Welcome to Sportlots Sellers User Guide - Seller Profile

Sportlots Seller Profile allows sellers to make personalized settings to their account. These features can be found on the main seller screen or by clicking on "Seller's Profile" under the "Sell" tab in the menu bar.

Setting the payment method
Going on Vacation
Setting Sportlots Loot percentage
Picture Threshold
Offer Threshold
Setting Manual Block
Setting Auto Block
Customers with High Issue Rates
Picture Recommendations

Setting the payment method

Sportlots pays sellers at the beginning of each month for orders filled the previous month. Sellers have two payment options:

  • Paypal: If the seller selects this option, Sportlots will pay the seller via Paypal. Note that standard Paypal transaction fees may apply.

  • Credit: Selecting credit will place payment into the sellers Sportlots credit area. There, the seller can keep all or a portion of the money in their Sportlots credit area for orders they place. They can also request payment for a portion of the payment. Note, that there will be a delay in getting payment when using this option and request payment from credit.

    If sellers want to be paid via check, they must use the "Credit" option and once Sportlots calculates monthly payments to sellers, they can then manually request a check from their Account Profile once the money has been added to their credit account. Due to tax limitations, Sportlots can only send each seller a maximum of $599.00 in check payments each calendar year. After this limitation, sellers must either leave the money in credit for the remainder of the year or switch to PayPal payments until the next calendar year.

    Going on Vacation

    Sportlots allows sellers to set their own vacation settings. This feature will only apply to the sellers Sportlots stores and will not have any impact on auctions.

    When the seller is on vacation, they can still maintain their inventory and fill orders. The only difference is that buyers will not be able to view the seller's inventory. Also, while inventory is on vacation, a notice will appear on the main seller screen letting the seller know that their inventory is currently on vacation.

  • If the seller changes their settings to "Vacation", not only will the inventory be hidden from buyers, but it will also remove all shopping cart items listed in buyers shopping carts for their items. This is required to prevent buyers from placing orders while the seller is gone.

  • Sellers should put their inventory on vacation at least a few days before they can no longer fill orders. Many buyers pay with check which requires at least a few days to arrive. Sellers need to remember to put their cards back online when they get back and can start to fill orders again.

  • It is up to each seller to decide if they need to put their inventory on vacation. The amount of time they will not be able to fill orders will determine this and they will have to weigh the pros and cons of impacting their report card versus losing sales. However, if the seller is going to be unable to fill orders for 10 days or more, they must put their inventory on vacation or Sportlots will close down their account for not filling orders in a timely fashion.

    Setting Sportlots Loot Percentage

    The Sportlots Loot incentive program provides buyers with the opportunity to earn money toward future orders with specific sellers. With any Sportlots Stores purchase a customer makes, they earn a set percentage toward any future orders exclusively with that seller. This prompts customers to buy more cards from that seller in the future. On the seller's profile page, there is a place for the seller to set their Sportlots Loot percentage and a place to view all customers who currently have Sportlots Loot that can be applied toward future sales. For more detailed information on how the Sportlots Loot program works, see the "Sportlots Loot" page in this User's Guide.

    Picture Threshold

    Sportlots allows buyers to request pictures to be loaded for cards they have an interest in. This helps sellers prioritize which pictures to load first, giving priority to cards that buyers have an interest in.

    Pictures are very beneficial when selling cards. Sportlots has determined that cards with prices over $5.00 have are 15 times more likely to sell if a picture of the card is included. If the seller is serious about selling higher priced cards, a scanner is well worth the investment. Quality used scanners can be found for as little as $30.00. Pictures of cards can also be taken via a camera, however the picture most likely will need to be optimized to reduce the size of the picture. There are many online sites that provide this service. One that Sportlots has used in the past is: http://www.imageoptimizer.net/Pages/Home.aspx. Sportlots doesn't endorse this product, but we have used it in the past and has worked well for us.

    Sportlots allows for pictures to be loaded for cards with prices over $1.00. However, with the picture threshold option, Sellers can choose a setting higher than $1.00 if they don't want to load pictures under this threshold. Selecting a higher setting will take this option away from the buyer, reducing the requests the seller will receive for picture requests.

    If a seller doesn't want to (or have the ability to) load pictures, they should set their picture threshold to the highest setting.

    For more information on how to load pictures, see "Adding Pictures" in this User Guide.

    Offer Threshold

    Sportlots allows buyers to place offers on cards. This gives sellers the option to accept a lower offer than their listed price.

    Sportlots allows offers to be placed for cards with prices over $2.50. However, some sellers may not want to be bothered with offer requests unless the cards have more initial value. These sellers can customize their offer threshold to a higher price by setting it here.

    For more information on how to accept or deny offers from buyers, see "Reviewing Offers" in this User Guide.

    Setting Manual Block

    Sportlots allows sellers to manually block buyers from viewing and bidding on their auctions or viewing and purchasing their fixed price store inventory. This will NOT remove pending/unpaid orders, cards currently in the buyers shopping cart, or existing bids on current auctions.

    To manually block buyers, go to the main seller screen under "Manually Omit Buyers" and enter the buyer's ID in the box where it says to enter new customer code. Then click on the "Add to Omit List" button.

    The Sportlots Seller Profile has a place to view all sellers that are currently blocked, whether manually or automatically.

    Setting Automated Block

    Sportlots allows sellers to set their own criteria for blocking non-paying buyers from viewing and bidding on their auctions or viewing and purchasing their fixed price store inventory. This will NOT remove pending/unpaid orders, cards currently in the buyers shopping cart, or bids on current auctions.

    The criteria used for automated blocking is based on the number of orders unpaid over a period of time. The seller can also choose whether or not they want to include just auction orders, fixed priced orders or if they want to use all types of orders in their criteria.

    The system will run a process twice a day to update each seller's automated blocks. So when the criteria are set, it won't take effect right away but instead will set the blocks sometime within the next 12 hours. Once the blocks are set, the seller will notice the list build in their "Omit Buyers List". The blocks that are automated will show up in a new column on the list as auto-blocked.

    The only way to have the auto-blocked removed is to change the criteria setting.

    To set these criteria, go to the main seller screen and select the "Set Auto-block Criteria" link. Update the criteria shown and click on the "Update Block Criteria" button. Check back on the "Omit Buyers" screen sometime within 12 hours of making the change to see how many buyers have blocked.

    The Sportlots Seller Profile has a place to view all sellers that are currently blocked, whether manually or automaticallyl.

    Customers with High Issue Rates

    In the Seller’s Profile, there is a place where sellers can view buyers who currently have high issue ratings; that is, the number of issues compared to the number of orders they have placed is abnormally high. This feature exists to warn sellers of these particular buyers, since sellers may want to consider blocking buyers with high issue rates.

    Picture Recommendations

    Sportlots provides recommendations to sellers as to which cards in their inventory would benefit most from having a picture uploaded for them. Buyers are much more likely to buy cards that have a picture, so it is beneficial for sellers to upload pictures for high-value cards, especially. To add a picture to one of the recommended cards, simply click the “Add Pic” link.