Please Read This

Feb 242012
 

Thanks for visiting the football auction, here is the current standing on development.

As 18th March – We have made a number of changes to the front page. Some you won’t see as they were code changes but the main one I suppose is replacing the search box. The main reason for this is to show the advanced search options availble. Before the main option would have been a basic search, only if you noticed the advanced search link would you try the full features available. We have removed the basic search and replaced it with a link ACTION SEARCH. We have also removed the box of links to videos and place on text link to the main Youtube page. Anyone should feel free to create video of using the site if they want. Just send them here and we’ll upload them if we think they will help others.

We also inlcude a short random message at the top of the listing. This are will show tips and ideas on how to use the site. The message changes with every refresh so over time everyone should have the main things they need to know about the site burnt into their brain :-)

As of 10th March – Today we bought forward our server move, this may have caused a few outages but was supposed to be seamless. We don’t expect any major problems but the next 48 hours may show some blanks pages depending on visitors own ISP and computer set-up.

As of 5th March – Today I did a security scan and deactivated 26 member accounts. The reason for this was their email address given in their account was not active. So if you find you can’t now log-in email support@kickoff3pmco.uk using your current email address and giving your username. We’ll be happy to change your email in the account and activate your membership.

As of 2nd March – Those people who used the site before it went live may want clear their browser cache if things are not loading as they should. Also as luck would have I’ve just heard from our host who say they need to do some work that may disrupt our server for up to 90 mins on Saturday & Sunday. The quoted time are out of normal hours but not set in stone.

As of 1st March – The site is now live and for a while I’m not making any more changes. Those people who may have sampled the bulk upload or pre-filled fields should revisit their admin area to make changes or to download the new sample file.

Last features added include currencies EURO & USD, Free WANTED ITEMS, Direct Buyout payment – please note if you use buyout features in your listing a buyer will have 30 minutes to pay but should they move away from the payment page without making a payment the sale will be deleted and the auction restarted. Test payments have now been removed. I have also edited the descriptions on a few items to make is clearer or easier. A sample shipping feature is now enabled, this may not suit all people but the basic idea is you enter the weight of an item or simply use the price based on value of order. In general you should continue to add your own delivery costs and supplement that with more details. We’ll test the new features but to be honest I don’t like the idea of your shipping cost being reliant on me updating the tiers provided by Royal Mail.

As of Feb 24th the site is due to go live for use on March 1st. What does this mean ? well you can current use the site to test how it works but you should understand we are still developing some parts and before the site goes live all setting will be reset so all auctions will be closed as finished.

Even after the site goes live we still expect to continue to expand the site but the basic working of the auction should be fine to use.

Finally, please please pass the site details around your friends as the only way the site will work is by getting people to use it. That’s also the only way the site will get better because any income from the auction is reinvested in the site either in development time or advertising. We need all the free advertising we can get so if you have you own website please consider a back link at least.

If you want to comment use the form on the side of the support page to register on the support forum. We will try to answer your questions or comments as soon as possible.

More later but have fun that’s what it’s all about.

Dave.

 February 24, 2012  Site News

Bulk Uploads Videos 1&2

Feb 282012
 

 

The terms you will need to understand here are spreadsheet, csv file & uploading. If you are now blank on all those this is probably not for you.

First let’s explain what a bulk upload is first

Kickoff3pm.co.uk gives you a few time saving methods, but the are times when you need to save hours not minutes. Bulk uploading is a process of providing default setting for items first replacing most the repetitive moves. You then build a data file containing all the individual sections like TITLE & DESCRIPTION. This file is then imported and merges with the defaults to produce your auctions.

WHO SHOULD USE IT

Best used when you have more the 100 items with similar features. If we take football programmes for an example – Similar features could be they are all home programmes for one club, or are all fa cup finals which means you want the same category each time. In fact if it’s just that it you can just use the pre-filled data section to achieve it. But bulk items uploads come in two parts, final upload is the other part that builds on the prefilled data. You create a file based on your defaults adding in all the sections that change. You then upload that file, check it, edit the auctions if needed and then set them all live in one go. Although many thousands of items can be added this way we recommend you split your items up into lot of 100. This is a manageable amount.

The video

This is a long video so it’s in two parts, the first deals with pre-filled data and advanced shipping options. The second deals with the csv file and how to edit it, upload, check and make live your listing.

Important Notes

We aim to improve this process a lot when money allows and although we have tested working many times we also appreciate not everyone has the time, skills or indeed to patience to work though problems. Setting up your first file and getting it to work can be very time consuming, for this reason do a small sample and get that right, only then move on to bigger things. Although we can answer questions we do not provide direct support for this feature at the moment.

 

Part One of the video

 

 
Part Two of the video
 

 February 28, 2012  We Have Have A Video Of That

This Is Not That Place

Feb 202012
 

http://www.kickoff3pm.co.uk/football-auction/If you have used ebay I guess it is understandable that you will at some point compare Ko3pm with that auction site. We don’t mind that but we would like to stress we have not setup this auction site to compete with ebay. So please don’t tell us what you can’t do on here but can do on ebay. If you are happier on ebay then use ebay or better still use both sites.

Why would you use kickoff3pm.co.uk rather then ebay ? we can’t answer that and convince you that you will get more bids for the items you want to sell, but we can’t tell that we are dedicated to providing the best service to football collectors we can. We can also tell you that when you sell on kickoff3pm.co.uk you are supporting the UK economy not the USA or Luxemburg or which ever other countries ebay use in order to sustain their profit margins.

If you save some money in the process then that’s even better but as a seller or buyer we ask you to commit a bit more time and a bit more patience as we buildup the visitor levels.  And you can play your part too, mention kickoff3pm.co.uk on all the football forum, at the game or in the clubs and pubs. The more people that know about us the better chance we have of building  this site to become the place to sell football stuff online.

 February 20, 2012  Bid & Buying, Sold & Selling