I met lots of sellers at last month's eBay Live conference in New Orleans, which is one of the main benefits of going to the show. It seemed that experienced sellers comprised a greater percentage of attendees than in past events, and they brought lots of good questions with them to the conference.
I had the pleasure of having lunch with Scott Marlatt, who "won" me in the DOUA charity auction. We had lunch at Mulates across from the convention center http://www.auctionbytes.com/album11/images/15.jpg. Scott got into eBay selling when he was a manager of an aquarium shop. He's now a Platinum Powerseller and has his own shop in Marietta, Georgia, in addition to eBay Stores where he sells aquarium, pond and pet supplies and Medieval items http://www.ebaystores.com/ebaesellersworld. He's also expanding into other marketplaces, including Amazon.
I checked in with Scott last week to get his impressions of eBay Live. He made excellent contacts with eBay, vendors and other sellers. He is exploring several auction management services and found it beneficial to speak with them directly at the conference. Scott was brimming with ideas and has concrete plans to grow his business in several directions. It was a pleasure to have the chance to get the inside view of a Powerseller's business, and Scott's $550 contribution to the DOUA was very generous.
The Disabled Online Users Association http://www.doua.info sponsored our photo pages, and their roving photographers sent back some excellent pictures http://digbig.com/4bjtp. My thanks to DOUA founder Marjie Smith and her tireless crew for making this happen. Tom Shaughnessy of PowerCET Corporation http://www.powercet.com sent some excellent pictures too, and in this issue he reports on the photography classes he attended at eBay Live.
Thanks also to Nancy Hix, Julia Wilkinson and Barbara Shaughnessy, for their expert help in covering eBay Live. http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/ebaylive2004. The AuctionBytes news crew is pictured having a pre-show strategy lunch here: http://www.auctionbytes.com/album01/19.html. There were lots of press releases from companies that week, and we included those as well.
Marketworks http://www.marketworks.com was our main sponsor for the coverage pages. They used the show to make the announcement of the name change from Auctionworks to Marketworks, and their booth was hopping in the exhibit hall. Thanks to all of our other sponsors as well, who make it possible to publish AuctionBytes at no charge to readers. Our special eBay Live coupon section raised $1,000, which was donated to the DOUA.
The changes at eBay are coming fast and furious. Change can be unsettling and disruptive, and it can also hurt sellers' bottom line if things don't go smoothly. This makes for a contentious environment. We'll try to bring you information on changes and what it means to you. And of course we bring you news and information on other auction sites, as always. Our Newsflash headlines can be seen daily on the top of the AuctionBytes home page at http://www.auctionbytes.com.
Thanks for reading,
About the author:
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
