A Los Angeles widow, Mrs. Richard Poncher, is auctioning her husband’s famous grave site so she can afford the mortgage payments on her $1.6 million house. The deceased, Mr. Poncher, is buried in a crypt right above Marilyn Monroe.

At the end of the eBay auction Mrs. Poncher will remove her husband from his resting place and deed the crypt to whoever wins the auction. According to news reports, Mr. Poncher bought the place from Joe DiMaggio. Mr. Poncher insisted he be buried face down, gazing on Marilyn Monroe in everlasting creepiness.

The new tenant will have to share Marilyn with the founder of Playboy Magazine, Hugh Heffner, who has the crypt next to her reserved.

What is so amazing to me is how poorly the auction is written. There isn’t even a photo. Here is a link to the auction:

It is amazing that the auction is up to $4.5 million. The problem is I don’t believe many of the bidders will follow through. Usually auctions of this type are run as private auctions and you have to register as a serious bidder before being allowed to bid.  Mrs. Pochner should have hired an eBay Trading Assistant like ShopItLA in Beverly Hills.  She would have real bidders who can actually write a check for what they bid on.

If you would like to learn how to sell on consignment on eBay, look at the link below to my eBay consignment business training manual.

How To Make Money With an eBay Consignment Business – Complete training manual written by an eBay PowerSeller who sells on eBay every day. Comes with forms, ads, contracts and step-by-step instructions.

The Future of eBay 2009, outlines all of the changes, disucsses their impact and shows how eBay sellers can take advantage of them to build their eBay business. For those of you who purchased The Complete eBay Marketing System in the past year, this book acts as an update and revises all of the strategies listed in the manual that will go into effect in October.

Unlike last year’s changes, the new changes are more friendly to new and small sellers. Click on the link below to get your free copy of eBay 2009

http://www.skipmcgrath.com/products/future-ebay-new-policies.shtml

See Also

• How To Start and Run and eBay Consignment Business and make money as an eBay Trading Assistant
  Complete business manual with forms, contracts, and complete instructions to running one of the most profitable types of eBay business

Last year eBay announced that they would give sellers more time to adjust their business to changes on the platform. This is the second planned announcment of 2009.  Normally I list the new changes with my comments, but this one caught me on vacation, so I am just going to list the changes and I will save my analysis for my newsletter that will be out later this week. If you don’t get the newsletter, you can subscribe for free here.

Here is the text of eBay’s announcement:

• Rewards for sellers delivering great buyer experiences
• New way to look at DSRs
  • Avoid getting low DSRs-1s and 2s. Buyers have different ideas about what constitutes a high rating, but most leave a 1 or a 2 only when they experienced a significant issue with their transaction. eBay will be shifting focus from average DSRs to the number of low DSRs as a more accurate measure of customer satisfaction.
  • Only domestic DSRs will count toward requirements for eBay.com. International transactions can be subject to factors outside a seller’s control and we want to make sure sellers can expand globally without undue impact to their standing on eBay.com.
• PowerSeller program update: rewarding quality over quantity
  • Starting in October, a new eBay top-rated seller status will be added to the PowerSeller program to recognize and reward sellers providing great buyer experiences based on the new way to look at DSRs (very few 1s and 2s). eBay Top-rated sellers will receive the highest PowerSeller Final Value Fee discounts (20%), increased visibility in search results for Fixed Price listings, exclusive access to purchase Featured First and a prominent Top-rated seller badge on item pages. The Top-rated seller badge will be tested in search results pages this summer. The current PowerSeller icon will no longer be displayed on buyer-facing pages including item pages.
  • All sellers with 100 or more annual transactions and at least $3,000 annual sales who meet the requirements for Top-rated seller status will be invited into the PowerSeller program and can start receiving Top-rated seller benefits in October.
  • Next April, the PowerSeller program will also include a requirement for sellers based on the new way to look at DSRs (very few 1s and 2s). PowerSellers that don’t have Top-rated seller status will get 5% Final Value Fee discounts.
  • Meanwhile, the current PowerSeller discount structure will continue until April 1, 2010 to give sellers 8 full months to keep their current discounts while they adjust business practices to qualify for the new Top-rated seller status.
• New minimum standards for all sellers:
  • Starting in October, there will be a new minimum standard for all eBay sellers based on the number of low DSRs (1s and 2s) received. The minimum standard will be stricter in April, 2010.
  • A new Selling Practices policy will define guidelines for professionalism and accuracy in all aspects of listings and transactions.
  • Optional buyer charges for shipping insurance will no longer be allowed. Sellers can still buy shipping insurance and add the cost to the item or shipping price.
• Updates to the Seller Dashboard: You can now see a snapshot of your low DSRs (1s and 2s) and standing toward the new Top-rated seller requirements updated monthly through a link at the top of your Seller Dashboard. In September, you will be able to see daily updates.
• Enhanced search presents more relevant listings
• Best Match, eBay’s default sort order, will look at listing’s recent sales in relation to the number of recent impressions it received as a key factor for Fixed Price listings. An “impression” is any time a buyer sees a search results page that includes the listing.
• In addition, single quantity and newly listed Fixed Price items will be given exposure in Best Match even though they have no sales history. These listings will be given initial impressions based on the performance of similar listings. This change will improve the exposure of new Fixed Price listings that are relevant to buyers.
• Auction-style listings will still get a boost in exposure as they are about to end. To keep auctions enticing, Auction with Buy It Now listings will be required to have a BIN price at least 10% higher than the auction start price.
• A new Search Visibility tool will help you evaluate how your Fixed Price and auction-style listings are performing in search results.
• Several features will be discontinued including Featured Plus, Border, and others to save you money and keep the focus on relevance.
• Product pages are rolling out to more buyers, so list with product details to make sure your listings are included. Also, eBay will start selecting sellers’ photos for inclusion in the eBay product catalog on September 1. If your photo is chosen, your user ID and a link to your profile page will appear on the product page. If you’d prefer not to have your pictures selected, opt out no later than August 31.
• Easier, more profitable selling on eBay
• Faster recourse for unpaid items. A streamlined process will cut the resolution time in half. We are also working on a new automated option that will make the process even more efficient, cut the time to resolution to as little as 8 days and block negative feedback when a seller opens a claim and a buyer doesn’t pay. This automated option will be tested in late September and our goal is to gradually make it available to all sellers by the holidays.
• eBay dispute resolution for buyer claims is expanding to more buyers to make the process faster and easier for sellers and buyers.
• Buyer communications will be faster and easier to manage with enhancements to My Messages and streamlined post-transaction emails.
• Get more control over international ship-to locations. You’ll have the same ship-to choices you have now, plus you’ll be able to specify countries you do not want to ship to.
• Upload tracking and delivery confirmation numbers for more shipping carriers.
• Editing listings, even multi-quantity listings with a sale and listing descriptions, will be faster and easier.
• New Selling Manager applications boost efficiency for sellers of all sizes-try them free!
• Category and Item Specifics changes are now consolidated with the rest of updates. Find out if there are changes to your categories.
• Stores subscribers-now you can put all your Fixed Price listings on vacation.

See Also

• Learn How To Make Money with an Online Consignment Business Selling on eBay, Craigslist and Other Online Shopping sites
  Complete business manual with contracts, forms and pre-written advertisements to grow your business

Last week California essentially went bankrupt.  No –its is not a formal or complete bankruptcy, but when you can’t pay your bills and you are $25 billion underwater I would call that bankrupt in my book. When California couldn’t meet its obligations, it began issuing IOUs instead of payments to citizens and contractors.

Within hours, people who received the IOUs were listing them on Craigslist, eBay and other venues.  They didn’t last long on eBay. eBay cancelled most of the listings and is still doing so. Their reasoning is that an IOU is basically a security and therefore falls under the scope of The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). I strongly agree with eBay. These things are securities and you should not buy them without the oversight the SEC provides. The potential for fraud, abuse and outright scams in this area is enormous and eBay did the right thing.

However, as I write this they are still selling on Craigslist, although I expect the SEC to move against Craigslist soon to stop the selling.  Technically Craigslist isn’t violating any regulations that I know of –they are simply providing an advertising platform. But the sellers are violating all sorts of regulations. So I am not sure how the SEC will proceed, but I am sure that they will.

Most sellers are offering the IOU certificates at a 15% discount to their face value and the certificates themselves pay an interest rate of around 3%. Even if it was legal to buy one of these things they are not a very safe investment. The potential of a 15% return is nowhere near the risk of losing all your money. The troubles in California are still deepening. Residents are fleeing the state in droves and moving to Colorado and Arizona. Taxes are increasing and services are deteriorating and the business climate simply stinks. Small business owners are being hit the worst.

The only event that could make these certificates a safe investment is if the US Government steps in and bails out the state. That is a possibility but the deck is stacked against that happening. Americans are weary of any more bailouts and public opinion on this one is hugely negative, so any congressman or senator who voted for this will be remembered at the polls in November of next year. The current shortfall of around 25 Billion is just the beginning. I have seen reports by analysts that I respect that California’s deficits could hit $40 billion before this is all over. What would those IOUs be worth then?

One of my readers, Nathan, just had a good comment on this topic:

You can sell it on ebay and craigslist if the IOU is voided.  Selling it as a souvenir is a good idea, if the value of the IOU is low.  http://iouinfo.com/2009/07/10/ious-as-souvenirs/

Also, IOUs can be used for personal tax liability to the state. A good investment would be to purchase it at a 15 percent discount and immediately send it off to the State.

See Also

• Learn How To Start and Run an eBay Consignmetn Business
  Just Released !!! Making Money With an Online Consignmetn Business – A complete eBay Consignment Business Operations Manual

Here is a look at the auction count chart from Medved –a service that tracks eBay listings.  As you can see the number of listings has been climbing steadily since the beginning of the year although the rate of growth slowed a bit in the past few weeks.  That may be due to the normal summer slowdown on eBay.  

We won’t know if these listings are translating to sales until eBay comes out with the sales numbers for the second quarter ending a couple of weeks from now on June 30th.  The results typically come out a few weeks later. 

This story came from an apparent internet spoof and is completely untrue! I have spoken with eBay and been assured there is no basis for this story whatsoever. The FTC has not informed John Donahoe he is under investigation (which is standard procedure), only Lorrie Norrington sold stock and it was a long-planned sale which is quite normal for executives.

First of all my sincere apologies to John Donahoe, Lorrie Norrington, Jim Ambach and Bill Cobb. And, I apologize to my readers. I received a news alert that that Donahoe was under investigation by the FTC and that the others had been selling stock. A version of the story also surfaced on the eBay boards that predated my story. The story was falsely attributed to the New York Times which did not publish such a story.   

Normally I double check things like this and I should have done so. 

I have been at this for several years and should know better. It just goes to show you how sophisticated some spoofs can be. When the fraudsters can trap someone like myself it is no wonder they take in less experienced people.  I am on the trail of the source of the story, but since I spotted it in a finance news alert, I suspect it was generate by someone who is trying to short eBay stock which has seen some spectacular gains in the past couple weeks.

So;  Apologies to my readers and the folks at eBay. I will be more careful in the future.

See Also

• FREE Wholesale Sourcing Magazine
  Normally $20 per copy, my readers can get a free sample of the Global Sources Product Wholesale Sourcing Magazine

The earning consensus on Wall Street was for eBay to be down 20% and earnings to come in at $0.33 share. eBay CEO, John Donahoe blamed the stronger dollar and the challenging economy.  PayPal and Skype did well.

Here is what eBay said about the Marketplaces division that includes US and overseas eBay sites and the classified advertising site Kijiji:

“The Marketplaces business unit, which consists of eBay, Shopping.com, StubHub, Kijiji and other ecommerce sites, recorded $1.22 billion in revenue, equating to an 18% year-over-year decline. The revenue drop was attributable to the impact of the strengthening dollar and the decline of the core business in difficult macroeconomic conditions. Approximately 54% of Marketplaces revenue came from markets outside of the U.S. GMV (excluding vehicles) was $10.80 billion for the quarter, a decrease of 16%, compared to the first quarter of 2008. Online classifieds revenue increased 23% year-over-year. eBay Marketplaces continues to focus on stabilizing its core business by improving trust, value and selection for customers while looking for ways to drive growth through geographic, format and category expansion.”

The business forecast is not too rosy either as eBay sees further declines in the coming quarter:

“Second quarter 2009 — eBay expects net revenues in the range of $1.850 to $2.050 billion with GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.23 to $0.26 and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.34 to $0.36”

Even with what I consider to be bad news, eBay stock is up almost 5% in after hours trading. i guess I know why I am not a Wall Street analyst.

I will be out of the office for the next few days with limited access to my computer, but stay tuned for a wrap up and analysis on the challenges eBay is facing.

Skip McGrath

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This is part two of the post I started yesterday about the changes to the eBay platform and the new policies announced by eBay that will take effect in June. You can scroll down to see part one. As I did in part one, I am giving each of these my Star Rating (1-5 stars) just like eBay has buyers do for sellers. When I finish the third and final post, I will calculate the total star rating.

By the way I am now on Twitter. I am not a big twitterhead, but I always do a tweet when I do a new blog post or upload a new edition of my newsletter. So if you would like to follow me, here is my Twitter profile: http://twitter.com/Skip_McGrath 

New Smart FAQs Package tracking in My eBay Return policy and handling time-deadline extended Customized Item Specifics Category and item specific changes

Smart FAQs is a new free feature that draws on live information from your listings to answer the top 20 buyer questions before buyers reach you through the "Ask a question" or "Contact seller" links.  This is a wonderful option for sellers who only sell one category of product. But in our case we sell in four different categories and some of the FAQs would just confuse people. (3-Stars) This is potentially a great feature for sellers who ship everything themselves and a good feature for those of us who also dropship. If you print a shipping label through PayPal or eBay, tracking, a delivery confirmation numbers will automatically appear in the buyer’s My eBay. If you don’t use the PayPal or eBay label printing solution, you can enter tracking information manually in My eBay. Unfortunately you can only upload USPS and UPS tracking information.  I would give this a higher star rating, but for example one of our leading products is shipped by FedEx Ground so this system won’t work for us. (3-Stars) Earlier in 2008 eBay advised sellers they are required to add a return policy and handling time to all your listings by mid-March of 2009. eBay has extended the timeline: Return policy and handling time will be required in all new listings and when you relist beginning June 15. The deadline for updating your Good ‘Til Cancelled listings has been extended to mid-September.   Personally I think this is something eBay should have done a long time ago and I don’t know why they are extending this. Small sellers have had several months to do this and large sellers have automation tools to do it for them, so I don’t see the point. Having a stated return policy and handling time is a big positive for buyers and I don’t see any downside for sellers. I have used a formal return policy in my auctions for over 5 years. I don’t know why eBay is waiting, unless they plan to add some yet to be disclosed mandatory features which is what I suspect. (1-Star) Item Specifics let sellers provide details about the item you’re selling, such as its condition, size, color, or style. These details appear at the top of your listing description, in a consistent format, making it easy for buyers to get the facts about your item. eBay provides suggested Item Specifics in drop-down boxes during the listing process. However, if these suggestions don’t work for your item, you can create your own value for an item specific. These are customized Item Specifics.  I really like this feature and am glad eBay is expanding it to more categories. (4-stars) The big change here is in the jewelry and watches categories. This will force sellers to list fashion and fine jewelry and watches in the appropriate category and force sellers to use accurate terms. For example you can’t call something a diamond if it is not. This means you cannot use terms such as simulated diamond. If it’s a zirconium you must call it a zirconium.  This policy is going to upset a lot of jewelry sellers –especially low end and fashion jewelry, but will help buyers find what they are looking for. My take on this is strong agreement. Even though it will make life difficult for some folks, it is really good for the buyers. Some of my readers will hate me for this, but I strongly believe in not misleading people and making it easier for buyers to find exactly what they are looking for. I give this one 5-Stars.

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• Ten Little Known, Highly Profitable eBay Niche Businesses Anyone Can Do
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• Using Twitter to Build Your Online Profits
  Learn everything you need to know about Twitter including The Twitter Secret –Only $5 one time fee.

That is interesting and answers a big question – What wound eBay do with Skype since it never really fit into eBay’s overall strategy. I think this is a great solution. I have been criticizing eBay so much lately its good to give them a pat on the back for this one.  Had they tried to sell Skype in this market, they would have gotten far less than they paid and far less than it was worth. But with the IPO eBay gets cash and a piece of the long term earnings.

Yesterday eBay announced that it would give (sell?) Stumbleupon back to its founders and venture capitalists. I don’t know what kind of financial deal this was but I suspect it worked out well for eBay. Stumbleupon is a great service but again I don’t think it really fit in with eBay.

Maybe we are starting to see the beginnings of some new strategic thinking at eBay?

And earlier today ebay announced major changes coming to the platform in June. Here is a link to that announcement.

Stay tuned for some analysis on  these announcements.

See Also

• The Complete eBay Marketing System
  Learn how to start and run an eBay business as a full time venture or just for extra money

The announcement from Stephanie Tilenius, Senior VP & GM for eBay North America had been rumored for a while. As part of the announcement eBay stated a new policy that from here on they will give 60-day notice on all new changes before rolling them out.  This was welcome by the selling community and third party service providers who must integrate with the eBay system.

I haven’t had time to analyze the announcement yet and its impact on sellers, but here is the text of the announcement from eBay.  I will be studying this and commenting on various parts of it over the next couple of weeks.

————announcement ———————

The spring release is set up to deliver three things for our sellers:

1. Easier, more visual shopping, plus buyer incentives to drive more sales

• New item page rolling out. New photo zoom coming later this year. Get your listings ready now.
• New eBay product pages surfacing to more buyers. To make sure your items show up on these pages, use product details (formerly called pre-filled item information).
• New way to list in Fixed Price lets you offer all variations of one product—e.g. color and size—in a single low-cost listing.
• Buyer incentives and loyalty programs expanded to drive more traffic.

1. Key information to set buyer expectations and help reduce your costs

• New Smart FAQ answers buyers’ top 20 questions before they contact you.
• Package tracking information available in My eBay—print labels on eBay and tracking shows up automatically, or you can upload the information.
• Return policy and handling time required for new listings and re-listings beginning June 15. Deadline for updating your Good ‘Til Cancelled listings extended to mid-September.
• Use Item Specifics. Now in some categories, you can customize when the available choices don’t apply to your item.
• Category and Item Specifics changes now consolidated with the rest of updates—find out if your listings are impacted.

1. Other updates to make selling on eBay more efficient

• New, more efficient process for handling disputes.
• Selling Manager FREE for all sellers—with powerful new Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro applications.
• Easier, faster way to pay shipping, print labels, and update buyers—right from eBay.
• Bulk editing tools available now.

Get more details on all these updates.

You’re also invited to:

• Take part in one of several upcoming webinars on April 16 and April 21.
• Join myself and other leaders from eBay and PayPal in a Town Hall meeting on April 16.
• Talk with members of my staff during the next two days on a special discussion board we’ve set up for this purpose.

Again, thank you for partnering to make eBay a successful marketplace. We believe these changes will improve your sales and the efficiency of selling on eBay.

——–end of announcement ————-

See Also

• The Complete eBay Marketing System to starting and running an eBay business by Skip McGrath
  The complete printed training course for anyone who wants to make extra money or make a full time business on eBay