Welcome to eBay Blackthorne!Welcome to eBay Blackthorne!eBay Blackthorne is the premier desktop tool for managing your eBay business. This guide will teach you all you need to know to get started down the path to increased sales and a more efficient business.
This guide has been designed to take advantage of online capabilities while still allowing you to print topics you'd like to read on paper. If you prefer to read a guide from front to back, then start at this topic and continue to click through all the topics. Hyperlinks in the document will take you to other sections that offer more detailed information, but you can always use the back button to return to your original topic.
This guide is broken down into several major sections:
In "Getting Started", we discuss system requirements, how to use this document, what you need to know to download and launch the software. We walk you through the Setup Assistant to help you set your preferences. We also include a Quick Start to help you list your first item as well as discuss important information you need to know when importing data.
In "Creating and Managing Items", we cover all the tasks involved with adding and organizing your item information.
"Monitoring Listings" will guide you through the basics of watching and modifying your listings while they are running.
The "Processing Sales and Shipping" topic will discuss all post sale functions like invoicing and shipping.
"Advanced Topics" cover all the finer points of the program. A good understanding of these topics will make you much more efficient.
"Troubleshooting" describes how to use the Support Troubleshooter and the Activity Log.
And finally, the "Knowledge Base" explains different error messages, contains workarounds for certain issues and provides explanation on various How To's.
The following are minimum requirements. If your business is high-volume, we recommend you improve upon these minimum requirements.
Some convenient form of backup is also highly recommended, whether it be a tape drive, CD/DVD burner, or (simplest and quickest of all) an extra hard drive. If you have a fast internet connection, an online backup facility would be a viable alternative.
The following conventions are used throughout this guide.
Many features are called from cascading menus. The simplest example is exiting the program from the File menu. In this guide, we will indicate cascading menu options separated by a vertical bar like this: File | Exit.
Frequently, we reference different buttons, modes or input boxes. We will highlight those buttons like this: the New Item action button, the Seller dropdown Menu, the Monitor Listings mode.
All acronyms are explained in the glossary. In the print version of the guide, each acronym is also spelled out when it is used in a topic for the first time, like: "Upload the images using FTP (File Transfer Protocol)." In the online version of the manual, each acronym is also a " push-out " link that expands in place with an explanation of the acronym, like FTP . To remove the extra text, click the link again.
Another type of link is a pop-up. When you click on the link, a small window will pop up with explanatory text or an image. To get rid of the pop-up, click anywhere on the pop-up or main window.
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Whenever a real life example is used, it looks like this. |
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Things that are really important and shouldn't be missed look like this |
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Tips are little tidbits of information to help you work faster or better. Tips are highlighted in yellow like this paragraph. |
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Notes provide additional important information and are highlighted like this paragraph. |
Although this guide is primarily written for electronic delivery, a printable version is available in PDF format. PDF files are viewable using Adobe Reader. You can download Adobe Reader from http://www.adobe.com.
The Pro version of the documentation is available at http://www.blackthornesw.com/bthome/Pro/eBay_Blackthorne_-_The_Official_Guide.pdf, and the Basic version is available at http://www.blackthornesw.com/bthome/Basic/eBay_Blackthorne_-_The_Official_Guide.pdf.
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We HIGHLY RECOMMEND you use the electronic version whenever possible. Hyperlinks and other electronic conventions do not always translate well to the printed page. In addition, the documentation is changed on a very regular basis, and it will be outdated shortly after you print it. If that isn't enough to convince you, then you should only print the pages that you are interested in as the complete document is over 300 pages long. |
We at Blackthorne have been in the online auction management business longer than anyone else and we strive to provide you with the best auction management tool available. We hope your business reaches its full potential using eBay Blackthorne, and whether you are a new user, or have been part of our legacy, we want to thank you for being part of the Blackthorne community.
