Hello <$firstname$>

The eBay management have really started 2005 with all guns blazing and I think that we are in for an interesting few months. On the 12th January eBay announced some changes in its fee structure for several eBay sites including eBay.co.uk.

In fact in the UK we have got off very lightly, possibly due to the current strength of the £ but there have been some huge increases in the fees for eBay.com. A spokesman for the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance, a group of 600 of the top eBay.com sellers claims that these changes could mean his members will be paying up to 22% more to eBay than before.

The biggest rises appear to be targeted at eBay Storeowners With the monthly charge increasing by 60% and the final valuation fee rising to 8% of the closing price. As a result of the announcement many sellers say they are closing their eBay Stores. According to eBay they have 161,000 stores hosted and it will be interesting to see how that figure holds up in the coming months.

There is no doubt that these price rises have created a lot of bad feeling and some of eBays competitors are reporting increased registrations since they were announced. This was not helped by the fact that eBay then announced a record 2.7 billion profit for the year 2004. This represented a 44% year on year growth.

On eBay UK there have been surprisingly few changes. Scheduling fees when using Turbo List have come down from 12p to 6p the cost of subtitles drops from 50p to 35p whilst the cost of Highlighting goes up from £1.50 to £2.50. The final valuation figure for vehicles goes up 50% from 0.5% to 0.75%. These changes take effect from after midnight on the 18th February.

Dave Bromley

There are signs that eBay are at last beginning to listen to all the complaints about poor and non existent customer service. There is no doubt that sellers have become increasingly frustrated to receive automated responses to every problem or question they raise. (That is if they get a response at all.)

Trying to provide a personal service for the hundreds of millions of registered eBay users may not be practical but there has to be something better than the current system. The good news is that Bill Cobb the newly appointed head of eBay North America has announced that the majority of automated e-mails will be phased out and e-mail replies will come from “real” people. Additionally it is going to be easier to contact eBay by telephone, (currently only the top Power Sellers are able to do this.) Unfortunately these changes only apply to eBay.com and eBay.ca at present but if experience is anything to go by these long awaited improvements should be available to eBay.co.uk users within a few months.

It was also worth noting that after all the protests about the increased fee structures, Bill Cobb took the opportunity to announce a few reductions including a months free rental for store owners and have lowered the minimum insertion fee by 5 cents. Whether it will be enough to quieten the furore remains to be seen.

I often browse eBay.com looking for value items to bid on. But there is nothing more frustrating than to see the item is USA only. Now there may be a way around this problem. A new service has just been launched by Border Free, which makes International buying and selling much simpler. I have not tried this service out myself yet but if you would like details visit http://www.borderfree.com/ebay/index.jsp

EBay have announced the introduction of a Business Account, which will allow you to trade under your business name and use your business account to pay your listing fees.

If you are already selling on eBay but would like to change over to a business account you can do and it will not effect your feedback.

To do this -

1. Log into My eBay


2. Select Addresses from the options at the left of the screen


3. Click the “Change” link next to your Registration Address


4. Click the “Update your details to include your business name” link


5. Enter your business name, select your business type from the dropdown box, and press the “Save Changes” button.

Last month I told you about Dan Wilson’s new book “Make Money on eBay UK” unfortunately I gave you the wrong e-mail address for the publishers it should have been sales@nbrealey-books.com.
I have included a full review of the new book in the Further Reading Section of this edition of the Newsletter.

With literally millions of auctions taking place on ebay.com all the time, you can probably already guess what the number 1 essential you need in order to succeed on ebay. You need a 'USP'. What is a USP? Simple - a Unique Selling Proposition. Something that sets your auction apart from all the other similar auctions that are no doubt happening at the same time. There's nothing new about the concept of USP - every successful corporation tries to differentiate both itself and its products from rivals efforts, for obvious reason.

Ebay tend to encourage the 'lazy seller' - numbnuts who all cut'n'paste the same description, picture and even title into their auctions. Case in point - try searching for 'apple mac'. Once one of these 'lazy sellers' starts using an image, they all do! Hardly an encouragement to buy from one particular seller, is it? In fact, you could argue that the amount of effort you put into your ebay auctions will determine the amount of return you get back!

Lazy Sellers seem to think that 'stealing' a stock photo or description somehow makes them seem more 'professional'. In reality, the opposite is the case. Today's surfers are sufficiently switched on to know that online auctions, even the mighty Ebay, need to be treated with caution - scammers and fraudsters abound.

So how do you go about getting a USP for your Ebay auction? THINK about it! Check out the auction titles for similar items and make sure you don't simply copy someone else's. Put on model and make numbers, for example, or the color. In terms of a description, ALWAYS write it yourself. Sure, you can start with a standard description, but the more you tweak it, the more potential customers will think you stand out from the crowd. Just be careful to leave the essential info in there!

When it comes to images, if you don't have a digital camera, you are basically stuck with using stock images. Think about leaning how to manipulate images to make a subtle change - perhaps crop the image, change the contrast, and so on. Whatever you do, make sure it is SMALL - nothing scares potential customers away faster than slow loading pages. Gifs are usuall best, then Jpegs. Try not to use pngs or tiffs.

With these simple tips, you can ensure the success of your ebay auction whatever the size of the competition!

About The Author
Ebay Steve owns and writes articles for www.ebaySteve.com the #1 web site for free advice on how you can make money from ebay.

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A Free Online Audio Tour from eBay
If you are new to eBay selling, you might find an online tour that teaches you how to sell on eBay useful.

Make Money on eBay UK by Dan Wilson

Hatched and Matched - A New Home Business Opportunity

I have just received a copy of Gerry Tarbucks new book “Making Money with eBay”. Gerry has for many years run Home Business Services and has produced a wide range of publications. He has a unique marketing method in that by buying this book for £20 you have the right to sell it through any medium you wish and keep the £20. All you have to do is send Gerry 6 first class stamps and he will dispatch the book out to your customer.

The book itself is a 38-page A4 publication containing basic information and case studies. If you are interested in this book e-mail me at dave@ukauctionline.co.uk and I will send you further details.

Dave Bromley