( Table Of Contents )

1. Introduction
2. Volcanic Software News
3. eBay changes and additions
4. Online auctions in the news
5. Cool Auction Site of the month
6. Auction tip of the month
7. Fun Facts and Tidbits about eBay
8. Trivia Question
9. Voice your opinion
10. Closure
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Introduction

Now its time for the third edition of the Volcanic Software newsletter. With under one month left of the summer season and cooler weather approaching, the seemingly slow auction selling season for most will hopefully start picking up the pace. For the close followers of this newsletter (if any), you may be wondering why it is so late this month. I decided upon a set date to send out each newsletter, and that date being the last day of every month. So from now on expect the newsletters to be delivered to your e-mail box the last day of each month.

With that said, I have also set forth to creating a more uniform style newsletter. Each month there will be a total of 10 set sections of content in the newsletter. The newsletters will always begin with an introduction, followed by news regarding the Volcanic Software website or utilities. After this comes the part where I let you know the status of the eBay auction site with information such as new features, enhancements, etc... Following the eBay information section comes the part where I present a news story pertaining to online auction sites. Next comes a cool or helpful auction site, then an auction tip of the month. The next two sections are just for fun and involve me providing some interesting tidbits on eBay, and then a trivia question just to test how well you know your eBay stuff. The final section is where you can respond to the newsletter by answering a monthly poll or question. And of course, the closure comes last. Enjoy the newsletter!

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Volcanic Software News

Since the last issue I have been working off and on with the website, adding and improving what I felt necessary. I added an actual feature on the main page so visitors can now subscribe to the newsletter even if they are not registered users of Dominant Ad Creator. Speaking of Dominant Ad Creator, it has been doing well on the download sites that I have submitted it too, getting a 5 out of 5 on all sites that reviewed it thus far. I have added the various award graphics and testimonials to the official Dominant Ad Creator website (http://dac.volcanicsoft.com). I have also now categorized the previous newsletters online and they can be found through the support page. The chat room on the main website has been removed but the forum remains...

And speaking of the forums! There is still not much activity going on in the forum. You are not even required to register to post messages, so please post any auction related content that you find interesting (there is also a board for non-auction talk). If you have any questions pertaining to the software or website in general, you may post there as well. I'd really like the forum to become a warm discussion place for fellow eBayers to share and discuss experiences. I am going to try to really get it advertised within this next month, and hopefully it will become very active by next issue :)

http://www.volcanicsoft.com/auctiontalk/

Aside from that, I have been working on some tutorials for the site. I really need ideas though so if you have any questions pertaining to listing auctions or using Dominant Ad Creator etc., please send me a message and let me know! Otherwise I'm running low on what new tutorials to conjure up.
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eBay changes and additions

There hasn't been any large changes in eBay's system since the last newsletter. I do not believe that I mentioned this in the previous newsletter, but now if you want to search for another person via eBay to see what he or she is bidding on/selling, you will need to know their actual auction ID. If you just search for their e-mail address, you will only find limited information such as their feedback comments (no userIDs or item numbers are listed). If you had a transaction with the seller a short time ago, you can enter their e-mail address to lookup their ID.

Another change that has taken place that is not big and will most-likely have no importance to many is the fact that you can now use GIF images for your gallery picture(s). The gallery image is the tiny picture that appears next to your item when it is searched for (96 x 96 pixels). By having the ability to use a GIF image, you can now have animated gallery images (although I have never honestly tried it). To create an animated GIF file, you will need specific software. Jasc's Animation Shop (http://www.jasc.com) can make very nice animated graphics and you can download a 30 day trial. A search on any search engine for 'free GIF animator' will yield many other results.

From August 21st to September 4th you may occasionally see the eBay homepage in a different fashion than normal. eBay is in the process of testing several different layouts to see what users like the best. If you don't like to get the new layout, you can login with your username and while you are logged in the original eBay page will be shown. If eBay does decide to go with one of the enhanced layouts, lets hope it gets a better response than the 'improved' ad page layout has gotten.
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Online auctions in the news

This month's article focuses around a man who bought a Blackberry RIM 2-way pager/e-mailer off of eBay for under $16.00. The item was sold AS-IS, but when the man received it and put a battery in he was very surprised at what he discovered. The device had more than 200 internal company messages and a database of over 1000 names, job titles, e-mail addresses, etc... It turns out the seller was a former vice president of mergers and acquisitions for Morgan Stanley that left months before. Is there a moral to this story?

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,60052,00.html
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Cool Auction Site of the month

Each month I will try to share with you a site that I find to be useful and/or cool, that pertains to online auctions. Have you ever wondered what are the hottest items selling on eBay right now? You can search the listings on eBay by price, but you cannot search the listings in regards to how many bids they have. The site I am describing tonight does just that. You simply need to select a category and a list will be generated containing the items with the highest bid counts in that particular category.

http://www.islandseven.com/ebay/

Note: Although this may be useful in certain cases, if you are looking for the hottest items just so you can add those keywords to your item description-you better think again. There are people on eBay who will insert many popular words into their item descriptions in attempts to lure other people to their ads. This is referred to as Keyword Spamming and when discovered your account will be terminated.
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Auction tip of the month

Have you ever gone on eBay to search for a rare item, and can never find the one your looking for? This month's tip describes how you can set eBay to e-mail you each day with any new listings for a particular search you request. So instead of wasting valuable time searching for an item, then looking for the newly listed ones, you can now receive a fresh e-mail daily from eBay with all new listings for what you are looking for. Follow these instructions below:

1.) Perform a search for whatever you are looking for as usual.
2.) At the top of the results page, you will see a link titled: "Add To My Favorite Searches". Click this link.
3.) If you are not logged in you will be asked to do so.
4.) On the next page, you can specify what search terms you want to save etc.
5.) At the bottom of this page in the 'E-Mail Preferences' section you can check the box to be notified via e-mail each day with new listings.
6.) Click the SUBMIT button and now every day you will get an e-mail containing all of the new auctions up for sale with your criteria!
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Fun Facts and Tidbits about eBay

- eBay was founded in September 1995 by Pierre Omidyar. Originally the auction site was simply called AuctionWeb. Even today you will still see references to the original name when using eBay. For example, most login sessions etc. are processed by scripts in the folder 'aw-cgi'.

- Pierre (although now the owner is Meg Whitman) still uses eBay periodically to buy items etc... His username is 'Pierre'. His username doesn't have the feedback count text next to it, but you can still read his feedback by first finding another user's feedback, and then replacing their username with 'pierre' in the address bar.

- When eBay first started, you could leave feedback for anyone even if you never had a transaction with them. No records were kept of what items you were leaving feedback for, so the feedback feature was often abused.
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Trivia Question

Each month I will give the readers one multiple choice trivia question to answer. The questions will range from very easy to very difficult, and the answers will always be given in the following newsletter. So, lets see how well you know eBay!

After a transaction ends, how many days does eBay guarantee you have to leave feedback?
a.) 10 days
b.) 30 days
c.) 90 days
d.) There is no time limit on when you can leave feedback
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Voice your opinion

I always enjoy hearing from fellow members of this newsletter. Now each month I will ask a specific question and hope to hear some responses from you pertaining to the issue. I will then take your responses to the question(s) and post them in the upcoming newsletter. Not all submissions may be posted. So, if you want to get your voice heard then please send a message to newsletter@volcanicsoft.com with a response to the question below.

Question: If you could get one feature added to eBay's website no matter what it was, what would that feature be and why?
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Closure

Yet another issue of the Volcanic Software auction newsletter has came to an end. I hope you enjoyed this issue and the various sections within it. If you ever have any suggestions regarding the newsletter feel free to ask. Otherwise expect to hear from me again next month! Good bye.

Sincerely,

Matt
http://www.volcanicsoft.com