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July 17, 2002

In this issue:
* Free “Auction Genius” Class This Friday
* Feature Article: How To Join The 1%'ers!
* News From eBay
* eBay Buys PayPal
* How Should We React To This?
* The New eBay Toolbar
* eBay Changes Closing Time Display
* eBay Enlarges The Number Of “Items Specific” Categories
* What Kind of Email Do You Want From eBay?
* News From Amazon.com
* Kudos For Amazon
* Strike Another Blow For The Big Corporations
* Is There Any Money In Sports Memorabilia?
* New Post Office Service
* Selling In Europe?
* Search Features You May Not Notice

Free “Auction Genius” Class This Friday

I am tickled to report that I had my first Auction Genius class last week and I enjoyed it immensely. Thanks to all of you who attended!

In case you didn't read about it, it's called “The Auction Genius Course – 4 Steps To Triple The Money In Half The Time”.

You can attend right on your own computer. If you'd like to join the fun this Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific time, go to:

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

Feature Article: How To Join The 1%'ers!

As I mentioned above, the title to my free class is "The Auction Genius Course: Triple Your Profits In Half The Time". Hmmmmm ... TRIPLE profits in HALF the time. You might read that and dismiss it with a yawn, thinking “Yeah, right. Typical marketing exaggeration”.

Actually, I honestly believe that is a <modest> claim. Actually, five or six times your current profits is more accurate – but I know that no one would believe me if I claimed that. Let's take two auction scenarios and check this out.

Situation One:

Here is an auction for a Gibson Jumbo guitar.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=892342044

Someone paid $34,999 for this guitar.

There were 43 bids on this guitar.

Only one person was able to buy this guitar. One.

What about the others who were willing to bid thousands of dollars for a guitar? If you sell guitars, why would you let them get away from you? Don't you think there's a good chance that they will be interested in other guitars you sell?

Situation Two:

Go to this “all categories” page on eBay, and look at the astonishing numbers of items for sale:

http://pages.ebay.com/buy/index.html?ssPageName=HAC01

Dolls & Bears > Dolls: 1000 pages of listings
Home & Garden > Home Décor: 1457 pages
Books > Magazines & Catalogs: 1248 pages
Books > Nonfiction: 3144 pages
Jewelry, Gems & Watches > Fine Jewelry: 3110 pages

Honestly, what is the chance of selling your goodies if you have only a simple listing among all those pages? How can you stand out in this mob? Actually, the real question is: how can YOU sell as many of your products as possible, for the highest possible price?

There are only two reliable ways:

1. You pay the extra money to FEATURE your merchandise. The cost of this on eBay is $99.95 on the front page or $19.95 in your category.

This works. Pick any busy category at random and check out the Featured items, and whether they are selling. Then, go about 10 pages away and check to see how many items actually sell. Now go back to page 100 and check it out.

Conclusion: paying the extra money to Feature drastically and dramatically improves your sales odds.

If you're selling something with a $500 profit margin, paying the Feature fee is no big deal. However, most of the sales on eBay have a much lower margin than that.

Translation: depending on what you sell, paying the extra fees may eat up all your profits.

2. You build a CUSTOMER LIST of your own as you conduct your auction business. Then, all you need to do is either inform your customers when you list items for auction, or you might choose to sell your merchandise directly and avoid the auctions altogether.

I save at least $25 on every single volume – usually more. That money goes into MY bank account, rather than eBay's!

For some strange reason, most auction sellers just don't get this. If you look at the auctions of Power Sellers with zillions of points of feedback, you will see that even most of them don't follow up with past and possible customers.

Yes, they almost always send buyers to their other auctions.

Yes, they often let people know about their store or website.

No, they almost never have a mailing list!

Why not? I have no idea. Hence, the title of this article. It is strictly an unofficial estimate, but only about one percent of the sellers on eBay actually follow up with their customers.

Many of you know that I sell sort-of-rare books. What you may not know is that I rarely sell any of them through auctions anymore. Over the past couple of years I have built a list of rare book collectors and when I find treasures, I just send an email to them. Someone almost always buys the book – my quickest sale was in less than 10 minutes. What do I accomplish by doing this?

1. I save money in auction fees – at least $35 and often more.
2. I turn over my book very quickly – no waiting around.
3. Because the folks on my list know me, it's a hassle-free transaction.
4. I don't have to follow anyone else's rules.

The question is: do you want to do what I do? or do you want to settle for a one time sale?

This is the most-overlooked profit stream in auctions!

If you see the possibilities of this, go to

http://auctioneware.com

and consider starting your own auction list. In future articles on this subject, we will cover ways to entice customers to join your list, and why you MUST have technology that handles this for you.

News From eBay

1. eBay Buys PayPal

By far the biggest news in online auctions since our last issue is that eBay has bought PayPal.

According to their propaganda: "In a move that will help millions of Internet users buy and sell online, eBay Inc., the world's online marketplace, today announced that it has agreed to acquire PayPal, Inc., the global payments platform. The acquisition, which is subject to various stockholder, government and regulatory approvals, is expected to close around year-end 2002.”

PayPal is receiving $1.5 billion in eBay stock as the purchase price.

Two lawsuits were quickly filed against this purchase, one of them representing PayPal stock holders who think they will lose in this transaction. eBay and PayPal claim they are unconcerned about the lawsuits. Probably, they should be. What average person has the resources to fight eBay and PayPal in court?

http://pages.ebay.com/community/news/acquire.html
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help&exloc=ebaypp

Personally, I am very sorry about this merger. I know there have been horror stories about PayPal, but my personal history with them has been smooth. On the other hand, my few experiences with eBay's payment system have been anything but pleasant. It was way too expensive, and if there was a problem, forget it. All I ever got from eBay was “canned” email that had nothing to do with the problem – if I received a response at all. Unlike eBay, I have a PayPal phone number which allowed me to ... gasp! ... talk to a real live person.

So, I expect PayPal fees to rise, while service declines. Naturally, I hope to be wrong.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens, but what are our alternatives? I know of two, at this time:

a. Bidpay, run by Western Union:

http://www.bidpay.com/

b. C2it.Com, run by CitiBank.

https://www.c2it.com

(800) 200-3881,

Does anyone have any experiences with either of these services?

3. The New eBay Toolbar

In a past issue, I mentioned the new eBay toolbar. It's free and you can download it here:

http://pages.ebay.com/ebay_toolbar/

The advantage: if you go to eBay frequently, like I do, you can search for items without having to go to the eBay site. Just type in whatever you wish on your current page, and it will take you directly to the appropriate spot on eBay.

The disadvantage: according to people who track these things, a lot of nasty little gremlins come with the download. In other words, spyware attaches itself to your system and reports back to someone about you and your computer habits. Personally, I don't like that thought much, and so haven't used the toolbar.

However, my techie showed me an alternative this week. I have the “Opera” browser on my computer. If you aren't familiar with opera, it's has the same function as Netscape, Internet Explorer and Mozilla. And Opera will install the eBay search tool – WITHOUT any critters to go with it. I also have a new google toolbar, so that I don't have to actually go to the google.com site either.

So, check whatever browser you use. Perhaps you can get these little time savers onto your screens without all the spyware.

4. eBay Changes Closing Time Display

Formerly, auctions stated the ending time as "Ends PDT/PST", with the date and military time in the Pacific Time Zone. It now displays "Time Left", with the amount of time left in the listing displayed in hours and minutes, rather than the specific hour of the day.

eBay believes this will make it easier on users and states that all auctions aren't displayed this way as yet.

If you want to use the old system, there are some rather confusing directions for doing so:

“If the page is showing time left, and you prefer to view time remaining by the old method, set the default via a link in the "Show Only" that will say "View ending times" box in the left-hand navigation bar. Once the default is set to "Ends PDT/PST", it will remain that way for that user until changed. Set the default for search and listings results separately.”

Personally, I don't care, but if you do, at least you can choose the old way.

To see a preview of "Time Left", click

http://pages.ebay.com/preview/time.html

5. eBay Enlarges The Number Of “Items Specific” Categories

What are “Items Specifics”, you might ask? According to eBay, “Specifics allow you, the seller, to provide additional details about your item that can then be used by buyers to search more precisely for items of interest. The Item Specifics available during the selling process are determined by the category in which you sell your item. For example, the Item Specifics available in the Tickets category may be related to Date and Location of event, while the Item Specifics in the Laptops category could refer to Brand and Speed of computer.”

eBay has recently added this feature to the “Animation Art” and “Photographic Images” categories. Up until now, this option has been availabel in: Tickets, Travel, Real Estate, Men's Clothing, Wrist watches and PDAs categories.

For more information about Item Specifics, go to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sellerguide/item_specifics.html
http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/e_product_finder.html

6. What Kind of Email Do You Want From eBay?

You can now choose whether you want HTML or text-only format for certain emails such as Listing Confirmation, End of Auction, and more. This preference isn't available for all members as yet.

If you want to change your format, here are the steps:

*Click on the link: http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?OptinLoginShow, which will lead you to the Change Your Notification Preferences page.

*Choose your Email Delivery Format for Transaction Emails and Billing Emails.

*Press the Save my Changes button.

Or, you can also get to this page by going to My eBay, selecting the Preferences tab, and clicking the "Change my notification preferences" link.

Apparently, if you do nothing, you will continue to receive the same old messages they have always sent.

News From Amazon.com

1. Kudos For Amazon

After you sell a certain amount on Amazon, you will receive an email requesting a verification of your identity. It's a buyer protection thing because they don't want someone selling a huge amount of merchandise and then taking off with the money.

2. Strike Another Blow For The Big Corporations

July 9 Amazon also announced that only “authorized” sellers can list items as "new" in Electronics, Camera & Photo, Kitchen & Housewares, Outdoor Living, and Tools & Hardware. Sellers may still use the "new" condition code in all other product lines.

"Authorized Sellers" are those sellers authorized by a specific manufacturer to sell that manufacturer's products at Amazon.com.

So, if you have a brand new, never unwrapped, in-the-box item in the categories above, you can't use the term “new”, (even if it is) unless the manufacturer has given you explicit permission to be a reseller.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/1038516/

Is There Any Money In Sports Memorabilia?

If you're interested in sports, you might consider sports memorabilia as a category. Here are some juicy numbers:

$23,600 - 1937 World Series pinball machine

$18,900 - Michael Jordan signed jersey

$12,400 - Michael Jordan "alternate black" game-used Bulls jersey

$8,851 - 1948 Leaf Joe DiMaggio

$8,500 - Red Ruffing 1941 Yankees jersey

$8,339 - 1963 Pete Rose card

$7,400 - 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan card

$7,000 - T206 Portrait Red Back Ty Cobb card

$6,100 - 1919 Babe Ruth autographed ball

$5,100.52 - 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan card

$115,821 - Babe Ruth jersey

$90,563 - Mickey Mantle jersey

$29,779 - Roberto Clemente jersey

$22,225 - 1973 Oakland A’s World Championship trophy

And last, but not least - $4,000 for lunch with former WCW champion Bill Goldberg. McDonald's, eat your heart out!

New Post Office Service

The latest shipping price increase hasn't been too popular among users of the Post office. Perhaps in response to this criticism, the USPS has offered a new “certified seller” program.

Anyone becoming a certified seller is eligible for special online Delivery Confirmation and Signature Confirmation services, which record the date, time and ZIP Code of delivery.

For more information, go here:

http://www.usps.com/shipping/onlineforms.htm#H1

Selling In Europe?

eBid is now the 3rd largest auction site in the UK and became a free site, as of June 10, 2002.

http://www.ebid.co.uk/

Search Features You May Not Usually Notice

There are all kinds of specific ways to search on eBay that many people don't notice. Some of these functions might be useful to you as a seller.

For this example, I used:

Dolls & Bears > Dolls > By Brands, Manufacturers > American Girl

http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/all/category15989/index.html

My search revealed 661 items, a listing of all the items in this category. But, there are other ways to subdivide these listings, if I was interested in doing some research.

1. On the left, under “Show” is GALLERY VIEW. If I want to look at those items with pictures, it shows me 189 items with pictures. (These are the number at the time of this writing – they might be different by the time you read this article).

2. In the same box is “Items Near Me”. This is a geographical division, and today there are 5 American Girl items for sale in Atlanta, Ga. This is obviously helpful in categories of large and expensive items like cars, furniture or appliances.

3. Related Items: in this category are listed “Toys” and clicking this will take me to the general Toys category listings.

4. Suppose I can't find what I am looking for? In that case the “Popular Search” terms might be of help. This lists “american girl” and “american girl doll”, in case I need to become more specific.

Below this is a list of four eBay stores that might be relevant to my interest in American Girl dolls. This is when having your own store might pay off.

Directly above the items is this line:

5. Show only: current | new today | ending today | going, going, gone

The listings I am currently looking at are “current”. But if you wish, you can refine your search.

6. “new today” is obvious and reveals 144 listings.

7. “ending today” has 104 items, and those due to expire in an hour or less are at the top with the number of remaining minutes in red. This is a favorite haunt of snipers.

8. “going, going, gone” used to refer to the past two hours. I am not certain that the time hasn't changed, but darned if I can find that information on the eBay site. It can be quite difficult to navigate.