The eBay Seller's News, June 2006, Volume 6, No. 6
The Newsletter for Professional eBay Sellers
by: Skip McGrath

In life only two things are guaranteed, a beginning and an end. In between, lies all possibilities for man.

"The road less traveled may be the one most feared, but is the one the successful people choose to take." ...L. Joseph

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Welcome to our new subscribers. When you finish reading this month's issue, please take a moment to confirm your subscription by going back to the email you received and clicking on the link to confirm your subscription.

After eBay Live! is over I plan to start a short weekly newsletter that will be delivered by email --not posted here on the web. Only confirmed subscribers will get the weekly newsletter. So if you haven't confirmed your subscription yet, please do so. (If you don't want to receive the weekly newsletter, there will be a link to opt out of it in the first issue and still get only this monthly newsletter).

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I would like to thank all of you who joined us on our two conference calls in May. We did one hosted by Mpire on consignment selling and an informational call about our eBay and internet coaching program. That call resulted in several new students signing up. If you would like to learn more about the program, you can click here to read a short report.

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I would like to apologize to those of you whorecently purchased The Complete eBay Marketing System or The Wholesale Buying System. Those books come with access to my confidential wholesale member's site. In late May, my hosting company, RegisterFly, crashed the site and lost all of the content. We had most --but not all of it backed up, but we lost all of the style sheets and design. The site is 80% back up now and we are restoring everything little by little each day, so please be patient with it and with us.

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Have you ever thought you could write an eBook and sell it on eBay or the web but you didn't know how to go about marketing or delivering it. Check out EZ-Pub. This is a complete, simple solution.

EZ-Pubs is the simple point and click system that makes it a snap for ANYONE to create a professional looking, 6 PAGE ecommerce-enabled website, complete with automated ordering and fulfillment, and fast, friendly customer service after the sale......And the whole process takes just a few minutes to set up then runs on autopilot for you!

You NO LONGER have to be a propeller-head, computer geek to sell your work online. If you're a writer who has been struggling to get your work online, you owe it to yourself to check out EZ-Pubs.

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I was interviewed recently on eBay Radio about the upcoming eBay Live! in Las Vegas, June 13-15. So I decided to write an article based on the interview, Getting the most out of eBay Live! which you can read below.

Karen and I will be exhibiting in booth #933. We created a PowerSeller's Resource CD that will be inserted in all of the PowerSeller bags handed out in the PowerSeller Lounge. I know some of you are not PowerSellers, so I held back 200 of the CDs. They will be available in my booth for the asking to the first 200 folks who drop by and say hello.

If you didn't pre-register, you're toast. eBay Live! is completely sold out!

eBay underestimated the pulling power of Las Vegas as a convention venue and booked the Mandalay Bay which can only accommodate 15,000. They reached that on Tuesday, May 30th. Don't bother showing up and hoping to get in, as they are not registering walk-ins. Your only hope is to borrow or buy a badge from someone who isn't staying for the whole event. I saw some ads on Craig's List for people who registered but can't attend. Don't buy one of those. It won't help because you have to show ID that matches the name on the registration to get a badge.

eBay also had more PowerSellers register than they have bags and inserts for. So if you are a PowerSeller, be sure and get to the PowerSeller Lounge early before all the free goodie bags are gone.

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eBay Live! is a magnet for Gorilla Marketers. It is no surprise that eBay's competitors want to take advantage of 15,000 eBay members converging on Las Vegas. These companies want your attention too. These events can be an opportunity to score some free food and drink as well as learn about new sources of merchandise, new sourcing and selling venues and are a great place to network and meet people.

Alibaba will be repeating their successful series of lunch-time seminar/receptions. This year they will be in the Border Grill Restaurant in the Mandalay Bay Hotel where the convention is held. The reception will be held every day during eBay Live! from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. There will be plenty of free food and drink, prize giveaways including Blackberries, ATVs and even a personal transporter (Beam me up Scotty?) There will also be short presentations on product sourcing including one by your's truly. All you need to get in is your eBay Live badge.

Alibaba will be giving out a limited edition pin. You will need a coupon to get one, however. You can click here to print out your coupon. This should be a hot pin to collect, because often the "unofficial" pins end up being in high demand.

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A few months ago I wrote a short item about eBay stock as an investment and then last month I showed how it hasn't done very well. I got an email from one of my readers who said they followed my advice and bought eBay stock and got creamed.

First of all my apologies --I should have written a disclaimer that I am not a professional investment advisor, but that probably wouldn't have mattered, because several professional advisors were also recommending the stock. So with that warning in mind, I have updated my thoughts on eBay stock in article number 4, below. There is one piece of advice I can give you about buying any stock. Always set a stop-loss order with your broker or online service. Whenever I buy a new stock I set an automatic stop-loss at 6% below my purchase price. As the stock moves up, I move the stop-loss up with it.

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I have just posted a new article on the Free Articles page by Megan Carruth about incorporating your eBay business. As I mentioned last time, there are some great liability and tax advantages to incorporating and if you are a consignment seller (Trading Assistant) I strongly recommend this as a way to protect your assets from lawsuits. They have offered my readers a 10% discount on their incorporating package. Just use the code: ebay06

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In last month's newsletter I mentioned a free video from Michael Chaney that promotes his video program to teach you how to make money with Google AdSense. I bought the program and have been working my way through it.

This is a excellent, easy-to-follow, program that has increased my AdSense income dramatically, overnight --and I am still only about 1/2 way through the videos. You can Click Here to see the free video.

Another book I just bought is High Performance Affiliate Marketing by Jeremy Palmer. A lot of people sell eBooks claiming to show you how to make a fortune with affiliate marketing, but Jeremy is the real deal. He was Commission Junction's leading affiliate last year with an income over $1,000,000. Click here to read about this great book. Both the book and the videos are very affordable and the information contained in them works together and can literally pay for itself overnight. What I really like is that both Jeremy's book and Michael's videos really come clean with all the tools, sources, resources and information you need to make money with Google and Yahoo.

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I often extol the virtue of wholesale trade shows as a great place to source merchandise. Las Vegas holds a lot of these but unfortunately there are none going on at the same time as eBay Live! However, I recently came across a great web site that lists almost every trade show in the US. You can search by city, dates or type of merchandise. The site is called BizTradeshows.

In This Issue

1. eBay and Yahoo Get Engaged - Could a wedding be in the future?
2. Getting The Most Out of eBay Live!
3. Wholesale Lots and Buying for Resale on eBay
4. eBay's Stock Price --Will it recover anytime soon?
5. Niche of the month: Selling art for artists
6. Wholesale Sourcing Tips
7. New Wholesale Sources for June

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1. eBay and Yahoo Get Engaged - Could a wedding be in the future?

There has been lots of market speculation over the past few weeks that eBay was about to be bought out or merged with either Yahoo or Google. The speculation ended with an announcement last week that eBay and Yahoo have entered into an agreement to share paid and organic search marketing. Here is what Bill Cobb, President of eBay North America said about the deal:

"eBay and Yahoo! have agreed to collaborate in the area of sponsored search (that is, purchased keywords) and web search (content on the Internet that is indexed by Yahoo!). The net result is that eBay sellers will benefit from a more comprehensive inclusion of eBay pages on Yahoo! Search, and an increase in sponsored search results across Yahoo!’s U.S. pages.

For example, on the web search side, eBay and Yahoo! are collaborating on technology to improve the way eBay.com pages are delivered for indexing by Yahoo!, in order to expand the number of eBay.com web search results on Yahoo!. In sponsored search, the two companies will collaborate to allow Yahoo! to accept many more keyword purchases from eBay.com, improving eBay’s inclusion in sponsored search results.

These efforts will mean that Yahoo!’s millions of users will have more access to eBay listings, and eBay.com sellers should benefit from increased traffic to the site.

Another area eBay will work with Yahoo! on is improving our keyword ad program. We realize that sellers have wanted better service and support than has been provided through our current eBay Keywords program. I believe eBay’s marketplace will benefit from leveraging Yahoo!’s strengths in this area.

Over the summer, eBay and Yahoo! will also be testing new text ad placements on some eBay pages. For instance, we’ll be looking at placements at the bottom of search results pages if there are no matching items found. We’ll be testing other placements on a limited number of search results pages, too, as a way to learn what works well for eBay buyers and sellers. This will include testing some sponsored search ads for complementary products and services – for example, a buyer searching for a hair dryer might be presented with sponsored search ads for related items like shampoo or hair brushes. To be clear, we will not place ads on view item pages."

Another big advantage of this agreement is that eBay will get help with the eBay Keyword program from Yahoo. The company that has run eBay's keyword advertising program for the past few years is pathetic.

The deal also includes PayPal. PayPal will now become the credit card processor and payment gateway for the thousands of Yahoo Stores and power Yahoo's payment system, Yahoo Wallet.

So what's next? Yahoo gave eBay an engagement ring --but will these two internet lovers ever make it to the altar? Stay tuned.

2. Getting The Most Out of eBay Live!

This will be my fifth time attending eBay Live and the fourth time we have exhibited. I know it's too late to register for this year, but if you are at all serious about running an eBay business you really must try and attend one of these. Next year, will be somewhere on the East Coast or perhaps in Chicago.

If you were waiting for the last minute to register, and have discovered there are no more openings at the convention, the next best thing to attending is to go to our friend's site at www.auctionbytes.com. Ina Steiner along with several of her editors will be posting daily event articles, interviews and news updates on her website. Her husband, David, will be holding things together back at the office and uploading everything onto the site in an easy to follow format.

If you have never been to eBay Live you are in for a treat. The three-day event consists of a giant trade show where vendors display their products and services and where every eBay department is represented. You can actually speak with the various department managers of the various product departments and specialties such as Trading Assistant, Trust & Safety, eBay Stores, eBay Motors and so on.

Besides the show, eBay also puts on a number of seminars and panel discussions. Most of these are repeated so you can attend in case two events conflict. Best of all, at the end of the show you can get a CD of all of the presentations.

Lastly, the parties. eBay puts on some really neat events. One is a big Town Hall type meeting where the execs speak, there is usually a keynote address with entertainment and on the last night a big party with tons of food and cash bars with entertainers, free massages and more. Two years ago eBay started the tradition of having all the employees who attend eBay Live line up outside the last night's gala venue in a long line (over 1000 employees) and applaud the eBay members walking into the party. These folks were standing there clapping and high-fiving everyone who walked in for almost an hour last year.

As for getting the most out of the event, wear comfortable shoes, get to the seminars and panel discussions early as they fill up fast, enter all of the contests and drawings (I have won something every year) and carry plenty of business cards as you will meet a lot of people and make many new contacts that can help you out in the years to come.

You will be collecting a lot of material, so carry a shoulder bag, small backpack or rolling bag to put all your stuff in.

Lastly, ride the monorail. Traffic in Las Vegas has become worse than L.A. But all of the major hotels on the strip are connected by a beautiful new monorail system. So just get to the strip and look for the monorail. This is the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to get around in Lost Wages.

3. Wholesale Lots and Buying for Resale on eBay

eBay's Wholesale Lots portal page and category structure offer sellers a way to acquire inventory in bulk at wholesale prices right on eBay. By removing many of the traditional barriers to entry in the wholesale marketplace, the structure represents a new set of opportunities for the eBay seller. A lot of sellers don't want to bother with getting a sales tax number that many wholesale dealers require. So here is a place to buy wholesale lots --both small and large, without needing any type of business license or sales tax certificate.

The Wholesale Lots portal page brings together links to all of the Wholesale Lots categories, promotes major wholesale events as they occur and presents other helpful resources for wholesale buyers and sellers. Successful sellers will profit by understanding their niches, and learning how to take advantage of the information presented in the Wholesale Lots portal page. This is a page you may want to bookmark as it's a little hard to find from the site map.

Sellers can search and browse through 25 major categories within the Wholesale Lots area. As eBay continues to promote the portal, and natural market forces determine the quantity and character of the listings, the category structure will conform to better fit the needs of the marketplace.

When using this area, do your research well, be persistent and have a clear sense of what you want to acquire. The beauty in the Wholesale Lots structure is that it is presented in a familiar setting - no special knowledge or credentials are needed. Since wholesale lots appear in typical category listings and search result pages, this means that the reseller can take advantage of a whole host of eBay services to complete their research, and make prudent business decisions. Everything you need is at your fingertips.

4. eBay's Stock Price --Will it recover anytime soon?

If you own or watch eBay's stock you have seen almost 30% of your value erode over the past year. The stock has started to rebound lately, but it keeps getting hammered by the general market malaise. As I write this, the market was down 184 points on the Dow and eBay's stock was off $1.31 after rising the last few days. May is traditionally one of the worst month's for the market. This is coupled with fears of rising interest rates and high oil prices. Eventually these things get priced into the market and the fears ebb. Also, the economy is strong, corporate profits are at record levels and corporations, including eBay, are fat with cash.

So what does the Yahoo deal mean for eBay's long term prospects?

The obvious synergies come form the massive online advertising that eBay brings to the relationship.  eBay is currently Goggle’s biggest customer.  They will still remain a large customer, but a lot of eBay's money will find its way to Yahoo. For eBay, Yahoo will now use eBay’s PayPal exclusively for third party payments.  PayPal will be integrated into Yahoo as seamlessly as it is in eBay.  This is a huge deal for eBay and could almost double PayPal's revenues over time.

eBay and Yahoo will also share toolbars that can be downloaded into web browsers.  This will allow users to easily switch between eBay's auction and Yahoo’s search engine.   As a co-branded toolbar solution it’s a good move for eBay since the Yahoo site has a huge volume of traffic  and provides a logical and prominent branding location on the net. This will drive more natural (free) traffic to eBay which benefits both eBay and the sellers.

One of the more interesting aspects of the relationship is between eBay’s Skype and Yahoo’s instant messenger (IM).  Yahoo can use Skype’s click-to-call  feature to connect customers directly with advertisers.  This is an area eBay has targeted as a use for Skype.  But eBay has also touted Skype as a way to get into the “cost per click” advertising model that has been the domain of Google and Yahoo.  eBay’s ambitions in this area required a partner with a an existing online search model to really be effective.  Google is testing similar functionality as cost per click on the VOIP model but Skype is ahead in that game. So this is a long-term winner for eBay.

So far this deal looks to be good for both parties, but I see eBay as getting the most out of this in the short term whereas Yahoo's gains will come over time. This should be good for eBay's stock. So my counsel is to be patient. eBay is an obvious buy at any price near $30 a share. But in this market environment this is a long-term investment --the gains will come but you may have to be patient.

The other rumor affecting eBay's stock price is a pending change in management. The buzz on the eBay campus in San Jose is that Meg will be retiring soon and Bill Cobb, the heir apparent, will take over. Meg has been grooming Bill for this job but it is not clear what he will do differently once he actually takes over. It's not that Meg has done a bad job --she hasn't. But Wall Streets likes this change. When Meg steps down it could add anywhere from 2% to 5% to the current stock price.

5. Niche of the month: Selling Art for Artists

Artists are notoriously poor businesspeople and most of them hate doing the marketing and sales of their work. They see it as crass but necessary. That is why so many of them give their work to galleries or agents to sell on consignment for them. Lately a lot of eBay Trading Assistants have discovered this opportunity. Millions of dollars worth of art and photography sells on eBay every month.

If you would like to see an example of how I am doing this myself, click here to see one of my store listings for a fine art photograph I am selling for an artist.

So how do you find these artists? With summer coming up, the best place to find them is at local arts and craft shows. Visit the shows. When you see something that interests you, just ask the artist, "Have you ever tried selling your work on eBay?" This should start a conversation and you can introduce them to the concept of selling their work for them on eBay.

Besides art and craft shows and fairs, most cities have areas where artists congregate. For example I was in Alexandria recently and there is an old, WWII vintage torpedo factory called the Old Torpedo Factory, that the city converted to artist's workshops where they create their work and sell it to tourists. There are over 100 artists working in the building. There are co-op artist studios in many locations across the country with hundreds of artists who are talented with their art but somewhat challenged with marketing skills.

Lastly you can advertise. Just take out a classified ad in local papers or even the art magazines that says something like: Professional eBay seller will sell your work on eBay for you.

When you are looking for art or crafts to sell, you want to look for items that will sell for between $50 and $500. Less than $50 and it's not worth the time and trouble. Once you get over $500 it's harder to sell on eBay unless the artist is very well known.

As for commission, artists are used to paying galleries between 25% and 40%. I think 30% would be an ideal place to start.

If you want to learn more about selling on consignment, you can get my book, How To Start and Run an eBay Consignment Business. It comes with all of the forms and contracts you will need as well as lots of practical advice for becoming a profitable eBay Trading Assistant.

6. Wholesale Sourcing Tips

I often get emails from readers asking where to find xyz product at wholesale. Just last week I got one from a lady looking for hamster cages and wheels. I usually don't have time to answer those inquiries and refer them to my free wholesale search engine. But sometimes, if I have the time and am intrigued by the product I will go on a search. Unbeknowst to most people you can find hard to find wholesale sources on Yahoo, Google and other major search engines. The key is using the right keywords.

If you type in wholesale hamster cages you are going to get a wide variety of results. The problem is that a lot of retail or discount sites claim to have wholesale prices and this screws up your results. But think of some of the words you see on real wholesale sites. These would include key words such as dealer login, partner login, wholesale only, minimum order, dealer pricing, and so on. By searching the product + these words in quotation marks you will often come across that hard to find source. Oh yes, I did find a source for the hamster cages and wheels. See the new wholesale sources for this month below.

The other source for wholesalers is your local yellow pages. Almost every product category in a large city yellow pages book, will have listing for wholesalers. Say if you are looking for jewelry wholesalers, when you look under jewelry go toward the end of the listings and you will usually find a sub-category such as Jewelry Manufacturers, or Jewelry, Wholesale and Distributors. The same is true for most categories such as clothing, computers and so on.

If you live in or near a large city, there is probably a merchandise mart or gift mart. Even smaller cities such as Seattle have one and large cities such as Dallas, L.A., Chicago and New York have several. The wholesale trade marts and trade shows that come to large cities are really my favorite place to shop for new items to sell on eBay.

7. New Wholesale Sources for June

OK - so you want to find that Hamster cage. Let's start with Pet supplies.

Greg Roberts is a retail web site that sells pet supplies at steep discounts, but they will sell wholesale in lots if you contact them directly.

Royal Pet is a large nationwide distributor of a wide variety of pet supplies.

Pet Tease sells Doggie Fashions including shoes, t-shirts and tank tops. I am not kidding. (If I tried to put one of these things on my faithful Lab he would never snorfel me again.)

Pampered Pooch and Fancy Feline sells luxury designer fashions and accessories for dogs and cats. They used to drop ship but recently stopped, although they still sell wholesale, you have to contact them to get pricing.

J.B. Wholesale Pet Supplies is another large distributor of mostly dog related merchandise.

Ok - Enough with the pets

Here is a really neat product that I have not seen selling on eBay. We bought one of these for ourself and paid $19 retail. I tracked down the manufacturer for you. The product is called Tweezelight. It is a pair or very well made tweezers with a tiny built-in flashlight. They wholesale for around $9.00 each depending on quantity. You have to email them at info@tweezelight.com for pricing.

The Refurb Depot is not a wholesaler, but they do sell manufacturer's refurbished electronics products at prices that you can mark up and resell on eBay. Most products come with manufacturer's warranty. This is also a great place to buy a computer or camera for yourself. For example they are currently selling a Canon Powershot s500 for $215.00. They are selling on eBay for between $210 and $299.00.

European Gift & Houseware is the official United States importer and distributor of la Pavoni espresso machines and coffee grinders.

If you can afford to invest between $2000 and $5000 in merchandise, Salvage Closeouts sells pallet loads of electronics, housewares, sporting goods, mens and women's fashions and more. Most merchandise is brand name and all is new --there are not seconds or returns. For example they are offering a lot of 700 lady's handbags all brand name from famous department stores such as Macys for as little as $7.90 each. Many of the handbags still have the retail price tags on them with prices in the $50 - $150 range.

I have written articles in the past about buying at Sam's Club, Costco and Big Lots and reselling the goods on eBay. I have done this myself and there are people still doing it every day. However, here is a source where Sam's Club sends their surplus merchandise when it doesn't sell. The company is called Southern Textile. They handle mostly clothing, but they also sell other merchandise. You will have to register to get access to prices but it's very simple.

Books are perennial great sellers on eBay. The trick is to specialize so you can upsell and cross sell. Ingram Books is one of the largest distributors in the US.

Baker and Taylor is a distributor of books, CDs, Video Games and DVDs to retailers all over the country. They were just acquired by the Charles Harlan company so their name may soon change.

Bibilo Distribution represents small publishers and niche books. They do not have an online catalog. You will need to contact your local sales rep through their web site, but they will work with eBay sellers.

Kossi's Rootswear deals in licensed t-shirts and other products that feature Bob Marley, Jimmy Hendrix, Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye and Johnny Cash.

If you live near Los Angeles or will visit there, Via Trading has opened a wholesale cash & carry warehouse stocked with name brand sunglasses, licensed clothing, sporting goods, kitchenware, furniture, jewelry, watches and even electronics. Everything is sold in lots, but the lots are smaller than on their web site. If you go there in person or order from the web site, they are offering a 10% off coupon. Just use the coupon code Q206CM.

The T. Lockman company sells a large line of high-end (expensive) blankets and throws.

That's it for this month. See you at eBay Live

Skip McGrath