Friday, May 18, 2007

Ebays Latest Fee Increases--is This The Beginning Of The End?

    

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On January 13, eBay sellers received an unwelcome announcement from eBay. Fees were going up.
Partly due to our tendency to "skim" messages and partly due to the way in which the announcement was worded, the result was widespread panic and threats of mutiny.
Many sellers started to "boycott" eBay, and began taking their business to places like Yahoo auctions, and Overstock.com. After issuing another email "clarifying" the price increases, eBay finally sent everyone a "Message from Bill Cobb" on February 6.
Bill Cobb, who became President of eBay North America in December of 1004, stated that he'd been "taking it all in" and "thinking hard about how we can make sure eBay remains a fun, safe place to trade, and a prosperous home for our many dedicated sellers."
Cobb addressed the issue of fee increases, and concerns about customer support, trust and safety, and frequency of changes to the site.
Cobb also promised a number of improvements to customer service, a credit for store sellers and a reduction in the minimum insertion fees for auction style and fixed price listings. He even gave readers his email address and invited comments, promising to read every one of them!
The Bottom line here is that the most significant changes made will affect eBay Store owners. But Store items are offered at a price determined by the seller, so increased costs can be passed along to the buyer. This is what "real world" businesses do all the time. The cost of doing business rarely goes down and Business people learn to expect increases in overhead.
The reason for raising the "But it Now" listing fee is that eBay wants sellers to think harder about how they set prices in this category. Too many have been unrealistically high, which means merchandise doesn't turn over. It becomes "stale". eBay wants to see a fluid market, with quick turnover and fresh merchandise appearing all the time.
The Gallery image feature has gone up in price by about 30%, but the size of the image is being increased by 56%. Pictures sell products, and larger pictures mean that shoppers can see more details. I really don't see this as a bad thing.
If you haven't invested in eBay stock, now might be a good time (eBay intends to split shares on Feb.18). Investors are panicking over eBay's announcements, and their less than stellar 4th quarter 2004 performance in part due to major investments in China.
The dooms-dayers say the "bloom is off the eBay rose". I beg to differ. eBay is still the largest online auction venue, accounting for more volume than all of their competitors combined. There's no way eBay is going away, and it won't be long before sellers realize that business will go on as usual.
You can still make a great living on eBay, whether full or part time.
Carolyn Schweitzer is a retired dentist, eBay Powerseller, and ownner/editor of several websites. You can read the full article plus view eBay's price announcements and the letter from Bill Cobb at http://www.netbrainer.com/site/500041/page/473364

    
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Thursday, May 17, 2007

Ebays Hot Selling Books, Find Out Which Books Sell & How To Find Them

    

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Selling books on eBay can be a very lucrative business! There are eBayers who sell only books and make a nice little income doing it. Where do they get these books to sell? At thrift stores, estate sales, flea markets, book fairs, yard sales, library sales, grandmas attic, etc. You see, many of these books are just sitting on the shelves getting passed up because they aren't anything special to look at, they're not sparkly and shiny, they don't stand out on the shelf like that Tiffany & Co. crystal & sterling silver vase sitting on the housewares shelf at the Salvation Army. By the way, if you EVER find one of those grab it! -that's a no brainer.
These little hidden gems however, are not that easy to spot just by scanning the shelves- unless you know what to look for. So, how do you know which books will sell? research, study, research, study....
Actually, it's not that hard to get started. I've been researching hot selling books on eBay for a year now. Below is a sample list of my findings:
Wizard and Glass by Dave McKean, Stephen King (1997) Donald Grant First Edition Winning bid: US $207.50 History: 5 bids (US $50.00 starting bid)
The Bourne Identity Robert Ludlum FIRST EDITION HB Marek, 1st edn, First Printing Hardback, RARE!!!! Winning bid: US $140.27 History: 15 bids (US $40.00 starting bid)
THE DAVINCI CODE DAN BROWN FIRST ED. FIRST PRINT TRUE FIRST PRINT,NO RESERVE,FINE UNREAD CONDITION Winning bid: US $123.00 History: 20 bids (US $3.00 starting bid)
Night Probe by Clive Cussler (1981) ~ HC ~ DJWinning bid: US $77.99 History: 12 bids (US $4.99 starting bid)
The Al Kaline StoryWinning bid: US $127.90 (Reserve met) History: 14 bids (US $1.00 starting bid)
Are you surprised? I bet you've passed some of these up before and didn't even know it! Think about it, used books is the perfect product. You may have noticed that it's getting harder and harder to find products to resell on eBay and make a decent profit. Why? because there is a lot more competition as eBay gets more and more popular.
Used, collectible books are the perfect niche. They're everywhere, they're cheap and hardly anyone knows about them!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Get the complete list of HOT SELLING BOOKS on EBAY
http://www.moodykitty.com/ebaybooks

Subscribe to Moodykittys Newsletter & receive an insiders look atpast auctions. Find out what you've been passing by that could've madeyou $500 +
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learn_ebay_now/

    
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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Ebay - Profiting With Books By Janette Oke

    

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Janette Oke is a Christian writer whose books about life, love, values and faith have a huge following among women today. Each of her Christian books for adults falls into one of six different series she wrote. These are:

Women Of The West
Love Comes Softly
Canadian West Saga
Season Of The Heart
A Prairie Legacy
Song Of Acadia (the books in this series were written with T. Davis Dunn)

While they show up at FOL and AAUW book sales, they are most often found at garage sales. They won't find them at every garage or yard sale you visit, but spend a morning on the yard sale circuit and you should come home with several of her book and not have paid more than $.50 for any of them.
You will find a lot of these on eBay but nearly all are sold as single titles and that's a big mistake. In order to make the cash register ring for you with her books you should buy them individually or in groups, hold them until you have a complete series, and then sell the series as one auction.
All information and pricing is for soft-cover editions which are by far the most common.
Here's a list of the books that make up each series:
Women Of The West Series (12 books)

The Calling Of Emily Evans *
Julia's Last Hope
A Woman Named Damarus
Roses For Mama *
They Called Her Mrs. Doc
Measure Of A Heart
A Bride For Donnigan
Heart Of The Wilderness *
The Bluebird and The Sparrow *
A Gown Of Spanish Lace *
Too Long A Stranger
Dreams Of Change *

* These six titles were re-written, with the same titles, for young girls (age 10 - 14) and published as the Janette Oke Classics For Girls Series. When buying these six titles be sure to check which series the book actually belongs to.
I've never found the Classics For Girls series to be a big seller and pass them up when I see them. You can try them if you'd like to though.
Love Comes Softly Series (8 books)

Love Comes Softly
Loves Enduring Promise
Loves Long Journey
Loves Abiding Joy
Loves Unending Legacy
Loves Unfolding Dream
Love Takes Wing
Love Finds A Home

Canada West Series (6 books)

When Calls The Heart
When Breaks The Dawn
When Comes The Spring
When Hope Springs New
Beyond The Gathering Storm
When Tomorrow Comes

Season Of The Heart Series (4 books)

Springs Gentle Promise
Once Upon A Summer
Winds Of Autumn
Winter Is Not Forever

A Prairie Legacy Series (4 books)

The Tender Years
A Searching Heart
A Quiet Strength
Like Gold Refined

Song Of Acadia Series (5 books)

The Meeting Place
The Sacred Shore
The Birthright
The Distant Beacon
The Beloved Land

This last series continues under the name Heirs Of Acadia, but Janette Oke was no longer one of the authors and it isn't nearly as popular. It's the Janette Oke name that sells these books.
Mrs. Oke also wrote a series of 12 early readers for children called Janette Oke's Animal Friends Series. It's also a good seller when sold as a complete series. It's made up of the following titles:

The Impatient Turtle
The Prodigal Cat
Spunky's Dairy
This Little Pig
New Kid In Town
Ducktails
Prairie Dog Town
Trouble In A Fur Coat
Maury Had A Little Lamb
Pordy's Prickly Problem
A Cote Of Many Colors
Who's New At The Zoo

Here's some pricing information for each series from the last several months. The prices shown are the averages each series sold for.

Women Of The West - $36.78
Love Comes Softly - $42.17
Canadian West Saga - $13.19
Season Of The Heart - $12.03
A Prairie Legacy - $14.38
Song Of Acadia - $37.14
Animal Friends - $38.63

As you can see some series are more popular than others, but as long as you don't spend more then .50 each per book you will make money with any of them. Just list complete series, start them at $9.95 and let the bidders run them up.
Each of these series was also sold as a boxed set. If you find a set with it's box it will usually add a premium to the the final price.
Gary Hendrickson has been making his living selling on eBay for more than six years. He's the author of two eBay related ebooks, has a blog for eBay sellers, and is the owner of ColdItems.Com. Did you find this article helpful? If so, this is the kind of information you will find each week inside Gary's ColdItems.Com.
ColdItems.ComThe Auction Rebel Blog

    
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Monday, May 14, 2007

Ebay Online Auction Sniping Secrets

    

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Since their introduction several years ago, online auctions, such as eBay, have been one of the hottest destinations on the World Wide Web. Auction sellers are attracted by the prospect of a broad venue for their products and the possibility of high profits resulting from emotion-driven bidding wars. Bidders on online auction sites are drawn to the unique shopping opportunities and potential to purchase hard-to-find items at low prices. One technique many successful auction bidders employ is called sniping.
Auction sniping is waiting to place your bid until seconds before the auction closes. In most cases, the last-minute bid precludes competing bids and assures the sniping bidder the winning bid at the lowest price. Some web sites estimate that sniping occurs on 5 percent of all eBay auctions that close with bids.
While this technique is not without controversy ? mostly from disgruntled sellers or competing bidders ? it is permitted on most online auction sites including eBay. In fact, an eBay Community Development representative related eBay's position on one of eBay's message boards:
From: daphne
Topic: Re: Snipers How To Workshop


Just for the record, contrary to what some people think, there's no rule against "sniping," or bidding in the last moments of the auction. You will hear all kinds of debates about which method (proxy bidding or sniping) is more effective, and eBay would recommend proxy bidding, but bidding at the last moment of the auction is perfectly acceptable and legal. :)

Daphne
eBay Community Development
There are several advantages to sniping on auctions. The first is that the sniper prevents counter-bids and is more likely win the auction. The most significant advantage is that sniping prevents emotional bidding wars. These are events that auction sellers dream about ? two or more bidders start running up the price of a listed item because they get caught up in the excitement of the moment. More often than not, the sniper will win the auction at a lower price if they do it correctly.
There are some problems associated with sniping manually. First, you must be online to bid when the auction closes. This may not be convenient if the bidding for that PEZ dispenser you've been drooling over ends in the middle of the night or while you are at work. Second, depending on your connection speed, your last second bid may be submitted too late. The auction might close before your bid reaches eBay.
Not to worry though, there are several software and web-based solutions to automate the sniping process for you.
Sniping software programs, such as iSnipeIt reside on your computer. You simply enter the item number you wish to bid on and input your maximum bid. At the appropriate time, the sniping software connects to the internet and places the bid for you. This requires your computer to be on, the sniping program to be active, and a connection to the internet. One advantage to having sniping software resident on your computer is increased security. Most desktop applications don't require your eBay ID and password to reside on servers continuously connected to the internet. However, the timeliness of your snipe depends on your connection speed and your internet service provider. This can be a problem for some people.
Online services such as http://AuctionInsights.AuctionStealer.com mitigate these connection issues. They have high-speed connections to the internet and can place your last second bid regardless if your computer is on or not. While web based services are generally more expensive than a desktop software application, their reliability is remarkable. An advantage to online sniping services is that they respond quickly to frequent changes in eBay's web site that can disable a desktop software program. The hapless auction sniper who is attempting to use a desktop solution is often out of luck until the programmer modifies his or her code and the user installs the update.
Sniping online auction sites such as eBay can be of great benefit to the bidder. It saves them money and greatly increases the chances that they will win the auction. Give it a try on the next auction you bid on!
______________________________________________
Doug Feiring publishes "AuctionInsights.com", an all-encompassing FREE resource guide that provides nuts-and-bolts strategies, ideas, and tools to build a successful eBay online auction business from the ground up, visit http://www.auctioninsights.com


    
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