Welcome to the July 2004 edition of the Auction Orbit newsletter. Within each newsletter you will find a variety of auction-related content including site updates, online auctions in the news, selling and buying tips, and more! If you would like to suggest a new topic for future newsletters or wish to make a comment about anything found within this particular issue, do not hesitate to contact me.

If you have received Auction Orbit newsletters in the past, then you will have already noticed that the actual format of the newsletter has changed significantly from the last issue. I have been working on a new format and structure for several months now, and this is the design I decided to go with for all future newsletters. I tried to make the new appearance easy to read and follow, while also giving it a more attractive and professional appearance than the previous (text-only) issues. However, since this is the first time an HTML-formatted newsletter is being used, there may be some complications reading it on certain e-mail clients. Also, if you are using a web-based e-mail client than the contents menu to the left may not function correctly. If you are unable to clearly read this newsletter or the layout is not correct, please contact me and describe what problem(s) you encountered and the mail client you are using.

Also, some members might wonder why each newsletter is delivered at the very end of each month instead of the beginning. The main reason for this is that my newsletter contains a lot of material that accumulates as the month progresses such as eBay site changes and online auction news. If I were to deliver the newsletters at the beginning of each month, I would have very little content to work with. To ensure fresh content and interesting articles, I monitor auction happenings through-out the month and then publish only the most interesting topics at the end.

Other than the newsletter format change, there hasn't been a lot going on with the Auction Orbit website or Dominant Ad Creator. I have received several feature requests for the ad creation software and will look into integrating these features in the next version. However, I will be spending a good portion of this upcoming month adding new tutorials, articles, and resources to my website. I will be modifying my main page slightly in order to better promote the free resources I have available and to fill in some of the blank areas that appear. Within the past six months, my site and software has undergone an incredibly positive change - and I greatly appreciate the kind comments I have received from viewers and users in regards to the changes.

One of the most major changes on eBay since last month is that they have finally finished integrating the new 'search-by-distance' feature into their site. It took much longer than expected and although they first introduced it over a month ago, there were many issues with it and eBay just announced a newly released version on July 29th. Currently the overwhelming number of users posting to the community forums do not feel that this new search feature is as helpful as the previous 'Regional' search. However, some of the benefits include:

• The new system works with the United States and all international countries
• There are no regional boundaries - you can locate items as far away as desired
• Buyers will receive more accurate distance data and results in their searches

For full details about the new search feature, please click here.

Another slightly important change coming soon to the eBay site is that they will include PayPal as additional criteria required to use certain features of the site. Although some sellers who do not use PayPal may become angry at the sound of it, do not worry. All of the old requirements to become eligible for certain options will still remain generally the same. However, if you own a PayPal account some of the requirements will not be as harsh. For one example, in order to offer Fixed Price listings, you will either need 10 feedbacks, be ID verified, or you can alternatively have 5 feedbacks and a good standing PayPal account. For additional information about these new requirements, click here.

One last change I will briefly mention is that eBay has revised the Non-Paying Bidder process from how it previously was. In this modified version, the seller and buyer will be able to communicate and dispute with each other directly on eBay. For more information about this feature and user responses to it, please click here.

Although I am often warning others not to click any links received by eBay or PayPal without making 100% certain it is an official e-mail, there is one message currently circulating a large number of PayPal users that is legit and should be looked over. PayPal users that opened their account between October 1999 and January 2004 may be entitled to a payment directly from PayPal in a class action settlement. The lawsuit arose in 2002 due to the manner in which PayPal handled people's accounts - and the fact that PayPal would freeze accounts without good reason or explanation. If you have received the message from PayPal about this settlement, you will be asked to go through a dispute resolution process to receive a share of the settlement profit. How much will you receive? Well, considering the large number of users who subscribed to PayPal within the said time period, and the total amount reserved for account holders (around $1 million), the odds of you getting over $15 is quite low. For complete details about the settlement and how to claim a part of the funds, follow the link below.

http://www.settlement4onlinepayments.com (Official Settlement Site)

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5288886.html (News Articles)

New and constantly updated auction news articles are available HERE!

This past month I came across an interesting website in which a fellow named Justin Spence appeared to have been scammed by an online laptop auction and was posting all of his e-mail correspondence for the public to view. Justin purchased a laptop from a seller who is now NARU'd , and as the days went on more and more stories arose from the seller. This scam-in-progress began late in June, and the scammer is currently being investigated by the FBI and local police departments. There is literally hours worth of entertaining (yet upsetting) material to read; you can also now find an NBC news report video about the incident. Click the link below to be taken to the main scam page, where you will find a link to all of the e-mail transactions, as well as other sites relating to the seller and other people he has scammed. I will warn you ahead of time, once you start reading the e-mails chances are you won't stop until you reach the end!

http://www.justinspence.com/salwise.htm

Each month I will provide one helpful auction tip or trick that will help sellers and/or buyers out while using online auction sites. An archive of previous tips and tricks can be found here. If you have a tip that you would like to display in the next newsletter, please send me a message and I will try my best to include it.

Getting the Most Out of eBay's Search Function

In this month's tip, you will learn some exciting search functions that will enable you to return advanced results and save you an incredible amount of time in the long run. Below you will find example search queries, and an accompanying description about each one and what will be returned.

toy (1950, 1960, 1970)

This search query will return all results that have the word 'toy' in their title, along with either the word 1950, 1960, or 1970. In other words, any listing for a toy from any of those three years will be presented to you without the need to perform three independent searches. When ever you insert several terms in parenthesis (separated by commas), eBay will return all results matching ANY of those search terms.

(Bill Clinton, Aerosmith)

Similar to the previous example, this search will return all results containing either the words Bill Clinton OR Aerosmith. As you can see, the search terms do not need to be related in order to receive all of the results. You can include as many search terms in parenthesis as you wish, and any items matching the terms separated by commas will be returned.

walk*

This search query utilizes the wildcard symbol (*) to obtain a wider range of results. All listings with a title that has any word in it beginning with the letters 'walk' will be returned. This way, you will receive results containing words such as 'walks', 'walking', and 'walker' all-in-one. This can save a lot of time especially when you are searching for items which may be in plural form such as shirts. You can also use the * symbol within a word if need be.

cell phone -nokia -motorola -boost* +new

In the above example search you will find several (-) and (+) operators. As you may imagine, placing a (-) character before a term will ensure that no results are returned that contain that particular word or phrase. A (+) sign will ensure that no results are returned unless they contain the term immediately proceeding the symbol. I also threw in an asterisk to ensure that all possible antenna booster devices were removed from the results.