So in case you procrastinated and are still looking for a costume, it’s good news. Laziness trumps zeal! Now make haste and buy that designer Mickey Mouse costume at half off; you will not be taken the cleaners – unless you really want to be a fire fighter (more on this later).
What if you are in the business of selling costumes? There obviously has to be something to it if all those “scary” costume stores keep on opening up temporarily every year. It doesn’t appear that there is much of a premium being created by the Halloween season. In fact, it almost looks as though merchants are going to get a lot less for their merchandise compared to months prior. That’s not really where the money is to be made. More people want costumes and more people are willing to satisfy that desire to be Edward Cullen or Jack Sparrow for one night – or even a few…

Buyers get their costumes at little to no mark up, and sellers make a ton of money off of volume. It’s win-win for all parties involved, except if you bought your costume months ago or want to be a fire fighter. In the case of the premature purchase, you are out some cash. However, in the case of the fire fighter, there is a silver lining. Reliable female sources agree that fire fighters are hot, and the trending shows that there has been limited fire fighter sales volume. Presume the trending applies to the general population and do the math:

Step 1
(Perceived Hotness) X (Low Expected Rate of Competition from Other Fire Fighters)) =
(Higher Expected Perceived Hotness!!!)

Step 2
(Higher Expected Perceived Hotness!!!) => (Increased Fair Market Value)

Looks like I will be accepting that Nobel Economics Prize decked out in full fire fighter gear. If you would like to learn more about eBay transaction data concerning Halloween or anything else, check out Vendio Research. It was used to populate the graphs above by analyzing millions of eBay transactions and can provide strategic eBay research recommendations on when and how to sell items most profitably on eBay.

In a week where Michael Jackson became the number one search term on Google, held the top five album spots on iTunes and captured the top honors on Amazon’s MP3 store; it’s no surprise that there has been a flood of Michael Jackson related items hitting eBay. Find out below where there is money to be made:

Both the Thriller LP and Michael Jackson Dolls have increased in value dramatically this past week. A copy of Thriller can go for nearly $70 on eBay, or so Vendio Research says, compared to the $13 it was getting before the King of Pop passed.

Michael Jackson dolls. Yes, they unfortunately exist. Although its cliché, call it an “action figure,” and it will pickup and extra $10, bringing home an astounding $120. Who knows if anything from the 80s can truly be “vintage;” but if it’s added to the item title, there is an 88% chance it will sell on eBay.

Whether it’s a doll or “action figure” it’s still fetching over 370% more than it would have any time in the previous few months before Michael moved-on.

It also looks like there is a MJ glove fad on the horizon. 352 of them sold last week on eBay compared to the 5 per week reported by Vendio Research in weeks prior.

If prices of Michael memorabilia are just going up, up, up, what is a fan to do? Well, a real fan would step-up and buy a Michael Jackson gold record. They are currently undervalued by about 25% when compared to sales in weeks before he died.

For some reason if a gold record doesn’t satisfy a fan’s Michael appetite, they should think about buying Michael Jackson: Moonwalker, the movie not the video game. It’s not nearly as cool as a gold record, but it’s only $20 now vs. $28 in weeks prior.

If you would like any more eBay transaction data about Michael Jackson or anything else, check out Vendio Research. You just can’t Beat It. It’s a simple yet powerful application that analyzes millions of past eBay transactions to provide data on individual items including average sales prices, sales volume, and keyword metrics. The above statistics were gathered from Vendio Research and can be used easily to determine selling strategies and opportunities on eBay for Michael Memorabilia or any product you have. So start snooping and figure out what that film of Farrah you found is really worth.

Employees Found Muttering and Twittering

Sad Mateo, California. June 17, 2009. Vendio Services, Inc. today learned of their shocking defeat at eBay’s Developer Conference, being named “Runner-Up” in the Most Innovative Application category. While acknowledging their appreciation for this prestigious honor, it didn’t take their ridiculously awesome Vendio Research to identify the sadness behind their bold public faces.

Adorned in his “Second Place is the First Loser” t-shirt, EVP Mike Effle humbly accepted the award and vowed to drive on toward 2010. He was later caught in the hallway of eBay’s Developer’s Conference muttering something about Vendio’s previous victories in this competition, being the only ones with eBay Motors data, and having started Research years ago even before eBay knew such analytics were useful to the Marketplace.

Back at the office, Vendio employees had to stop themselves from methodically chanting, “We’re Number Two!!!” when their confusing peace signs attracted an enormous hippie following and the ensuing drum circle disrupted the workplace environment. Most sheepishly admitted it was “fun while it lasted” despite their affinity for South Park’s Cartman.

Ardent race fan and Account Manager Chris was the first to post on Twitter that Bobby Unser eloquently said, “Nobody remembers who finished second but the guy who finished second.” He later realized that it was no time for elocution and simply quoted Stroker Ace’s “Second sucks.” Unfortunately, he lost followers when trying to describe the confusion around Ricky Bobby’s “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” And “last” just sounded worse than “first loser” anyway.

Upon hearing the news, the office Top Gun fans immediately began constructing the mantle in the ladies bathroom as the rightful place for the alternate’s plaque while noting that there indeed are “no points for second place.” Tom Cruise could not be reached for comment.

Finally, office marathon runner Tim recalled Carlos Lopes saying: “Second place is not a defeat. It is a stimulation to get better. It makes you even more determined.” With that, the team huddled in the ladies bathroom, gazed upon the mantle that would hold their prize and vowed not to rest until 2010, when they fully expect to capture the First Winner prize.

Vendio Research offers the unique ability to create two completely different search experiences – and knowing which to use can be a real time saver and help get accurate results.

The Vendio default research is our “Smart Research”. This type of research is ideal for commodity and new items, and clusters the results – removing items not likely to be related to your keyword research. For example, if you are researching Apple iPods, you will not get results that include Apple iPod “cases” or “ear buds”, since these items, not related to your search will skew your results.

The alternative to Smart Research is the “Full Data Set”. This will return ALL results for your keyword research. Thus, when typing in Apple iPod, you WILL get all results that have Apple iPod in their title which will include the “cases” and “ear buds”. The Full Data set research is ideal for vintage, collectible and rarer items.

Once inside the results page, the navigation panel on the right can help you refine your results further and is the primary difference between the two types of Research.

Refinements for the Smart Research are predefined and you can click on these to refine your results. Conversely, when using Full Data Set, you can add additional exclude words, and refine by additional fields.

Thus the principal difference between Smart and Full Data Set is that Smart Research refines the results for you and presents you with any available options to refine your search and Full Data set lets you choose the options to refine.

The important thing to remember is that Vendio research is not “just a search” where you type in a few keywords and “hope” you get some useful information, it’s complete data research where you get the results you need.

Michael discusses Vendio Research, the Vendio Platform, the economy and shares some general Vendio information with eBay Radio.

Please take a moment and listen in!!

Enjoy!!

As you can see in the below image – I’ve selected the pretty Vendio colors for my widget, but choose what suits your business.

Choose you width and height (or use the predefined sizes), fill in your info, copy and paste your code – and you are good to go!!

Just copy and paste the code.

Here’s a widget in action at CharmCraze-Y

Grab your widget today – located under Store Designer>Store URL and Status

Happy Selling !!!

In this release, we’ve added support for the 30-day Fixed Price options. These new features and enhancements should make it easier for you to determine exactly how to list your items.

In the price summary view, we’ve added Total Sales Volume, and added Average Auction Price and Average Fixed Price.

Summary View

Additionally, we’ve added the 30-day Fixed Price in the Charts and Graphs sections of Product Research in How to Sell for both Listings and Duration.

Duration Graph

Duration Chart

The ability to view fixed price information should  make it a lot easier to determine which format to use for listing your items.

We have also added new filters inline in the Raw Data Research (all item research) to allow you to refine your research results.

New Refine Filters

You will also notice that Top Seller (competitive seller data) is now available for most research results for both Smart Research and Raw Data Research.

We  hope these changes make selling a bit easier and please let us know if you have any suggestions or comments.

Sellers who opt to pay the home page featured fee ($59.95 for 3, 5, 7, or 10 days or $179.95 for 30 days), may have their items displayed in a small box at the bottom of the home page.

While eBay does not guarantee that your item will be displayed in the “From Our Sellers” box, it is important to realize that the titles are cut off and using the right keywords in the right order is the best bet for getting the most out of your investment.

When using Vendio Research, be sure to check the Top Seller tab to view the keywords that are responsible for driving success and price.

Typical Title: Elegant Ladies Steel & Gold Rolex Datejust Watch

Shown on eBay’s home page: Elegant Ladies Steel & Gold Ro…..

Researching Rolex shows the keywords that drive sales success and final price. This seller may have had better luck by placing the best keywords first to help get the most out of their Featured listing and by using the rest of the title space for the remaining necessary descriptive keywords (ladies, datejust) to help with search.

“18k Gold Rolex Watch” would have been the best use of space for the cut-off description on eBay’s home page, and making sure the rest of the title contained any applicable keywords could have ensured great success for this seller.

On October  21st eBay announced the new Paperless Payments requirement. You will need to accept PayPal or ProPay . As long as you have one of these options selected, you will have  no trouble with your listings. eBay will no longer display Checks or Money Orders as an option, relists with these options will not fail as eBay will just ignore them. Additionally, if you have any text in your Auction Ads that reference checks or money orders, you have until January 14th to remove that text from your listings

In the past eBay stated that they would suspend sellers who had a 4.3 or lower DSR rating in ANY of their ratings, but they have changed that to 4.1. Now, who have any DSR between 4.1 and 4.3 while be allowed to list, will have their items demoted in search.

For those sellers who have between a 4.1 and 4.3 DSR rating in one or more of their DSR ratings – you will definitely need to increase your ratings or your account will likely be suspended at some point. Here are a few ideas to help you increase your DSRs if you fall into that “at-risk” bucket:

1. List in Auction Format (you may use Buy It Now) – Since you are demoted in search results, ending soonest and newest in the Auction Format offers the best opportunity for your items to be seen. Unless you have rare items, low DSR ratings will put you at the bottom of Best Match search.
2. Only list items where you can offer Free Shipping. Because you are in the “at-risk” bucket, you cannot list items that have high shipping costs without the risk of further low DSRs. If you want to move the needle, you will need to offer free shipping.
3. Ship your item out immediately upon payment. If the item has not cleared PayPal, consider shipping ahead of time (weigh the risk factors – sending before cleared payment vs. low DSR for shipping time). You may wish to consider listing items where your cost is low.
4. Check and answer questions quickly. Make sure you are very specific when buyers are asking about shipping and accommodate buyer requests if at all possible.
5. Review your existing complaints and determine the root cause of the low DSRs and look at ways to ameliorate the issues. For instance, if you are a furniture seller who has high shipping cost – look for methods to help buyers understand the costs. Think about picking up the phone, calling the buyer when you ship the item and letting them know it’s on the way, and explain your shipping charges, for example.

eBay has also announced that when a seller has offered free shipping, eBay will display an onsite reminder that the seller offered free shipping to the buyer when they are leaving DSRs

Feedback Revision also went live this week. If anyone uses this, I’d like to know if it allows the buyer to revise their DSR ratings when they are going through the revision process, or if its limited to just Feedback comments. You are allowed 5 revision requests per 1000 transactions, so it might be best to make sure you have resolved any issue and the buyer is on board with changing their ratings prior to sending requests.

As always, Happy Selling!

Vendio has been chosen by Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal as one of the “Fast 50″–a designation given to the fastest-growing private companies in Silicon Valley, as a result of its strong revenue and percentage of growth over a three-year period from 2005 to 2007.