I hope 2009 was good to you, but I wish that 2010 is so much better!

Be sure to ring in the new year tonight and then set to meeting your goals for the year right away.  The quicker you get them started, the faster you’ll meet them.  While you’re working on them, take a look at the resources on the right hand side of this site.

What is going to be the hot toy this year?  I’m sure there will be a couple of Elmo toys available.  I just saw an ad for a set of Tickle Me Elmo hands.  Little gloves that the kids put on and use to tickle their friends.  I’m sure they do some fun sounds and maybe even do the tickling for them.  GI Joe is making a comeback after the movie came out.  And Transformers are still pretty hot.  Barbie just released a line of African American dolls.  If you can get your hands on any of the above, you’ll likely make money on them.

There are plenty of electronics that will be hot as well.  The old standards of iPods, iPhones, Blackberry phones, and some new ones like the Amazon Kindle, and the Barnes and Noble Nook are sure to be good sellers.  Of course, you’ll likely have to get them all second hand and sell used, but that’s just as good.

This season will be a very good year for second hand sellers on eBay, eBid, and Amazon.  People will be looking for all kinds of bargains and deals.  Like years past, I believe there will even be a few eBay coupons out in the wild.  Try and take advantage of that.  Start stock piling your inventory now.  Every minute you wait is another minute that your competition is getting ahead of you!

A couple of highlights on the announcement.  No more average DSR’s.  They’ll be using a more seller friendly count of the low (1’s and 2’s) star ratings.  Also, some changes to the requirements for PowerSeller status that should make it a bit easier to get in.

I’ll save you the in depth look here, as there will be plenty of that going around the blogs in the coming days, but if you really need to have a bit of analysis you can take a look at what Scot Wingo thinks of all the changes over at eBay Strategies.

It’s called, simply, eBay and Paypal fee calculator.  It’s a great little tool.  Very useful.

If you want to learn and avoid some of the hard knocks that some encounter, may I suggest a product?  It’s called Big Bucks Flips.  It’s a “simple, step by step guide to rescuing vintage items from yard sales and garage sales then selling them for incredible profits on eBay!”  In it’s pages, you’ll find ways to identify the things that will bring big bucks.  You’ll find the best ways to sell those items and the research you’ll have to do to get top dollar.

Big Bucks Flips is not a cure-all guide.  There aren’t any of those out there.  At least none that I’ve seen.  What Big Bucks Flips is, however, is a consolidated guide on buying and selling items that you find at garage sales, auctions, and estate sales.  It’s a pretty cheap guide (only $19.95 at publishing) and might make you that much or much more in the first garage sale weekend of the year.  What are you waiting for?  Get it, read it, then pick up the paper this weekend and start hitting a few garage sales.  As you go, you’ll learn even more and you’ll watch your profits soar.

From the Announcement:

Hello everyone…I’d like to share some news regarding fee changes for eBay-hosted pictures that we’re making in the Collectibles, Art, Antiques and Pottery & Glass categories. The first eBay-hosted picture in an item is already free.

Effective February 18, 2009, we are making all additional pictures, Picture Pack and Gallery Plus FREE for listings in all four categories on the US site (www.ebay.com). This includes all formats and all durations.

That’s pretty cool. You can read the rest of the announcement where they go into a little detail on why they are doing it, but it’s a pretty nice step in a good direction for sellers. At least, sellers in those categories. At a guess, this is likely a test and if it goes well, might be rolled out to more categories further down the line.

But, you’re barking up the wrong tree.

Let me see if I can explain here.  eBay is the marketplace, not the merchant.  Think of it as a giant online flea market (which it really is).  The company that owns the land the flea market is on (the eBay website) isn’t selling anything but booth space.  They have very little control over the prices that are charged and how each booth holder or merchant handles things like returns and custom orders.

And most importantly, in this case, they can’t issue a coupon code or discount code for the flea market since they will then have to reimburse the merchants for the revenue lost.

This is why eBay Coupons are very seldom issued.  And when they are, they are issued to eBay users that are active.  They aren’t a free-for-all coupon code.  And the merchant will still be expecting to get the full price that was paid.  Any discount that the coupon affords will have to be taken from eBay’s fees or straight out of eBay’s pockets.  It doesn’t make very good sense for eBay to issue coupons very often.

So, if you’re looking for eBay coupons or eBay discount codes, you can keep looking if you like, or you can accept that in 9 out of 10 instances, if you haven’t been notified by eBay about a code, you won’t be finding one.

If you’ve answered no to either of those questions, you really should be thinking about a backup system of some sort.  I personally use Mozy Online Incremental Backup.  It’s a nifty little application that you download onto your computer that runs on a schedule.  At it’s scheduled time, it incrementally backs up all the data that you have it set up for and stores it on their servers.  Backing up Incrementally means that it only transfers the data that has been updated since the last time it was backed up.  So, if you’ve only updated your listings list, it will only upload that file.  It saves you on bandwidth and gets it done faster.  Efficiency!

And, for the month of January, 2009, they’ve issued a coupon to save 10% off of their already low, low prices.  Or, they have a free option if you can keep your backup files under 2GB.  The coupon code to enter is JANUARY.  Here’s a link for it. Use Code JANUARY for 10% off annual and biannual services.  Go and give them a look if you need a backup system. It’s horribly convenient and helps give you some peace of mind if something bad does happen.

Amazon usually puts out a pretty good list, and this year is no exception.  You can see the Amazon Hot Holiday Toy List.  There’s plenty of good ideas out there if you want to look for them.  I see the seemingly ever popular Elmo toys.  Thomas the Tank Engine and some Bob the Builder too.  And as usual, there’s a plethora of noise making toys.  Why kids like those so much is beyond me, but I’m beginning to think it’s mostly to annoy their parents.

Another good use for lists like the Amazon Toy List, if you haven’t figured it out already, is to scout for merchandise to try and sell somewhere.  eBay perhaps.  The lists aren’t always 100% spot on, but they are usually good for a few steady sellers and one or two hot ones.

The Code is: CHOLIDAYNOV2008

It will give you 10% off up to $100 and is effective from now until November 30, 2008.

If you got it in your eBay account or your email, now is a good time to take advantage of the program and pick up some Christmas gifts early. Every little bit of savings is going to help this holiday season. Hopefully, there will be a eBay/Paypal coupon code for December and the Holiday season 2008.