It seems that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae keep popping up in the news lately. I had never thought about eBay in this manner, but it is definitely an interesting take. And who else would know what’s really going on except the people inside. Or the higher ups.

If people are thinking that the ship is sinking they’ll get whatever they can while the going is still to be had. I remember a friend of mine sending me a link to some special corporate auction site, specifically for companies that went belly up, a couple years back when Enron and other companies went bust. Seems like people are wizing up and selling stuff off when things get rough.

I came across this story this morning and it seems like the IRS wants your eBay profits. One exciting thing about the article was that it said that in difficult economic times people try to sell the things in their closets and attics. The gist of the story is that you are supposed to report any profits to the IRS and it’s a voluntary process.
As the saying goes:

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure!

This might not sound like good news to you, but you are already one step ahead of the crowd or herd. eBay is such a great platform because as

“We’re uniquely positioned as a great resource in strong times to find good items, and in counter-cyclical times we can be used as a way to sell goods people no longer need to make a few extra dollars,” said eBay spokeswoman Kimberly Rubey

You are interested in learning how to sell on eBay and probably making some decent money on the side already and if not that’s why you’re reading this blog.

I know some of you are doing better, and are making a part-time or even full time income from your sales on eBay. If you’d like to find out more about how to sell on eBay take a look at Auction Selling Revealed.

We’ve been hearing that we’re in a recession, no we’re not, yes we are. It doesn’t matter that much to me what the “offical word” is if we are in a recession or not. I can see the price of gasoline at the pump is running full speed ahead towards $5.00 a gallon, and the costs for everyday goods are continuing to go up. To me, the times they are a changing.

It applies even more now that we have rising costs for gas …

Oil jumps $5 on shrinking stockpiles

Price of food and other household needs are rising

Fed: High energy, food prices keep economy weak

I’m sure one of the reasons that the IRS is more interested in your eBay profits is because if the economy is slowing down they are looking for other places to get increase their revenues.

The story goes through the 3 types of sellers:

The casual seller – sells once in a while, usually at a loss; only report any profit they make but cannot deduct expenses. Use Schedule C

The Hobbyist – seller whose income can be offset by losses; those who do more than a few sales but whose motive is not solely for profit. Use Schedule D

The business – can write off losses, for profit intent, check with your accountant for proper filing process

Please check with an accountant for your individual needs. This is not intended as advise or legal consel but for informational purposes only.

If your garage is getting too full and crowded, powersellers or trading assistants may think of moving to a commercial space. Some ebay sellers rent a warehouse or a retail shop called eBay Trading Post. Trading Assistants usually have their own trading posts. These assistants are ebay sellers who help folks who don’t want to become ebay sellers to sell their items on eBay. They take the customer’s items and do all the selling for them – list, collect the payment, ship the item to the buyer, and soon. Trading posts are the best place to make transactions with these customers. A properly located retail store with a visible sign will attract a lot of attention, and therefore a lot of potential customers. Ebay sellers with trading posts need to sell a lot of other people’s items in order to keep the business going because of the small portion they get from the items they sell. They need to consider the space rentals, advertising & PR, utilities, telephone insurance, office supplies, taxes and licenses including labor if they prefer to have a selling assistant.

Ebay is now preparing for the 6^th Annual Ebay Developer’s Conference which will be held in McCormick Place West Chicago, Illinois on June 16 to 18, 2008. One of the highlights of the event is the announcement of the winners for the Star Developer’s Award. Nomination is now open for five categories namely: eBay, PayPal, Shopping.com, ProStores and Skype of which will be assessed according to:

• Most Innovative Application
• Early Adopter
• Service to the Community
• Best Design
• DSR Rockstar (improving customer service).

Ebay invites you to send your nominations via email not later than April 11, 2008. You must include “DevCon Star Developer Award” and the category in the subject line of your email. You also need to state the following information:

• your name and contact info
• the nominee’s name and contact info
• the award category, and a brief explanation as to why you think the application is worthy of consideration.

Since this is the event for developers, there seminars will be conducted for on the latest technologies for developers on four tracks: business and entrepreneurship; affiliate and buyer tools; seller, buyer, merchant tools; web 2.0 and web development.

After having announced that ebay has an enormous amount of $934 million loss mainly from buying the online phone company Skype, the company is yet about to face another loss as Meg Whitman, the giant auctioneer’s CEO (Ebay) is said to be preparing to retire on her 10^th year in Ebay. Although there is no official statement coming from Ebay’s CEO, she had made some few statements to the Wallstreet Journal that 10 years is just enough to stay long in a company. John Donahoe, the president of eBay’s auction business unit is said to be the best fit as her successor. After ebay announced that it had a strong quarterly performance in auctions alone, this makes John D. a perfect fit for future ebay.

Recently, Apple proudly introduced its new MacBook Air notebook with only 0.76 inch thickness, the company considers it the world’s thinnest notebook today. It has a 13 inch wide monitor and weighs only 3 pounds. The notebook is too small that you could slip it inside an envelope. Inside, it is run by an Intel Core2 Duo CPU at 16GHz or 18GHz. With a maximum of 2 GB of RAM and an ultra portable hard drive of 1.8 inch thick, the sides are tapered and too slim to touch. It has a userfriendly apps similar to an ipod. MacBook Air comes from the line of Apple’s Macbook family (MacBook and Macbook Pro) MacBook Air being the thinnest and lightest of the three. One of the best feature of the notebook is its ability to wirelessly access the optical drive of another Mac or even a windows PC that has the remote disc program installed which allows installation of application from a CD or DVD. Like MacBook, it has a robust video-out feature that will drive a 23inch Apple display as a secondary display. Now, MacBook air is being auctioned at ebay with starting bid price ranging from $566.64 lowest up to $1,999.99. Ebay will be selling more MacBook Air this year.

auctionsellingrevealed

auctionsellingrevealed

Ebay, Viagogo and other online ticket stores that are selling concert tickets are being are asked to pay taxes and resale rights by some music groups in UK. The group claims that these online stores have made so much profit in resale of these concert tickets and nothing is returned to the investors in the music industry. They further insist that the face value of such tickets sank because it is being sold at a low price. On the other hand, online ticket stores fights back saying the music industry has no right to ask for payment because the tickets had already been sold and the owner has the right to do with it having no obligations from the previous owner or the music industry, as a whole.