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How to Find Great Live Auctions for Resale Items

Hi, my name is Walt. I’m an auctioneer with 25 years of experience in the auction business and licensed in the state of MA. I own Quick Auction Service, a company that specializes in building and running custom auctions, I’m also the webmaster of my own site and have been on eBay for 8 years. Besides eBay, the types of auctions I run most frequently are antiques and on-site estate auctions, although I’ve run everything from business overstock auctions to charity & special event auctions.

I enjoy sharing my knowledge and stories of the auction business. My goal for article is to help folks get the absolute most out of their auction experience.

Whether your fresh out of the package or a seasoned dealer I think I can offer something in this article to help you with your auciton adventures.

There may be as many reasons to attend auctions as there are types of auctions to attend. Maybe you want to attend an auction to buy items for re-sale on eBay, or some other market. Maybe you want to furnish your home with wonderful antiques, or you want to furnish your home as inexpensively without sacrificing quality.Some folks are just looking for a fun night out. With a little perseverance all these things are possible.

There are antiques and estate auctions, auto auctions, overstock auctions, absolute and no reserve auctions, real estate auctions, specialty auctions where only one genre of items are sold, tailgate auctions, live auctions, online auctions, sealed bid auctions, silent auctions, charity and fund raising auctions and many more.

Can you really buy for pennies on the dollar at an auction? You bet! Many times I’ve seen folks buy and re-sell at the same auction on the same night for a good profit, although be advised, this should only be done after the auction is over.

There are a lot of ways to find an auction, but here are some tips on how to find and attend the best ones.

Visit the genre of shops in the area that apply to the type of auction you want to attend. IE: If your looking for a good antique auction to attend, stop in the local antiques shops and ask for what there are for good auctions in the area. Sounds obvious right? But listen to what they don’t say as well as what they do say. Oftentimes when a dealer speaks poorly about an auction he or she attends, it may be likely that they are trying to keep a good thing secret. Think for a moment, why would a dealer keep attending a lousy auction?

Newspaper ads: I personally like to find ads in the classified ad section rather than flashy display ads. Flashy ads are usually indicative of an auction that will be high priced, may have reserves, (a set price on an item), and usually an enormous crowd. While any auction can be profitable to attend, it is usually best to steer clear of the glitzy ones, at least for the beginner.

Here’s the minimum you want to find out before you go. If there is a phone number in the ad, call and ask for the terms of the sale. What forms of payment do they accept? Is it an absolute auction? An absolute auction is one that has no minimum or reserve bids on items. These are the best auctions to attend! Is there a buyers premium? A buyers premium is like a tax that everyone who makes purchases at that auction must pay above the winning bid price. Most auctions these days do charge a buyers premium, 10% is not unreasonable but I feel much more than that is greedy, and the auctioneer that charges over 10% is counting on most bidders not doing the extra math as the bids quicken in pace.

A fair auction will have ample time to inspect the merchandise, usually at least 2 or 3 hours. Find out when inspection starts and make sure to attend! Never attend an auction if you can’t make the inspection, not unless your prepared to gamble. Most auctioneers sell at a rate of about 100 items per hour, which is why they sell “as is”. They simply don’t have the time to give a detailed description of all the items. Since almost all items at auction are sold AS IS, there are sure to be some damaged, refinished, fake and incomplete items at any given auction. Beware of any auctions that offer very little or no inspection time.

Good auctions will usually have 150 to 400 lots. A lot may be one item or a group of items. The exception to this are specialty auctions, auto auctions, real estate auctions etc.

When you attend your first sale, take note of the 1/2 dozen or so dealers that buy the most often. See if you can find out about other area auctions they attend.

When you do find an excellent auction, attend it as often as possible. By frequenting good sales, you help increase the bottom line of that business. It’s difficult for many auctioneers to keep the quality of merchandise consistent, so good attendance certainly helps. And when an auctioneer gets to know you as a buyer, he/she will go out of the way to accommodate you, to keep you coming back.

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5 Outdoor Advertising Mistakes

Feeling like you’re not getting your money’s worth on advertising and marketing? Then maybe you’re doing it wrong. Take a look at these questions and see for yourself.

5. Are you advertising enough?

Effective advertising does not happen in an instant. It actually requires constant advertising to make sure that your advertisements really sink in. Don’t be afraid to keep repeating on advertising. You may consider Digital Outdoor Advertising since it offers a repetitive means of capturing audience attention. Grab the opportunity and make the most of it.

4. Are your advertisements clear and easy to understand?

Don’t forget what it is you are advertising. If you want your customers to buy your products and services, then make sure you tell them what it is. It’s the simplest things that could cause huge damages to your advertising campaigns.

3. Are you engaging the audience with your ad?

What makes a successful outdoor advertising campaign is how it motivates the consumers to take action. It’s that strong sense of desire an advertisement brings that moves the customer from knowing about a movie to actually watching that movie. You have to make them feel like they really want and need your products or services so that you’re able to reap the benefits of your Outdoor Media Advertising advertisements.

2. Are you aware of your target audience?

Do take time to research on your consumers. In order to effectively convince them that they want your products or services, you have to know what it is your consumers exactly want. Find out what will motivate them to buy what it is you’re offering.

1. Are you advertising at the right place?

What makes an ad really effective is being in the right location at the right time. Knowing your target audience also means that you have to know where they usually are. If for example you’re targeting commuters, then the last place you’d want to advertise is on a highway. Yeah sure, chances are that commuters will pass by. But examine the percentage of commuters that pass by highways than non-commuters. Put yourself in your consumers’ shoes and think outside the billboard box. The best place for you to advertise would probably at transit systems. Not to worry, there are a lot of Media Owners out there that offers these kinds of services. Like SMRT Media who offers one of the largest outdoor advertising solutions and network in Singapore. Make sure your target audience actually sees your Outdoor advertisements and Outdoor Digital Media advertisement. Otherwise you’re just wasting money selling make-up in front of an all-boys school.

If you answered mostly “no” to these question then you definitely need to rethink your advertising campaign. Advertising and marketing is an investment and in order to get all the benefits, it’s important to be strategic about it. Plan ahead. Taking time to plan how you advertise will increase the chances of your advertising success.

Starting a Home Based Business – Choosing The Right Online Business

Home based businesses provide assistance for you to seek an alternate route to earn a residual income from the comfort of your home. With the inception and expansion of the internet, it has become very easy to transact business from your home using a PC connected to the internet. I am very sure that at some point in your life you must have done a look up on Google to get the best home based business idea available. While it is a very good move to find out ways to make money online it is also important for you to do your due diligence before investing your time and money in any home based business. Thousands of people have fallen prey to unsuspecting scammers on the internet in a bid to make money online; it’s very easy to build a website these days so anyone can design a catchy website just to get your interest and to rip you off your money.Before you supply your credit card numbers to any website, it is pertinent to find out in details what the supposed home based business is all about. There are certain ways you can get information about any make money online from home business. I will be discussing them below:1. Do a Google Lookup: Google can give you just about any piece of information you need just at the click of a button. If for example you find business xyz that claims to be a legitimate home based business, you can do a Google lookup by typing “xyz scam,” Google will automatically bring out any scam report about this online home business. Anyone who has been a victim of the scam would definitely want to share his bad experience with the business.2. Visit Home Based Business Forums: Home based business forums provide a great way for you to interact with forum members to find out the best ways to make money online. You can get all the information you need by connecting with knowledgeable and well experience people in the field of information marketing, website flipping, affiliate marketing etc. depending on the type of forum. You will be amazed at the responses you get when you type in a question.3. Send A Mail To Their Support: It is also useful to send an email to the support of the home based business you intend investing your money and your time into; genuine businesses always take less time to respond depends on the volume of mails they are receiving and most of them have a chat support that can answer your questions almost immediately. Others organize online conferences where you can ask questions and get instant clarifications.4. Start Little: Don’t be tempted to throw in all your cash at any online business; you should have a reserve just in case. Start little and as time goes on you can add more funds to it. I am just suggesting this to you; speaking from experience.I have been burnt and ripped off a couple of times while trying to make money on the internet, I have done several work at home businesses that did not pay off at the end; turned out to be a waste of my time and resource. One honest advice I can give you about a work from home business is to find a legitimate home based business, work with it and stick to it. At the moment, I am promoting one business and making a good chunk of money out of it. It is a very simple and realistic program run by a renowned internet business expert Frederick Mann. I hope to make more money from this business; it’s a definitely sustainable business and anyone who wants to make money online should leverage on it; it’s a simple and understandable process with life supports in the form of online conference calls, you can ask the experts questions and get immediate response.I wish you the best.