Hi!
I am back from NY and ready to get listing again! Book Expo was great and the reaction to the 4th 100 Best book was awesome.
- Lynn Recommends: USPS New Rate Chart
- Special Announcement: 7 Seats Left for Live Boot Camp
- Feature Article: Keep your eBay Space Organized
- The Queen’s Update: Requesting more stories from YOU
This ezine is published every two weeks.
June 4, 2009, Volume V, Issue 11
Book Expo in NY was a lot of fun. I had two autographing sessions on Saturday and Jane Schraeter (Find-More-Things) (Live Boot Camp Grad and Queen’s Court member) came into the city to help me with autographing.
Here are Jane and I in the traditional autographing area.
It was amazing how fast I ran out of books. It was really neat to meet you all and I loved hearing from the people in line, ‘I have read your first three 100 Best books and can’t wait to read this one!’ It was pretty cool.
Then on Saturday night, Annie Brickner (one of my best friends from college) came into the city to attend the Midpoint Trade (my distributor’s) party with me. We had a great time and it was awesome to catch up. I took a picture with one of the Midpoint Trade Reps, John Teal, because last year in LA at the Midpoint party, Houston thought John was the famous actor Steve Buscemi.
Here are John and I at the Midpoint Party
Here is the cover of the new book!
Please watch for our special launch
email promotion on June 16th!
The teleseminar last month with Debbie Ybarra of eBay-Mommy.com was incredible. I learned soooo much about selling plush toys and clothing. Debbie’s article in last week’s ezine was also incredible. So, if you missed it, you can still read it here.
And if you missed the teleseminar, the instant download is still available here at a very reasonable price. Order now before the price goes up. I guarantee that you will make back the price of the teleseminar with your growing plush sales!
Check out this email I got from Miriam about the teleseminar:
Hi, Lynn….
I just wanted to let you know that your interview with Debbie Ybarra was really good. I downloaded the interview and then listened to it on an eBay buying trip/vacation I just took over the Memorial Day weekend. We arrived at our destination and immediately found a neighborhood with three yard sales.
Seriously, I made back the money I spent about fifteen minutes after getting out of the car. I found a plus size Jones New York blouse with the tags attached that I would have NEVER bought before listening to your interview. I also found a number of cute stuffed animals and a new linen jacket in a plus size from a very expensive designer.
I already looked up a number of these items and found that they will sell for much more than a $20 profit.
Guess what? My boyfriend was also listening to your interview…he wanted to listen to it on the way home, too. He got mad at me when I didn’t buy more stuffed animals.
Thanks again! I will be purchasing more…and I’ll see you in Vegas!
Miriam, Blue-Frog-Shoes
Click here to buy the teleseminar for instant download now!
I will be on eBay radio next Tuesday, June 9th at 1:15 pm with Griff and Lee for about 10 minutes during the PowerSeller show. Don’t miss it! You never know what we will be talking about!
Only 34 more feedback points are left to hit 20,000! We may be there when this ezine gets to your inbox. Click here to see if we made it.
Carmen and Deborah have finished cleaning up the eBay room. It is amazing how organized we are now. What a joy! And, now that all the old merchandise has been donated to charity, I can park in my garage again! Yippeeee. Just in time for the hot weather.
With the eBay room so organized, I decided to share my (and Carmen’s) top five tips for keeping your eBay merchandise organized. Don’t miss this week’s feature article.
I bought an awesome dinner set before NY for $600. Yikes! Luckily, I sold about $1,000 worth of it while I was in NY and we still have some pieces left. It was a reproduction of the china used on the Santa Fe Railroad.
Check out a piece of it here. Click to see what it sold for.
It is such a great pattern that I had to show you two pieces.
Click here to see another piece.
In the Lynn recommends section, I have the USPS International Rate Chart updated, both front and back and I have a special price for those of you who just bought it in January. I wish the Post Office would do just one price change per year. No, make that one price change every OTHER year!
In the Special Announcement section, take note, there are only 7 seats left. Please reserve your spot now, before it sells out. We want to see you in La Quinta this August!
Finally, we are looking for more of your stories. Read below to find out how to submit your stories for consideration.
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.
The USPS Shipping Cheat Sheet has been updated. First-class international and domestic prices were raised. Media also increased. A digital file of the front of the sheet will be posted on the Queen’s Court Inner Circle Forums as an extra gift this month and a Thank You for being so awesome!
Speaking of awesome, check out this awesome shirt that I just got in the mail from Gladys Cox (grccox) (a 2008 Live Boot Camp graduate). She actually went to Replacements for a tour and said, “I couldn’t resist buying you this shirt.” Too sweet! Thank you!
Since the chart has changed slightly on the front side, Media and 1st Class International, and the back has changed completely, I am offering the laminated version for sale here at the usual low price (shipping included).
If you had already bought the chart in January, I am offering the laminated version for 25% off, click here.
And remember, Queen’s Court members may use their discount.
Hopefully, that is all for this year!
Our ONLY Live Boot Camp of 2009 is coming up soon. Friday, August 28th, Saturday, August 29th, and Sunday, August 30th at the world-famous La Quinta Resort! There are only 7 seats left!
We have added a 3-part payment plan, so please click here to get your special invitation. When you email just let Mo know if you are a Boot Boot Camp in a Box owner, a prior graduate, a Six-Steps to eBay Success owner, or none of the above.
By holding it the last weekend in August, we were able to negotiate super great room rates for all you future students and the resort will not be very crowded. We will also be able to get the meeting rooms that we want.
Here are my 2008 Graduates! Not everyone sent in a photo but for those who did it made it easier for Carmen, Jason, Lee, Mo, and I to get to know you all faster!
Don’t you want to see your photo on this board next year? I want to see you in La Quinta. Please let us know if you didn’t receive your special invitation. Contact us here.
My mom will be returning to help this year and we look forward to having her back with us for 2009!
‘Our 5 Top Tips for Keeping Your eBay Space Organized’
by Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auctions, with Carmen Badham
I am happy to report (again) that Carmen (with Deborah’s help) did an incredible job of organizing the eBay room. She spent about 4 months on it and she got all of our 104 shelves in chronological order. She pulled all of the old inventory and now it is gone! As of today, I can park in my garage and the gals love the clean and organized eBay room.
Check out Carmen and Deborah in our clean space!
Carmen and Deborah are awesome. Here is a very nice email I got from a customer today about Carmen! Don’t those types of emails make your day?
Lynn,
I just want to say what a pleasure it is to work with you and your products! Carmen is such an asset, anytime I need help or have a question she has always been available to answer them and help me out. I appreciate all your kindness and patience. I hope someday to be able to do the amount of volume you do! eBay has been very good to me and has allowed me to meet and talk to such wonderful people like you and Carmen.
Thanks again for your service and product! DM
Now on that positive note, let’s move on to our 5 top tips for keeping your eBay space organized and working for you!
1. Keep merchandise in your eBay store for 2 years (try and have
it go through two holiday seasons).
We think that two years is enough eBay store exposure for an item. However, we have sold some items recently that we had pulled from our shelves, but had not ended the auctions yet (or donated to charity). Lucky for us!
Check out this Gibson bowl. We sold two! And we still had them.
Two years (with two holiday seasons) is a good rule of thumb. However, use your own judgment.
2. Number your Shelves from 1 to 104 or from A to ZZZZ
I was very pleased when I realized that the 26 letters in the alphabet times 2 is 52 for one year–52 weeks. Then it was even cooler to go from A B C D….to AA BB CC DD…to AAA BBB CCC DDD….and finally AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD. Four times through the alphabet totals 104 shelves and worked out perfectly when we ended with ZZZZ. 104 weeks or two years exactly!
This way we always have a shelf for each week of our two-year rotating system. AND now they are all in chronological order and permanently labeled. Shelf A will always be exactly where it is now. No more saying, “Does anyone know where shelf RRR is?”
Here is what our shelves look like.
3. Put that shelf number on your I Sell sheet so that you can
quickly find merchandise
My mom even puts her shelf number right in the eBay listing. She learned this from Peter. I may start doing this myself. It really helps when you get a question about an item and need to go and find it.
For now, Carmen and I use Turbo Lister to quickly lookup our listing date and then we find the I Sell sheet and go to the correct shelf.
Here is one of my I Sell sheets with the shelf number on it.
4. As you list your new 100 items each week, rotate the old stock
off of that shelf number or letter and box it up.
As an example, this week, I am listing items for the CC shelf. So, after I have the items photographed and all ready to be listed on eBay, Carmen will clear the old merchandise off of shelf CC and put the new 100 or so items on that shelf.
Here is a photo of shelf CC with what will be taken off this week.
Don’t buy anything you see on this shelf! Once Carmen boxes it up, she goes into Turbo Lister and ends the auctions.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Items that were in the store for more than $19.99 will get a second chance in the store for a few more months at a lower price. Or even at auction at a lower price.
As an example, I had a Limoges-covered vegetable dish that did not sell for $49.99. Carmen and I agreed to try it at auction for $9.99 and it still didn’t sell. I wasn’t ready to donate that to charity! So, we put it back on the same shelf (the I Sell sheet still had that shelf number on it) and listed it in my eBay store for $24.99. It sold 5 days later for $24.99. Carmen and I just looked at each other and said, “She could have had it for $9.99!” So you just never know.
Click here to learn more. This is the listing that we ended. We relisted it again at auction and then in the store and it sold!
Just have a slightly different strategy for your more expensive items.
5. Donate what doesn’t sell to charity (a great tax write off)
Luckily, I could donate all of my unsold inventory to Houston’s baseball team because they are a 501C charity. I got a tax donation receipt from the team and the garage sales that they had (with my eBay unsold items) brought in a lot of money to help them on their way to Cooperstown.
We will be in Cooperstown for the tournament starting on June 26th, so wish us luck! Thank you for helping us with our charity auctions earlier this year!
Here is Houston and one of his teammates
in front of the garage where we dropped off our donations.
Pick your favorite charity and donate away. Remember that most charities will even come and pick up the items you donate and then give you a receipt or two!
I keep all of my old I Sell sheets in case I need to prove value for the items that didn’t sell.
In conclusion, get a system that works for you and stay on top of it. Carmen and I really learned a valuable lesson this year. We learned that it is much easier to take off the 10 to 40 items that didn’t sell from over two years ago, by the week, than to let it build up and have to get rid of 2,000 items all at once. That took four months!
New merchandise sells and you want to keep your stock rotating and fresh. Have fun with it! We do!
Happy eBaying!
Lynn
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
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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.