Hi!
Our week in Colorado was awesome and we got to get out of the Desert heat!
- Lynn Recommends: Live Boot Camp in La Quinta–4 Seats Left.
- Special Announcement: The new Queen’s Academy DVD set!
- Feature Article: Multiple listings & How to Deal
- The Queen’s Update: Our 43rd 100 Best Story from YOU
This ezine is published once a week.
August 14, 2008 Volume IV, Issue 31
Dear eBayers,
Our time in Colorado was really fun. The boys ended up taking 6th place out of 26 teams in Division 2. We are all so proud of them. They beat teams from all over the United States (although most were from the Western US).
Here is a photo of the boys with their winning plaque
and all the parents/sisters.
I was able to list about 80 things while away from home and write an ezine. I think I did pretty well!
It has been such a busy summer that when my front bumper started falling off of my car, I tried to not pay attention. My car is an older BMW and it doesn’t really have a stiff bumper but has more of a rounded piece of plastic that ALWAYS gets stuck up on sidewalks and over parking bumps. Especially after my dad has been driving it. Just kidding (kind of).
Well, it was getting pretty bad and every time I dropped off Houston at his friend Ian’s house (in an expensive gated community in Indian Wells) the guys at the front gate were always saying “Can we please duct tape that for you?” NOT!
How embarrassing. I could never be one of those people that drove around with duct tape on their car. Or could I? The day before I left for Honduras the bumper finally came crashing down. I didn’t have time to deal with it so I enlisted Houston and Indy to help fix it. Houston got out the duct tape and some bungee cords. We did a pretty darn good job. FYI, duct tape doesn’t stay stuck in 115-degree weather. Just use the bungee cords.
Check out the bad bumper.
While I was in Honduras and my mom was driving the car, the final straw came when a fog light popped out at baseball practice and crashed to the ground. Now, she was driving with electrical cords hanging out. I had to get it fixed. Luckily, the shop did all the work while we were in Colorado and Mo & her husband picked it up for me. I came home to a car that looks brand new! However, I kind of miss my messed up car because I think that people at garage sales gave me better deals when they saw me drive up in it!
We have been slowly plugging away through the summer on eBay. Our store sales have been good and about even with last year. We just sold this neat antique wooden spoon to the American Girl Library in Wisconsin. How cool is that? My daughter is a huge fan of American Girl and it just amazes me where items that have been in our eBay store wind up. I have emailed the buyer to ask if it will actually be used in a display. I have a funny feeling it will be!
The buyer just emailed me back this morning. Here is her email…
Dear Lynn,
We are actually going to put it to use in our Chicago store – a prop in Molly’s kitchen scene. At Christmas time it will be depicting cookie baking.
I’m glad we have so many fans out there!
-Sally
The famous wooden spoon. Click here to learn more.
Speaking of eBay…. 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! We have all the priority envelopes ready to send and should have the DVDs by Monday–watch for your copy next week! What a bargain. If you didn’t order yet, check out the Lynn recommends section for more information.
As I am sitting here writing this, my twelve-year-old son just came in to announce that dinner is ready. He had asked me earlier in the day if he could cook some ahi tuna that we had in the freezer. I said OK as long as he did it in the electric skillet and not on the gas stove. We are not buying groceries much this summer because we are now getting ready to go to Bellingham in a few days to see family. I couldn’t believe it when I saw this amazingly beautiful salad on our dining table.
I said, “Where did you find all this food?” He said, “I used what I could find”. In it was celery, nuts, cranberries, rice cake, onions and the tuna. It was delicious. He had even set the table. What a kid!
I was going to write an article about Auctiva and all their great free services this week, but I wasn’t able to interview my friend Kevin in time, so that article will be in a week or so. This week everyone seemed to be upset with the changes to multiple listings and how they are brought up in the searches–so that seemed timelier. Please don’t miss my feature article on how to deal with this. We will get into much more detail at my Live Boot Camp in a few weeks, but for now, this should help.
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 to hear about Chrissy’s super Mexican pottery find.
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.
21 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!
We have students coming from:
Missouri, Mississippi, New York, California, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas, Nevada, Virginia, Illinois, Michigan, and Kansas…What a great group!
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! 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 (I just approved all the artwork) and will ship out early next week.
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.
Click here to order now because you know we only come out with awesome products!
‘Multiple Listing Effect’
by Lynn A. Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions’
Before I get started on this week’s article, I wanted to update you on this awesome cookie jar and let you see what it sold for. I was very happy with my $2.00 investment!
Click here to see what it sold for.
And before I get started again, I have to share this coffee mug that Mo picked up for 50 cents and had to rub in my face today (as I sit here writing and not being able to list)…. She cracks me up!
She emails this mug to me and says “Bingo.” Click here to check it out.
Now that I have that out of my system, we can get down to business. Here is an email I got last week from one of our favorite Live Boot Camp students, Diva Dawn. Check her out at DivaDawnLV.
Hi Lynn,
I’m sure you’ve been besieged with people upset about the new search results where only one of a similar item from a seller is displayed. Add me to the list.
Last week I listed a dinnerware set that had eight plates, several bowls, mugs, a pitcher, and 18 salad plates, some of which were new and some that were used. They all had pretty high Replacements values, so I listed all of the pieces as ones. Of course, in search results, only one of each ever showed up this week. Of course, I paid 18 x 35 cents for each of the salad plate listings, as well as the insertion fees for all the other pieces. If we’re paying to list an item with eBay, how do they get away with not listing it for people to see? This is really going to impact our auctions. Have you come up with a strategy to counteract this new move by eBay?
I did find that I could bring up all my individual listings if I searched by seller and then by the pattern name (in this case divadawnlv and then Waverly Floral Manor).
What can we do?
-Dawn
It is funny but my understanding was that if there were less than 30 of the same items listed, that all of ours would show up. I was REALLY wrong. Anyway, here is the eBay policy as announced recently…But don’t worry and please remember–that we will always have ways to make it work!!!! Keep reading after the following announcement.
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***A Message from Jeff King — Identical Items and Finding Updates***
There are several ways to confront this issue. I am diligently working to test each one so that I can let you know what I recommend. We will be discussing this in great detail in our Queen’s Court call at the end of the month and during Live Boot Camp, but for now let’s see what can be done.
1. Just change one little part of your title and all your items will show up.
I tested this while I was in Colorado. I listed six different vintage Pilsner Beer glasses and I made three of them unique. Here is one of the beer glass listings.
See one of the listings here.
When I search by Pilsner Dots, Here is what the eBay screen looks like.
Notice that it says 6 items found, but only shows 3. To have the other 3 show up you have to have very good eyesight (as Diva Dawn pointed out to me) because the tiny little link to see more results is hidden at the bottom of the page.
But just notice how moving the number 1 around, taking it out completely and just changing some minor things made these listings unique. Now, you may think this is going to take a lot more time to do “sell similar.” I tested this last night and my results are in step two below.
2. It does not take any more time to change that one word during “sell similar” to make your item unique.
I listed 13 pieces of a dinner set last night individually (eight soup bowls and five dinner plates) and I changed each title slightly. I was able to do this in 14 minutes. Just about 1 minute per listing. This is very close to my normal “sell similar” listings time.
Just remember to vary each title and learn to do it quickly. It is all about adjusting.
Here is a search on eBay for “Tuscan Cherry Signature Dinner” and you can see all five of my dinner plate listings show up. See, it works!!!
3. List items as Dutch auctions.
You all probably know that I am not a big fan of this. I do like the Dutch auction format for fixed price store listings. However, this new policy change warrants doing a little testing. To test this, I listed part of the dinner set shown above by putting the dinner plates and soup bowls as singles (with changes in the titles).
I then listed the salad plates and coffee mugs as Dutch Auctions. Please check the titles to see how I let my customers know that there were more than just one available.
Salad plate auction. Click here to read the title.
Coffee mug auction. Click here to read the title.
I am going to use this Tuscan Cherry dinnerware set as one of many tests to see what is going to work the best for all of us who use the Dralle method. Don’t worry, there are always ways to keep making money on eBay. AND as I realized, if this Dutch thing pans out–our listing fees are going to go down slightly. Definitely a GOOD thing!
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 43rd story for The 100 Best Things You’ve Bought or Sold on eBay! Chrissy shares a great find of some collectible pottery and shows how helpful friendly fellow eBayers can be. Click below to read…
Click here to read the story…
Please patronize Chrissy’s auctions (lowhornmatthews) and her eBay store (Our Vintage Treasures) 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.