Insider’s Secrets to Selling on eBay

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
September 24, 2007

Auctiva has introduced a new website called BattleBids.com that features games designed to make bidding on eBay more fun and interactive. The games "animate" auction bids, and include a hot-dog eating contest, a golf game and a racing game. A future game called BattleBids will be a Sotheby's-style auction house with virtual bidders holding paddles. Shoppers can go to Auctiva's BattleBids website, and eBay sellers can place the games directly in their auction listings.

Visitors can click on "Replay of the day" on the BattleBids.com website to see the game applied to a live eBay auction. An animated game called Bid Racer depicts real eBay bidders as racecars speeding along a racetrack. A bidder can shout taunts such as "Eat my dust" when they outbid other bidders. The game page also displays the auction listing description, and clicking on the title brings up the listing on the eBay website.

Auctiva founder Jeff Schlicht said he expects the games to be viral. "At the end of each replay is an invitation to tell a friend which sends them the replay," he said. The first games are called Bid Racer, Nitro Boats, Golf, Shuffleboard, Hot Air Balloons, Galactic Bidder, and Hot Dog Eating Contest. The next group of applications will be focused more towards women shoppers, and Schlicht said he had ideas for other applications that would appeal to adults, such as puzzle games and word games.

"We're planning on building more features around the community of users," Schlicht said. "Each user has their own profile page which displays some of their recent Battlebids wins and losses along with some of their stats." There's no charge for buyers or sellers.

Auctiva provides eBay auction-management and marketplace tools, including the Sellathon analytics tool acquired earlier this year.

http://www.battlebids.com

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m09/i24/s02

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
September 21, 2007

Many eBay sellers have disputed the legitimacy of VeRO claims regarding copyright and trademark rights. But some have also begun complaining about the legitimacy of the members themselves. They say some VeRO members do not have the rights to the intellectual property they claim, and use eBay's program to remove sellers' listings.

A seller named Tom who said eBay pulled three of his listings because of reports by a fake VeRO member, said, "If this keeps up, they will put me and a lot of their sellers out of business. And unless abated, these skammers now know they can claim anything and get away with it."

eBay spokesperson Catherine England said eBay has a zero-tolerance policy for any eBay seller that engages in anti-competitive practices by filing fraudulent VeRO complaints against other eBay sellers. She said eBay immediately and indefinitely NARUs (suspends) any seller who does this. "It's considered a blatant breech of the eBay User Agreement and it just isn't the way we treat one another in the eBay community."

eBay has verification processes in place, England said, and does its best to ensure that VeRO participants are legitimate rights owners. She said there are several third-party companies and individual consultants that are often authorized by rights-owners to monitor eBay and file VeRO complaints on their behalf, so it isn't always easy to tell by contact information alone if the complaint or the individual submitting it is legitimate.

England said eBay's VeRO team "doesn't blindly remove all listings reported to us - they often call to confirm or take other steps to verify the complaint is legitimate before removing a particular listing. That said, our system isn't 100% fool proof and it's possible some folks may slip through from time to time."

If an eBay seller believes a fraudulent VeRO complaint has been filed against them, or the rights owner is in error, England said the seller can appeal the report and eBay will review it; if eBay finds in favor of the seller, eBay will reinstate the listing.

On the bottom of the information page about the VeRO program, there is a "Contact Us" link (http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/questions/vero-ended-item.html). England said sellers can use this link to submit appeals to VeRO report.

In a thread in the AuctionBytes forum devoted to VeRO issues, eBay sellers talk about the problem and the challenges of disputing VeRO claims and discuss strategies for dealing with fake VeRO members (http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=22324).

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m09/i21/s02

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:37 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

When does eBay selling become taxable?

"eBay is supremely popular
Selling any unwanted possessions on auction websites like eBay can be a good way to make a bit of money.
Yet if you become a little too successful or too regular a seller, HM Revenue & Customs may come knocking, looking for some tax.

Here, small business expert George Derbyshire explores when being an eBay enthusiast crosses over into a taxable business operation.

QUESTION
John Pemberton, UK

Suppose that one is a hobbyist collector of certain items, has an eye for a bargain, and starts to sell on these items via eBay.

At what stage would this be judged a business operation that must be registered and tax liabilities paid?

I suppose I am asking: when does a dabbler become someone the authorities would be interested in?

ANSWER
George Derbyshire, chief executive of the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies

Selling on eBay, just like at a car boot sale or via classified advertising columns, can be no different from any other business operation.

In simple terms, it is a business operation when it becomes a profit-making enterprise.

Ask George Derbyshire a question
It is a grey area, but there is a difference between selling occasional personal items on eBay and selling for profit.

I would imagine the sort of considerations HM Revenue & Customs would take into account are the size of your turnover, the extent to which you are both buying and selling, and whether you are clearly specialising in one particular commodity as opposed of disposing of unwanted presents or clearing the loft.

I would always encourage people to take a cautious approach and discuss their position with HMRC via its helpline on 08454 915 4515.

It's far better than having to deal with an investigation a few years down the line."

For the complete article please click HERE

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:40 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

September 12, 2007 | 12:16PM PST/PT

Hi everyone...Over the past few months, you've heard a lot about how we're working hard to improve the buyer experience. We've made some great strides, and more is on the way (read more by visiting www.ebay.com/sneakpeek). But, with all the work being done to make eBay a better place for our buyers, I wanted to let our sellers know that there is a lot of great new stuff for you as well.
With the busy holiday selling season quickly approaching, it's crucial that we help you get your items listed and sold, quickly and easily. Here are some improvements that are coming soon and later this fall.

Easier Selling option for New Sellers
The Sell Your Item (SYI) form is a robust tool with all the options and choices that a sophisticated, experienced seller may need. Newer sellers, however, can be a bit intimidated by all the options they may not yet understand. And sometimes even experienced sellers need just the basics and would like a shorter form. For these situations, we're delivering a slimmed-down listing option in the next few weeks.

On the Sell hub, sellers will be able to choose to use the regular SYI or the simpler listing process, which takes only the most popular options and fits them into a single page. More details on this simpler SYI option will be shared by my colleague Mike Maffeo soon!

SYI and Sell Hub get a cosmetic "makeover"
Speaking of SYI, we know that for many sellers, it's the backbone of your eBay selling experience. Thanks in no small part to the suggestions and feedback we've received from many of our SYI users in the Community, today the new SYI is running strong.

That said, as we work to make the rest of the site more inviting, it's clear our Sell hub and the SYI form are a little "bland." There's a lot of blue, and the wording we use is not as friendly as it could be. We want to spiff these areas up a bit for you, so we'll be giving both of these areas a "makeover" with new colors and text. Look for this in the coming weeks.

Other improvements to shipping, pictures, and more...
There's more in store this fall to improve the way you list and ship your items, so please stay tuned. We're making many improvements you've asked for that will make it easier to add pictures to your listings, select an appropriate shipping service, and more. My team and I will be back to give the full details when we're closer to launching.

Want to talk to the team? Attend one of our selling workshops
The selling team holds regular Online Workshops that you can attend – for free! Talk to my team, get your questions answered, and maybe take home – or offer – a tip or two. Our next workshop is on September 25th at 3:00 p.m. Pacific time, and will be focused on the new simplified listing process. We hope you'll join us.

Here’s to great sales this fall!

Sincerely,

Jim Ambach
Vice President, Seller Experience

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200709121216292.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Perfect Spartan Master Chief Suit for Sale on eBay
September 13th, 2007

I am personally a big fan of the Halo trilogy and have already put $30 down on pre-order for this game. I often stay awake at night too excited to fall asleep since its only a matter of days till this game is released. When I do eventually fall asleep its to dreams of me as the Master Chief slaying the onslaught of the Flood.

Depressing for someone my age ... I know, and so does my wife, but what kid growing up hasnt dreamt about being the hero and saving planet earth from aliens!

So, to acknowledge the kid within me I give you a full Master Chief Suit for sale on eBay! While its probably not the "foreplay" my wife had in mind she hasnt seen me in it yet!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170148309645

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:19 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hi everyone...I'm Raza Malik, and my team is responsible for My Messages, your inbox within My eBay where you receive secure, relevant messages from eBay and other members. Not only is My Messages the best way to communicate with your transaction partners on eBay, but it's also an important safety tool to help you verify that the email you receive from eBay is authentic.
We've been working on some changes to the user interface that we think will make it more intuitive and user-friendly - much like most standard email applications.

Here is some more detail about the changes you'll see in the next few days:

Easier identification for alerts, eBay messages, and member messages
To help you prioritize at a glance, we're making it easier to identify what types of messages are in your inbox. Alerts (important messages about your account from Billing, Trust & Safety, etc.) are now displayed at the top of your inbox in a separate section from other messages. If you don't have any alerts, this section will not be displayed.

In the Messages section, messages from eBay will be highlighted in green, while messages from other members, such as questions about an item, will be in black.

Bulk actions and other message management tools
Now you can manage multiple messages at once using Delete, Save to Desktop, Move to, and Mark As actions. You can also set how many messages you want to see on each page, and use a new filter to quickly find messages related to a particular item.

We're also working on "threading" member-to-member messages, so that you can easily read your entire conversation with another member. Look for this in the next few months.

Improved look-and-feel
We've updated the left-hand navigation to make the most commonly-used links stand out more, plus we've designed a cleaner-looking layout to My Messages overall. In addition you'll see new icons that "describe" many of the features and actions and more customization options.

We think these changes will make My Messages an even better tool for you – but your opinion is most important! After checking out the new-look My Messages, please send us an email at mymessages@ebay.com and tell us what you think.

Sincerely,

Raza Malik
Buyer Experience

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200709111528472.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:25 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

ChannelAdvisor has acquired Marketworks.

The combined companies have over 5,500 customers and $2.5 billion in annualized GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) on a global basis, as well as operating offices in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; Seattle, Washington; Bacharach and Berlin, Germany; London, England; Melbourne, Australia and now Atlanta, Georgia.

ChannelAdvisor will continue to support Marketworks’ customers and invest in its products. This includes the Marketworks platform and the Premium Web Store offering.

Over the years, our two companies have competed on many levels, and ChannelAdvisor has always respected the Marketworks team and products; we’re excited to welcome them into the ChannelAdvisor family.

To learn more about the announcement please visit www.marketworks.com or www.channeladvisor.com.

To learn more about selling on eBay please visit www.auctiontips.com.

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 09:06 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Inc. Magazine Reveals Its 26th Annual List of America’s
500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies

Doba ranks No. 23 on the 2007 Inc. 500 with three-year sales growth of 3,202%

OREM, UTAH, Sept 4, 2007 – Doba (www.doba.com), a leader in online product sourcing solutions for small to medium size online retailers, has been recognized as the 23rd fastest-growing private company in the United States. The 2007 Inc. 500, as revealed in the September issue of Inc. magazine (on newsstands August 28 – October 2), also ranks Doba 2nd in the category of fastest growing software companies, and 5th in growth among companies intending to go public.

The Inc. 500 is an annual list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies based on percent revenue growth. Since its founding in 2003, Doba has grown from a small product sourcing website to a multi-million dollar software company with sales growth of 3,202% over the past three years.

“We are honored to be named to the Inc. list of fastest growing companies,” said Jeremy Hanks, Doba's co-founder and CEO. “We’ve experienced significant growth over the past three years and are on track to continue that trend moving forward. I am pleased to attribute our success to satisfied customers, dedicated employees, and innovative technology that is changing the way web-based retailers find and sell products online."

About Doba:

Founded in the fall of 2002, Doba is a software company that provides a web-based Product Sourcing Platform that automates the ecommerce supply chain through virtual inventory and fulfillment systems. Doba's web-based platform connects retail merchants to the virtual inventory of over one million products from hundreds of wholesale suppliers. The platform also acts as a fulfillment system allowing retailers to ship merchandise directly from the supplier to the end consumer without ever touching the product themselves. This unique fulfillment platform minimizes time and overhead for retailers and allows suppliers to manage, reconcile, and fulfill orders through a single connection point. Doba's platform automates the ecommerce supply chain and finally makes product sourcing and fulfillment a simple process for SMB suppliers and retailers. Currently, over 25,000 merchant retailers and 200 wholesale suppliers use the simplified product sourcing solutions of Doba to transact millions of dollars of B2B ecommerce annually. For more information, visit www.doba.com.

For the complete article please click HERE

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
September 05, 2007

eBay has ramped up testing of its ad program with Yahoo on the US site, and sellers - and possibly some eBay executives - are concerned about the possibility of the ads cannibalizing eBay sales. The ads appear in a section called Yahoo Sponsored Links at the bottom of eBay search results pages and now compete directly with eBay's own listings.

eBay has told sellers that the Yahoo ads would appear where there were no matching eBay items, or for complementary items, both in the original announcement and during June's eBay Live Conference (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200605250457542.html and http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m06/i18/s04).

That is no longer the case. For instance, a recent search for "Nike Women Sneakers" showed eBay listings followed by Yahoo ads, including ads for sites selling sneakers such as FinishLine.com (Shop the Large Selection of Nike Women's Shox & More) and DrJays.com (DrJays.com has a wide selection of Nike women's shoes on sale in our online store). Similarly, a search for collectible Longaberger baskets displayed ads for competing sites on the same page as eBay's own listings.

A seller wrote to AuctionBytes on August 23rd, "Today while searching for a Toshiba stylus on eBay, I was dumbfounded to see 3 huge links in the middle of the page, offering the same item that several poor eBay sellers had paid to list. For less ! Live links ! to other sites ! including AMAZON !!"

The competing ads are actually appearing ahead of many of eBay's own listings. On September 3rd, a search for "Nike Women Shoes" showed 1006 matches on 21 pages. But the Yahoo ads appeared on all 21 pages of results. Shoppers viewing the first page of results saw ads for competing sites ahead of 956 of eBay's own listings.

In an interview with MediaPost's Behavioral Insider, eBay senior counsel of Global Privacy Practice Scott Shipman acknowledged concerns over the Yahoo and Google ads. He told the publication, "The key notion, as you can imagine, is that we don't want to cannibalize the activity on the site and direct people off of the Web site. So we are very sensitive to where they appear and the content they are advertising." (http://blogs.mediapost.com/behavioral_insider/?p=187)

However, as a thread on an industry discussion board revealed, sometimes the Yahoo Sponsored Links contain adult ads, such as the one containing the description, "Meet Sexy Local Housewives For Real Nasty Sex. Every Type and Fetish." (http://www.vendio.com/mesg/read.html?num=2&thread=665396).

eBay spokesperson Catherine England said eBay does have some control and filters in place for the ads, but said the process is highly automated and is not 100% fool proof. "The ad that you saw was not specific to eBay but slipped through Yahoo's system and was being served on their entire ad network. We've alerted Yahoo to the ad so they can remove it. Yahoo has been very responsive as we've reported various ads to them and we continue to improve the way we work together."

Yahoo also serves up the graphical ads on eBay. In May, the AuctionBytes blog reported Yahoo was serving up ads on eBay for Netflix on search results for DVDs. Netflix offers shoppers DVDs for rent and for sale (http://tinyurl.com/3bgc9f). The ads for Netflix continue to appear when searching for DVD tiles on eBay.

When asked if eBay had geared up the Yahoo ads, England said testing is ongoing and will continue over the coming months. She said visitors to the site may see different advertising formats, in different places, for different types of items, including sponsored links and graphical advertisements, and sometimes no advertising at all. "We're working hard to determine the best ways to integrate and optimize advertising on eBay, including showing ads to the right users, using the right ad network partners at the right time, and allowing ads from the right advertisers. In our testing, our focus is on understanding whether there is any impact on our transaction business from advertising. This is our primary concern as we are not looking to take business away from our sellers as we enhance our user experience."

When asked about eBay's statements about the conditions under which Yahoo ads would appear, England said, "In Bill's original post about the Yahoo agreement, we did say that we were starting our testing on null search results but also pointed out that we'd be testing other placements too, including complementary items. Due to the very nature of testing - we didn't explicitly state what we would and would not test moving forward. What we did clearly state is that we would not place these ads on view items pages."

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m09/i05/s01

Posted by eBay Guru at 10:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Be first to fly on new A380 plane -- bid on eBay
September 4, 2007
By ELLEN CREAGER

Be one of the first people in the world to ride the mammoth new commercial jetliner, the Airbus A380. Singapore Airlines, the first airline to launch service, is auctioning off seats for its Oct. 25 maiden flight on eBay this week.

Starting bids look to be going for about $1,000 per seat for economy class, but there's a wide variation in prices, up to about $10,000 for two business-class seats.

Advertisement

The Airbus A380's inaugural round-trip is from Singapore to Sydney Oct. 25-26.

Regularly scheduled service will begin after that.

The aircraft will have 471 seats in three classes. It will be the largest commercial jetliner in the world.

Passengers on the maiden flight will receive a certificate, breakfast, a commemorative goodie bag and more.

To find out more and link up with the auction, go to www.singaporeair.com/A380.

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:55 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)