officially support Windows 98. Sellers with Windows 98 systems should upgrade their operating system to ensure enough memory and processing speed to run Blackthorne.

How much memory and processing speed does my computer need to run Blackthorne?

• 1.5GHz Intel Pentium Processor or equivalent

• 512 MB RAM Minimum

• 50 MB free hard drive space

Seller's Assistant Questions

I am a Seller’s Assistant subscriber. Why do I have to transition to Blackthorne? When will eBay end support for Seller's Assistant?

Seller’s Assistant subscribers must transition to Blackthorne, because eBay will end all support for Seller’s Assistant on Friday, May 12, 2006.

All development on the Seller’s Assistant products, except for bug fixes, has stopped since the launch of Blackthorne.

Why is eBay ending support for Seller’s Assistant?

Seller’s Assistant relies on eBay’s API (Application Program Interface) to list items to eBay and receive information from eBay. Seller’s Assistant currently uses the original API structure which eBay introduced in 2001. In early 2004, eBay released a new API structure which provides broader support for more technologies and more developers.

Over a year ago, eBay made the decision to only support the new API structure and to end support for the original API structure. Support for the original API structure will end by June 1, 2006. As a result, all applications based on the original API structure, such as Seller’s Assistant, must be built on the new API structure in order to work with eBay.

When Seller’s Assistant was redesigned, it was built on the new API structure and subsequently renamed Blackthorne.

Why did eBay redesign Seller’s Assistant and rename it Blackthorne?

In addition to Seller's Assistant, eBay offers a family of online selling tools called Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro. To minimize the confusion between Selling Manager and Seller's Assistant, eBay decided to change the name to eBay Blackthorne. The decision to rename the product to Blackthorne comes from Blackthorne Software, the company that eBay acquired in 1999, which was responsible for creating Seller's Assistant.

Seller’s Assistant was redesigned to make it easier to use and with more powerful features for sellers. Blackthorne easily scales to meet the growing needs of high-volume sellers. In addition to these improvements, the new Blackthorne products have retained all the time-tested features of the original Seller's Assistant products.

How is the Blackthorne different from Seller's Assistant?

New and improved user interface

• It uses fewer windows for easier and more efficient navigation.

• You can view multiple records in a grid while viewing record details on the same screen.

• You can edit content directly in the grid view, just like a spreadsheet.

• There is an unlimited number of hierarchical folders to better organize item inventory.

• Item editor helps sellers create listings from a single screen and resizes it to take advantage of available window size. You can input data quickly with field presets.

• WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) description editor makes formatting listings as easy as using a word processor.

• New ad templates can include boilerplate content and item variables, as well as visual themes. All items are updated automatically when templates are updated.

• Listing Designer is free for Blackthorne Pro subscribers.

• The improved picture management of hosted pictures eliminates the need for a separate FTP utility.

• Highly customizable consignment plans.

Bulk email and bulk Feedback now included in Blackthorne Basic

Greater scalability: Blackthorne Pro supports multiple businesses and users

• It comes with highly customizable views and information reporting.

• You can filter data by listing format and seller.

• It allows different views and permissions for different individuals.

• The new archiving capability improves performance.

• It can export data using Microsoft Excel.

If I am currently subscribed to Seller's Assistant, do I have to subscribe to and pay a separate fee to use Blackthorne?

If you are subscribed to Seller's Assistant Basic, you can use Blackthorne Basic by simply downloading the product. You will not be charged an additional fee for using Blackthorne Basic.

Similarly, if you are subscribed to Seller's Assistant Pro, you can use Blackthorne Pro by simply downloading the product. You will not be charged an additional fee for using Blackthorne Pro.

What support is eBay providing to help Seller’s Assistant subcribers transition to Blackthorne?

To help Seller’s Assistant subscribers transition successfully to Blackthorne, the following support will be available:

• Instructions to help you migrate your data from Seller’s Assistant to Blackthorne and learn how to use Blackthorne.

  • To access these instructions, click “Help” in the main menu of Blackthorne. The Help menu contains multiple resources available to help you learn how to use Blackthorne including a Quick Start Guide and a detailed User Guide.

• Monthly online workshops beginning February 2006 that will show you how to migrate your data and how to use key features of Blackthorne. Separate workshops will be conducted for Blackthorne Basic and Blackthorne Pro.

• eBay and Blackthorne employees will be regularly reviewing the discussion boards and customer support emails to respond to your questions on a timely basis.

  • You can view the eBay-hosted discussion boards or the Blackthorne-hosted discussion boards.

  • To contact Customer Support, click “Help,” then “Contact Support” from the main menu of Blackthorne.

• eBay will remind sellers when they need to transition to Blackthorne.

Please check the eBay and Blackthorne discussion boards for the latest information.

How do I transfer my Seller's Assistant data into Blackthorne once I sign up?

The first time you run eBay Blackthorne, it will walk you through the steps to import your data from Sellers Assistant or directly from eBay. After the first run, you can always perform an import using File/Import on the Blackthorne main menu.

I am subscribed to Seller's Assistant. Will I notice anything different on my invoice?

Yes, you will notice a name change on your monthly invoice. It will say "eBay Blackthorne (formerly known as Seller's Assistant) Subscription Fee." This will appear regardless of whether you are still using Seller's Assistant or the new Blackthorne software.

Support Questions

Where can I get help to learn how to use Blackthorne?

To learn how to use Blackthorne, sellers can review the Help documentation available within Blackthorne. Click “Help” in the main menu of the Blackthorne. The Help menu contains multiple resources available to help you learn how to use Blackthorne including a Quick Start Guide and a detailed User Guide.

There are also several discussion boards available to users. You can view either the eBay-hosted discussion boards, or the Blackthorne-hosted discussion boards.

You can also contact customer support by clicking “Help,” then “Contact Support” from the main menu of Blackthorne.

How can I provide feedback on Blackthorne or report an issue?

To provide feedback, click “Help,” then “Contact Support” from the main menu of Blackthorne. eBay will carefully evaluate your input and make additional enhancements based on your suggestions.

How do I change or cancel my subscription to Seller’s Assistant or Blackthorne?

To cancel your subscription, go to My eBay and click the “Subscriptions” link in the left column under the “My Account” section. Use the Subscriptions page to change or cancel your subscription.

To download Seller's Assistant, click one of these links:

• Seller's Assistant Basic

• Seller's Assistant Pro