Ten Really Cool Things I Learned At eBay Live! 2007
Cliff Ennico
www.creators.com
If it's June, it must be time for eBay Live!, the annual trade-show-cum-Woodstock for the eBay community. This year's event was held in Boston, and I was privileged to host programs dealing with the legal, tax, and personnel aspects of running a "real" business on eBay. If you think eBay is only for folks living in remote rural areas, be advised that more than 10,000 people, most of them serious eBay sellers, attended the event.
Here are 10 of the really cool statistics, selling resources and people I learned at this year's eBay Live!
10.According to CEO Meg Whitman, there are more than 233 million registered eBay users around the globe, up from 200 million at last year's event.
9.eBay sellers have given more than $100 million to charities around the world through eBay's "Giving Works" program, which allows sellers to donate a percentage of their auction winnings to designated nonprofit organizations.
8.If you're a fan of YouTube.com or other online video sites, you can now create "video listings" of the stuff you're selling on eBay and post them on your auction pages. Consider: instead of describing in words the vacuum cleaner you have for sale on eBay, you can post a video of a sexy "Desperate Housewives" type using the vacuum and demonstrating just how well it picks up dust devils. Just keep it clean, folks.
7.eBay business consultant JackWaddick (
jwaddick@oakviewtraining.com
) said that by far the biggest announcement at this year's eBay Live! was PayPal's new "Security Key" - a device that (for a one-time $5 fee) generates a unique six-digit security code for your account every 30 seconds. You enter this number, along with your username and password, each time you log into your PayPal account so identity thieves and other fraudsters can't access your account even if they hack your password. To find out more go to
www.paypal.com
, click on "Security Center", then "Security Tools", then "PayPal Security Key Overview" (hey c'mon, guys - something this big should be on the home page, shouldn't it?).
6.The coolest title I've ever seen on a business card - Carrie Jeffries, "Head Dreamer" of Creative Career Cafe, a direct marketing consultant for small businesses based in North Smithfield, Rhode Island (www.createtheworkyoulove.com).
5.Bizfilings.com, one of the leading online incorporation services, announced that they just acquired toolkits.com (the former "CCH Toolkits"), which among other things helps small businesses register for state sales, use and other business taxes in their home states. So now anyone forming a corporation or limited liability company (LLC) through bizfilings.com will automatically be able to register for state and local taxes at the same time, without having to seek an accountant's help. To my knowledge, this is a service not offered by any of the other "do it yourself" online incorporation services, and will give bizfilings.com a major edge over their (many) competitors.
4.Are you using QuickBooks(r) for your online selling business but can't find an eBay-specific "chart of accounts" to upload into the program? Oregon CPA Cathi Aiello (
www.allegroaccounting.com
, eBay ID allegro-accounting) offers customized "chart of accounts" templates for a variety of eBay sellers beginning at $19.95.
3.Have you always wanted to own your own Internet radio station? WS Radio (
www.wsradio.com
), the host of "eBay Radio" and "Entrepreneur (Magazine) Radio" on the Internet, is selling franchises in America's top 50 cities - for more information, go to
www.wsradio.com/myhometown
.
2.eBay sellers who use Apple's Macintosh computers now (finally) have a listing tool of their own - GarageSale (
www.iwascoding.com/GarageSale
). With GarageSale Mac users can finally compose eye-catching auctions quickly using an intuitive Mac-like interface, and in the fraction of the time it would take to do it on eBay's web interface. Not only this, but GarageSale also integrates perfectly with iPhoto, and includes photo storage (always a big issue for eBay sellers). Thanks to eBay University instructor Janelle Elms (
www.janelleelms.com
) for introducing this one to me.
1.The most powerful new eBay resource I saw at eBay Live! 2007 was Avalara.com (
www.avalara.com
). Based in the Seattle, Washington area, Avalara has developed a "sales tax calculator" that it offers free of charge to eBay sellers. You just type in information about your product and your winning bidder's Zip Code and the calculator tells you exactly how much to charge for state and local sales taxes. Avalara is one of only three software providers nationwide to qualify as an "authorized vendor" under the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP), a proposed law that would require online vendors such as eBay sellers to collect and pay sales taxes to the state and local governments where all of their winning bidders reside (currently eBay sellers are required to collect and pay sales taxes only if the winning bidder lives in the same state they do). If (as is highly likely) Congress passes legislation enabling the SSTP to become law in the 22 states that have already endorsed it (and you know the other 28 states won't be far behind), Avalara.com already has in place the software tools that will help eBay sellers keep track of the more than 7,500 jurisdictions in the United States that impose sales taxes. Expect big things from this company.
Next year's eBay Live! will be held June 19-21, 2008 in Chicago. If you're selling on eBay or even thinking about it, ya gotta be there!
Cliff Ennico (
cennico@legalcareer.com
is a syndicated columnist, author and host of the PBS television series 'Money Hunt'. His latest books are 'Small Business Survival Guide' (Adams Media, $12.95) and 'The eBay Seller's Tax and Legal Answer Book' (AMACOM, $19.95). This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at
www.creators.com
. COPYRIGHT 2007 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
