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"EBAY SELLING" EZINE

October 4 ,2004

In this issue:
* Want To Meet Me In Orlando?
* Feature Article: Buying Wholesale & Dropship Lists On eBay
* News From eBay
1. Best Sellers On eBay
2. Selling Replica Jewelry & Handbags On eBay
3. Someone Offered Me A Higher Price IF I Cancel My Auction – Is This OK?
4. Changing Your Gallery Image
5. Blocking Certain Bidders From Your Auctions
6. eBay LIVE Auctions
* From The John Hopkins Newsletter of August 30
* From Our Humor Department
* Recent Blog Entries

The former mayor of Atlanta called October the “Golden Month”. That is certainly the case here in Georgia: beautiful, sunny days with crisp nights and the leaves just beginning to turn. Ah, life is good!

Want To Meet Me In Orlando?

I will be in Orlando, FL (hurricanes permitting!!! :-) on December 3-5 at an internet conference. If there is any chance you can go, I'd like to meet you. It's inexpensive and there are lots of reasons to go, but the best one is that you will get an killer product that you can resell plus the sales copy to go with it!

The conference is organized by my friend, Michael Penland, who is a good ole boy from Georgia. There are nine speakers:

* Brad Fallon – my friend who is the search engine expert behind “Stomp The Search Engines” that I love so much (Brad just had a support call for his customers and it lasted almost FOUR HOURS!)

http://stomper.auctionknowhow.com

* Ted Ciuba, who taught a seminar member to make a (verified) $10,622.16 in 72 hours

* Joel Christopher, who is incredibly successful at building huge mailing lists

* Carl Galletti, famous copywriter

* Jason Cox, who makes all kinds of money in joint venture deals

* Dale Calvert, who also sells on eBay

* Frank Garon, a former truck driver who makes over $170,000 on the net

* Michael Penland, who has been in the business forever, and receives glowing praise from legends in the business like Jim Straw and Melvin Powers

* And me, of course

Michael is going to be interviewing all of us and the good news is that is is giving away the reprint, marketing rights, and duplication rights to a new Audio CD which features all nine of us.  Normally, if you could get it, such a package would cost you several thousand dollars.  But that's not all...
 
No product is of any value to you without "killer ad copy" and Michael has agreed to provide you with sales copy for your website and/or direct mailings.  The usual fee he receives for writing copy of this nature is $12,500. 
 
But is there a catch?  Yes, but only one.  This offer for the CD Package is only available to the first 77 people responding.
 
There are a ton of other bonuses from people at the conference. So if you can be there, be sure and let me know. I am very busy these days writing two new books, and I will give $zero copies to any Auction Gold reader who attends. We can get together and talk auctions!

 
http://www.instantcashmarketing.com/SydneyJohnstonSpecial.html

NOTE: several people have reported a problem with the signup link. The cost of the seminar through the special link is $97, rather than $1697. If it doesn't popup for you, you can signup here:

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

Feature Article: Buying Wholesale & Dropship Lists On eBay

Have you ever bought a list of wholesalers, dropshippers or closeout dealers on eBay? Since this is a family-rated ezine, I won't expand on my opinion of the quality of them!

Because we are tired of people being ripped off by junk lists, Chris Malta of WorldWide Brands and I are writing a book together called “Product Sourcing Scams” which I will offer to every one of you when, for $zero, when it's finished.

Last week, I spent some time finding eBay examples of really bad lists, and I'd like to show you an especially ridiculous one today.

This seller promises to tell us how we can buy digital camcorders for 80% off retail price.

The picture in his auction listing is of a Sony Handycam. Going to the Sony site itself, we find the same camera displayed in the auction, the Sony DCR-HC40, selling for $599.99 retail.

At 80% off, we can expect to pay $120 for this camera, if we can believe our auction seller.

Checking eBay, we see that this camera is selling very well on eBay.

Since we can buy this camera for $120, this means that if the two auctions above were ours, we would have a profit of $390 and $391.

If this is so

why in the world would the auction seller bother with a one cent
auction when he can be making profits like these???

Clearly, this is ridiculous and can't possibly be true!

Chris and I are not going to sell our new book, except for a minimal price on eBay, which we probably won't even collect (eBay requires a price to list on their site). Instead, our hope is that by explaining how the wholesale supply business actually works, then YOU will be more empowered on the Internet.

News From eBay

1. Best Sellers On eBay

If you know what the best sellers are, you might be able to tap into demand. And who do you know? Well, why not let eBay itself tell you with their “Popular Products” section. Be warned, though, that the categories are very limited:

http://product-index.ebay.com/best_selling_1.html

2. Selling Replica Jewelry & Handbags On eBay

We periodically receive emails asking if it's OK to sell replica purses, sunglasses or jewelry on eBay. That is, the Gucci, Prada, etc., imitations that are so popular on the net. When we went to eBay Live in New Orleans in June, our only “free” day was Sunday. After breakfast, the four of us who went to the conference together went to a famous outdoor market in the French Quarter. One of the most popular booths sold replica handbags. Their wares sold for about 25% of the real thing. And to my ignorant and totally untrained eye, they look like the same product.

It's hard for the real manufacturers to stop a small vendor like this, but that isn't the case on the net. Sellers are very visual and quite easily located. Recently some of the famous names whose merchandise is often copied, announced they were going to start going after the knock off sites. Recently, I have noticed that some of the busiest replica sites have disappeared and I am presuming it's because they have received 'cease and desist' orders from attorneys, although I don't know this is the case.

At any rate, selling replica items on eBay is NOT allowed. Ebay deems them “counterfeits” and states:

Guideline: If the product you are selling bears the name or logo of a company, but it wasn't made or endorsed by that company, don't list it on eBay.

Examples: The following are examples of items that may not be listed on eBay:

* A purse that has the Chanel® name on it, but which was not made by Chanel
* Sunglasses bearing the Oakley® name, but which are a style never made by Oakley
* A fake autograph passed off as the real thing
* Replacement parts for an Epson® printer which use Epson's parts number and name, but were not made by Epson

As always, eBay is so gigantic that you might get away with selling replica items for a brief time. But sooner or later, you will be caught.

3. Someone Offered Me A Higher Price IF I Cancel My Auction – Is This OK?

eBay says there are legitimate reasons end a listing early. Here is their policy:

- -

Enter your item number and click Continue to start the process of ending your listing early. However, you may lose potential buyers by ending your listing early - lots of bidders wait until the very last minute to bid.

If you have bids on this listing, or if the Reserve Price has been met, you must cancel all bids or sell to the high bidder(s). This does not apply to listings in the Real Estate category using Ad format, as there are no bids in this format.

Suggestion: I wouldn't make a habit of doing this, for obvious reasons.

4. Changing Your Gallery Image

I received this email from an Auction Genius Course student ... “Sydney, Help!!! I put the 25 cent picture on my listing but it looks terrible. What do I do?”

It is simple to change your gallery picture at any time. Just go here:

http://cgi5.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?DisplayGalleryImagePageV3

5. Blocking Certain Bidders From Your Auctions

There are legitimate reasons for preventing unscrupulous, rude or other unwanted bidders from your auctions. For instance, perhaps they bid on one of your items before, and then didn't pay for it. Obviously, we don't want people like that bidding on our treasures.

Fortunately, it's simple to do. Just go here:

http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/biddermanagement.html

6. eBay LIVE Auctions

Did you know that eBay has live auctions, as well as the 'static' ones we're all used to seeing? I've never been to one, but I recently spoke on the phone with someone who goes often, and I admit to being intrigued by what he said. I just might go to one (or two or three) and if you're interested, check it out here:

http://pages.ebay.com/liveauctions/?ssPageName=LAHPFromSiteMapCat

From The John Hopkins Newsletter of August 30

This has nothing at all to do with auctions, but considering the current popularity of the microwave oven, I figured it would concern almost every reader. Please pass this information along.

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in their newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Dioxin carcinogens cause cancer. Especially breast cancer. Don't freeze plastic water bottles with water in them as this also releases dioxin from the plastic. Dr. Edward Fujimoto from Castle hospital was on a TV program explaining this health hazard. (He is the manager of the Wellness Program at the hospital.) He was talking about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said we should not heat our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This applies particularly to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Dioxin are carcinogens and highly toxic to the cells in our bodies. Instead, he recommends using glass, Corning Ware, or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results ... without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc.

Remember when some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper? The dioxin problem is one of the reasons. To add to this: Saran wrap placed over foods as they are nuked, with the high heat, actually drips poisonous toxins into the food, use paper towels instead.

From Our Humor Department

I received a wonderful picture from a friend entitled, “Why Women Live Longer Than Men, or “Natural Selection”. What WAS he thinking??? Sorry guys, but you can take a little humor at your expense! :-)