E-mail: Name:

April 15 , 2005

In this issue:
* Worthless Spam Offers Of Free Auction Software
* Feature Article: Are Wholesale Search Engines Worth Your Time?
* Feedback From Readers About "Lame Ideas"
* Want A One Way Link To Your Store Or Website?

Worthless Spam Offers Of Free Auction Software

There are constant warnings about the fake emails that are supposedly from eBay, PayPal and assorted banks. But here is another one to watch out for ... it's a spam email about free auction classes and promises to give you "free" copies of expensive auction software:

We are going to give you free- eBay Internet software suite programs. For example, programs like {name of product} that tells you what your product is likely to sell for - a 14-day history of that product. This software suite will help you blow your competition off the map. It's all free-You get this for attending this special online auction training event that focuses on making big money with eBay and the Internet.

The "free" software is nothing more than the free trial periods that you can grab for yourself without attending their classes. Be careful who you involve yourself with or you'll be like one of my students who says:

Jeremy did a great job on Wednesday evening. He had a few pointers for me to take back to my web hosting company (that was forced onto me by {name of company} .. cost me $995 + 29.95/mo). If they don't have the right answers, I am either going to take my site down or move it somewhere that might have some protection. I wish I had run across you before {name of company} got a hold of me.. oh well.. better late than never :-)

Products, Products, Products
1. Feature Article: Are Wholesale Search Engines Worth Your Time?

Wholesale search engines sound like a really good way to find wholesale products to sell on eBay and other online stores. But do they really work?

That's asking the wrong question. The question isn't whether you can find suppliers or products - of course you can! The question is whether these sources will give you the products and deals that you need in order to make money. To find out for yourself, try an experiment with the search box below and type in "handbags", since they are certainly hot items on eBay.

Let's take a quick trip through these sources - we can make a list and go back later to study the sites more carefully.

* The first source I see is DollarDays. I'm not really into those kinds of items so I go to the second source of swapselltrade.com. Hmmmmmmm ... have to register to see what they've got so I might come back to that one.

* The third one, bluemoondirect.com is more interesting. It is about wholesale fashion jewelry, accessories, and handbags and has a monthly newsletter. Signed up for their newsleeter and their minimum order is only $100. Definitely one for my list.

* Our fourth site, comecoinc.com, has some goodies that caught my eye. One collection in particular is the Marilyn Monroe line of handbags. I saw those at Macy's just last week. Worth a follow up.

* Ceri wholesale is our next source and they offer shoes, jewelry and sunglasses as well as handbags. With only a $200 minimum order, they are added to my growing list.

* pouchette.com. Wow, these are designer goodies: Balenciaga/ Burberry/ Chanel/ Citizens of Humanity/ Diesel/ Fendi/ Hermes/ Luella. I know these sell well - the only question is whether their prices are good enough for eBay. If not, I might consider a webstore if I can be sure of a steady supply. It's worth calling these folks on the phone and having a chat.

* Burberry.com - some beautiful things but looks more like a retail site than a wholesale one. No bargains here.

* Wholesale Handbags & Luggage Directory: Wow, paydirt here ... 96 different websites selling handbags. In fact, here's an interesting little side trip, which even though it isn't about handbags is definitely of great interest. (My daughter is learning how to sell on eBay - think I'll tell her about this one). Ralph Lauren Polo shirts. These always fly off the eBay shelves, if the price is right.

Supplier: at $189 for 12 shirts, the per shirt price is $15.75

eBay shirt

eBay sale price: Profit would be $40.66 ($56.41 - $15.75) Note: doesn't include eBay fees

* Wholesale Clothing Registry: you have to pay to join this one - or even to see their prices. Huh, uh. No way.

* New York Handbags has a wide variety of types: cannister, mesh, icon and more.

There are many more sources on this page, but you get the idea. I went ahead and found 9 pages of results, and finally got tired of looking. But there is another positive worth mentioning ...

Gives me more ideas! Actually, I've realized I could spend the day just on this one query of 'handbags'!

So, do wholesale search engines provide value? Of course. Just remember that you must do your due diligence with any supplier. Let your head rule, and not your heart.

2. Feedback From Readers About "Lame Ideas"

Recently we mentioned some 'lame' ways to find products for sale on eBay. We received a ton of mail about our ideas: some agreeing wholeheartedly and others disagreeing. Some readers indignantly stated that they had used these lame ideas and they worked just fine, thank you very much.

One idea is finding products at garage sales and flea markets. Does this work? YES! Absolutely. I have done this myself many times and it certainly is a valid way to find products. What I said, though, is that it's not EFFICIENT.

For instance, let's pretend you are standing on the driveway looking at hundreds of products at a neighborhood garage sale.

* Do you really know which one of those goodies will sell well on eBay?
* And do you know which ones will bring the highest prices?
* And let's suppose you buy 20 items - how long will it take you to write 20 listings? How many hours will you have put into finding and listing these treasures? Is it really worth it?

Standing at a sale like this gives you no opportunity to do any kind of research. If you've been in the antiques and collectibles business for a time, perhaps you DO know the difference between trash and treasure. I suggest that the average person does not know. I surely don't.

To make this clearer, though, let's take two imaginary sellers named Joe and Jane. In the month of May they work the exact some number of hours and make the exact same amount of money (let's assume they made $1,000 for 80 hours of work).

Joe: finds products at garage sales, flea markets and on eBay's wholesale lots section.

Jane: spends her hours differently from Joe. Instead of being out looking for products, she searches for a reliable wholesaler who can send her a constant and steady supply of one product line. During that month, she thoroughly tests a listing that she can use for this line, and sets up the entire product line to auto-relist. She is confident that she now has one stream of income securely in place.

June arrives.

Joe has to begin the scramble for new products to make his money for June.

Jane on the other hand, already has a $1,000 income stream in place, so she is free to look for a second stream of income. And now that she understands how it is done, she will most likely move to a more expensive product.

Assuming that they repeat their May results, Joe will once again have a $1,000 month. Jane, on the other hand, will make $2,000 and her income will escalate in the coming months.

Now, that's efficient!

Want A One Way Link To Your Store Or Website?

If you're interested in making money from the free search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN, you will know that links are the name of the game, the key to high placement. Reciprocal links (you link to me and I'll link to you) still matter but they're less important than they used to be. As search engines get more sophisticated, they aren't valuing some links very highly - especially if they're unrelated sites - for example, your movie site links to a baby supply site.

One way links are the best, bar none. You can get a one-way link by going to my blog and posting comments. I have hesitated to suggest this in the past because my blog has been flooded with spam from poker and viagra sites - and even worse. So I cut off all comments, but am beginning to get a handle on this now and would like to make it available to honest and decent folks like readers of this ezine.

http://www.auction-genius-course.com/blog

If you type in "online auction blog" you will see that my blog is #1 at Google & MSN, and #2 at Yahoo, so it gets a fair amount of traffic.

If you comment doesn't show up immediately, it's because I'm still learning how to use my anti-spamming software. It will show up, though, and soon. But please: make it a worthwhile comment!