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Net Auctioning…The Other Home Business
More and more moms and dads are starting to realize the importance of working at home everyday. Childcare expenses can be one huge reason why. Nobody wants to go to work at a JOB everyday that they hate just to cover the expenses of childcare....
Property Auctions - Grab Your Dream UK Home On The Cheap
**You are free to reprint this article free of charge as long as you include the resource box at the end. Did you know that every year thousands of UK properties are sold at significantly below market value? The majority of these properties are...
Real Estate Auctions
Real Estate Auctions
If you are interested in either buying a house to live in or
buying a house or property for an investment, you should look
into real estate auctions. Many houses that have foreclosed are
put up for auction, sometimes...
Starting Your Own Internet Auction Business
Many of us dream of owning our own business and taking control
of our financial destiny but precious few of us ever dare to
take that chance. Of those that do risk everything for the
chance to control our destiny by opening up our own company,...
When And How To Cancel An Ebay Auction Early.
One day, you might decide that you want to end an auction early. Before you do, though, you should consider why you want to do it: cancelling auctions upsets buyers and upsets eBay, and there might be a better to way to get what you want.
I Want...
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Holiday Shopping with Online Auctions
It's getting to be that time of year again when you start thinking about holiday presents for everyone. For me, last year was a first as I set out to save money in a rather unique way: buying most of my gifts on eBay. Online auctions have become part of our everyday lives and for alot of us, a great way to save money. As a guide in this effort, I've compiled a list of tips that I used last year during this time.Tip 1: BudgetingThe first step that I always take in holiday shopping is to establish a budget of what I can comfortably spend. After many years of lesson learning in overspending, I began to list each and every gift that I needed to get along with the total amount of money to spend. Next I then allocate everyone into three categories:Family - Husband / Wife, Children, Parents - anyone who is considered very close 2nd Family - Relatives that are not as close as those under 1), friends, etcWork - Coworkers, bosses, etcUsing these three categories, I then assign a dollar amount to each category. This establishes a starting point in the beginning of the budget. The next step I use is to pencil in the gifts that I know I want to buy. After assigning these prices, I then re-tabulate the budget amount among those left in the category. Continuing in this method, I can systemically price down the gifts that I need to purchase and have a price target for those that I have not decided on yet. This is especially helpful in Tip #2.Tip 2: The Gift WizardThe biggest challenge that I always have is always selecting the gift. I find it very difficult to come up with a gift for a twelve year old girl (being a middle aged man) so I enlist the help of my new friend the Gift Wizard. Upon entering the wizard, you are required to enter the person's age,
gender, hobbies, interests and so on. The wizard then presents you with gift ideas tailored to your entries. For example, for the twelve year old girl the following is the list that it generated:AquapetsBikesBratz DollsCare BearFurReal FriendsGame Boy AdvanceHarry PotterMadelineScooby DooShrekBy clicking on these options, I can see different products within these categories that a twelve year old girl might like. Using our budget from Tip #1, we can further segment these selections and get a targeted list of potential gifts.Tip 3: Gift Icons Once you have made your selection, one of the best aspects of shopping on eBay is the seller's use of gift icons. Sellers using the gift icon routinely offer the following services:Gift wrapGift cardsExpress shippingGift Recipient shippingBeing all-thumbs with wrapping paper, this option is especially pleasing to me. If you are also a traveler on holidays and need to get gifts to another location, the gift recipient shipping is also a great option. After the 9/11 attacks, with airport security being increased, no longer can you bring wrapped items on board with you. For me, this was especially hard as it meant that I would spend hours upon hours once I got to the other location wrapping, or in most instances trying to wrap, presents when I should have been eating, drinking and being merry.
About the author:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matt Goodman is a freelance writer and small business owner in New York.
He wrote this article for an online directory of saving money tips. Read more tips and tricks for saving money.
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