Auction Gold Ezine: Make Money With Online Auctions

February 8, 2003

In this Issue:
* Let's All Remember To Be Grateful
* Lost In The eBay Wilderness?
* AUCTION GENIUS COURSE Three Times Per Week!
* THE CROOKS NEVER GIVE UP DO THEY?
1. Escrow Fraud
2. The Planet's Most Famous Scam!
* How To Save 90% On eBay Listings Fees
* NEWS FROM EBAY
1. Are You Selling Electronics (Or Hoping To)?
2. eBay Spam and Popups?
3. PayPal Protection For Sellers
4. Sports Memorabilia Changes
5. “No-No” Items
* Funny, Funny!
* Rip Your Heart Open

Let's All Remember To Be Grateful

There hasn't been an issue of Auction Gold for several weeks. That's because of all the darn illness around here. The best thing about being sick is the gratitude we feel when we are well once again. In line with my current gratitude for feeling good, please don't miss the very last story in this issue. You will want to kiss your family members after you've read this heartbreaker.

eBay is a really tough site when it comes to finding things! There are many times when I have wanted to either cry or curse when I need some information. To help you guys (and, especially, me! :-) we have a resource section. In case you haven't checked it out in a while, you can find ...

7. 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.

8. Is it okay to list that what-cha-ma-call-it on eBay? Check out our "Prohibited and Questionable" list.

9. Price It: Provide a precise calculation of freight costs so your buyer can bid with confidence by adding a shipping calculator to your listing.

10. Ship It: Provide location, weight and size information to obtain pricing. Then, schedule your shipment for pickup and print the paperwork ... all from your desktop.You can check it out here:

The Genius course has gotten so popular (over 70 people in the new Saturday class) that we are adding a third session each week.

Sydney,I just got invited and signed up to become an eBay Powerseller today!!! And I owe it to you and your course!! The thing that is remarkable is that I started with nothing just 4 months ago - oh, I had dabbled with eBay over the years, selling my unused "stuff" but nothing steady or even any plans on doing this part-time, let alone FULL time! Because of your training and support, I have great products to sell, killer listings that attract buyers and my business has been growing every month!THANK YOU for all your help and support Sydney.....

One of the classic safeguards when buying expensive items from auction sites has been an escrow service. If you are unfamiliar with the term, it means is that a 3rd party holds the purchase price until both seller and buyer are satisfied. It has worked well for years, but now the crooks are active here, too.

The Learning Channel, or one of those good TV stations (just wanting to let you know how literate I am! :-), recently ran a story on the most famous scam in recorded history ... the so-called Nigerian scam.

This awful crookedness costs innocent citizens billions – yes, that's right – BILLIONS of dollars annually. The post offices of the US and Great Britain destroy tens of thousands of these low life letters annually. Now with the internet, the whole crooked thing has become even more powerful. In case you've never seen the darned thing, here is one I received recently:

I Am Engr. Bode Daniels an Engineer with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (FMWH), and I Head A Five Man tender Board in charge of contract review and payment approvals, I came to know of you in my search for a reliable and reputable person to handle a confidential transaction.

I am representing a caucus in dire need of a foreign partner to assist in investment of US$17.85M(Seventeen Million Eight Hundred and Fifty Million United States Dollars Only). At the first instance the key issues are the transfer and the subsequent investment of the said sum.

You know this will require a great amount of trust Considering the amount of money involve, my principals are ready to go into an agreement with you, plus offer you a negotiable fee for putting together portfolio for investment, all we need is your trustworthiness and your ability to work according to our Instructions. Please note that we shall go through the legal procedures entails in our law and international law in transfer this funds to you, the source of the money is authoritative.

I get several of these every week, and you probably do, too. If an unsuspecting citizen falls for this junk, somewhere along the way, “expenses” appear. Naturally “Engr. Bode Daniels” can't pay them since all his money is tied up. So, the innocent person ends up paying.

Would you make money if you had an eBay store? Quite honestly, I don't know. I have never had an eBay store, and don't plan on ever having one. But, Marjory Howes knows. She has written a new book on the subject, and has graciously shared an excerpt here:

I know lots of sellers who don’t get an eBay store because the subscription fee is $9.95 per month. For some reason, they feel that’s just too much money to ask. I know because that’s what I thought at first too. Then, I took a minute and did some figuring.

Consider this: You can list one $9.95 item for auction for 30 cents. Add 25 cents for gallery and 10 cents for a 10-day auction. That’s 65 cents for 1 item. With an eBay store, you can list 1000+ of the same item for 5 cents a month!

Go ahead-- splurge and add the gallery picture for an extra penny : ) I’m not kidding with you- gallery pictures for store items are just 1 cent. I love that.

What’s more, Ebay now has store listings that are good until you cancel them, and I say it’s about time. Once you have your mini-gallery and store items set up correctly you don’t need the hassle of re-listing expired store listings.

Of course, if you want you can specify a 30, 60, 90, or 120 day listing that will expire on its own. The 30 – 120 day listings are prepaid, but the unlimited ones are charged to your account monthly at 5 cents per listing.

The best part is any storefront listing will be 5 cents per month NO MATTER how much you are charging for your stuff, or how many are offered in each listing. You could list 1000 big screen TVs in your eBay store costing $6,000 each and the listing would still cost just 5 cents per month.

Are you starting to see how important an eBay store is to your Overhead? There is a problem with them, though, but don’t worry. The rest of my book will teach you exactly how to overcome it. That problem is that a store listing won’t come up when a potential buyer searches for it in the eBay auctions. And trust me, you need to catch those searches because the majority of buyers use the search function.

But, like I said before, I found a perfectly legal way to get TONS of eBayers to buy from my store! Cool, right, because you can too! When you’re ready to set that store ablaze with orders, pick up a the complete version of my e-book. It will guide you through my way of doing business with an eBay store. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside:

* Introduction
· Bonus #1- Putting your business on auto-pilot
· Bonus #2- Free Online Class “Auction Genius”
· Bonus #3- “Turbo-Charge” affiliate profits
* How to save 90% on listing fees
* Special Offer: “Ebay Marketing Secrets 2002”
* Special Offer: “Wholesale Sources 2002”
* Essential Tools
* Tutorials
* Rules of the Game
* Super Seller Tips
* What Else Can I Sell?
* Putting your Business on Auto-Pilot
* Taking your Auction Business to the Next Level
* Free Updates

If you're considering, or even thinking about, your own eBay store, let Marjory help you:

In a recent edition of Auction Gold, we mentioned a new eBay program that allows sellers to offer warranties to buyers to increase buyer confidence in an electronics purchase.

Now, eBay is allowing buyers to purchase an extended warranty on products that come with an existing 90-day, 6-month, or 1-year manufacturer or seller's warranty.

Note: if you are thinking about selling consumer electronics, you might want to first read the very intelligent article on the subject, written by a savvy seller named Skip McGrath:

Unfortunately, junk is popping up more on eBay. If you wish to block this stuff, follow these directions (compliments of http://www.snyderstreasures.net/):

For MSIE:
1) While in MSIE, go to TOOLS on the ribbon bar. Click "Internet
Options" at the bottom of the Pull-Down list.
2) In the Internet Options, go to the SECURITY tab.
3) Click the RESTRICTED SITES icon.
4) Click the SITES button. 5)Add these URLs in the box provided:
http://*.ebaypromo.com/ ** and ** https://*.ebaypromo.com/
(Note: the "*" is a wildcard that will disallow *ALL* URLs in that
particular block, which is a known ebaY Pop Up SPAM generator)
6) Click the ADD button as you add SPAM sites until you run out
7) Click OK to close that screen.
8) Click OK again to close the first screen. You're done.

For AOL.
1) Go to SETTINGS.
2) Preferences
3) Choose Intenet Properties (WWW).
4) Follow steps 2-8 above.

In Opera.
1) Top ribbon: Click File
2) Slither to Preferences
3) Left Pane: Click "Windows"
4) Next Screen: Right Pane: In Browser Windows, set the Pop-Ups to REFUSE
5) Apply button.
6) OK button. For Netscape NS7: Use the procedure for Opera, you may have to poke around to find the settings, but they ARE there. http://www.lavasoft.de

NOTE: If you change your RESTRICTED strings to be *://*.whatever.com (star-dot-colon-slash-slash-star-dot) format, you kill http://, https://, and ftp:// access.

PayPal offers seller protection on items that sell for $250 and up, with a maximum of $5,000/year in the case of fraud. To qualify for this, the seller must be able to:

1. Provide an online proof-of-receipt in the form of a signed receipt from the buyer
2. The item must be mailed to the buyer's PayPal verified address.

This protection doesn't include digital items, and is only available when both the buyer and seller are in the US.

Ebay announced that it is shutting down its disastrous “Billpoint” program now, although the process will take many months.

If you are buying or selling the Sports Memorabilia category, you should be aware that there are changes again. Don't miss out on goodies because of these new categories.

ebaY has a long list of items that are prohbited, and they have recently expanded their list to include such obvious items as used air bags and the devices that turn back the mileage on a car. A new addition is radar detectors, which have been sold on eBay forever.

Here is a very funny card I got from a friend. eBay has really crept into the consciousness of the world!

I received this email from a friend, and be prepared to have your heart ripped open. It's tough to be unmoved by this one.

On the last day before Christmas, I hurried to go to the store to buy the remaining gifts I didn't manage to buy earlier. When I saw all the people there, I started to complain to myself: 'It is going to take forever here and I still have so many other places to go...' Christmas really is getting more and more annoying every year. How I wish I could just lie down, go to sleep and only wake up after it...'

Nonetheless, I made my way to the toy section, and there I started to curse the prices, wondering if after all kids really play with such expensive toys. While looking in the toy section, I noticed a small boy of about 5 years old, pressing a doll against his chest. He kept on touching the hair of the doll and looked so sad. I wondered who was this doll for. Then the little boy turned to the old woman next to him and said: 'Granny, are you sure I don't have enough money?'

The old lady replied: 'You know that you don't haveenough money to buy this doll, my dear.' Then she asked him to stay here for 5 minutes while she went to look around. She left quickly. The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.

Finally, I started to walk toward him and I asked him who did he want to give this doll to.

'It is the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for this Christmas. She was so sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.'

I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus will bring it to her, after all, and not to worry. But he replied to me sadly. 'No, Santa Claus can not bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mother so that she can give it to her when she goes there.' His eyes were so sad while saying this.

'My sister has gone to be with God. Daddy say that Mommy will also go to see God very soon, so I thought that she could bring the doll with her to give it to my sister'

The little boy looked up at me and said: "I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I asked him to wait until I come back from the store"

Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me: 'I also want mommy to take this photo with her so that she will not forget me. I love my mommy and I wish she didn't have to leave me but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister'

Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly. I quickly reached for my wallet and took a few dollars out and said to the boy, "What if we checked again, just in case if you have enough money?'

"Ok' he said. 'I hope that I have enough."

I added some of my money to his without him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money.

Then he looked at me and added: 'I asked yesterday before I slept for God to make sure I have enough money to buy this doll so that mommy can give it to my sister. He heard me. "I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn't dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and the white rose. 'You know, my mommy loves white roses".

A few minutes later, the old lady came again and I left. I finished my shopping in a totally different state from when I started. I couldn't get the little boy out of my mind. Then I remembered a local newspaper article 2 days ago, which mentioned of a drunk man in a truck who hit a car where there was one young lady and a little girl. The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-assisting machine, because the young lady would not be able to get out of the coma. Was this the family of the little boy?

Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the newspaper that the young lady had passed away. I couldn't stop myself and went to buy a bunch of white roses and I went to the mortuary where the body of the young woman was exposed for people to see before burial.

She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest. I left the place crying, feeling that my life had been changed forever. The love that this little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to that day, is hard to imagine. And in a fraction of a second, a drunk man had taken all this away from him.

If you send this message, maybe you will help prevent someone drunk from driving.