Hi friends!
I am still thinking about how much fun we had at eBay Live! The 3rd 100 Best book has finally gone to press. We finished the final edits late yesterday. What a relief!
- Lynn Recommends: Check out my 48 hour sale before it ends tonight at midnight!
- Special Announcement: 3 Part payment plan for Live Boot Camp ends in 2 days–Only 8 seats left!
- Feature Article: When Busy–Spend More and Rely on your Store
- The Queen’s Update: Our 19th 100 Best Story from YOU!
This ezine is published once a week.
June 28, 2007 Volume III, Issue 24
Dear eBayers,
I still can’t stop thinking about how much fun we had at eBay Live. If you have never attended you should seriously consider it for next year. It is going to be held in Chicago on June 19, 20 and 21.
One of the highlights of our show was attending the Wiley cocktail party that honored Marsha Collier’s eBay for Dummies books hitting the 1,000,000 sales mark. What an accomplishment!
At that party, Melanie, my mom, Dee and I got to hang out with Julie and Steve from Wiley. Julie does marketing for the Dummies books and Steve is an editor.
We got to spend time with fellow authors Julia Wilkinson (The eBay Price Guide: What Sells for What
Here are a few fun and crazy photos from that evening:
Mrs. Tennant, Mel, Dee, me and Joel
Steve, me and Julie (They are the Wiley crew)
Dee, Mr. Tennant, Mel, me Joel and Mom
Julia Wilkinson, Mr. and Mrs. Tennant, Mel, and me
In case you missed our email late Tuesday, we are having a Super Spectacular Sale. Read more about it in the Lynn Recommends section.
In our Special Announcement section, there is an update on my ONLY live boot camp of 2007. Don’t miss it.
While frantically finishing The 3rd 100 Best Things I’ve Sold on eBay–Ka-Ching these past two weeks and exhibiting at eBay Live, I didn’t have much time to list on eBay.
It was a real struggle to get 100 things listed each week. I think I only averaged 50 new items for those 3 weeks. Yikes!! But, I have a pile of about 200 I Sell sheets ready to go that I will be using to “powerlist” in the next few days to get my average back up to 100 per week. Read my feature article about how spending more money and my eBay store saved my business.
Finally, this week we have another great story about the things you all have sold on eBay. This one has an interesting bidding war started to return a long lost mug.
Here’s to Successful eBaying!
Lynn Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions,’ Creator of the best-selling eBay Boot Camp in a Box.
When I worked for the May Department Stores, we used to have 12-hour sales, then they turned into 15-hour sales and when I finally quit they were having 24-hour sales!
Selling vacuums at the May Company
It was crazy to work those hours in an actual retail store when we can do just as well with our eBay businesses from home.
As always, I want you to be just as successful on eBay as I am. For that reason, I have decided to hold a 48-HOUR SALE! If 24 hours was good enough for the May Company–48 HOURS is better!
It ends tonight (June 28th) at midnight. Sorry, Live Boot Camp (which only has 8 seats left) is not included in this sale, but check out a few of the products that are–Click here to see all the teaching tools available:
Boot Camp in a Box with the Lost Bellingham Videos–Normally $1299 plus $299 ($1598) sale price $1198.50 (with a 3-part payment plan)! Click here to order.
Boot Camp in a Box Basic— Normally $1299 sale price $974.25 Click here to order.
Books on CD: The 100 Best and More 100 Best — 12 hours of fun for long car trips this summer–We are hearing awesome comments “Great job! It was so much fun listening to the CDs and looking at the pictures at the same time.” – Lisa from Massachusetts. Normally $59.99 Sale price $44.99 Click here to order.
eBay Store Report–normally $49.99 sale price $37.49 Click here to order.
USPS Shipping Teleseminar with downloadable handouts and transcript–Let us make it really easy for you! Normally $79.95 sale price $59.95 Click here to order.
AND everything else in my web store is also 25% off. Check out all the products here.
I was going to take up to 24 students for my ONE and ONLY Live Boot Camp of the Year. The truth is, I enjoy working with a smaller group and I have been feeling that I can teach more effectively with 20. So I have set the max at 20 and now there are only 8 seats remaining.
This Boot Camp is three days of hands-on intensive learning and fun. This will sell out because it is the only one I am doing this year and I am taking a very limited number of students.
Remember, two days from now, Saturday, June 30th is your last chance for the 3-part payment plan.
Click here to learn more.
We have chosen our location.
Live eBay Boot Camp 2007 is going to be held at
The world famous La Quinta Resort.
This is the resort where old Hollywood used to come to escape. Greta Garbo’s winter home is on the property (some say it is haunted!) The hotel rooms are amazing and so is our meeting location. Come prepared to relax, rejuvenate and revitalize your eBay business as well as yourself.
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“It was a blast and I really enjoyed meeting everybody. Part of the value of this workshop is the networking that happens. You get together this group of people and everybody has so much knowledge to share…As well as of course tapping into Lynn’s extraordinary knowledge and experience.” – Linda L. |
To learn more about my Live Boot Camp, click here. See you soon!
‘In Busy Times–Spend More Money and Rely on Your eBay Store‘
by Lynn A. Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions’
As you know, the last three weeks have been insane for me! Well let’s be honest, the last five weeks have been out of control! New York for BEA (Book Expo America) the first weekend of June, my son’s baseball tournament the second weekend, eBay Live in Boston the third weekend, a Red Sox vs. Padres game in San Diego last weekend. And who knows what will happen this weekend!
I can’t really complain because it has all been a lot of fun. One of Houston’s good friend’s dad had box seats to the game last Saturday night in San Diego. They were nice enough to invite me, Houston and Indy. What a blast! I have never been in a box seat before and may never again–but it was a treat.
Since we are talking about the Padres, I just can’t help but share one of the stories from my new book. (It will be released in a very special promotion on July 24th–watch for an email that day.)
It involves Trevor Hoffman, a closing pitcher for the San Diego Padres.
Click here to read the story.
So, with my life being this hectic, for the first time in about four years, I did not get my usual 100 things per week listed. I probably listed about 50 things per week for those three weeks. I will catch up soon, but what I am saying is that this is OK.
I gave myself permission to let it slide–although being a type “A” person, this was very difficult. I told myself that there were two things that would still make my June a good month on eBay. The fact that I had spent more for quality items and the fact that my eBay store is fully stocked. Let’s take a little closer look at both of these strategies.
#1: Spending more for quality goods:
Because I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to list as much with all of my commitments, I spent a little more for some quality items. When I say a little more–I am not talking about going broke. I just spent closer to $10 to $20 for great items–instead of hovering around $1-$5. I was trying to get my average selling ticket price as high as I could.
Do you remember those men’s brand new golf shirts I bought–65 of them for $850? Those sold very well, and I almost tripled my money this month.
I also paid a little bit more than I normally would for some quality antiques at an estate sale. My strategy worked! Look at this wonderful carved Lion piece that sold a few days ago.
I paid $20–Click here to see how high it went!
I also paid more for some quality dinnerware this month than normal. I try to stay at about $1 per piece but I spent $2 per piece for a wonderful vintage Noritake set that has over 100 pieces. I did this because even if it doesn’t sell at auction it will eventually sell out of my store. This leads us right into strategy #2.
#2: Keep a Fully Stocked eBay Store:
My eBay store saved me this month. No doubt about it! My store consistently performs well and I did a little analysis to help you understand it better.
|
Sales Price |
Quantity |
Gross |
|
$2.49 |
1 |
$2.49 |
|
$3.99 |
2 |
$7.98 |
|
$4.99 |
9 |
$44.91 |
|
$6.49 |
2 |
$12.98 |
|
$7.99 |
3 |
$23.97 |
|
$9.99 |
106 |
$1,058.94 |
|
$11.99 |
5 |
$59.95 |
|
$12.99 |
5 |
$64.95 |
|
$14.99 |
21 |
$314.79 |
|
$19.99 |
12 |
$239.88 |
|
$24.99 |
8 |
$199.92 |
|
$34.99 |
1 |
$34.99 |
|
$39.99 |
3 |
$119.97 |
|
$49.99 |
2 |
$99.98 |
|
$149.99 |
1 |
$149.99 |
|
For June 1-27 |
181 |
$2,435.69 |
So, my store has sold almost $2,500 worth this month. Notice that 96.2% is sold at a $9.99 or higher price point. My store usually accounts for between 25% and 35% of my total monthly sales.
The key to be able to consistently sell this much from an eBay store is to have it fully stocked and priced right. I have 4789 items listed in my eBay store right now at fixed prices. This costs me about $287 in monthly eBay fees to park them there. It is so worth it!
I just sold an item today that was listed in my eBay store on November 22, 2004. I don’t usually let things sit in my store that long but it was a vase that belonged to my Grandmother–so of course that was OK.
Here is a picture of the vase
Click here to see what it sold for.
If you don’t have an eBay store or want to learn how to make it work better for you–please check out my eBay Special Store Report (its on sale until midnight!)
By the way, for those of you who own the eBay store report, I still have not written about Markdown Manager (that I promised as a free upgrade) and I will tell you why. While I was at eBay Live, I noticed that Christmas items were selling like crazy out of my eBay store at 50% off. I had NOT scheduled a sale.
So, I went into my Management Program and saw that a Christmas sale that I had scheduled to start April 7th (that never did start)–had decided to start itself on June 14th. I assumed that it would shut itself off after the 7 days I had originally scheduled. However, it is still going strong. I will shut it down one day soon but I don’t mind selling Christmas items during the summer. I will write about Markdown Manager when these kinks are ironed out.
To wrap up, don’t be afraid to spend more for quality items that can help increase your average ticket price. Also, remember that an eBay store does smooth over the rough spots when you are too busy to list enough at auction. The more you can park in an eBay store, the more you will eventually sell. Bottom line is this, have fun and cut yourself some slack!
Happy eBaying,
Lynn
WANT TO SEE MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE?
See Lynn’s past ezines here.
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 free time, get your FRE E tips now at www.thequeenofauctions.com
I am happy to present our nineteenth story for The 100 Best Things You’ve Bought or Sold on eBay! This one comes from Lauralee. Click below to read…
Click here to read the story…
Please patronize Lauralee’s auctions (manorbooks) and make her business this year even better.
A big thanks to everyone who has submitted your stories! 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 free 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.