AC Dickson is coming! AC Dickson is coming!
by acdickson
AC Dickson is coming home. After my recent move to Los Angeles, I'm already on my way back to Portland for a few weeks.
The reason? The AC Dickson: eBay PowerSeller seminar is being hosted by the Reed College Arts Week. If you missed the show during the PICA TBA festival and you live in Portland this will likely be your life chance to bear witness to the tranformative power of eBay, soak the inspirational wisdom, and get your very own AC Dickson PowerSelling zine autographed.
It's this Wednesday, March 2nd at 7pm. The cost? A mere $7. Now, rumor has it that Reed students are notoriously late. But be forewarned that AC does not wait around. You best be there before 7 to get parked and find a good seat.
For those of you who are going and haven't been to my seminar before, read no further. I'm going to ruin a few surprises. Suffice is to say, if you're life does not take a radical change for the better post 3/2/05, I will have failed and will consider another line of work. That's how strongly I believe in properties of the eBay tonic. Now stop reading.
For those of you who don't live in Portland... I can only ask, what are you doing to insure my visit to you fair hamlet? Bang on some doors, have a chat with the mayor, your local arts group, the hoiday inn, or the city council. AC isn't just going to mosey down the lane and set up a soapbox on main street. I have to be coaxed and coddled into coming. The British have the right idea. We're getting the royal treatment in Nottingham and Glasgow in May. But my fellow Americans, where is the red carpet. I can change you life, but only if you give me an ear.
But you can still participate. I've got 5 incredible auctions that are going end during the Reed seminar. Vintage jazz handbills from the New York City scene of the 1960's. The prize is a mini-poster from a show featuring both Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. Worth $100 easy. Now, I'm sure you want to bid on one or all of these auctions. Fantastic, if you can make a point of being around Wednesday night at 8pm Pacific Time, I'd sure appreciate you waiting to place your bid until the last minute. The last 15 seconds if you've got a quick internet connection. Why? So that a lecture hall of college students can see your user name light up the screen (hooked into a live eBay feed) and witness your bidding prowess. I thank you in advance.
Now, for those of you who are planning on a repeat visit to the world of AC (and I have gotten more than a few emails from returning faithfuls), be sure to clear your calendars, because next Sunday, March 7th, I'm going to be taking a high bidder on a thrift store tour of Portland. Yes, that's right. Lunch, a few thifites, and an afternoon of advice from AC. We can talk eBay, we talk about your recent breakup, or about where you're life is going. Ff you're the big winner, it's up to you. But if you haven't had the pleasure of a Sunday drive with AC, you haven't really lived yet, have you?
Posted on February 28, 2005 | Comments (3)
When not to eBay
by acdickson
Recently, my good friend Jason commented about some rare 1st editions (Red Pony, Old Man and the Sea) that he's aquired and wondered if there are times when eBay is not the best place to sell something. He mentioned alibris.com as a place he's heard about for books.
Books are funny breed of collectible. There are a few sites like alibris.com that allow book sellers to list their entire stock for sale indefinetly. Conversely, alibris is a powerful search engine that allows buyers to comb the entire world wide web (including eBay) for a particular book, even if it's not listed on the site.
The advantage to such sites are that you can find out who else is selling the particular edition of the book you have and price it according to the condition and current market. The disadvantage is that you have to sit back and wait, hoping that there are actually buyers out there willing to pay market value. The other problem, is these sites generally charge you a monthly fee based on the assumption that you're a bookseller and hence can afford a $50 monthly fee. Two other considerations, since the book might not sell for months you have to take your listings down everytime you go on a long vacation (you're expected to ship a book within 48 hours of sale), and like eBay, these sites like have feedback features to rate the reliability of sellers. As a newbie, you'll be suspect.
My advice is to do your research. For big name titles, there are likely a few versions of the first editon. Does it say First Edition on the title page? Which publisher put it out? Then get on eBay, alibris, and google and see how many of the exact same book are out there. See what these are worth. If there are some, and these are truly valuable, it might be worth signing up with alibris and undercutting the competition a bit.
But if you've got some truly rare books, especially if they're big titles from well known authors like Hemingway... I'd post them on eBay. The key is using a 10 day auction and doing a really good job with the titles (use the subtitle option), description (explain every single flaw on every single page) and many photos. Also, it's worth spending some extra money for some of the features eBay sells like second category and a gallery picture.
Now, don't just start this at $5 (unless you really won't be disappointed it they go for nada), think long and hard about the minimum you want for each book and start the auction there. If they don't sell, you can always lower your minimum, and even if you decide to keep a book you won't be out more than $10.
Once they're listed, you got some other homework to do. Get on the Hemingway fan club websites and tell people on the chat rooms about your Old Man and Sea auction. Spend a few hours finding the people that collect this stuff and email them. Search for completed auctions of other Hemingway first editions on eBay, email the past winners about your auction. Spread the word. Hell, if these are super rare contact NPR, AP and UPI. What's the worse they'll do, not cover the story?
The key is to start a full on frenzy. You want all the big book collectors out there to know about these auctions. And you want them to get competitive about whose going to win them. Collector communities are like little high schools, the guy who wins the big auction is like the starting quarterback. When AC sold the historic Jones American matchbox for $5,600.99 I had other collectors email me about the eventual winner. Let your auction anoint a new big man on campus.
Sell the sizzle, then the steak.
Posted on February 24, 2005 | Comments (5)
Golden Palace Casino eBay Power Bidders
by acdickson
The auctions for the naming rights to the Boston Fleet Center are over. If you read my last entry you saw I made some predictions. I was right on about half of it. The first round of auctions went just as I expected, started strong with the second non-Celtic game hitting the high mark, then gradually decreasing. The interesting thing is that the first couple auctions of the second round went for way too much, while the very last auction went for very little. A bunch of people evidently got outbid on the first round, fearing they'd lose out entirely, they bid up the first couple of the second batch. But whoever bide their time and held off for the last auction got the best deal.
But the big auction was the one and only day to have your name on the Fleet Center during a Celtic game. Not only is a Celtic game cooler than Disney on Ice, but you get television coverage of something being broadcast from an arena with your name. Not bad for $35,000. Who won it? Golden Palace Casino.
Does that name ring a bell? It should. They also won the grilled chesse sandwich with the Virgin Mary burn mark for $24,000. What's more they paid over $10,000 for a bumper sticker to help cover medical costs for a young boy suffering from cancer and (just in case you're getting teary eyed) $4,000 for the advertisement rights to the bellies of not one but TWO pregnant woman. Yes, there are woman out there who will put a corporate logo on thier bare bellies for the final month of thier pregnancy. For better or for worse, they sell that space on eBay. And when Golden Palace wins, they offer to fly them to sporting events like the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500 to make sure that belly gets seen.
What is Golden Palace Casino? An online gambling website that is using their entire $200,000 marketing budget to bid on eBay "experiences" like these. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Type eBay into Google News and half of the articles will mention Golden Palace Casino. In fact, one of the news items I came across is about how another online gambling site is suing one of the recently pregnant woman because even though they outbid Golden Palace for her belly ad space, she sold it to Golden Palace. Why? GPC offered to make her a spokeswoman. That should be familiar as well. They hired the woman who auctioned off the grilled chesse with a burn mark of the Virgin Mary to travel around the country in a tour bus and preach the good luck of the grilled cheese sandwich.
Ethically, you may take exception with Golden Palace. But they have taken eBay bidding and winning to a wholly new place. AC can only stand back reverentially, and hope he thinks up something he can get them to bid on.
Posted on February 18, 2005 | Comments (1)
eBay on Ice
by acdickson
There's a great set of auctions up on eBay right now.
The owners of the Fleet Center, the Boston arena where the once proud Celtics and currently striking Bruins play is up for name grabs. Delaware North Companies is looking for a long term naming partner, but is offering the chance to test drive the naming rights for a day. They've got 13 days up for auction, the winner gets their name on the arena for 24 hours.
This is an exquisite use of eBay. How else would you sell this experience? At Christie's? This is a great publicity opportunity for the Fleet Center, eBay, and the 13 eventual winners. Plus, all the money goes to charity.
Here's a full list of the days they are auction the name for.
February 16th is as of this writing up to $33,000. By far the highest. This is for a day when the Celtics are home playing the Memphis Grizzlies.
February 18th is for a day when Disney on Ice brings the Finding Nemo show to town. Understandably, this is a mere $3,250.
In fact, of the 13 days that are up for auction, only the first is for a Celtics game. 9 are for the Disney on Ice Finding Nemo show, and in fact 4 are for a day when no event is taking place at all.
I'd like to see a few more Celtics game in the mix, and maybe a U2 concernt. But still, AC loves to see eBay used in such a creative way. If you're around to watch these auctions bid, it will be interesting to see if the naming rights to the Finding Nemo days get more expensive or less expensive as the last days end. It's an interesting supply and demand question. If you really want to have the Fleet Center named after your mom, or a new toy you're trying to get kids to buy, do you go after the first Nemo day, hoping to get an early bargain as other bidders bide their time? Do you bid on a middle day hoping that the big spenders already got one and everyone else is waiting to see where prices go? Or do you hold off for one of the last ones and hope there are only 10 bidders willing to go higher than what you're willing to spend and the prices drop off?
To add another wrinkle, 7 auctions pop off in three days, the other 6 two days later. Very smart listing theory on the part of the Fleet Center. Give people who lose out on the first round a chance to step back and reconsider if the publicity isn't worth shelling out a little more than they had planned.
If you're an armchair eBay analyst, which I expect you are, it's worth predicting the bidding trend on these. As a buyer or a seller, it's good to have an understanding of bidding psychology.
What does AC predict? It goes without saying that the Celtics game on the 16th is going to go for a couple hundred thousand.
As for the other 12 days, I predict the first 2 or 3 will go really high, then they'll drop in price steadily as the last auctions of the first round ends (the last few that end soon are for days when nothing is doing at the arena). For the last 6 auctions, I think the first one (Feb. 22) will go pretty high, then they'll drop down until the last 1 or 2 go for as much as the very first 2 or 3. In fact, if I had to bet, I'd say the highest bid for a day outside the Celtics game will be either the second Finding Nemo up for grabs or the very last.
So, if you're reading this and want to win a day, I'd bid on February 25th. That's the sleeper, tucked into the middle of the second day, nuzzled around some non-Disney on Ice days. You might be able to slip into that one for less than 10 grand. We'll see.
Feel free to weigh in with your own predictions. And anytime you find or hear about these kinds of auctions on eBay, please let AC know.
Posted on February 11, 2005 | Comments (10)
Tomfoolery on the Cyber Supermarket
by acdickson
My brother sent me this great story about an Australian woman selling fictional cases of Duff Beer on eBay. Seems she made out pretty well, until Johnny Law caught up with her.
Along a similar 'tip', Nathan recently emailed me about selling tickets to an upcoming U2 concert that from a profit margin standpoint would make even AC's top ten list of all-time auction victories.
Nathan wondered if he had violated any anti-scalping laws. Near as I can tell, none that are enforced. Go to any professional sporting event and the scalpers are usually in rock throwing distance from the cops.
In fact, I met a young man who supported himself for years traversing the country supporting himself selling concert tickets on eBay out a VW bus. eBay has shut my auctions down for a variety of ticky-tak violations, so it appears they are all too happy with their cut of online intrastate ticket sales.
Type U2 eBay into google news and you'll get a gaggle of recent news stories. Nathan is not alone. Conservatively, the U2 corporation looks to be missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars of eBay inflation. But some people are giving love a bad name, many of the tickets selling on eBay appear to be forged. But as long as you're too legit to quit, Nathan, keep on keeping on.
The big secret for you would be eBay ticket scalpers ... get in the fan clubs. Super fans get a chance to order tickets before the regular fans. Shhh.
Posted on February 9, 2005 | Comments (0)
Bidding on eBay, revealed at last
by acdickson
AC checking in. Landed in and loving Los Angeles. Lots of work to be done down here, thrift stores to be scoped out, post offices to be tested for average wait time and worker friendliness, DSL issues to be resolved with Earthlink. But for the first few days, I'm just going to enjoy the new digs. I expect to take a journey up to Griffith Observatory manana. (That Spanish for tomorrow, eBay is my expertise, but I don't like to restrict my teachings).
But that doesn't mean I can't impart a little eBay knowledge in the time being.
Weeks ago, Adam asked me to articulate how bidding on eBay works. He understands it, but like most of us found it difficult to explain it to someone else. Adam, I feel you, so difficult is such an explanation that I neglect to cover that in my seminar. But I'm going to give it a shot.
When an eBay item hasn't been bid on yet, lets imagine it's an obscure but rare 7" record from the band Primal Horde –– you have two options. Either you bid the minimum, let's say $5. Or you bid what you're willing to pay. If you really want it, you might bid $25. Either way, the high bid of that item is now $5. Even if you bid $25, your bid is only $5. And what's more, you likely won't pay that amount exactly. Huh? How's that? Follow along.
Now someone else wants to bid. They see that they have to bid at least $5.25. Let's say they bid $6. If you only bid $5, they now have the high bid at $5.25. You get an email saying you've been outbid. But if you put in that $25 bid, they will get an message saying that they've been outbid by you for $6.25. You're still high bid. This other person really wants the record, so they bid again. This time, they get sneaky. They bid $10.01. Sorry Charlie, you (my dear reader) still have the high bid at $10.26. Now this person is really angry. They're pissed, this record was meant to be theirs and since Mommy and Daddy are subsidizing their bohemian existence, they bid $500. Yeah, 500 freaking dollars.
Now Mr. Trust Fund has the high bid at $25.25. You'll now get a email saying you've been outbid. The only way for you to get this record from the spoiled brat in question is to bid over $500. But you don't know this. You'll just have to keep upping your bid, hoping you get the high bid. Maybe you try $30. Nope, they've got the high bid for $30.25. Then you try $55. Still no dice, they have the high bid for $55.50. At this point you give up.
Assuming no one else bids, the record sells for $55.50. But let's say that at the last minute, the lead singer of the Horde, destitute with no money to his name, but with internet access and false illusions that if this record sells for an obscene amount of money his old band will get invited to play a reunion tour... this guy puts in a bid of $10,000 for the record. Well, now the high bid is $501. The only way for the singer to artificially bid up the record is to have a friend bid $11,000. At that point the high bid would be about $10,005.
As a seller, you never know how much a high bidder was willing to pay. That's what makes a candle auction like eBay different from a English or live auction. There is no going once, going twice, sold. If someone puts in a huge bid (as dealers and rich folks often do), and you smartly wait until the closing minutes to put you bid in (if you bid early, you've put your cards on the table and the chances of snaking something for cheap at the last minute diminishes) you likely will only a few shots to bid. In the last minute you might put a bid of $30 for that record, then $55, then $100 as the last second ticks, you're out of luck. Maybe you're running auction fever and are willing to pay $150 now that you know you'll never again find and possess this rare record, but you're out of luck. It's over.
What's even more likely is that you'll have the high bid of $5 until the closing seconds and the rich kid will put his $500 bid in and win it from you for $25.25. And you won't even have a chance to counter bid. You've been snipped. As far as sellers are concerned, a live auction is going to make you more money. You want that back and forth bidding until one person just can't spend any more money. But unless you've got a world class art auction that Sotheby's covets, eBay's 125 million users is you're best shot selling.
Posted on February 7, 2005 | Comments (15)