Regional Buying Patterns

This pertains to all of the items I sold on eBay last week when eBay had the free listing promotion. I made note of all of the states in which my winning bidders and the under bidders reside. I did this to see whether any patterns exist, such as regional buyers and rolling blackouts. Each line represents a single listing and the people who bid on that listing.

1. New York, South Carolina
2. Indiana, Illinois
3. Ohio
4. Minnesota
5. Florida, New York
6. New Jersey, California, West Virginia
7. New Jersey, West Virginia
8. New Jersey
9. West Virginia
10. Oklahoma
11. Oregon, South Carolina
12. North Carolina, Georgia
13. Oregon
14. Kansas, Louisiana
15. Pennsylvania, Ohio
16. Georgia
17. Alabama

I did not list all of the items, since in several cases, the same people bid on multiple items. It also matters whether these people read this blog, since I mentioned the listings in this blog.

The person from West Virginia definitely reads this blog, so that one is not part of any pattern. A couple of the other bidders are people known to me from transactions over the years, but I do not know whether they read this blog. These people are the ones from New Jersey and North Carolina.

With one exception, all cases where a certain state (West Virginia, New Jersey, Ohio) is listed multiple times refer to the same person. Georgia is listed twice, and Georgia represents two different people, so this may be a sign of a regional pattern.

Not counting anyone who does or might read this blog, this is what I notice.

South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama are adjacent states.

Kansas and Oklahoma are adjacent states, and Louisiana is very close.

Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York are connecting states. Minnesota is one state away from Illinois.

All of the states I mentioned are in the central, south, and midwest regions. California and Oregon are the only ones in the west. It is enough to make me wonder, especially when I look at a map of the United States. It does look like a pattern.
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People have observed that many of eBay's auctions that start at $0.99 end up with only one bidder or close very low. They have wondered whether eBay's promotion of free auctions at any starting price for up to 100 listings could have been a way to see if eBay would gain better results by letting sellers list their free auctions at above $0.99.

I participated, since I was able to start my items at what I wanted. I will not ever use the 100 free auctions so long as I must start the auctions at $0.99. If eBay should decide to let users pick any start price, I will list more items on eBay. Do you want me back as a regular but low volume seller, eBay? Now you know how.

The reason that I left eBay for Bonanzle is that the fees on the unsold items were killing me. I cannot afford to list hundreds of items with a very low sell-through rate. I used eBay during the free auction promotion since I was able to set my price and not take a loss on the items that did not sell.

I greatly dislike the direction that eBay has taken in recent years, but I only left eBay because of the fees on the unsold items. Are you listening, eBay?
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The auction format is the best way to sell items in a timely fashion. I had some books listed for close to 1 1/2 years and was able to clear them out by listing them in auctions. Nobody felt like buying the books when they were available at a fixed price. Once the items were placed in a timed format, buyers had to decide to bid or not to have the opportunity the purchase the books.

As both a buyer and a seller, I prefer the auction format. I was forced out of the auction format, since eBay's fees are too high for the lousy service that eBay provides. The auction format has been nearly destroyed by eBay's disastrous changes of recent years. When will they get a clue?

Linda Carlton's Perilous Summer

While reading this book I finally figured out in which state Linda lives. Perhaps it was mentioned in the first book, and I somehow missed it; but I don't think so. Linda and her Aunt Emily live in Spring City, Ohio. Each summer, they vacation at Green Falls, Michigan, which is on Lake Michigan.

It is rather helpful to know where Linda lives.

This book is like the typical mystery story in the spirit of Nancy Drew. Linda and her friend, Dot Crowley, fly in Linda's autogiro over Lake Michigan to Wisconsin. While there, they see a hit and run accident. A young girl is struck by a man in a car and is flung into a ditch. Linda and Dot take the girl to a hospital. Since the girl has no memory of whom she is, Linda and Dot take her back to Green Falls.

Like in the typical series book plot, the young girl is an heiress and an unscrupulous relative is attempting to steal her inheritance. Will he succeed, or will Linda manage to outsmart him?

Just like in Linda Carlton's Island Adventure, Linda has a suitor who doggedly pursues her. At first, Linda enjoys his attention, but later, she decides that he is not her type. Linda picks up potential suitors as easily as Connie Blair. Each book has a new one to add to the list.

The book has a ghost, a couple of plane crashes, and a burning building. It should come as no surprise that Linda and her friends are trapped inside the burning building. Can they possibly make it out alive?

Linda Carlton's Island Adventure

This book reads like a Beverly Gray mystery. If you love the Beverly Gray books like I do, then you will love this book. I have speculated about which series might have inspired Clair Blank to write the Beverly Gray series, and the Linda Carlton series has to be added to the list of possibilities.

In fact, since Clair Blank submitted her first four books to the A. L. Burt Company, then surely she was familiar with the books published by Burt. Therefore, it is extremely likely that Blank had read some books published by Burt, such as the Linda Carlton books.

In this book, Linda has become famous after her exploits from Linda Carlton's Ocean Flight. Linda finds that fame is a great annoyance and even goes by Ann Carlton during this book in hope of keeping people away from her.

Linda purchases an autogiro and takes a job in Georgia. Soon after Linda reaches Georgia, she is intercepted by bandits who take her captive. The bandits target Linda because of her fame. They knew that she was headed to Georgia because of the newspapers. Linda is held captive on an island in the middle of a desolate swamp. The bandits force Linda to use her autogiro to help them smuggle jewels out the country.

Linda has quite a few wild adventures in this book, such as swimming through the alligator-infested swamp, getting marooned on an island in the ocean, and more! Linda's adventures in this book are very much like Beverly Gray's outrageous adventures. I love it!

The book even has some melodrama, like a young man's mother snubbing Linda so she snubs her son in return. The son falls in love with Linda at first site, so he proceeds to show up in unexpected places as Linda continues to snub him.

I also should mention that people get killed in the Linda Carlton books. Not our beloved Linda—so far, at least—but other people meet terrible ends. Of course I seriously doubt that anything happens to Linda since she is the star of the Linda Carlton series.

Now, I'm going to find out if those reprints of volumes 4 and 5 were worth it.

Linda Carlton's Ocean Flight

It was a pleasure to begin reading this book, since I actually have a Burt edition with good quality paper. While I greatly enjoyed the first book, I disliked having to read a Saalfield edition that has poor quality paper which has an odor. Unfortunately, with the third book, I will return to a Saalfield edition with poor quality paper. Yuck.

In this book, Linda has decided that she wishes not only to become an airplane mechanic but to become a commercial pilot. Linda is subjected to jokes about her name, that she must have been named after Charles Lindbergh, aka "Lindy."

Both Linda and her best friend, Louise, sign up for a flight school in St. Louis. Before they depart Kitty Clavering organizes a flight club, and one of the members is Bess Hulbert, an aviatrix. Bess Hulbert takes an immediate disliking to both Linda and Louise.

The girls learn that a wealthy woman is offering a $25,000 reward for the first woman or women to fly from New York to Paris without a man. Both Linda and Bess decide to try for the prize. Bess decides to resort to an underhanded scheme in order to prevent Linda from being able to attempt the flight. Linda finds herself in a very messy situation as a result.

Books with jealous rivals are always fun, and this book definitely delivers. Without getting into the specifics, I can tell you that so far Edith Lavell has had the villains in this series get punished quite well. Ouch. I wonder what the next three volumes have in store?

I have enjoyed the first two volumes in this series tremendously. Onward to volume three!

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I have now added the Linda Carlton section to my website.

eBay's Survey on Ease of Use of Site

EBay sent my low-feedback ID a survey on how easy it is to use eBay. It was awesome. This question was asked:

During the past month, was there anything you experienced in each of the areas below that you felt was FRUSTRATING? If so, please use the space below to explain.

Without having to think, I was immediately able to give a complaint for every section! I saved the questions and my responses before submitting. Here they are for your reading pleasure.

Visiting My eBay to view my selling activity:

My answer: Yes, eBay makes it hard to find the link when I have to send a second invoice. The link should be visible on the order details page as well, and that link is not present when eBay has already sent an automatic end of auction notice to the buyer. I had a buyer make an invoice request after eBay sent the automatic one, and I had to look everywhere before finding the link.

Answered questions from buyers about an item I was selling or had sold:

My answer: When I answer a question, eBay continues to tell me that I have an unanswered question for up to 24 hours after the question has been answered. When that notice is clicked, eBay says that I have no items for sale. This problem has existed for many months and needs to be fixed.

Researching pricing or other aspects of an item on eBay (before listing it):

My answer: We can only see the last 15 days, which is totally useless since so few sellers of collectibles are still listing on eBay. I no longer have any idea what the true selling prices of collectibles are on eBay. The only way I can get this information is to pay a prohibitive price, which I cannot do when selling only a few items. Therefore, 99% of eBay's sellers of collectibles have no access to this information.

Listing an item using the “Sell Your Item” form on the eBay site:

My answer: I have no trouble listing a handling charge to be added to the postage amount so long as I am only selling to the United States. When I also select an international shipping option, I have a prompt where I can enter the *international handling charge* and no place to enter the United States handling fee. As a result, my U.S. postage is too low and my international postage is just right. Or, I can raise the weight of the package by a few pounds so that the U.S. postage is correct and the international postage is too high. Either way, one of the two options does not have the correct postage amount displaying in the listing.

Receiving payment from a buyer for your item that sold:

My answer: I had one buyer wait for 1 1/2 weeks to pay with no communication about the delay. Since sellers cannot leave anything other than positive feedback for buyers, buyers can do whatever they want.

Packaging & shipping an item to a buyer:

My answer: PayPal shipping is glitchy and has given me multiple error messages recently. This needs to be fixed.

During the past month, was there anything you experienced in each of the areas below that you felt was IMPROVED compared to before? If so, please use the space below to explain.
Please be as specific as possible (and skip any that are not applicable)

The choices for this section were identical to the ones listed above. I had to leave every option blank, which is no surprise. Nothing is easier to use than in the past.

I was also asked this question:

Please indicate how satisfied you are with each of the following aspects of selling an item on eBay, based on your experiences in the past month or so.

Editing and revising multiple listings at a time, in bulk

I selected "extremely dissatisfied."

Editing and revising a single listing at a time

I selected "fairly dissatisfied."

I was not exaggerating my opinions. I find eBay to be infinitely harder to use than Bonanzle. It is so easy to batch edit items on Bonanzle. I can change prices quickly through multiple methods. I can change postage costs, correct typos, and anything else that needs to be fixed without having to jump through hoops.

I will not be relisting my unsold items on eBay. I only listed those items to take advantage of the free listings. The unsold items are all returning to Bonanzle. So long, eBay, it was nice using you for about a week. By "using," I mean "take advantage of."

EDITED TO ADD: Go to my Facebook page to read a recent exchange between two of us about problems with eBay.

Linda Carlton, Air Pilot

Linda Carlton, Air Pilot is the first book in the Linda Carlton series. I am going to give a good bit of information to set up the series, and the information is from around the first half of the book.

Linda Carlton is nearly 18 years old and graduates from high school shortly after the story begins. Linda's father is a wanderer who, out of grief, took off after her mother's death, leaving Linda with her Aunt Emily. Linda only gets to see her father around once or twice per year. Perhaps to make up for his absence, Mr. Carlton lavishes presents on Linda.

Mr. Carlton gives Linda an airplane for her high school graduation present. Linda names the plane The Pursuit. Linda's greatest dream is to become a pilot like Amelia Earhart. Aunt Emily reluctantly agrees that Linda can have lessons, even though Aunt Emily is terrified of flying.

At the airfield, Linda hopes that Ted Mackay will be her instructor. She has already met him and likes him a lot. Unfortunately, Mr. Carlton knows Ted's father, who caused trouble at Mr. Carlton's ranch in Texas. Mr. Carlton forbids Linda from associating with Ted, much to Linda's disappointment.

Ralph Clavering is the son of a wealthy man and likes Linda, much to Aunt Emily's delight. Aunt Emily wants Linda to be a debutante and hopes that Linda will marry a wealthy young man. Linda likes Ralph no more than any of the other young men. Linda is not interested in getting married in the near future since she wants to become a pilot.

Ralph decides to take flying lessons with Linda, mainly so that he can be around her. After Ralph and Linda obtain their licenses, they fly Linda's airplane to Green Falls, where Aunt Emily and Linda's friends are vacationing. During the trip, a valuable necklace that Ralph is taking to his sister is stolen. Ted Mackay is blamed for the theft. Later, Linda and her friend, Louise, take a trip in Linda's plane in hopes of proving Ted's innocence.

The plot is kind of complicated and unusual, and I left out some of the details. For instance, Mr. Carlton does not know that Linda wants to become a pilot when he gives her the plane. He just randomly thinks that a plane is the perfect gift for his teenage daughter. Also, the method in which the necklace is stolen is quite unusual. I would like to mention some other odd events, but they are a bit too spoilerish. Suffice it to say that some of the events are rather strange for a juvenile series book, and during one scene, I was quite taken aback.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next book. So far, this series is proving to be very entertaining.

Billie Bradley Winning the Trophy

In Billie Bradley Winning the Trophy, Billie and her friends worry about whether they will be able to win the school trophy. The trouble is that Billie is barred from participating in athletic events since she has been blamed for one of Amanda Peabody's pranks. Billie refuses to rat out Amanda. Surely Billie and her friends have no hope of winning the trophy, but wait... the book is titled Billie Bradley Winning the Trophy. Oh, so Billie does win the trophy. How suspenseful!

A title like Billie Bradley Winning the Trophy gives away the ending of the book. Why couldn't they be more creative? How about Billie Bradley at Camp Red Wing? That is where the girls go, and the title does not spoil the ending. Oh, well.

It little matters since the book is interesting aside from the matter about the trophy, which is the one part that does not interest me, probably because the title spoils the ending. The school is freezing cold since the temporary janitor is lazy and uninterested in keeping the furnace lit. Billie confronts the man about the furnace, and he defiantly announces that he will get a huge fire going for Billie. The furnace explodes the next day, and school is canceled. The entire student body is relocated to Camp Red Wing where the girls resume their studies while waiting for the furnace to be fixed.

Edina Tooker, the girl from Oklahoma, is one of Billie's friends in this book, and she has been completely assimilated into the Three Towers Hall culture, so much so that she has completely lost her strong Oklahoma accent. How odd...

I read this final volume in the Billie Bradley series in approximately one day, which shows how much I enjoyed it. If only volume 7 had not bored me, I would have had this series finished late last year.

Many months passed in between reading volumes 1-7 and volumes 8-9, so I may not be remembering well, but I feel that the final two volumes have a different tone, at least with respect to the girls' relationships with the boys. In the early volumes, Billie and Teddy have a disgustingly sappy pseudo father-daughter relationship, rather than a normal boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.

In these last two books, Billie and Teddy do not interact that much, and more is mentioned of Paul Martinson's interest in Billie than in Teddy's interest in Billie. This is fine with me, since I never liked Teddy in the first place. He can go jump into Lake Molata as far as I am concerned.

For the most part, I enjoyed the Billie Bradley series. I perused my blog posts on this series to remind myself of my thoughts as I read the books. At several points, I was bored, and this usually happened during books that are not set at Three Towers Hall. In my opinion, the Billie Bradley books that are set at the school are written the best and are the most interesting.

I had forgotten that I began reading the Billie Bradley series in the spring of 2009. It took me an entire year to make it through all nine books. As a result, I have to rate the series as overall so-so but with some outstanding parts. The Billie Bradley series is worth reading, but it is not anywhere near the level of Betty Gordon and of my other favorite pre-Nancy Drew Stratemeyer series.

The Linda Carlton Series

The Linda Carlton series was written by Edith Lavell and is frustratingly difficult to find. The series consists of five books, all published by A. L. Burt.

1. Linda Carlton, Air Pilot
2. Linda Carlton's Ocean Flight
3. Linda Carlton's Island Adventure
4. Linda Carlton's Perilous Summer
5. Linda Carlton's Hollywood Flight

The first three titles were reprinted by Saalfield and are not that difficult to find in the Saalfield editions. Unfortunately, the Saalfield books have pulp paper that has deeply yellowed, and so are not very pleasant to read. It is very difficult to find the first three titles in the A. L. Burt editions with good quality paper. The final two volumes are nearly impossible to find in the A. L. Burt editions, and since the final two volumes were not reprinted by Saalfield, most people will never be able to read them.

What this amounts to is that most people will only be able to own the first three books and with poor quality paper. In fact, most people probably have no idea that the series consists of five books. The Saalfield reprints only mention the first three books.

Around five years ago, I was shocked to learn of these two "missing" Linda Carlton books. They are like phantom titles since very few people have ever seen them. A phantom title is one that is mentioned, usually at the end of the last book in a series as the next book, but was never printed because the series ended. In this case, these books actually were printed, but now nobody can find them.

Here is the one that I have:

Jim Towey reprinted volumes 4 and 5 earlier this year in a limited print run of 25 copies each. I was very disappointed in the lack of interest that resulted in only one print run. I had hoped that more people would be interested so that he would order a second printing. I feel that 25 copies is too few and that many people will soon regret not supporting this particular reprint effort.

I have greatly enjoyed Lavell's Girl Scouts and Mary Louise Gay series. Based on my high opinions of those two series, I strongly feel that the Linda Carlton series is a must-read. I cannot imagine reading the first three books and then not being able to finish the series. How awful!

I believe that the reason for the lack of interest in the reprint effort is because nobody *ahem* has yet reviewed the Linda Carlton series. If perhaps a detailed Linda Carlton page had already existed prior to the reprints, then I think there would have been more interest.

How can the Linda Carlton series not be excellent, seeing as how good Lavell's other two series are? This is one series that I have anticipated for several years and have patiently waited until I had all five titles before beginning to read any of them. Thanks to Jim Towey, I now have all five titles. I have partially read through volume one, and I am finding it to be as excellent as I expected.

If you missed out on the reprints and have decided that you wish you had been able to buy one of them, please leave a comment on this post.