Q: Tanner, I am new to eBay, and the first item I bought was a collectable comic book. I recieved the comic book today and was shocked to find that it looks nothing like the description. The pages are bent, the cover is scratched and scuffed, and their is a greasy stain on several of the pages.

The items description said the comic was in good condition with only minor wear. If this is minor wear I’ll be a monkeys uncle.

I am not sure how to proceed in this matter. I feel that I have been cheated. I paid a large amount of money for a highly collectable comic that is destroyed. What can I do?

Awaiting your reply,

Mike D.

A: I am sorry to hear about that, unfortunatly every once in a while something like this happens on eBay. The good news is there are several things you can do about it.

The first thing you should do is re-read the ad from the item you won, eBay keeps it available to you for 30 days after the auction close. Compare the comic you recieved to the ad and picture (if there was one) and make sure that you did not misread the ad. Read the rest of this entry »

As most of you know I have spent tons of money on so-called dropship/wholesale lists, that give you information about companies that are either out of business or don’t have contact information.

How are you supposed to build a profitable business with that kind of crap? You can’t!

However for the last year I have been using the dropship source directory to locate many of the items I sell on ebay and I must say that the Dropship Source Directory is worth every penny you pay to get it and more.

The Dropship Source Directory is The most comprehensive online tool on the Internet for finding Name Brand and Specialty items to sell online with NO INVESTMENT.

They personally contact every company in their database to make sure they are legitimate and reliable dropship companies. Currently there are over 3900 companies listed with more being added on a weekly basis. Read the rest of this entry »

There are lots of people w.h.o are “shooting stars” in the auction game: they dash in with wild enthusiasm, stars in their eyes, filled with plans.

Yet, talk to them three months later and you will hear a sour story about how “auctions don’t work”.

After all, they reason, they listed lots of items, worked hard to satisfy customers - and lost money.

What happened? They fell victim to the internet myth which says that anyone can jump in and become one of the new web millionaires. It’s easy and doesn’t take much time, right?

Wrong! All high paying professions demand knowledge, skills, a certain level of expertise. Why should net auctions be any different?

All genuine teachers advise their students to begin with small steps that won’t be too costly if they fail. Then, as expertise and confidence grows, we can take bigger and bigger leaps.

So, the secret to minimizing any losses and maximizing your gains is simply this .. Read the rest of this entry »

Q: Dear Tanner,

I have recently started listing 40-50 auctions a week, and it is getting very hard to keep track of them all. I have looked at the auction managers you recommend, but they all cost money, are there any good auction managers I can use for free? I really don’t want to spend the money just to track my auctions.

A: Unfortunatly, no there are no free auction managers that I’m aware of. And there is a good reason for that. Developing auction managment software is very expensive and the better you want it to work, the more it costs to develop.

After spending all that money developing the software, nobody in their right mind would give it away for free.

Also in my opinion I would not trust a free auction manager to keep track of my auctions, mainly because if the designers are not being paid, what reason do they have to fix any problems on the program or offer you any technical support if you need it? NONE! Why would they, they don’t want to work for free. Read the rest of this entry »