eBay and Auction Resources, Ezines, Books, and Auction Management Software Tools

If you want to learn more about selling in online auctions, here are a number of learning ladders:

• Online Resource Centers and Ezines
• Books and E-Books
• Auction Sales Management Tools

Online Resource Centers and Ezines

Auction Case Study section of E-Commerce Research Room (/search/cat.php?page=1&querytype=category&subcat=ca_Auction)

Auction Bytes (www.auctionbytes.com), edited by Ina Steiner. Twice-monthly advertising-supported ezine with articles for auction sellers, such as "How to Buy Books in Used-Bookstores and Resell them for Profit." Daily news flash.

The Auction Guild (www.auctionguild.com). A good bit of helpful information and problem solving concerning the Online Auction and Trading Industry. Industry watchdog site. Publishes free, "erratically published" ezine called TAGNotes. Edited by Rosiland Baldwin.

The Auction Seller's Resource (www.auction-sellers-resource.com), "the website for professional auction sellers." Publishes monthly Auction Power Newsletter (http://www.auction-sellers-resource.com/newsletters). Back issues available online. Includes helpful articles, list of 200 specialty auction sites, and government auction guide.

SuperSellers Auction Newsletter (http://superseller.krause.com), official newsletter of the online auction business," published twice weekly by Krause Publications. Circulation over 60,000, advertising supported. Provides business profiles and industry news. Edited by Tom Kessenich.

Auction Watch. Source of auction management software used to publish AW Daily ezine, but still makes available excerpts as Tips & Tactics (www.auctionwatch.com/awdaily/tipsandtactics/), Exclusive Features (www.auctionwatch.com/awdaily/features/), and Collector's Beat (www.auctionwatch.com/awdaily/collectors/).

Books and E-Books

Make Your Net Auction Sell! by Sydney Johnston (SiteSell, 2001, http://sales.sitesell.com/mynas). See my review in this issue (www.wilsonweb.com/reviews/mynas.htm).

Auction E-Books (www.auctionebooks.com). Affiliate links to several other auction how-to books.

Print Books. Though e-books tend to be more up-to-date, you can see a number of print books on the subject at Amazon.com. A search on "online auction" yielded 20 results, including:

• Starting Your Online Auction Business, by Dennis L. Prince (ISBN 0761529217)
• Success Secrets of Online Auction Selling: An Insiders' Guide, by Steven Yang (ISBN 0970631308)
• Kovels' Bid, Buy, and Sell Online (ISBN 0609807579)
• eBay For Dummies, 2nd Edition, by Marsha Collier, Roland Woerner, and Stephanie Becker (ISBN 0764507613)
• The Unofficial Guide to eBay and Online Auctions, by Dawn and Bobby Reno (ISBN 0028638662)

Auction Sales Management Tools

If you have very many products for sale on eBay and other auction sites, keeping track of them can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are many third-party software packages written to ease the task. You can find a fuller listing in Yahoo! Directory "Business Management Software > Auctions" section and by searching for "auction" in ZD Downloads (http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/). Following are some that I saw power sellers using on eBay. I can make no personal recommendations. These are listed in alphabetical order.

AuctionDesk.net (www.auctiondesk.net), "the fastest, easiest and most cost effective way to manage your online auctions." (www.AuctionDesk.net). $4.95 to $36.95 per month. Many features including accounts receivable management, templates, relisting, packing/shipping slip printing, mailing list management, etc.

Auction Trakker (www.timbercreeksoftware.com). Tools for bidders as well as sellers. $39.95. Detailed inventory and posting module with templates, image locations, minimum bid, category, quantity, label printing. Keeps track of inventory quantities, e-mails to winning bidders, etc. $79.95 for the inventory and posting module.

 AuctionWatch (www.auctionwatch.com), "the complete sales management solution". Full SKU inventory management. 10¢ per listing (up to 50, 5¢ after that) plus 1% of sales (up to $4.95 max per product). Bigger sellers can pay up to $39.95/month for flat rate plans with more features. Allows listings on eBay, Yahoo! and Amazon auctions. Free image hosting and storefront with some plans.

AuctionWorks (www.auctionworks.com), "your e-commerce partner for online sales" (www.auctionworks.com). Integrated sales through eBay and eBay stores.

ChannelAdvisor (www.channeladvisor.com). A comprehensive set of tools that helps you organize your inventory, track your auctions and manage your sales. QuickBooks export. Automates posting to eBay, eBay Motors, Yahoo! Auctions, Amazon Auctions, eHammer, and eBay Stores. $19.95 per month. Imaging hosting and storefront. They also offer XML-based inventory management tools for enterprise-level manufacturers and retailers selling at online auctions. (Formerly GoTo.com's ChannelFusion.)

Seller's Assistance (http://pages.ebay.com/sellers_assistant). eBay offers the Mister Lister free of charge. Its Seller's Assistance products (developed originally by Hawthorne Software) cost an additional $8.95 per month for Basic and $15.95 per month for Pro. Provides listing templates, sales tracking, and correspondence management. The Pro version allows you to automate various processes with macros, print shipping documents and labels, generate reports, and more.

I talked to Mark Welch (www.markwelch.com), an outspoken Internet performance marketing consultant whom I trust. With regard to his work for MovieGoods.com, he told me, "Last summer I bought and tested a dozen packages. All suck. They're awful." The best he found was Seller's Assistance Pro from eBay, but noted that it still required a lot of manual work coordinating inventory between sales on the eBay channel with sales on their standalone website. MovieGoods.com is now moving to ChannelAdvisor.