TekGems Blog

eBay removed eBay Store listings at the end of search results from the main site because:

1) Less revenue per listing. eBay seems to be focused on the raw number of listings, rather than successfully ended listings. The low fee of store listings ($0.02 to list for 30 days, plus $0.01 for gallery for 30 days) probably encouraged sellers to park their items at the eBay Store. Its better strategy for items that do not sell.

2) Too many results. It is possible there were lots of irrelevant results or items posted from mass database catalog that did not reflect the current market pricing. For example, you might typically find a widget for $30, but the eBay store had a listing for $300. Unrealistic pricing mucking up the search results. You have to give buyers a good set of results to work from without overwhelming them. Auction/fixed price listing based on fees people have to pay will strike a balance between those items that are "worthy" of listing on the main site.

Labels: eBay

I wonder why they did not mention Windows 2000. That is actually a better upgrade from Windows 98 or 98SE than XP. Windows 2000 runs better on older hardware which what most of these 98/98SE machines will be.

Labels: General

I want my web site to work with both browsers. I also want plug-ins to work without having to install anything. If you run video clips, consider using Flash that can play videos instead of requiring users to have RealPlayer or Windows Media Player.

Labels: General

Those of you still dily-dallying around your taxes. I recommend consulting with a tax agent. I love mine in San Francisco, Tax Matters. How to categorize your expenses, keeping reciepts, and records is so important. I know I'm not the most organized person, but with patience and perserverance, even you can be diligent about record keeping. If you run your own business, you have to do it.

Labels: eBay

One of my customers ordered a pentium 4 socket 478 retention module. Can't go wrong with such a low price.

Labels: Product Reviews

eBay's Bid For Impatient Shoppers: "Available via a link from eBay.com, the new service will be more like Amazon.com (AMZN ) and other online retail sites, offering largely new merchandise ranging from books and DVDs to apparel and electronics. Customers will pay with a credit card or an account with eBay's PayPal online payment unit."

I think eBay needs to make eBay Express feedback rate 99.0% or better since I find that with a lower percentage than that, I run into more issues with description accuracy, seller communication, and shipping time after payment. Do you agree or disagree?

Labels: eBay

My favorite auction manager TimberCreekSoftware.com SOLD V is not listed on there, but the article does haev a good break down of auction software and services available to help your online business.

Labels: eBay

Shopping comparison enginse are not all the same. Many commreicial comparison engines rely on businesses to submit a data feed to them and those businesses pay per click if a customre clicks through. A rather old model without a way to pay for conversion instead, but that is how most are. Only those that have a budget can do business on these engines, except Froogle. Froogle is Free.

Google recently bought Dulance which will is a crawler based shopping engine. We will what Google can do with it and how it might integrate with Froogle at a later point. There's a lot of work other comparison engines have done already. Google has a lot of work ahead of them.

Yikes! It would be foolish to try hide money as an online seller since everything we do is trackable. But still, it always creeps me out when I read about government entities having access to more of your personal information.

Labels: Paypal

Best Buy to stock shelves with ThinkPads | CNET News.com - I am curious to see what the Lenovo laptops will be like. IBM ThinkPads were made like tanks and always felt like a solid machine. They also designed the rubber knub (mouse) properly. Can't say I was ever impressed with an IBM desktop. They lost that market after the introduction of the PC clones in the 80s.

Labels: General

I kept hearing the term "buyer's remorse" being discussed on the eBay PowerSeller's forum. I never had a clear concept of what it was so surfed around a bit. I found a great link going into detail and how we, as sellers, can help buyers feel reassured. The last section talks about seller's remorse.

Labels: eBay

eBay Express reminds me of Amazon Marketplace. I'm looking forward to having a focused and streamlined marketplace. I am hopeful the streamlining the buying process will drive more buyers to the site, leading to more sales for me! :)

eBay Express article on InfoWorld

Labels: eBay

Uncovering the Right eBay Inventory

If you're selling clearance or excess items, you better sell it quick or risk selling it for less than you bought it for.

Labels: eBay

eBay Express eBay Announcement

Many sellers are complaining about the requirement for sellers to accept Paypal unconfirmed payment. While I understand this is convenient for buyers, it is a big risk for some sellers to not have seller protection from Paypal. Some sellers are excluding themselves from eBay Express which I think is extreme. I think sellers can create a second ID and sell items they are willing to ship to Unconfirmed addresses. A little more administrative work, but I think the additional sales will be better than excluding yourself from eBay Express.

Labels: eBay

Free Barcode Font - Code 39 - Not a demo, COMPLETELY free

Apparently, this is a Free 3 of 9 barcode font with extended ASCII capabilities. One of my criticism of the free Code 39 fonts I found online were that many were crippled. For example, the free version would only allow numerics. Or only some letters. I'll this test this one and tell you what I think.

Free Barcode Font TrueType Code 39 Download

Here's another free Code 39 barcode font.

Create custom barcodes and labels with Ichiku software

I've done some searching and this is one of the least expensive barcode packages that I've run across that will make proper Code 128 barcode fonts. I like Code 128 since you can squeeze a lot of alphanumeric data on a small piece of real estate. Now if anyone know if a label printer that can handle Code 128 and print out single labels at a time, that'd be awesome!

Labels: General

2005 STATE OF DISTRIBUTION

These are the top distributors for IT computer products.

Labels: General

Google Toolbar BETA

I can not say I like their new beta. Its verging on bloatware. It is also missing the Blog this button feature which I like. It does have a roaming bookmarks feature which I find useful for my home and work computer. But I'm not sure if that's enough to deal with all the unnecessary features they are adding on in the beta.

Labels: General