Use Google Drive to create a searchable archive of all your past eBay sales

(I really wanted to put Hints from Hilarise in the title of this post but there wasn’t room after I did all the nice keyword relevant SEO words. I just want you people to understand how much I suffer to make this blog all professional and junk. Content above comedy is SUCH a drag. ;-))

If you’re like me, no matter how organized you are, you always hit that point when you know you sold an item but can’t remember when you sold it or what it sold for. Even if you have the world’s best records, combing through years and years of eBay transactions to find a specific one is a huge pain.

Well, here’s a solution so simple you’ll kick yourself that you didn’t think of it years ago. We’re going to use a free Google Drive account to create an infinitely searchable archive of all our past eBay transactions so we’ll always be able to find any past transaction quickly. It’s easy. Ready?

• Log into your Google Drive account. (If you already have a Google account such as Google+, Gmail or YouTube, you already have a Google Drive account, you just need to activate it.)
• Go to My eBay > My Account > Seller Account. On the right hand side of the screen is the option to view your monthly eBay invoices up through the last year and a half. Pick any invoice and select it.
• Once inside the invoice, there’s the option to Download it in the top right hand corner. You’ll get the option to download it as HTML or CSV. Choose CSV.
• Download all available invoice as CSV files and then upload them all to your Google Drive account. (You can let Google Drive convert them to Google Spreadsheets, it’ll save space.) You can even do this in bulk by just dropping and dragging them all into your account.

And you’re done. Now you can easily search the last year and a half of transactions using the powerful advanced features of Google search. Now, if you’re like me and you’ve been downloading your invoices for years, you can upload this entire back history now and increase your searchable archive for as far back as you have invoices. If you’ve never been in the habit of downloading invoices before, just remember to download them all at least once every 18 months and you’ll never miss one. (I have a calendar reminder set for myself so I don’t forget.)

Google Drive gives you near infinite space and letting it convert the files makes them take up even less room. Another great feature is that you can put them all in a single collection and then share that collection with whoever you want. For instance, our “eBay Invoices” collection is shared between everyone who works with our eBay account so we all have access to the archive whenever we need it. You won’t believe how often it comes in handy!

What other uses can you think of for this archive?