I think that my crazy travel schedule is finally winding down. I don't see any more airplane flights on my calendar for the rest of the year. However, I am sure that will be changing .

Mo and I just got back from SLC and the eBay Certified Provider Fair. It was a blast! The first night we were invited out to dinner with Laurel and Austin (two eBay executives), Auctiva, InkFrog and Monsoon.

Needless to say, it was the beginning of quite the experience! After dinner, Mo and I talked them all (10 +) into going to Macy's to buy clearance bras to sell on eBay. First, we had to take them to TGIFridays and encourage them with an adult beverage. On the way to TGIFriday's I tripped on uneven pavement and went flying. Mo was in the back thinking "Oh, I hope that wasn't Lynn," but of course it was. After skinning my elbow, we descended upon the restaurant. Apparently in Utah, in order to have an adult beverage, you must purchase food. We had just had dinner so I asked the bartender to please bring us the cheapest thing on the menu that would qualify as food.

Before you knew it, a plate of fried green beans was placed before us and we were able to order our drinks.

And then it was off to Macy's. We had a blast. The guys were great sports and helped us pick out 21 bras at fantastic prices. The sales lady loved helping us because she was on commission. I bought all 21 at an average price of $11.00 each. They are now listed in my eBay store at a fixed price. I am thrilled to report that I sold my first one the morning after getting them all listed... for a best offer of $25.00.

And I just sold another one last week for full price!! Yippeeee.

See the listing here.

A BIG thank you to Mel and Steve and their clothing teleseminars for making this happen! To learn more about these clothing teleseminars, please read the Special Announcement section to purchase the download if you missed the live call.

After that crazy evening, Mo and I got to meet about 400 eBay employees at the Certified Provider fair. For those of you who don't know what an eBay Certified Provider is (I have been one for more than 3 years), here is more info directly from the eBay site and a link to see me and the other Certified Providers (only 25 in the world). It is quite the honor!

The Certified Provider designation helps members of the eBay community feel more comfortable with hiring providers to grow their eBay businesses. Certified Providers are carefully screened to ensure that they can provide eBay members with services and solutions to grow their eBay businesses. Among other criteria, participants must have extensive experience with eBay, pass a strict certification exam and provide a number of proven customer references that are checked by eBay.

Click here to see some of the other eBay certified providers.

Here I am with Craig Russell, my Certified Provider liaison, at the Fair with my Macy's bag of bras. Too funny!

After the CPF, we went out to dinner and then headed to Park City for another crazy evening with eBay Andy, Austin, and Jon and Bryan from Cloud Conversion. On the way to Park City we stopped off at eBay Andy's house and got to meet his darling wife, kids and chickens. (Only in Salt Lake City.)

Here are the kids and ONE of the chickens.

Friday morning found Mo and I at the Desert Industries thrift store. I found a few coffee mugs and Mo got some plates.

Here is a listing for one of my coffee mugs that I thought would have the most watchers.

And here is another of the coffee mugs that I got that has even more watchers and now a bid! Probably because of that great ad campaign that the company on the mug is running. Can you guess what company it is?

Here is the listing.

Then it was back to Palm Desert and filming for my reality show. It has been a blast. Crazy things we have been filming have been selling for A LOT of money. Seems like things are just flying off of our shelves. Auctions seem to have really picked up. I hope things are picking up for you also. Christmas is just around the corner. (Did I say that out loud?) Get your stores stocked and ready to sell, sell and sell some more.

Check out this doll that will be featured on one of the episodes. I can't believe what she sold for at auction and the story behind it. Yikes!

Here is the listing.

As you know, October is Breast Cancer awareness month and I have been asked to contribute a (guess what?) bra to the Bling My Bra campaign. Indy, my mom and I all headed to Joanne's fabric on Sunday after filming to buy the makings. Here is Indy making The Queen of Auctions Blinged-out Bra.

This press release comes from eBetsie, "The second annual Bling My Bra campaign of Giving Works charity auctions on eBay is now underway.

Bling My Bra is a group of ordinary women getting together nationwide to raise money for breast cancer awareness, education, and research. They have hand crafted and donated one-of-a-kind art bras to be auctioned on eBay throughout the month of October. All proceeds benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure, global leader of the breast cancer movement.

The blinged bras run the gamut of imagination and creativity, from sequins and rhinestones, feathers and fringe to comic book superheroes to patriotic and sports-themed bras, and more. Celebrity bras are being contributed by Richard Brewer-Hay, eBay Ink Blog; Marsha Collier, ecommerce expert and bestselling author of the eBay for Dummies series; Lynn Dralle, the Queen of Auctions and eBay Certified Provider; Edward Hamilton, the Ministry of Rum; John Jantsch, ecommerce strategist and creator of Duct Tape Marketing; Debbie Levitt, founder/CEO of AsWas, an eBay Certified Stores Designer; Mike Michalowicz, the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur; and others, including eBay Radio. Dallas Cowboys legend and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Randy White has signed a Dallas Cowgirl Cheerleaders Bra. Janelle Elms, Visionaire of the OSI Rock Stars, also has autographed a bra.

EBay is supporting Bling My Bra too, with several teams of employees involved in creating bras. The eBay employee whose blinged bra brings in the most money for charity will be awarded an Apple iPad by eBay CEO John Donahoe.

New bras are being listed on eBay every day throughout October in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Thank you to everyone involved with Bling my Bra! Last year they raised over $3,000 to help fight breast cancer and this year I KNOW that they are going to raise even more. My grandmother was a breast cancer survivor and it is a cause very near and dear to my heart. Please bid on the bras by going to BlingMyBra.com.

Here is the listing for our bra.

LOL (Lynn on Location) will be happening in Las Vegas on Saturday and Sunday March 12th and 13th 2011 at the Paris Hotel. We are so excited for this live event!!!. The doors are open and seats are for sale. Please read the special announcement section to learn more or click here.

I'm sure that you remember Kathy Flood, Jewelry expert. She will be one of our featured guest speakers at LOL. Kathy has been very hard at work producing an online jewelry auction for Collect.com. Kathy says, "There will be some tremendous bargains and beautiful jewelry, so this should be fun. Besides winning bargains, it's entertaining to see how high some lots go."

Here's the link for information.

You can register to bid here.

Kathy is also the Antique Trader's Jewelry columnist. How cool is that? Check out her article here: "In the Loupe: Searching for Stuart Freeman"

So now to my feature article. Before I forget, we met the nicest gal at eBay in SLC and we started chatting. We asked her what department she worked in and she said Trust and Safety. Her division is responsible for shutting down things you should NOT sell on eBay. I had a big complaint about getting a policy violation for listing a fake gun so I thought the topic on what NOT to sell would be super helpful. Please don't miss this article, as I don't want you to get into any trouble either!

Before I forget, Indy played in her first ever soccer game. She did great and I am so proud of her for taking up a sport. Of course, Houston wants to be her coach (typical ).

Here they are after the game. It is going to be a challenge to balance soccer games in Palm Desert with travel baseball but somehow we will do it!

I am leaving in this WARNING from the last ezine about the new policy changes from eBay. It appears that eBay will be moving forward with the duplicate listing policy for STORE FIXED PRICE (NOT AUCTION FORMAT).  The duplicate tool is now functioning on the eBay site and I used it to analyze my business yesterday. I have 1500 STORE items that need revising. Yikes! I am getting started on that today. There is a link to that duplicate finding tool a little bit later in this section.

The new eBay announcements from 9/21 were mostly positive, but there are two that concern me. I will discuss this more on the next Queen's Court call, but for now, here is what you should start doing.

1.  Start uploading all tracking numbers, or print from PayPal to ship (and your tracking numbers will be uploaded automatically).

2.  DO NOT list any fixed item items separately that have the same title. It is OK to continue listing the same "sell similar" over and over at AUCTION but not OK in fixed price core store format.

By the end of October these will need to be corrected or eBay will shut down your FIXED Priced similar listings. Within the next few weeks there will be a tool in Selling Manager to help you find the duplicate listings in your store. As an example, do not list "2 Cup Saucer Sets Noritake Pastoral Green Blue Bird" over and over in FIXED Price.

If you have 6 of them, this must be listed as a multiple store quantity with 3 available and 2 sets in each listing. Here is that listing at auction that is fine just the way it is, but they MUST be combined when moved to FIXED price.

I don't agree with this for antiques, collectibles and dinnerware. I do agree with it for new items like iPods and clothing. Overall, it should make eBay more easily shopped and is a good thing, but in my opinion, our unique categories should not have been included.

Duplicate listings

Actions to take by 26th October 2010

  1. Use the eBay duplicate listing look up tool (here) to establish how many duplicate listings you have (you'll need to log into the tool from each of your eBay User IDs.)

  2. End duplicate listings, or wait for eBay to end the listings for you on or after the 26th October. If you end the listings manually you'll have full control over which listing you retain.

  3. Cross check multiple eBay accounts to ensure you're not selling the same product on more than one eBay ID.

For more information on the announcements, click here.

Happy eBaying,

Lynn Dralle, 'The Queen of Auctions,'
Creator of the best-selling eBay Boot Camp in a Box.