MoreHi!
I have been settling back into life in California and gearing up for my only Live Boot Camp of the year. Back to School is here and did not come any too early! With the eBay sale on listing fees this month, I have a new strategy–so please read on….
- Lynn Recommends: The Shipping DVD–it is finally here!
- Special Announcement: eBay Certified Provider!!!
- Feature Article: eBay Listing Fee Sale & My Strategy
- The Queen’s Update: Our 28th 100 Best Story from YOU
This ezine is published once a week.
September 6, 2007 Volume III, Issue 34
Dear eBayers,
Back to school time is finally here and I am pleased to report that I have successfully purchased all the school supplies on the list (wow the 5th grade list is sure long), bought new school clothes, made sure my kids got the teachers they wanted and even bought flowers for those teachers for the first day of school! I am exhausted but sooo relieved that my free childcare is back in full force this week.
Houston with his teacher
Indy with her teacher
As the members of the Queen’s Court know, I have been going though the daunting process of becoming an eBay Certified Provider. Of over 50,000 companies providing services to eBay users, only a handful get the designation of either eBay Certified Provider or eBay certified Developer. Please read the Special Announcement section to learn more.
My feature article this week is all about eBay’s listing fee sale and my strategy for it. Let’s take advantage of this wonderful opportunity! I have some great ideas for you.
Please check out the Lynn recommends section because my shipping DVD is ready for sale. It can save you 100s of dollars in costly shipping mistakes. I am so excited to get this sent out to you! If you are coming to my Live Boot Camp–Don’t buy it–you will be given one at the resort!
This week we have another great story about the things you all have sold on eBay. Read below to hear the story of a piece of classic Arts and Crafts pottery.
Here’s to Successful eBaying!
Lynn Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions,’ Creator of the best-selling eBay Boot Camp in a Box.
“Lynn, I have been having problems with eBay’s shipping calculator. I have been losing money by paying out of my own pocket for extra shipping charges. How can I avoid this?” – David
It seems like the majority of questions that I get asked are mostly about shipping. It can really make or break your business. A successful shipping department can make a big difference in your bottom line. Click here to preorder now.
We are announcing a new series of instructional DVDs: The Queen’s Academy. The first one is about what I consider one of the most important cornerstones of your eBay business–shipping. This shipping DVD turned out great! It was a lot of fun to shoot. I am really excited to share all this great information in a visual format. It is very difficult to teach how to ship without showing the steps. The DVD is about 50 minutes long and comes with a lot of back up information on my web site. Click here for special introductory pricing.
You will receive the DVD with nearly an hour of practical, hands-on instruction and as an added bonus you will receive access to:
- My International shipping rate cheat sheet
- Supplemental information to download from a special web site.
The shipping chart alone can save you hours every week. And we all know that time is money.
Don’t forget, if you are a member of the Queen’s Court, use the coupon you will find in the forums to receive your 15% discount to the already low preorder price.
To apply to become an eBay Certified Provider, you must have ten recommendations from actual customers–thank you so much to everyone who responded!
Once you have your recommendations, eBay will review your products. Finally I had to pass a written exam. To be approved you must get 80% correct. I struggled through the exam (it was really hard) and when my results flashed on the screen it said 80% and I was jumping up and down. My brother was there and he goes NOT. Look, it says you must have AT LEAST 80% which meant 81%. Bummer–I did not pass!
A few of the questions were ambiguous and I think that I over-thought them. So, I emailed Laura who is in charge and told her about one of the questions and my reasoning for my answer. It was about selling directly for a charity. True or False: To sell directly for a charity you must have written permission from that Charity. I said false because if I want to sell something and donate 100% to my favorite charity–“Toys for Tots”–all I have to do is check the 100% button in Mission Fish–no letter required.
The next thing you know, I have a diploma and 84% correct!!! eBay Rocks! The final good news came via an email last week. My references wrote wonderful things and I am now an eBay Certified Provider. What an honor! Thank you all again!!!
‘Strategy for the Month of September & eBay’s Listing fee Sale‘
by Lynn A. Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions’
The more I started thinking about the eBay listing fee sale, the more I realized that this is a tremendous opportunity not only for me but for all of us.
Here are some details about the sale! eBay has announced that from August 29th to September 30th, insertion fees for listings starting at $9.99 or less will be free if you buy the 35 cent gallery photo. Wow! This is going to save me at least $160.00 this month. If you start your item at $10.00 and above, you will still get a 25% reduction on insertion fees if you buy the 35-cent gallery photo. Pretty exciting news.
If we all work really had this month, we will be able to use this sale to our advantage and get our eBay stores stocked full for the holidays. I currently have about 5,000 items in my eBay store and would like to have 6,000 to 7,000 in my store by November.
You know my #1 rule is that I won’t put anything in my eBay store without trying it auction first. So, the ability to list items for only 35 cents with a gallery photo (as long as they start below $10) this month is a great opportunity.
I can list extra items this month as a price test and then if they don’t sell–no big deal–straight into my eBay store they go!
Tip A. Try and list double your usual items this month.
I normally put 100 new things on each week. I am going to put 200 new items on each week this September because of the sale.
Check out my auctions–I am trying to have 200 items listed at all times and here I have done it!
Tip B. To make this easy, put on all your dinner sets.
I have boxes and boxes full of dinner sets in my garage, in my storage unit and I think there is even one in the trunk of my car (just kidding). I save them so that I have one set to put on each week to make the 100 item listing go faster.
Because of the sale this month, I am going to put a ton of dinner sets on to make up my new 200 items. This is going to make it all possible even with my being so busy this month. This month is crazy because I have my only live boot camp this month (click here–ONE SEAT LEFT), I am flying to Florida to film the infomercial, will be in Las Vegas for my son’s world series tournament and finally will be back in Washington state to help Skip McGrath out at his boot camp (click here.) So, if I can double-list with all this going on….I know you can do it also!
My favorite time to list is at night with my laptop on my lap watching movies with my kids. My I Sell sheets can help make this possible–try it–it is actually fun.
Tip C. To make it even easier, put on all of those flatware sets.
Just like with the dinnerware, list all those flatware sets that you have lying around. Flatware sets are typically so cheap that I buy a few every week. I spend about 1⁄2 hour trying to ID the pattern and if I can’t, I set them aside. Well, I have about 30 of these sets “set aside.” Time to list them, even if I still can’t ID them.
Flatware, like dinnerware is easy-to-list and will make your double listing go by quite quickly.
Tip D. Put on flatware and Dinnerware even if you can’t ID it.
When you list flatware or dinnerware that you can’t ID, put in the title pattern ? or pattern help? I did this just this week for a gravy ladle. I will not take time to ID the pattern for a single piece–only for sets. Because of this, I listed this ladle and asked for help. Within one day, A nice eBayer told me the pattern name. Sweet!
Here is a photo of the ladle
Click here to see my revised listing with the pattern name.
Tip E. List cheaper Collection items INDIVIDUALLY–Even at a $4.99 starting bid.
With the lower listing fees, I immediately started thinking about collections of items that I have that have not been listed because I didn’t think that they were worth $9.99. I typically won’t list any items if they are not worth $9.99 because 75 cents (40 cents for insertion fee and 35 cents for gallery feature) is a lot to spend to list a $4.99 or less item.
Well, about two months ago, I bought a collection of punk band pins/buttons from my ex-husband. There were about 75 of them that he had collected when he lived in London in the 1980’s. I figured that there may be some rare ones in the bunch so didn’t want to list them as a lot. But, I also didn’t think that they were worth $9.99 each.
Dilemma… because if I listed them all individually with a gallery photo (which I highly recommend), it was going to cost me 75 times 75 cents or $56.25. Yikes! My gut feeling was that they may be worth $4.99 each and may take some time in my eBay store to sell. However, I wanted to give each of them that auction exposure in case there were some rare ones.
So, thanks to eBay, this sale was my opportunity to get them all listed individually for only $26.25. Too cool!
I have a few of them up on eBay right now and four of them already have bids. How fun!
Here are a few of them Click here and here to see how much they are up to.
I hope this article has helped you to think about what items you may have that could be listed quickly and easily this month! Let’s take advantage of one of the best eBay Listing sales that I can remember! Here’s to a super successful holiday season because our eBay store shelves will be packed! As we used to say at the May Company (when I was a buyer) “Pile it High and Watch it Fly”. You can’t sell if the items aren’t on the sales floor–or in your eBay store.
After I finished this article I realized that I had a lot more I wanted to share about this subject but my ezine is not the place to do it. So to take advantage of eBay’s wonderful sale this month, I have written an addendum. If you are a Queen’s Court member, please watch your inbox for this email. Your bonus gift this month will also help you to take advantage of eBay’s sale. Thanks!
Happy eBaying!
Lynn
WANT TO SEE MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE?
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR ON YOUR WEBSITE? Yes, you may – just as long as you include all links as they are and append this complete blurb with it: The Queen of Auctions and eBay Power Seller, Lynn Dralle, publishes ‘eBay Tips & Tricks’ a weekly ezine with 10,000+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump start your eBay business, make more money and have more time, get your FRE E tips now at www.thequeenofauctions.com
I am happy to present our 28th story for The 100 Best Things You’ve Bought or Sold on eBay! Read below to hear the story of a piece of classic Arts and Crafts pottery. Click below to read…
Click here to read the story…
A big thanks to everyone who has already submitted a story! We are looking for more great stories of your eBay adventures. We know there are many great tales out there, so please submit your story along the lines of the stories from the 100 Best Books and a great side story with photos will help. If we use your story, you will receive a $35 merchandise credit on my web site and you will have your story featured–along with your user ID–in my ezine! It may also eventually end up in a published book!
By the way, when I mention my ezine readers’ user IDs with links to their auctions–it actually helps their sales! Amazing how that works. Click here for the guidelines for submitting your stories.
eBay Power Seller and third generation antiques dealer, Lynn Dralle, is the creator of Boot Camp in a Box, the home-study course where you can learn to implement the Dralle Method to maximize your eBay profits.
If you liked today’s issue, you’ll love this step-by-step course that is guaranteed to be the most complete and enjoyable guide to selling on eBay that MAKES YOU MONEY.
Read all about it here.
The Queen of Auctions also offers articles, teleseminars, how-to books, tracking guides, DVDs, eBay Boot Camp training and other resources to help entrepreneurs make their eBay business a six-figure sales machine. Click here to learn more.
The Queen of Auctions/All Aboard Inc.
PO Box 14103
Palm Desert, CA 92255
760-340-6622
Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com
Happy eBaying!!
Lynn
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Lynn is an experienced eBay Power Seller, author and teacher. If you want to know the eBay tips, tricks and tools that Lynn uses for buying and selling at online auction click here.
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