by J. Charles Strinz

Get control of your finances -- and your life!

Now you can build a lifestyle customized for you.

If you like your present job, you can have fun in your spare time while salting away extra cash for little luxuries, stock market investments, college funds, or inheritance trusts.

If you're tired of working for somebody else, you can start building a business on your own terms.

If you already have your own business -- or if you're a high-level executive in a large corporation -- you can build your traditional customer base while turning excess inventory from loss leaders to profit centers.

And if you are in the enviable position of "just starting out," you can take advantage of the most exciting change in commerce since the coming of the industrial revolution. More than many of us, you are in a special place at a special time, because you can base your entire economic future on an understanding of knowledge some of us will never fully appreciate -- even the people who helped invent the Internet!

I'm talking about using your existing resources -- whoever you are -- to make money through the hundreds of Internet auction sites available online today.

Let me tell you a bit about myself, about Internet auctions, and why I believe they're the "next big thing," the "wave of the future," and your own personal and unique "better mousetrap," all rolled into one.

Some of you may know me already from my work with T.J. Rohleder and M.O.R.E., Inc. Or perhaps the person who sent you this report knows me, or is a regular visitor to one of my web sites (all indexed to http://www.strinz.com/creative). Perhaps you even know me from my pioneering work helping to develop online communications in the early 80's and 90's.

For the sake of the people who have heard all this before at M.O.R.E., Inc. seminars or through their tapes, I'll keep this short.

In 1983, after working as a radio announcer and advertising copywriter, I set up a computer and a modem, called 20 mortgage bankers every day, posted their lending rates and points on my computer, and sold the information to real estate professionals.

(Many of the mortgage bankers were also subscribers to the service. In addition, all mortgage bankers were charged to make their information available. So I was getting paid from both ends. But I said I'd keep this brief, so I'll leave that story for another time....)

At that early date, real estate and financial professionals were some of the few people who had the equipment necessary to use my service. In other words, they were about the only folks with modems. But I could see that the world was about to change. And I wanted to be ready.

After building my mortgage data business for a couple of years, I sold it to another company that paid me a monthly dividend. At that point, I realized how much I enjoyed going to the mailbox once a month for my check, taking it to the bank, and considering my work done for another month.

I have experienced this pleasure again and again since then, with regular payments in cash and services for time invested in building Internet and other online businesses.

I'm giving you this brief history so you will, perhaps, believe that I know whereof I speak in these matters.

Because now, I have launched a new business that has the potential to make all the others pale in comparison. And you can do it, too. I can show you how.

Internet auctions represent that rare vortex where many pieces of an economic picture come together.

Look at the picture this way:

Of the hundreds of Internet auction web sites -- a phenomenon so new that many people are unaware of it, yet it represents billions and billions of sales dollars today -- the most prominent now are probably eBay (the acclaimed founder of the phenomenon), Yahoo!, and amazon.com. Mailorder companies, rental agencies, travel corporations and, in fact, practically any sort of business you can imagine is joining in.

Meanwhile, because Internet auctions are so easy to set up and use, small companies and individuals of just about any age can enter the world of this high-profile, high-paying commerce vehicle.

There's a ready market for everybody out there. It's you. It's me. It's everyone else. Because today, the few people who do not own computers have access to them at work, at public libraries, and at the homes of their friends and family members.

We are on the verge of eliminating the proverbial middleman. And while he may not be dead yet, let's just say he probably shouldn't go buying any green bananas.

First, you need Internet access and an email account. America Online is a reasonable place to begin. It isn't my favorite Internet Service Provider (ISP) for a variety of reasons. But the software is free, and it's available almost everywhere (on CD-ROMs inserted in magazines, at bookstores, probably even in your U.S. Mail box from time to time). Some local and long distance phone companies offer good ISP deals, too, like AT&T's Worldnet service.

What if you don't own a computer? Many public libraries have free public terminals these days. Ask the librarian for help the first time. Then contact one of the groups that offer free email boxes (http://www.yahoo.com, http://www.juno.com, http://www.geocities.com and others).

Okay, you're all set. The first thing you do after logging onto the World Wide Web is not only easy, it's a lot of fun.

Go to an auction site and poke around.

As I said, there are hundreds of auction sites on the web. For the purposes of this report, I'm going to step you through the process using eBay, one of the oldest and most popular Internet auction sites. This is not a product endorsement; it is an observation.

The eBay web site address is http://www.ebay.com. Go there now.

The home page will present you with several options. One of them is SEARCH. Let's start there.

Whoa! So many options, what should you do?

Don't panic. Fill in one of them -- say, maybe, DESCRIPTION. Yeah, that's the ticket, because you can probably come up with a word or so to describe something you're interested in.

In my case, I like Frisbees. I collect them. For years, I thought I was one of the only people with this obsession. My wife will testify that our basement is cluttered with boxes and bags filled with hundreds and hundreds of flying discs. How could there be anybody else like me out there?

Imagine my surprise when I entered "Frisbee" in the DESCRIPTION blank, pressed SUBMIT (at the bottom of the web page) ... and saw over 500 Frisbee items for sale!

Go ahead. Think for a moment. What is it you like to collect? What do your friends and family members like to collect? Post cards? Unicorns? Political memorabilia? Or maybe Frisbees?

Whatever it is, you can probably find it on eBay. And if you can't today, you may be able to tomorrow, because everything you see on eBay today will be gone next week, replaced by something else. The auctions last only one week at most.

As I write this, the number of transactions taking place on eBay EVERY MINUTE is approaching 1,000. That's one thousand people buying something and one thousand people selling something. Every minute! At costs to the seller that are as low as 25 cents per transaction, plus a commission of only 5% in most cases, and no more than 8.75% in any case.

(I told you the middleman was still there. But he's under control, as you can see.)

Now I'm drifting into numbers, and isn't time for that yet. Let's keep it simple. Enter a one or two word description of something. Like "Frisbee" (without the quote marks, of course). Press SUBMIT.

Look at all those Frisbee listings! The ones at the top have been on auction for the longest, usually one week, and they're going going ... gone!

Each item has a number, a very brief description (e.g., "World Class 1987 Pro Frisbee signed by champions" or "Mini Frisbee pack -- MINT"), followed by information about the bid asked, the closing date, and the number of bids so far.

Some have little icons or words next to them, like NEW or PIC or a little picture frame or a camera. For now, click on one with a camera icon after the description.

Here's almost everything you might want to know about the item or, at the very least, a place to start.

You'll see what the seller is asking as an initial bid, the amount bid so far, how many bids have been received, how long the auction will run (in days and hours or, if the auction is about to close, in minutes), where the item is physically located, who is selling the item, and a number of other bits of information, many with hyperlinks to more specific facts on a given topic (such as the seller's Feedback Profile, which tells you what other eBay users have to say about the seller).

Below this, you'll see the item's description. It could be anything from "Old Frisbee; flies good" to multiple screens describing the item in intricate detail. Because you picked one with a camera icon after the description, it will feature a picture of the item.

Finally, at the bottom of the last screen, you'll see an area giving you the option to place a bid. You can't do that yet, because you aren't registered. But that won't take long.

The majority of the prominent Internet auction sites let you look at items on auction as described in the previous section. Likewise, most have similar processes to set you up with an account. Essentially, this is your "identity" in an Internet auction setting. Just like many traditional, "real world" auctions, you need to give the auctioneer your name and address, then the auctioneer gives you a number to pin to your shirt or a numbered paddle to hold up when placing your bid.

Unlike traditional auctions, your Internet auction identity makes it possible to talk to other members of the community. This has its practical aspects. For example, it gives you the ability to ask specific questions about a particular item before you place a bid. This is not only quite common, it is greatly encouraged, as it limits the possibility of disappointment, either on the part of the buyer or the seller.

In addition to its practicality, you will literally become part of a new group of friends and neighbors. If you're shy, don't worry; people won't bother you if you don't want to be bothered. But if you collect, say, Frisbees (like somebody you could mention), you may hear from other people with similar interests. Before long, you may be able to tell your spouse, "Hey, I'm not the only crazy Frisbee collector, there's a guy in Cincinnati that has a roomful of discs," at which time your spouse may give you the old eye-roll and look away, saddened at the thought of another spouse somewhere with an even crazier mate.

What I'm saying is, it's fun to find other people who share your interests, passions, and foibles. Registering with an Internet auction is a fun, easy, free way to get going.

Did I say "free?" Yeah, that's what I said. Registering is almost always free. If it isn't, you probably don't want to register. Shucks, why should you, when so many auction sites are free? Like eBay.

Now let's get you registered.

Because Internet auction sites are constantly studied by their providers, various processes change slightly from time to time in an effort to improve the service. So I'm going to give you this in rather general terms.

You will always be asked for your name, address, city, state, zip, etc. etc. etc.

In some cases, you may be asked for your credit card number. While I don't recommend that you give it out to just anybody, if you are using a mainstream Internet auction site, I think it's worth it. The risk of someone hacking your card number is surprisingly minimal, much lower than if you placed a catalog order using your voice and a standard cordless phone. And it can speed things along later, should you become an active seller.

You will also be asked for your email address. This is a must, not an option.

Your email can be your identity. In other words, when you buy or sell something, you may be identified as "cstrinz@aol.com" or whatever your email address is. Or you may wish to use a handle. This way, you can protect your email address from people who are not members of the eBay community. Another registered user can get your email address and you, of course, can get the email address of any other community member who uses his or her alias as their identity. In my view, the only advantage of a pseudonym is that it can limit your exposure to email spam. But not by much. Otherwise, a handle is like a vanity license plate on your car. If you want to be NUTS4BOATS or GrandmaJane or whatever, that's up to you.

When you have filled in all of the fields to your satisfaction, then reviewed it all once more to make sure it's what you want, go ahead and submit it.

You're registered! Well, almost, anyway.

Three more things need to happen:

eBay (the auction site in this case) needs to process your registration, assign you a special one-time identity code and send it to your email box.

You need to retrieve it from your email box.

Then you need to log back into eBay and enter the one-time identity code. Essentially, you are saying, "Yes, this is me, I did fill out that registration form, thank you for making sure it was really me, and now I want to join the community."

(Incidentally, all of this is explained in greater, more cogent detail on your computer screen as you go through the process. I'm telling you now so you'll know what to expect. Don't feel like you need to memorize what you're reading here.)

Now you're in. After using your identity code, you can throw it away and pick a new password, which you'll use whenever you want to sell to, buy from, or learn more about another eBay community member.

How long does it take? Well, the registration form is quick and easy. So is the confirmation, when you log back in and enter your one-time identity code.

The part in between -- where you check your email to get your one-time identity code -- is a bit more iffy. If your email service is really fast, it may be in your mailbox literally seconds after you complete the initial registration. Yay! Good for you! If your ISP is a bit slow or has an inferior email server, well, that's another story. Check after a few minutes, or a few hours. If it's not there the next day, it may be time to look for a new ISP.

While you're waiting for your registration to come through -- or after you get it -- you can take a little side-trip of discovery. Once again, I'll use eBay's auction site for my example, but other large Internet auction houses are similar.

Now we're going to expand on the fun part of what you've learned so far.

We're going window shopping.

Remember when you clicked on SEARCH and entered "Frisbee?" Or maybe you entered something else, like "railroad" or "model railroad" or "HO scale rail" (notice how those are progressively more detailed, but still very short; the first would bring up many more items than the last).

If you haven't started the search for something you like to collect, or shop for, or look at, do so now. If you can't think of anything (which is highly unlikely), pretend you just got off a train at the Bahnhofsplatz in Zurich, Switzerland. It's Sunday. All of the shops are closed. But you can wander from window to window, looking at the elegant displays of rare and expensive watches, each more beautiful or interesting than the last. Go ahead. Enter "watch" if you can't think of anything else.

As I mentioned, there's a picture that accompanies everything listed with a camera icon after its title. You can explore the meanings of the other icons if you like, or you can continue window shopping. The pictures that come with the camera icons are like the windows on the streets of Zurich. Except you don't have to walk around. You just point and click. Along with the pictures, you might learn something interesting from the description. Perhaps you'll realize that a watch on auction was made by the same company that manufactured that clunky old watch pin your Aunt Ethyl gave you before she passed on. You never liked that watch (you never liked Aunt Ethyl really, either). But here you see a similar watch that was put up for auction at an asking price of $300, and it's already been bid up to $3,000. Perhaps you misjudged poor old Aunt Ethyl.

In some cases, you'll find pictures even where there is no camera icon. Sometimes, you'll find multiple pictures, or links to more detailed information, all within the description. Once again, go ahead. Poke around. Remember, you can usually get back to a previous page by pressing your BACK button on your browser. If all else fails, you can (with most browsers) click on one of your browser's pull-down menus, usually something like GO, and select a previous page you recognize.

Wait a minute. I think I heard something. It sounded like, "You've got mail." That's probably your one-time identity code. Resist its drawing power for just a moment, I want to show you one more neat way to window shop.

Go to any eBay web page (http://www.ebay.com will do), and click on SITE MAP. You're looking at the framework of eBay, sort of like looking at its skeleton to see what parts are where so you can get to them quickly. Remember this place. Come back to it if you ever get lost.

Look for Gallery. Click on it.

Select a category. As you can see, there are many, many to choose from. Pick one. If there are sub-categories after it, pick one of them, and so forth. Try Collectibles and then look for Wrist Watches, or try Toys and then Beanie Babies (the categories change periodically, although more are added than removed).

Now, THIS is WINDOW SHOPPING!

You'll see row after row of small pictures of items from the category you selected. Dozens of watches, scores of Frisbees, hundreds of Beanie Babies, thousands of Pez dispensers! Where do you start?

Just click on the picture of the first item that strikes your fancy. You can jump back here later to look at the others.

After a while, you'll probably not be tired of this, but you'll remember that obnoxiously mellow-voiced lady who told you to check your mail. It's not nice to keep a lady waiting too long. Besides, your one-time identity code is probably waiting for you, too.

Yup, there's your message from eBay, subject: eBay Registration.

Follow the instructions. They list your email address, which you probably already know by heart (jot it down if you don't), and a confirmation code (which you will use one time to identify yourself). Write that down, or block mark it and copy it to your Notepad if you prefer.

Now go back on the web and head for the registration confirmation section. Rather than give that to you here, I'll let you get it from the message they sent you, as these sorts of things tend to change and I don't want to mislead you. Besides, it's right there in front of you, and you may be able to take the next step with one click on the web address they give you. (If you're using WebTV equipment, there's a supplemental link at the bottom of the message that will take you to special information specifically for WebTV users.)

Where prompted, enter your email address (and/or handle) and password.

You're in! Welcome to your new neighborhood.

The next time you check your email, you'll probably see another message from eBay, saying your registration process is complete. It will include one or two other helpful links. Explore them when you feel like it. You'll learn a lot, and undoubtedly expand your perspective on the whole Internet auction phenomenon.

Okay. Take a breath. You've come a long way. And, surprisingly, in very little time.

You know how to look for things you want or need to buy.

You're maybe a bit overwhelmed by the range of choices you have. Imagine your great great grandmother stumbling out of a thatched cottage into the Mall of America in Minnesota (or, actually, any modern indoor mall). Most likely, the first thing she would do is fall over in a dead faint. When she woke up, she wouldn't know where to begin.

Well, you do. Begin anywhere. Don't plan to go everywhere. Enjoy looking around in the windows.

Because you're in a community, and all of the shopkeepers are friendly. In fact, it's less like your grandmother coming here than like you going back to the town where your grandma grew up, at the time she was a child. It's like Saturday night on Smallville Main Street. The sun is down, but it's still warm, every shop has its doors wide open, you can stop in and say hi, ask questions, even talk about the weather once you get your business done. These are your new friends and neighbors.

They're also your new potential customers. You have things they want to buy. But nobody knows that yet.

You ought to sell something.

But first, you ought to buy something.

What if you wanted to open a hardware store in Smallville? Naturally, you would look around at other hardware stores in small towns, maybe ask a few questions, do some general research, make arrangements to stock products.

Let's say you have a direct line on products (your uncle died and left you his inventory), but you're not really familiar with how people actually buy hardware.

That's where you are right now on eBay.

The solution? Simple. Buy something.

Now, don't be timid. If you really want to learn how to do this, you have to invest your time and at least a little money. You can probably find something you want that costs only a dollar or two.

Bid on it.

In my case, I saw a moderately-damaged Pluto Platter, one of the very first Frisbees, priced at a starting bid of $5, with four bidders already, and a current price of $20. So I went to the bottom of the page, entered my bid, identified myself, confirmed my bid, and I was committed to paying $20 if mine was the high bid. (In addition, I agreed to pay $3.20 shipping fee, bringing the total to $23.20 if mine was the high bid; that was outlined in the description, which you should always read thoroughly before bidding, and take the time to ask the seller any special questions you might have.)

Do the same thing now. If you pick something that is about to go off auction (like in a few minutes or hours), chances are better that yours will be the high bid.

(If the item you wish to buy is part of a "Dutch Auction" or if there is a "Reserve Price," choose something else. Ignore the "maximum bid" field for now, too. I'll come back to those and other variations from the norm at a later point in this report.)

Now, you wait. You can look around at other auction items. Or go back to the SITE MAP and see what else is on eBay. (eBay Life is interesting and entertaining. It visits different eBay issues, offers advice, and showcases the stories and thoughts of different users, often telling how to make a lot of money or save a lot of time through eBay. This is a good place to get ongoing hints and ideas you can modify for your own endeavors.)

One thing I like to do is find out more about the other eBay users. Go back to the seller of the item you just bid on. Next to his or her handle or email address, you'll see a number and maybe an icon. If the icon is a pair of sunglasses, that indicates this is a new user, or a user who recently changed his or her identity. You, in fact, have sunglasses next to your identity. (By the way, you may not see yourself there immediately; it sometimes takes a bit for eBay to "recreate" this page after a bid.)

If you see a star, it indicates the person has been involved in a certain number of transactions. You can click on the star to see its ranking.

I like to click on the number. This shows me what other eBay users have to say about the seller. A chart indicates the number of positive, neutral, and unfavorable comments that were reported recently. In most cases, you'll find they're at least 99% positive. That's another of the wonders of the Internet auction phenomenon; it's self-policing, and the community tolerates only goodhearted people, so the rest are generally shamed out or choose to pull their scams elsewhere. Naturally, no community is perfect. But with eBay's Feedback Profiles, this one is pretty close.

Sometimes, you'll see a ME icon next to a buyer's or seller's name. This is a link to a personal page that the user has set up to tell more about him/herself. If you're like me, you'll agree that this is a neat part of eBay. It's fun to find out more about other Frisbee collectors. Sometimes, I learn more about some of the Frisbees in my collection. Or I'll share information with other collectors. In fact, on my own eBay ME page, I have a link to a web site showcasing many of my favorite Frisbees in my collection. Where else but on the Internet would you find a virtual Frisbee museum? Where else but through an Internet auction site like eBay could I add to my collection without leaving home?

Now that I've told you to buy something, I'm going to give you a warning: Don't buy more than you can afford. Yeah, yeah, I know I said you could find something to buy, and I meant it. But this Internet auction stuff is addictive! I mean, it's soooo easy and soooo cool and, when you get right down to it, it's soooo much fun once you get started. Just keep that bottom line in check. You don't want to get carried away buying other people's stuff. You want them to get carried away buying yours.

That part about getting caught up in the auction that I mentioned? Throughout the process, you're encouraged to do just that. You will want to learn how to make these noises yourself, once you're a seller. You'll want to learn phrases like "winning bidder." If yours was the high bid, you won! That's really true, you won the auction, everyone else who bid is a loser. While you shouldn't let it go to your head -- too much, anyway -- you can smile a bit and feel that strange joy for the first time. It will feel good to win auctions in the future, but it will never feel like it does right now. Now that you learned that you bought an antique "I Like Ike" campaign button for $2.35, you'll feel a buzz up your spine that will never quite buzz the same way ever again.

So ... now what?

Now, you contact the seller. You click on the identity next to Seller and your browser (if it's like most browsers) will set up an email message to the seller. Put something like "eBay auction" in the subject area, then write a message along the following lines:

Hi. My name is Charles Strinz. I was the high bidder on your portable sewing machine. My address is Box 555, Winston, Minnesota 55888. Where should I send your check?

It's possible that the seller has already sent email to you as well. If not, the seller should respond to your email within a couple of days or less. If you haven't heard back in three days, send another polite message, and be sure to mention it's the second time you corresponded.

In the seller's email message, you'll learn where to send your money. The seller may prefer money orders (most sellers will ship your item on the day they receive your money order, or a few days later if you pay by check). Some sellers take credit cards. If they accept only credit cards, that will be spelled out in the item description -- yet another reason you should read the descriptions thoroughly before you bid.

Now, it's up to you. Get that check or money order in the mail. Or send the seller your credit card number (via email, or snailmail if you're timid). The sooner the seller gets your money, the sooner you'll get the item you purchased. And, the sooner you'll get a positive comment in your Feedback Profile.

That doesn't mean "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." By all means, complain if an item is broken when it arrives, or if it took a month to get to you and you're one zip code away. Send email to the seller first to make sure it isn't an honest mistake. Then, if you're displeased, share your displeasure.

However, if everything arrives as it should, quickly, and after a friendly email exchange, put a glowing comment in the seller's Feedback Profile. Sure, sure, we should expect the best in people, and there is a school of thought that says civility deserves no praise just because incivility deserves scorn. I, for one, do not adhere to that view in the flesh-and-blood world. And it's totally inappropriate in cyberspace, where any small comment can be misconstrued.

You've probably heard of "flaming," right? That's where one person sends email with an observation and the other person writes "Well, I like that!" meaning that he really likes it, and the first person thinks it means "WELL! I like THAT!" as in "THAT was RUDE!" and the first person writes back, "Well, if you don't like it, you can jolly well fold if five ways and shove it where the moon don't shine!" and the second person is perplexed but angry and writes back "Just WHERE do YOU GET OFF! I will NOT HAVE YOU TALKING OR WRITING TO ME IN THAT TONE!" (notice how they're both shouting now), and the first person writes .... Well, you get the idea.

Civility pays online. In fact, it pays dividends. When you leave a favorable comment about the person who sold you your first item purchased on eBay, that person will most likely (especially if you ask) leave a favorable comment in your Feedback Profile. So there you are. You haven't even sold anything yet, and already there's one favorable comment listed next to your identity, ready for all to see when you put something up for auction.

Which you're going to do next. Right after I address some frustrations you may have encountered if yours was not the winning bid.

Remember that Pluto Platter Frisbee I told you about? I've wanted one of those for a long time. I have a Mars Platter, which came after the Pluto Platter, and may even have been a knockoff because ... but I digress.

It wasn't like this was the most important Frisbee in the world. I just thought, hey, that would be nice to have.

I checked back several times after I placed my bid. The last time I checked was about an hour before it was slated to go off auction. Then, shortly after the auction ended, I was writing email to a friend, telling him about the Pluto Platter I had bought, my first eBay auction purchase ever.

One nice thing about eBay is you can copy the Internet address of any given item, then send it to somebody else via email. So I interrupted myself in my note to my friend and jumped to the item on eBay so I could copy its Internet address.

I can't describe the chagrin I felt when I saw that someone else had purchased it for $20.50.

That's $20.50! A mere half buck more than I had bid! And the bid had come in when only 20 minutes were left!!!

I had been happy. Then I was suddenly saddened. I felt an unreasoning, overriding darkness.

I had been sniped.

Now, sniping isn't all bad. At the time, I felt like it was, because, geeze, all of a sudden I really wanted that Pluto Platter! And I felt a small smidgen of self-loathing because I was getting all worked up over a stupid, beat-up, child's toy that had no real meaning in the greater scheme of life.

And yet, I was ... well, I was more upset than I wanted to be.

I had felt frustration earlier, when I bid on an item that had a Reserve Price. (See, I told you I'd come back to that.)

I had bid on another Frisbee. The initial asking bid was $1.00. That looked fine. So I bid $1.00. I went through the whole process of placing a bid -- which isn't that long, but it does take a measurable amount of time, especially if the Internet happens to be overloaded -- and I was told that I hadn't met the Reserve Price.

Reserve Price! What's the danged durn deal!?!! Didn't you say the first bid would be $1.00?

Yup. But with a Reserve Price, the seller can put the asking bid low, just to generate some interest. But actually, the seller won't accept anything less than a higher price. For example, the seller may be auctioning an antique wooden grandfather's clock. He thinks it might be worth more, but he's willing to accept $100 for it. He puts it up for auction at a $50 asking bid and tells eBay he won't accept bids of less than $100.

Somebody like me comes along and is maybe willing to pay $50. The bid doesn't meet the Reserve Price, so it's rejected. I think, well, I dunno, maybe the Reserve Price is $60. So I go through the bidding process again. Nope, still not high enough. Maybe he'd take $65. Nope. By now, I don't want it at any price, because I'm mad about wasting my time. And I still don't know how much he'll accept.

Why would someone offer an item with a Reserve Price?

For one thing, the item's listing now shows a bid of $65. It also says that the reserve price has not been met yet. Somebody else might -- MIGHT -- come along and say, "Whoa, somebody was willing to bid $65 for that? By golly, I'll bid $100." Magically, that's the right number. But I don't really believe in magic.

In flesh-and-blood auctions, it's customary for the auctioneer to start the bidding low, to get the juices flowing. He or she will work the crowd in the way we all know (even if only from old Warner Brothers cartoons where Mel Blanc imitates the guy selling tobacco). It's hypnotic.

Well, usually. Sometimes, an item that is clearly worth $100 will only reach a bid of $10. In such a case, the auctioneer will pull the seller aside and ask if she's really willing to accept that amount. If so, it's sold. If not, the auctioneer may pull the seller and potential buyer aside, like a judge retiring to his quarters to negotiate a compromise between a prosecutor and a defending attorney. He'll ask the seller to say -- or maybe write down -- the lowest amount she's willing to take, and do likewise to get the buyer's highest offer. If they're close, the auctioneer may offer a compromise price. Then everybody shakes hands and the auction moves on.

During all of this, the people who sell coffee and donuts are making money on the folks who are milling around, waiting for the auction to resume. It's a good time to talk to neighbors, swap stories, and just socialize. That's the way it works in the real world.

But that's not the way it works at a cyberauction. In my humble opinion, and it isn't shared by all, Reserve Pricing on Internet auction sites doesn't work. Perhaps someone will convince me otherwise. Perhaps it will be a thing of the past by the time you read this.

Your one reasonable tool for combating the frustration of bidding on an item with a Reserve Price is this:

Your friendly neighborhood proxy robot.

A proxy robot is like a guy who goes to an auction for you. Let's say you collect civil war memorabilia, and you hear about the civil war memorabilia auction to end all civil war memorabilia auctions taking place in New Orleans. Among other items up for auction is a genuine fleece-lined leather calfskin boot worn by U. S. Lieutenant G. K. "Skippy" Wexburg (of the Soddenberry Wexburgs) shortly before he met an unfortunate end attempting to scale a fence at the outpost of a rather mean bull with obvious confederate leanings.

The trouble (in addition to the overdrawn quality of the foregoing narrative) is that you live in New York, and you have to go to work.

But you have a friend in New Orleans. You can send him in your place. You call your friend, and you say to him, "Friend, I want the Wexburg boot on auction tomorrow. Start bidding at $10. I'm willing to pay $105, but no more. Do the best you can."

Your friend goes to the auction. The bidding is tense. It quickly goes from $10 to $20 to $45 to $90. Your friend bids $95 (for you). Someone shouts $97. Another says $99. Your friend says $100. The auctioneer calls once, twice, and it's sold to you, by proxy through your friend, for $100. You said you would be willing to pay no more than $105. Nobody but you and your proxy knew that. You got it at $100, $5 less than you might have spent with a clear conscious.

Your proxy robot is that friend in New Orleans. Tell him how much you want to spend. That's the "maximum bid" field (one of the parts of the bidding process I told you to ignore during your initial bid).

So, in the case of the antique wooden grandfather's clock -- the one that had an asking bid of $50 but a(n unknown) Reserve Price of $100? It makes sense for me to use a proxy robot, and tell it I'm willing to bid, say, $65. Okay, that's not enough to meet the Reserve Price. I can either decide not to pursue it, or I can rethink my bid and maybe up it to a maximum of $105. If that's what I'm really willing to pay, it saves me a lot of time to tell my proxy robot up front. The Reserve Price is met. If nobody else bids, I get it for $100.

Likewise, when I bid on the Pluto Platter, I should have said I was willing to pay $30 (because I was). Then, when the sniper came in at the last minute to snipe the deal away from me, he or she may have bid $19.50 only to see that I was now bidding $20 (thanks to my proxy robot). Maybe the sniper would have placed his or her own maximum bid then at $25, just to see if I was serious. The response would have been my bid for $25.50, again thanks to my proxy robot. At this point, the sniper might walk away, and I get the Pluto Platter for $25.50. Or the sniper may put in a bid maximum of $30 and win the auction, in which case I can think, "Gee, I'm glad I didn't bid $19, because at least I have the small misanthropic satisfaction of knowing I cost the sniper an extra $10.50." (After all, the love of revenge is only human. And this is more like retribution.)

One more word on sniping. It's also human nature, when presented with a list of options, to act on those that are most convenient. This person who sniped "my" Pluto Platter may well have logged onto eBay for the first time all week just as the auction was about to end. Instead of waiting until the last minute to bid, as I first imagined (and as happens often, in fact), that person may have seen there was a Pluto Platter up for auction, and the auction had only 20 minutes to go. You may have done the same thing when you bought your first item on an Internet auction.

Or you may have been sniped.

Don't take it personally.

Now, the time has come for you to make a little money.

I'm going to step you through the simplest steps toward putting an item up for auction on eBay.

There are other considerations, options, complications and qualifications that are worth looking into. But not yet. Right now, just put something up for auction.

Let's see, what do you have, what do you have, what do you have ..... ? There are so many little (and big) things we own that we don't really want. They're down in the basement crawlspace, where we can get to them "just in case we ever want to dig them out," or they're up in the garage rafters where they periodically fall down on the car when we've forgotten all about them.

Okay, here's the thing. Your Uncle Frank visited your parents one time in the 1960's. He was out driving around and, oddly enough, he happened upon an auction. He saw a set of eight shot glasses from eight different national parks, all mounted on a velour foil, suitable for framing or taking down and passing around.

When he left, he forgot them. Years later, your dad ran across them, and asked Uncle Frank if he wanted to pick them up sometime. Uncle Frank is now a teatotaling minister who, again oddly enough, is crusading against the national park system these days. He says no.

Your dad is about to throw them away, and you say, "I'll take 'em."

That was thirty years ago. You hauled them to college, to your first apartment, your first home, your second home .... And now, here you are, suddenly realizing why you saved them all these years.

You have never taken them out of their original packaging. (I would say "oddly enough" here, but you can see it would be odd to go through college without taking them down and passing them around. Again, I digress.)

You have a gem of an eBay item.

Go to http://www.ebay.com and click on the icon prompting you to sell an item.

You will be asked to identify yourself (with your email address or handle, and your password).

Then you'll fill out forms asking you to give a brief description of about 60 characters or so. You write "Pre-60s national park shot glass set MIB." Your item will be listed when anybody does a search on parts of its description, e.g., "glass" or "shot glass" or "park" or "60" etc.

One of the most challenging things about selling an item on eBay is writing this brief description, because you want it to come up when ANYBODY interested in ANYTHING about your auction item enters an appropriate word. Even here, if somebody entered "shot glasses" your item would be missed because its description says "shot glass." Sometimes, this can't be helped, as you only have so many characters for this brief description. Maybe you don't want to say "MIB" (which means "Mint In Box") since that takes up space, but then again, some people won't even bother to look at your listing if the item's condition isn't indicated. You'll catch on with a bit of practice.

You will be asked to choose a category. In this case, "Antiques Post-1900" might be good. Then again, "Collectibles Promo Glasses" might be better. Pick one. If it doesn't sell, you can re-list it in the other category at no cost (eBay lets you do this one time, then there's a charge; don't worry about that now, just make a choice).

Now you will be asked to describe your item in greater detail. You can use HTML text here -- in other words, you can make your description look like a web site, similar to those you saw when you were poking around (descriptions with pictures and links and colored letters and .... ). You don't want to do that right now, because we're keeping it simple.

But you do want to give as complete of a description as you can possibly write. Tell which parks the glasses represent. Describe the scenes on each one. Describe the writing on the glasses. Is it written in gold script or stamped in ink? Are there mold numbers on the bottoms? Does the box still have the price tag on it?

Go into great detail. Describe the good points and the bad points as well. Don't paint an unrealistically rosy picture. If the buyer gets something unexpected or other than you described, you will get an unfavorable comment in your Feedback Profile. And you do not, do not, do not want that.

Fill in the rest of the blanks. Some, like the location of the item (the town or state where you live) are mandatory. Some, like if you'll ship overseas, or whether there's a shipping charge, can be addressed in your description. In fact, they should be addressed in your description. You can ship most reasonably-sized items via U.S. Priority Mail through the post office for $3.20, and it will usually arrive in a day or two. That's a reasonable charge to specify for most domestic purchases. You can add "more outside the U.S." or "more if insurance desired" and so forth to cover other contingencies, which you can work out with the buyer via email.

If you're not sure about whether to include some bit of information, include it. You might be surprised. Mention your history with Uncle Frank. Somebody who is a reformed teatotaler now working for the national park system might want to buy your shot glasses just to spite him.

Now, pick a price. My recommendation? One dollar. Well, maybe more, if something is worth a lot to you. But you know you'll never use these shot glasses. It'll be worth a buck just to get them out of the crawl space.

Actually, it's a good idea to do a little research before you post your item. If someone else is offering a similar item - or the same item, in fact - you can check their asking price, see if it's getting any bids, and price your item accordingly. If not, price the initial bid as low as you can.

A low initial asking bid really does draw interest. In most cases, the most activity comes in the last few days, and even minutes, that an item is up for auction. Even so, seeing activity brings more bidders into the activity.

You have the option of including a picture at no cost. Er, well ... I know I told you as a buyer to skip by anything that doesn't have a picture. And, well, I always do, too. But you're just getting started, you know, and, well, I don't want to put too much on you at this point. But ... well, what the heck, read the next five paragraphs if you really want to include a picture at this point, or skip by them if you don't want to tax extra gray matter just now.

If you happen to own a digital camera (e.g., the Sony Mavica), you can take a picture of the shot glasses and save it as a jpg file on a floppy disk. If you own a camcorder, there are several inexpensive devices on the market that let you plug it into your computer and save still pictures from the video. Or you can take a regular picture and convert it to a jpg file.

To convert a regular photo to jpg, you need a scanner. They're cheap nowadays, but I'm going to assume you don't own one. Your local photo processing outlet or photocopy shop may have a unit you can use, or they'll scan your picture for you. Prices vary. One photocopy outlet I visited will scan a photo for $10, plus a couple of bucks for a floppy disk. Bring your own disk and you'll save that extra cost. I saw a self-service machine at a photo shop that makes enlargements and prints photos from disks for $8.00. Oddly enough, it won't convert photos to jpg (somebody is missing the boat at a film company that starts with a K). I've even seen machines that can perform that function, but the price codes aren't programmed in, so if you bring your own disk, it's free!

A great picture will inspire higher bids. A crummy picture or, worse still, a huge picture will drive people away. Nobody wants to wait forever while a large jpg file is downloading. Unless you have a good reason to do otherwise, keep the files at 72 to 75 dpi, and under 300 by 200 pixels (that's about half of the size of a typical computer screen).

So now you have a digital picture. You want to display it with your item's description. If you already have a web site, simply send (ftp) the digital picture to your web site (more on that later) and note its address, e.g., http://www.strinz.com/glasses.jpg (assuming you named the jpeg file "glasses"). Fill in the appropriate eBay blank. If you don't have a web site, there are organizations that will "host" your picture free in exchange for including advertising for another product along with your picture. But each of these services are a bit different from one another, and I have found them to be only slightly better than reasonably reliable, so I'll forgo the necessarily detailed explanations now.

Another field you'll see is the Gallery. Remember when you window shopped in the Gallery? You need to put a picture here to be part of that. It costs an extra 25 cents. It's worth it, I believe.

Back to the listing setup process now.

You're almost done. Enter your email address or handle and your password, then click on the "review" button.

If everything is okay, click on "submit."

Let's look at how much this sale is going to cost you.

The base price for putting an item up for auction is 25 cents. You pay that if the asking price is under $5.00. The base price graduates as the asking price goes up, and it tops out at $2.00. So even if you're offering something with an initial bid of $10,000, your base price will be just $2.00. Not a bad deal.

If your item doesn't sell during the term of your auction (usually a week), the base price is all you pay. So if nobody bids on Uncle Frank's shot glasses, you owe eBay a mere two bits.

Here's where it's handy to have registered your credit card with eBay. You are allowed some grace credit initially (not much), then you can mail in a check they'll hold on account. But it's a lot easier if you just have the money removed from your credit card as necessary. You can always check your account status online.

What if it sells? Then, in addition to the base price, you'll pay eBay a commission.

Sales of $25 or less cost a 5% commission. If the final sale price of the shot glasses is $25, eBay will deduct $1.50 from your account. (That's 25 cents for the base fee, plus 5%, or $1.25, of $25.)

Hey! You made over $23 thanks to crazy old Uncle Frank!

And maybe Uncle Frank was REALLY crazy -- and so were you -- because maybe you've been hanging onto something that's worth a lot more for all of these years.

If the shot glasses sell for between $25 and $1,000, you pay an additional 2.5% on the portion of the sale between $25 and $1,000. For anything over $1,000, you pay an additional 1.25% on the difference. That's as high as the commission goes.

At first glance, it may look like the top commission is 8.75% (5% plus 2.5% plus 1.25%). Actually, it's something less, because the commissions are on an incremental sliding scale. Thus, for example, if the final sale price was $2,000 (bless crazy Uncle Frank's warm hearted soul), here's how eBay's commission would break down:

5% of $25, or $1.25 2.5% of $9.75 , or $24.38 1.25% of $1,000, or $12.50 Subtotal: $38.13 Listing fee: $2.00 Total paid to eBay: $40.13

Good old Uncle Frank. He's living life on his own terms -- and so are you -- and now you're $1,960.21 richer.

Or you will be, when you get the money.

So, after the auction has ended, here's what comes next.

It's now one week after you put the shot glasses up for auction. You enjoyed watching the bidding go up over the week. At first, it didn't look like anybody wanted them. After a few days, somebody bid $1.00. Another day or two passed, and you noticed the bidding was up to $5.00. A few hours later, it was at $20.50. Finally, in literally the last hour, two competing shot glass collectors were in a bidding war, and one guy blinked at $2,000.

It's time to contact the winner.

You recognize his name. He's the guy who asked if the glass rims were tinted blue. You had emailed a response. Yes, they're blue.

The other bidder didn't know they were blue. He didn't think to ask. The winning bidder knows, and also knows they're probably worth $4,000 to a guy with a glass shop in Las Vegas.

You don't know that. But you don't care anyway! You got $2,000 (well, actually you got $1,960.21,but let's not quibble, it's found money).

The buyer responds with his address and a request to ship the shot glasses insured. Put in a call to your local shipping and packaging service, like Mailboxes ETC. or QualiPAK or any of the many others. Or take them to your post office. Tell the postal worker you want to ship them insured for $2,000. She'll weigh the package and tell you the cost. Now you need to go back to your computer and send email to the buyer, telling him how much you need to cover shipping and postage and insurance.

When you get the check, wait for it to clear before shipping, since it's such a large amount. Or maybe you'll get a money order, in which case you can ship immediately. Or the buyer may want to use an escrow service.

An escrow service acts as a go-between. The buyer sends a check to the escrow service (such as eBay's Safe Harbor or I-Escrow or any of the multitude that are springing up), you send the item to the escrow service and, if they're satisfied that all of the terms have been met, they'll send the payment off to you and the shot glasses off to your buyer. And, of course, they'll keep a small fee for their trouble. Anyone who has ever bought or sold a house has probably worked with an escrow service. In some cases, they're just what you need for a smooth transaction.

A word about packaging: Overpackage.

Those glasses are fragile. Wrap them in paper, then put them in a box with styrofoam peanuts, then put that box in a bigger box packed with styrofoam peanuts. You may pay more than $3.20 if the box is too big (ask your post office for guidelines). Or you may pay a packing and shipping company for just the right boxes and enough styrofoam peanuts (although you can keep this cost lower if you save the boxes and packing materials that were shipped with the eBay items you buy from other sellers). Whatever you do, don't trim some paltry amount like $1.25 off your shipping overhead if it means possibly damaging the shot glasses. You'll have to return the payment and you'll probably get a negative comment on your Feedback Profile as well.

That's about it. You're part of tomorrow's world of commerce now. And you haven't even begun to empty out your closets.

There are other closets and crawlspaces besides yours, you know. After you're comfortable with the process, talk to other people: friends, family members, workmates, etc.

They all have stuff that they don't want anymore.

Maybe your neighbor was big on camping in his youth, but now he has a bad back. His wonderful tent is in great shape. It hasn't been used in years.

Ask him if he wants to sell it. Put it up for auction on your eBay account. You can charge him a fee. Or you can work out a commission. At no more than about 8% for eBay, you have plenty of room for commission markup.

Don't overcomplicate it. You could, for example, charge a 20% commission. Cover the listing fee in your commission. Chances are, you'll net something like 10% of the sale for your efforts.

If you go this route -- and even if you don't -- it's a good idea to have a web site of your own. Use it to store pictures. Cross-sell other items through internal links (your neighbor may also own a sleeping bag he doesn't use; put it up for auction at the same time, and let eBay users know it's for sale when they click on the tent, and visa versa). Tell eBay bidders about your mother's basket-weaving business, how much the baskets cost, and where to place their orders (or take orders online directly through your web site). The list of reasons to work through a web site goes on and on.

Your auction web page is a portal on the world. Encourage people to come through it. It pays.

This report focused on eBay's Internet auction site, primarily as a matter of convenience. It's the standard by which all other Internet auction sites are measured.

But it isn't the only Internet auction site out there. There are hundreds to choose from.

Which one should you use?

Some are devoted to very specific categories, like Beanie Babies, or high-end art by painters living in Manhattan since 1982. These can be good, if your interests are very narrowly defined. But keep in mind that even the large "catch-all" Internet auction sites -- like eBay -- can sell a lot of esoterica.

You should experiment on your own. Here's my quick-and-dirty measurement tool:

Check the number of bids on the items that are about to go off auction. If most are at zero and none are above 4, that tells you not much is happening.

Once you choose an Internet auction site -- and remember, you aren't limited to one (although you'll get into trouble if you list the same item on multiple auction sites at the same time) -- go through the process outlined earlier in this report. Then look around some more.

You'll learn many things I could tell you about in detail here ... but I'm not going to. Internet auction sites change continually. Their providers are always making improvements. The best ones explain themselves as well or better than I could. And sure as shootin', if I told you exactly how to set up a Dutch Auction (which allows you to sell multiple exact copies an item, like five Lawrence Welk 1973 Midwest Polka Tour sweatshirts), they would change the procedure about four hours after this went to press.

So nose around, click on the things that are highlighted, have fun. And don't feel like you have to learn it all in one day. Or week. Or year, really.

And here's something else you can do: Check out my auction information web site at http://www.strinz.com/auction. I'll update it periodically with new facts and hints for you. Feel free to tell your friends about it. I'll have this report there as well, to make it easier for you to share its tips.

Thank you for taking the time to read this report. I hope you found it both interesting and valuable.

Now go out there and make some money.

J. Charles Strinz
(chuck.strinz@giz.com)

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