Hi guys!

I just got my 10,000th positive feedback point on eBay. I am so excited! What a huge milestone for me. It took 7 long years. This past June at eBay Live they asked all the power sellers with over 5,000 to stand up and then all of those with over 10,000 to remain standing — Mo and I had to sit down. I can’t wait for next year’s eBay Live in Las Vegas to remain standing!!! It was a long time coming but now I have a yellow shooting star by my name. I am thrilled. I am taking the entire office out for an expensive dinner (that would be me, mo, my kids and my mom!)

I hope you all had a great holiday season! And that your eBay experiences were all wonderful. In this ezine I will be talking about how to get along without an assistant — Mo is on vacation and I am freaking out! I also discuss some great lessons I learned with an expensive china set. So, please read on!

This e-zine is published every other Tuesday.

• How to live without an assistant
• To Sell at Auction or in your eBay Store?
• Next eCourse

How to live without an assistant

I know, I know, I am super lucky! I am seriously realizing it this week because Mo (Maureen), my assistant, is on vacation. I didn’t realize all she does for me. This eBay business is a lot of work and can get confusing. Especially, if you are doing it all yourself which I imagine most people are. My hat is off to all of you!!

All I have to do is find merchandise, photograph it and list it on eBay. It takes me about 20 hours a week to do this for 100 to 150 items. Maureen does all the paperwork (checking in money), answering questions, re-listing, ordering shipping supplies, and actually shipping everything. I have realized it is a tough job to be Mo! She does all this in about 30 hours a week. She is amazing!

Here is what I have learned and want to pass along to those of you who don’t have any extra help. You must have a routine or you can make mistakes. Here is my routine when Mo is not around. I do all my writing up, photographing and listing during the day. In the early afternoon, I check in all my Paypal payments and checks that have arrived. Then I pull all the items to be shipped. I try to pull all the items before it gets dark, because my office is not very well lit and if I wait until nighttime, it is hard to find the correct items. Then, I do my wrapping and shipping in the early evening and at night.  During the day, I check for questions every hour. Customers really appreciate getting a quick response to a question.

The biggest thing I learned this week was to do my actual packing at night. The first day Mo was gone, I was running around all stressed out trying to get everything packed and out for UPS. Our UPS driver, Rick (who is awesome), usually shows up between 2 and 3 pm. It was making me really nervous. I found that when I packed at night, I could take my time and know that I had all evening to finish. I became more calm and much more productive. It is so fun to put out all those packages first thing the next morning and know that you have all day to work on other things—like listing items & making money!

Another tip for many of you is to hire some part-time help. It could even be a high school or college student, a husband, a wife or a friend. There are so many different tasks involved in selling on eBay that it really helps to pass off just a few of them (or even one) to a helper. Here are some ideas of tasks to delegate. You can pay by the hour or by the job:

1. Re-listing items at auction or in your store

What is great about this is that it can be done from anywhere — your helper can do this from their own home — Just give them the I sell sheets with the changes marked. Mo does all my relisting from her home. Make sure that the person you have doing this work is very trustworthy. You will have to give them your eBay password.

2. Checking in auction payments

Again, this can be done from anywhere. Maureen fills out all the I sell sheets at her own home — noting what sold, for how much and to whom. Then she checks my Paypal account and marks all that are paid. She brings the stack of sold sheets with her the next day and starts pulling items. Make sure that you can trust the person you hire to do this work. Your Paypal password is not something to share with just anyone.

3. Answering Questions

This will probably have to be done from your place of business because most questions require you to look at the item. You could still hire someone (even a family member) to take care of all the questions on your “My eBay” page and to answer all the “My Messages”. It really helps to have this taken care of!

4. Packing and Shipping

This is a big one and if you can hire someone to do it for you, it will really free you up to concentrate on getting more items listed on eBay. I try and add on $1 to $3 to every single item that we ship. This adds up to about $1,200 per month. This money goes to pay for shipping supplies and also pays for quite a lot of Maureen’s time. I highly suggest that you consider this.

To sell at auction or in your eBay store

As a side note, one reason this went so high was because it had the original stand. As you can imagine many of these little stands would get thrown out. The lady that bought it was thrilled and left feedback saying, “Just like I played with when I was a kid.” As I always tell you guys, people are buying their childhoods. Don’t forget this when you are out shopping!

First eCourse of 2006

I am very excited to start teaching again and my first eCourse starts up again on Monday, January 9th! The best way for you to get up to speed on eBay is to sign up now for my e-course! Listen to what my students are saying about it!

‘I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the work you have put into this course. I taught at the College Level and you are one of a very few who knows how to transfer knowledge into learning -hallelujah’!!! – Cauleen Viscoff, Canada

‘My goodness, what a home run you hit with this week’s lesson! It is so full of great information that I had to go over it several times. You are an outstanding teacher; I have put some of your lessons to use this week and that saved me a few costly mistakes. Thanks again for giving us such valuable information.’ – Margaret (Peggy) McIlvain Texas

‘Just wanted to let you know I am really enjoying the lessons. As the Young people would say, you have really ‘turned me on’ to this eBay thing.’ – Shirley Jones, Texas

Don’t miss the first class of 2006 ! It is time to put your New Year’s resolutions into action.

There are still a few spots left at the early bird special. Don’t miss out! To sign up now click here. To find out more about the course, please click here.

Happy Buying & Selling! Lynn

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

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com

Please contact me with any questions or suggestions for future issues. I would love to hear from you Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com

Hi everyone!

I hope this holiday season finds you doing great!  This ezine is coming out a little late due to several things. My brother (my technical guy) was stuck in Florida and I was busy wrapping up my two ecourses with a teleconference Wednesday night. The teleconference went incredibly well and was so much fun! Read more about that later in this edition. Two important things that came up in the teleconference were how to request a user’s information and the rules for selling food on eBay. I will discuss these also.

This e-zine is published every other Tuesday

• How to request a user’s information
• Selling Food on eBay
• Teleconference

How to request a user’s information

During the teleconference one of my students told a story of how she sold an expensive item and the buyer sent a check. One week went by and the check hadn’t arrived so she contacted her bidder several times through the eBay system. He claimed that he never received the emails through eBay (and this does happen sometimes). So she emailed him from her personal email account also. He still claimed to have sent the check and after two weeks she just gave up on him and relisted the item.

Lo and behold, four weeks later, the check did arrive and the buyer had written the incorrect postal code. I have had this happen on numerous occasions. So, I usually give my bidders 4-5 weeks to pay. If they haven’t paid by that time and numerous emails it is a good bet that they are never going to pay.

What I suggested to my student was that she could have requested her high bidder’s user information through the eBay system. By doing this, the bidder would also get an email with all of her contact information (including telephone number) and know that she was serious. Also, a phone call placed before relisting an item, can get the item paid and on its way. For some reason, a personal phone call can get unpaid items paid!

To request a user’s contact information (phone number and address) just click on the Community button at the top of the eBay home page. Then click on the big “find a member” button. On the page that comes up next is a sidebar menu. Under Members click on the “Find Contact Information” hyperlink. It will take you to a screen that looks like this:

You will need to input the user id of the member and the item number that you have an ongoing or recent transaction with. Just keep in mind that both you and your bidder will each receive contact information for one another. This is a great feature and one that I use for special circumstances.

Rules for selling food on eBay

Teleconference

On Wednesday night I held my first teleconference ever! It was such a fun experience and such a success. I had eight of my ecourse students on the line and each one had ten minutes to discuss their auctions, talk about their successes and ask questions. This teleconference is available for purchase here. What a great way to learn more about eBay while at your computer or even driving to work! You won’t want to miss out on this special deal being offered for the holidays. You can either get it as a download or on two audio CDs.

Of course, all of my ecourse students will receive it for free and you should be watching your inbox for it! Speaking of the ecourse, the next one starts on January 8th and once again I am offering a special low price. Sign up now and make selling on eBay your number one priority for the New Year! I can’t wait to meet my new students and get to know you and your auctions. I really take a personal interest in each and every one of you and want you to be as successful as I am. Please sign up now! Don’t miss out.

Happy Buying & Selling! Lynn

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

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com

Please contact me with any questions or suggestions for future issues. I would love to hear from you Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com

Hi everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all have a great holiday week. I am thankful for so many things – my great life, having my own eBay business, my wonderful family, super friends and all of you – my ezine readers! This edition I am going to talk about how my wanted-to-buy ads worked out. Don’t miss reading the heartwarming story about my daughter Indiana. Start thinking about how you can get your kids or other family members involved in your eBay business! Finally, I am going to discuss when you should use a reserve in the “This Week’s Question.”

This e-zine is published every other Tuesday.

• Wanted-to-Buy Advertisements
• Get your kids involved in your eBay business
• This Week’s Question – When should I use a reserve?

Wanted-to-Buy Advertisements

Several newsletters ago I discussed placing “Wanted-to-Buy” ads. I put an ad in my local newspaper, on Craig’s List (www.CraigsList.org) and in the “Antique Trader.” It was very interesting to see what happened and how the three different venues generated three different ways of contact. The local newspaper ad brought phone calls, the Craig’s List people used email, and the “Antique Trader” was all by mail.

My local newspaper ad did generate some interest. I received about ten phone calls and I talked to quite a few people that had dinnerware sets. However, after doing my research I decided not to buy them. It was also kind of awkward not having a store or other business location to meet them in. I wasn’t comfortable driving clear out in the county to someone’s home to examine their items. I probably won’t place another ad like this unless I can figure out a business locale that I could use to look at merchandise.

The Craig’s List ad brought in three email inquiries. I liked the email inquiries better than taking the phone calls. These sellers were pretty savvy (probably checked prices on eBay!) and they wanted too much for their items. However, this was a free listing so I will definitely do it again when I need merchandise. Right now my office is so full that I just bought seven shelves at Costco to hold it all! My grandmother would say “You are loaded for bear!” I think this means that you use all your ammunition when loading a shot gun to shoot a bear. I definitely have enough merchandise (ammunition) to last me a long, long time!

I hope that gives you some ideas. Please let me know if you have tried any wanted-to-buy ads and how they have worked for you!

Get your kids involved in your eBay business

When we got home, I researched the brooch/pin and found one exactly like it on eBay that had sold for $86! Wow — what a score! I told Indiana that I would give her 20% of whatever it sold for as a finder’s fee. She is saving up for her birthday visit to Disneyland and her goal is to make $100 by December 11th. We had so much fun watching this auction together and it ended up selling for $152.50! Amazing. I paid her $30.50. She is hooked on eBay and has decided to go with us every weekend. As an end note, I think our pin sold for double the other one for several reasons. I put brooch in the title and the other seller only used pin. I also put Eames in the title and once again this is a very searchable term. Also, it is the perfect time of year to sell a Christmas tree pin.

This Week’s Question

This week’s question comes from one of my first e-course students! Thanks Robin!

Dear Lynn,

I am about to list a 1920s vintage beaded purse that has gemstones set across the top. It is very unusual, and I think it is worth upwards of $200. So my question is, what’s the best way to list it? Start at $49.99 with a Reserve Price of $200? Or, not pay the Reserve Price fee, and list at a starting price closer to the value. I sure would hate to see it sell low. How do you feel about Reserve pricing? Thanks, Robin

Robin,

Hi there. I think reserve pricing is great for special items. I noticed that you had good luck with buy-it-nows (bin) on expensive items. I don’t like bin’s for unique one-of-a-kind items because there is no chance for the item to go even higher. I think starting your purse at $9.99, $24.99 or $49.99 ($24.99 would be my choice for a starting bid) with a hidden reserve of $199 is a great way to go. I do use reserves for items that I have a large investment in or an item that may take several weeks to sell. And remember that if your item does reach the reserve, the $1.00 to $2.00 extra reserve fee is refunded. eBay does this as an incentive for buyers to set reasonable reserves. Most of the time, however, I start my items at $9.99 and just let the marketplace price it. I don’t worry about the outcome because it is a numbers game and overall it works out great! Let me know how it goes.

Happy Buying & Selling! Lynn

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

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com

Please contact me with any questions or suggestions for future issues. I would love to hear from you Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all doing great! It has been another quick two weeks. I don’t know where the time goes. I am happy to report that my book for Wiley is off to layout and I am finished! I have decided to try and write Money Making Madness — The Next 100 Best Things I’ve Sold on eBay before Christmas. This means I will have to write four chapters a day. It is so much fun it is not work at all – I just need to find the time to fit it in with everything else that is going on.

This week I am going to discuss the challenges facing us at thrift stores, garage and estate sales and how to overcome them.

This e-zine is published every other Tuesday.

• Thrift Stores, Garage and Estate Sales – Tips for thinking outside the Box
• See Lynn in Country Home Magazine
• This Week’s Question – Using Eames era in your Titles

What look for at Estate and Garage Sales – Tips for thinking outside the box

I hear every now and then that some of you are having problems finding merchandise. I have to tell you that if you have money to spend for stock, there is always a place to spend it (that was something that my grandmother always said!). She is so right. eBay is changing the way we do business both on the retail and wholesale side. You just need to start thinking outside of the box.

For the past three years I have had a favorite charity sale here in the desert. I always have scored big time at this sale, so two weekends ago found my mom, my sister and me in line at 6:30 am. I was appalled to find that it was picked over before it even opened. The only thing I could figure out was that someone had gone through first and taken everything that could be sold on eBay. I have heard of more and more charity sales and thrift stores doing this. It does present a challenge to those of us who rely on these channels for merchandise. However, it doesn’t have to shut us down.

I have to admit that even I was discouraged after visiting that charity sale and also stopping by my local thrift store. My local thrift store has started pricing dinner sets in the $100 to $200 range. Please! Sets that used to be marked $10 to $20 are now being priced at top retail (even higher than Replacements prices).

However, I have come to some interesting conclusions about how to combat this. I want to offer you some tips and tricks:

First – Think outside the box I have started visiting my thrift store more often. I stop by every other day. I look for things that are not easily identifiable–items with small signatures or no signatures at all. Instead of looking for the sets of fine china—I am focusing on stoneware and other dinner sets that are still priced below $10. At my same thrift store I picked up a Noritake Running Free (Sailboat) stoneware set for $7. The ladies who do the pricing didn’t think it was great but I sold it in 8 different auctions on eBay for over $300. Here is one of those auctions.

Second – Hit Garage Sales on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays I typically only go out on Saturday mornings to garage sales. Because of the disappointing results earlier this month, I decided to go out on a Friday. There is much less traffic and competition on these off days. I have to tell you that I scored big time on a Friday morning this past weekend. I found an estate sale where the lady just wanted to get rid of things. She had an incredible collection of antique books that her husband had collected for over 40 years. I asked her how much for the entire lot. She thought and thought about it and finally said $100. Wow! I got over 600 books for about 15 cents each. Check out my auctions to see some of these books that I have up for sale now.

Third – Stock up during the season This brings us to Stocking up during the season. Garage sale high season varies by location. Here in Palm Desert, our best garage sale time is from October until April. I have decided to hit it hard and pile up inventory for the slow summer months—when everyone has left the 120 degree weather. With those 600 books and everything else I have been buying, I have more inventory than ever before. I have just converted a spare bedroom into a stock room and will start putting things away for the sparse months. I encourage you to do the same.

Fourth – Take things for free You may have to put more items on to make money—but if you have the time, this can work to your advantage. As I mentioned earlier, hit garage, estate and charity sales on Sundays and stock up. My favorite charity sale gave things away by Sunday afternoon. The great estate sale that I had gone to on Friday, called me on Sunday to say, “Please come and take what is left” For Free! You can’t go wrong. Especially if you have the time. Time is money and this is never truer than on eBay!

See Lynn in Country Home Magazine

I am on page 73 and there is a really nice article and a photo that my brother took. To see the article please click here.

This Week’s Question

Hi Lynn,

Just wanted to double-check something regarding eras. I attended eBay’s first live Town Hall meeting in Dallas in May and the subject of using the term “Eames era” was discussed at length. We were told by Griff and the other eBay staff that it is against eBay policy to use the word Eames in your listing or title if the item is not an authentic Eames piece. Do you know if they have changed their policy on this subject?

Thank you in advance for your assistance. Stephanie Inge (Texas)

Hi Stephanie,

That is really interesting. I use Eames in a lot of auction titles and have never had one pulled. Eames era is really a generic term for a time period (1949 to 1967) and is used extensively by dealers. eBay would be silly to start disallowing it. There were 10,000 items sold or listed with Eames in the title during the last two-week period on eBay and they were not all made by Charles Eames. I don’t think that they are enforcing this policy at all. By the way, I have had an auction ended with Shabby Chic in the title because my item was not made by the Shabby Chic Company. Pretty silly because “shabby chic” has become another generic term. Oh well. Thanks for your question.

Lynn

Happy Buying & Selling! Lynn

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

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com

Please contact me with any questions or suggestions for future issues. I would love to hear from you Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com

Hi guys!

Another fun two weeks for me on eBay. Check out what I just sold for big bucks – I talk about it in the section with the Learning Annex items! Also, I discuss some really important eras to use in your listing titles and descriptions. Finally, it is not too late to sign up for my last ecourse of 2005 – Don’t miss out! Lynn

This e-zine is published every other Tuesday.

• Eras in title and description
• What did Lynn sell for big bucks, and how did those Learning Annex items do?
• Don’t miss out on the last eCourse of 2005

Eras in Title and Description:

The history of your item can sometimes help to sell it more than the item itself. I am not kidding. If you have a great story about what you are trying to sell on eBay, by all means tell it to the buyers in your description. As an example, do you remember the cane that sold on eBay with someone’s grandfather’s “ghost” or the famous toasted cheese sandwich with the picture of the Virgin Mary or even the ice cube that Elvis had touched? Amazing! But True! And these all sold for 1,000’s of dollars. Someone was being creative. You don’t have to go to these lengths; however, if something was owned by your great uncle who happened to be an early settler of Missouri, by all means write about it. People love a good history, especially for something they are going to purchase.

Provenance is a term used quite a bit in the antique and collectible word and it is worth mentioning here. Provenance is proof of ownership or proof of the history of your item. As an example, if you are selling a plate that belonged to the Kennedy’s and you bought it at one of the Sotheby’s auctions, you would use the auction catalog and your receipt of purchase as your provenance. If you have such things, it is best to include these with the purchase and mention them in the description.

As far as age is concerned, it is very important to try and date your item. People will want to know if it is new or from about what time period. I often make educated guesses in my descriptions and always use a range to protect myself. If I have a vase that I think is 1910’s Art Nouveau era, I may say “I believe this piece is from the 1910’s to 1940’s and very Art Nouveau in look and style.” This gives me a thirty year window to protect myself.

As a very important ending note, Eames era items (anything from 1945 to 1969) are very hot right now. If I put Eames era in my title, I get double the hits on my auctions. Other terms that describe Eames era are Mid-Century Modern and sleek.

How Did Those Learning Annex Items Do?

I have a fun story to share this week. I taught a course for the Learning Annex in LA and San Diego several weeks ago. I picked a few items to use for examples. One was a Nippon vase that I had bought at a garage sale. I thought it was going to sell for big bucks. But I was wrong—again! The garage sale where I bought the Nippon vase was run by a mom and her daughter. They were selling some of their grandmother’s items (well, what was left after they had an expert come in and take all the good stuff!).

The items looked really antique and neat, similar to things my grandmother would have collected. I made a pile and asked how much since all the items had stickers on them saying “Make an Offer.” I typically won’t make an offer (because it usually means that they think their things are very valuable and they will price too high) and those stickers scare me away. But for some reason, I said “If I take all these things how much?” To my surprise they said only $15. Score!

So you just never know! It really is a numbers game and just putting one thing up for sale is not going to show you how successful you can be on eBay. You must try many, many different things.

My Last eCourse of 2005:

The best way for you to get up to speed on eBay is to sign up now for my e-course that starts on Monday, October 31^st. It is the last one I will be teaching in 2005.  Listen to what my students are saying about it!

‘I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the work you have put into this course. I taught at the college leve,l and you are one of a very few who knows how to transfer knowledge into learning &.hallelujah’!!! – Cauleen Viscoff, Canada

‘My goodness, what a home run you hit with this week’s lesson! It is so full of great information that I had to go over it several times. You are an outstanding teacher; I have put some of your lessons to use this week and that saved me a few costly mistakes. Thanks again for giving us such valuable information.’ – Margaret (Peggy) McIlvain, Texas

‘Just wanted to let you know I am really enjoying the lessons. As the young people would say, you have really ‘turned me on’ to this eBay thing.’ – Shirley Jones, Texas

Don’t miss my last class before 2006! I am squeezing one more e-course in before the holidays and I want you to participate!

There are still a few spots left at the early bird special. Don’t miss out! To sign up now click here. To find out more about the course, please click here.

Happy Buying & Selling! Lynn

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

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com

Please contact me with any questions or suggestions for future issues. I would love to hear from you Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com

Hi there!

I hope you are all doing well. I just got some great news…read on to find out what it is. I taught this past weekend for the Learning Annex in San Diego and Los Angeles. It was great to meet many of you in person. This week’s ezine will share some of the things I spoke about. We will focus on Title in this issue.

This e-zine is published every other Tuesday.

• Keywords in Your Title
• Always Spell Correctly, but Use Misspellings in Your Title
• eBay Radio Today with Griff
• This week’s question…Where do I find bargains?

Keywords in Your Title:

The most important thing you can do when listing for maximum visibility on eBay is to put “buzz” words in your title. When selling antiques and collectibles you need to always use all 55 characters and here is a list of great words to use. Notice that I did a search of completed listings for the past two weeks and these are the numbers of how many titles used these particular words. Very interesting!

I learned a lot from this exercise. I found out that vintage is more important than collectible or even antique. I will try and use vintage, rare, antique and mint in more of my listings.  The ? at the bottom has no number because I couldn’t just search by ?. A lot of dealers use Help or ? in their listings when they are stumped. I know I do. This can be a great way to pick up bargains in your area of expertise.

Even if you don’t sell antiques and collectibles, do the same kind of key word search (completed auctions only) for “buzz” words in your industry. You will learn what words to use most often.

Always Spell Correctly, but Use Misspellings in Your Title:

It is very important to spell correctly when listing on eBay. That said, if there is a common misspelling for your item, you can put the correct spelling and the misspelling in the title to get more viewers. Here are some misspellings in the antiques field.

eBay Radio Today with Griff:

eBay radio will have me on the air live at 12:08 pm Pacific time, today, Tuesday, October 11^th! I get to be interviewed by Griff (eBay’s spokesperson) and be their featured PowerSeller for the month. I will be discussing selling tips and tricks. Be sure to tune in and listen live on the Internet here. How exciting!

But wait, there is more good news! My I Buy and I Sell tracking binders are going to be carried by the eBay Store. They will be featured this week on the front page of The eBay Shop! If you have been thinking of buying one of these awesome organizers, please do so now here.  Let’s show eBay that they have picked a great product. Thanks!

This Week’s Question:

It is getting so hard to find bargains to sell on eBay anymore. Now it seems even the Thrift Stores are using computers for their pricing. Do you have any ideas for getting items at great deals? Sincerely, PI

Lynn’s Answer:

Hi PI,

It has been getting harder and harder to find things in thrift stores. I am still doing great at garage, estate and yard sales. Also, I have one thrift store that doesn’t use computers to price and I try and hit them every day. Also, you may try placing the wanted ads we talked about in the last newsletter. Also, if you can specialize in something like books or clothing and really know your stuff–you can always do well. Another idea, is to buy by the lot or pallet–even on eBay. Break it out and sell the items individually. Another idea is to become an eBay trading assistant and sell for others.

Good luck to you. Lynn

Happy Buying & Selling! Lynn

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

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com

Please contact me with any questions or suggestions for future issues. I would love to hear from you Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com

Hi there!

I can’t believe that it is almost October. The early fall is not the best time for garage sales here in the desert. I was talking to my mom about it this past weekend and came up with a brilliant idea. Read more about in the Where to Find Merchandise section below.

This e-zine is published every other Tuesday.

• More Places to Find Merchandise
• Learning Annex in San Diego and Los Angeles
• This week’s question…What sells the best on eBay?

More Places to Find Merchandise:

My favorite sources for merchandise will always be the garage, yard, estate, and charity sales along with my favorite thrift stores. However, I am trying something new this week. Well, it is actually old because my grandmother used to do this in the 1950’s! How cool is that? She used to run wanted-to-buy ads in our local newspaper and “The Antique Trader.”

With the advent of the Internet there are now so many more places to run these ads. And you can get super specific. Spend some time on Google doing a search for your area of expertise and you will be amazed at all the web sites that will list your Want Ads for free.

Also, there are so many more actual magazines these days. As an example, if you are selling toys, there are now publications just for toys. “Toy Shop” is one of these magazines and it runs the gamut from action figures, Barbie, Hot Wheels, G.I. Joe, character toys, vintage, baby boomer, to TV toys. For more information about placing a classified ad in “Toy Shop” check out the Krause publications web site at www.collect.com.

Ads that I placed this week were on craigslist (www.craigslist.org), in “The Antique Trader” through www.collect.com (I had to–it was my grandmother’s favorite magazine) and in our local newspaper, “The Desert Sun”. And I only spent $35.40! This could turn out to be cheaper than the gas it takes to drive around on a Saturday morning.

Craigslist is a free online regional classifieds service. To place an ad, go to www.craigslist.org, navigate to the site for your area, put your ad in, and it will be shown for 45 days. eBay now owns a percentage of craigslist but it is still a free service. Here is the ad that I placed:

“Wanted to Buy: Dinnerware, China Sets, Flatware–sterling, silverplate and stainless, Antiques, Collectibles, Royal Copenhagen, Bing and Grondahl, etc. Looking for items in good condition and I pay a fair price.” Craigslist assigns you a blind email and will forward all inquiries to you. You can also list a phone number but I chose not to.

“The Antique Trader Weekly” is one of the Krause publications. Their classified rates vary by magazine but this one charges 44 cents a word with a 21 word minimum. That works out to $9.24 for their cheapest ad. I chose to use bold and that cost me 55 cents a word and I used 28 words. Cost for my ad for one week was $15.40. Go to www.collect.com to place your ad and it is quite simple. The ad I placed looks like this: “Wanted to Buy: China, Dinnerware, Flatware–Sterling, Stainless, Silverplate, Royal Copenhagen, Bing & Grondahl, Antiques, Collectibles etc. Cheryl Leaf Antiques 760-345-xxxx PO Box 14103 Palm Desert, CA 92255 AllAboard@mail.com”

I had always been hesitant to run an ad in our local newspaper because I had heard that the rates were so high. I decided to call and inquire since I was writing the ezine. They were having a special for “Wanted to Buy” ads. Only $23.10 for 4 lines (25 characters a line) for seven days. I thought it was worth a try and here is the ad I placed with The Desert Sun:

“China, Flatware, RC, B&G, Collectibles, Antiques, Pottery, etc. 345-xxxx AllAboard@mail.com”

One last idea is to check with someone you know who works for a large corporation. I know that Boeing has an online employee classifieds that is quite extensive. You may be able to have your friend place a free wanted to buy ad for you.

Once I am contacted with a list of the items that the person has to sell, I normally ask them what price they are asking for the items. It is best if they name the price first. If they don’t have a price in mind, I will do some research and make a fair offer based on all items being in good to excellent condition. If you are meeting someone to purchase items, please do not go alone and do meet them in a public place. For more tips on negotiating to buy through a wanted to buy advertisement, please reference How to Sell Antiques and Collectibles on eBay and Make a Fortune.

I placed all these ads on Monday, September 26th so won’t have any results for you until the next ezine. Wish me luck. I suggest that you try some of the free listings (craigslist) in your geographic area–it can’t hurt! P.S. I just got an email from my craigslist advertisement. Someone has a lot of Depression Glass to sell. They are asking $650–too rich for my blood (as my grandmother would say) but these ads work!

Learning Annex Classes in San Diego and Los Angeles–

A Day of eBay:

If you are in the Los Angeles or San Diego area, please check out the Day of eBay that the Learning Annex is offering on October 8th in San Diego and October 9th in LA. I will be teaching a one hour course on Antiques and Collectibles. It will be great to meet you in person or to see you again if we have already met!

This Week’s Question:

I am new to selling at on-line auction and am wondering what sells the best? What doesn’t sell?

Beth Wiesner, Atlanta, Georgia.

Lynn’s Answer:

Dear Beth, Thanks for the question. It always amazes me what sells and what doesn’t sell. I tell people in my classes and in my radio interviews that it is a numbers game. The more listings you have and the more unusual things you try, the better your sales will be. In general, I have found that:

Good Condition Sells
Original Boxes Help
Name Brands Sell Best
Identifiable or Signed Pieces Do Well
Obscure Sells
Unique & One-Of-A-Kind Go For the Most $

As an example, I couldn’t get $99 for a signed Baccarat perfume from the 1890s that came from my grandmother’s personal cabinet. I even relisted it 5 times! But I did get $217.50 for a little tiny mouse ceramic figure that I paid $2 for at a garage sale, because it had a desirable brand name (that I had never heard of !)–”Wee Folks” (See #6 in The 100 Best Things I’ve Sold on eBay). Who knew? Recently, we listed a pile of stereoview cards on eBay. Several sold for over $50 each and one even went for $92! Stereoview cards are similar to postcards, but you had to have a special viewer to see them in 3D. I had always known that they were worth more than postcards, but never in my wildest dreams thought one would have sold for close to $100! My Grandmother would have been so excited! Here is a picture of the one that sold for $92.55:

Happy Buying & Selling! Lynn

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

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com

Please contact me with any questions or suggestions for future issues. I would love to hear from you Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com

Hi everyone!

Happy Fall and Back to School. I am glad to report that for the first time ever, both my kids now go to school from 9 am to 3 pm. I have six uninterrupted hours to work on eBay! Life is great.

This e-zine is published every other Tuesday.

• Spoof Emails – How Do You Protect Yourself?
• The Book Signing at Village Books
• Entrepreneur Magazine and The Bellingham Herald Articles
• This week’s question…How do you have over 2,000 items on eBay?

Spoof Emails – How Do You Protect Yourself?:

Phishing, the practice of sending spoof email, is when a third party sends an email that looks like it comes from eBay, Paypal or any type of banking institution which asks you to follow a link to update your account or to give sensitive financial information. eBay and Paypal will NEVER send an email asking you to follow a link to their site. Always access eBay pages by going to the eBay home page and logging in from there. This is the best way to protect yourself.

I get about ten spoof emails everyday. Please click here for a sample phony email. The sender on this was eBay Safe Harbour aw-confirm@eBay.com and the subject line was “eBay Account – Suspicious Activity”. This looks real and it isn’t.

The criminals are getting so good at this that the emails look real. It is so frustrating. I almost answered one and gave out my eBay user ID and password. It looked so real, as if it were coming from an eBay member. The email said “Where is my item? If I don’t hear from you in 2 days, I am filing negative feedback.” It got my attention and I immediately clicked on the link to take me to the eBay item number. eBay then asked me to sign in and I went ahead and input my information. Luckily, my brother had installed a firewall and it popped up and said “Do you really want to send this information to skeleton88 blah blah blah?” It was not sending my information to eBay but to a scammer. I never follow links from emails anymore, but go to the eBay home page and then input the item numbers. You can never be too cautious with your personal information.

Another way to protect yourself is to log onto your eBay account and check My Messages whenever it looks like eBay has sent you an alert or message related to your account. Bottom line – if an email affects your eBay account, it’s in My Messages. If you get an email that looks like it’s from eBay about a problem with your account or that requests personal information, look in My Messages. If the same eBay email is not in My Messages, it’s a fake.

The issue of phishing emails and fraud on eBay and Paypal must be addressed. It has grown in such a huge proportion in the past few years that it seriously has the opportunity to hinder our eBay successes. eBay has been working diligently to combat this but it is still out of control. I met with an eBay executive in Canada who works in the Fraud division and she asked me if I am forwarding these spoof emails to eBay and I said “No, I just don’t have the time.” She asked me to please take the time – because this is the only way that they can quickly break up these criminal rings – if we take the time to help. Forward a copy of any ebay scam email to spoof@ebay.com and Paypal spoof email to spoof@Paypal.com

It is my hope that eBay and Paypal can wipe out phishing and fraud in the near future. Please speak to your friends and family about this issue. I think that by spreading the word we can help to put an end to it.

Book Signing at Village Books:

Thank you to everyone who came out for the Bellingham Book Signing. It was so much fun. Village Books estimated that between 111 and 125 people attended. It was standing room only!

The Bellingham Herald Article and Entrepreneur Magazine:

The Bellingham Herald Article by Michelle Nolan ran last Thursday, September 8^th. To see it please click here. The Entrepreneur/eBay Magazine article also came out on August 31^st. To read it please click here. They are both great stories and my thanks to both publications and the writers.

This Week’s Question:

How many people do you hire to get over 2,000 auctions up? Are you consigning for others? Kevin

Lynn’s Answer:

Hi Kevin, I have an assistant who works about 25 to 30 hours a week. Her name is Mo (short for Maureen) and she mostly does shipping, answering emails and checking in the money. This week she is starting to write up auction items and take photos! Very exciting. I list 100 new items each week. The 2,000 plus items you see on eBay are mostly store items at a fixed price. What doesn’t sell twice at auction, goes directly into my eBay store and I sell about 100 items each month from my store. November and December are my best months on eBay, so I am working hard stocking up my eBay store with fixed price items now so I will be ready for the holiday rush. I suggest you do the same. To learn more about eBay stores, please check here for past issues of our newsletter. I do not consign for others. It is too time consuming and I make much more money selling my own items. Thanks for the questions! Lynn

Happy Buying & Selling! Lynn

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

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com

Please contact me with any questions or suggestions for future issues. I would love to hear from you Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com

Hello!

It is great to be back writing the ezine. I decided not to write the last issue because I was on vacation in Bellingham, WA and had just finished my book for Wiley! What a relief — I was all typed out! I am still in my hometown but am ready to start writing again.

This e-zine is published every other Tuesday.

• Learn from your Mistakes
• I’m in Entrepreneur/eBay Magazine
• My Book Signing Tomorrow

Learn from your Mistakes:

As you may already know, I believe that eBay is a numbers game and the more items you list, the more money you will make. I also acknowledge that no one knows everything and that everybody makes mistakes, especially me

I want to share one of my recent mistakes with you because it is also a great learning experience. I didn’t lose any money on this one, but I did find out, once again, that what happens on eBay is not always what you expect!

I found a really neat vintage turquoise blue pottery vase at my favorite thrift store several weeks ago. It was only $1.00 but had no marks on it. I also found an Arabia Finland vase at the same thrift store and paid $2.00 for it. I know that Arabia Finland is a good brand but the design was very 1970s not the 1950s Eames era that is so hot right now. The turquoise vase was very 1950s Eames Mid-Century Modern. When I did my research on eBay I found that it could be a Roseville Futura piece and possibly worth $200. I was so excited and put all my hopes in selling it for big bucks. Guess what? I was wrong.

When I listed the turquoise vase I asked for help in the title. My title was ‘Roseville Futura Art Deco Globe Ball Vase Help ? Eames’. Not one eBayer helped me out with identifying this piece. Typically, when I ask for help at least one person will respond. If you want to take a look at the auction it can be found here.

Before listing the Arabia Finland vase, I searched for but was not able to find any similar vases on eBay. However, I did find the same artist on the PriceMiner site and was then able to put her name in the title. This vase’s auction’s title was ‘Alice Arabia Finland Sunflower Vase Hilkka Liisa Ahola’ and the actual auction here.

So, here is what happened. 205 people looked at the Roseville Futura style vase and it only sold for $9.99! 113 people looked at the Arabia Finland vase and it sold for $56.00! I was wrong again but who cares? I still made good money. I paid $3 for the two vases and they sold for $65.99. That is more than 20 times what I paid!

As you can see from this example, it is a numbers game and you must put up as many things as you possibly can and never count on any single item to sell for big bucks!

I am in the Fall Entrepreneur/eBay Magazine:

This fall, Entrepreneur Magazine is publishing a magazine–a guide to eBay business–in conjunction with eBay. It is supposed to be on newsstands today, 8/30/05. I am so excited to be a featured power seller in this magazine. I was told at eBay Live that it would sell out very quickly. I have not seen it yet, but would love to hear if anyone else has gotten a hold of one. I hope it is a nice article and that they used a good photo! Let me know if you have seen it.

My Book Signing and Discussion is Tomorrow:

My book signing and discussion is tomorrow night, 8/31/05 at Village Books in Old Fairhaven. It will be so fun to see old friends and customers from my grandmother’s shop. I am really looking forward to it, but am a little nervous. I plan to read 4 or 5 stories from The 100 Best Things I’ve Sold on eBay. I am having a hard time choosing which ones to read. If any of you have a favorite story that you think I should read, please email me the story number. Thanks!

Another fun thing happening at the signing and discussion is that our local newspaper, The Bellingham Herald, will be covering it for a feature article. It was so interesting how this all came about. My mom and I were in line for one of my favorite charity sales here in town a week ago and a reporter, Michelle Nolan, for the newspaper was standing behind us. We enjoyed talking with her and my mom kept nudging me to tell her about my books. I finally did mention my books and she was very receptive, so I dropped one off for her at the paper. The next morning her editor emailed me to let me know that they wanted to write a lifestyle feature to appear in mid September. How fun! Michelle and a Bellingham Herald photographer will be at the signing to cover it for the paper. Wish me luck! I hope to see you there.

Happy Buying & Selling! Lynn

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

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com

Please contact me with any questions or suggestions for future issues. I would love to hear from you Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com

Hello! How is your summer?

Mine has been great! I just had my best July on eBay ever, and I even had time left over to go on vacation and write several more chapters of my eBay book for Wiley.

This e-zine is published every other Tuesday.

• What on Earth is This? Some tips and tricks for researching your items.
• August 2, 2005

What on Earth is This?:

One of the most important steps in selling your item on eBay is to find out exactly what you have and what it is worth. The first step is to check on eBay by doing a completed auction search. If that doesn’t work, go to a website like Google, Replacements or Priceminer. Finally, you can use a ? in your title. Let’s discuss these options.

EBAY COMPLETED RESEARCH:

The first place that I go, hands down, to do my research is on eBay. Why not? We want to sell our item on eBay and there is no better site to test the waters than the site we are going to sell it on. When you research for identification and valuation purposes, you will most always use the completed auction research tool.

If I don’t know exactly what it is I am listing, I will enter descriptive terms into an eBay completed auction search. Often this will return details that help me to identify my piece. A positive identification and clear description for your auction will draw more people to your auction and raise your chances of selling at a higher price.

Never use current auction searches to do your research. Many times people make this mistake and just type their search terms into the standard eBay search box found on every page. Do NOT do this. Current auctions results give no indication of what things finally sell for and are limited to auctions currently offered. eBay “Completed Auction” records will give you two weeks’ worth of history and provide you with what items ACTUALLY sold for. Most people do not bid until the very last seconds and a current auction search is not a true indication of final prices.

To do “Completed Auction” research, click on the “Advanced Search” link that may be found on the top right hand corner of every page just beneath the standard search box. On the “Search” page that will be returned, type your keywords in the keyword field, and check the “Completed listings only” checkbox.  Then press the “Search” button. When your search results are returned, select the “sort by highest price first” option. We want to know what others did to get top dollar.

As an example, if I have a red pottery vase and I know nothing about the maker except that it has a USA on the base, I will type in “pottery vase USA” into the completed auction search. What comes up is always interesting. I find that it could have been made by Morton, McCoy, Shawnee, or Hull etc. I now have some maker’s names that I can search using more details. If I think it is Shawnee, I can now search with “red vase Shawnee” and see if anything similar comes up. It is a really fun way to do your detective work.

PRICEMINER:

Priceminer is an incredible new website by the owners of Go Antiques. For a small monthly fee, you can get months and months’ worth of sales data for antiques and collectibles. Using Priceminer is very similar to doing your completed auction research on eBay, but Priceminer does not limit its pricing data to the previous two weeks (as eBay does), and as a consequence it has a much larger database from which to draw its data. It’s especially useful for rare or unusual items which might come up for auction too infrequently to be included in eBay’s two-week completed auctions database. Priceminer pricing information is gathered from eBay, Go Antiques, Tias.com and other sites. Four times this past week things I couldn’t find on eBay for completed research came up on Priceminer. It was a life saver. Check it out at www.Priceminer.com.

GOOGLE:

If you still can’t find out anything about your item, the next place I check for any information is on Google. Google (at www.google.com) is basically a tool for finding resources on the web. It was started at Stanford University and it is currently the #1 Search Engine on the Internet. Once I get to Google, I type in keywords. If I have an artist’s name or maker’s name I use these to garner background information on the company or maker to use in my description. Sometimes the story behind an item is worth more than the item itself. Buyers love to know the history of an item.

It is so important to have background information on the company who made your item, the artist or where it came from. Your research phase is the time to get all this background information gathered together. Print it out if it is easier for you, but make sure you have it.

REPLACEMENTS:

I use the Replacements web site for all of my china, crystal and silver research. www.replacements.com has a wealth of information. I use it about twenty times a week. Replacements stocks over 200,000 china, flatware and crystal patterns and has photos of most of them. It is free! There is a handy thumbnail photo page that you can click on that will allow you to quickly scroll through hundreds of photos of your manufacturer’s patterns until you find yours. It is a huge timesaver.

As an example, I will walk you through a stainless flatware identification. I had a really neat Towle Stainless set that was very Southwest in design. I didn’t have the pattern name (VERY IMPORTANT) so I went to Replacements. To use this website to do my research, I click on the tab at the top of their home page that says “Silver”. On the Replacements site, “silver” means any type of stainless steel, sterling silver, silver plate or hollowware. Once the list of manufacturers of Silver appears, I click on the T at the top of the page so that all the manufacturer’s that start with T come up. Next, I click on Towle and it takes me to the page with all of their pattern names. Along the side of this page is a bar (running vertically) that you will need to click to get to the photo thumbnails. I didn’t know about this feature and used to spend hours clicking on each of the pattern names. My very smart father found this feature and I am grateful every day!

I scroll through the thumbnails until I get to the page with the M’s and there is my pattern. It is called Mesa! Very good news. If I click on the Mesa icon, I am taken to a page that shows all the different pieces available and the cost. I find I typically can get about 30% of their price on eBay. I had paid $5 for this flatware set at a garage sale and got 45 pieces. I added them up at the Replacements prices and I had $426 worth of flatware at their prices. I can hope to get about $125 for these pieces on eBay. That is a good return on my investment. However, I wouldn’t have a chance to get that much if I hadn’t found the pattern name.

? or HELP in the TITLE:

As a last resort, I will place a Help or ? in my listing title and ask fellow eBayers to help me out with identification. This works extremely well! If the item is worth a lot of money, I will consider paying for an appraisal or authentication. As an example, I had an Early American Pattern Glass butter dish but could not find the pattern anywhere. I emailed a photo to a good friend of mine, Elaine Henderson, who is an expert on EAPG. I met Elaine when I was writing my antiques and collectible book and her web site is wonderful, check it out at www.patternglass.com. She had emailed me back that it was a copy of a cut glass pattern and she didn’t know the name but that it was 1900s.

Based on her knowledge, I knew that my butter dish wasn’t one of the really rare ones, so I decided to put it on eBay with a question mark and ‘Help’ in the title. I used this as the title “EAPG Butter Dish Clear Gold Cut Glass Wonderful Help ?.” I think that sometimes using Help and ? in the title can get more people to actually look at your auction because they think that they may be getting a bargain. This auction after 5 days had 70 people looking at it. That is a lot of people! I started this auction at $9.99 because I had nothing to lose. I had only paid $2.00. If it was something that I had thought was worth a ton of money, I would have put a huge reserve on it, say $999 and waited to hear what it actually was. Once it was identified for me, I would have done some research, found the real value, and lowered the reserve to a reasonable price. (eBay refunds your extra funds for the super high price when you lower it, as long as there are no bids.) The reason I would put such a high price on a rare item is so that no one would bid on it. If someone bids on it, you can’t revise your title or price, you can only add to the listing. I would have wanted to change the title and price if it was a very special piece.

Within one day of listing this item, I received an email from Joni W. of Gig Harbor, WA.  She said “Your butter dish is Northwood #12 circa 1906 and should have an N in the bottom. Regards, Joni.” Wow! I emailed her back and said, “You are so right! I found the signature in the base. Thanks so much. Lynn.” I couldn’t believe I missed a signature! I, who grew up in the business and turn over every item when I visit friends or even in restaurants, missed the signature. I always check to see who made the dinnerware when we go out to eat. I drive my family crazy. It is an incurable habit and I still missed this signature. I just never expect EAPG to be signed. See, you learn something new everyday. Anyway, with Joni’s help, I was able to post all that on my listing and it sold for close to $30!

August 2, 2005:

Today is a tough day for me. My grandmother, Cheryl Leaf the antiques dealer, passed away five years ago today and I really miss her. To honor my grandmother, we closed the doors of the antique store for good on this same day in 2002. I can’t believe it has been three years without the antique store. eBay has really made it possible for me to make an incredible living without all that overhead, but I do miss the shop.

My grandmother grew up in Cashmere, Washington, and I was in Eastern Washington this weekend for a few days of fun with my high school girlfriends. We had a blast, and on the last morning, my friend Jo Dallas drove me into Cashmere. We found the house my grandmother had grown up in. The owner was home and she invited me inside for a tour. I saw the sleeping porch where my grandmother had the slumber parties she had told me about. I saw the fireplace where Santa Claus would leave their gifts and the kitchen where her family spent most of their time together. It was really amazing and so sad at the same time.

My grandmother was an amazing woman, and it’s because of her that I wrote The 100 Best Things I’ve Sold on eBay. It is a story of my most memorable eBay adventures, but it’s also the story of my grandmother and what she has meant in my life. The book has tons of great tips and tricks and lots of great business tips from Grandma Leaf. If you don’t have a copy yet, check it out here. If you are ready to buy, follow this link for a special price for subscribers to my ezine.

Happy Buying & Selling! Lynn

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

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com

Please contact me with any questions or suggestions for future issues. I would love to hear from you Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com