The Queen of eBay Auctions

A Super Nice Email

2005-08-31T12:26:00.000-07:00

I love receiving emails from readers of my books. I got one a couple of days ago from Cherie who lives in Yakima, Washington. It was so nice and heartfelt that I asked her if she would mind sharing it on my blog. She said no problem! Here it is.
"Good Morning Lynn,
I was so excited about reading your book "The 100 best things I've sold on eBay" I just had to share how it just touched my heart to hear your stories, laugh and almost cry at so many things. Thank you for sharing so much about your life, family and adorable children. Yesterday, when I started reading your book, I carried it everywhere with me, took it to my in-laws, would read a sentence waiting for a red light, didn’t even get the dinner dishes done (which isn’t like me at all!) I just couldn’t put it down! I was addicted! My brother even called last night from Palm Desert and my husband told him “she may be too busy to talk, she is reading a book she can’t put down”.
I had to get some sleep by midnight and my 2 ½ yr old daughter decided to wake up at 3AM this morning, so at 4:30AM we got up, sat on the recliner together and was once again hooked on your book until it was finished at 7AM.
Your stories have inspired me, as I’m a stay at home mom who has been wanting to do eBay since I saw you on Evening Magazine like I mentioned yesterday. My family is to the point of, yep, uh huh, yada, yada, yada! Talk about encouragement! I’ll show them differently!
I emailed by brother and his wife in Palm Desert and shared some of your treasures you found. Every time we go to Bellingham, Goodwill is always on our list to go to. Here in Yakima Goodwill is just a few blocks away.
I’m saddened and sorry, after all those years living in Bellingham area (even on Tulip St, behind Lynn St for 1 ½ years at age 19) I never made it to your Grandmothers shop. It seams like I never had the money and always had an excuse why I couldn’t shop anywhere. I see I really missed a piece of history and reading your book is my way of also supporting your love and caring relationship you had with your Grandmother with her business.
Thanks again for your inspiration! Hope to see you at Village Books!

Cherie Castro"

eBay Live was so much fun!

2005-07-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

eBay Live was so much fun! It started with our drive up to San Jose on Wednesday, June 22nd. Maureen (Mo), my assistant, and I stopped off in LA where I had an interview to be the host for a new television series. I will keep you posted! After L.A., we got lost and took the 99 instead of I-5. Yikes! That mistake took us an hour out of our way but it turned out to be great. As we were unloading the car in front of the convention center, a news crew from San Francisco/Oakland's channel 2 was there and wanted to film me. I was on the news that night and again the next morning.

We manned the booth on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and had so much fun. All the eBayers were incredible, especially Patricia, Erin and Kelli--three really wonderful girls who had read my books and said that the books had changed their lives for the better. Here is a picture of our booth. That is Mo over in the corner.

Our booth was right next to Wiley who I am writing the new book for. It was great!

Thursday night was a big opening kick off with a rally lead by Meg Wightman (CEO), Griff (Spokesperson) and Bill Cobb (President North America). eBay went all out and all the food at the concession stands in the building were loaded with free food: hot dogs, popcorn, ice cream, pop and anything imaginable.

I was interviewed for eBay Radio on Friday by Griff and Lee and that was a blast. Here is another photo of the interview. See Griff and Lee thumb through my book!

Friday night found us at a party at the St. Clair hotel with our new friends from NuMarkets. From left to right is Russ, Mo, Dwayne, me and Jesse.

Saturday, we had to take down our booth and pack up. It was really sad. We met so many nice people, including the entire eBay Canada bunch that we thanked with free copies of “The 100 Best.” They have invited me to tour eBay Canada in Vancouver BC this summer when I am back in my hometown of Bellingham, WA for a few weeks.

Saturday night was the final event with a dinner and concert by the B-52’s! It was so fun and I got to dance to Love Shack with Griff. What an experience!

I can't wait to go again next year. Next year's eBay Live has been announced and it will be held in Las Vegas June 13-15 at the Mandalay Bay Resort. I don't know why I had never attended but I am definitely going back and I encourage you all to attend! See you there!

We will be at eBay Live--San Jose June 23-25th!

2005-06-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
My assistant, Maureen, and I are getting ready to go to San Jose in the morning. We will be exhibiting at eBay Live in booth #1140. Stop by and visit us if you get a chance. We look forward to meeting you all in person. As a special treat, I will be interviewed by Griff on eBay radio, Friday at 11:40 am Pacific time. How exciting! We also can't wait to see the B-52's play at Saturday night's bash. It is a very special eBay Live because eBay is celebrating their 10th anniversary. Check out my blog for updates and photos of this amazing event! Lynn

A Vase Sold for $501.99!--But not the ones I expected.

2005-06-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

eBay always amazes me! That is why I love selling on the site. Of the three vases I wrote about, the two Japanese Cloisonne and the RS Prussia, the take-off runners were not the Japanese ones as I expected. I started the two Japanese vases at $99.00 each and although over 100 people viewed both auctions, they did not sell. The RS Prussia vase that I bought for $10 sold for.... $501.99 and it was damaged. It really is a beautiful piece and I hope the buyer can restore it more professionally. If you want to check it out the eBay number is 7329723435.

Garage Sales this past Weekend 6/11/05

2005-06-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

The garage sales this past weekend were amazing. There is a part of town that I rarely go to because I thought that they didn't have very good things. Boy, was I wrong! I found two antique Japanese Cloisonne vases that had been made into lamps. The fact that they were lamps with new shades really threw me. When I started looking closer, I realized that they were beautiful and rare vases. My dad took them apart for me and they are up for sale now as vases.
At another garage sale in the same part of town, I found the most beautiful vase. It is already going for over $100 and the auction still has 5 days left! It is a Germany RS Prussia type of handpainted Art Nouveau vase.
I will update my blog when these items sell and tell you more insider information!

New York, Boston and Book Expo America (BEA)

2005-06-10T19:44:00.000-07:00

I just got back from New York and Boston and it was awesome! I was in NY for Book Expo America, the largest book publishing event in the world. It draws all sorts of authors, book buyers, librarians, book store owners, agents, and press from around the country. I had a space in the Midpoint Trade Booth. They are my distributor. Here is a photo of my booth in New York. I did author signings in the Midpoint booth, in the traditional autographing section, and in the McGraw Hill booth. I autographed over 300 books. It was so much fun!

One of the reasons this trip was so great was because I got to spend time with my sorority sister, Annie Brickner, at the beginning, and my high school best friend, Melanie Souve, at the end of the trip. I flew into Newark and Annie picked me up at the airport. She helped me in the Midpoint booth and at two of my autographing sessions for "The 100 Best Things I've Sold on eBay." The first night in NY we went to the Jenkins Group party at the Marriott in Times Square. It was great to see old friends and meet new ones. This is a picture of Annie, me, and my friend Stephen Shapiro (fellow author http://www.goalfree.com) at the party on Friday night.

The next day, Saturday, my best friend from high school, Melanie, drove down from Boston to help out. She was there for my book signing for "How to Sell Antiques and Collectibles on eBay....and Make a Fortune" in the McGraw Hill booth. I was supposed to sign for an hour but we ran out of books in 20 minutes. It was awesome! Thanks for your support. Here is a photo of the signing.

That night, Melanie and I, went to the Midpoint Trade pizza party at their new office in Mid-town. It was a lot of fun and we got to take a picture with one of Midpoint's new authors. I am sorry but I don't remember his name.

After the show ended on Sunday, Melanie and I drove up to Boston and I got to see her new house and spend some time in the city. I love Boston and the Red Sox! The show was a huge success and I made a lot of great contacts. I can't wait to do it again next year when it moves to Washington D.C.

I'm Writing a New Book for Wiley!

2005-06-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I just signed the contracts yesterday and I am so excited. I am writing a new book for Wiley. It is a basic how-to-sell on eBay book and it will be out by December 2005. I have 384 pages to write before August 15th. Wish me luck! I will keep you posted. Lynn

The Box of Books and the Eames Era Glass

2005-05-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
An update on my box of books and the Eames Era Glass Vases. The $20 box of books has brought in about $80 in first time listing sales. I will relist the 13 books that didn't sell at a lower starting price and get you a grand total in the next few weeks. I thought we were going to have a runaway hit in that box of books. I call a runaway hit something that sells for over $100. Unfortunately, we didn't. One book went for about $30 and the rest went for about $11. Still, not a bad ROI (Return on Investment), and we still have 13 books left to sell.

The vase that I thought was Blenko sold for $16.49 ebay #7324236199 if you want to view it. Another great ROI, I only paid $1! The face decanter that I thought may have been Kosta Boda sold for $33.00 (ebay #7325185485) and again I only paid $1!!! The surprise sale of the week was a clown needlepoint purse that I paid $10 for and it sold for $102.50. It can be viewed at ebay item #6181438064. This purse was my runaway hit of the week! Thanks for reading my blog.

I am on Inside Edition Today May 24th! and Our Special Offer!

2005-05-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

I am defintely on Inside Edition with Deborah Norville today! Check out www.InsideEdition.com for your local times and stations. If you go to their website and watch the trailer, my story is the one after the beauty pageant's for boys. Don't forget to check out our special offer at http://www.thequeenofauctions.com/offer.html It is awesome! and only good until midnight on 5/25. Thanks. Lynn

Inside Edition-May 24, 2005

2005-05-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

I filmed a spot for Inside Edition a few weeks ago in Los Angeles. The camera crew followed me to thrift stores where I looked for things that you should never buy used. You will not believe what we found. Recalled car seats, a very dangerous crib and some things too disgusting to mention! You will have to watch the segment to find out. It is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, May 24th. If it changes I will update the blog.

Yard Sales 5/15/05 and a Box of Old Books

2005-05-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

It is garage sale season out here in the desert and there were about 25 sales listed in our favorite cities this weekend. As usual, I went out with my mom in her mini-van. We left at 6:15 am. Did I mention that this is the only part of my job that I hate? Getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday is not my idea of fun! We didn't find very much this weekend--but you just never know until you list it on eBay.

I did find a few pieces of Eames era glass (1950's mid-century modern and very hot on eBay). I will try and post the pictures and if anyone knows please let me know. I think one is Blenko and the other may be Kosta Boda.

One sale that we went to had a lot of antiques and the gal used to be a dealer. She had a table full of old books. I asked her how much and she said $1-$2 each but she would make me a deal for all of them. I ended up getting the whole box of 17 for $20. Now, that is a deal! I am going to post a picture of the box of books. Watch my eBay auctions this week to see if any of those 17 books sells for a lot of money. The gal said that one of the books (an atlas) had been appraised at $150. An appraisal doesn't mean much. My grandmother used to say, "You never know what something is really worth until it has been sold for that price." She was so right!

Welcome to my blog

2005-05-13T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hi,

My name is Lynn Dralle, also known as The Queen of Auctions. Welcome to my blog. You can catch me on Inside Edition on May 18. Visit me at my web site: http://www.thequeenofauctions.com