eBay Live 2008 Chicago

I promised you a report of my trip to eBay Live in Chicago this past June 2008, but I've been struggling a little with how I feel about the trip, hence my foot dragging has us all the way into the end of July already. My apologies for that. So here goes....

This was my third eBay Live in three years. I attended the eBay Live in Las Vegas in 2006 and Boston in 2007. Las Vegas was amazing. I had never been there before and it's a very exciting town. And eBay Live itself was very exciting with so much education there for the taking. I soaked up seminar after seminar and visited almost every booth on the Solutions Hall floor, which is where all the exhibitors are located. I was like a bird flying around with no one telling me I had to go here or there. The one thing missing was that I didn't know anyone. So, while that gave me freedom to do what I wanted, it was somewhat of a lonely existence. But I wouldn't have missed it for the world and it helped me immensely as an eBay seller. Probably, the highlight was hearing Janelle Elms present her Ebay Stores 101 class. More about Janelle later.

In Boston, my sister (goneantiqueing) flew up from Tucson for her first eBay Live. We had the advantage of staying with our other sister who lives an hour outside of Boston. The crowd was a little smaller at Boston, but that was to be expected because Las Vegas has more glitz than most other U.S. cities. Here I was a little pickier about which classes to take and which Solutions Hall vendors to visit. I also had made some eBay friends in the past year and took time to meet up with them during the three days. Boston was another great success for me both personally and for my eBay business. I grew again as I began hearing about becoming an Education Specialist and how websites like MySpace could help my growing eBay business.

I have mixed feelings about eBay Live Chicago. There seemed to be a cloud hanging over the convention. I guess that cloud could have been called "Upset Powersellers." In February, eBay's management made several rules changes that were designed to bring in more buyers to the eBay arena, but to do so meant making some changes that disadvantaged some sellers. eBay said the changes only hurt "bad" sellers. Not everyone was in agreement with that statement. Being neither a powerseller or a "bad" seller, I didn't have a problem with the changes, and even some of my powserseller friends told me that by and large they would make more money after the changes than before. Still there was this aire of discontent wafting about the corridors and seminar rooms from a small, but vocal group. In addition, attendance was down from the previous year and the back half of the Solutions Hall had no vendors.

I said I had mixed feelings and that is because I was there with a group of very 'positive' eBayers. About five months before eBay Live, I joined Janelle Elms' new group called OSI Rock Stars. I am so excited about being part of the Online Success Institute Rock Stars. About 25 of the members (Janelle calls us Rock Stars) were able to attend eBay Live in Chicago. It was like a mini Rock Stars convention within a convention. We had special events, our own T-shirts and goodie bags. But the best part was being able to meet all these super talented people and talk about eBay in real time. You see, Janelle has filled this group with many multi-talented eBayers that are the most positive people you'll ever meet. These folks, along with Janelle herself and other experts, have created over a thousand hours of webinars, podcasts, and video classes for the OSI members only. And as members of OSI Rock Stars we help each other in the extensive online forum. Well, I guess you can see why I really enjoyed this latest eBay Live more than the others.

Oh, remember I mentioned promoting your eBay business on MySpace. That was just the tip of the iceberg. Between what I learned at eBay Live this year and what I am learning at OSI Rock Stars, now we have Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Del.icio.us, Technorati, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Squidoo, YouTube, Bumping, etc. Yes, these are all ways to increase your success on eBay.

How about your Auction Progress? Are you keeping up? Leave a comment and tell us which eBay Live you liked best and what you are doing to improve your eBay success.

Are You Bumping?

eBay Store sellers have had some setbacks in the past few years as eBay eliminated our store listings from eBay search results, and made other changes to the site that reduced the number of buyers finding our listings.

Many eBay sellers have taken to advertising their auctions and store listings on other websites. At first, you had to get a domain name, design a website, get hosting and develop good search engine optimization techniques before anyone would find your site to click on a link that would take them to your ebay listing or store. Now all you have to do is put a link to your eBay store or auctions on a 'bump' site.

My friend and fellow Rockstar, Brenda, from The Crabby Nook has done a marvelous job of explaining bump sites in detail. Check out her Squidoo lens on Bumping for "how to" information and links to sites.

If you are bumping already or have a question, please leave a comment by clicking on the word "Comments" below.

What Don't You Understand About NEW and USED?

eBay just announced they will make changes to product attributes, called Item Specifics, in certain categories in August. In Books, DVD & Movies, Music and Video Games categories, eBay will change "Condition" values from "New" and "Used" to "Brand New", "Like New", "Very Good", "Good" and "Acceptable."

I think this change will muddy the water and introduce a level of ambiguity to the condition of the item for used books, DVDs, movies, music, and games. NEW and USED are pretty easy to understand. On the other hand, what do "Like New", "Very Good", "Good" and "Acceptable" mean? Without eBay defining each of these, sellers can't accurately describe their items in terms that the buyer can agree with.

There are published descriptions for various condition levels out there already, such as at the International Online Booksellers Association (IOBA). Some used book sellers are already using one of the accepted standards, such as IOBA, and the rest are doing their best to describe the condition of the item in the listing description. And that works up to a point with the current NEW and USED condition specifics.

In my opinion, eBay needs to publish a similar set of definitions for each of these categories and they need to be easily accessible by both buyers and sellers. Otherwise, I think there will be a steep rise in the number of dissatisfied buyers and unpaid item disputes due to the confusion this change will create.

So, what do you think? Leave a comment below by clicking on the word "Comments".

Janieruth Seriously Hurt at eBay Live

I promised you all a report on my visit to eBay Live in Chicago June 19-21. And that will be coming along soon. But first I need to share some related news of a more serious nature.

An eBayer and fellow OSIRockStar, Janieruth was seriously hurt during a visit to the Chicago Art Museum with friends. As I understand it, she somehow fell ten feet over a banister or railing. She suffered serious brain injuries during the incident, but is bouncing back so well it is even surprising the doctors.

Janieruth's immediate family is with her at the hospital as well as others from the eBay and Rock Star community. Besides the weeks in the hospital to help heal her injuries she is facing an astronomical hospital bill that won't all be covered by insurance. In addition her family is facing major expenses staying near the hospital where she will remain for several weeks.

A fund has been set up to help with these medical expenses. As a friend of Janieruth's, I'm appealing to you, my readers, for anything you can manage to give, $10, $5, even a dollar.