Hello <$firstname$>
How are you finding August on eBay? My own sales are ticking over but I hope as the nights start to draw in and people begin spending a bit more time in front of their computers they should get a bit of a boost. Traditionally the run up to Christmas is a really busy time on all the online auction sites and I expect this last quarter of 2004 to be another record breaker.

QXL have had a fre e listing week, which unfortunately we did not hear about until after we had sent out our last issue. However, if you are quick you can still take advantage of the offer until midnight tomorrow 6th August. List any items for details go to www.qxl.com

If you remember I wrote and talked about drop shipping in a recent edition of UK Auctionline. Since then I have been testing it for myself and have been very pleased with the results. I have started selling CDs through eBay, which are shipped over from the USA, and so far it is working well. I am pleased to say that I have persuaded US drop ship expert Tim Knox to allow me to give you a copy of his PDF e-book, “Special Report: eBay Dropship Profits” You will find the link later in this newsletter.

What has happened to the eBay Workshops on the Community pages? Last February I listened to a very interesting workshop featuring “Moggie” a power seller of computer related products, but since then there has been nothing. Whenever I compare the community pages of ebay.co.uk compared to its US counterpart I find it sadly lacking.
Come on eBay get your fingers out.

The other day I was browsing through the Google search engine for the phrase “resale rights”. Much to my surprise on the third page I came across some listings for my own products. When I followed the link I discovered these referred to listings that I had put on CQ out. I knew that many eBay stores got picked up by the search engines but I did not realise that it worked with CQ out as well. I shall be putting some more items up on this UK auction site.

Yes, somehow it does not seem to have been away but this weekend football kicks off for the 2004/5 season. My team has been relegated in both the last two seasons but I still hope for better things this year. But I thought now would be a good time to look at this niche area and see if football offers us any opportunities with the online auctions. Seeing as the ball that Beckham missed his penalty with went for a phenomenal amount on eBay there obviously is a market.

In the past I have bought videos and books at car boot sales and these have sold readily enough without attracting any great prices, but a profit is a profit. The best deal I had was from a charity auction when I bought a box of old 45 records. When I got them home I discovered a copy of the 1966 World Cup Willy song and several other football related recordings and the 5 records sold individually for a total of over £65. The whole box of £150 only cost £20. Does anyone want 45 records?

Ebay have a large section in the Sporting memorabilia devoted to football. Some of the process and bids are a little surprising for instance I discovered a Stanley Mathews Football parade published in 1950 attracting no bids at 99p and yet the Bexley United Handbook for the 1963/64 season had 2 bidders and was up to £2.20. Football programs are quite popular and you can often purchase these in batches at car boot sales. The price is dependent upon the status of the club, condition of the program and its general rarity value. The most expensive program I discovered on eBay was for a match between Manchester United and Portsmouth in the 1946/47 season which had a starting price of £750 which is probably more than the whole team cost in those days.

QXL have a good strong section on football related items. They also allocate a category for each Premier and nationwide team. So if you want material related to say Crewe Alexandra then you can go straight to it.

I must admit when I looked through both eBay and QXL I was a bit disappointed at the prices being achieved and the number of bids on items. But this could be due to the time of the year and once the season gets into full swing there will be an increase of interest. Whenever I go to a car boot sale there always appears to be plenty of football related items so if they are cheap enough it might just be worth buying some and saving it for later in the year.

Funnily enough last Saturday at one of our local car boots I bought a very nice mounted limited edition print entitled “Golden Boots” featuring David Beckham signed (by the artist unfortunately, not David) for £1.
I shall be putting that up for auction soon, but I am sure that if he had not missed that penalty I would get a better price for it.

As I told you elsewhere in this issue I am testing drop shipping at the moment and have been impressed with the results so far. But even so I would not consider myself an expert on the subject so when Tim Knox, who definitely is, offered to let me give every subscriber of the UK Auctionline Newsletter a copy of his latest e-book on drop shipping, I grabbed the offer with both hands. But that is not all, Tim has agreed that any subscribers may either sell or give away as many copies of this book as they wish and keep the proceeds. And when you consider Tim is an author for the prestigious Entrepereneur.com web site you will realise he is giving you a quality product.

The e-book is called, “SPECIAL REPORT:eBay Dropship Profits!” and to give you a taster here is a list of the contents:

• What is dropshipping?
  
• What is the step-by-step process used for dropshipping?
  
• What kind of profit margin can I expect with dropshipping?
  
• What are the advantages/disadvantages of dropshipping?
  
• How do I deal with minimum purchase requirements?
  
• Are all dropshippers reliable?
  
• Who is responsible for dealing with customer issues?
  
• What about refunds?
  
• How can I be sure a product is in stock?
  
• How do I handle back orders?
  
• If there is a problem who do my customers contact?
  
• Is it better to buy from a wholesaler than a drop shipper?

Bonus Reports:

• The Secret of Starting an eBay business
  
• Is selling on eBay just a hobby or a business?
  
• Do you Pay Taxes on eBay Income?

The eBook comes in pdf and you will need Adobe Reader on your computer.
To download a copy of Adobe Reader go to www.adobe.com

For your copy of “eBay Drop Ship Profits”
www.ukauctionline.co.uk/dropship-profits.html

The Audio Tutorial - Feedback

"It was 'phishing' eBay", by Brian Porter

"Buyer beware on Ebay", by Helen Wellings

This months offer - How to use the might of eBay to attract traffic to your website

First of all I would like to thank Silpesh Shah who responded to my question in the last issue about glare when photographing items with a reflective surface. Silpesh recommends taking the photograph at an angle. If you use a Single Len Reflex (SLR) camera with a detachable flash you can point this at the ceiling and bounce the light onto your subject.

Thanks for that Silpesh and if any one else has any ideas or tips that they think would help other readers with any aspect of online auctions we would love to hear them.

If you use your credit card to pay eBay in any other currencies than GBP, US Dollars or Euros you will no longer be able to. eBay have announced that they can now only accept payment on eBay.co.uk in those 3 currencies. This should not affect too many subscribers, but if you think you may be affected, go to the eBay Announcement Board in the Community section of the web site.