Attention eBay Shoppers!

Looking for a bargain? This is a great week to shop on eBay.

You may know that last week eBay had a sale on auction-style listings that included starting prices up to 99 cents. Lots of sellers took advantage of that sale, so this week you'll find an unusually large number of eBay auction listings that start at or below 99 cents.

So if you've been waiting for a good price on just about anything, take a look on eBay this week, through Monday night, for those low opening bids. Chances are, many of the closing bids are going to be pretty low, too.

Click here to start shopping!

3 Ways to Snag Those Last-Minute Christmas Shoppers

Did you know eBay is having a fixed-price listing fee sale today? Just twenty cents will get you a fixed price listing on eBay today only, Thursday, December 13th. This is the perfect opportunity to promote those higher-priced items and save the higher listing fees at the same time. And, here are three quick ways to turn those reduced-price listings into holiday sales.

• Offer “Get It Fast” in your listings. Include both Priority and Express mail shipping rates as options. Mention prominently, at the top of your item description, that you ship fast and offer Express shipping for those who need the item next day. Be prepared to uphold your end of the deal, even if it means an extra trip to the post office in order to get the product to the customer on time. Last-minute shoppers are often very willing to pay a premium on shipping to be sure they get your item, the perfect gift they’ve been looking for, on time.



• Use one, three, or five-day listings for your hot items, those things you know people are shopping for. Items listed today will close Friday, Sunday, or Tuesday with those shorter listing intervals. I had a number of sales last Friday afternoon, not typically a great time for my products, but people seemed to be trying to find their gifts online before having to fight Saturday shopping crowds last week – and I predict the same thing for tomorrow.



• To draw attention to your items, consider springing for the extra 50 cents for a subtitle. You’ll barely notice the extra today, anyway, since you’re already getting a deal from eBay on the listing fee. Remember that subtitles are not searchable unless the shopper is searching on title and description, so keep the important keywords in the title but use some great extra sales copy in that subtitle to excite your customers and make them want to shop with you.

So, take advantage of eBay’s special sale, apply these tips to your listings, and have a very productive last week of pre-Christmas sales. And, if you’d like more great ideas for selling on eBay during the holiday season or any time of the year, check out these great business building tips.

List for FREE on eBay!

If you've never sold anything on eBay before, I'd like to invite you to start now and get your first three listings free!

All you have to do is contact me with your e-mail address by leaving a comment below and I will have eBay send you an invitation to list your first three items, including a gallery photo, for free on eBay.com.

This is an eBay promotion and the details and requirements will be contained in the link inside the e-mail. I just need your e-mail address in order to have eBay send the invitation. Your e-mail address will be safe with me. I promise to never use your address for anything else, ever again, and won't sell or rent it to anyone.

You know you'd love to make some extra money and eBay is a great way to do that, so if you've been putting it off, now's the time to make the decision to get started selling on eBay - and save from 55 cents up to $5.15 in fees for each of your first three listings!

Again, just contact me through the comment form below this post, include your e-mail address and let me know you'd like to receive the invitation. HURRY! The promotion ends September 15, 2007!

How to Receive eBay Free Listing Days Notifications

There was another free listing day on eBay this week, free listings when you chose a gallery photo upgrade. Did you take advantage of this money-saving special? Did you know about it?

If you didn’t know about the special, you might not be receiving e-mail notifications of special events from eBay. Go right now to your “My eBay” page (find the link at the top right corner of any page on eBay), look down the left column of that page for “My Account.” Below that, click on “Preferences.” You might be surprised to see how many choices you have there.

The top section is called “Notification Preferences.” Look for “Newsletters, Promotions and Event Notifications” and click on “Show” at the right. There will be several items shown. Each one should say “Email” next to it. If they do not, click on “Edit” at the right and check off the boxes of the notifications you would like to receive. I would recommend checking all of the boxes just to make sure you don’t miss out on receiving an important announcement you might otherwise miss. Be sure to click the “save” button at the bottom of the page if you change anything.

If all of the choices are selected and you’re sure that you’re not receiving notices from eBay, certainly go back to the “Personal Information” section and make sure that your e-mail address is correct. If it is, perhaps some of eBay’s e-mail is being filtered into a junk mailbox on your e-mail account, so take some time to look into that possibility and then take measures to correct the problem. You need to be able to receive information from eBay.

Don’t miss out on another money-saving eBay special. Go check your settings now!

(Speaking of not missing out on a special, have you signed up for your favorite sellers’ store newsletters? I receive several and often find some good deals, not to mention some very creative ways that other sellers promote their listings. You can start by signing up for mine!)

Today's Quick eBay Tips

My oldest favorite fr ee eBay newsletter is written by Jim Cockrum of Silent Sales Machine fame. Jim is very generous with fr ee information but, besides that, he’s a heck of a good guy, which is easy to tell when you’ve been following him for as long as I have. If you want to receive his tips or if you want to get to know Jim, sign up for his newsletter here. I also highly recommend his books, which you can find at the same link.

Jim’s latest newsletter includes a link to a page on AuctionBytes.com (if you don’t get their newsletters, be sure to sign up for them) with a comparison chart called “Auction Management Services at a Glance.” A lot of people use auction management services to help with their eBay businesses. I use and recommend two, Auctiva and Turbolister. If I needed another, I’d probably try Inkfrog first since I know successful sellers who use and love it. All three are listed on the comparison chart, which you can find here. It includes a long list of services, many of which I’ve never even heard of. A good resource.

EBay is having another special today and tomorrow (July 18-19, 2007). The Value Pack, which includes a gallery picture, subtitle, and listing designer, is available for just 25 cents. I hope you use a gallery picture in your listings; you should in most cases. That upgrade itself usually costs 35 cents, so you can save 10 cents per auction or fixed price listing today and tomorrow, and those dimes do add up. Be aware, though, that you MUST choose Value Pack to get the discount on the picture, even if you aren’t interested in the other two upgrades. If you choose the gallery picture alone, you’ll still be charged 35 cents. If you don’t want to use the subtitle or designer, that’s fine as you don’t have to, but be sure and choose the value pack option. If you do use the subtitle (and why not – at that point it’s fr ee), remember that those words do not show up in a search unless the search is for title and description. Another thing to keep in mind is that if the item doesn’t sell and you re-list it in the future, you’ll be charged the original 65 cents for the value pack, so you might want to change your options when you re-list.

Those are your tips for today. Have a great one!

Ebay Ads - Putting Two and Two Together

I get ebay ads in my email, how about you? I got one this morning, in fact. The subject line starts out, "Free Shipping on PlayStation 3, TMX Elmo . . ." and continues by listing and showing some other items and categories that offer free shipping.

Remember the listing special that ebay offered on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week? Yep, free upgrades when you offer free shipping. Did you take advantage of that offer and list some items with free subtitles, free border, and free shipping? If you did, good for you. If you did and your items are in any of the categories shown on ebay's ad this morning, double good for you!

I wonder how many ebay shoppers received this ad in their email boxes this morning? I wonder how many are going to click on the "shoes" category link and find the boots that I listed this week with free shipping? I wonder how many will click on the action figures, video games, cocktail dresses, or cell phones graphics and find your items? I wonder if next time ebay offers a listing special I'll put two and two together and list, list, list!

Have a happy selling weekend!

Ebay Special Offers

Ebay is having another terrific listing special today. Did you know about it?

The special is for three days only. If sellers offer “Free Shipping” on their listings, they get border and subtitle at no charge. That's a savings of $3.50 in listing upgrades! (To read the details of this promotion, click here.)

To receive notification of all of ebay's special promotions and other important ebay announcements, you can do so by:
1. Going to www.ebay.com
2. Clicking on "Community" in the top header.
3. Clicking on "Groups" underneath the "Connect" heading.
4. Going to the "News and Events" heading and clicking on the "Announcements" link.
5. Clicking "eBay Announcements" on the next page. From this page, just click "Join Group" on the right-hand side, and you're all set!

Go on. Go sign up to receive ebay's special announcements now. Don't ever miss another money-saving ebay promotion!