Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Oh sigh. We want to like it, we really did., August 29, 2005
You'd think there'd be a wonderful program that did it all for the Mac ebay seller. One that helped you list auctions, deal with customers, manage feedback and fees and backend accounting. Oh wait. there was one. It was called A.I.D. and it was lovely. And ebay gave all the companies that were trying to develop such applications such a hardtime they couldn't keep up. And they stopped making it. Hence, very few programs attempt to become Mac programs for sellers, the total package that mac sellers need. The two big contenders are Isale and Garagesale. Both have the looks allowing you to customise templates and offer rich text format. Both offer their own perks, including integration with iphoto, dashboard widgets and the like. But Both stop short of getting your auction on Ebay. Sure Isale says you can track feedback and the like, what they mean is clicking a radiobox to say you've left feedback (GarageSale does the same).
Both Isale and Garage Sale offer trial versions of their products. I used both for the allowed - three auctions (each). And on the last auction , i had a problem. I e-mailed Isale, twice. NO RESPONSE. So i tried GarageSale. Not only did they respond the next day, GarageSale has a yahoo group where software users can discuss their issues, the group is moderated by the lead programmer. When it came down to it, GarageSale Vs. Isale, GarageSale won out. Sure, it's a little less "pretty" than Isale. But for $15 less and a running support group (still waiting for that Isale to return my e-mail from last month). I knew which company i wanted to have my money. Hopefully GarageSale or another clever company will find a way to integrate all that post-auction/backend stuff that neither company seems to address... Until then its GarageSale, an Excel spreadsheet and a good e-mail program.
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful program - but very restrictive activated license!, August 26, 2005
iSale is a wonderful, must have application if you list items on eBay on a regular basis. Its integration with Mac OS X technologies is terrific. It uses my iPhoto library or iSight for my auction images. Plus, it can automatically upload photos to your .Mac account. It will automatically convert styled RTF text into HTML. Pretty slick!
BUT -- and this is a big but -- this product must be activated over the internet. And the license code is node locked to one specific machine. So you will not be able to install a copy on your laptop and your home computer unless you buy two copies! That's a pretty shoddy way to treat customers (since almost all other software allows two installs -- especially in this price range). Nowhere in the product packaging is this activating scheme mentioned -- only buried deep within their website.
Check out the shareware GarageSale if you find the license too restrictive.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lipstick on a Chicken, February 7, 2006
All right, eBay's interface just keeps getting clunkier and clunkier. But don't think iSale is going to keep you from having to learn how to deal directly with eBay. Sure, for the simplest of auctions, you can *learn* the iSale interface instead of eBay's. It's prettier and did win an Apple *Design* award, but when it comes to full-fledged functionality it falls flat. In particular, there is utterly no support for making revisions to a running ad. If you're lucky, you can go to eBay, learn how to edit there, and make changes. But don't count on it if you've taken "advantage" of iSale's style sheets. They just add to the problem. iSale submits listings according to eBay's Application Programming Interface (API) in XML, and if you can't directly edit XML you're up the creek. One of my ads slipped past iSale and got accepted by eBay even though the Item Condition field was null. From that point on I could edit NOTHING (not even the Condition) and eBay finally allowed me to cancel the ad for credit.
iSale has fuzzed up and unwantedly cropped photos I entered using their templates. It saves photos to its own area in .Mac and under indecipherable file names. You'd need to be the programmer to untangle the mess it can make of a "beautiful" ad.
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