Hi
Wow. It seems like it has been a year since I wrote the last ezine. So much has happened! eBay Radio in Las Vegas, Cooperstown in NY, and all the while trying to make a living selling on eBay! Yikes!
- Lynn Recommends: Boot Camp in a Box Sale Ends Tonight
- Special Announcement: 6 Seats Left for Live Boot Camp
- Feature Article: It’s Always Too Soon to Quit
- The Queen’s Update: Requesting more stories from YOU
This ezine is published every two weeks.
July 2, 2009, Volume V, Issue 13
Happy 4th of July! I hope you have an excellent holiday. We hope to be watching the NY Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays on that day in NY City.
Cooperstown is an awesome experience–we are still here! The boys have played really well and are having a blast. Thank you for all your help with our fundraising efforts.
Well, our action-packed last two weeks started with a trip to Las Vegas to teach for eBay Radio. It was a lot of fun and great to meet so many of you in person.
Here I am with Griff, his copy of my new book, Home Run,
and my kids! They were so excited to meet him.
We had a Queen’s Court meet and greet on Tuesday night and it was awesome! Then on Friday morning, quite a large group of us went garage saling in Vegas. Thank you to Diva Dawn for organizing our route! And thank you to Ellen Beach for keeping all the stuff I bought at her house until we return to Las Vegas on my birthday!
The box of cool shoes belonged to Mary. She got the whole box for $20.00 and check out those white knee-high boots with Lucite heels!
Also, check out these Coke Gibson plates I got at one of Diva Dawn’s favorite thrift stores. Indy took the photos on the ground of our parking lot at our Vegas hotel before we flew to Cooperstown so that I could get them listed!
Click here to see if it has any bids.
Funny story with my purchase of these Coke plates. The sign on the door of the thrift store said “No food and no drinks allowed.” I had a Diet Coke with me and didn’t want to take it back to the car so just put the lid on it and smuggled it inside. Indy was mad at me and told me I should obey the rules! She is a stickler for regulations.
I immediately saw a box of Gibson Coca-Cola plates and bowls. Now, I don’t typically like Gibson, except for anything Coca Cola, Warner Bros, or the embossed white fruit pattern.
(As I was writing this, I checked my completed auctions and you wouldn’t believe it but a ton of the embossed Gibson fruit sold out of my eBay store…Just writing about it made it sell!)
Here are what the salad plates look like. Click here to learn more.
Since those are the only three things I look for in Gibson, this Coke stuff really got my attention. It was only $5.00 for the box, so I set my diet coke in the box to carry up to the counter. Unfortunately, the lid wasn’t on tight and it spilled all over the plates and the box. Pretty ironic that I spilled Diet Coke all over Coca-Cola plates. I tried to wipe up the mess but wasn’t very successful. I carefully capped the Diet Coke correctly and hid it in my purse.
When I set the box on the front counter, the lady working there freaked out! She said, “Who put out these wet dishes?” and started yelling at her staff. At that point, I tried to quietly leave the area. Then she got on the loudspeaker and announced, “There are absolutely no drinks allowed in the store. Who spilled something?” It was humiliating. But at least I got a bargain. And my daughter got to give me a scolding. I won’t be taking any more pop or water into stores with me (at least in the near future).
Speaking of Diva Dawn, I want to say how proud I am of her. When we were in Vegas, I got a chance to visit her home and see her eBay setup. I was duly impressed and Houston said her golf cart garage setup was “sick.” That means awesome.
Dawn has followed the Dralle Method to the letter and has been to two Live Boot Camps. She has come so far, from never having listed anything to now has over 2600 items in her eBay store. I am so proud of her! Check out this email she sent. It made me really happy! I had sent her an email thanking her for the tour of her house and this was her reply.
Lynn,
No thanks necessary — it was awesome to have you come here and see what I have managed to accomplish and organize so far. I feel I have such a long way to go yet, but I just keep plugging away at it. THANK YOU for taking the time to come visit. You are such an inspiration. I know that I probably would never have gotten that first thing listed without your encouragement at Boot Camp. I was soooooooo scared and I felt so ignorant. But YOU never made me feel that way — you gave me wings and pushed me out of the nest. So thanks, momma bird!
Your kids are so neat — but then again, look who their mom is! Harley the dog moped around the house when I came back in alone. I think he thought he was going to have companions to play with for awhile last night.
Speaking of Live Boot Camps, In the Special Announcement section, take note, there are only 6 seats left for Live Boot Camp. Reserve your spot now, before it sells out. We want to see you in La Quinta this August!
And if you just can’t make it to La Quinta next month, our Boot Camp in a Box special ends at midnight tonight. Don’t miss reading about it in the “Lynn Recommends” section.
We got such a great reaction to last week’s ezine and the Don’t Quit poem that I decided to republish an ezine article from three years ago called “It’s Never too Soon to Quit.” I have updated it and made it relevant to today’s eBay. So don’t miss this week’s feature article!
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.
It ends tonight at Midnight
Wouldn’t you like to be more productive, leaving you more time for your family and the other things in life that really matter? You have a great opportunity now to own my Boot Camp in a Box at our lowest price ever. That’s right, we are celebrating the launch of my latest book by having a sale on your chance to learn The Dralle Method at home!
Here is a letter I received recently from Jeanine after attending my eBay Boot Camp:
I had my best week yet in sales and just think of what I could have brought in if I had listed 100 items like you teach! The amazing thing was that I shot photos, cropped, & listed 41 items in 1 day while my family was at school/work. Never before have I been so productive. Thanks Lynn for a super Boot Camp!
Jeanine
You can learn the valuable techniques that helped Jeanine make more free time in her life in my Boot Camp in a Box. And for a limited time, you can order your own Boot Camp in a Box at our lowest price.
Don’t let this very special offer for Boot Camp in a Box pass you by. Click here to learn more.
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!
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!
‘It’s Always Too Soon to Quit’
by Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auctions
When I decided to rewrite this article I realized that I have been selling on eBay for almost 11 years! Wow! I started on eBay in September of 1998. What a long eBay career.
As you all know I LOVE selling on eBay. I LOVE the hunt and finding the treasures and then selling them quickly. Immediate gratification at its best! It is like Gambling but you NEVER Lose. After being in Las Vegas last week (and losing $50–my max), it makes me realize just how true that statement is!
You must love selling on eBay or please don’t make it your career. It is the same with anything–follow your passion, never quit, and the money will follow (that is what my grandmother always told me.)
Over those eleven years, I have had three major forks in the road… And at some of those forks, I wanted to quit and seriously questioned if I could REALLY make a good living on eBay. I had the same self-doubts that you may have experienced. Let me walk you through how I turned it around and have made my eBay business what I consider a super success.
#1 Challenge–Finding merchandise after the shop closed.
From 1998 to 2002 I was spoon-fed my merchandise. It all came from my grandmother’s antique store and I think that there were literally 1,000,000 items there. I wasn’t selling for me; I was selling for her and the business. I didn’t have to rely on eBay sales for my personal income. However, we were selling a lot–up to $20,000 a month. Those were the days!
When I moved to California in 2002, I had over 80 boxes of items left from the shop and began to rely on those items to pay the bills. It turned out that there weren’t any big hitters in those boxes–items that would sell for over $1,000 like I used to find in my grandmother’s personal collections. I was discouraged and wondered if I could really make a good living selling on eBay. I hadn’t discovered my “Dralle” method yet and I started dipping into my personal collections.
I really hit rock bottom in May of 2003 when I had to sell a Moorcroft pitcher that my grandmother had given me. (Read about it below in story number 75 from The 100 Best Things I’ve Sold on eBay.) It sold for over $1,000 and I was able to pay the mortgage–but taking that sticker off of the bottom that said: “Property of Lynn Dralle” in my grandmother’s handwriting broke my heart.
Click here to read the story…
It was the next week that I started going to Thrift stores and hitting garage sales.
This was my first turning point. The garage and estate sales and thrift stores were the places to get my merchandise! No emotional ties and the stuff was cheap! This is still true today.
Here is a garage sale find that I currently have for sale on eBay. This mosaic frame is one I found for $3.00 at a garage sale. I think it might sell for quite a bit. Click here to see.
#2 Challenge How to take the summer off or even a week off!
It was the first summer that we were living in Palm Desert–the Summer of 2003. The weather was over 100 degrees, often getting up to 120 degrees. The kids and I planned to spend two months in Bellingham to escape the heat and the $800 a month air conditioning bills. I decided to move my entire eBay operation to Bellingham, WA. I would find the merchandise, write it up, sell it and ship it in bulk from Bellingham to Palm Desert and my assistant Mari would then ship out the individual orders.
Within a couple of weeks, I realized that shipping in bulk from Bellingham to Palm Desert did not work. It was a huge expense and the breakage when shipping 50 things or more a week was insane. I did this for two months and at the end of the two months, I found that overall I had lost $45. Not a smart way to run a business.
The next summer (2004), I only went for two weeks because I couldn’t stand to continue to lose money. And finally, in the summers of 2005 and 2006, I had it dialed in and got it all figured out. I went for three weeks both summers, did not lose any money, and in fact made $3,500 during those three weeks without working more than 15 hours a week.
It was all due to the Dralle Method that allowed me to leave the merchandise in Palm Desert and list it from Bellingham. I had finally got it right! There is too much to explain in this ezine so if you want to learn more about the Dralle method, click here.
#3 Challenge–The ups and downs of auction sales.
This problem plagued me from day one in 1998 until about 5 years ago. Some months I would sell $10,000 at auction and the next month I would sell $1,000. By 2004, I was consistently selling $4,000 a month but it wasn’t enough to cut the mustard (pay the bills.) I needed to be bringing in at least $8,000 a month to ensure myself a $100K sales figure.
It was in October of 2004 that I figured it out! Mo had just started working for me and I said to her, “I think we should try selling some other items in my eBay store–Things like dinnerware, flatware, and unusual antiques.” She was new, relatively inexperienced, and quickly agreed. I love Mo for letting the blind lead the blind!
You see, I had thought that only commodity items sold from an eBay store. Things like my books, auction tools, Royal Copenhagen plates, and other items that I bought directly from manufacturers. It turns out that I was dead wrong. I was amazed to find that anything and EVERYTHING sold from an eBay store! I also found that almost everything would eventually sell–especially if I let it sit in my store long enough!
Here is another antique mosaic frame that sold recently from my eBay store. It had belonged to my grandmother and I got a great price for it! I wasn’t going to give it away and was quite happy to let it sit in my eBay store for four months until I got the PRICE I wanted. Check it out here.
Putting more emphasis on my eBay store was a real awakening to my eBay business plan and a wonderful kick in the pants. It was just what I needed to take my business to the six-figure level. That extra (almost guaranteed) $3,000 a month from an eBay store was what I was waiting for. It turns out I needed the eBay store to round out the edges. For more information on eBay stores click here.
Here is a story from my new book Home Run about an item that sold out of my eBay store.
Click here to read the story…
So those are three of the major turning points in my eBay adventure. I hope that my three forks in the road will help you to understand that if you have passion and purpose, a strong belief in what you are doing, and never quit–you will eventually get to where it is you should be going. I hope it is at the top of the mountain! Your forks in the road may be different than mine (a family naysayer, a lack of capital, or health problems), but remember, “It is always too soon to quit!”
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.