MoreHi!
I hope your holidays went extremely well. Hard to believe it is almost the end of the year.
- Lynn Recommends: Cindy Shebley’s Video
- Special Announcement: Get a last minute tax deduction for 2007
- Feature Article: PriceMiner Rocks!
- The Queen’s Update: Our 41st 100 Best Story from YOU
This ezine is published once a week.
December 27, 2007 Volume III, Issue 49
Dear,
I can’t believe it is almost 2008 and I can’t believe I knocked out 49 out of a possible 52 ezines this year! Now that is an accomplishment. I only missed 3 weeks. My goal for next year is to make it to 50 ezines!
What a whirlwind this past week has been. We sent out over 100 Christmas gifts and cards to Queen’s Court members, another 200 Christmas cards to friends and family, and I managed to get my shopping done. In addition, to listing at least 100 items a week! Whew!
I am happy to report that I only set foot in one store to shop this season. Everything else was bought online from Amazon, eBay and many other retailers. What a great way to get my shopping done!
I think we have the prettiest Christmas tree ever this year. And here is the most amazing part. I didn’t touch it once. We had it delivered and the men set it up in the stand for me. A friend put on all the Christmas lights. Indiana and Houston decorated the entire house and put each and every ornament on the tree. What great kids! However, I don’t think I will get away without helping to take it all down!
Here is a picture of this year’s tree. Notice how Indy has decorated a few things on the mantle with Christmas hats. Some of these things are for sale in my eBay store–the big red heart vase and the Kwan Yen. Sometimes when I have beautiful items for sale on eBay, I enjoy them as décor before selling them. Why not?
Oh, I almost forgot. Houston tried out for and won the part of Santa for his school play. I could hear him all around the house for days before the tryout saying, “Ho, ho, ho!” It was hysterical. He did such a great job–actually an awesome job!! We were very proud of him
Well, back to eBay and how it has been going. It has been quite hectic around here and we are having a very good month! I bought some flatware recently that did really well. It was by International Silver and I have a tricky new way to identify flatware and dinnerware. It has cut hours off of my Replacements research. Don’t miss reading my feature article called “PriceMiner Rocks.”
As a follow-up to last week’s ezine, here is something that just sold with the Best Offer feature.
Click here to see for how much
Amazingly enough, even though it had the “Best Offer” feature, the buyer paid full price!!! I paid $200 for it this past summer and was willing to wait until it sold for a fair price and boy did it! The buyer even paid while I was taking my family out to dinner at Tommy Bahama’s for a pre-Christmas celebration. Life is great!
Well most of the time it is. Remember that big elephant from last week that also sold for a “Best Offer” price. I had thought it was all taken care of when my dad hauled it to the Post Office.
Next thing you know, my dad is back in my “lobby” (front entry way) with the super huge box. Max length and girth to Canada is 108″ and we were at 117″. I had to totally repack it. I didn’t think to measure it because Carmen and I had already cut it way down (but not far enough). Here is a picture of the box I created and notice the size (that is why I am showing it in front of my mom’s mini-van so that you can get a better idea). This box came in at about 108.5″ but luckily the Post Office took it.
I want to show you this box so that you can see the Max volume that can be shipped to Canada. Now, let’s just hope he arrives safely! For more on shipping check out my new shipping DVD.
In my special announcement section, I have an offer to help you take advantage of Boot Camp in a Box before the year ends. Remember, those last minute tax write-offs are the best ones!!
In the Lynn Recommends section, I want to show you how my friend Cindy Shebley has helped me with my eBay store. She also has a special offer for my ezine readers.
Don’t forget that I have started selling manufacturer’s new items under a new user ID. Check out my auctions at SmashinBeauty. You can get some great deals on brand new cosmetics. I was fortunate enough to work with Jen Cano from HammerTap on our new item strategies. It was a lot of fun and I learned a ton! Watch for a feature article coming up soon about this super research tool.
This week we have another great story about the things you all have sold on eBay. This week’s story is about two chalkware busts that sell for 40 to 60 times the purchase price! Read about them below.
And as an ending note, Happy New Year!!! I wish the best for you and your family this season.
Here’s to Successful eBaying!
Lynn Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions,’ Creator of the best-selling eBay Boot Camp in a Box and Boot Camp in a Box Lite.
I met Cindy Shebley for the first time at eBay Live in Las Vegas. She is an eBay Guru that specializes in things I know nothing about–like photography, building web pages and adding video to your listings. I met up with Cindy again this past September when we were both asked to teach at the boot camp that Skip McGrath held in Anacortes, WA.
We taught a joint session on eBay Stores and I learned that you could have more than just your “About Me” page. Well, I hired Cindy to add some pages to my eBay store. Here is one she did for my new cosmetic business:
You can visit the page here.
Cindy is very talented and wanted to offer her new CDs and DVDs that show you how to add video to your listings. Check out her special offer here for my ezine readers.
There are just a few days to get a tax deduction for your business for 2007. Boot Camp in a Box and Boot Camp in a Box Lite are two great ways you can expand your eBay business and get a tax break at the same time. (As always, consult your accountant for advice on deductible expenses.)
To make it even easier for you to put the Dralle Method into action, I have come up with a super special payment plan. Just click on either Boot Camp in a Box or Boot Camp in a Box Lite to see how easy it is.
Remember, I am an eBay Certified Service Provider. eBay lets me put their name on all of my products. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I want you to be as successful as I am.
And remember, Queen’s Court members receive a 15% discount on all of my web site store merchandise. That includes Boot Camp in a Box!
‘PriceMiner Rocks‘
by Lynn A. Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions’
I have always been a big fan of PriceMiner. I met the founder, Jim Kamnikar, for the first time by phone in 2004. He was kind enough to inform his “Go Antiques” mailing list about my first 100 Best Things I’ve Sold on eBay. I thought that was really nice considering we had never met in person.
So, when Mo and I did get to meet Jim and his staff at their booth at eBay Live in San Jose, I was extremely interested in his PriceMiner service. PriceMiner is a research tool for antiques and collectibles. Jim has gathered data from many sources such as Tias.com, GoAntiques.com and eBay.com and put together one of the best unique item research tools out there.
Jim and I at eBay Live in Boston.
What is great about PriceMiner is that the data goes back several years. Because eBay only lets us see two weeks of completed auction research it isn’t very helpful. And, their new service called “Marketplace Research” only goes back 90 days. I got a free trial these past few months because I upgraded to an anchor store. I have tried to use it about 12 times and every time it is down and non-functioning. That never happens with PriceMiner!
Whenever I can’t find an item on eBay, Google or Replacements, I can almost always (90% of the time) find it on PriceMiner. This past week, it really became apparent as I was searching though pages and pages of International Silver on Replacements.com to find that pattern I talked about earlier.
Click to see how much it sold for.
When I search on Replacements, the #1 thing I do is a global search using keywords and hope that the item will come up quickly. Something on the back of this set of silver was a word I had never seen on IS (International Silver). It said DeepSilver. So when I typed in IS and DeepSilver about six patterns came up. But none of them were my pattern. Darn it! This means that I have to go to my Replacements step #2 and bring up the entire International Silver catalog and scroll through the thumbnail photos.
This can and does take HOURS!!! I was getting so frustrated that for the first time–I thought I would see what returned from a global search on PriceMiner.
By the way, the problem with some of these global searches on Replacements is that Replacements only uses a certain number of characters in their descriptions (much like a 55 character title on eBay). So instead of saying Deep Silver they may say DS or not even mention it. Another example is for Metlox/Poppytrail/Vernon–Replacements uses Metlx/Poppytr/Vernon and they aren’t even consistent on this.
Another example is with colors and other descriptive phrases, if I type in Corning Peach Floral, Replacements may have it as Corning Orange Flowers. It gets very tricky with these global searches on Replacements because you are not searching both a title and a description like you get to do on eBay or PriceMiner.
So, I opened up PriceMiner and typed in International and Deepsilver. Up came quite a few completed auctions. Not all had pictures, so I quickly scrolled through 3-4 pages and wrote down the 7 different pattern names I found:
Laurel Mist
Delicato
Camille
Rochambeau
Triumph
Anniversary Rose
Countess
Then I headed back to Replacements.com and quickly pulled up each one. #4 Rochambeau was a match!! I just saved myself at least an hour in research!! I got that entire set listed a week ago. I paid $50 for it and quite a bit of it sold for $187.00 on Christmas Eve. And I still have about 12 auctions left to relist in my store at $9.99 each so I will eventually gross over $300 for this set.
I do want to let you know that PriceMiner does charge a small monthly fee. However, that hour saved in research meant that I could list 15 items that will eventually bring me AT LEAST $150. What is an hour of your time worth?
Here is another great way I used PriceMiner this same week. From the same place I purchased the flatware, I also got a crystal egg marked FRANCE. It was on a pewter stand that said 1993 on the base. I was sooo excited. I paid $1 and I thought I had a Baccarat or Lalique piece on my hands. NOT even close.
So, I get on eBay and do completed auction research–Nothing. I Google it–Nothing and too many pages to wade through anyway. I head over to PriceMiner (where I should have gone first) and…..
You guys won’t believe this!! I type in Crystal Egg 1993 into PriceMiner and look what comes up:
Avon Majestic Crystal Egg 1993 NR
Sold For: $20.00 USD – Date: 1/14/2006 9AM – Channel: Online Auction – Source: eBay
Category: Contemporary Collectibles – Original Category: Collectibles : Decorative Collectibles : Avon : Other Avon Items
All Avon items listed are from a former (20+ year) District Manager. Thank you for your interest, this item (pictured above), is… Avon Majestic Crystal Egg from 1993. Beautiful 24% lead crystal egg is 3″ high and has a beautiful pewter stand which is 1-1/2″ high. No Reserve!
NOTE: If you have ANY questions not answered, please check with me before placing your bid. Thank you! All items are sold As Is. No returns. No refunds. Quoted part of description is from Bud Hastin’s 16th Edition
Avon Collector’s Encyclopedia, and is (c) 2001 Bud Hastin.
Oh crud! I had an Avon egg. But I didn’t waste hours and hours researching losing more valuable money in the process. PriceMiner is a winner and I encourage you to all check it out.
By the way here is my Avon egg’s photo and you can click to see what it is selling for. I am sure I will get at least $10 for it–not bad on a $1 investment. Although, I was hoping for a $1,000 Baccarat egg!
And here is some great news… Jim is going to give away a 2 year PriceMiner subscription to one of our lucky ezine subscribers. The link to sign up for the drawing will be in the next ezine.
Happy New Year!!!
Here’s to a very successful 2008 on eBay and off!
Happy eBaying!
Lynn
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 41st story for The 100 Best Things You’ve Bought or Sold on eBay! Carol has returned with another story of two great eBay auctions. Look below for the story of a pair of chalkware busts that sell for 40 to 60 times their purchase price. Click below to read…
Click here to read the story…
Please patronize Carol’s auctions (wanderingcreekantiques) and her eBay store (Antiques at Wandering Creek) and make her business this year even better. Thanks!
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 PowerSeller 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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