As many of you know, we are doing a series of seminars with auction site founders as an alternate to selling on eBay. The idea is to bring buyers and sellers together, so sellers can make money, and buyers can find great bargains.
This past week we met with Kevin and Heather of MustSellItToday.com and I must say, their unique approach to selling is quite awesome and may revolutionize how we do business. But, rather than my telling you, why not take a view at the seminar, and let them explain everything.

LegendsOfBatman:

Welcome to the ebay alternates seminars. This week we have MustSellItToday.com

htubild:

ok, here goes. i have something prepared to copy and paste. kind of long. ok to post? then we can answer any questions.

htubild:

MustSellitToday.com is a brand-new website and an alternative to eBay.

htubild:

Some Key Selling Points are: 99 cents per listing until sold. No other final value fees or other fees.

htubild:

Sell faster: If you get a good offer, take it. Why wait a week? Accept any offer any time.

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Get paid faster: Your buyer has 4 to 12 hours to pay you--or your item automatically goes back on sale. Why wait for your money?

htubild:

Background: Last year, while looking at ads on craigslist, I noticed that about one in every 10 or 15 ads had an extra message: MUST SELL IT TODAY. Maybe the seller had a bill to pay or a gift to buy, and was willing to part with his item for a lower price AS LONG AS IT HAPPENED TODAY!

htubild:

I have bought and sold on eBay since 2002 and have maintained a 100% feedback rating. (My username, ktubild, comes from my initials and my other company, u-bild.com. See my feedback here: http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=ktubild&ftab=AllFeedback.)

htubild:

It seemed to me that there wasn?t a website specifically designed to help sellers get rid of their stuff (and get paid) FAST. So I developed MustSellitToday.com. I figured MustSellitToday.com would be useful to "must" sellers (fast sale and fast payment) and "bargain" buyers (fast sale and low prices).

htubild:

To me, if you need to sell your item (and get paid) fast, other online auction sites take too long. Auctions typically last a week and all the action takes place in the final few minutes, frequently in the final few seconds. Craigslist is generally limited to a certain area, requires local pick-up and has no competitive bidding process or online payment option. Where would you go if you wanted or needed to sell something right away, but still wanted to have competitive bidding for your item?

comment:

hmm... interesting... your site has emphasis on faster selling and buying. I kinda like that

htubild:

I also think that the popular auction sites are too costly and too complicated. They are filled with restrictions on listings and on deals that take place outside the site. They are dominated by large retailers. Plus, they no longer had the fun, flea-market atmosphere and bargain hunting they once had.

htubild:

So I decided to create a new auction site. MustSellitToday.com is:

htubild:

FASTER: I figured that transactions would be a lot speedier if somehow the process got turned around so that the action would come at the beginning instead of the end. So how to zip things along?

htubild:

There was a very simple solution: let sellers accept any offer from any buyer at any time. If a seller receives an acceptable offer within minutes of listing, he would be able to sell within minutes. Why wait a week?

htubild:

Then, to make sure sellers get paid fast, MustSellitToday.com puts buyers on the clock as soon as their offer is accepted. Buyers are required to make payment in 4-12 hours, depending on the sellers? wishes, and ratings for buyers include information about how fast they pay. If payment isn?t made in the time allowed, the item goes back on sale and the offers resume. This way, buyers can pick up a bargain if they are willing to pay fast.

question:

so.. it's open ended auction?

htubild:

there is no end point. take any offer any time from anyone.

htubild:

CHEAPER: I also came to the conclusion that final value fees had no business rationale whatsoever other than to take a few extra bucks off sellers. What difference does it make to the website host whether the item listed sells for $30 or $3000? The computing power for the listing costs him the same.

htubild:

MustSellitToday.com charges only a flat fee. And a simple one at that: 99 cents Per Listing Until Sold. NO Final Value Fees or other fees. And free want to buy ads.

htubild:

You can also make a deal outside of the site or link to your own site, because we don't need to collect any final value fees. Arrange a trade if you wish.

htubild:

EASIER: Finally, having heard from many people over the years, young and old, that auction sites were too slow and complicated, I decided to make it simple and fast for anyone to list or buy an item for sale. You will not need a "Video Professor" or an "MSiT for Dummies" to use our site.

htubild:

Financial: MustSellitToday.com has no debt and was self-funded by earnings from U-Bild (u-bild.com). U-Bild is the nation's oldest woodworking plan company (established 1948). We have owned and operated it since 1995.

htubild:

Marketing: Our launch campaign is coordinated by audettemedia.com and includes PPC (since 4/1), SEO, blog (by 5/1), PR, social media including a growing twitter following http://twitter.com/MustSellitToday  posting and participation in related blogs and forums like powersellersunited, posting in category-specific forums and anything else we can think of including car signs, walking fairs and swap meets etc.

htubild:

Also, it's now easy to post your listing or any listing to Facebook, MySpace and Twitter with just a couple clicks.

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Addressing Issues with eBay: We have tried to address every issue sellers have been having with eBay, including feedback, cost, non-paying buyers, bad customer service, PayPal, slow loading pages and having customers forced upon you.

question:

Can you expound on that last paragraph?

htubild:

sure: cost is an obvious one: 99 cents versus x plus final value.

htubild:

feedback is a two way street. also, buyer feedback includes number of auctions won, number of auctions paid for, average payment time, rating % and comments.

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non-paying buyers: if a buyer doesn't pay in the allotted time (4 to 12 hours--seller choice), the item automatically relists. No chasing down deadbeat buyers for a week and then not getting paid. then relisting.

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bad customer service: we offer email help as well as a toll free number. if need be, we have back-up staff in our other business to answer questions, help, etc.

question:

Can a seller choose to lengthen that time, say if a buyer gets paid the next day or has a power outage or something? or, they have Time Warner. lol

htubild:

it's a set time, but a seller can always re-accept the offer if it gets relisted. buyer and seller are free to arrange a longer time.

htubild:

site is fast!

htubild:

paypal is an option but sellers wishing to be completely free of ebay can accept credit cards through authorize.net, which is very easy to use.

question:

Ok, so, how does that work? I buy something from someone, and I lose my internet connection, because Im Time Warner, and it gets relisted, so, I can remake the offer, explain what happened and hope the seller understands?

htubild:

When you sell an item, that gets recorded as a sale. the listing will still exist in your "sold" account. You can just go there and hit relist and the same listing will come up. or you can edit.

Question:

How does that work for fees? You have a dutch auction for 100 widgets, but, one listing. Is the fee $99 or is it one flat fee?

htubild:

it's just 99 cents per listing. 99 cents not $99

question:

Here's the hard question for you.99 cents is not a whole lot. Can you be able to survive long term with this fee? Or, are there other forms of revenue

htubild:

It is our second business. The site is paid for. We have funds in the bank. Our costs are low and best of all, they are incremental. If the site gets crowded and we require more bandwidth and customer service, that's the problem we want to have.

comment:

hmm... perhaps you can buy more prominent exposure in the homepage for a fee

htubild:

we did want to keep it very simple. i like the simple fee structure. we may eventually have outside advertising.

comment:

yea... I think lots of people here in delphi forums would agree that we need an alternative to eBay.

htubild:

we would love to have you. it's free to list until april 30 and we may extend the free period to build traffic.

question:

I do like that fast pay concept But, i do have a few concerns but, at the same time, I always wondered why people would bid, and then not pay for weeks on end. but, the concern i have is 12 hours may not be sufficient

htubild:

yes, true. that is easy to adjust. so far it hasn't been a problem. if everybody wants to extend it, we'll extend it. we are toying with the idea of having text message notification.

question:

for example, I signed up with thecollectorsbay after their presentation a few weeks ago. I went to pay, and realized, "Oops. I dont know where to send payment". it took a day for him to respond

htubild:

the payment system is automated through the site.

question:

How does that work?

htubild:

when the seller accepts a buyer's offer, the buyer is notified by email that he won the item and has 4 to 12 hours to pay (determined by seller). Buyer can then pay by paypal or credit card and the system records the payment. we do not keep any cc or paypal info. it just records when the payment has been made.

question:

does the system give the seller's paypal account info? or, authorize.net's payment info?

htubild:

the buyer is directed to paypal. he will know who he is sending the money to. no account info beyond that

comment:

That's the only concern I have regarding a quick turn around like that. Otherwise, I think its awesome.

Question:

You mentioned Authorize.net as a payment option. What can you tell us about that?

htubild:

Up til now Kevin has been doing all of the talking about the technical aspects of the site. But from an aesthetic point of view, the thing that I like about the site is how simple and inviting it looks. Most sites are so intimidating looking IMO. I think this will really attract buyers, esp. those not so familiar with the iternet.

comment:

yes, i would agree

htubild:

It's a way for sellers to accept credit cards for payment. It's insured just like paypal. You do have to sign up with authorize.net

comment:

actually, its not insured like Paypal.

Im looking at the site now

They are actually insured, whereas paypal is not

already a huge plus. lol

htubild:

*MSG* I know a lot of people are down on paypal but when we did the mkt research like 95% of people wanted to use Paypal. So we gave it as an option

comment:

True. as much as i hate them, because of their ties to ebay, and their fraudulent practices of late, i still use them

htubild:

I won't tell anyone

comment:

lol. theyre a necessary evil. for now

htubild:

Anything else I should mention about MSiT (that's short for mustsellittoday)

comment:

I like google less. The lower fees arent low enough to justify using them over paypal

htubild:

We looked at Google checkout and REALLY didn't like it- too complicated

comment:

too complicated, with no help

htubild:

exactly

question:

What are the authorize.net fees?

htubild:

*MSG* auth.net fees are like typical cc fees like 25 cents + 2.5%

htubild:

*MSG* I have to get going. Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk to your group.

LegendsOfBatman:

*MSG* I appreciate your time

htubild:

*MSG* Thanks!! Just email me any questions.

Hello everyone.

I have received some sad information; information that serves as a reminder to each and every one of us.
I received a message from some members who have had their myspace, youtube and email accounts hacked.

These attacks are not new. People have been "phished" for years now. The good news is that very few people, percentage wise, stil fall victim to these scams. The sad news is, there is even one person who falls for these scams. No matter how many warnings, no matter how much information is out there, no matter what is said and done to educate people, somehow, some still manage to miss or worse, ignore the warnings.
PLEASE DO NOT!

What is sadder yet is, even for those of us who do everything right, I don't believe there is any way to be 100% guaranteed we wont get victimized. But, that does not mean we should give up, be careless, or stop trying.

One of the best ways to keep safe is to disable HTML in your emails. Since the HTML code is what allows various malicious code to hide. Something as simple as altering the real website name. For example, by using HTML, I can have a link say it is ebay, paypal, or even something like "click here", all the while the link itself can be imdestroyingyourlife.com (hopefully a fictious name i just made up). By simply disabling  HTML this cannot happen.

Of course, not clicking on links inside emails is also a good idea. One stat I just read minutes before starting this stated that 75% of all "phishing" attacks come from fake ebay and PayPal sites. Since we are all ebay members and/or PayPal account holders, this leaves us all very vulnerable. So, how do we tell the real from the fake? Go to the email settings or options, turn on FULL HEADERS. This will show where the email is being returned to. I use Yahoo; and Yahoo and other webmail arent always too bright. They believe the "From" line, and therefore, we aren't able to block phishers. But, if you know that the return address is imgonnadestroyyourlife.com and not paypal.com you know its a fraud.
Also, be aware that ebay and paypal, and hopefully other financial institutions will NEVER send an email to you saying your account may have been compromised, please click here and make sure. Certainly it will be now, if you do.
Also, most phishers don't know your name. Some may have gathered that info, somehow. Ebay/PayPal do not send out emails "Dear PayPal member";
It uses your first and last name. AND, they do not ask for your password.

I received an email telling me my CitiBank account was compromised. Interesting, since I dont HAVE a CitiBank acct. And it's pretty obvious an attempt is being made to access my Ebay/PayPal account, when that email address is not even connected to those email addresses.

While there are more legit gift card offers, assume they are all fraudulent. Even the legit ones are not worth the aggrevation. At best, you will get a million new spam and IRL junk mail as a result. At worst, you have just given your myspace, facebook, email account and other account passwords, and personal information away to the worst type of people known to man. A year or so ago, a friend on my other myspace page supposedly sent me a comment with the Macy's $500 giftcard offer.
Suspecting it was an attempt to get people's info, I clicked it, to discover it was a clickable link to rnyspace.com myspace.com is not the same as rnyspace.com Can you tell the difference? Try it this way:
myspace.com Side by side, now on top. Did you catch it? Sneaky lil imps. While you believe you are on MYSPACE.com, the other is actually RNYSPACE.com r n together can look like an m.
I suggest people go to cnet.com or zdnet.com and download spoofstick. That helps detect what site you are on.

There's no $100,000,000 waiting for you in some out of country bank. There is however, all your money, credit card numbers, and identity waiting for the sender, once you agree to give the person whatever dollar amount they are asking for. And do you think they're going to take only a couple hundred dollars from you? Nonononono NO! They have every intention of wiping you out of EVERYTHING you have. And more. If you send enough information, they will use your name to get credit cards, houses, phone numbers, and anything else they can.

FWDS. Some people just love to forward FWDs. Anything from innocent jokes, to harmful scams of viruses, to who knows what all else.
For those of you who must send FWDs, PLEASE do the rest of us a favor:
Dont. But, if you insist on doing it, PLEASE do not leave us vulnerable. At least have the courtesy to place our names in the BCC line. BCC is blind-carbon Copy. This will allow others who receive these mailings to not have access to our emails, and will help cut down on phishing attacks. By using the To: or the CC lines, you are making us sitting ducks to phishers.
"But nobody on my list would do anything bad" Maybe not. But, can you guarantee that nobody on their list, or the list or further down will not? Just look at all the names from the original sender, down to the latest. Thanks, but, no thanks. So, please, help keep those of us who dont want to be harmed, a little safer.
Oh, and new danergous viruses are not discovered in email. Esp. FWDs. If there's a bunch of these marks, >>>> you can be sure, even the most pathetic of Virus scanners have identified them. And their advice to remove a particular file from your computer, is not a good thing. If you are lucky, it will only completely disable your system, upon reboot. At worst, you are disabling security settings.

Pity emails. Dont be gullible. EVEN IF there really is a poor little girl who's daddy died in Katrina, and her brother's leg and arm were blown off in Iraq, and who's mother is dying of cancer, and who's aunt was victimized by 9-11, and and and and; chances are not good that you would be helping them. But, chances are great that you are being played.

Now here's the scarey part. You dont even have to be online to be a victim of identy theft. Actually, most incidents are not even from online users. People throw their private information away for everyone to get hold of it. For example, ever throw junk mail out? Did it have your name and address on it? Cross-cxut shredders help. Even better, thick black markers and then cross cut shredding works even better.
Is your name listed in the phone book? As just an interesting thing to do, I entered my first and last name into the white pages directory, and discovered one man has the same first and last name and same middle initial as I do. Here's the information I received on him:
Name, address, age, phone number, his sexual preference, and who his employer is, and that he is a manager there.
Question is, why should all this information be given? Answer is, it shouldn't. What can be garnered from all this information? I have no clue what can be done with this info. I just know that i was able to find out more info on someone than I am sure they care to have people know. And, what's worse is, people who do know what to do with this info can and do. So, I suggest that we be careful with the information we give out, to whom, and how it will be used.

Please, be careful out there. Watch what your kids are doing online. Dont assume "they don't do that", because they very well may be doing "that" right now. Whatever "that" is.
Make sure your firewall is secure; you have a good anti-virus program; a good spyware detector or two. Make sure you keep these up to date. And most importantly, becareful what you open in emails. EVEN from people you know. (I always thot it was stupid to worry about emails you get from people you dont know; as if people you do know dont have viruses?).

Tim