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"EBAY SELLING" EZINE

February 8, 2006

In this issue:
* Don't Miss Mark's Hilarious Blog
* Desperate Would-Be eBay Seller & Sad Email
* Feature Article: eBay Selling Strategies
* The MillionDollarPixel Auction - And A Marketing Lesson
* New eBay Fee Adjustments for 2006
* eBay's Promotional Advertising Strategy A Winner?
* HAVE YOU SMILED TODAY?

Don't Miss Mark's Hilarious Blog

If you want a rare treat, you need to read the blog of Mark McClean. Mark is a student in the current Auction Genius Course and he decided to blog his way through the experience. He is smart, insightful and funny! For instance, here is Mark covered with information from product suppliers:

Do yourself a favor and read what Mark has to say. It's an education in itself!

http://myebayadventure.blogspot.com

The next live Auction Genius Course begins March 11, 2006.

http://auction-genius-course.com

Desperate Would-Be eBay Seller & Sad Email

If you've been a subscriber to this ezine for a while, you probably know that Chris Malta and I sell an ebook on eBay for 99 cents. It's about product sourcing and sometimes we receive some really heart-rending emails.

For instance, look at this one:

This ebay auction I am responding to possibly saved me hundreds of dollars and thousands of hours of computer work. I will gladly pay you 99 cents if you can tell me WHERE TO BUY THE RETURNS FROM THE T.V. SHOPPING SHOWS THAT 100'S OF FOLKS ON EBAY ARE SELLING. I have spent 1000's of hours on the computer trying to hunt down the source for these customer returns TO NO AVAIL. I have spent lots of money that I cannot afford to spend of wholesale sourcing and was ripped off. I am older, disabled, unmarried and discouraged. WHERE ARE THE SOURCES FOR THE T.V. SHOPPING SHOW CUSTOMER RETURNS? I don't have much money but I will pay you what I can afford if you can get me this information. Thank you very, very much.

How would you respond? If you'd like to know what Chris and I think about this sad little email, you can hear us discuss it on the Entrepreneur magazine radio show:

http://wsradio.com/internet-talk-radio.cfm/shows/Entrepreneur-Magazine
-Product-Sourcing-Show/archives/date/selected/01-30-2006.html

Feature Article: eBay Selling Strategies

Anita Van Wyk, a lovely lady from Australia, has put together an auction book titled eBay Selling Strategies. She interviewed 19 experienced eBay sellers, including yours truly and

* Barbara Ling
* Jim Cockrum
* Marjory Howes (a former student)
* Mike Enos
* Skip McGrath
* Terry Gibbs
* Tim Knox
* Donna Boyle & Kim Vaugh, the Auction Mommies

We were asked a series of questions (grouped by topic):

* What should I sell?
* How do I determine my niche?
* What should I avoid?
* What are Powersellers selling?
* Where do I get products to sell?
* Should I create my own products?

* How do I write a perfect description?

* What is the best time to end an auction?

* How do I create my eBay store?

* What should I include on my About Me page?

* How do I deal with competitors?

* What are some free or low-cost resources for auctions?

* What forms of payment should I accept?

* Do you have any tips for shipping and packaging?

* How can I automate my business and product delivery?

* How do I encourage positive feedback?
* How can I get a lot of feedback in a hurry?
* How do I deal with negative feedback?

* Do I have to charge sales tax?
* Do I have to pay tax on my eBay profits?

* What are some common newbie mistakes?

* Can you suggest any strategies for increasing my profits?

One of the strengths of this two-volume set of ebooks is the different approaches and ways of responding to the same questions. One question = 19 different answers and points of view. So who is "right"? That's the beauty of it - nobody is right or wrong. Whatever works for you is what's right. You can't help but get all kinds of viewpoints from this collection and that's always valuable.

Check out eBay Selling Strategies. At only $27.95, it's an awesome bargain. Anita has become one of my auction students and I've advised her to raise the price! :-)

eBay Selling Strategies

The MillionDollarPixel Auction - And A Marketing Lesson

Here's the deal: the seller has a site named MillionDollarHomepage.com. He started a trend by selling pixel space on this page. According to him, his site has been mentioned on CNN, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, MSNBC, ABC News, Fox News, BBC, MSN, Yahoo. He's sold 999,000 (obviously, he had one million pixels on the page) and has been selling the last 1,000 pixels on eBay.

The amazing thing is that he started the auction at $1, and with 99 bids it reached the amazing price of $38,100.00.

The interest this auction has generated is truly amazing:

What I can't figure out, though, is what USE this is to a web owner? This page is nothing but a curiosity, I would think. Also, the 1,000 pixels represent 1,000 links, but they're pretty useless from a search engine point of view. No SE is going to give a site credit for 1,000 links all from the same page.

But now, of course, Pixel Mania has begun. Recently I received a joint venture proposal for two books on how-to-make-money-with-pixels. I haven't read them yet, but we can be 100% certain that they will be raving about the million dollar page and how "You, too, can make your fortune with pixel pages".

Nonsense!

The reason this did so well is because it was unique, different, unusual. All the ones to follow won't be that way. Yes, there will be people with highly visible, very popular pages who can make money selling pixels as links from that page. But for all of those who expect to make their fortune this way, I have some advice: forget it! Use your money in a more productive way.

New eBay Fee Adjustments for 2006

Who: eBay
What: Fee "adjustments" for 2006
When: February 22, 2006

Whenever eBay makes fee "adjustments" - meaning some prices rise while other fall - eBay sellers become irate and indignantly announce they are taking their business elsewhere. There is no reason to suppose this time will be any different.

1) First the sort-of-good news: insertion fees (the amount you pay for listing merchandise) will drop, although it is a very insignificant drop:

2) However, before you cheer, Final Value Fees on items over $25 will rise:

3) There are no changes for eBay stores

4) Picture Show and Sales Reports Plus will be free for everyone

5) They're reducing the fees for the second and third tiers of Picture Manager and increasing the storage you get at these higher levels

6) For the first time eBay is offering two new Feature Packs of optional listing features

Don't panic. It's not that bad.

eBay's Promotional Advertising Strategy A Winner?

Bill Cobb, the president of eBay North America emailed eBay users about eBay's most ambitious marketing campaign, known simply as "It".

"It" was promoted via television, print ads, internet marketing, catalogs, onsite merchandising, publicity and more. eBay sellers can only applaud this attempt to attract ever-more buyers to the famed auction site.

You can see the "It" video here:

http://click3.ebay.com/29088380.61560.0.83177

HAVE YOU SMILED TODAY?

It is done by moving the corners of the mouth upward. Let us show you how it's done ...