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Home > Blog

Volume IX, Issue 09

by Lynn Dralle on January 10, 2013

Lynn’s eBay eZine

Volume IX, Issue 09

Hi!

As you may have noticed, this is volume 9. I have been writing my ezines for at least 9 years! When we first started over 12 years ago (and I was still living in Bellingham, WA) we didn’t even put volume numbers on them! Wow!

In case you are wondering, OBO is “Or Best Offer” and MM does not stand for Mor Mor (Mother’s mother in Swedish) and what my kids call my mom, but rather Markdown Manager. I will explain later in this ezine how both of them can help you increase your eBay sales! And Mor Mor is proof that my OBO and MM strategy really works.

With Indy’s December birthday, the holidays and New Years, I have NOT had time to write an ezine. I have missed you all! But where to begin?

Let’s start with Indy’s birthday. She has kept in touch with many of her friends, from pre-school through 8th grade. Because of these contacts, over 30 girls were invited to the Club House for a day of swimming (yes it was 70 degrees here on 12/15—sorry!).

About 15 showed up and we had a blast. My dad and Houston were busy with a baseball tournament, my brother helped with the food, but basically I was left alone with this group. Luckily, Indy had planned a bunch of games and kept all the girls happy and included. She is amazing!

Check out this photo of all the girls on the ledge. Yes, I got a little creative and asked them to all balance on the ledge!

Luckily, sales were very b through December and now even into January. We did about $11,000 in eBay sales for December. It was a very good month, considering the economy. One big reason is that I put “…OR BEST OFFER” on every single item.

Here is an item that sold recently for a best offer. Once you get to the listing, you must click on the tab that says “see original listing” or “purchase history” or you won’t be able to see the price I accepted.

Please keep this in mind when doing completed auction research, if it says “best offer” you will need to click on each listing to see what they ACTUALLY sold for, not that higher asking price.

Click here to view this auction on eBay!

I sold 5 of these salad plates for almost full asking price! Quite the score, considering I paid $50.00 for the set and had already sold the dinner plates for $275.00! Love dinnerware.

But let’s talk a little bit more about eBay’s “best offer” . My mom has been upset that her sales are way down and can’t believe that I am selling so much every single day. I keep telling her, it’s because I raise my prices and add “or best offer”. I asked her what percent of her items had “obo” on them? She said about 30% and that she doesn’t like to have it on everything because she gets such low ball offers.

I asked her to please trust me and I showed her how to bulk add “obo” to every SINGLE item. We got obo added to her 3,000 plus listings in about 30 minutes. Then my mom went in and raised some of her lower priced items.

After just 2 days, she was a believer! I am always telling my mom “Just listen to your daughter, I obviously KNOW what I am doing” and we both laugh. Sure sounds like a little bit of a role reversal “Mom knows best” but in a good way.

After our bulk editing experiment, my mom would open her “eBay Selling Manager Pro” each morning with six to ten items with best offers. I told her that she didn’t have to accept them all, but it sure was fun to get them!

Here is one of the items she sold recently for a “best offer” . My mom is very happy with her increased sales and for those of you not offering OBO on everything, I encourage you to add it now!

Click here to view this auction on eBay!

Dinnerware again! China is one of my BEST performing categories. If you don’t have my dinnerware eBook yet, you must consider investing in your business with this purchase.

After Indy’s fantastic birthday using paper plates (all our china dishes are for sale on eBay-just kidding) , it was time to pack and ship the Queen’s Court gifts for this Christmas. Mo came up with a brilliant idea (as she usually does) to send neck ties! Awesome! My mom and dad were both here so were able to gift wrap them and help us stuff envelopes. Yikes! Another huge project.

Here is one of the QC member’s ties that is listed on eBay. Thanks Louise for sharing! Here is the sweet note she sent when she told me about her post.

“Thank you Lynn for the tie. You are always so thoughtful. I listed mine yesterday.”
Louise

One reason that Mo suggested ties for this year’s Queen’s Court gift was because we had recently done Teleseminar #2 with Thrifting with the Boys. As you all know, Jason and Bryan are amazing! If you haven’t purchased their teleseminars yet, you don’t want to miss these.

Purchase Teleseminar #1 here.
Purchase Teleseminar #2 here.

I recently (well December 26th) sold another of my ties for $99.00. Yay!

Click here to view this auction on eBay!

The tie was even better looking in person than the photo—at least I thought so, but the buyer validated my belief. Here is his feedback, WOW!

“Shipped same day as purchase & got it next day-beautiful tie!”

In the last 90 days on eBay, I have sold 18 ties for $690.91. It’s easy and profitable! And the beautiful thing about ties are that they are SUPER easy to ship .

On the subject of shipping, during this holiday, I have been OVERWHELMED with shipping. We were shipping about 80 packages a week before Christmas and the week after Christmas we shipped 96 packages!

When I say packages, this does NOT mean items. Each package could contain 1 to 10 items. Yikes! It was crazy. My mom showed up on December 19th and thank goodness she did. She has been a Godsend in helping me ship. Thanks MOR MOR!

Here is an expensive recent score that my mom shipped for me and she did an awesome job! It went to Canada. This chintz vase sold for A LOT. Never pass up chintz items.

Click here to view this auction on eBay!

If you didn’t pre-purchase my awesome shipping video that Indy filmed and produced, you may still order it here. Even though the price has increased, it is still worth every penny. Even one hour saved off of your shipping time a day would pay for this video within a few days.

Here are Mo, Indy and I after the video series wrapped. It was a lot of fun!

Oh, I almost forgot, before my mom arrived to help with shipping, Christmas, errands, misc. etc, my dad was here. We had a wonderful time! One of the really fun things we got to do was to take Houston on a tour at USC of the campus and Dedeaux Baseball Field. I didn’t even know it existed (and I attended USC for six years) before our tour! Yikes—How embarrassing!

In addition to the fun visit to USC, we got to go out to a pre-Christmas Dinner. Here is my dad with the kids. He is sooooo sweet! Such a nice man and it is hard to live so far from my parents. Luckily, they visit often and help me a lot.

After my dad left it was Christmas time. How nice to have a day off and celebrate with my mom, brother, and kids. It was bittersweet this year as last year we were in Bellingham with my sister and her kids, but we kept our chins up and soldiered through.

Here are the kids dressed up in front of the tree in our new house before we went to the Christmas Eve celebration at our church. I can’t believe how fast they are growing up!

Especially when I just found this photo card from our Christmas Party invite during 2001, over 11 years ago.

Fantastic news for January, Kathy Flood is returning for Teleseminar #2! This is the Queen’s Court gift for January and will take place on Wednesday night, January 16th. Don’t worry, if you aren’t a QC member, you can still purchase it here.

Kathy is the jewelry columnist for the Antique Trader and the author of several best selling books on jewelry for Warman’s. She is incredible and we are so fortunate to have her share her expertise with us on call #2.

Teleseminar #2 is Pearls of Wisdom for Successful Jewelry Sales! . Here are what my QCers are saying about Kathy coming back for Teleseminar #2:

“YES to having Kathy Flood back !!! . I have 2 of her books, which she signed, and a Christmas tree gift, given with one of the books. YES for Kathy Flood !!!”
Ruth

“Yes Please to Kathy Flood #2! I love the teleseminar Kathy did for us last time!”
Sandy

“Lynn did a teleseminar with Kathy Flood several years ago. It’s one of the seminars I lost from my computer! She’s a wealth of knowledge”
Dianne

These testimonials are amazing! If you are not a Queen’s Court member, Click here to purchase now. If you aren’t available for the live call, don’t worry you will be emailed a link to the recording.

Before ending this ezine, I want to mention another awesome tool that is driving my sales higher and higher. Every day, I commit to putting another one of my internal store categories on sale using “markdown manager”. It can be as low as 7% and as high as 11%. I don’t usually ever have to go over 11% to generate interest.

I put all my Christmas on sale yesterday for just 8% off. This morning I got an offer for 7 Christmas items and I had a feeling they were all from the same lady. I was correct! So even though some of the offers were a little low, I took all 7 which added up to $152.00 before shipping!

Hot tip, Christmas sells YEAR ROUND. Don’t ever forget this and right now you can pick up Christmas everywhere at huge discounts.

Click here to view this auction on eBay!

You won’t believe what this one Santa Claus sold for! I picked him up at a garage sale for $1.00. I love my job!

Here is a note that I just got from the buyer of that Santa and the six other items. “Hello, I really love your site and want to thank you for accepting all my bids. The items are treats for me and I am so excited about the Vailliancourt Santa. I have quite a few of your items in my watch list and will be back.” Nice!

As a special Christmas Gift to my kids, my brother took Houston, Indy and my mom to Disneyland for a few days over his birthday weekend. What an awesome Uncle Lee! And, I got some much needed ALONE time. Thank you Lee!

Here is a photo of them at Disneyland enjoying the Holiday decorations.

As I was completing this ezine, two great things happened. First, I got an offer and sold that upholstery fabric that my mom helped me list last July! It really reinforces my lessons from this ezine, OBO and Markdown Manager. The fabric was on markdown manager and I took an OBO. Yay!

Click here to view this auction on ebay and see how close we got to asking price!

Secondly, Lori and Garage Sale Lou’s son, Hunter listed some of his YU-GI-OH! cards. To give you a frame of reference, Indy’s best friend is Paige and her brother is Hunter.

Hunter came to HQ during his college break to help us get organized and was excited to learn more about listing his first item on eBay. We talked at length about his collection of cards and he wanted to know the best way to list them etc. He wanted to list them individually and I said “NO”! As they are only worth $1 to $5 each.

He did listen to me! Hunter ended up spending 36 hours researching and writing his description and it paid off big time for him as his collection sold for over $2,000. Check out the listing and his very intricate description. Congrats to Hunter! Let’s hope the buyer pays .

Click here to view this auction on eBay!

As a treat before the kids get back from Disneyland, Mo and I are going thrifting all across the Coachella valley and then out to lunch. Yes, this is what we do for fun .

You must LOVE what you do every day and be passionate about it or you won’t be as happy as you could. Maybe eBay isn’t for you, just like the corporate world wasn’t for me. Whatever you decide, make sure that in this New Year, you follow your passion!

My grandmother, Cheryl Leaf, always said, “Follow your passion and the money will follow”. She is still right on!

Thanks for reading my ezines! I appreciate it!

Happy eBaying!

Lynn

Lynn Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions,’
Creator of the best-selling eBay Boot Camp in a Box.


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 online auction click here.

Some links in my emails to you may be affiliate links. You can be confident that I only partner with companies that I fully stand behind.

Copyright © 1998 – 2013 Lynn Dralle – All Rights Reserved.

{ 1 comment }

Are Coffee Mugs Trash or Treasure?

by Lynn Dralle on September 8, 2011

As I was prepping for EOL (eBay on Location in Florida) and my speaking engagement there, I started making a list of unusual things that I had sold recently.

I know that this is not a huge score, but the fact that it sold and sold for over $10 is very cool.

See the listing here.

I was thinking about some of the crazier coffee mugs I’ve sold. I remembered a Starbucks travel coffee mug that I had sold for over $20 during the summer of 2006. Who knew? I had originally learned of the non-vintage coffee mug potential during my first eBay Boot Camp that was held in Palm Springs in 2006–Thanks CJ!

Starbucks Bas Relief World Map Travel Coffee Mug

that sold for a little over $20!

And, in More 100 Best Things I’ve Sold on eBay Money Making Madness, I discuss a coffee mug that originally came from my grandmother’s kitchen cabinet. Now, I knew this coffee mug had potential because it was vintage and jadeite. Here is that excerpt from the book with story #49.

The Story

I have never had a cup of coffee in my life. OK, I take that back. I had one cup of coffee in Paris in 1985, and it was laced with brandy. It was snowing, I was freezing, and my friends Juliette and Vicki said it would warm me up. It did warm me up, but I still can’t stand the taste of coffee. Instead, I drink about six Diet Cokes every day to get my dose of caffeine.

It’s funny, but I didn’t realize where I learned NOT to drink coffee until I was writing this story. This jadeite green coffee mug was in my grandmother’s kitchen cupboard for years and years. It finally dawned on me that my grandmother NEVER drank coffee. No wonder I had no desire to try it or like it. I was following the lead of my favorite role model.

Anyway, I inherited it in one of my boxes. I thought one coffee mug was never going to sell for very much, but decided to do some research anyway. I knew it was jadeite by Fire King. Fire King was a group of ovenproof lines launched by Anchor Hocking in the early 1940s. Jadeite was named for its green color, which resembled jade; it became a signature item of the Fire King line. When I got on eBay, I found that these are super collectible. Three of the jadeite coffee mugs together had recently sold for $100! Each mug’s handle curve is named for different letters of the alphabet–there are “c” and “d” curves. I guessed that mine was a “c” handle.

I put it on eBay with all of that information in the title. I started the bidding at $9.99 (my usual) and couldn’t believe it when it got ten bids and sold for $36. It was shipped to Japan and the buyer paid $14 more for airmail shipping. My grandmother would have laughed and laughed over this one. She would have gotten such a kick out of it!

Another thing that she would have gotten a big kick out of was that she and I were appearing in an article in the Antique Trader that very same week. I had interviewed Sharon Korbeck, the editor of the Antique Trader, for my McGraw Hill book, and she thought that my grandmother and I would make a great story. It was written in the spring of 2004 and published at the end of July.

The Antique Trader was my grandmother’s favorite magazine; she read it faithfully cover to cover every week. She would have been thrilled to pieces to be featured in this publication. I now include this wonderful article in each box that I ship out to my eBay buyers. I have heard such nice comments from my customers. Things like, “The article adds such a personal touch,” and, “I feel like I know you and your grandma!” I’ll bet they don’t know that neither of us ever drank coffee!

If you liked that story, you will love all of my 100 Best Things I’ve Sold Books. Click here to learn more.

Another type of coffee mug that I have had successes with is anything Disney. Check out this Large Cheshire Cat Coffee Mug that I bought for $1.50 at my favorite thrift store and sold for nearly $15.00

When you are shopping your thrift stores and garage sales, do not overlook the coffee mug sections. I think there are a lot of sleepers to be found in this arena. (By the way, a sleeper is what my grandmother used to call a bargain-–just waiting to be found!)

I have always told you to be wary of cups and saucers (they just don’t sell as well anymore) and the trend is just what this article is about–coffee mugs are the collectible item replacing the teacup and saucer collectibles of yesteryear.

As I was doing my research (last two weeks completed auctions on eBay), here are some more types to be watching for…

  • A Bazooka Bubble Gum Fire King mug sold for $129.05!
  • A Snoopy Red Baron Fire King mug sold for $99.00!
  • A Burger King Fire King mug sold for $91.00!
  • A Google Coffee mug featuring Dilbert for $41.72!

And a few more shout out scores from the Queen’s Court. Thank you QC!

Here is an email from Mandy,

Hi Lynn

I’ve been on a Swedish kick this week!! ALWAYS BUY SWEDISH anything! :)

Here is an Eames Era Stainless & Teak mug made in Sweden I found in GW for 1.99 & sold at auction with 3 bids and it ended at…Click here to find out! I started it at 24.95 thinking it was pretty good!

Mandy

Mandicrafts

Here is another email from Mandy,

Hi Lynn,

You specifically asked for Taylor & Ng & I had this one sell in July at auction for $89.88. I’d found it at Re-Use It for .25 cents. Cobalt horse CHEVAL from 1979 (original).

See the listing here.

I know Reta posted a score recently for a Taylor & Ng original too, & a different design.

Mandy

Mandicrafts

Wow! I got so many wonderful emails from other QC members. I couldn’t add them all as I have to speak tomorrow morning at 5 am my time…so watch for more QC scores in the near future.This has been so much fun. OK one more. This one is from Victoria…

This one is pretty cool for it’s history, and for my own personal link to the family

Paid 49 cents, sold for $21.87 to a buyer in Canada.

The Roy Roger’s Victorville museum — near Roy and Dale’s retirement ranch in Apple Valley, CA — was very popular with Roy’s movie fans, but is probably best known for the fact that Roy’s horse, Trigger, was stuffed and displayed there, as was Dale’s horse Buttermilk, and Roy’s German Shepherd, Bullet. Roy’s son Dusty (Roy Jr.) closed the museum in 2003 and relocated it to Branson, Missouri, where it was run by his son Dustin. The museum did poorly there, and was permanently closed in December 2009. The museum’s contents were auctioned by Christies in 2010, and Trigger was purchased by an Omaha TV station for $266,500.

I met Roy & Dale several times in the late 1970s, when I was working with Roy’s daughter Cheryl (and her husband and their 4 children) in Los Angeles. During the 2 years I worked with Cheryl, I attended many family activities, as well as her youngest daughter’s wedding. Roy and Dale were both extremely gracious, and Roy was an absolute hoot to talk with on virtually any subject. I have an old photo of myself standing next to Trigger, but have absolutely no idea where it is after all these years.

You can see this listing here.

-Victoria

Kitchen-Kitsch

Auction Girl Vintage

By the way, the QC came through for this ezine. They went out of their way to help me and I LOVE THEM. I will post more of their scores in upcoming ezine (as long as they approve…thanks QCers).

Bottom line: Try anything in a unique or fun coffee mug. They are usually cheap–25 cents to $1.00–and I don’t think you can miss! And remember, even if it doesn’t sell at auction, move it into your eBay store at $9.99 and I bet it will eventually sell!

Happy eBaying!

Lynn

Visit my eBay Store.

Visit my eBay auctions.

For more great eBay tips and stories, visit my web site at:

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com


WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR ON YOUR WEBSITE? Yes, you may – just as long as you include all links as they are and append this complete blurb with it: The Queen of Auctions and eBay Power Seller, Lynn Dralle, publishes ‘eBay Tips & Tricks’ a weekly ezine with 10,000+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump start your eBay business, make more money and have more time, get your FRE E tips now at www.thequeenofauctions.com

{ 10 comments }

My Favorite Art Potters – Moorcroft, Mideke and Rookwood

August 26, 2011

When I started writing this article, I realized that these are my favorite art potters, but really this article should have been titled, My Grandmother’s Favorite Art Potters. These are her top three by far! Isn’t it amazing what we learn from our elders? But I never looked at my grandmother as an elder, more […]

Read the full article →

Following Your Instincts When Sourcing

August 5, 2011

I have had some incredible sourcing successes lately and I wanted to share my five top tips for following your instincts when out in the field. 1.     A flashback to a Childhood memory When I pick up something at an estate sale or garage sale and it reminds me of my childhood and it is […]

Read the full article →

Always Wanted to Sell on Amazon but were Afraid to Start?

July 25, 2011

Lose the fear as you listen to my 90-minute call with Lisa Suttora from last Tuesday. Lisa and Amazon are a Dynamic Duo! Click here to purchase now. With a 46% year over year growth, there’s no doubt that Amazon is one of THE hottest online marketplaces. With its stellar growth outpacing eBay AND Ecommerce, […]

Read the full article →

Garage Sale vs. eBay…Who wins?

July 19, 2011

Three Top Tips for eBay Selling&Three Top Tips for Garage Sales Once again I got to do a fun field study of garage sale vs. eBay selling. We worked like dogs for 3 1⁄2 days to do the garage sale. We also worked about 15 hours to list 100 things on eBay during that same […]

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TRS and Removing Negatives

June 30, 2011

I was going to be TRS (Top Rated Seller) by July 6th (my birthday) and I didn’t make it. I want you all to know that it is a difficult distinction to achieve and don’t EVER give up. Also, a huge congratulation to those of you who do have the honor of being Top Rated […]

Read the full article →

Lynn on Location DVDs – Order Now Before Price Goes Up!

June 15, 2011

Check out this email I just got from Diva Dawn : I’ve just started watching the entire LOL series. It’s like being there all over again and I’m picking up on some details that I missed the first time around. The footage is wonderful! -Diva Check out this post from Sherri on The Queen’s Court: […]

Read the full article →

A Five-Point Plan to Fix Your Workflow Bottleneck

June 13, 2011

Originally Published in November of 2006…still makes sense today! When my mom and I took a look at my workflow setup in my home back in 2006 we realized that it had turned into a monster! It was literally out of control! I had known this for some time and was even considering leasing office space […]

Read the full article →

Flatware Success eBook – Available for Pre-order!

June 10, 2011

Flatware Success eBook! Great news! The first section of the Flatware eBook is almost finished. Here is an email that we sent out to those who have already preordered: We had intended to have Volume One out by the end of May. Due to a family emergency and an “in the field” case study this did […]

Read the full article →

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