Get Higher Prices by Experimenting with Auctions

* Trying to stand out from a crowd by offering free
shipping or lowering prices and raising shipping costs.

* Changing the keywords in the your auction titles. Did
you know eBay will tell you the five most frequently
searched phrases for each category. Well eBay does. Even
better, eBay even puts them in order. You can find these
five most frequent searches by going into any category and
looking at the "Related Searches" links found just under
the search box at the top of every category page.

* Removing links to store items. I've seen a lot of
auctions with columns of links to store categories. Do
these links help people find additional items or distract
them from the single listing? I don't know.

* Trying different categories, or using the two
category option. I know from my past results a Marx toy
train accessory will usually bring more money listed in one
of the Lionel categories. (Lionel and Marx are different
brands of toy trains.) I wouldn't know that if I hadn't
tested it.

A short aside here. EBay's rules say you must list
the item in the most relevant category. Because there is a
Marx category, the item should be listed there. To get
around this, I list in BOTH categories, and include the
words "USE WITH LIONEL" in the title. That is also an
acceptable way to get a keyword into a title. "USE WITH,"
or "FOR" and the secondary keyword.

* Remember to pay attention to the eBay listing fees
when selecting prices to test. An auction listed with a
starting price of $9.99, will cost you less in listing fees
than the same auction with a starting price of $10.00.

-Auction Revolution news

Internets Was Yes!

Internets Was Yes! is the new Boing Boing

Thank you for stumbling upon my blog. This blog was originally started to make money with google adsense while helping eBay sellers. It has sense gone mostly dormant.

Now I am focusing all of my blogging energy juices on a new more general/fun blog. Please check it out and tell your friends.

Internets Was Yes:

Exploring a Series of Tubes.

The Smurfs Are Back! New Smurf Movie 2009

The word on the street is that there is going to be a new Smurf Movie in 2009. Rumor has it, it may be part of a trilogy. The Smurf Movie may also be in 3D (though it is unlikely the characters will be).

Well, I know what you are asking, "Why are you bringing up the Smurf Movie? What do Smurfs have to do with eBay?"

Well eBay friends I will tell you. This post is a trend watch, and I am guessing that The Smurfs will be the hot new trend.

I am assuming this will be similar to the Transformer trend of the past. I am sure there will be a lot of marketing to promote the New Smurf movie in the next year, so now is the time for you to take action.

I recommend that while you are out at garage sales, or if you see any cool smurf items on the internet, or have any at home, that you hang on to them until the movie comes out.

I Sense a high demand for smurf items on the horizon, so keep your eyes peeled and get ready to jump on the Smurf Movie Bandwagon.

eBay News and Information: Links for Mar 1

Rob Pergoraro of the Washington Post wants to hear how you feel about the recent eBay changes.

Reuters reports that eBay Sees Growing Risks in Coming Years.

"If these changes cause sellers to move their business away from our sites or otherwise fail to improve gross merchandise volume or the number of successful listings, our operating results and profitability will be harmed," eBay said.

According to AuctionBytes, eBay may introduce a split screen to display auction results.

eBay may have found a solution that will make both auction and fixed-price buyers and sellers happier: a split-screen results page that shows auction listings on one side and fixed-price listings on the other.

eBay Numbers were Reported to be inflated according to pheebay.com.

An apparent glitch on eBay has meant tens of thousands of listings appeared on the eBay.com website without the ability for anyone to buy or bid on the items.

As per normal with eBay, the conspiracy theories are already circulating about inflated listing numbers to disguise the boycott impact and artificial stats to satisfy Wall Street analysts.

Learn How To Sell on eBay

There are lots of new eBay customers out there who want to learn how to sell on eBay. If this describes you, and you want to learn how to sell on eBay in a quick and easy way, I have a book to recommend for you!

I just read Skip McGrath's book the, New Basic Seller's Guide to eBay. Skip Has been in the eBay trenches for a very long time, and does a very good job of simplifying the eBay selling system in a way that your grandma could understand.

If you would like to learn how to sell on eBay but do not want to buy a book, I recommend that you dig around in the archives of this website, the eBay Selling Guide, or take a look at Lizard Wisdom, or TameBay.

There is a lot of great information out there if you want to learn how to sell on eBay, you just have to make sure to be skeptical of your sources.

eBay News: eBay Boycott Causes Auction listings to drop 13%

From USA Today:

Auction listings on eBay.com dropped some 13% since the strike started Feb. 18
to about 13 million items, according to third-party tracking sites such as
dealscart.com and medved.net.

This quote misrepresents the actual effectivness of the eBay boycott. Ebay, did in fact drop 13% since Feb. 18. But if you look at the beggining of February there were about 13 million auction listings to start with. Thus, this small time frame only captures a small spike and valley in the graph. It does not actually represent how eBay is doing as a whole throught the month of February.

This is another case of the Media skewing the numbers for a story.

eBay reports that it has seen no difference in the ammount of auctions listed since the boycott began.

eBay News: Forbes says dump eBay stock

From Forbes.com

One name the gurus no longer want in their portfolios: eBay (nasdaq: EBAY). Analysts who favor the stock point out that eBay is the No. 1 global e-commerce brand, with a presence in nearly 40 markets. And the company likes to give back to its shareholders: eBay has repurchased $3.2 billion worth of stock since July 2006 and may repurchase another $2.8 billion under current authorizations.

But analysts also point out concerns, noting, for instance, that growth has slowed down in the company's two largest markets: the U.S. and Germany. EBay also has to deal with competition from rivals like Google (nasdaq: GOOG), Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO) and Amazon (nasdaq: AMZN), and the recently announced decision of well-respected CEO Meg Whitman to step down.

EBay's shares have slipped about 18% in the past 12 months, well off the October high of $39. The M100 decided it was time to bail.

eBay Changes: Meet the Seller

Are you ready for the new changes at eBay? Here is an example of one of them: Meet the Seller.

It appears that if you have a low star rating for shipping time, shipping price, item as described, or communication eBay will warn your potential bidders.

With this new auction format in the works, bidders will no longer have to click the feedback button to read your feedback. EBay will point out all of your faults for you.

If you sell on eBay, and you have less than a 4.5 on any star rating, I really suggest that you try to find out what the problem is and fix it. Otherwise, this type of change will obviously make your bidders think twice about buying an item from you.

The Importance of reporting Non-Paying Bidders

It is very important that all sellers with non-paying bidders file non-paying bidder alerts and final value fee credits 10 days later if payment is still not received.

Filing the FVFC has better results than leaving negative feedback - a buyer with three FVFC filed from three different sellers is suspended (usually) from using E Bay. Leaving negative feedback only gets a buyer suspended when their feedback number gets into the negatives (usually -3, but sometimes even that doesn't occur).

It is also important to file for the correct reason - that the buyer didn't pay. If they don't pay, don't file "mutually agreed to cancel the transaction" - that does NOT place a black mark against the buyer and allows the buyer to continue doing the same thing to other sellers.

If you review a buyers feedback and see they have more than three negatives for non-payment, you can assume that not all of the sellers file or know to file the FVFC.

Sellers must help each other by filing these forms to get these habitual non-payers off of E Bay.

Please read and use this link to file NPB's and FVFC on all non-paying bidders:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/bidders_nonpaying.html

Additionally, you will have your re-listing fees refunded as well if you file the NPB and FVFC, relist and the item sells.

Until E Bay starts restricting bidders with NPB's from bidding on other items, the only way we can help each other as sellers is to file the FVFC's to get these buyers suspended.