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August 14, 2002

In this issue:
* Announcements:
* An AUCTION GENIUS Course Tip
* Feature Article: PayPal and eBay Merger?
* C2it As A Payment Alternative?
* Is It OK To Sell That What-Cha-Ma-Call-It On eBay?
* Auction Resources
* Complaining About eBay
* eBay Takes A Giant Step Away From Auctions
* A Glimpse Into The Fashion Future?
* Just To Keep Life In Perspective

Announcements

Have you noticed a drop in activity and bids on your auctions? Not to worry because, as usual, business on the net has been slow this summer. This happens every year.

The good news: from Labor Day until about December 18th, are the best times of the year on the auction sites. The holiday tidal wave will soon sweep over us and NOW is the time to find those new products, to get your system geared up, to write listings. Don't miss out this golden time of year!

Because of the slow activity and other distractions in my own life, I skipped the last issue of Auction Gold. But, fall is rapidly approaching and I'm excited about it. Hope you are, too.

An AUCTION GENIUS Course Tip

We had had three Auction Genius classes so far, and all of them have been focused on how to find products to sell. A rule of thumb: plan on DOUBLING your product investment. Paying $15 for an item and receiving $18 for it is NOT the kind of profit you need to make.

Watch those bottom lines though. If you pay $15 for an item and sell it for $30, are you really doubling your money? Maybe not.

You need to keep a close eye on your costs so that you can REALLY double your money. For example, your costs might involve:

* Shipping from your supplier
* eBay fees (if using eBay or another fee based auction site)
- Listing fee
- Final value fee
- Any features
* Optional fees for picture hosting, management systems, etc. (Do your best to avoid these!)
* Packing supplies and material

You might need to receive $33 dollars to double your money. WATCH YOUR BOTTOM LINE!

Whether you ever attend the Auction Genius classes or not, it will be helpful to understand our business model. It is the logical way to learn anything, I think:

1. Concentrate on finding a product that you like and can sell profitably
2. Learn to write a powerful TEMPLATE listing that you can use again and again
3. Set up a management system so that you can keep track of what's going on without losing your mind
4. Set up a website and mailing list which will double or triple your profits – and DECREASE your work load

Once a student understands HOW to set up one profitable product stream, then it is easy to set up #2, #3 and so on. Then students have a lifetime independence. Freedom! YES!!!

Our first classes have been concentrated almost totally on how to figure out what is profitable and then to find the products at a price that will make money.

http://auction-genius-course.com

Feature Article: PayPal and eBay Merger?

In the last issue, I expressed my concern that the purchase of PayPal by eBay is NOT good for us auction sellers. eBbay is too much of a monopoly as it is, and PayPal has been a strong force for the independence of both sellers and buyers.

Why Don't We Want eBay To Acquire PayPal?

One reason is that eBay's own payment system, Billpoint, was so inferior that it has died an ungraceful death. Why are we to assume that the take-over of PayPal will be any different?

Here is an interesting story from cnet.com about how eBay couldn't make Billpoint fly, even though they teamed up with giants Western Union and VISA.

http://news.com.com/2100-1017-942231.html

Another critical reason is that once eBay gets ahold of PayPal, it will have full access to every transaction ever made by any user since PayPal began! Ebay will be able to look into YOUR individual account and see every online transaction that has ever been made through PayPal. They will have the name, address, phone number, bank account info, and credit card info on you and every person you have had transactions with through PayPal.

What Can We Do About It?

There are lawsuits against this buyout, and the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are now investing. We can all contact the Department Of Justice Antitrust Division, and FTC, and express our reservations.

Dept Of Justice:
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/contact/emailatr.htm
antitrust@usdoj.gov

Federal Trade Commission:
http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/antitrust.htm

As always, a handwritten letter will most likely carry more weight than an email. If you are willing to write such a letter, here is a sample, compliments of The Auction Guild.

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to express my concern about the pending merger between the online auction house eBay (www.ebay.com) and the online credit card service PayPal (www.paypal.com). If this acquisition is allowed to go through, it will create the potential for some serious antitrust violations.Once this merger goes through, eBay will have full access to every transaction ever made by any PayPal user since PayPal began, including addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, and bank account information. They will even have access to the accounts of people who have never before had dealings on eBay, and will be able to tell what was sold on other auction sites, sites in direct competition with eBay. This inside information would give eBay a disproportionately unfair advantage over its competitors, the very definition of a monopoly.Furthermore, eBay will have full access to information about bills paid, donations to charities, and any other private transactions that are not related in any way to business transacted on eBay. PayPal keeps full account information on record for a number of years, even if an account is closed. The potential for violation of privacy and misuse of sensitive information by eBay is staggering.According to eBay and PayPal, these issues will not be dealt with until after the merger is approved, by which time eBay will have full access to the sensitive data and it will already be too late. I am urging you to act now to limit the amount of inside business information to which eBay will have access, once this merger goes through.Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
SEND TO:Antitrust Division - New Case Unit
601 D Street NW, Suite 10011
Washington, DC 20530AND

Office of Policy and Evaluation
Room 394
Bureau of Competition
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20580

I copied this letter and mailed them as suggested above. Please do likewise and act quickly. Now is the time to express our opinion.

C2it As A Payment Alternative?

I mentioned alternatives to PayPal (which we might very well need in the near future). One of these is C2it, run by CitiBank. I asked if any reader had any experience and received this reply:

I feel the need to comment on the C2it service. I signed up for the service about a year ago. I found out about the site from one of the smaller auction sites. I was a little weary of the service and continued to list Paypal as my payment of choice along with checks and credit cards.

A little while later I read on the Auction Watch message boards about some negative experiences others had had using the service. This only kept me further away.

However, at the beginning of the year I decided to purchase some accounting software on Ebay. The gentleman I purchased the software from listed C2it. I saw that C2it was still offering to give you $10.00, the first time you sent money. So despite my better judgment I tried their service.

I sent him a bank transfer through my checking account. Making sure to copy and paste his email address into the send to space. The first problem! Unlike Paypal (except echecks) it takes several days for the funds to transfer. Also apparently they do not notify the customer money has been sent until it clears. After about four business days the money cleared my bank. The seller still had not received any notification of payment or the payment. I called C2it and was told the gentleman had not picked up his funds. When he called they told him no money had been sent to him. I was not a happy camper. I called back and had the transfer canceled, since the money was just sitting there and they were too stupid to admit and figure out this guy really could not get his money.

I immediately sent the funds via Paypal to the same email address. Guess what? He got the money ASAP. No problems.

I found the service to be a waste of time. I will not accept it as payment. You can visit the Auction Watch boards for similar experiences. One time was enough for me.

Cathleen Caffery
(Reader emails are not published due to abuse by spammers).

Of course, C2it and other 3rd party payment processors will see a golden opportunity in this purchase and begin improving their services to pick up the PayPal fallout. We'll see what happens.

Is It OK To Sell That What-Cha-Ma-Call-It On eBay?

eBay has a LOT of rules about what we can and can't sell. If you have ever wondered if it's OK to sell something, you might want to check the list we have in our “Resource” section of auctionknowhow.com.

http://www.auctionknowhow.com/resource/questions.shtml

Some of these prohibitions are natural and obvious – like stolen property and illegal drugs.

But some of them are downright silly. For example, the page on “keyword spamming” doesn't allow the use of such words as: gallery, oil paintings, reproduction, painting, recreation, copy, quality, reproductions, recreations, realistic, copies, paintings, replica, posters, prints, video.

If these words are truly forbidden, then I have broken the rules countless times. Haven't you?

Others can make your blood boil. For example, the sale of alcohol is forbidden EXCEPT for “Exception: Select sellers on Sothebys.com and Live Auctions are permitted to sell wine. These listings will appear on the eBay website”.

Guess what? Sothebys pays a lot of money to eBay for this privilege. You don't, and I don't, so we are eliminated.

Here is the complete list:

PROHIBITED:

• Alcohol
• Animals and Wildlife Products
• Catalog and URL Sales
• Counterfeit Currency and Stamps
• Counterfeit Items
• Credit Cards
• Drugs & Drug Paraphernalia
• Embargoed Goods and Prohibited Countries
• Firearms
• Fireworks
• Government IDs and Licenses
• Human Parts and Remains
• Links
• Lockpicking Devices
• Mailing Lists and Personal Information
• Plants and Seeds
• Postage Meters
• Recalled Items
• Satellite and Cable TV Descramblers
• Stocks and Other Securities
• Stolen Property
• Surveillance Equipment
• Tobacco
• Travel

SPECIAL: Real Estate

QUESTIONABLE:

• Artifacts
• Autographed Items
• Batteries
• Contracts and Tickets
• Electronics Equipment
• Event Tickets
• Food
• Freon
• Hazardous Materials
• International Trading - Buyers
• International Trading - Sellers
• Mature Audiences
• Offensive Material
• Pesticides
• Police-Related Items
• Pre-Sale Listings
• Slot Machines
• Used Clothing
• Used Medical Devices
• Weapons & Knives
• Wine

POTENTIALLY INFRINGING: (copyright & trademark)

• Contracts and Tickets
• Copyrighted Items
• Domain Names
• Faces, Names & Signatures
• Games: Sega/Nintendo/Sony
• Imported Items
• Key Word Spamming
• Music, Movies and Photos
• Promotional Items
• Software
• Trademarked Items
• Your Listing - Copyrights and TM

Auction Resources

In case you are unfamiliar with our Resource section, it also includes:

1. A list of other auction sites besides eBay, Yahoo and Amazon

2. eBay fee chart

3. eBay's often elusive and hard-to-find contact information.

4. Yahoo is easier, but here it is.

5. And Amazon is wonderfully easy.

6. Do you ever see those letters at the end of a URL, like "de" and wonder what country they represent? This handy little tool will tell you. And, if you know the country, and wonder what letters represent it, it will do that, too.

http://auctionknowhow.com/resource

Complaining About eBay

And speaking of being in contact with eBay ... you pay for services, and if you complain to eBay, but receive no satisfaction, here is how to complain:

The Consumer Trouble Shooter.
http://www.troubleshooter.com/data/access.html

Better Business Bureau Online
http://www.bbbsilicon.org

Federal Trade Commission:
https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm

FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center
http://www.ifccfbi.gov/

How to permanently close an Ebay account:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/closedAccount.html

eBay Takes A Giant Step Away From Auctions

I suppose it was inevitable:

First, there were auctions.

Second, there were auctions – but some of them now included a “Buy It Now” feature, which allowed a sale at a fixed price, without bothering with auctions, bidding and all that messy stuff that makes auctions so much fun.

Now there is “Fixed Price” which just eliminates auctions altogether and turns eBay into a retail store.

In case you're wondering about the difference between the two fixed price formats, they are:

BIN: auction or fixed price
FP: fixed price only, just like the local WalMart

BIN: is only available when there are no bids on an item or until the reserve price is met (if applicable). As soon as a bid is placed (or the reserve price is met), the Buy It Now feature disappears and your listing continues auction-style.
FP: the fixed price remains and there is no bidding at all

BIN: You can sell only one item per listing.
FP: You can sell more than one item at the same time

BIN: In addition to insertion and final value fees, a 5 cent fee applies to auction-style listings with a Buy It Now price.
FP: Normal insertion and final value fees apply, but no additional fees.

A Glimpse Into The Fashion Future?

Here is a sort of fun feature on eBay. Sorry to admit my ignorance, but I don't know who Phillip Bloch is (does that make me unbearably “uncool”?). He is labeled a fashion expert by people who claim to know about such things. eBay's fashion editor Bloch tells us what's in and what's not. If you want to know what's “hot” in the hate couture world, check this out. In case you're wondering, right now it's bold shades and turquoise:

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/phillipbloch/index.html

Just To Keep Life In Perspective

“Some time ago, a man punished his 3 year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said,
"This is for you, daddy."

He was embarrassed by his earlier over reaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty. He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside of it?" The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her forgiveness. He kept that gold box by his bed for years. Whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there. In a very real sense, each of us as has been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold. We all have been in this situation, forgetting to tell those we love each day, "I love you" or passing along a positive thought to make their day a little more special.”