We may only be eight years into the new century but I think I have found my number one pick for the award of Moron of the 21st Century.

On a regular basis I like to browse eBay, especially for business opportunities - just to see if I can find any bargains and to see what’s being auctioned off. 

More often than I’d really like I find people who copy material from my websites and paste it into their eBay auctions - I guess to help them get higher winning bids for their items.

I can’t say I’m ever particularly happy about this and on some occasions I do let it lie but most of the time I will contact the seller and ask them to remove my copyrighted text from their auction listings.

The vast majority of people remove the material quickly and also send me a note apologising and insisting they will ask permission in future. 

Every so often, though, somebody will really take the piss.

Take this one moron for example, he’d copied an entire page from my site and pasted it into his auction listing with no credit given to me whatsoever.

I found his listing a couple of days ago and sent a polite note asking:

“Please remove any text you are using which has come from my site - bizoppsuk.com. Thanks, Ben“

It was a very fair request, I think any sane person would agree, considering that the work he had copied was my own intellectual property. And perhaps, if he had actually asked I may have allowed him to use some of the text. 

Let’s not forget that at the bottom of each page on my website it does specify that all the content is copyrighted and that you should seek permission if you wish to use it.

So, it was very shocking to receive a reply from this particular eBay seller several hours later which said (and I quote it exactly as it was written):

“What is the problem Ben? Your site and content is not copy protected, it is freely available in the public domain. Which inturn means I have full rights to use any part of the content on your biz opp site.”

Stunning.

I was so shocked by this reply, I had to walk away from the computer for a couple of hours so I could calm down.

What a @#%^)#!

Obviously this particular person is extremely misinformed, to the point where he could get himself in a great deal of legal trouble were he to steal content from the wrong person.

Where on earth he got the idea that all web content is in the public domain I have no idea.

Just so that everyone out there does not make the same mistake as this idiot, if you’re in ANY doubt about copyright laws, consult the UK government’s website:

“Copyright applies to any medium. This means that you must not reproduce copyright protected work in another medium without permission.”

From http://www.ipo.gov.uk/whatis/whatis-copy.htm

and also:

“Copyright applies to computing and the internet in the same way as material in other media. For example, any photographs you place on the internet will be protected in the same way as other artistic works; any original written work will be protected as a literary work, and so on.”

From http://www.ipo.gov.uk/copy/c-applies/c-compute.htm

Material presented on my website is the result of independent creative effort by myself and, in very selected cases, one or two other individuals who specifically gave me permission to use the material.

The work is most definitely copyrighted and it certainly isn’t in the public domain.

I’m watching this particular seller like a hawk now to make sure he isn’t stealing anything else from me.

Moral of the story: If you ever want to get me wound up, steal from me.

Rant over…

Judging from the emails I get, eBay is always a hot topic when it comes to biz opps.

So I thought that I should share the great deal that Dave Allen has put together for this weekend only.

Which means you’ve got to be quick!

You can check it out here:

http://www.WeekendSuperDeal.com/latestdeal.php

If you don’t already use eBay then I urge you to get registered and get selling on there - if only to sneakily direct traffic to your own site.

If you do use eBay then congratulations! Used correctly it can be a goldmine.

In either case, you can increase your sales and slash the time it takes to run an eBay business by having the correct tools at your disposal.

The tools and products available in this week’s super deal are highly recommended - not least the EZ Auction Ad program.

This particular software product allows you to make great looking eBay listings in a heartbeat.

Dave has also chucked in some custom made templates and a whole load more. You’ll need to see the page to appreciate how much you get for one low price:

http://www.WeekendSuperDeal.com/latestdeal.php

The deal is up there only until Sunday evening so don’t delay!

Have a great weekend,

Ben

I’ve just put a load of business opportunities on eBay starting at just 99p each.

There’s a huge 2 day seminar featuring 5 different financial trading masters. It’s is presented over 12 video tapes and includes 2 huge ring binders full of notes from the event.

Then there’s another Vince Stanzione seminar which includes everything filmed ‘live’ on one of Vince’s Financial Trading Days where the ticket prices are £2,000+.

The Streetwise Property Entrepreneurs Home Study course is also available. This course is huge - over 400 pages showing you exactly how to profit from property.

Also, there is an excellent investing course which I got from the US - it’s full of information on how to make your money grow and retire with a massive nest egg behind you.

Anyway, there are loads of biz opps bargains to have so please check it out:

http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZben_catt

All the auction start at just 99p so you could well get one of these excellent packages for less than one pound.

Best of luck!

http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZben_catt

Oh, and I nearly forgot, any questions, please let me know!

For a while I made a decent profit buying and selling business opportunities on eBay.

The process was pretty simple; I researched popular biz opps and then kept an eye on listings for those particular opps appearing on eBay. If they looked like they were going to go for a song, I would set up a sniping program to place a last minute bid.

In a lot of cases I could get a home study course which usually sold for £300+ for as little as £15!

All I would do then is list the item with a good description and title and place it on eBay with a Buy It Now (BIN) price of £100 or so - sometimes I could get at least half price on these second hand goods.

Usually it would take a few weeks to sell meaning I would have to relist it a couple of times but every package would sell eventually for a good profit.

The secret was to never drop the price.

Every time you relist the item, leave the price the same.

I guess that someone who is interested in your item will keep watching, hoping you will drop your price. After the third or fourth time seeing you list it for the same amount, they tend to lose patience and will bite.

If you weaken your stance and keep on lowering the price they will keep on watching until you lower it to a silly price.

It pays to be patient.

What happened with my little money maker is that one particular seller decided to muscle in on the territory. He bought one course and then copied it lots of times, selling the copies on for £30 or so.

He didn’t seem bothered that he was risking legal problems by selling illegal copies of the product… And, unfortunately, there’s very little you can do when somebody wants to undercut you with dodgy practises.

Although I don’t tend to sell much on eBay anymore, I do keep an eye on the courses that I used to sell. And recently, there have been a number of sellers all copying and selling DVDs of a trading seminar with a £2k+ ticket price.

They are whipping out these illegal copies for next to nothing, tempting fate and a very expensive court appearance!

It made me chuckle when I saw one particular bootlegger put the following in his “Return Policy” field on eBay:

“Due to a number of people ordering DVD’s (sic) from me, receiving them, and then immediately asking for a refund (I would suspect after copying them), I cannot continue to offer this return policy as part of the service.

I hope you understand.”

So, this fella is illegally copying someone else’s intellectual property and selling it for next to nothing.

Then, he is complaining that the people who he is selling to may well be conning him! Very sad…

You break the law and then whinge and whine when somebody asks for a refund on the dodgy goods

Moral of the story?

Well first of all, don’t sell copied material on eBay - you don’t know who is watching.

Think about this for a moment:

The copyright owner could easily have a friend buy the goods from you, pay by cheque (so they get your name and address) and then they have evidence that you are illegally copying and selling their work.

The primary evidence would be the bootlegged material that you sent to their friend!

Secondly, if you do sell copied stuff then you should expect to have lots of dodgy customers. It stands to reason. Dodgy people look for shortcuts, scams and ways to cheat people out of money. If you offer them a shortcut (cheap knock-offs) then you can’t be surprised when they shortcut you.

eBay is great for bargains, but it isn’t the place where you go to sell information products for a premium - that’s just plain common sense.

If you want to learn how to use eBay to make money (but certainly not in the way you imagined), check out Alex Jeffrey’s superb course at:

http://www.AuctionLoophole.com.

And, just one final word of advice, if you get the rights to some home study courses e.g. DVD courses from well-known UK marketers who I won’t mention here, don’t go selling them on eBay for £39.

Get a decent sales letter put together, put some work in and sell them for the high price they can achieve.

Remember, get your customers into your marketing funnel with a small product then up-sell them with a more expensive course.

This is the way it’s been done for years by the big, successful information publishers and you’ll make much more money than trying to shift volume on eBay.

http://www.AuctionLoophole.com

Well, I’ve now had 12 issues of Oliver’s monthly printed newsletter and I have had time to sit down and write a short review of it.

I will be honest and say that I haven’t renewed my subscription.

This is nothing to do the quality of information supplied - that is absolutely fine - it’s more to do with the direction my eBay trading is taking

As you may know, I signed up for Alex Jeffreys’ membership site some time ago after speaking to him at a seminar.

I like the way Alex goes about profiting from eBay and his product is a lifetime membership so there is no extra expense each year.

Still, this is about Mr Goehler so if you would like to know more about the newsletter, please take a look at the review I have put on the site:

Review of Oliver Goehler’s eBay Kommando Newsletter

If you’ve been a subscriber to the eBay Kommando newsletter, what did you think? Has it made you any money?

Let me know by leaving a comment below (click on “Comments” link) or by opening a new Support ticket at:

http://www.BizOppsUK.com/contact/