Video Game Selling

Forgotten Gaming: TI-994A the Amazing Personal Computer

2020-11-26T20:30:00.052-08:00

Forgotten Gaming Series: The Amazing TI-99/4A Gaming Computer

As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualified purchases made through links and advertising on my site, learn more.

In the late eighties, every kid wanted one game console: the Nintendo NES. Our family though didn't have the money for such frivolities. My dad decided on something else: a personal computer that could be used for entertainment but also education. Released in 1981, my dad picked up many of them and began a personal hobby of sorts. Although, the technology world had moved on to other things he had decided he could do everything with the TI-99/4A and it's many accessories. He even joined a group of TI-99/4A enthusiasts who shared ideas on how to get the most from the technology. Nowadays when someone thinks of TI or Texas instruments what will likely come to mind are graphing calculators. However, in those days TI had made a big push for the home computer market. The machine was ahead of it's time, here are just a few of things you could use TI-99/4A to do:

Use an external printer.
Store data on disk drives.
Program in BASIC.
Connect to a network via dial up (and play online games).
Play a huge assortment of games.

My Most Played TI-99/4A Games

I won't say these are the definitive "best" games, the "top" games, or the most advanced games. These are just the games I remember playing as a kid on my old 13 inch CRT television. They are presented in no particular order.

Parsec. Probably the game I played the most as a kid. It is a pretty straight forward side scrolling space shooter game. Good use of color and graphics for the era. I remember that I would almost always die trying to refuel. You had to be very precise or you would crash into the ground. A simple game but very addictive. There were also a few hidden secrets, not that I knew about those as a kid.

Screenshot from Parsec for the TI-99/4A

Moon Patrol. Another space shooter, except in this one you control a space rover of sorts and must jump craters while shooting the bad guys. This game was much easier than Parsec, the major issue being timing your jumps correctly. If you jump too soon you fall in the crater and die.

Jungle Hunt.The TI-99/4A didn't have Pitfall but it did have a similar game called Jungle Hunt where you would jump boulders, swing over alligator pits and rescue a woman from natives who wanted to boil her for some odd reason (video games were not very PC back then I guess). This game was originally titled "Jungle King" and the main character resembled Tarzan, due to copyright entanglements it was later changed to a generic safari adventurer.

The Adventure Cartridge. This wasn't really a game but the cartridge that allowed you to play multiple text based adventure games. We had many of these on floppy disks, not that I was very good at them. I didn't have the patience to go through the steps one by one. I remember the beginning of one game: you are in a dark room, available items match and torch. If you didn't light the torch correctly you froze to death. If you know what game this was you can put in the comments below.

Tunnels of Doom. One of the first RPGs this game also tried it's hand at 3-D graphics. Your party explored a 3-D dungeon with various rooms that would have to be cleared of monsters. Along the way you would find treasures, weapons, maps, and build your characters. This game paved the way for many other classic turn based RPGs.

TI Invaders. TI Invaders was a direct clone of Space Invaders, although a few tweaks were made to make sure it wasn't a complete, it was basically the same game. I enjoyed this game as a kid but would get bored with it when there when I couldn't beat my high score.

Screenshot of Donkey Kong for the TI-99/4

Donkey Kong.People often forget that Nintendo started out as a arcade company and only made the jump to home consoles some years later with the Nintendo Entertainment System.Their star mascot then makes his first appearance on ported versions of their first US arcade hit: Donkey Kong. This game appeared on multiple consoles and I think the TI-99 version holds up pretty well to all of them. The game also led to some well recieved sequels for the Super Nintendo and N64.

The Pac-Man clone MunchMan for TI-99/4A

Pac-man, Ms. Pac Man, and Munch Man. I put these together because in my mind they are pretty much the same game with some slight variations. Munch Man had a few more enemy sprites but the gameplay remained unchanged. I remember disliking the sluggish controls on MunchMan as I would always get stuck in corner and die. Pac-man was more responisve and generally more fun to play.

Alpiner. In this odd game the goal is to climb to the top of the mountain. In order to do so you must avoid obstacles stationary and moving like snakes, falling rocks, and bears. By moving horizontally and changing speed you can avoid the obstacles and make it to the top of Mount Everest. Sounds simplistic but I really enjoyed it as a kid.

Trade Wars. This was the first online game that I ever remember playing. It ran on the BBS system of my dad's TI-99/4A group. Once dialed in you could enter this turn based strategy game and play against other BBS users. The game was loosely based off of Star Trek, the idea being that could warp between different space sectors trading items. You could also choose to be evil and destroy ports and steal. When your series of turns was done for the day your ship would stay in whatver sector you were in. You would often log on and find that someone destroyed your ship, very frustrating. Playing as a hero was probably the better choice as it meant it was less likely someone would destroy your ship but most of the time I couldn't resist attempting to steal from the ports.

Trade Wars 2002 screenshot (I couldn't find any pics of earlier versions)

Defender. Similar to Parsec in many ways but this game had a different objective. Instead of just mindlessy shooting aliens you had to protect the humans from danger. The aliens would be trying to pick up humans off the grounds and take off with them. If they got one you would have to shoot the alien and rescue the human. If too many humans died that would be game over. You could also be silly and just shoot the humans for fun.

Any games we missed? What were your favorite TI-994/A games? Let us know in the comments below.

If your looking to start collecting or purchasing TI-994/A games and systems a good place to start is pricecharting.com they keep upto date with real time prices on Amazon and eBay, which should help you make good purchases. If you're not looking to purchase but still would like to play some of these classic games I recommend downloading a good emulator and some ROMs. I have zipped up a few ROMs and a good emulator for Windows 10.

Download Now

How To Sell Video Game Wholesale Lots on eBay (Tips and Tricks)

2019-01-29T04:36:00.006-08:00

~~left-sidebar~~ If you browse eBay's video game section as of late you'll notice that most of the top sellers are selling retro games in wholesale lots. Why? Because listing one game at a time is time consuming, especially for lower priced games, it is often not worth the time or hassle. The other reason is that eBay has prioritized listings with free shipping over those with calculated shipping or shipping rules. This makes it harder to sell games individually as most buyers are looking to save money with combined shipping. So, switching to wholesale game lots makes sense, the question is how do you maximize sales and profits?

Tips and tricks to sell game lots on eBay

Organize games by sale price and rarity. Using tools like pricecharting.com and rarityguide.com you can sort out games by their popularity, sale price, and rarity. Collectible games with high value should be sold on their own to maximize their value. However, popular games that aren't really rare or in collectible condition can be added to your lots. You need these games in the lots to give people a reason to buy. A lot filled with common and unwanted games isn't going to sell.

Size your lots for easy shipping. When deciding how many games to put in each lot it is essential to take into account shipping costs. If shipping USPS it is helpful to use flat rate priority shipping boxes or padded envelopes. This makes it easy to calculate shipping and work the cost into the final buy it now.

Use a pick'em wholesale lot. Another tactic that can be use is the so called "pick'em" lot. What you do is organize your games as stated before and then take a picture of all the games in one category. You list as a lot of 5 or 10 and tell the buyer to choose from the games listed. In the past eBay frowned on this practice because it if someone looks at the picture they'll think they are buying all the games. It seems they are allowing it again, as long as you're extra clear that they aren't purchasing all the games listed.

Add games to your console lots. By adding games to your console lots you can charge more and increase the sell through rate. When buying game consoles people like to have everything at once to begin playing right away. Game consoles without games, controllers, or AV hookups are mostly bought by re-sellers looking to make a profit. those kind of buyers do not want to pay full price for anything.

Sweeten the deal with a bonus. A digital bonus can be a great way to stand out among all the over video game sellers on eBay. Of course you want to be sure that you have the rights to anything you give away. Some ideas are PDF game guides and walkthroughs, freeware PC games, or stickers/artwork.

Of course before you can sell wholesale lots you have to buy some games to sell. Luckily, there are ways to get games on eBay that you can resell. It is not as easy as it was in that past but it is still possible. Got any of your own tips? leave them in the comment section below.

4 Ways eBay Can Revitalize The Auction Format

2016-01-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

Whatever happened to eBay auctions?

Why Should eBay Care About Auctions?

In short, eBay needs to care about the auction format because that is what sets them apart from the growing list of ecommerce platforms. While some sellers may see no value in auctions the truth is that without a strong base of auctions eBay is just a poorly designed Amazon.com clone. Auctions are what made eBay what it is today. By trying to distance themselves from that they are putting themselves at a disadvantage. However, some may feel that the auction format no longer holds the appeal to consumers that it once did. The thrill is no longer there. While to a certain extent that may be true it doesn't mean that auctions should be abandoned. Instead innovative approaches can revitalize the auction format and bring back both buyers and sellers to eBay.

Descending Price Auctions. Descending price auctions could really help bring buyers back to eBay and would also help sellers get fair market value for their listings. Here's how it works instead of starting at a low price and being incrementally bid up the auction would start at high price and go lower over time. The first buyer to bid would win and be able to purchase the item at the price. For example you could start an item at say $20 and have the price lower every hour by $0.05. A buyer then would have to determine when to pull the trigger, knowing that the longer they wait the more likely it becomes that someone else will buy the item. This new format would bring back some of the excitement that has faded from eBay auctions. That addictive feeling of "winning" an auction. For sellers it would mean that they could list items at auction without worrying that they won't get a fair market price.

Extend Active Auctions. One of the things that turned off many buyers to auctions was sniping. Sniping software allowed professional buyers to swoop in the final seconds and outbid the competition. Of course many buyers who were just looking for bargains were discouraged from even trying to bid on auctions. One solution is to extend the time limit on active auctions. For example, if an auction has received bids in the closing minutes then the time limit could be extended by a few minutes. Then if more bids are received it could be extended further, only after not receiving any bids for a specified length of time would the auction end. This would put an end to sniping as the practice would only serve to extend the auction and give others a chance to bid. It would also help sellers by maximizing the potential auction price.

No Seller Cancellations. Another practice that hurts the auction format is seller cancellation. Sellers have been allowed to cancel an auction after it is complete if they no longer have the item or there was an error in their listing. This policy has been abused by many sellers who will cancel an auction if it doesn't reach their price. This drives away buyers who are looking for a deal. They soon realize that most sellers won't let them get any real bargains and that low starting bids will often end with a relisting of the item.

More Flexible End Times. Sellers don't care so much about when an auction starts, what is really important is when it will end. Instead of giving sellers a fixed auction duration, why not let them decide when they want the auction to end? If I'm listing a product on a Monday I may not want to have that auction end in week or three days.What I probably want is the auction to end on the weekend. Under the current system for that to happen I would have to schedule that item to start on the weekend and wait an extra week. All the wasted time is unnecessary, just let the seller schedule their own end time. This in itself should boost the number of auctions on eBay.

eBay may not realize it but without auctions they are just another e-commerce venue. Auctions are what makes eBay unique, in fact the first thing that pops to mind when someone thinks of eBay is the auction format. The auction format isn't dead but it can be made better and revitalizing it should be a priority.

Unexpected Places To Sell Games Online

2015-11-14T08:48:00.000-08:00

For the longest time the answer to the question "Where should I sell my games?" has been "eBay, of course!" but with more and more options out there some unexpected sites could prove worthwhile. While none of these sites will have the traffic of an eBay or Amazon they also won't have the same level of competition. Different tactics will have to be used to make these sites work for you than just throwing up a listing like on eBay.

Go Where The Collectors Are Already

Where do game collectors hang out online? That old forgotten platform from another era, the internet message board. That's right anybody who's hardcore into game collecting will be found on a forum of some sort. The great news is that many of these sites have whole subsections dedicated to trading and selling collectible games. The not so great news is that newcomers are often looked upon with suspicion, especially if they show up and immediately start hawking their games. Think of a forum as a community, until you're welcomed into the community, it is unlikely anyone there will want to do business with you. So you should take things slow and show them that you're one of them not just there to make a quick buck. Some of my favorite forums to sell at are retrocollect.com, racketboy.com, and gametz.com.

Another place where collectors can be found are on video game pricing sites. Because of this some of them have recently launched their own sections for trading games. These can be great places to sell games especially if they are in collectible condition. My favorite of these sites is the PriceCharting.com Marketplace it is free to list with no final value fees.

Get Out There And Be Social

Social media sites have always been great for promoting a eCommerce store to a target audience. In the past, there was always the problem of getting the audience off of social media and onto your site to buy. That problem is now a thing of the past. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest have all announced that they will be creating ways for people to buy directly from their sites. Part of this is that they don't wish people to leave their sites to go shop. They may also reason that this will decrease spammers and affiliate marketers on their sites. This is great opportunity to increase conversions and sales. Imagine people being able to add items to their cart and checkout directly from your Facebook Fanpage. Shopify.com has really taken the lead in this area. While some free apps promise to create a Facebook store, shopify has created a fully integrated solution. It is very simple to add a shopify store to a Facebook Fanpage, a step by step guide can be found here.

The Forgotten Sites That Still Work

Besides the sites above there some older sites that are decreasing in popularity but are still worthwhile to list on. The first of these is half.com, although it is technically an eBay company, that doesn't mean there aren't some benefits to listing on this site. For one thing there are no listing fees so you can list some your less desirable games on half.com without worrying about them eating up any profits. The listing process is also simpler and doesn't require taking any photos. You could even upload thousands of games using a CSV file. The only caution is that half.com takes their condition requirements very seriously. Even if a cartridge is in great condition, if there is no box or manual, it will be considered in "good" condition at best.

Another option is iOffer.com this site is very much like half.com and even allows you to import items directly from eBay. This great for those leftover items that just aren't selling through fast enough on eBay. The site does get a bad rep for some of the scammers on there but unless you're selling high ticket items it shouldn't be an issue. Fees are lower than on eBay though and you can market your store any way that you like.

Want a true auction site to list on? Try ebid.net this site works very similarly to eBay, the main difference being that eBay has a larger consumer base. Ebid though is luring many sellers with a one time fee that eliminates all FVFs and comes with many other perks. The site has just undergone a massive redesign to modernize the look and feel.

Improve Your eBay Listings with Terapeak's New Listing Optimizer

2014-08-27T05:18:00.001-07:00

Terapeak Introduces New Listing Tool to Help Sellers Improve Visibility

Terapeak has added a new tool to improve rankings

It is no secret that since eBay implemented it's new Cassini Search algorithm that many sellers have seen views on their listings plummet. There are ways to improve your this as I brought out in my special report. Until now though there were no automated tools that could look at your listings at tell you specific steps to help you rank better in search.

If you haven't heard of Terapeak they eBay's official provider of market research. What that means is that they have access to much more eBay data than the average user. Things like sell through rate, avg sell price and number of competing listings. They also have the stats on which sellers have the most successful listings and which do not.

All This Data Means Terapeak Knows How To Rank On eBay

With all this information available Terapeak knows what it takes to get listings ranked on eBay. They have narrowed it down to six basic categories where listings can be analyzed and score from 0 to 100. They are:

Listing Title

Listing Price

Listing Category

Seller Reputation

Images

Product Identifiers

Their are also some basic eBay best practices or recommendations that can help you rank higher as well. Some may not fit with your current business model but if you can you should implement these. For example eBay has said outright that handling time is very important to them going forward. Obviously then you want you handling time to be as quick as possible if you want to get better rankings. Terapeak subscribers can log in and get scores and recommendations at no extra charge.

eBay's New Defect Rate Policy In Effect August 20th

2014-08-07T05:25:00.000-07:00

eBay Sellers once again frustrated with policy changes

The Evolution Of Seller Performance On eBay

eBay has always tried to find ways to evaluate sellers based on their performance. The first and simplest system was the feedback system which allowed both buyers and sellers to leave feedback for one another. This system wasn't without it's problems as many buyers and sellers would leave negative feedback as retaliation. Or some sellers would only agree to refund an item if a negative feedback was removed. Because of these problems eBay implemented the DSR system (Detailed Seller Ratings) with a one to five star rating on things like shipping time, item as described, and communication. Generally buyers though didn't understand the system very well and sellers hated it. A three star review which the buyer may view as satisfactory would actually count as negative in eBay's eyes. Now eBay has a new policy which looks at factors that buyers don't see when looking at your feedback or DSRs.

What Is The New Defect Rate Policy?

The new defect rate policy takes into account the following:

Detailed seller rating of 1, 2 or 3 for item as described

Detailed seller rating of 1 for shipping time

Negative or neutral feedback

Return initiated for a reason that indicates the item was not as described

eBay Money Back Guarantee (previously known as eBay Buyer Protection) or PayPal Purchase Protection case opened for an item not received or an item not as described

Seller-cancelled transactions

All of these various scenarios can't add up to more 5% percent of all your transactions or 2% if you wish to stay on as a Top Rated Seller. The complete eBay policy can found here. I've highlighted some portions that I find unfair about this new policy. First neutral feedback is not a great indicator of whether a seller did a good job or not. For example many buyers leave a neutral when they don't end up liking the item. One buyer actually left me neutral saying "I didn't like this book". Most of the time I would let those things go because it wasn't enough to bring down my rating but now we'll all have to fight to remove neutral feedbacks from people who don't get it.

The second portion is returns, eBay has been encouraging sellers to accept returns and issue refunds as a way to gain the trust of buyers. In a perfect world buyers would contact the seller and allow them to try to solve the problem before starting the return process. Most buyers though will go directly to opening a case to get their refund. Also, many will state the reason as "Item Not As Described" when in actuality it was buyer remorse or some other reason. Buyers aren't dumb they know if you say that the item came damaged or wasn't what was advertised that the seller will have no way to dispute it.

The last part that seems unfair is that as a seller you will have to think twice about canceling a transaction. Now I know that some sellers cancel auctions when they don't get the price they want and that isn't fair and hurts the reputation of eBay sellers. However, some transactions are canceled for valid reasons. Sometimes buyers will contact you after a sale and try to modify the price, shipping or other conditions. Sellers should be able to cancel these "problem transactions" before they turn into negative feedback.

In the long run I don't think that this will prove to be the answer to measuring seller performance. It is too complicated and requires sellers to fight every error made by uninformed buyers.

Can You Sell Downloadable Game Content On eBay?

2014-07-01T04:12:00.000-07:00

The future of gaming may indeed be digital delivery. While Blu-ray is still the most popular choice for console gaming publishers prefer digital downloads. Digital downloads allow publishers to keep a game fresh longer with extra downloadable content like maps, new items and fixes for online play. It would also stop the practice of sharing games among friends though as each download would only be valid for one console. Digital downloads would also have a massive effect on used game sellers like GameStop, Amazon and eBay. You will find more statistics at Statista

eBay The New Home Of Video Game DLC?

If you've browsed the video game section on eBay lately (especially the PC category) then you've probably noticed something strange. Sellers are selling digital copies of complete games. More accurately they are selling download codes from markets like EA's Origin.com or even Amazon.com. Anyone can open an account on these site and try to sell the the codes for more on eBay. Much like drop shipping the seller might only buy a download code if the listing was successful. A seller may also wait until a special sale to buy a code and then try to resell it after the sale had ended. However, is all this allowed by eBay's strict TOS and what potential pitfalls could there be?

Digital Products And eBay's TOS

eBay's Digital Product Policy is quite clear that any item that is delivered digitally must be listed in Everything Else>Classifieds. You and I both know that not many games would sell that way however. In fact most sellers are selling these download codes alongside physical copies. So how are they doing it? It's simple really although eBay's terms restrict items delivered digitally they don't restrict those same items if delivered by USPS. For example a PDF book delivered by email would be restricted however a CD with a PDF file on it delivered by USPS would not be. So what many are doing is delivering the game code through the mail (although I have seen some offers to email this is clearly against eBay policy). By using delivery confirmation you can also protect yourself from buyers claiming that you never delivered when in fact you did. I still would recommend selling game codes though unless authorized by eBay to do so.

The Fatal Flaw With Selling DLCs

Even if you take all the precautions necessary there will still be a problem with selling Digital Editions of games. The problem arises when a buyer decides to open a dispute with PayPal saying that the download code didn't work. As seller how could you defend yourself against that charge? With a physical item you could at least show a picture of the item you sent as proof of it's condition. With a game code you could never prove the code was genuine or if it was genuine that you hadn't already used it yet yourself making it useless. Although it may be tempting to sell these items on eBay for quick dollar I have decided against it. It's better to take a more long term approach than risk getting burned (and perhaps banned by ebay) looking for a shortcut.

eBay About Me Pages Replaced By User Profiles

2014-04-27T03:27:00.001-07:00

eBay has done it again, taken something that's not broken and decided to fix it. You may not have noticed that it even happened unless you were trying edit your eBay About Me page. Every time I tried to click edit I was taken to my User Profile page instead. Until finally a message came up saying that About Me pages will be replaced by a new User Profile.

eBay replaces About Me page with generic User Profiles

So what's the big deal? Although many sellers didn't realized it the About Me page was one of the most powerful on eBay. The reason being that it was completely customizable, you could use it for whatever purpose you saw fit. If you wanted to promote a blog, start an email list, grow a Facebook page you could do it with your About Me page. What can you do with the new User Profile? You can add pictures and a description and that's about it! You can't link to anything outside of eBay. You're stuck promoting their new followers system which isn't nearly as effective as an email list would be.

My guess is that eBay saw that most people were either (1) not using their About Me page or (2) using it to keep their customers on their own email list or blog. In eBay's thinking your customers are really their customers. Even though you find the products, list the products, deal with the customers and pay eBay at the end of it all. It is not enough for them to even give you the slightest control over your own business.

eBay may say that this new User Profile will help engage buyers and keep them coming back but I doubt that very highly. The whole thing looks like a cheap Facebook ripoff. As a buyer I wouldn't see any extra incentive to follow a seller since the page is static and lacks any interactivity at all. As seller there is no system to allow you to give buyers an incentive to follow your profile like Discounts or Free Shipping.

This new User Profile system like many eBay features will end being something that is there but is not really used by sellers and that buyers simply don't care about. When will eBay understand that sellers may just have a better idea of what there customers want than they do?

How To Build A Buyer E-Mail List From eBay And PayPal

2013-07-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to build an e-mail list out of all the buyers you've had on eBay over the years? Sounds fantastic right? The only problem is that eBay doesn't permit you to do any external e-mail marketing through their system. Sure if you own a store eBay will let you build a list but you don't have much control over it. If you ever decide to leave eBay than that list will also disappear. So how can you build your own list? One that you can use not only to send traffic to your eBay store but anywhere else on the web that you desire.

Interestingly enough while perusing my usual youtube subscriptions and recommendations I came accross a video that claims that you can do this with a free service called Zapier.com. Zapier is a new online software that allows you to splice together different web tools so that they act as one. For example let's say you add and event to your Google Calender with Zapier you could set up an action so that automatically a Tweet would also be sent at the same time. What makes this site so interesting is that PayPal is one of the services that you can hook up to an e-mail service like MailChimp or Aweber. This is all explained in the following video:

According to the comments left many people believe that this does in fact comply with eBay's TOS. I am not too sure on whether it does or does not. I'm guessing that all is okay since your are only sending an invitation to join a mailing list and they still must double opt-in to receive e-mails. The problem arises when and if one of your customers decides to complain about your mailing to eBay. It would probably be a good idea to use an e-mail that is not associated with any of your eBay accounts to do the mailing.

Jim Cockrum is also the author of the highly successful book The Silent Sales Machine which is now in its Seventh Edition.

eBay Selling Tips: Playstation PS2 Laser Lens Adjusting And Replacing Videos

2013-06-27T05:24:00.000-07:00

Common Problems With The Playstation 2 Console

The Playstation 2 system was incredibly popular you can find plenty to buy and resell on eBay. However you're bound to come across some that need to be fixed. The main problem that happens to the PS2 is the "No Disc Read Error". That is the system will not read the disc even though the disc is perfectly usable and has no scratches. This problem occurs on all devices that utilize laser lenses to read discs. With use the laser lens slowly loses the focus needed to properly read the discs. Sometimes the only solution to this problem is to install a new laser lens. However, on the large model PS2 there is a fix you can try as shown in the video below:

The method above can work because by adjusting the laser (moving it closer to the disc) you're in effect making the laser more powerful. Of course you don't want to overdo this trick because if the laser is set to close the disc it could actually damage the discs. If you've performed this a couple of times with no results it could be that the laser lens is beyond repair and a new one must be installed. The video below shows how to install a new laser lens on the older model PS2:

On the newer slim model PS2 the procedure is slightly different as shown in the video below:

Things To Remember Before Starting Repairs

There are many different models of the PS2, the replacement parts needed will depend on which model you own. Make sure you know your model number before you start repairing.

Make sure it is not the disc. It is good to test with more than one disc it could be that the disc you're using is damaged and that is the reason it won't read it.

Work carefully. In the above videos you will be making repairs on system that is powered on. This means that there is slight risk of electrical shock. You should be fine if you follow the videos as shown. However, there are parts of the system that can cause a shock normally these are marked with a warning sticker. Never touch these areas with you hands or a screw driver.

Terapeak Now Integrates With Amazon Sales Data

2013-06-24T03:08:00.000-07:00

According to the good people over at tamebay.com Terapeak today is launching a new service Terapeak For Amazon. Terapeak has long been the top provider of market research analytics for the eBay marketplace. Now they are bringing that same expertise to Amazon.com. Here's a look at what they aim to offer Amazon.com sellers:

Terapeak for Amazon will enable online merchants to:

Research products in over 35 Amazon categories

View list price, offer price, sales rank and historical offers

See average, minimum and maximum prices of any product

Filter research by “Buy Box” to establish winning price points

Filter research by “FBA” to establish the market for Amazon Prime customers

Refine search by brand name or merchandise condition

Investigate any category regardless of the category they are selling in

Discover how and what to sell on multiple marketplaces without the need for a Professional Merchant account

Get an immediate market overview, including total offers and merchants in the market space

Eliminate app hopping by viewing all of their sales data in one place

The best part about all of this is that it will be added to the regular subscription package at no extra cost. Even if you currently sell on eBay exclusively this information can still be extremely valuable. For many items buyers will compare prices between eBay and Amazon. This is especially true of media items like games. Now you can have a clearer picture of the value of the items you're selling (or would like to sell).

Terapeak for eBay has long been a critical resource for online sellers. With Terapeak for Amazon.com now on offer as well, sellers that want to be competitive in any e-commerce market will increasingly find Terapeak to be an essential part of their operating strategy.

eBay Advanced RSS Searches No Longer Available?

2013-06-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

eBay Advanced Search RSS Gone!

While researching some items to sell on eBay today I noticed something strange. As I normally do headed over to eBay's advanced search entered my search term and scrolled down to the bottom to find the orange RSS button. However, it seems that eBay has removed it during their search redesign. So I wanted to check and make sure that my featured eBay Feeds were still working and they were. What this means is that the RSS system is still in place eBay just no longer seems to be adding a convenient way to access it. This is important because RSS can be used to do a lot of Advanced eBay Market Research for free.

Many people on search forums have been saying that you can get around this by simply adding &rss=1 to the end of the URL for your advanced search. However having tried this myself I came up with two outcomes either the page wasn't found or it simply reloaded the eBay search results. It neither case could you subscribe to the feed. I know that it must be possible because as I said before my old feeds are working. If anyone has any other tips or tricks to solve this problem please leave them in the comments section below.

2020 Update:eBay no longer seems to support advanced search RSS feeds or completed listings!

Kabbage Announces Plans To Expand It's Lending Program

2013-06-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

According to Business Week Kabbage.com has plans to rapidly expand their business model. Founded in 2011 Kabbage has been working closely with eBay and other eCommerce sellers to provide a new model for financing small business. This new model relies less on credit scores and more on past success selling online. In a matter of minutes Kabbage can examine all you past online sales data and determine how much money you can borrow.

Kabbage CEO Explains The Process

Kabbage isn't stopping though at eBay and Amazon, they have big plans to revolutionize the way businesses are financed altogether:

Chairman Marc Gorlin says the company will take advantage of Intuit’s (INTU) popular accounting software, which has more than 4 million small business users, to analyze sales, payroll, and other data with “eyes wide open.” Many factors, such as a company’s hiring history and the number of vendors it works with, help inform Kabbage’s financing decisions. “It’s not any one data point; it’s tying it all together,” says Gorlin.

Gorlin thinks banks could take advantage of Kabbage’s technology to increase their financing options. “We want to bring automation to the banks,” he says, “whether it’s through a white-label product or they do it through Kabbage.”

What The New eBay Fee Structure Means To Your Business

2013-06-01T05:25:00.000-07:00

The Real Reason For eBay's New Fee Structure

Much has been made about whether or not eBay's new fee structure is a fee increase, decrease or neither. This ignores the real reason for the changes which is that eBay wants to be able to clearly show that their fees are less than or equal to Amazon's seller fees. With their complicated tiered fee structure it would be next to impossible to prove to the average person. eBay came up with a new fee structure that emphasizes FVF's that are lower than Amazon's. This is an attempt to lure sellers from Amazon back to eBay. However, eBay would never want actual revenues from fees to decrease as they have their share holders to answer to. So they found a sneaky way to be competitive with Amazon while still raising fees on some sellers to make up the difference. As always what we really need to know is how we can adapt to keep our business growing.

What Are The New Fees?

As mentioned earlier eBay has worked hard to eliminate a lot of the complexity of the old fees. The new fee structure is more category based and it doesn't depend on what type of listing it is. Buy it now items are now treated in exactly the same way as auctions are for calculating FVFs. Unlike before where non-store owners got 50 free listings a month and store owners got none, now all store owners will be getting some amount of free listings each month. This is taken directly from eBay I've added the previous amounts to make it more clear what has changed. This is one of my first attempts at Mind Mapping so if you can't figure it out it's probably my fault.

[caption id="attachment_657" align="aligncenter" width="550"] New eBay Fees Side To Side To The Old Structure.[/caption]

eBay's Sneaky Trick

Lost amidst all the talk of lower category Final Value Fees and free listings is a huge adjustment that will hurt a lot of sellers. While it's true that the category FVFs have all been reduced what isn't being talked about is how the three tier system is being completely eliminated (look under category fees in the Mind Map above). By getting rid of the tier system they are drastically raising fees on every item over $50 in value. They probably feel that this okay because they are still in line with what Amazon charges (Amazon has never had a tier structure). What they are forgetting is that Amazon is largely a retail outlet, you will not find many one of kind rare antiques on Amazon as new listings are hard to create. With the restructure eBay will be driving away a lot of what makes them unique as an online platform.

How To Adjust Your eBay Strategy

Now some will complain and rant and rave to anyone who will listen about how unfair eBay is being but in the end it is their platform to manage as they see fit. Sellers then have a choice move on to other venues or try to adjust to the new fees. Here are some tips for those who choose the latter:

Take advantage of eBay's free listings. With the new free listings there is no reason not to list as many items as you can. Now it's possible to list an item that may take months to sell without worrying about the fees eating away at the profit.

Raise your prices. Do what the big companies do, pass on the pain to consumers. If you have calculated a certain profit margin for your items then you may have to raise prices to compensate for the new fees.

Sell more items individually. Selling in bulk to raise the item price and save on fees won't work anymore. Use free listings to sell more individual items directly to the consumer.

For Video Game Sellers

Open a store to save on fees. By opening a store you get access to the new category fees, including only 4% for video game consoles compared to 10% without a store.

Bundle leftover games with a console. By bundling your leftover games with a console you can sell them in Video Game Console category at 4% instead of in the Wholesale Lots section for 9%.

Create buzz by auctioning off higher value games. Every once in while auction off a high value game item. Although this can be risky it can also create a nice buzz for your store and get you some repeat customers.

Can Drop Shipping On eBay Really Work?

2013-04-14T03:10:00.000-07:00

Does drop shipping work?

Drop shipping is a process where you outsource your product holdings and shipping process. Basically, as an eBay seller, you are supposed to buy stock, list it online, sell it, and post it. With drop shipping you need not buy stock or post it, you just do the listing and selling part. You then have someone else post it out for you, and they already hold the stock so you don’t need to buy it in advance. Some people like the idea of drop shipping because there are a few benefits to outsourcing (and this article lists them). There are also downsides and risks to drop shipping on eBay too (they are also covered here).

What are the risks and/or downsides?

There are a number of risks and downsides that are covered in this article. To some people these downsides or risks will not be a problem, but to other people they are, which is why many people do not decide to drop ship.

You are putting your reputation in someone else’s hands. The products they send, the way they send them, what they do with the contact details and how quickly they send the products will all affect your reputation. This is because you are the seller and so are responsible.

Returns will be charged back to you. If an item is returned for whatever reason, the refunded money will have to come out of your pocket. There is little chance that the drop shipping company will reimburse you.

The shipping time could result in you getting poor reviews. You need to ship your items quickly or your eBay reviews will look pretty bad.

The drop shipping company may be fraudulent. There is a chance that you ally yourself with a company that has poor work practices, or a company that is simply looking to rip you off and your companies.

You have no control over ethical business behavior. You do not know how your drop shipping company conducts its business. That means that you have no idea if what they are doing is unethical, nor do you have enough control to stop them.

Undelivered items are charged back to you. If an item is undelivered then you are the one who has to refund the customer, even though you have paid the drop shipping company. You also have no proof that it was ever delivered, and no way to guard against people who claim it did not arrive when it did.

How do you prove that the item was delivered? Even if the drop shipping company gives you shipping information, you were not physically there when they posted it, and so cannot be sure that it ever was.

eBay never sides with drop shippers in disputes. eBay does not like drop shippers and will always rule against you in a dispute.

You are breaking the law if you do not tell people you are drop shipping. People think that because they often get away with things on eBay that they are not breaking the law, but they are. When you sell on eBay you are supposed to be selling your own items, and you are not, ergo you are breaking the law.

Out of stock items will make you look bad. If a person buys something from you and your drop shipping company says it is out of stock, then you are going to look bad and will probably receive negative feedbacks.

There is less profit to be made with drop shipping. This is one of the biggest reasons why a lot of people do not like drop shipping. The loss from one refund may wipe out the profits from several previously sold items.

Other drop shippers are selling the exact same items as you at the same price. You have no edge over your competition. They are all selling for the same price, selling the same products, and all have the same dispatch time.

What are the benefits?

There are some benefits to all forms of outsourcing, and drop shipping has its benefits too. Here are a few of them.

You do not need to hold any stock. Paying money to hold your stock will not be a problem, because with drop shipping, all of the stock is held by the drop shipping company.

Damages or stock going off cannot happen for you. If you buy a lot of stock, then the unsold items may go off. Even clothing goes off and starts to look old. With drop shipping, this sort of thing will never happen to you.

It cuts out part of the process which saves you work. It means that you can concentrate on selling and need not worry about buying, inventory matters or shipping. You will have a lot less work to do.

You can list a bigger inventory without needing a big investment. If you want to list a lot of items, then you normally have to have them in your possession. With drop shipping, there is nothing stopping you from listing your drop ship company’s entire inventory.

It is an easier way to trade online. It is actually very easy. All you need to do is sell a few items and manage your orders. Apart from selling and administration, there is very little needed to be done.

Author bio: Korah Morrison, writer on College-Paper.org that helps students achieve their academic goals.

Selling Globally With eBay's New International Shipping Program

2013-03-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

eBay wants to make it easier for sellers to ship internationally. Why? Because it will mean more sales and higher bids. Up until now sellers like you and me pretty much had to figure out all the ins and outs of international shipping on our own. This meant added time in filling out customs declarations and figuring out which shipping options were best and how to track them. Another downside is that the higher shipping fees would get calculated into the sellers FVF. Even though you can get more sales with international shipping many sellers just gave up on the idea altogether. According to ecommercebytes.com eBay has announced plans to expand it's Global Shipping Program which aims to simplify international orders.

How does eBay's GSP work?

Everyday millions of items are bought and sold on eBay and each and everyone must be packaged and shipped to it's destination. Realizing the power behind the massive volume of shipments eBay struck a deal with international carriers. eBay provides them with lots of shipments and they provide eBay discounted international rates. Everybody wins including the sellers. Instead of shipping globally all by your self you now have a partner in eBay itself. So instead of shipping to China for example you just ship your item to an eBay shipping center in the US and they handle the rest. If the item makes it there as shown on a tracking number then you've done your part and won't be held liable for lost international packages. The FVF will only be based on the sale price plus shipping to the eBay center.

Enabling eBay's GSP

Go to My eBay

Mouse over Account and click on site preferences

Under shipping preferences click show

Under Offer Global Shipping Program click edit

Click Join Now!

You are now part of the GSP program however you can still choose which individual listings you want to feature GSP shipping.

Setting Up GSP for items

Create your listing as you normally would.

Under Country of manufacture enter where the product was made (if known)

Under the International Shipping section check the box Global Shipping Program

If the Global Shipping Program check box isn't showing up then that means that the category you're selling in doesn't have this feature enabled (the item isn't eligible for the program).

Other things to remember about eBay GSP

Even if you have eBay GSP enabled for an item you can still offer your own additional international shipping options.

Items that weigh over 66 lbs can't be shipped with GSP.

You can still exclude countries that you'll ship to by changing your site preferences. Read here for more info.

Not every country is eligible for this program for a complete list check here.

Please don't send any of these items!

I'd love to hear any one's experiences with this new shipping program. Sounds like a good move so far on eBay's part to help boost sales and simplify things for buyers. We'll have to see how it works out in the long run though.

The Best Online eBay Price Guides And Tools For Video Games

2013-02-19T09:38:00.000-08:00

What is competitive pricing?

[caption id="attachment_468" align="alignleft" width="300"] Never Under Price Your Rare Games Again[/caption]

In short competitive pricing is pricing your item such that it's price is near that of others on the open market. A competitive pricing strategy assures that your items will be either lower priced than your competitors or about the same. The goal is to not price your item to high and lose out on sales but also not to price it too low and leave money on the table. If a item is rare or is not seen that often on eBay it can be hard to determine what price to sell it at. For example when I was quite a bit younger my dad was getting rid of all his old TI-994A cartridges and extras that he had collected over the years. He gave them to me to sell on eBay. Not knowing the price I put two unopened games in great condition on eBay for about $49.99. Those two games sold within minutes and I realized I had made a big mistake and had priced them way too low (similar ones later went in auction for $150). The point being don't sell anything unless you know how much it's worth. Sometimes you just have to pay a price to learn a lesson I guess. Fortunately, though there are some great free resources out there that can help you price just about any game in any condition.

www.pricecharting.com is a online resource that tracks the new and used sell prices of new and classic video games. It combines sales data from eBay with listing data from Amazon and Half.com to determine the going price of thousands of video games and consoles. What's even better is that they collect data trends on each game and categories of games so you can easily see which systems are on the rise and which are becoming obsolete.

www.rarityguide.com is one of the most trusted collectible game pricing guides. The site is very useful if you have a very rare NIB item or a CIB item that you just don't know how to price. The only flaw with this site is that all the prices are for items in collectible condition and it doesn't really address the price of an average loose cartridge or CD.

Terapeak's Keyword Tool is not only useful for finding the best keywords to put in a title but can also help you price items as well. It helps to be as specific as possible and remember that this tool uses keywords not actual titles so sometimes that can throw things off a bit. For example if you put in a keyword from a series of games then you'll get the average from all the games from that series.

eBay Market Analyzer is a great new free app for eBay that searches past listings and displays how many items sold and for how much. Again you have to be specific and you should probably sort by items sold. The more items sold at a certain price the more reliable that pricing information is going to be. You can also sort by "eBay Score" but I'm not quite sure how that is even calculated. This tool can also be used to find which video games and lots are most popular by using the most watched option.

For more complete market package I recommend checking out eBay Market Research by Terapeak. Learn more about features and pricing in our Terapeak Review.

Original Xbox Repair How To Replace The DVD Drive Video

2013-01-02T03:50:00.000-08:00

Used consoles bought on eBay often need some repairs. The main issue for the original Xbox is the DVD drive. If you keep getting a "Disc Read Error" than more than likely the DVD drive has gone bad. There are two options to fix this: replace the laser from within the DVD drive or just replace the entire DVD drive. The easier option is to replace the whole DVD drive. I recommend using a DVD drive from an Xbox that has some other issue (bad software mod, power supply malfunction). Often times you can buy a few non-working Xboxes and put together some working ones to sell online. Or if you can find a cheap replacement DVD drive on eBay (which is becoming harder as these systems get older) you can do it that way.

Top 5 Tips To Stand Out As An eBay Video Game Seller

2012-12-28T04:56:00.000-08:00

Standing out on eBay is a tough proposition considering the countless other sellers offering comparable items. Buyers tend to think less in terms of buying from a particular seller and more in terms of buying "from eBay". If you want any sort of repeat customers though you'll have to do something to get them out of that mindset. Anything that you can do to help them remember your seller name and have a reason to come to you first is a good thing.

[caption id="attachment_426" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Standing Out On eBay Can Be Hard.[/caption]

5 Tips To Stand Out On eBay

Offer Something For Free. By offering a free bonus with purchase you'll not only increase the chances that they will buy from you but also the chances they'll come back to you again in the future. The key is to offer something that doesn't cost much in terms of money but that can add value for the customer. The video game market is great for this because there are many things you can offer that cost very little to include. Some examples are printed cheat codes, walkthroughs, small posters, freeware games or even access to free member sites. Of course whatever you offer you'll want to make sure that you're legally allowed to do so.

Have A Generous Return Policy. Most eBay sellers are moving away from longer return policies especially on used video game consoles. One way you can stand out then is by having an excellent return policy. This may mean that you have to accept more returns from customers. However, you should be able to make up for this by charging more for your item than the sellers who don't have a return policy. Your warranty should be highlighted in your listing as a reason to buy from you.

Create A Call To Action. More than likely your listings all have a call to action. That is you tell the buyer to buy the product from you and why. After the sale you should do the same. If you want the buyer to add you to their favorite sellers then add that to your post sale emails. If you have a blog to update your buyers (which is a great idea) direct them there. If you operate a store eBay allows you to build a an email list directly, make sure you are taking full advantage of this tool.

Get Some Branding. That little tiny eBay user name in the right hand corner of the screen is probably not going to get the buyer's attention. Try creating some simple banners and logos for your store or even using your eBay ID. Not into graphic design? You can use a simple program like MS Paint or DrawPlus to create simple but effective logos. You can also add branded flyers or custom business cards to each shipment.

Share What You Know. If you've been selling on eBay for a while you've probably learned a thing or two along the way. You can share this knowledge on forums, blogs, and by creating relevant eBay guides. This will help get your name out there and make you more well-known in the eBay community.

Any other ideas? Add them below.

eBay Selling Tips: Shining Up Old Sega Brand Video Game Consoles

2012-12-13T10:15:00.014-08:00

Cleaning Games Consoles Adds Value

On eBay a nice clean shiny item will get more clicks and more bids than a dusty old looking one. So when I saw this video on youtube I decided to pass it on. It shows a surprisingly simple way to shine up retro video game consoles like the Sega brand consoles or really any black plastic console. Look how easy this is:

eBay RSS: Conducting Your Own Market Research With Yahoo Pipes Jquery

2012-12-08T10:25:00.000-08:00

How To Conduct Your Own eBay Market Research

To create my eBay Console Sales report I first had to come up with a way to track the sales data from eBay. I thought that it would be simple using eBay's RSS system to extract the sale price and number of bids. It turned out to be a little more complicated than I expected. However, using Yahoo! Pipes I was able to reassign some of the default RSS settings and output them as JSON (Java Script Object Notation). Using this technique I could then easily access the sales price for each item using JQuery (an addon library for JavaScript). If you are unfamiliar with programming simply watch the video above and follow the steps below. Everything is as simple as copy and paste. With this technique you can get the Avg. Sale Price and Sell through rate for any RSS feed from eBay. The video shows how to get RSS feeds from eBay's advanced search. This program only gets the last 100 items in the feed however because that is the first page of the feed and it's not programmed to go the next page in feed. I may in the future expand the program below into a tool for the web site if possible. Even if you don't know much about programming don't be afraid to try it out. I'm sorry that the code isn't well documented but I assure you that it does work.

Go To http://pipes.yahoo.com/ebaybuyingfeed/rsstojson .This pipe will take any eBay RSS feed and remap the values so that you can extract the information that you want more easily. Instead of the title and description it will return the sell price and number of bids. It will also transform the RSS into a JSON file which is much easier to work with using JavaScript. So paste your RSS value and hit "Run Pipe" after it runs click "Get As JSON". Copy the web address of the JSON feed.

Open a text editor and copy and paste the code below.

<HTML>
<HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY>
<p></p>
<SCRIPT>$(document).ready(function(){
var URL = [];
URL = [];//Insert your JSON addresses here in quotes seperated by commas
var jsonFormat = "&_callback=?";
$.each(URL, function(aindex, urlval){

var outString = "";
var AVG;
var saleRate;

var Total = 0;
var soldItems = 0;
var allItems = 0;
var ajaxURL = urlval + jsonFormat;

$.getJSON(ajaxURL,function(data){

$.each(data.value.items, function(index, val) {
if (val.title != null){

soldItems++;
Total += parseFloat(val.description);
}

allItems++;
});

AVG = (Total/soldItems)* 0.01;
saleRate = soldItems/allItems;
$("p").append(document.createTextNode(AVG + "," + saleRate + ","));

});

});

});

</SCRIPT>
</BODY>

</HTML>

Save the file as a .html file.

Insert your JSON addresses as shown in the code above and save.

Open the file using Mozilla Firefox.

You should have a list of average sale prices and and sell through rates for the various feeds.

Organize these using CSV files and spreadsheet software.

This method is best used over time as each feed only returns the last 100 items from eBay. You can take samples over the course of some weeks and compile the results with spreadsheet software. For more in depth market research I suggest using a paid service like terapeak.

eBay Unveils New Updated Logo

2012-09-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

Gone are wild, funky and slightly askew letters that made up eBay's primary logo. According to adage.com eBay is giving it's logo an update for the first time in years. The four primary colors will stay the same but the font has been changed to a more sleek modern feel and the letters are no longer askew and misaligned. Overall I'd say they did a pretty good job. It's not too inventive or risky but clean, bright and simple. While the original logo emphasized that eBay was pretty much a place you could find anything and everything (thus the different shapes and sizes of the letters). The new logo tries to show a more modern, professional side of eBay. Anyway enough talking here's the new eBay logo:

[caption id="attachment_320" align="aligncenter" width="277"] Here it is eBay's new and improved logo.[/caption]

This new logo will begin to pop up on eBay's main site, mobile apps and more starting in October 2012. Tell us what you think of the new logo in the comments section below. Is it a good move by eBay or will it hurt eBay's image?

RSS For eBay Sellers: Publishing To Twitter and Embedding With JavaScript Videos

2012-09-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

eBay RSS: Publishing Your Feed To Twitterfeed

Why use twitterfeed?

Many sellers publish their selling feeds to twitter and facebook directly from eBay. This is fine and can be useful but there are a few features that eBay doesn't provide that twitterfeed does:

Get stats on which of your links from twitter have been clicked and how many times

Prefix your listings with hashtags for greater visibility

Filter listings based on keywords in the title

Options for how to sort listings

How To Publish Your eBay Selling Feed To Twitter Video

How To Embed Your Selling Feed In A Blog With JavaScript Video

It can useful to display your eBay RSS selling feed on your wordpress or blogger blog. The following video will show you how. Here are the main steps

Go to one of your listings and click on your name

From the eBay My World page click "view all items"

Scroll to the bottom and find the RSS button

Copy the RSS URL

Got to www.feed2js.org

Paste your RSS URL

Fill out the appropriate options

Click "generate code"

Copy and paste it into your page or post

AdShip Severes Ties With eBay Sellers

2012-08-03T09:10:00.000-07:00

I tried to log into my AdShip account through eBay today and noticed something strange. The application seems to no longer exist on eBay. (For those who are unaware AdShip is an eBay app that pays you for including an ad in your invoices to buyers.) Thinking it was a technical glitch of some sort I decided to head directly to the AdShip home page. However, there is now no longer anyway to log in only to register which is strange. Then I found it:

Announcement

To our eBay users, we apologize for any inconvenience or confusion we may have caused you by the recent removal of the AdShip app on eBay. After extensive review, it has been decided that this app no longer aligned with our goal of best servicing our retailers and advertisers. It is our intention to honor payments for those vendors that did comply with our terms of use regarding actual placement of our advertiser’s ads on the invoices for the products vendors sent to their respective customers. To further assist you with any questions regarding your account, please send an email request for the funds in your account to redemptions@adship.com. Include your name and eBay ID. Upon receipt, your account will be reviewed to verify that the packing slip with the ad was included with the customer shipment to earn the ad commission based upon the insert. Due to the high volume of users, we do ask for a 14 days window to review your account. Once the account has been reviewed and ad invoice inclusion has been verified, an email will be sent to you about how your payment will be processed.

My Thoughts

It seems AdShip's model of advertising ran into a major glitch and now they want to skip out on paying what they owe. The way the system was set up AdShip would notify the buyer when an item was shipped via an email with an embedded advertisement. The seller was then obligated to include an invoice with the package that had the same advertisement. However, AdShip's system couldn't ever really guarantee that the buyer would get the invoice. The honor system came into play on that portion of the deal. Many sellers probably did include the required invoice. Some sellers who never include invoices though may have skipped this step knowing that AdShip had no way of enforcing it. At some point advertisers must have come to the realization that they weren't getting everything they were promised. Instead of owning up to their mistakes and the flaws in their system AdShip decided to go another route and just shut up shop entirely. Now they are forcing eBay sellers to go through some screening process to get funds for transactions that were already verified by AdShip. This is a huge mistake as eBay sellers really liked this service and ads were still getting through (through email at least). A better solution would be to upgrade the software to track when the invoices are printed before verifying a transaction. Everyone loses with the way they are handling this eBay sellers lose a service that helps lowers cost and AdShip loses credibility and trust with the businesses they need to make their advertising model work.

Video Game Selling

Forgotten Gaming: TI-994A the Amazing Personal Computer

My Most Played TI-99/4A Games

How To Sell Video Game Wholesale Lots on eBay (Tips and Tricks)

4 Ways eBay Can Revitalize The Auction Format

Why Should eBay Care About Auctions?

Unexpected Places To Sell Games Online

Go Where The Collectors Are Already

Get Out There And Be Social

The Forgotten Sites That Still Work

Improve Your eBay Listings with Terapeak's New Listing Optimizer

Terapeak Introduces New Listing Tool to Help Sellers Improve Visibility

All This Data Means Terapeak Knows How To Rank On eBay

eBay's New Defect Rate Policy In Effect August 20th

The Evolution Of Seller Performance On eBay

What Is The New Defect Rate Policy?

Can You Sell Downloadable Game Content On eBay?

eBay The New Home Of Video Game DLC?

Digital Products And eBay's TOS

The Fatal Flaw With Selling DLCs

eBay About Me Pages Replaced By User Profiles

Top 7 Rarest Video Games, What Do They Cost?

How To Build A Buyer E-Mail List From eBay And PayPal

eBay Selling Tips: Playstation PS2 Laser Lens Adjusting And Replacing Videos

Common Problems With The Playstation 2 Console

Things To Remember Before Starting Repairs

Terapeak Now Integrates With Amazon Sales Data

Terapeak for Amazon will enable online merchants to:

eBay Advanced RSS Searches No Longer Available?

Kabbage Announces Plans To Expand It's Lending Program

Kabbage CEO Explains The Process

What The New eBay Fee Structure Means To Your Business

The Real Reason For eBay's New Fee Structure

What Are The New Fees?

eBay's Sneaky Trick

How To Adjust Your eBay Strategy

For Video Game Sellers

Can Drop Shipping On eBay Really Work?

What are the risks and/or downsides?

What are the benefits?

Selling Globally With eBay's New International Shipping Program

How does eBay's GSP work?

Enabling eBay's GSP

Setting Up GSP for items

Other things to remember about eBay GSP

The Best Online eBay Price Guides And Tools For Video Games

What is competitive pricing?

Original Xbox Repair How To Replace The DVD Drive Video

Top 5 Tips To Stand Out As An eBay Video Game Seller

5 Tips To Stand Out On eBay

eBay Selling Tips: Shining Up Old Sega Brand Video Game Consoles

eBay RSS: Conducting Your Own Market Research With Yahoo Pipes Jquery

How To Conduct Your Own eBay Market Research

eBay Unveils New Updated Logo

RSS For eBay Sellers: Publishing To Twitter and Embedding With JavaScript Videos

eBay RSS: Publishing Your Feed To Twitterfeed

Why use twitterfeed?

How To Publish Your eBay Selling Feed To Twitter Video

How To Embed Your Selling Feed In A Blog With JavaScript Video

AdShip Severes Ties With eBay Sellers

Announcement

My Thoughts