FOX VALLEY EBAY SELLERS CLUB MEETING MAY 11, 2010

The meeting was held at our new location at the Montgomery Village Hall 200 N. River St. Montgomery, IL. The meeting was opened by Deb the club facilitator.

Attendance

Our attendance for today’s meeting was 33 plus 4 guests.

New Member

A big welcome to Shelly Lee from all of us.

Secretary’s Report

Was given by Jerry and asked for a motion to accept the club minutes as posted to the clubs web sight without any corrections. Roger made a motion to accept, and seconded by Maggie.

Treasures Report

Also given by Jerry who reported that since our last meeting we have 7 new paid  members. We also paid out 5.83 for new badges and another 50.00 as deposit for the Montgomery Village Hall.

The club balance as of today is ……….

Rummage Sale

Elizabeth informed all of us that Oswego High School was having a Honor Society Rummage Sale on May 22 and has flyers for anyone who is interested.

Activity Report

Sheri reported on all the recycled items collected on 4/17/2010 at the recycle center in Oswego.  A few of the items collected were, bubble wrap, boxes, plastic grocery bags, peanuts, foam, styrofoam, and much more.

Sign-Up For;

EBay on location in Chicago begins Thursday May 20, 2010, sign up here:

http://www.ebayonlocationevents.com/events/chicago

Meeting Schedule

A short discussion was had about whether or not to have our regular meetings in the summer.  Many members wanted a meeting every month so Gayle will be the club meeting facilitator in July & August.

Guest Speaker

Our guest speaker at todays meeting was Brian Murphy CPA from Murphy & Associates in Yorkville.

Brian covered many topics, and answered as many questions that time would permit.

A quick synopsis,

Federal ID numbers for business and tax payer number for business.

Separate accounting for personnel items and items sold on eBay.

Resale items purchase price, mileage to and from garage sales, flee markets etc.

Insurance for product liability.

Everyone’s selling may be different from each other, check with your own accountant for your tax information

Our next meeting will be on June 8, 2010 at the Montgomery Village Hall in Montgomery.

In The News

Some of our own members were featured in articles done by CRAIN’S Chicago Business today, February 7, 2010!

Read about it here:  http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?articleId=33010#related_stories

and here:  http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?articleId=33011

FOX VALLEY EBAY SELLERS CLUB MEETING MINUTES Jan. 12, 2010

FOX VALLEY EBAY SELLERS CLUB MEETING Jan. 12, 2010 The meeting was held at Panera Bread in Yorkville. Meeting was opened by Deb, the club facilitator>   She announced the new officers for 2010 that are as follows:  Deb Facilitator, Jerry Treasurer & Secretary, and Sheri Membership & Publicity.   A big thank you was also given to the 2009 officers which were; Ellen President, Gayle Vice President, Roger Secretary & Treasurer, and Sheri Membership & Publicity.   A motion was made to all members to approve the minutes from the last meeting.   The minutes were approved.   Attendance for this meeting was 16 members including one new member, Jerry;  which we welcome to our club.   Members also voted to keep our due’s at 5.00 per year. Treasure’s Report was given by Jerry and reported we have xxx.xx as given to him from our last treasurer Roger.   The members voted on using only first names in our minutes as part of our privacy of the members.   Our mission statement was amended and voted on by the members to read:   eBay Sellers Club exists to bring together eBay sellers of all levels of expertise to share their knowledge and experience so they may:  Expand their knowledge of eBay and the internet.   Increase their sales.   Set goals and achieve them. They may be equipped to become a Power Seller, if desired.   We also had some brainstorming and a round table discussion of ideas for future 2010 meetings. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday February 9, 2010 at Panera Bread in Yorkville.

Ebay Sellers Discuss Selling Books and Half dot com

The Fox Valley eBay Sellers will meet on Tuesday, July 14th, from 7:00 until 9 PM in the meeting room of Panera Bread in Yorkville at Rt. 34 and 47. Anyone who sells on eBay and is interested in expanding their selling skills is welcome to the meeting. Many members meet
shortly after 6 PM for a meal and conversation.  Everyone is welcome to come early.

 The topics of this meeting will be a round table discussion of selling books on eBay and sell­ing on Half.com, the other selling arm of eBay.  Members who sell on these venues will con­centrate on helping others to understand the nuances of optimizining listings for greatest hits and increased sales.

 The Fox Valley eBay Sellers club has met monthly since January, 2007. Their Mission State­ment declares: “ The eBay Sellers Club exists to bring eBay sellers together to share their knowledge and experience so they may expand their knowledge of eBay and the Internet; increase their sales; set goals and achieve them, and ultimately become Power Sellers.”

Contact Ellen Bloomer, president, 630-553-1996, for further information or just show up.

Fox Valley eBay Sellers Club Meeting Minutes May 12, 2009

16 people in attendance. Meeting was held at Panera Bread in Yorkville. Meeting was opened by President Ellen Bloomer. Ellen read the club’s Mission Statement.“The Fox Valley eBay Sellers Club exists to bring eBay sellers together to share their knowledge and experience so they may . . . Expand their knowledge of eBay & the Internet Increase their sales Set goals & achieve them Ultimately become Power Sellers” Sellers who recently achieved Power Seller status were acknowledged, and also those who are currently Power Sellers. Reminder to listen to eBay live radio – this week by listening Ellen gained valuable information and was able to secure Griff to speak at our September 12th meeting. Jim Griffith is eBay’s Senior Manager for Seller Advocacy. He is the foremost education specialist for eBay since 1996. http://www.unclegriff.com Discussion followed on securing an alternate location for this meeting. Our current location at Panera Bread in Yorkville can only accommodate 40 people.

Promoting our club – There is a Chicagoland eBay Club that meets in a northern suburb. There is a club in Texas that is run by eBay seller galleriagifts. http://www.meetup.com This is a site that advertises meetings by town. Cost is $12 per month for 6 months. Membership decided to wait to use this site until we have explored advertising sites that are free. Craigslist has a community section where you can advertise clubs and events. The community section and the event section allow posts for 45 days. Gayle Treend volunteered to set this up. http://www.icollect.com Debra S. volunteered to advertise the club on this site eBay: Deb H. volunteered to do a search of eBay sellers within a 10 mile radius of Yorkville and bring findings to next meeting. Goal would be to contact them through eBay to promote the club. Web Page: Butch Babos volunteered to set up web page for the club http://www.kijiji.com Brian volunteered to advertise the club on this site Domain name: Sherri K. made a motion to purchase a domain name from http://www.godaddy.com $9.99 for one year. Discussion followed. It would be less expensive per year to purchase multiple years – the membership decided to wait and see what the first year results were then decide if we wanted to purchase more years. The domain name will be FoxValleyeBaySellersClub.com Motion was seconded; a vote was taken and approved by majority vote. Tri-fold flyer Sheri designed a tri-fold flyer that can be customized for each individual seller while still promoting the club. Sheri will send an e-mail and attach a link to the brochure so members can print them for themselves. Business cards for the club were designed by Debra S. She will order some from a free site. The membership adopted a “fox” logo for the club along with using the eBay colors. The fox design is a free Microsoft clip art and can be used freely.

New Business – Sheri asked the club to consider (at a future date) that we may want to adopt a policy that each member needs to do some sort of presentation for the club once every three years. Discussion followed. Liz passed out a flyer promoting the Oswego High School Rummage Sale which is Saturday, May 23. Drop offs are on Friday, May 22 from 3 – 7 pm at the field house. This is a great way to clear your old inventory. Receipts will be given for tax purposes. The sale supports the National Honor Society and “Rally for the Robinsons”.

Presentation –  Gayle Treend demonstrated how to set up a blog on http://www.wordpress.com. There are also sites such as http://www.blogger.com. By utilizing blogs, the internet search engines have another way of picking up your store and/or items when people search the internet. Gayle will forward her printed notes to the club as a reference tool. By placing the notation ?refid=store after your store name in a non- eBay site directs the person to your eBay store, you get discounts on your final value fees from eBay if the person directed purchases somthing from your store inventory.

Closing –  President Ellen Bloomer wants the club to begin to think about our vision for the size of the club. The last 3 years the club has averaged 20 -25 members. Discussion followed. Jeanette M. plugged her bump site: http://www.advertiseyourauctionsforfree.com Discussion followed.