• Welcome from Brian McGregor 
• Inspirational Quote of the Day
• News and Views
• How Much is it Worth?
• Don't Get Yourself Banned From eBay
• What is Dropshipping, and Does it Work?
• A Gift from Me to You
• Someone's auctioning what? Unusual items currently available
• Finally
• My Products Catalogue
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Hello and welcome.

A particularly warm welcome to you if you're a new subscriber. It's good to have you as part of the family taking my eBay newsletter.

Today the weather is fabulous where I am. The sun is brilliant, with the cooling wind bringing refreshing relief from the heat.

I remember reading somewhere that we genuinely feel better when the sun shines. It has to do with some vitamins or something which our body absorbs more of when the sun's out.

Whatever it is, there's no denying most people feel good in the sunshine.

All we need now is to feel like this all year round!

Without moving house to a tropical climate, I guess the nearest any of us will get to this nice feeling is by being in total control of our lives. To know that we are happy, contented and in financial control.

The internet can offer such a place for all of us. And with eBay, we can move steadily and successfully towards it. Start as small as you like. Sell one item a week to begin with.

But recognise that eBay is a numbers game. The more auctions you run, the more money you will make. Set some eBay sales targets for yourself - week by week and month by month. Watch as your figures improve.

And enjoy the feeling that this activity will gradually produce a change for the better for you.

All it takes is the first step.

And then, do it again. And again. And again.

You can bring out the sun every day.

Look forward to speaking with you again soon.

Brian
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1. eBay Millionaire

Pugster Inc. operates on eBay with a user ID of pugster888. They have been on eBay since 2002, and specialise in selling fashion jewellery.

Amazingly, Pugster have received 982,841 positive feedbacks - last time I checked. These feedbacks are from 128,733 unique eBay users.

To celebrate being the first eBayer to get to 1 million feedbacks - which they expect to reach next month - Pugster are giving away a trip in Hawaii.This is one of 51 prizes with a total value of over $10,000.

The top prize will go to the customer who leaves the one millionth feedback.

However, you don't have to buy anything from Pugster to enter the competition. You can read all about it here.

2. Did You Know This? I Didn't.....

eBay have recently introduced a change to their policies which I must admit I missed.

It concerns Reserve Price.

You will know that you can set a Reserve Price on your auction. And that unless the bidding reaches or exceeds your Reserve Price, you do not have to sell the item.

Well, did you know you can now lower your Reserve Price while the auction is still running? And you can do this even if you have received bids on the item? The only limitation is that your auction must have 12 hours or more to run.

This change is available now on eBay UK auctions, and is coming shortly on eBay.com.

You can read more about this here:-

UK - http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/questions/revise-item.html
USA - http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200508161107152.html


3. Reach for Your Phone!!

If you, like me, have wished in the past you could contact eBay by phone, here is some information passed to me by one of our readers. I thank the reader, but forgive me for not naming them!

This concerns getting in contact with eBay by telephone!

There are some phone numbers for eBay, and they appear below.

It isn't the answer to all our prayers - the numbers are in the USA - but it's a start!

However, before using these numbers, here is the advice they come with.

Please keep these points in mind:

1. You are well advised not to use the eBay phone number until you have tried the online contact forms first. Go to the front page of eBay and click on the “Help” link at the right top. Why? Because using the eBay contact phone number first can aggravate the personnel and predispose them against you. They will ask you what you've done before contacting them, and they will tell you to go back and fill out forms before they will help.

2. eBay knows that they could keep an army of thousands busy on the phone, so if the call volume gets too extensive, they will simply change their phone numbers and we won't be able to contact them in dire emergencies. (Check the online yellow pages and you will see that they are not listed)

3. When/if you use the eBay phone number, you will discover that the best you can do is leave a message. No one answers these phones. So, will they call you back? A loud and affirmative “Maybe”!

Having said all that, here are the eagerly awaited phone number for you to contact eBay (drum roll ...)

1-800-322-9266
1-888-749-3229

Of course, there's one sure way to get a contact phone number for eBay: become a Power Seller. Power Sellers have a pipeline to real live people. There are 5 levels of Power Sellers, and the top four have access to toll free phone numbers.


4. Auction Title Help

Here is a neat software program which helps in the creation of effective auction titles.

"eBay Auction Title Creator" It lets you experiment with your title off-eBay before you commit the finished article to your auction.

It is a "what you see is what you get" program, so as you're typing, you will see immediately how the title and subtitles will look on the eBay site.

The program comes with a counter that counts how many characters you have used up on a title, and you get a red alert when you exceed the 55 character limit imposed by eBay. However, you can enter up to 80 characters into the program, to try different words and phrases.

A useful feature is that you can work on six titles and subtitles at the same time to see which one you like the best.

When you have chosen your title, you can then go online and immediately copy and paste it into your eBay auction.

You can try out a free demo version of the software to see if you like the program or not.

The free version is available here.


5. Do You Read Magazines?

Actually, when I think about it, the title I've used here is a little misleading. I don't really mean magazines. Let me explain...

I recently became a subscriber to a new kind of online newsletter. It's different in that this newsletter has the look and feel of an online magazine. It's called the Nettle Magazine.

The magazine is primarily about how to make money on the internet, but it has lots of colour, great presentation and excellent articles. Plus it has competitions, reviews and other more light hearted items. All in all a good and entertaining mix.

If you want to take a look, here's where you go.

A question which just about every eBay seller has asked themselves just before they create a new auction is, "How much can I expect to get for this item?"

One source of intelligence you might like to try way is eBay itself. It's relatively easy to find out how much identical or similar items have recently fetched on eBay.

Let's suppose you have a Gibson guitar to sell. Here's what you do:

1. Go to your eBay site and login.

2. Using the Basic Search box on the home page, type in gibson guitar.

3. Narrow your search by clicking on the appropriate "Matching Categories" found on the left edge of the screen. In this example, you would first select Guitars, and then when your search results come back, select Gibson.

4. On the left hand of the screen now click on the "Completed listings" link.

You will be shown the last 24 days from eBay's history containing ended auctions that have gibson guitar in the title.

By reviewing those completed auctions you can determine the approximate value you might expect for your Gibson guitar.

Plus, as an added bonus, you could examine and maybe emulate the techniques used by those sellers who are producing the top bidding results.

When selling on eBay, you might as well know how much you can expect from your auction. Well, now you know how to do it.

I recently had a little bother with my friends at eBay.co.uk

They have taken it upon themselves to delete some of my auctions.

I have to admit that everything they did was probably fair enough.

The items I had deleted were because I had inadvertently used some copyrighted film titles in an auction I ran selling an ebook on buying cheap DVDs.

Anyone who owns a trademark, or a copyrighted name or phrase, can complain to eBay if these are used in auctions. So I was told that Time Warner had complained about my auction. The mighty Time Warner? In a way I'm flattered.

However, even though eBay refund the listing fees whenever they close your auction in this way, in practice it causes lost time and lost auctions.

Whilst this may not appear to be too critical, if you do it repeatedly eBay can suspend your membership.

Indeed I've had many emails over the past couple of years from eBay members seeking my help and advice following their eBay Accounts being closed. If your account is closed - fairly or unfairly - you face some pretty big problems if your eBay income is important to your household.

So here is my advice.

First of all, be honest with yourself. In my experience, most eBay sellers know when they're "skating on thin ice" - like me with my film titles. Don't kid yourself that you won't get rumbled. It won't be eBay that finds the auctions of yours that slightly bends the rules. In the main, eBay is policed by its members. And it will be a competitor, or a youngster with nothing better to do one night. These are the people who will shop you to eBay. And, once shopped, you'll find your on the defensive. And you won't get them to change their mind in a hurry - if at all.

So, my second piece of advice is never sell on eBay with one eBay Account. Always get yourself a second account, or more. Build up your feedback on all your eBay accounts so that if you lose one, you have other live IDs with good feedback levels through which you can continue to operate your business. Just in case you were wondering, having more than one eBay account is completely within the rules.

To lose an auction to the eBay police isn't necessarily terminal to your eBay business. But it can be the first step towards you losing your eBay account. So, get yourself some insurance - start a new account today.

If you're an experienced eBay seller, you've probably heard of dropshipping. You may have researched the area, or are already using dropshipping.

Whatever level of dropshipping knowledge you have, I thought it might be helpful to review the current state of dropshipping.

In essence, dropshipping would appear to be the ideal method to operate an eBay business. This is because dropshipping is a method of selling whereby the seller never holds stock, doesn't have to package sold items or mail them.

This is because the dropship company undertakes all this activity. A dropshipper is a company who enables you, as a seller, to offer their products to your customers. You pay an agreed trade price for each product you sell, which normally includes P&P cost.

When you get an order and payment from your customer, you supply the dropshipper with your customer delivery details and you send them the agreed trade price payment. The dropshipper packages and ships the item to your customer.

Your profit comes from the difference in the selling price you receive from your customer, and the trade price you pay to the dropship company.

To work with some dropshippers entails a one-time membership fee. Although there are other companies who will offer you a dropship service without the need to pay a membership fee.

Dropshipping is massive business in the USA, but is still in its early years here.

If you wish to consider selling dropshipped products, here are some considerations:

1. Dropshippers who charge a membership fee are sometimes in it for the fees, and not the ongoing business. You need to be careful that their products are saleable at a profit.

2. Because you can place your auctions on any eBay country site, you can sell products from dropship companies no matter where they are based. For example, if you're in the UK you don't have to limit yourself to selling to the UK market. You can sell products from USA based dropship companies on eBay.com aimed at the USA market. Remember, you never have to see or hold the products themselves.

Wherever you are based, the best dropship directory, bar none, is here.

If you want to concentrate on the UK market, then my own ebook will prove useful. You can read about it here.

Once again, in using the title for this section that I have, I've been somewhat "economical with the truth!"

There are two slight untruths in "A Gift from Me to You". But take it from me, they are both good for you.

First of all, this isn't just one gift. In fact, you're going to find there are half a dozen brilliant free items for you.

And the gifts themselves aren't from me. They are courtesy of a good friend of mine - Justin Ormerod.

You will find three useful ebooks about eBay, one of which is the excellent "eBay: The Inside Story".

What's more, Justin is giving you resale rights to "eBay: The Inside Story". This means you can offer it for sale on eBay, and keep all the profits.

Maybe my being economical with the truth can pay you dividends?

You'll find all the information here.

Nothing surprises me when it comes to internet auctions. Amuse yourself with some of these beauties.

Spot the deliberate mistake in the title. I'm amazed anyone has found this auction!

I wonder where the number came from? Why not a million? Or more?

I suppose you could get this for your spouse! Get it?

What's wrong wrong with the dustbin?

It might be good to be prepared. You just never know...

Disclaimer - I have no association with any of the sellers of the above items.