UKAuctionline

When I was in the Armed Forces we were always being issued with “Survival Guides”. How to survive in the Jungle, the Desert, and the Sea are just 3 titles that I remember. But if there is one environment that has been crying out for a survival guide it is eBay.
So I was intrigued when I got my hands on Michael Banks latest book “The eBay Survival Guide”. I soon realised that it was a cut above many of the recent eBay books. As the webmaster for UK auctionline I comes across literally hundreds of books and reports about online auctions every year. I expected this would just be another expanded version of the eBay site map. But I was wrong; this book is an informative and riveting read.
It is a fact that it is possible to make a very good living selling products through eBay. However, it is equally true that if you either go about it in the wrong way or in some cases are just plain unlucky you can lose money. One of the biggest causes of this happening is the person not fully understanding how the market place works or knowing what to do if things go wrong. After reading the “The eBay Survival Guide” you should be much better equipped to tackle the day to day business of buying and selling on eBay.
One area that Michael covers in full detail is a subject that other books hardly mention and that is how to get the most out of the eBay search function. There are two detailed sections on buying and selling on eBay. The “Do’s and Don’ts chapters for both buyers and sellers not only show you the correct way to approach the task but also the traps to avoid.
The book is written in an easy to read no nonsense manner and you will find plenty of useful tips. One in particular that I liked was Michael’s suggestion on how to react to a customer who claims that a sent item never arrived. To find out what it is you will have to buy the book.
There are two chapters that everyone who buys or sells on eBay should read. They are “Shills, Sleazes and Seller Scams” and “Bogus products and Money making Scams”. Being forewarned is being forearmed and after reading these chapters you should be able to avoid the pitfalls that can trap the unwary.
The book covers a wide range of subjects including effective bidding strategies, buying stock to sell a dhow to create compelling listings. Whether you are new to online auction or an old hand this is one item you should definitely add to your eBay Library. This 260+ page paperback is published by No Starch and is available from Amazon.com for $13.57 (£7.99). And whether you are a new comer or an experienced eBayer I think you will find this book interesting.

eBay.co.uk get bad press

Along with George Tritar who was also jailed they got people to send money for non existent goods ranging from cars, tickets and even parachute trousers. Victims, many from the USA would bid for items but then receive an e-mail telling them that they had been outbid but would be offered “second chance” to obtain similar or identical items. They would be then requested to wire the money and needless to say no items would ever appear.
In court it was suggested that the scam was actually being run from Romania and that the Cretanus and Tritar were little more than foot soldiers. One of the worry features of this case was that it was not eBays much vaunted security system that lead to their downfall. The Police economic crime unit were tipped off by staff of Western Union in London who became suspicious by some of the money transfers going through their office.
Cretanu was sentenced to 3 years and his with and Tritar to 2 ½ years a piece. After the case an eBay spokesman pointed out that none of the transactions took place on eBay and that the company had co operated fully with the police.
Hard on the heels of this case ITV, a national UK television company broadcast a peak time program highlighting another eBay fraudster Philip Shotram and the amount of counterfeit goods available for sale on eBay. Presenter Jonathan Maitland ordered 20 Designer items from different e-Bay sellers all of whom had positive feed back. When the goods arrived 14 were positively identified as fakes.
Philip Shotram from Pontypool in Wales has been found guilty of defrauding eBay buyers out of more than £80,000 and is due to be sentenced next week. He was interviewed in the program and even suggested that eBay might give him a job uncovering other peoples fraud. The interesting thing was that when this suggestion was put to the eBay spokesman, Gareth Griffitths, Head of Trust and Safety said he would like to meet Shotram.
This morning details of the fraud case are appearing in most of the national press and continued publicity like this can only reflect badly on the company in the long term. When Shotram is sentenced next week this is bound to attract considerable publicity and it is hoped that eBay will act swiftly on both their approach to fraud prevention and pirated goods. They not only need to do something, they need to be seen doing it or otherwise buyers and sellers could vote with their feet.

It is looking good for eBay on the run up to Christmas

It is looking good for eBay on the run up to Christmas

High Street retailers appear to be lining up to report poor trading figures and sales projections for the Christmas period. In fact retail groups have predicted a “bloody Christmas” for traditional sellers.

Compared to this Internet retailers are still seeing a rise in sales. According to the latest figures from IMRG, the Internet retail monitoring group online sales have risen by 31% last month. In August, a traditionally slow retail month UK, online sales reached £1.54 billion, the second highest ever-recorded figure.
This can only bode well for eBay sales on the run up to the festive season. Experts are forecasting record online sales for the last quarter of the year and eBay have always featured high up on the top online sales lists.

Computer Active plugs eBay

The cover story on the 29^th Sept issue of the computer magazine, Computer Active
is on entitled “Money Makers” How to make money on eBay, Amazon, Exchange & Mart, Loot and More”

Like many articles that discuss eBay it is at a superficial level. Ok if you know absolutely nothing about eBay the article might be of interest but how many people who read computer magazines would be in that position. Also it is not all that long ago that Computer Active had another cover story about eBay. One wonders whether it might be the fact that by having the eBay logo appear on the magazines cover helps boost sales. If you have ever thought of using Amazons Marketplace it is worth taking a look to see what they have to say about that. If you are trading on eBay as opposed to selling you might want to read a side piece about the Sale
of Goods act and how it could effect you. This could become very relevent with eBays introduction of Business Identification.
For more information visit www.computeractive.co.uk

Morph sells on eBay

An original model of Morph the plastacine character has been sold on eBay.
The model was made by Peter Lord co -founder with Nick Parks of Ardman
Animations the Bristol based company famous for their Wallace and Grommet
films.
The Morph model first appeared in the Take Hart childrens TV show and sold
last week for £1411. The money raised is going to the Bristol based charity
Childrens Scrapstore.

Audio Posts

I have had several people contact me and ask why we no longer include
an audio article in the uk auctionline newsletter. Basically, when we
ask subscribers for there thoughts on the audio section we got very
little feed back. However, once we stopped everyone started asking
"Where is the audio?"

What I have decided is rather than include it as part of the newsletter
I will place a monthly 15 minute audio letter on the web site. This will
start next month and hopefully over time cover most topics of interest to
eBay users.

If you would like to hear some of the previous audio news pieces you will
find them in the archive section of www.ukauctionline.co.uk

eBay Pay $4.1 billion for Skype

No one can accuse eBay of being slow. It was only late last week that most people learnt that eBay was interested in the Internet communication company Skype. By Monday they had paid a combination of cash and shares to the value of $4.1 billion and were the new owners of Skype.

As you an imagine the net is alive with articles and comments about this move. To read what the likes of Dave Bromley, Ina Steiner and others have to say go to http://www.ukaucctionline.co.uk
and b
rowse the news page.