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ISSUE 53: June 3, 2008

Yard Salers: June 3: Julia's Guide to eBay Live

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Hello, all!

In our last newsletter, I said I had been as busy as a one-armed paper hanger, then mentioned as an aside that "I don't know what that is or if anything like it even existed." Leave it to you, my wonderful readers, to fill me in on the origins of that saying...reader Maureen tells me the "You only have 1/2 of the saying...the end of it is: WITH AN ITCH" (use your imagination as to why he has an itch. "If you can picture a one armed man trying to hang wallpaper and scratching...you'll see a pretty busy guy in a lot of trouble!!!"

Thanks for sharing, Maureen..I confess I never knew that!

OK, now that we've gotten that issue out of the way, I'll share one of the things that's kept me unusually busy in the last couple weeks.

Memorial Day weekend here in the DC area boasted beautiful, sunny and crisp weather. Saturday, I was just heading out to take my daughter to her usual gymnastics class, when my son came running in from the backyard, very upset, holding up his arm. It seems he'd been swinging too hard on the swing, fallen off, and broken his wrist.

It turns out the poor little guy had broken his wrist in two places...the ulna and the radius (not the humerus...I know, there's a bad joke in there about how the whole situation was not humorous, etc.)

So we had a long day at the hospital ahead of us, and the weekend didn't exactly unfold as I'd planned, but c'est la vie. He's doing OK, in an over-the-elbow cast, and looking forward to the day in a few weeks when he gets a short cast, and then a waterproof cast so he can go in the water when we go to the beach in June.

Speaking of June, some of you had asked me to write a guide to eBay Live...tips about going there, how to get the most out of it, etc. So in this issue, in the interest of expediency and getting it out before the actual convention starts June 18, I bring you Julia's handy-dandy guide to eBay Live.

And, for those of you not going, the good news is there will be a lot of coverage of it, including, as I will write about, many of the presentations available on YouTube, the next best thing. More on that in the feature article.

Yard sales...I've had a few good finds in the past few weeks, the best being a set of Adobe "CS2" software which is a combo of Adobe's most popular graphics programs, including Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and Acrobat. One thing I learned about selling Adobe software is, if you want to be able to pass the registration on to the next person, as in, the person you're selling it to, ask the person you're buying it from to transfer the license to you in writing, so you can pass it on. Or, get their phone number, so they can call Adobe and leave instructions.

A grand total of one of you wrote back to say you were interested in seeing the photo of Richard Chamberlain in his fraternity in the Pomona College yearbook I found. This, of course, means I plan to run the photo. But not in this issue.

This issue is short, as I am sending it out from an airport and want to get it out before my plane boards. But more in the next issue!

Let's get on to eBay Live without further ado.

Julia

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In This Issue:
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1) eBay Live 2008: Julia's Handy-Dandy Guide
** Reader Mail will return in the next issue. **
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1) eBay Live 2008: Julia's Handy-Dandy Guide
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eBay Live: a three-day festival where sellers, eBay management, and third party vendors and speakers come together to talk about all things auction and ecommerce. (This year may be a little hairier than usual, if the comments on the AuctionBytes blog are any indication..one person suggested that eBay execs "wear their flak jackets"!)

But if you've never been, how do you know what to expect? And if you can't go, where to look for the news?

Here's a rundown:

The Big Events:

Every year, eBay puts on at least three major sessions that are usually jammed full of attendees. These are events I advise you not to miss because they're where a lot of the action takes place:

- The Keynote, Friday morning, June 20.

This is the big meeting that strikes the, well, keynote for the rest of the event. Typically there's some kind of opening entertainment, eBay execs run through the latest eBay, PayPal (and more recently, Skype and Kijiji) stats, and some announcements are made.

A tradition at this event is for Meg to ask the audience to all stand, and then sit down as she calls out feedback numbers. If you have more than that number of feedbacks, you remain standing. At the end, there are usually only a handful of people standing, and their feedback numbers are higher than everyone else's; last year, they went up to 100,000 feedbacks and about six folks were still standing! Whew.

- Town Hall, Saturday, June 21. Here is where eBay execs, usually moderated by Griff, and the seller population in general, get to interact more closely than in other sessions, and there is usually a long q&a. This year's event, given the many recent changes on eBay unpopular sellers, should be veeerrrrry interesting. eBay also has an "overflow" room set up to handle extra people if more people show up than it can handle in the big room.

Speaking of which, if you want a decent, or at least close-in, seat for these or any eBay session, but especially the major events, you'd be wise to get there at least 10-15 minutes early.

- The Gala, usually Saturday night starting around 8 p.m. (I don't know the exact day/time for it this year, though I hear the entertainment will be Chris Isaak. Hm...do ya s'pose the opening song will be "Wicked Game," and will there be any double-entendre there?

Other Comments and Happenings:

The Exhibit Hall

This is the showcase of third party eBay developers, authors, some publishers (including my ebay Top 100 Tricks" publisher, Wiley, and various businesses catering to eBay sellers, set up shop and exhibit their latest wares. It's an ongoing event throughout the three days of the conference, so you can shuffle in and out as you have time between sessions.

One of the big attractions here is somewhat random: eBay employees come out like little blue-polo-shirted fairy godpeople every 15 minutes or so, when a theme song is played, bearing big handfuls of free ebay collectible pins.

People then swarm the eBay people like lemmings, open hands thrust forward, to grab their free booty. One year I went slightly crazy with this and was trying to get a whole set of pins. In subsequent years, I've felt it's not worth the effort of running yourself ragged...if a pin guy shows up along the way, great; I'm not going to plan my convention around it. Not tp mention, I'm usually too busy blogging, writing, and attending sessions to do much of that.

Having said that, it is kinda nice to get some free booty. :)

eBay Live Sessions:

eBay employees, experts, and hired "big name" speakers put on a panoply of smaller seminars and sessions throughout the three days, the meat and bones of the conference.

I want to attend a lot of these sessions; in fact it can be frustrating because you may want to attend more than one that's being held at the same time. Sometimes you can track down the course material on cd, or see if a blogger has covered it. I'm also finding that some sessions are being videotaped and uploaded, at least in part, to YouTube. I found this video of the "highlights" of Andy Sernovitz's session (which I missed last year) the the 'Tube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3bGCVUV8Y0

Some of the key speakers this year are:

- the aforementioned Sernovitz.

- Seth Godin, author, Squidoo founder, top blogger, and probably several other superlatives.
Here is a link to what I wrote about him at last year's eBay Live for AuctionBytes: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m06/i15/s03.

- Jay Berkowitz.
I hadn't heard of him, but here's what it says about him on one blog: "Jay Berkowitz of the Ten Golden Rules Will be a featured speaker at eBay Live 2008!

Jay is scheduled currently to speak just following eBay CEO John Donahoe and should be a big hit with his Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing presentation. I know that many of the attendees of the RocketPlace.com conference were very impressed with Jay’s speech and style and they simply wanted more of the information Jay had to share.

Practical Matters

You'll be walking a lot at eBay Live, so wear comfortable shoes if at all possible. At the last eBay Live, they had these guys driving around the hotels in these golf cart-like things, giving people lifts around the hotel, but I'm not sure they'll have that this year.

Food and drink in the convention center is likely ot be expensive...one year I paid some $4 for a bottled water. That may have been Vegas.

At the big events, like the Gala, eBay provides food and drink.

Check out the eBay Live discussion board on eBay for people's tips, too, and don't forget to check the AuctionBytes site for coverage!

That's it for now. Questions? Send them to me!

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THE AUCTION GUILD's TAGnotes - the most current information at your fingertips through our erratically published (one more or less times a week) email synopsis of announcements, analysis and changes from the Online Auction and Trading Industry. Subscribe today: email tag@theauctionguild.com.
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Have a great (and profitable) week, all!

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Secret Product Sources

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[For more writing and photos throughout the month, check out Julia's bidbits blog at http://juliawww.typepad.com/bidbits/.]

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The eBay Seller's Guide to Finding Profitable Hidden Bargains at Garage Sales
Find out here.
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That's it for this issue. Until next time! - Julia

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Questions about My eBooks Ordering

You can certainly purchase from me directly, as can anyone. Most of my ebooks are now available via the website's bookstore at www.yardsalers.net/bookstore. Any others you have questions about, all you have to do is email me and let me know which ebook(s) you want, if you are a subscriber and thus eligible for the discount, and then PayPal me to my PayPal id at juliawilk@aol.com. I'll be tweaking and updating the ebooks page on my web site soon.

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Do you have a Flip of the Week? I'd love to hear about it! Email me at juliawilk@aol.com and let me know.
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Nonfiction Books that Sell for $50 - $250 on eBay:

or
Buy Now
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I am always open to reader articles, so if you want to write about something relating to yard sale-ing and eBaying, just flag me down! I will of course give you credit, using your eBay ID, web site, or any other contact info.

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eBooks by Julia L. Wilkinson:
[All my ebooks are offered at 1/2 price from their regular prices to the subscribers of this newsletter. If interested in any of them, please email me at juliawilk@aol.com.]

- How to Spot Fakes: email me!
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Blogs, Blogs, and More Blogs
Check out My amazon.com Author Blog

Those of you who just can't get enough of my writing (are there any of you?) will be happy to know I now have a new blog on amazon.com. Amazon.com has created an "author blog" tool for authors to...well, blog. You'll see it if you bring up either of my books on the amazon site, but for good measure, it's at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593270550. (Scroll down to "amazonConnect").

My TypePad Blog, "Bidbits"

You can also check out my typepad blog, "bidbits": bidbits

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Do you have your copy of Julia's book, eBay Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks?

It's available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. If you do want to order the book, I'd appreciate if you'd support Yard Salers and eBayers by using my affiliate link below.

ebay top 100

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Copyright 2007 Julia L. Wilkinson
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Yard Salers, www.yardsalers.net
Publisher, Julia Wilkinson, author of the award-winning "eBay Price Guide." and "What Sells on eBay for What"

No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Yard Salers makes diligent efforts to obtain accurate and timely information. However, Yard Salers disclaims any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in Yard Salers, whether or not such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident or any other cause.

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