Hi!
I had a great time on vacation and I left my computer at home! What a concept.
- Lynn Recommends Live Boot Camp in La Quinta–Good News!
- Special Announcement: The new Queen’s Academy DVD set!
- Feature Article: Selling Books on eBay and Amazon
- The Queen’s Update: We want to hear your stories
This ezine is published once a week.
August 7, 2008 Volume IV, Issue 30
Dear eBayers,
My trip to the island of Roatan in Honduras was amazing. Peter and I stayed at a really nice hotel, we got to scuba dive and I did NOT take my computer. It was a little hard to get used to no computer at first, but I have to tell you that by day two, I was living & loving the island life.
I even got my first scuba diving specialty card, the naturalist. I am so excited. We saw turtles, Rays, Dogfish, Dolphins, and Lobsters.
Here is a picture of the dive boats. We had to wade out in the Caribbean water with all our gear to climb in. Quite the adventure!
Remember two weeks ago that I actually listed some books for sale on Amazon.com. Well, I sold my first book on Amazon this past week. That was pretty exciting–since I had only listed 10 books! The book was House and Home [Hardcover] by McCleary, Kathleen. It sold for $6.99 and here is the settlement statement from Amazon.com
STATEMENT
Account Summary
Closing Balance as of 04-Aug-2008: $7.59
Marketplace
Payments Received $10.98
Fees -$3.39
Seller Fees $0.00
Buyer Refunds $0.00
——————————————–
Amazon charged the buyer $6.99 plus $3.99 for shipping. Grand total $10.98. They subtracted $3.39 in selling fees, so the amount I received was $7.59. It cost me $2.58 to ship it media mail so I netted $5.01. The selling fees were 48.4% of the $6.99 selling price. Quite high and that is why I prefer to sell books on eBay. However, if I were selling more expensive books, that percentage would come down.
As I write this ezine, I am sitting at a baseball game in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Houston’s team is here for the Triple Crown World Series. So far, not so great. We have gone 0 for 3 but we have played three of the majors. I know we will do better tomorrow. Wish us luck!
The boys at the opening ceremony.
Well, guess what? It is tomorrow (Wednesday) and Houston’s team just won the first two games of the playoffs! In the first game, they won 3 to 2 and the second game 7 to 6. They were such nail-biters that I had to leave and walk around and not watch! I am so proud of all 10 boys–it was really a TEAM effort. Wish us luck for the next game, which isn’t until Friday.
It has still been a fun trip and I actually went rafting yesterday with Houston and all his teammates down the Yampa River. What a blast! Hard to work here with so many activities going on but I do have a newsletter to write and things to list on eBay!
Back to eBay, our Queen’s Court members are some of the neatest people I’ve met and I have to share a photo of these cool gifts that I received lately. The “I Am The Queen” mug was handed to me during a book signing in Chicago. And I know now who gave it to me! It came from Lynn H. and here is her eBay store: Dazy’s Treasures. How could I have forgotten Lynn, since we do have the same name and she showed up in a motorized scooter at eBay Live…because she had broken her foot while…garage saling!
Speaking of eBay Live…. Our On the Road DVD set is finally edited and has been sent to the production company. It has turned out to be much more than four hours. It looks like we will be sending out over 5 1/2 hours of instructional footage to all of you who pre-ordered! Look for your DVDs in the second week of August! What a bargain. If you didn’t order yet, check out the Lynn recommends section for more information.
My ONLY Live Boot Camp of the year is going to be in La Quinta in less than ONE month. Just to let you know how great it is, we have four returning Boot Camp grads! There are a few seats left but it is filling up quickly. Please read more in the Lynn Recommends section.
Finally, we are bringing back the section where you write in with your major scores! Please read The Queen’s Update section to learn more about submitting your stories.
Happy 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.
28 Days Left and Counting.
If you’re thinking about joining us in California for my only Live Boot Camp of the year, now is the time to make your plans.
The clock is ticking down rapidly to my only Live Boot Camp of the Year. Seats are filling up quickly!
For more information Click here.
I don’t want you to miss out on this amazing opportunity to change your eBay business and your life for the better! Don’t delay.
Click here to reserve your spot now. Or email us to ask for a new invitation because if you own Six Steps to eBay Success, Boot Camp in a Box Lite, or Full Boot Camp, you qualify for a discount.
I cannot believe that our three-disc DVD set is going to be over five and a half hours of amazing information! Because of this, we are offering a special price until they arrive from the manufacturer when it will go up to the $79.99 regular price. Click here to order now.
Here is a funny trailer that Jason made.
The new and improved On the Road to eBay Live with the Queen of Auctions DVD set now includes three DVDs chock full of educational and entertaining information that you need to know.
Here is the rundown of this awesome DVD set:
Disc 1: You asked them and we took your questions to eBay Live and got you the answers you were looking for…This Q & A will include your questions asked and answered by Lynn, other PowerSellers, and some of my favorite eBay Gurus. We interviewed Joel Elad for 1 1/2 hours, Lisa Suttora for 1/2 hour and we even got Mike Enos and Jim Cockrum. I don’t know how we are going to condense this into just one hour but it will be chock full of great information!!! Guess what….? We didn’t condense it into one hour and it is sitting at two hours forty minutes.
Disc 2: We were given the green light to film all three of Lynn’s eBay classes. Be a fly on the wall and learn all her tricks for garage saling in her seminar class and research in her lab class. Approximately two hours of intense and interesting instruction! Guess what…? This turned out to be about 2 1⁄2 hours of great information.
We were also very lucky to speak with many of our favorite eBay Certified Providers like Auctiva and HammerTap.
Here I am with Kevin and Jeff from Auctiva and Jen from HammerTap.
Bonus Disc 3: For purchasing Discs 1 and 2 at our amazing low price, you will receive this extra DVD which includes the Behind the Scenes Reality before, during, and after eBay Live. The drama, authors’ luncheons, after-hours parties, and the humor of Mo, Carmen, and Jason. You don’t ever have to watch this but trust us–it is worth the price of the two instructional videos alone! I have seen some of the footage and it is hysterical!!! Guess what…..? This DVD is 35 minutes of fun.
The DVDs are coming soon from the manufacturer so we’ve extended this preorder special to midnight on Friday, August 8th. This will ship out the second week of August.
This year’s eBay Live in Chicago was a blast. You can be a fly on the wall with Jason Badham’s new DVD On the Road to eBay Live with The Queen of Auctions.
Jason is Carmen’s husband and many of you know what a great job he did with The Queen’s Academy volume 1 Shipping DVD. This is the second DVD package in that series and you won’t want to miss out on our special pre-order offer.
From now until midnight on Friday, August 8th, you can pre-purchase three DVDs full of fun and learn for a super special introductory price. Click here to order now because you know we only come out with awesome products!
Click here to order now.
‘Go Europe’
by Lynn A. Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions’
I was out garage saling the Saturday morning before I left on my vacation to Honduras. My kids and I had been to about seven garage sales and hadn’t found much. We were on our way home and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a yard full of furniture. It was in a “not very good” part of town so I hadn’t circled it in the newspaper.
I immediately hit the brakes and pulled a u-turn. My daughter Indiana does call Palm Desert the “City of U-Turns”. The kids waited in the car while I shopped. I couldn’t believe that everything was either made in Italy, France, or Portugal.
I started asking prices. Everything was 50 cents to $1.00. There were a few more expensive items–like an Italian soup tureen for $8.00. Check it out–it is beautiful.
Check out this soup tureen here.
I ended up buying four huge boxes full for less than $40. It just goes to show you that you can’t rule out certain neighborhoods and when things are signed with great countries of origin–you need to spend some extra time and money.
This brings me to my three tips for today’s article–all about Going Europe.
#1: Always Buy Made in France. Especially Limoges.
I bought ten of these plates at 50 cents each. Look at what each one sold for! And they got shipped back to France. The buyer even paid $60 for s/h.
A French Limoges plate. The auction is here.
If you can pick up any items marked France and Limoges, please do so as long as they are reasonably priced. Here is more information about Limoges.
Limoges is a city and also a region in France. Many people mistakenly think that Limoges is an actual factory. This is not the case.
Here is a quick history. Around 1768 a fine white clay (called kaolin) was discovered at Saint Yrieix la Perche near Limoges. Kaolin is used in the manufacture of fine porcelain. Keep in mind that Limoges is hard-paste porcelain as opposed to a soft paste. To learn more about soft-paste porcelain, please read story #53 in Money Making Madness.
This plate sold for $143.10!
Around the time of the Kaolin discovery, the Limoges region was isolated and very poor. There was an economist, Ann Robert Jacques Turgot, who developed the now-famous ceramics industry in the area during the 1800s. Turgot (as he was called) is quite famous for this. Please remember that Limoges Porcelain is a generic term for porcelain produced in Limoges rather than at a specific factory.
That is why we see many varied makers producing in this region. The most common mark that comes to mind is Haviland Limoges. But don’t forget that many other factories operate out of this region and the ten plates I sold were made by Porcelaine De Paris.
More than 50% of all porcelain made in France comes from the Limoges region!
#2: Always Buy Italy/Portugal. Most of it is going to be Majolica.
Check out this cookie jar that I got at that same garage sale for $2.00. Isn’t it amazing? I actually thought that it was a pile of salad plates so I tried to pick up the nuts off the top so that I could turn a plate over and see the maker’s marks. Too funny! It was a cookie jar made to just look like a stack of plates. FYI–Looks can be deceiving and never forget that!
Click here to see what it is up to.
This piece was signed ‘Mancioli Italy.’ I called it Majolica in my listing. Let’s learn a little bit about Majolica.
Maiolica (also called Majolica in English-speaking countries) is ceramic ware that originated in Renaissance Italy. It had an opaque white glaze and then was painted in several colors. It is typically very colorful with drippy glazes. The Victorian pieces from about 1850 to 1890 made in England and the US can sell for thousands of dollars.
My cookie jar isn’t your typical Majolica but it did have the appearance of a drippy glaze so I can safely say that it is. Majolica has its own category on eBay and I know the category number by heart–it is 453. Check out this link to see what is currently listed on eBay. There were over 1500 pieces when I checked.
#3: Always buy Scandinavian. How could I write about Go Europe without including the Scandinavian countries? Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden are all great countries of origin to look for. Many of these countries were on the cutting edge of Mid-Century Modern (Eames era) design and those items (as most of us know) sell for big bucks!
Remember this lamp (#61) from my 100 Best…Ka-Ching! book? This lamp sold for about $70.
Let’s learn a little bit about Eames Era items. Eames era is the time period from about 1947 to 1969 and is named after the famed architects and designers Charles and Ray Eames. You have to be careful when using Eames Era in your titles because there has been some controversy on eBay. Some say that unless your item is actually made or designed by Charles and his wife, you may not use the term. Just be careful. Other good buzzwords for that era to use are Mid-Century Modern, 1950s, and Sleek.
Eames-era items are typically sleek in design and minimalistic. It was an answer to the end of WWII and most items were made from unusual materials like plastic and teak wood. It was a more fun time for design and there was a lot of experimentation. 1950s mod items can sell for a lot of money.
If you remember to always buy European pieces at reasonable prices you will do very well on eBay. You may even do so well that you can afford a real trip to Europe! I know Europe is on my vacation wish list.
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 time, get your FREE tips now at www.thequeenofauctions.com
We are looking for your eBay success stories to share with our ezine readers and possibly make it into a book of our reader’s best eBay stories.
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
Visit my eBay Store. Visit my eBay auctions.
For more great eBay tips and stories, visit my website at:
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.