There are many third-party tools that can store your listings offline so that they are always available and easily re-uploaded to eBay in case of the type of issue you refer to.
The majority of these options are by subscription so not free. They also do a lot more than just store data, you can do almost all of your eBay activity via these services.
I use SixBit but their cheapest plan is around $30/month. You might have a look at Wonderlister which is a very similar program at a much lower price.
If you go this route you may find that beyond a simple backup you can do almost all of your active eBay work through these programs with much greater flexibility and simplicity than using eBay's built in tools.
In a pinch using eBay Reports is better than nothing and you could easily rebuild your listings from there although you would need to maintain all your images and re-add them as they are not part of the available download from the eBay API.
@ricarmic @recped @john_koenig99 @lotzofuniquegoodies
Very easy to do. Free. Saves locally as a PDF that can be C&Pasted in the event of catastrophe. (See photo of partial PDF of one of your listings)
No software needed;
Windows Users
- 1. When you create a listing save the listing photos into a folder.
- 2. Change the name of the folder to your SKU number***.
- 3. As soon as the listing is live open it. (If you want to save your notes under "Condition" click on that if you need the Item specifics window to open up.)
- 4. Move your cursor to the right of the listing. Right click on it with your mouse.
- 5. From the drop down menu select "PRINT"
- 6. When the Print menu opens input he following options:
For destination select "Save As PDF"
Layout "Portrait"
Pages "All"
More Settings "Scale/Custom/90% (otherwise some of your desription will be cut off) - 7. At the bottom select "SAVE" and save it to your SKU folder that has your photos.
- 8. Store the SKU folders in a parent "ACTIVE LISTINGS" folder. The number of listings in there should match the number eBay has in your Seller Hub. This is a great way to know if eBay has deleted any of your listings.
Done habitually it takes a couple of seconds. If you haven't saved your pix previously you will need to download your photos from the active listings. Creating listing photos is the biggest job along with item research. To avoid recovering these save both every time you make a listing. (It depends on what you sell if your item research, COAs or authenticity Guarantees are important enough to save.)
***If you haven't created an inventory SKU system I suggest 7 numbers. Organize them to place your items together in groups of store categories or eBay cats or both. IE 1122333 11=Store cat, 22=eBay cat, 333 =item specific id
For me same system has worked for 40 years incl brick and mortar. (25,000 skus, no duplicates).
Optionally when an item sells you can move the SKU folder to a "solds" folder (IE: 2025 Solds) . This makes it easy to find a sold item in the event you want to relist it or list a similar item.
If you don't have a few seconds you can pay for software and rely on them to store it.
