Whatever your personal feelings about eBay’s new feedback policy, it’s unlikely that it will be changed anytime in the near future. This leaves us, as sellers, with two options - one negative and one positive.

We can join the many sellers who will spend the next month or more on blogs, forums, and other groups whining, complaining, tearing down eBay, and accomplishing very little. Or, we can take a positive approach and proactively go about reducing the impact the new policy will have on our business to as little as possible.

Here are twelve proactive tips to help you reduce the impact on your business as much as possible.

1. Improve Your Item Descriptions - Describe all items accurately and completely. Include enough pictures to so a buyer knows exactly what they are bidding on. If an item has any flaws make sure you include accurate descriptions of what they are and where they are located. Provide detailed photos of all falls.
Continue Reading

Popularity: 29% [?]

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Earlier today eBay announced their new fee structure along with other policy changes that will affect all sellers.

In most cases, by the time you read this, you will probably already be aware of the details of the changes eBay will be implementing over the next few months, so I’m not going to go into detail regarding them. If you aren’t already aware of what will be involved you can get the details by reading recent posts at The Auctionbytes Blog, eBay Strategies, or My Blog Utopia.

For what it’s worth, here are my initial thoughts about the upcoming changes.

Fee Restructuring

For the majority of sellers overall fees are going up. There’s nothing new with that and it should have been expected. It happens every year. If you are selling on eBay in a serious fashion you should be treating it as a business. Any business, no matter what it is, faces increased costs of doing business. They should be expected.

The sellers most likely to feel the effect of these increases are those who primarily sell low-priced items, the mega-sellers listing thousands of items each week, and and those with very low sell-through rates.

Most people selling the kind of items talked about on The Auction Rebel should be realizing net profits that are sufficient to absorb these increases without it having a major impact on your business. If I’m making a $50, $100, $300, or more profit on an item, I’m not going to get in an uproar about an increase of a few dollars to sell that item.

I will however be reassessing some of the lower priced items that I have listed in my eBay stores to determine if it makes sense to let the remain as they are, to increase the price, or to remove them.
Continue Reading

Popularity: 44% [?]

Most people wouldn’t think of The Food Network as an eBay research site, but it can be. As might be expected, when one of The Food Network’s hosts/hostesses becomes popular with watchers, any cookbooks they have published become popular also. If they have written cookbooks prior to becoming popular, it’s likely there was a small publishing run and the prices those cookbooks bring can skyrocket.

That’s the case with one of The Food Network’s hottest shows - Paula’s Home Cooking featuring Paula Deen. But, even hotter than Paula’s TV show right now, is the first cook book she published before The Food Network made her famous.

Her spiral-bound cookbook, Favorite Recipes Of The Lady And Her Friends, was published in 1997 with a print run of only 5000 copies. With a print run that small, you aren’t going to run across a copy on a regular basis, but it’s a book you should be aware of in case one ever presents itself to you.

There are currently three copies offered on Amazon for $999, $1500, and $1750. Granted, this may seem a little extreme. But, within the last couple of months copies have sold on eBay for $500 and $445. Another copy was bid up to $600 on eBay but didn’t meet the seller’s reserve.

Continue Reading

Popularity: 31% [?]

Tomorrow it will have been two weeks since some of the functions of eBay’s Marketplace research have worked.

This is the second time in recent months some of the features of eBay’s Marketplace Research Pro aren’t working properly. The first time this happened the problems lasted about a week and, while some parts of the program didn’t work at all, it still functioned well enough to get most of the information I needed.

This time, the problem is with being able to sort the returned results making Marketplace Research virtually useless.

Both times eBay has handled the problem in a similar professional manner. Inquiries to customer service regarding the problem get a canned response which pretty much says:

Deal with it! We are aware of the problem. We’ll get around to fixing it when we feel like it. You’d like a partial refund you say? LOL - Not likely!.

A lot has been written over the last few months by knowledgeable people such as Randy Smythe and Scot Wingo regarding the problems that eBay is facing. There is no question that eBay has bigger problems than whether the sort function of Marketplace Research is working or not. However, this ‘little’ problem does raise a question.

If eBay is either unable to fix this minor problem, or doesn’t care about fixing it, what in the world would lead anyone to believe they are going to be able to provide workable solutions to any of the much larger problems they face?

Over the last year there is an arrogance and disregard for both buyers and sellers that has permeated eBay management and customer service. While eBay will likely come up with solutions to the problems they face, it will be their arrogance that will eventually be their downfall.

And Meg, John, Jeff, or whoever is in charge next week. You can just keep my $24.99 monthly fee for the privilege of using Marketplace Research Pro. I’m pretty sure eBay needs it a lot more than I do.

Photograph by Doug Murray.

Popularity: 26% [?]

If you have commented on a post recently, after you hit the submit button you saw the following error messages:

“WordPress database error: [Table ‘theauctionrebel_com.wp_post2cat’ doesn’t exist]
SELECT cat_ID AS ID, MAX(post_modified) AS last_mod FROM `wp_posts` p LEFT JOIN `wp_post2cat` pc ON p.ID = pc.post_id LEFT JOIN `wp_categories` c ON pc.category_id = c.cat_ID WHERE post_status = ‘publish’ GROUP BY cat_ID”

“Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home2/rebel/theauctionrebel-www/wp-includes/wp-db.php:160) in /home2/rebel/theauctionrebel-www/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 391”

I’m working on finding the cause and implementing a fix, but being a devout non-techie, it’s taking longer than it should.

Until I get this fixed, any comments readers leave will still appear on the blog as they normally would, but you will be taken to this error message after hitting the submit button.

I apologize for the problem and it will be fixed as quickly as possible.

Photograph by SqueakyMarmot.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Earlier today I was looking through Amazon’s Buyer Waiting list and I came across a book titled “The Vibroplex Collector’s Guide”. I had no idea what a Vibroplex was, but I figured if someone had gone to the trouble of writing a collector’s guide there were people who collected them, so I wanted to know what they were.

It turns out that a Vibroplex is a semi-automatic telegraph key (or bug) that has been manufactured in various models since 1904 or 1905. Originally the market for these was made up almost entirely of landline telegraph operators. That began to change in the 1950s as amateur radio operators (hams) became Vibroplex’s biggest market.

Today, there is a growing market for used Vibroplex bugs. That market, fueled by both ham radio operators looking for used models and by collectors, is alive and well on eBay. Most Vibroflex bugs offered on eBay seem to sell between $45 and $400 depending on the model and condition.

While these aren’t something you are likely to run across at antique shops or garage sales, they are worth knowing about because they will likely show up on occasion at estate and auction sales and it’s unlikely anyone else there will know what they are worth.

If you’d like to learn more about them, The Vibroplex Collector’s Page is a good place to start.

Popularity: 32% [?]

There are several eBay research tools available that provide detailed auction information aimed that helping sellers increase the profitability of their auctions. Some of the more popular are eBay Market Research, Terapeak, HammerTap, and MPire to name a few.

Basically, each of these eBay research tools are the same. They collect information from closed sales on eBay and break it down into segments of information that usually include things such as:

• Total dollars in sales
• Highest selling price
• Lowest selling price
• Average sales price
• Starting prices
• Total number of items listed
• Number of items that sold
• Sell-through rates
• Best day to end auctions in a category
• Best time to end auctions in a category
• Most productive keywords
• Whether using additional features such as Bold or Gallery Photos increase sales
• Sales trends within a category
• And more

Continue Reading

Popularity: 32% [?]

In many areas of business, the most successful people and companies are those who have taken a proven idea, or business model, from an unrelated business and applied it, with a twist, no their own business.

Here are six blogs that have nothing to do with eBay, but do contain ideas and tips that, when applied with a little outside-the-box thinking, can help build your eBay business, improve it’s profitability, and make it stand out from the crowd on eBay.

1. Zen Habits - Written by Leo Babauta, Zen Habits can probably best be described as a personal growth blog. While none of Leo’s posts are directly related to eBay, many posts in the productivity, finance, and organization categories provide ideas and techniques you can apply, either directly or indirectly, to your eBay business.

A good example is a recent post titled 7 Essential Tips To 2008 Your Best Year Ever. Although none of the seven tips say anything about eBay, each one of them can be applied in a manner that will help improve your eBay business. After that take a look at Big Rocks First: Double Your Productivity This Week.

2. Steve Pavlina . Com - Another personal development blog, Steve Pavlina . Com, written by Steve Pavlina, doesn’t contain any eBay specific information either. However, similar to Zen Habits, scattered throughout it’s pages are a wealth of posts that will help you improve your eBay business by changing the way you think and feel about it.

A couple of good posts to start with are 30 Days To Success and How Intentions Manifest.

3. Copyblogger - The main focus of Copyblogger is copy-writing which you may think has nothing to do with eBay. You would be wrong. Writing effective descriptions involves good copy writing techniques. There are plenty of posts here that will help you write more persuasive auction descriptions.

The ten-step copy writing tutorial in Copywriting 101 is a good place to start and will keep you busy for some time.

4. Skelliewag - Skelliewag is just one of hundreds of blogs about blogging that can be found on the Internet. What sets it apart from nearly all the others is that Skellie delves much deeper into one specific aspect of blogging - setting yourself apart from your competition - than the others do. Granted, selling on eBay and blogging may be worlds apart, but some of Skellie’s posts are filled with ideas you can adapt to an eBay business if you are able to think outside the box.

A ‘Simple Web’ Philosophy For Getting What You Want along with it’s four follow-up posts and How To Pick Your Niche Wisely are two good places to start.

5. Anywired - When was the last time you purchased something totally new based entirely on the reputation of a different product from the same manufacturer? Started just yesterday by Skellie (see above), Anywired is that kind of blog. It is written for “anyone who works on-line or wants to start, including freelancers, bloggers, entrepreneurs and telecommuters. Learn how to work the hours you want from anywhere in the world.“, and I guarantee if you follow along, you are going to get a healthy dose of ideas and information that you can apply to any eBay business to make it more successful and stand out from the crowd.

There’s not much content yet (it’s only two days old), so why not simply read everything.

6. Digital Photography School - Digital Photography School is one of the better photography blogs on the Net and is filled with information you can use to improve the quality of your auction photographs.

You can find plenty of information to get you started in the series of posts titled Digital Photography Tips For Beginners.

Photo by Carl Mueller.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Over the years many well-known, and collectible, authors made their first print appearances in magazines. Agatha Christie, Edgar Allen Poe, Jack London, and Edgar Rice Burroughs are just a few examples.

In some cases a magazine was the only place a story ever appeared. In others, a story appeared in a magazine months, or even years, before it was published as a book. Because of their length, many of the stories were serialized over several issues of a magazine. Whether the stories eventually appeared in book format or not, the magazine issues that contained these stories have become highly collectible.

This featured post looks at Edgar Rice Burroughs whose work appeared in numerous magazines over a period of several years making the magazine’s issues with his stories in them highly sought after by collectors today.

Edgar Rice Burroughs is best known as the creator of Tarzan but many of his magazine stories centered around other characters/subjects and the inclusion of anything he wrote dramatically increases the value of that issue of a magazine over regular issues.

Before we look at specific magazines, there are a few generalizations we should mention.

First, most of the magazines on this list were published in the early nineteen hundreds and are not going to be found at garage sales similar to those we’ve talked about to this point. The places to look for these are antique shops, antique malls, flea markets, estate sales, and auction sales.

Second, much of Burroughs’ work appeared in magazines that, by themselves, are often not well known and have little collector following. This means that unless a dealer is aware a particular issue contains a Burroughs story, when found, they can often be purchased for $20 or less – often for much less.

Third, when a story was serialized the issue of the magazine containing the first installment often had cover art relating to the story. This means that issues containing the first installment of a Tarzan story often had Tarzan on the front cover. Since the covers are a dead give-away to what’s inside, you will often find these issues priced much higher than the issues containing the other installments of the story.

Any issue with cover art pertaining to any of Burroughs’ stories increases the value of the magazine, but be careful you don’t overpay when buying issues with cover art.

While I can’t promise the following list of magazines is complete, it does include the majority of magazines the Burroughs’ stories appeared in.

All Around Magazine

“Beyond Thirty” – serialized in issues between 12/1915 – 3/1917

Normal issues can be found for $10 to $20. Issues with Burroughs stories should bring $100 or more on eBay.

The All Story Magazine

“Under The Moons Of Mars” – serialized in issues between 2/1912 – 7/1912
“”Tarzan Of The Apes” – 10/1912
“The Gods Of Mars” – serialized in issues between 1/1913 – 5/1913
“The Cave Girl” – serialized in issues between 7/1913 – 9/1913
“A Man Without A Soul” – 11/1913
“The Warlords Of Mars” – serialized in issues 12/1913 – 3/1914

The All Story Weekly (same magazine but the name changes)

“The Eternal Lover” – 3/7/1914
“The Mad King” – 3/21/1914
“At The Earth’s Core” – serialized in issues 4/4/1914 – 4/25/1914

All-Story Cavalier Weekly (same magazine but name changes again)

“The Mucker” – serialized in issues 10/24/1914 – 11/14/1914
“The Beasts Of Tarzan” – serialized in issues 5/16/1914 – 6/13/1914
“Sweetheart Primeval” – serialized in issues 1/23/1915 – 2/13/1915

The All Story Weekly (once again, same magazine but another name change)

“Pellucidar” – 5/29/1915
“Barney Custer Of Beatrice” – serialized in issues 8/7/1915 – 8/21/1915
“The Son Of Tarzan” – serialized in issues 12/4/1915 – 1/8/1916
“Thuvia Maid Of Mars” – serialized in issues 4/8/1916 – 4/22/1916
“The Return Of The Mucker” – serialized in issues 6/17/1916 – 7/15/1916
“The Girl From Farris’s” – serialized in issues 9/23/1916 – 10/14/1916
“Tarzan And The Jewels Of Opar” – serialized in issues 11/18/1916 – 12/16/1916
“The Caveman” – serialized in issues 3/31/1917 – 4/21/1917
“The Lad And The Lion” – serialized in issues 6/30/1917 – 7/14/1917
“H.R.H. The Rider” – serialized in issues 12/14/1918 – 12/28/1918
“Tarzan The Untamed” – serialized in issues 3/20/1920 – 4/17/1920 (Only the last part of this story appeared in All Story Weekly. The first six installments were published in the 3/1919 to 8/1919 issues of Red Book magazine.)

Nearly any issue of the above magazine in reasonable condition should bring between $75 and $150 on eBay. Issues containing “Under The Moons Of Mars” may approach four figures. The 10/1912 issue containing “Tarzan Of The Apes” has the potential of getting into the low five figure range.

Amazing Stories Magazine

“John Carter And The Giant Of Mars” – 1/1941
“The City Of Mummies” – 3/1941
“Black Pirates Of Barsoom” – 6/1941
“Yellow Men Of Mars” – 8/1941
“Invisible Men Of Mars” – 10/1941
“The Return To Pellucidar” – 2/1942
“Men Of The Bronze Age” – 3/1942
“Tiger Girl” – 4/1942
“Skeleton Men Of Jupiter” – 2/1943
“Savage Pellucidar” – 11/1943

Most Amazing Stories magazines from this time period can be purchased for $5 to $10. Issues with Burroughs stores will bring prices between $20 and $50 on eBay.

NOTE: In the 1960’s Amazing Stories published three Tarzan stories. These later issues don’t have a huge premium over regular prices but are provided here in an attempt to be complete.

“John Carter And The Giants Of Mars” – 4/1961
“Savage Pellucidar” – 11/1963
“Skeleton Men Of Jupiter” – 1/1964

Amazing Stories Annual

“Mastermind Of Mars” – 1927

This was the only issue of this magazine ever published and it regularly sells for prices in the $200+ range. This price is driven by the Burroughs story it contains so there’s not as much of a chance of picking it up at a bargain price.

Argosy All Story Weekly Magazine

“Tarzan The Terrible” – serialized in issues between 2/12/1921 – 3/26/1921
“The Efficiency Expert” – serialized in issues between 10/08/1921 – 10/29/1921
“The Chessmen Of Mars” – serialized in issues between 2/18/1922 – 4/1/1922
“Tarzan And The Golden Lion” – serialized in issues between 12/09/1922 – 4/1/1923
“The Moon Maid” – serialized in issues between 5/05/1923 – 6/02/1923
“Tarzan And The Ant Men” – serialized in issues between 2/02/1924 – 3/15/1924
“The Bandit Of Hell’s Bend” – serialized in issues between 9/13/1924 – 10/18/1924
‘The Moon Men” – serialized in issues between 2/21/1925 – 2/28/1925
“The Red Hawk” – serialized in issues between 9/05/1925 – 9/19/1925
“The War Chief” – serialized in issues between 4/16/1927 – 5/14/1927
“Apache Devil” – serialized in issues between 5/19/1928 – 6/23/1928
“Tarzan And The City Of Gold” – serialized in issues between 3/12/1932 – 4/16/1932
“The Pirates Of Venus” – serialized in issues between 9/17/1932 – 10/22/1932
“Lost On Venus” – serialized in issues between 3/04/1933 – 4/18/1933
“Tarzan And The Magic Men” – serialized in issues between 9/19/1936 – 10/03/1936
“Seven Worlds To Conquer” – serialized in issues between 1/09/1937 – 2/13/1937
“The Resurrection Of Jimber-Jaw” – 2/20/1937
“Carson Of Venus” – serialized in issues between 1/08/1938 – 2/12/1938
“The Red Star Of Tarzan” – serialized in issues between 3/19/1938 – 4/23/1938
“The Synthetic Men Of Mars” – serialized in issues between 1/07/1939 – 2/11/1939
“The Quest Of Tarzan” – serialized in issues between 8/23/1941 – 9/06/1941

When found, regular issues can often be purchased for $5 to $20 each. Issues containing stories by Burroughs prior to 1935 should bring $100 or more on eBay. Issues later than 1936 will bring at least $40 to $50 and often more.

Best Stories Magazine

“Tarzan Of The Apes” – Serialized in issues between 8/1926 – 4/1927

Regular issues can be found for $10 - $15. The eight issues with this story in them should bring $50 or more on eBay.

Blue Book Magazine

“The New Stories Of Tarzan” – serialized in issues between 9/1916 – 8/1917
“The Oakdale Affair” – 3/1918
“The Land That Time Forgot” – 8/1918
“The People That Time Forgot” – 10/1918
“Out Of Time’s Abyss” – 12/1918
“Tarzan, Lord Of The Jungle” – serialized in issues between 12/1927 – 5/1928
“Tarzan And The Last Empire” – serialized in issues between 10/1928 – 2/1929
“Tanar Of Pellucidar” – serialized in issues between 3/1929 – 8/1929
“Tarzan At The Earth’s Core” – serialized in issues between 9/1929 – 3/1930
“A Fighting Man Of Mars” – serialized in issues between 4/1930 – 9/1930
“Tarzan, Guard Of The Jungle” – serialized in issues between 10/1930 – 4/1931
“The Land Of Hidden Men” – serialized in issues between 5/1931 – 9/1931
“The Triumph Of Tarzan” – serialized in issues between 10/1931 – 3/1932
“Tarzan And The Leopard Men” – serialized in issues between 8/1932 – 1/1933
“Swords Of Mars” – serialized in issues between 11/1934 – 4/1935
“Tarzan And The Immortal Men” – serialized in issues between 10/1935 – 3/1936
“Tarzan And The Elephant Men” – serialized in issues between 11/1937 – 1/1938
“Tarzan And The Champion” – 4/1940
“Beyond The Farthest Star” – 1/1942

These are some of the least expensive magazines containing Burroughs’ material. While the issues prior to 1920 will normally bring $75 or more, those after that year often sell for only $20 to $50 on eBay.

Fantastic Adventures Magazine

“The Scientists Revolt” – 7/1939
“Slaves Of The Fish Men” – 3/1941
“Goddess Of Fire” – 7/1941
“The Living Dead” – 11/1941
“War On Venus” – 3/1942

This is another magazine where the price difference between normal issues and issues containing Burroughs stories isn’t that great. Normal issues sell $15 to $25 and issues with stories by Burroughs bring around $50 or a little more.

Idle Hour Magazine

“The Eternal Lover” – serialized in issues between 11/1915 – 12/1915

Can be found for $10 to $20 or less. These two issues should bring $75+ apiece on eBay.

Liberty Magazine

“Tarzan And The Lion Men” – serialized in issues between 11/1933 –1/1934

Regular issues are available for $5 to $15 each. The Burroughs issues will bring $50 to $125 on eBay.

NOTE: The 9/30/1939 issue of Liberty Magazine contained an early article about Alcoholics Anonymous and regularly sells for $150 to as much as $300, so if you ever come across it be sure and pick it up.

Modern Mechanics And Invention

“Conquest Of The Moon” – serialized in issues between 11/1928 – 2/1929
“Lost Inside The Earth” – serialized in issues between 2/1929 – 4/1929
“Carter Of The Red Planet” – serialized in issues between 4/1929 – 7/1929

Regular issues of this magazine can often be purchased for $10 - $20. Issues with Burroughs stories in them should bring $50 - $75 on eBay.

Munsey’s Magazine

“The Girl From Hollywood” – serialized in issues between 6/1922 – 11/1922

Issues normally sell for $10 to $20. The ones with this story in them should bring $50 to $100 on eBay.

New Story

“The Return Of Tarzan” – serialized in issues between 6/1913 – 12/1913
“The Outlaw Of Torn” – serialized in issues between 1/1914 – 11/1914

Most issues are worth $10 to $20. Issues with Burroughs stories should bring $150 or more on eBay.

Red Book Magazine

“Tarzan The Untamed – serialized in issues between 3/1919 – 8/1919 (Only the first six installments of this story appeared in Red Book. The remainder of the story was serialized in The All Story Weekly Magazine).

Most issues are worth $20 to $30. Issues with Burroughs stories should bring $125 or more on eBay.

Thrilling Adventure Stories

“The Terrible Tenderfoot” – serialized in issues between 3/1940 – 5/1940
“Tarzan And The Jungle Murders” – 6/1940

When found in antique shops normal issues often bring $25 -$35. The Terrible Tenderfoot issues should bring $40 to $75 per issue on eBay. The Tarzan issue should bring $60 to $100.

Triple X Magazine

“Tarzan Returns” – serialized in issues between 11/1929 – 2/1930

Regular issues of this magazine are usually found for $20 - $30 and the Burroughs story issues sell for between $30 and $50, so there’s not a lot of room for profit here unless you get them really cheap.

Photo by Ivan Fourie

Popularity: 56% [?]