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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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Home Based Business – Working With Your List

When you start building your home based business one of the main things you will need is a list, a list of people who are interested in your product or services that you have to offer. Without a list, basically your online business will not succeed and you will have just wasted your time and money in setting up your business.To build a list you will need to have a squeeze or landing page with an opt-in box for your visitors to enter their details. Once they enter their name and email this gives you an indication that they are interested in what you have to offer. The more people that enter their details, the bigger your list becomes. This is where your home based business starts to grow.If you have watched any videos on YouTube about list building for your home based business, then you may have herd the saying, the money is in the list, this is not completely true. The money comes from the trust of your list, if you gain your lists trust then you will start to make money, they will start to buy from you because you have gained their trust and feel like you are someone they can relate to.To gain your lists trust, don’t just keep sending them emails with just sales pitches, because if you do, you will lose their trust. Try to send emails offering some great free content and tips, tips on how you can help them in building their home based business. A good way to gain trust is for you to do a video, when they first join your list, introduce yourself, let them actually see who you are, this way they can put a face to the person that is sending them emails.Another good way of gaining your lists trust is to try to find out what they are looking for, send them a survey, asking them what they really want. An example would be something like 10 questions on how you could help them with their home based business. Once you get their replies, then you can put together products or services to suite their needs.Once you gain your lists trust, they then become more responsive to your regular emails. Your open rate will increase and your sales start to increase, which in turn brings in more profit. Another good thing that happens is your name starts to get known around other websites as a person who cares about their subscribers and is someone willing to help. This is because people will talk about their experience on the social media websites. This in turn then brings more people to your home based business website, who then subscribe to your emails. Working with your home based business list is very important.Let me finish with asking you this simple question. If you were to go into a shop wherever it may be, and the sales assistant was very polite and helpful in showing you the product you were interested in, but at the same time not very pushy, you know what I mean, he was not pushing for that sale, would you go back to that shop at a later date if you were looking for something else?My answer to that question would be yes, I would go back, in fact I do go back to the shops I use, and the reason is that I know I can browse without the pressure for a sale. That’s why it is so important to build a relationship of trust with your list in your home based business.

Expanding Small Business Financing Opportunities For Your Business

Small business financing is often the only way for some businesses to get the capital they need to open their doors, expand operations, or develop new services and products. However, the Great Recession created some significant hurdles for personal and business loan applicants who boasted less-than-perfect credit scores.However, recent investigations suggest that banks are starting to open their doors to business owners in greater numbers. Although credit requirements remain above what they were before the recession, lending has indeed warmed up for many business owners. Where many businesses were just “treading water,” they’ve now entered an era of cautious and optimistic growth.Another positive sign in small business financing is the improved cash flow in the nation’s major banks, which has led to increased lending activity and an overall reduction in average commercial loan rates. With the recession fading into the background of the economy, small businesses that have been waiting for an improved economy are finding that banks are willing to deal with businesses that might have had budget shortfalls a few years ago. Small businesses and fledgling companies that have been conservative in hiring and expansion efforts post-recession have finally become eligible for loans.According to data compiled by the federal government, one of the major sources of small business financing today has been loans through the Small Business Administration (SBA). One of the reasons why looking at banks that provide loans that are guaranteed by the SBA is a savvy way of obtaining a business loan is because the government’s list of banks represents lenders who are already interested in making loans to small entities. Looking at these banks reduces the time a business owner might need to spend to find commercial lending opportunities. It’s also a good idea to locate a bank with loan officers who have prior experience with SBA loans.However, getting business and commercial loans still requires a solid application. In small business financing, one of the most powerful features of a loan application is the business plan. Banks are much less likely to hand over a check if the business plan isn’t fleshed out, accurate, and professionally written. A business plan with typos or a lack of information on cash flow, budget, and fiscal projections won’t impress a loan officer. Some small business experts advocate hiring a business plan writer to ensure the final document is as professional as it can be when it’s sent to the bank.The government has taken an interesting step in encouraging growth of small business by reducing the fees associated with SBA loans. Borrowers already enjoy SBA loan rates that tend to sit below traditional loan rates, but low fees on certain SBA loans may make these small business financing methods even more cost-effective than they were in the past. For example, loans under $150,000 no longer have fees and short-term loans guaranteed by the SBA also feature rates lower than many standard bank loans. This means that brand new start-ups or businesses that are nothing more than an idea in a garage are possible for new borrowers.Small business loan applicants should remember that the interest rates on SBA loans aren’t set by the government, but are part of a negotiation between the bank and the applicant. However, there are maximum rates set in place so the interest on business and commercial loans will never exceed a certain amount. Since the bank has some leeway in setting an interest rate, it’s worth it for a small business owner to come to the table with a credit rating that’s as high as possible. Small business financing today isn’t a cakewalk, but getting a loan as a brand new business is possible in today’s lending environment.

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