The 2006 eBay Live is going to be in Las Vegas, probably the only place that could actually hold this conference anymore. You better believe I will be there. Viva Las Vegas!

As most of you know who are reading this, when eBay raised the fees in January it caused a huge stir among the eBay Community. eBay did not communicate this well at all and it caused some huge problems. I think they got a huge reality check and they have sounded very humbled at this conference. Next time eBay will think about doing something major like that again they will communicate it better and have better communication with the public.

Just got back from an eBay Town Hall where all the eBay brass were, short CEO and Pres Meg Whitman. This was an opportunity to ask questions to the eBay people live. This was also broadcast on the net. They gave away awards to 5 "Community Hall of Fame" people and the teleprompter failed halfway through, thought that was pretty funny. Some questions and answers:

Canned question from Griff (unofficial head of eBay, does the classes around the country, speeches, etc) about the fees - North American CEO of eBay Bill Cobb was very long winded and really did not say anything

Buy-it-Now fees going up - They are looking into letting the BIN stay around even if someone has put in a bid on an item

Stealing pics and descriptions - Should be down within 24-48 hours, did not happen to the person asking the question and has not happened with me either

Getting a price break for large listers - eBay wants a level playing field, not going to happen anytime soon

TurboLister - It's going to stay around and they are ready to make some big updates on it

They are going to announce the location of the next eBay Live at the ending Gala tonight, will post again after I get back.

Posting from the booth real quick, little quieter today, think some of the people here are "boothed out". Will be going the "Advanced Selling Tips for Bronze and Silver Powersellers at 3:30 and they are also having a Town Meeting with the President of eBay at 1:30, will be going to that. Have to drink lots of water to keep my voice I have been talking so much.

Went to the previously mentioned Rob and Lisa's presentation on Product Sourcing today (great presentation, so many people showed up they opened up the divider in the room to double the room size and they still had people standing! I just happened to here most of it before having the advantage of having Lisa local in Seattle), but left a little early to do what I do best, junkyarding. Managed to hit three yards in the San Jose heat (well, 80 degrees with sun, hot to a Seattlite) and found some interesting stuff. The first yard had a 71 Swinger and some interesting trucks, but not much else. Me, lacking tools, a way to ship anything home, and motivation in the heat decided to move on. The second yard I hit a gold mine, albiet a gold mine 500 feet under the earth and unattainable. Found a 73 Plymouth Valiant with a perfect dash, steering wheel, and a front disc brake set-up. Could have gotten all of these for 25% of what they were worth, but again, lacking tools, a way to ship them home, and motivation, decided to move on very reluctantly. The third yard did not have many Mopars, but did have a white 89 Mustang LX with the 5.0 engine. Not sure if it was a cop car or not, but it had all the signs. They also had an unidentified 50's GM and a 1950 Ford Town Sedan. Just love finding this old sheetmetal, even if I can't drag it home :) Time for bed, will post again tomorrow.

Posting at 10:15 pacific from my hotel lobby since that is the only place for free Internet. To be more specific I am posting from the stairs outside the lobby because that is the only place I can get a decent wi-fi connection, but I regress. Had a great party put on by Mpire tonight (shameless plug, www.mpire.com, hear me Google?!?), open bar and lots of food. Keep on meeting some great people. Talked to Lisa Suttora from www.whatdoisell.com tonight (going to get as many plugs in as possible), who runs an amazing site for product sources on eBay and has many excellent articles on how to run eBay. I also met Rob Cowie who runs www.worldwidebrands.com which has product sources for eBay. He was also the producer for The Blair Witch Project (really, look). Great guy and very interesting. Well, 10:30 hear and time to go to bed, will make one more short post tonight then will post again tomorrow from the conference.

Typing this from one of the remote Internet Stations eBay has set up since my hotel has decided to charger $14.00 a day for Internet (while paying $180.00 a night for hotel, while paying $22.00 a night for parking!).

Just went to a Powerseller only meeting with the eBay Motors people. Very nice taking to them and they brought in a guy to talk for a few minutes who runs the larging wrecking operation in the country. He said they sell 200 items a day and have 3,000 listed at any one time. I talked to the category manager of Parts and Accessories for a few minutes and got his e-mail. We talked about how bad the keyword spamming is getting and what to do about it. It's nice to have friends in high places! Going to check out a couple of pull-a-parts after my next meeting, good thing I am at an eBay conference so I can ship anything back I find :P

The second edition of Greg Holden's book How To Do Everything With Your eBay Business just came out and I am featured in it! Check it out at your local book store.

See it here.

One of the biggest reasons I have gone down to eBay Live in San Jose is because of Mpire. Mpire is a brand new company that is coming out with a product that will revolutionize eBay. It is an all in one eBay tool including everything from a listing tool, to a financial tool, to an inventory tool, everything you need for eBay is included in this program. I have helped do some beta testing for them and can tell you this product is awesome. They do not currently support eBay Motors unfortunately, but will by the end of the summer when they go live. Check out the website for them at www.mpire.com.

I am attending eBay Live this week. It is the biggest eBay Conference in the country and is hosted by eBay. 11,600 people are attending and vendors are everywhere. I sell a lot of my things on eBay and this is a great way to learn more about selling. eBay had a couple of big announcements as well at the keynote speech tonight. The biggest from a stock market point of view is a new product called ProStores. This will basically let you set up a store on your website for a monthly fee plus they take a cut of the sales. This is the first time eBay has ever set up a platform off of the eBay platform. I intend to check this out further tomorrow and may be adding it to the www.tallzagauctions.com website. The other big news is in the feedback department. Now when that now if someone does pay not for an item and you file a report, they cannot leave bad feedback for you. Also, if a person has under 10 feedback, they cannot leave you bad feedback until they have gone through a tutorial. Good moves both by eBay because I have been stung by this in the past.

Got a TON of Dodge Challenger parts this weekend from a lady who had been collecting them for 15 years. Most of it is the later 72-74 but got some real good earlier stuff like a trunk lid and a front fender. Here is a partial list, post a comment or e-mail me if you are looking for anything.

NOS Turn Signal Switch
NOS R/T Rear Valence (3616803)
70-71 Challenger Passenger fender
R/T Ralley Dash - Real good shape, later style
4 pot switch plate w/ rear defog switch
Perfect Heater Control w/ plastic plate and heater cable
Early 70 trunk lid (no provisions for luggage rack or spoiler)
Fiberglass R/T Hood
Multiple 72-74 Tail lights
TONS of trim - Front/rear window, good shape
PERFECT Black dash - Think this is for a later car
A few interior Panels
A few doors and 72-74 Fenders
Rear seats
Set of buckets