• Welcome from Brian McGregor
• 1. Thought for the Day
• 2. Christmas Auction Boosters
• 3. How Fast Are You?
• 4. News & Views:
  Overlooked Treasure (free download)
  Videos on Your Auctions (free download)
  Do You Want to Know an eBay Secret?
  Argos it! By Wholesale...
  Bathroom Break - Not Guilty!
• Back to Newsletter Archive

Here are a few tips which you can apply very simply to your current and new auctions in time to get your share of the Christmas rush.

* Research has shown that if you run a multiple item Buy it Now auction, you should do it with 5 to 7 items. It appears this is the optimum range for success.

* Are you impressed when you see busy sellers who have a feedback rating of 100%? I know I am. Try and make sure you have 100% rating too. Look in eBay's Help and make sure you understand about Mutual Withdrawal of negative feedback.

* Think of an auction title that will grab the buyer’s attention immediately. Something along the lines of, HOT NEW WII GAME YOU CAN’T FIND ANYWHERE ELSE!

* Include a screen shot of your latest positive feedbacks and start cementing trust with the buyer.

* When you create or acquire an image to be your gallery picture, add a brightly coloured border to it before you upload it to eBay. That way your listing will stand out from the others when people scroll down the search return pages. By the way, I hope you've been taking advantage of the Gallery fee offer which has been in operation on ebay.com from November 6 and ends on 12 December. The details are here:

http://pages.ebay.com/promo/freegallery/?ssPageName=CMDV:AB

*Lastly, if your item does not sell, make sure you use the re-list option from the Unsold Items list in your “My eBay” page. This will make sure you get a credit on your listing fees if your auction sells the next time.

Have you heard of eBay's new feature called "Get it Fast"?

It enables you as a seller to indicate that you will ship your item superfast to your auction winner.

More importantly, it enables buyers to search specifically for items which have the Get if Fast feature.

This of course is particularly relevant at holiday periods, like Christmas for instance!

To indicate that your item for sale is available on the Get it Fast basis, you follow eBay's Get it Fast conditions when you complete the Sell Your Item form.

Given that buyers can search for Get it Fast items only, wouldn't you want to be in those search returns?

For sellers, you can find out how to make yours a Get it Fast item here:

ebay.com
http://pages.ebay.com/getitfast/?ssPageName=CMDV:AB#sellers

ebay.co.uk
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/get-it-fast.html

To help you understand the impact of this feature, here is how eBay describe the Get it Fast facility to buyers:

ebay.com
http://pages.ebay.com/getitfast/?ssPageName=CMDV:AB#buyers

ebay.co.uk
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/gif.html

Overlooked Treasure

This is a really interesting ebook from Scott Foster. Scott is a 6 year eBay veteran and Overlooked Treasure promises, "91 common everyday items that bring huge profits on eBay".

Well, I don't think you'll quite be able to retire on this information. But it's well worth checking out if you've got any of these items in your garage or your attic. You'll be surprised at the prices some of these overlooked treasures are fetching on eBay.

You can download "Overlooked Treasure" from here:

http://www.workwinners.com/overlookedtreasure/

Videos on Your Auctions

Auctions which incorporate video, displaying the item for sale in movie style, are growing exponentially on eBay.

The problem to getting in on this trend is that the leading video software, Techsmith's Camtasia, has been out of reach of many eBay members' pockets.

Now you can get Camtasia Studio 3 free and save yourself $299. Techsmith haven't said how long this promotion will last so if you'd like Camtasia free, it might be wise to download it now.

Here's the steps to take:

1. Download the free version of Camtasia Studio 3 by clicking this link, and save the .exe file to a new folder on your PC.

http://download.techsmith.com/camtasiastudio/enu/312/camtasiaf.exe

2. Go to this promotion page, complete your name, country, e-mail and Techsmith will send you the software key to unlock the Camtasia Studio 3.

http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/pcpls.asp

3. Install the program you downloaded from step 1, and enter the software key you received from Techsmith.

Now you'll have a fully working version of Camtasia Studio 3 on your PC.

If you want to get to grips with Camtasia quickly, you'll find an excellent Camtasia tutorial here:

http://tinyurl.com/2mmuer

Do You Want to Know an eBay Secret?

There's an interesting, invitees only, experiment currently underway by eBay.

In this experiment, sellers can list items at zero listing fee cost. The kicker is that they pay a higher Final Value Fee when the item sells.

In this model, as listing is free, sellers are obviously encouraged to run more auctions.

Currently the experiment is running for selected sellers, and only on ebay.com motors.

But it may be a sign of things to come. I say keep an eye for eBay announcements on listing fees.

I wonder if eBay are concerned about the competition from Amazon auctions? Hmmm. Isn't it free to list on Amazon?


Argos it! By Wholesale...

Readers in the UK will no doubt be doing some of their Christmas shopping at Argos.

But did you know that Argos run their own auction site. This is for wholesale volumes of selected products.

Even if you don't want to take the plunge in your eBay business, and buy in volume, it's very interesting to see the bargains that can be had.

It costs nothing to look!

http://www.argosclearance.co.uk/

Bathroom Break - Not Guilty!

Does your favourite holiday involve lounging around the hotel's swimming pool?

If so, you might want to check this out...

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/786303/bathroom_break/