BAM eBay Blog

Buyer Auction Manager 1 year anniversary facebook contest ended yesterday night. While thinking of something to do for this first anniversary I decided that since the software is for eBay buyers, it would make sense to give away some eBay gift cards. I purchased 4 custom made $25 eBay Gift Cards and today, I got to pick 4 winners.

There were 54 people who entered the contest and there were 3 people who got bonus entries for referring friends. Here is the overview from the appliation that I used to run this contest:

Without further ado, here are the winners as they were chosen. The first winner is Terry Mckay:

Second winner is Thomas Almasi:

Third winner is Sara Alexander:

And the fourth winner is Maxwell Skipper:

Congratulation to all the winners! You'll be hearing from me shortly. Thank you to everybody who participated. Keep reading the blog for eBay related articles as well as other contests and promotions.

If you haven't tried Buyer Auction Manager yet, give it a try. It will save you time, money and make your eBay buying experience more enjoyable.

Robert

What are eBay Bucks

eBay bucks is a program created by eBay to try to attract more buyers by offering percentage of the purchase back to the buyer. If you choose to sign up for eBay bucks, you will get 2% back on qualifying purchases. There are some days when eBay offers higher percentage. I have seen 5% on one day but those are not common. This rewards program is currently open to US and Canadian residents who are 18 years or older.

Program Restrictions and Limitations

The program has some restrictions. Those include:

• You have to pay with PayPal using eBay checkout system
• Purchases you made before signing up for eBay bucks do not qualify
• Your bids need to be placed on eBay US or eBay Canada global sites

There are some categories that do not qualify for eBay rewards:

• All eBay Motors categories
• Classified Ads
• Real Estate
• Gift Cards
• Coins & Paper Money - my favorite category :(
• Business & Industrial

See "eBay Bucks Rewards Program Terms & Conditions" for full details, restrictions and limitations.

There are also limits on how much you can earn. Maximum amount you can earn for a single purchase is $100. You can earn maximum of $500 for calendar quarter.

How to sign up for eBay bucks

You're not automatically enrolled in this reward program. To earn eBay bucks, you have to manually sign up. Any purchases you make before you sign up, will not be eligible (I learned this one the hard way). Sign up for eBay bucks.

Accessing your eBay bucks

To see details about your bucks, including your total, which transaction earned you how much rewards and countdown to when you'll be able to start spending your eBay bucks, you go to My eBay and click on eBay Bucks:

Redeeming eBay bucks

You start earning eBay bucks at the beginning of a quarter and earn them for three months. Within 15 days after the end of a quarter, eBay will issue you eBay Bucks Certificate. From that day, you have 30 days to use your certificate. If you do not use your eBay bucks within 30 days, you will lose them.

When you get your certificate, it's easy to redeem your rewards. After you purchase something (auction or buy it now) and when you start PayPal checkout, it should automatically use the certificate as default payment method. If you don't have enough to cover your purchase, you'll be able to choose another payment method to cover the reminder. If you have more in eBay bucks than the purchase amount, your entire purchase will be paid for with rewards. You don't have to use your eBay bucks on one purchase. If you have some bucks left over after your purchase, you'll be able to use the reminder for another item.

Conclusion

If you purchase a lot on eBay, you might want to consider signing up for eBay bucks rewards program to get 2% back on qualifying purchases. Those rewards can add up quickly and It's always nice when you get your certificate at the beginning of the quarter and you don't have to pay out of pocket!

If you still have questions, check out this Video Tutorial created by eBay that introduces eBay Bucks.

If you buy a lot on eBay, I invite you to try Buyer Auction Manager - eBay Software for Buyers. It's free for the first 30 days.

Robert

Buyer Auction Manager 1 year anniversary Facebook sweepstakes are slowly coming to an end. As of today, there are only 10 days left. There are currently 45 people who entered sweepstakes and who are eligible to win one of four custom $25 eBay gift cards as pictured below:

Currently there are only 2 bonus entries. You get bonus entry for every person you refer who enters sweepstakes. If you still haven't entered, now is the time! If you already entered, share it with your friends and earn bonus entries for a better chance to win:

Winners will be announced shortly after 3/16/2013. Here is the link to enter: Buyer Auction Manager 1 Year Anniversary Sweepstakes

Good luck,

Robert

Four $25 eBay gift cards for 1-year-anniversary sweepstakes were ordered today. What do you think about the design?

If you haven't entered BAM facebook contest yet, you have until 3/16/2013 to enter and be eligible to win one of those gift cards:

1-Year-Anniversary Sweepstakes

Robert

Beginning and Plan A

Buyer Auction Manager (Full) was officially launched on February 24, 2012 so today marks one year anniversary. When I first started working on the original version of the software, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. It has been a long and bumpy journey but the software is better for it. It's now gaining momentum and growing faster than ever before. As part of this journey, I have learned a great deal and I'm learning new things every day.

As some of you may know, I created original version of Buyer Auction Manager for myself after noticing that some Buy It Now items were selling on eBay for low prices. My search did not produce any satisfactory software that would do what I wanted, so I created my own. Original version had only one module (Win It Now) that would search for newly posted Buy It Now items on eBay. After successfully using it myself for a while, I released it to the public as a freeware hoping that people would like it, save money and donate some of the savings. Was I wrong about that! Looking back, I think there were at least two reasons for this. I had no clue about advertising the software to get more users and if you can get something for free, you usually do not pay for it. I'm like that myself so creating freeware and expecting donations was a flawed strategy.

Time for Plan B

Since plan A was not working and my wife was starting to get upset because I was spending a lot of my free time on the computer without any results, it was time to double down and conceive plan B. I decided to leave the original version as it was and create a new version of the software where I would add additional functionality and improve Win It Now module. I started working on that new version in November 2011. I spent several months writing those improvements and finally in February 2012, I released what is now called Buyer Auction Manager (Full).

After the software was released, it was time to work on advertising. I started using Google AdWords, learned a lot about Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, Social Networks and started a blog. I wrote several blog posts over 2-month period but after not seeing big results, I moved on to other things and abandoned the blog for a while. Towards the end of 2012, eBay started making significant changes to their website and functionality that relied on scraping started breaking so I had my hands full trying to fix everything.

At one point, I thought that eBay declared war on sniper programs because their auctions did not have End Time. They would only have countdown to the end of the auction. You cannot snipe accurately if you don't have precise time when the auction ends. Fortunately this was changed very quickly and a few weeks after that, End Time was back in eBay listings.

Recent growth and future

Since the end of 2012, I've been getting more people to try the software and some of those people offer suggestions and ask for new functionality. This is something that I like to see because it makes the software better for all users. I've been making a lot of changes recently and there are some more changes coming within the next month or so, a lot of it suggestions from people who use the software.

I'd like to thank everybody who offered their suggestions and supported Buyer Auction Manager over the last year. Without you, the software would not exist.

Robert