• Welcome from Brian McGregor 
• Inspirational Quote of the Day
• News and Views
• Why it Makes Sense to be Cool
• Bidding for Your First Item on eBay
• Yup. Things'r Lookin' Good!
• 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.

Last Sunday was rather special for me. It was the christening of my second grandchild - Holly Susan Ann McGregor.

A proud moment indeed.

One thing that struck me as the gathering repaired to a local hotel was, what had happened to photography? My partner was the only person present who had a camera with a film in it. Remember film?

Everybody has a digital camera now. Or they use the camera on their phone!

I must admit, it got me hankering for earlier days! Box cameras and Brownie 127's sprung to mind. (Ask your parents - or grandparents!)

Which then made me think of nostalgia. And what a fantastic market it still is. And also, how could we all take advantage of nostalgia on eBay?

I became so interested in it that it inspired me to look at what people were selling on eBay. That turned into an article on being cool with your selling. You'll find it later in the newsletter.

There's nothing wrong in making money from the past.

Especially if it's at today's prices!

Look forward to speaking with you again soon.

Brian
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1. A Motley Life

Remember Steven? He's the guy who offered all his worldly possessions for sale on eBay recently in an attempt to get his financial affairs on an even keel?

His auction attracted quite a bit of publicity. What you may not know is that he ran two auctions to sell his goods. On his first auction, the leading bidder withdrew his bid with 30 seconds to go.

On Steven's second attempt, the highest bidder dropped out again right at the end!

Then - the cavalry came to the rescue.

Enter Motley Fool, the financial site.

Emma Davies at The Motley Fool said: "The Motley Fool has for a long time advocated people managing their money and getting out of debt. When someone goes to these lengths to get back in the black, we can only admire their actions. That's why we decided to help Steven after his auction unfortunately failed a second time, through no fault of his own."

The Motley Fool has agreed to buy all the items in Steven's auction for an undisclosed sum.

Great publicity for them.

Steven makes some money.

Everybody's happy.

Isn't life grand?

2. In the News

As I'm writing this, bird flu is all across the news. I know it's nothing to do with eBay, but allow me my "two penneth".....

Like most people I've taken some interest in the topic. I've undertaken a fair amount of research, but have tried to keep everything in perspective.

I notice that UK eBay have pulled some auctions for Tamiflu recently. Tamiflu is the antivirus drug which the UK government is stockpiling in readiness for when bird flu hits the UK. They have ordered 14.6 million doses of Tamiflu, but so far only 2.5 million have been delivered by Roche, the makers.

Incidentally, eBay aren't being bloody minded here. The auctions were stopped because the sale of prescription drugs is not allowed under the company's rules.

If you're interested in knowing more about bird flu, I've put my own research into a compact ebook which contains most of the salient points.

You're welcome to download it from here.


3. I Knew I was Right

Back in November, 2004, I wrote in the newsletter that drop-off points was an idea whose time had come.

You may recall that a drop-off point is a service, usually based in a shop premises, whereby items are placed for sale on eBay on behalf of customers.

I mentioned at the time that the leading USA drop-off chain was iSold. At that time they had 300 eBay drop-off stores.

This week, iSold announced it now had 740 stores, and gross sales exceeded $20 million. Year on year growth was at 1,400%!

I wish I had bought some shares in the company last November!

4. What is it?

Have you seen the latest eBay promotion? It's all about 'it'.

If you go here, you'll see what I mean... view eBay campaign


5. Get Your Own Ebooks to Sell on eBay, Here

I was glad to see quite a few readers took up the opportunity I sent out recently. This was to get hold of readymade ebooks which you can modify, and put your name as author, and then sell on eBay.

The service I told you about provides 3 new ebooks every month. You get copyright to the ebooks so you can change them in any way you wish. And you can add your name as the author.

In addition, you are supplied with a sales page which becomes your eBay auction description, a thank you (download) page plus all the necessary images.

What appealed to me about this particular service is that they are building themes of products.

What this means is that each ebook supplied is within a specific theme. For example, let's say there is a dog theme. The ebooks supplied might cover dog owning, dog health and fun activities with your dog.

The beauty of this is that when someone buys an ebook from you on dog owning, they can be followed up with an offer of other ebooks within the same theme. Knowing they are interested in dogs, means that a single sale can lead to several others.

If you've ever thought about selling information products on eBay, but didn't feel you've the time to produce an ebook of your own, or to produce a powerful auction description page, this is a real alternative.

You can read about this service here.

The point about reminding you of this now is that there is a limit on the number of people who can take up the service - for obvious reasons. If you're at all interested, I would advise you to check it out now.


6What a Great Use of the Internet

A friend of mine bought an Apple computer recently. When he switched it on he had some problems.

Before he rang Apple's 0870 support number, he made a quick search on a website called SayNoTo0870. (Note this is relevant to calls within and to the UK only at present)

On SayNoTo0870 you can check for alternative telephone numbers for any company. Given that 0870 numbers can cost you, the customer, anything up to 8p per minute, it's usually worth it to find some other way in to the company!

Lo and behold, the site told my friend him how he could talk to Apple support via a Freephone number!

It isn't just computer companies on this sites either. Sectors covered include banks, insurance, telecoms, utility, supermarkets, travel etc.

Here's the link to SayNoTo0870


7. It's Getting Faster

If you find yourself waiting ages for your eBay pages to display, there are two items here for you.

First off, you might remember some months ago I introduced you to a clever piece of software which increased the speed of your dial-up connection and of your broadband service.

If you're on dial-up, the software effectively gives you broadband speed without needing to go broadband. And, if you're already using broadband, the software increases your speed too!

I use this software on my own PC, and it works well.

You can check it out here.

Second, I'd like to mention a brand new mini-course which shows you how to speed up your PC. The course is free, and could be useful if you feel your PC is slowing up and isn't as fast as it was previously.

You can read all about it here.

Have you noticed how many people - and I have to admit that includes me - suggest that sellers offer hot selling products on eBay.

It's undeniably true, selling a product that is in demand can be a sensible commercial strategy.

However, there are some potential downsides in concentrating on "hot selling" products.

You could be left with stock on your hands, as your hot selling items move out of fashion.

You could find it difficult to shift stock at a profit, as the number of sellers offering identical hot selling products increases.

Now, this may not happen to you. You might find you can make a good living listing "hot sellers".

But here's an alternative, or an additional, strategy for you to consider.

We all know that virtually anything will sell on eBay. In other words, you don't necessarily have to offer hot selling products.

Instead of looking for the best selling items, why not study some PowerSellers and see what they offer? You might be surprised.

As an example, there's a PowerSeller who makes an excellent living selling magnets.

Another PowerSeller sells CDs which he creates for specific markets.

There are several who concentrate on selling Public Domain information. One offers prints of house plans from very old properties.

Then there's the seller who specialises in greetings cards of days gone by.

What I find intriguing is that items which I might consider to be uninteresting always seem to have a group of buyers who will bid on eBay.

The message here is that the most successful sellers may just give you an idea of a new market for you.

Don't be afraid to try the less obvious. The hottest items may not always be the best strategy.

Be cool!

The first time you make a bid on eBay is quite a moment for most of us.

Your mind is flooded with concerns about whether you'll win, is it safe, have I made an error, what happens next?

If you've yet to make that first bid, here are a few things to remember.

1. Bid on Auctions Which End Soon

You will have a better chance of winning if you place your bid near the end of the auction period. Better still, if you can arrange to bid in the final seconds you may well be the winner.

If you find an item in which you're interested, but which isn't ending soon, it'll pay you to watch the item rather than place a bid now. By placing your bid too early in the auction, you're probably helping to drive the price up. This is great for the seller, but not for you.

One way in which you can ensure your bid goes in at the last moment is to use a service known as sniping. Sniping software provides an automated way in which bids get placed on your behalf on the item you've specified. If the item you're after is highly popular, the chances of you winning by attempting to place bids manually in the final few seconds of the auction is low. Snipers will usually always beat manual bidders.

You can find free sniping software here.

Proxy bidding is an alternative to sniping. This is a facility provided by eBay in which you decide the maximum you are prepared to pay for an item and enter this as a proxy bid.

With this in place, the eBay system will bid on your behalf up to your maximum amount, but only as much as is necessary to maintain your position as the winning bidder.

You can find out about proxy bidding on UK eBay here.

You can find out about proxy bidding on US eBay here.

2. Use "Buy It Now"

Occasionally you might find the auction process can be frustrating as a bidder. You've done your best to place the winning bid, only to find you've been outbid in the final seconds by "snipers".

There is a way which is increasing in popularity in which you can get a great deal on eBay without having to wait until the end of the auction. What you do is look for auctions with a "Buy It Now" price.

Whenever you perform a search on eBay, you will find search filtering options on the left column of the page. One of these options is a check box for "Buy it Now." If you select this, the search results will be filtered to include only those items with a "Buy It Now" price.

It doesn't matter how long an auction listing has to run, the "Buy It Now" indicator means you can buy the item instantly at the given price. It can be very satisfying to skip the uncertainty of the auction process and just buy the item now.

3. Buy Only from Reputable Sellers

It is wise to avoid bidding on items from sellers without a good track record on eBay. Every eBay member has a feedback rating.

This rating is made up of feedback given to the member by their buyers/sellers. The feedback rating is the number in parentheses to the right of the eBay member's user ID. Beneath the feedback rating there appears a percentage which indicates the proportion of feedbacks which are positive.

Although not a complete guarantee, it is safer to buy from sellers with at least 10 feedback rating and with 99% plus positive feedback.

Be careful in your bidding, but do have some fun.

eBay's only gone and done it again.

Let me clarify. I'm referring to eBay's Quarter 3 Results published this week.

This covers the three months of trading from 1st July to 30th September, 2005. Also included is the performance of PayPal, which is owned by eBay.

"We saw very strong growth across every part of our business in Q3," said Meg Whitman, President and CEO of eBay. "It's wonderful to see so much strength in our two largest marketplaces, the US and Germany. We're excited about the great momentum eBay and PayPal have going into the holiday shopping season."

It's difficult to argue against Meg. The raw numbers are impressive.

I don't want to send you to sleep with too many figures, but here are some highlight numbers which I found interesting:

> 458.6.1 million listings in Q3, 2005. Up 32% over Q3, 2004.

> $10.8 billion value of auctions sales in Q3, 2005. Up 30% over Q3, 2004.

> $1.1 billion Gross Profit in Q3, 2005. Up 37% over Q3, 2004.

> 168.1 million eBay members as at 30 September, 2005. Up 35% as at 30 September, 2004.

> On average, 117,400 new members joined eBay each day throughout Q3, 2005.

> $6.7 billion PayPal payments in Q3, 2005. Up 44% over Q3, 2004.

> 86.6 million PayPal accounts as at 30 September, 2005. Up 53% as at 30 September, 2004.

Categories with more than $1 billion in annualised auction sales:

eBay Motors - $14.1 billion
Clothing & Accessories - $3.1 billion
Computers - $3.0 billion
Consumer Electronics - $3.0 billion
Books/Movies/Music - $2.5 billion
Home & Garden - $2.4 billion
Collectibles - $2.1 billion
Jewelry & Watches - $1.6 billion
Sports - $2.1 billion
Business & Industrial - $1.5 billion
Toys - $1.5 billion
Cameras & Photo - $1.3 billion

All of this is great news for us!

The eBay market place is thriving, and we should all be able to thrive with it.

If you'd like to read the full report, you can view it from here.

This time I have a software product for you. This is one which I use on my own PC.

It's called AlphaCuts.

AlphaCuts neatly and swiftly displays, in alphabetical listings, the following items:

1. programs in your startmenu
2. favorites in Internet Explorer
3. documents in the My documents folder.

It lists the relevant directories and categories and the items they contain, to help you quickly find what you're looking for. It is also possible to search for full or partial words.

It's one of these fantastic utilities that is harder to describe than it is to use.

If you want to read more about AlphaCuts, and download it, please go here.

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

Just the thing for the Christmas Party guys?

Ah. Sweet.

OK. Why Yugoslavia? And why in the seventies?

I like this. I might even bid for it!

Great idea. But boy it must be heavy! Look at that P&P

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