Hi!
I can’t believe it, but we are at almost 15,000 in feedback!!! What a thrill–but it has been a long hard road…
- Lynn Recommends The Queen’s Boot Camp in a Box!
- Special Announcement: The 12 6 Days of Christmas Sale
- Feature Article: 15,000 feedback points–the positive and the negative
- The Queen’s Update: A favorite 100 Best Story from YOU
This ezine is published once a week.
December 6, 2007 Volume III, Issue 47
Dear eBayers,
As we approach a huge milestone here at The Queen of Auctions, I have to say that it has been a long hard road to get to that 15,000-point mark. I still remember getting our first negative feedback point back in 1999. It was devastating! AND we got 5 negative feedback points in one week this November. You won’t want to miss this week’s feature article to learn more about both the positive and the negative of this experience. And how to keep it from happening to you!
The football didn’t sell for as much as I had hoped, but I still did really well with it. I think that maybe I should have sent it off to have it authenticated by a Sports Authentication company–but who knows. I figured with my high feedback rating and the story behind the football–it would be enough to establish trust.
Here is a photo of the ball–click here to see what it sold for!
We were going to go to Huntington Beach this past weekend for a baseball tournament. As we were getting ready to leave town on Friday, I decided to check out the garage sales online. Wouldn’t you know it? There were two huge community sales–one in Belmonte and one in Venezia–and these are always good. Visions of lost dinnerware sets danced in my head.
However, it was pouring down rain out here in the Desert. In 24 hours we got more rain than all of last year. It was crazy. Juliette (my best friend from college) called me from Newport Beach to say that it was raining cats and dogs out there also and she didn’t think there was any way they could have a baseball tournament the next morning.
I called Houston’s coach and he assured me that there would be a tournament. OK. No dinner sets this weekend. An hour later, he phoned back to say that I was right! It was canceled. Yippeeee–I would be able to go to garage sales. I was bummed for Houston (no tournament) and Indy (she was going to go to Disneyland with my brother) but there will be more tournaments and more Disneyland trips.
Check out this photo of one of the dinnerware sets I found this past weekend and it is already listed! If you want to know how I list so quickly then you must check out Boot Camp in a Box before the price goes up on 12/12. Don’t miss reading the Lynn Recommends section for more info and a new awesome testimonial from Dawn in Las Vegas!
This pattern typically doesn’t sell at auction but will always sell out of my store. Click here to learn more about the pattern.
I found 4 dinnerware sets this past Saturday. Isn’t that strange? I just had a feeling. The funny part of the story is that my mom found a ton of great clothes also and had to borrow money from me. That never happens! I am always borrowing money from her! So, as we rounded a corner in one of the community sales I said to her, “I hope we have enough money for the huge dinnerware set I am going to find here.”
And there it was (the power of positive thinking)–a HUGE 80-piece set of Studio Nova “Impulse” on the grass and only $40. I said, “I’ll take it”. And my mom and I started scrounging up cash. And I do mean scrounging.
The Impulse dinnerware.
We only had $27.00, so I went to the car to dig through my purse. I found another three-dollar bill in the bottom of it and seven quarters. We were at $31.75. Quite a ways to go to get to $40. We didn’t want to miss out on the set by going to the ATM so we started digging further. I found eight dimes in my wallet and my mom came up with 17 quarters and 32 dimes from her purse and the ashtray in her car. It was so funny! But we made it.
Then we went to the ATM and I took another $300 out and wouldn’t you know it–I only spent $5 more that day!
Out of that $5, I did get two amazing Rosenthal City Coffee mugs for $1 each. One was from New York and the other from Stuttgart (in Germany). If you ever see these pick them up–when I did some research on PriceMiner they can sell in the $20 range!
Rosenthal Coffee Mug. Click here to see what it is up to.
Our Twelve Days of Christmas Holiday Sale is winding down!! We want to help you with your shopping and we know that the 100 Best Books, AudioBooks, and other products will make fabulous holiday gifts. And we can even ship them directly to your gift recipient if you like! Read my special announcement section to learn more. Sorry, Boot Camp in a Box is not included in this one (But you can still order it at the low introductory price for a few more days.)
Don’t forget that I have started selling manufacturers’ 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 a favorite story from earlier this year. You can read it below.
And as an ending note, there will be no ezine next week since my brother Lee will be on vacation and I just can’t do it without him! So, see you on December 20th
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 got this email from one of my Live Boot Camp students on Thanksgiving. It gave me goosebumps!
Dear Lynn,
This Thanksgiving one of the things I am most thankful for is YOU. Selling on eBay for a “living” has long been a dream of mine. And, as you know, fear, real and imagined, was what was holding me back.
Attending the La Quinta Boot Camp has really changed my life. Although I am still working 1-1/2 days a week at my job, I have been devoting the rest of my time to getting my eBay business off the ground. After only 4 weeks of listing, for the first time I have listed 100+ items this week. My store, though stocked with less than 200 items at this point but growing rapidly, has been generating 4-5 sales a week.
I NEVER would have opened an eBay store before learning about them at Boot Camp. You really opened my eyes to so many things. You taught me where not to waste my time, what to shop for, what to research, and not to sweat the “small stuff” — and what that “small stuff” actually is. My feedback has nearly doubled in the past 4 weeks and I have met somewonderful people online.
My eBay business is not yet where I want it to be. But your encouragement and enthusiasm, and the encouragement, advice, and successes of my fellow Boot Campers, are wonderful examples to me of where I can go with eBay.
Fear no longer holds me back. And I am growing more confident every day. YOU did that for me. And I am so very grateful.
Dawn Ralston
Divadawnlv
I am so proud of Dawn!!! What we talk about and learn at Boot Camp has been a life-changing event for so many. It can be that for you also. Click here to learn more.
I wanted to share this wonderful success story with you before the price of Boot Camp in a Box goes up at midnight on December 12th and the bonuses shrink. I don’t want you to miss out and I want you to be just as successful as I am. Click here.
The La Quinta Boot Camp footage is finished and we have put together an incredible introductory package for you. There are so many bonuses it will make your head spin. I know it is making Carmen’s, Mo’s, Lee’s, and my mother’s heads spin–putting it all together to ship out. Click here to learn more. This offer will expire on our Twelfth Day of Christmas (December 12th at midnight), so don’t delay or make excuses!
This new Boot Camp footage is totally up-to-date; showing the new sell your item form and changes that I have made to my system. I am really excited to announce the “on-sale” special promotion details today. What are you waiting for? It is time to change your eBay business and your life…right now!
Remember, I am an eBay Certified Service Provider. eBay lets me put their name on all of my products. And I offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I want you to be as successful as I am. Click here.
All Queen’s Court members receive a 15% discount on all of my website store merchandise. That includes Boot Camp in a Box!
OK, Lee talked me into it. A special holiday sale called “The 12 6 Days of Christmas“! So from now until midnight of Tuesday, December 12th, everything on my Website will be 25% off. (Not including Boot Camp). And if you are a Queen’s Court member–you still get your 15% off on top of that–so you are now shopping at a 40% discount!!
Have I lost my mind? Probably. But the Queen’s Court members are awesome and have become a very special bunch to me. And all of my ezine readers are wonderful–So shop away!
Stock up on I Sell sheets, buy the 3 100 Best books or 3 100 Best Books on Audio–as gifts (we will ship to whomever you like), and check out all our great learning tools! Click here to apply the coupon code and go to the store.
(Your discount will be applied in the shopping cart after following the link in the previous paragraph. Make sure you use the ‘Check Out’ button in the row of four buttons and not the yellow PayPal button or your coupon won’t be applied. You can still pay with PayPal on the checkout page.)
Click here to apply your discount coupon and go to the store. Queen’s Court members, please log on to the forums for your special coupon code with your additional discount.
Happy Shopping!
‘How not to get 5 negative feedbacks in one week‘
by Lynn A. Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions’
As you all know, I started selling on eBay back in September of 1998. It took us until about November of 1999 before we got our first negative feedback. I still remember sitting in my grandfather’s old office in the antique store (that was now my office) staring at the computer screen. I think I may have even cried. I was upset for about two weeks!
The first negative feedback ever left for TheQueenofAuctions came from a woman who we bent over backward to accommodate. Isn’t that always the way? She had bought an expensive doll from my grandmother’s collection and we had wrapped it incredibly well and shipped it UPS with insurance. Well, back then UPS could take 7 to 10 working days across the country and she was NOT happy that it didn’t get to her the day after she purchased it Her negative feedback was all about how long it took to ship. Not about the product at all.
Oh well, I got over it and up until about two weeks ago, I only had 25 negatives in nine years of doing business. Not bad! And a 99.8% positive rating.
But, before I get too far into this article, I am going to explain the feedback system in case there are any of you reading this who are new to eBay.
Feedback is the system that eBay uses to regulate itself. It is the method eBay uses to stay a safe place to buy and sell. A user’s feedback is the number found next to their User ID. Once a transaction is completed, both the buyer and seller can leave feedback for one another:
+1 point for a positive
0 for a neutral
-1 point for a negative
The feedback score is the total of all the ratings that a member has received from unique users. What this means is that if I sell 15 items to one buyer and they are very happy and leave me 15 positive feedback comments, it will only count as one point.
So, as an example, I have only 14,878 next to my user ID today, even though I have had 21, 545 positive comments left for me. Many of them were from repeat customers and that is why there is a 6,670 difference between the two numbers.
I have often discussed this with Griff. It doesn’t make sense to me that we would be penalized (in a sense) for having happy repeat customers. Oh well, it is the way it is.
Now back to my road to 15,000! We hit the 10,000 mark in December of 2005. It took us seven years to get there.
I just found out today that my brother captured a screenshot of us hitting 10,000. How cool is that? I hope he is not on vacation when we hit 15,000!
It was funny, I said to my son Houston when it happened “It will probably take us another 7 years to hit 20,000,” and he said, “No it won’t, mom.” And you know what? I think he may be right!
Here is the reason. Or maybe I should say “was” the reason. I use Selling Manager Pro and I love it. About three years ago I started automating my feedback. There are two choices to doing this. One is to automatically leave feedback when the buyer pays and the other is to automatically leave feedback once the buyer has left you positive feedback.
Well, me being the trusting, naïve person that I am–I chose the “leave them feedback once they have paid.” It worked great for a while and as an example in the past 12 months, we have received 4,456 positive points. Now, remember, not all of these will count towards my visible total.
In the 3rd week of November, we received five negative feedback points in one week, taking my 25 negatives up to 30. I was devastated. It was raining negativity. However, my overall positive percentage is still the same at 99.8%. That makes it a little bit better. But not much.
So, what went wrong, you may ask? I think that as eBay has grown, more and more new eBayers are buying and once they see that I have left positive feedback they really have no reason to even contact me–they can just leave the negative.
It still amazes me that a new eBay buyer will not contact the seller before leaving negative feedback. And what we have also found is that they are getting more and more impatient. At the Queen of Auctions, we don’t answer emails from Friday afternoon until Monday morning. The buyers that are upset expect you to be at your computer from dawn until dusk.
Some of our recent negatives came from people who threatened us with “If I don’t hear back from you in 24 hours I am leaving negative feedback!” Yikes. They should get a life!
And almost all of the negatives were from the Dept. 56 Villages I sold recently. Remember this picture of them all?
What we didn’t know or realize until later was that some of the villages came with transformers and we didn’t find the transformers until after we had a lot of unhappy customers. We ended up refunding $15 to about ten buyers to purchase replacement transformers before I found the bag of them. It was a learning experience and a growing experience.
Carmen never wants to see another Dept. 56 villages and I don’t blame her. So, I have moved all that is left for sale out into the garage, and to further protect us from negative feedback (especially during this busy holiday season)–I have changed the feedback setting in Selling Manager Pro.
I now do NOT automatically leave positive feedback until positive feedback has first been left for me. I know that this will slow down the growth of our feedback number drastically. However, it is a trade-off. Grow your feedback faster or reduce negative feedback. For today, I am choosing to reduce negative feedback.
Oh, on a better ending note. Here is how I nipped some potential negative feedback in the bud. A woman bought an entire dinner set from us. We quoted her $59.95 UPS s/h/I and she became upset. Started complaining even before it was shipped. It took 3 boxes to pack it all up safely (costing us about $55.00 by UPS), so I went into eBay and requested her phone number.
You can only request the contact information of someone you have a current transaction with. Here is how you do it. Click on the advanced search blue button. On the left-hand side, you will see Members and under that heading, you will see Find Contact Information. Click on this.
You will be taken to a page where you type in the user ID and the current transaction number. Literally, within seconds you receive an email with your buyer’s name, address, email address, and phone number. What a score! When you call a buyer that has been threatening you by email–all of a sudden they are your best friend. It is amazing when they can’t hide behind their computers to see how their demeanor changes.
I called my buyer and explained how we only wanted to ship her china safely and what our actual charges were. All of a sudden, everything was right in her world and ours!
The best part of this story is that it only took us two years to get those 5,000 positive feedback points. Houston was right, we will probably make it to our second 10,000 (20,000) in only four years (instead of the seven years it took us for our first 10,000)!!
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 FREE tips now at www.thequeenofauctions.com
This week we are opening the archives to share a favorite past story of The 100 Best Things You’ve Sold…
Click here to read the story…
Here is the photo of the lamp Annette talks about in her story.
Please patronize Annette’s auctions (pdrost) and her eBay store (Elmwood Cottage Collectibles) 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 website 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 antique 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 an online auction click here.