"I learned the ins and outs of eBay TEN times faster than I would have without a mentor, including how to find drop shippers overseas, so I make money on products I never have to handle or ship myself!

My mentor's eBay and business knowledge were outstanding, and I learned things I probably NEVER would have figured out on my own.

He taught me how to work directly with manufacturers, and how to import products so I get maximum profits, and his energy and commitment to me were way beyond my expectations.

When I was stuck and losing momentum, he always sent me out of my coaching session with new ideas, motivation and energy...

... Now I'm really on my way!"

Greg Mudwilder

http://stores.ebay.com/Coast-Sports-Center

eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995. Though he's now a billionaire (of course), Pierre started AuctionWeb (as it was then known) as a simple "side hobby."
In late '95, Pierre made history when he sold eBay's first item -- a broken laser pointer he had originally bought as a cat toy.
Amazingly, the buyer paid $14.00 for the broken pointer. It was a dumb idea to sell broken pointer, it was a dumb idea to buy it. But, we imagine it was about this time Pierre realized he was on the cusp of creating something great.

An online auction listing for a 'Scary washing machine' for sale has resulted in flurries of emails, tweets and links to Facebook over the past few days.

This apparently haunted appliance is scheduled to make an appearance on a prime time current affairs news show this evening.

We have detailed below an unedited extract of the listing below:

It's the loudest most violent sounding washing machine I have ever encountered. It makes guests scared and children cry. I've lived with it like that for almost a year and it still scares me.

Once while washing a load of towells it got a bit out of balance and it got so out of control for a minute that I swear I actually saw a porthole to another dimension open above it just for a second, there were dinosaurs on the otherside and they looked scared too, it almost sucked me in but I held onto for my life to the deepfreeze. It sucked my shoes and pants off though and it got the iron as well which pissed me off because it was quite a good one. Luckily it sucked it's own power cord out of the wall and stopped before the whole house went in. I drew a picture of the dinosaurs i saw incase people didn't believe me, they are partly red because my green felt ran out half way through.

I think it would be good to paint it matt black and put steel spikes all over it and draw demons on the front, however I have added an image of another possible customization option for people who like horses.

Complete with drawings and suggested design modifications this listing is fantastic comedic writing and a great example of how the funny, quirky and clever go viral.

Get ready to start listing your items for sale soon on qbay..... You could make international news!

We're launching soon.

An ebay user recently sold 12" of snow from his back yard. We thought this was funny, so have detailed below the actual auction listing description!

So far, we've got over a foot of snow, and it's still coming down. We really don't need more than a few inches here, so we're making the rest available to the highest bidder. Due to the perishable nature of snow, and because not even 4WD vehicles are having much luck on our local roads, the winning bidder must make arrangements for pickup.

This snow doesn't pack very well, so you'll have to make your own packing arrangements as well. Note that I'm only offering the excess snow from our own property. If you need it, I may be able to arrange for you to get more. I'll accept cash or money order for payment. If you clear a path from Interstate 40 to my house, I'll discount your winning bid, charging only an amount equivalent to the eBay fee for the closing bid.

if you know of a funny auction story,,, email us at: info@qbay.com

One day Ahmed went to an auction. While he was there, he bid for a parrot.

Ahmed really wanted to buy this bird, so he kept on bidding, but kept getting outbid, so he bid higher and higher and higher.

Finally, after he had bid much more than he had intended, Ahmed won the bid and at last the parrot was his.

After he had paid for the parrot, he said to the auctioneer:
'I hope this parrot can talk. I would hate to have paid this much for it, only to find out that he can't talk!'

'Don't worry.' said the auctioneer, 'He can talk. Who do you think kept bidding against you?'

"I got started selling on eBay in mid-December, and during my first month, made no sales (yes, I said NO sales)... and that was supposed to be the busiest time of year!

But then I started to implement some of the strategies my eBay mentor taught me, and within a couple of weeks, I'd ALREADY done almost $1,100.00 in gross sales!

Thank you so much! I am looking so forward to working with you in the next few months."

Dan Byrne

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/DANS-DISCOUNT-CENTER

"In a very short time, we went from having NO CLUE how to sell on eBay, to having the confidence to find the right products, hammer out the deals needed to offer them, market them in the best way, and most of all, close the sale...

... and within our first WEEK, we made over $1,000.00 in sales!

We are THRILLED with our progress! Before we finished the course we achieved the status of eBay PowerSellers and have opened a SECOND eBay store! We just keep growing and growing… our only limitation now is our own imagination!

And our experience working with our eBay mentor has been fantastic.

We know that we are receiving the very best advice and help from him, but also the expertise of the entire IMC Team. We look forward to each session -- it is FUN!"

Dan and Christine Millar
Muskoka Silver Linings Lifestyles

An online auction to raise money for the Kansas City man charged with killing a Wichita abortion doctor was short-lived.

eBay took down most of the auction items Monday within hours of the listings being posted.

"They said we had violated their rules," said Regina Dinwiddie, one of the auction organizers. "This is egregious censorship with pro-abortion bias."

On Monday, eBay released a short statement:

"Today, eBay removed several listings on our site that violated several of our policies including our offensive materials policy. This policy prohibits items that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual, or religious intolerance, or promote organizations with such views."

Auction organizers posted the items Sunday night and early Monday under two listings. Dinwiddie's listing contained 10 items, including several drawings submitted by Tiller's accused killer, Scott Roeder; an Army of God manual that describes dozens of ways to shut down abortion clinics; and a prison cookbook compiled by Shelley Shannon, who shot Tiller in 1993 and is serving time for clinic arsons.

To read the complete article, visit www.kansascity.com.

…especially for those who have little to no experience of internet marketing.

A Qbay store can help you build your business whether you plan to sell solely on the internet, or run a “real-world” operation. You can brand your Qbay store by using the same branding on your own website and by combining the two selling methods, you can increase your profits.

Qbay will be a vast marketplace with thousands of transactions every week. It makes great sense therefore to harness the power of Qbay to increase your online customer base.

Although you may sell an item to someone on Qbay, this customer will be regarded by Qbay as being one of their customers, and not yours. You can change this with the use of Qbay’s store enhancement features, such as providing your buyers with a newsletter, thereby allowing you to stay in touch with them, giving them exclusive special offers and persuading them to visit your website and purchase from you directly.

You can also, of course, promote your own website to them, so long as you don’t place a direct link to it from any of your listings. This will be a breach of Qbay policy.

If you can persuade your buyers to return to you time and again, then you’re a winner!!

Not a day goes by without a news story rambling on about the credit crunch but for users of Qbay, does it really make a difference?

When you look at the current financial crisis in terms of how it would affect sellers on Qbay it would appear that this situation may be a very good one . After all, people will use Qbay to search for a bargain and what better time to search for a bargain than when you are feeling the pinch?

Buyers are likely to hold off purchases of luxury goods during this time, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t spending. There are still Birthday’s, anniversaries, parties but more than ever, people are looking for great deals!

Buyers can save money by shopping on Qbay, buying second hand instead of new. And these buyers looking for bargains is great news for sellers!

So, SAVE or MAKE and use Qbay

A number of unique gold pieces played a starring role in a recent auction of French jewellery held by Christie's. The Paris Jewels sale, held in the French capital yesterday (October 6th), saw a pair of ornate gold earrings by Rene Boivin sell for €27,400 (£25,377), while a set of quirky gold earrings and a ring in their original jewellery box realised a final price of €18,750. An unusual gold ring decorated with rubies attracted a final bid of €15,625, with a stunning circular Gancio gold necklace set with diamonds by Bulgari fetched €13,750. Various gold pendants, bracelets, watches and snuff boxes were among the other items to attract significant bids at the sale. Famous French jewellers offering gold pieces include Cartier and Faberge, which was founded in France but is now based in Russia and is perhaps best known for the decorated gold eggs it made for Russian tsars in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is set to launch a new range of gold jewellery - its first in almost a century - in the near future.

A recent auction of rare Islamic and Asian jewellery saw a number of pieces attract particularly high bids. The Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds auction - which was run by Christie's in London yesterday (October 6th) - saw a pair of striking gold Iranian bracelets believed to date back to the 12th or 13th century sell for £10,000, far surpassing their estimate of between £5,000 and £7,000. A unique 19th century gold-decorated pot, also from Iran, fetched a price of £8,125 - compared with its £4,000 to £6,000 estimate. Two north Indian bracelets believed to have been made in the mid-19th century sold for £3,500 and £2,250 each. One major gold piece set to be auctioned this week is an ornate necklace worn by Maharani Jindan Kaur - who was the wife of Sikh emperor Ranjit Singh - which is expected to attract bids of between £25,000 and £35,000 at a London Bonhams sale of Indian and Islamic pieces tomorrow (October 8th).