From the Desk of Mr. Robert Musser, CEO of Auction Inn.

As always we have many of new and exciting things going on at Auction Inn, and I’m very happy to update everyone on our progress and our visions for the very near future. As I am sure you saw in last month’s issue, we helped a couple of local companies raise money for the St. Baldrick’s foundation. We were able to use the eBay platform to enhance the great fundraising efforts by Segro’s Hairport and Emerald Asset Management in Lancaster to help in the fight against childhood cancer. I’m happy to report that we raised more than twice what we did last year with a total donation of over $8,000 and counting! We hope to double it again next year! We had 4 Auction Inn Employees volunteer to shave their heads for the event, and the number of supporters from the community was amazing!

Last month we introduced Auction Inn’s new partnership with Mission Central, a regional disaster relief effort of the United Methodist Church in central Pennsylvania. Mission Central focuses on providing local, national and international denominational and non-denominational ministries with materials for serving people in need. All materials are received through donations and are distributed free, with the work being completed by hundreds of volunteers. Mission Central is beginning a unique fundraising effort to pay for the hard costs of the effort, soliciting in kind donations from the congregation and transporting them to their regional warehouse in Mechanicsburg. We then pick up the items on a regular basis and have begun selling the first lot of donations. Check back soon to see more Mission Central items, or CLICK HERE to see current Mission Central Auctions!

Whenever a purchase is made on eBay, the big question always seems to be, “What’s the shipping?” More often than not, the cost of an item isn’t what concerns buyers, it is the fluctuating cost of shipping. Many times a sale is lost due to shipping costs being too high or not in line with the buyer’s ideal price. During the next week or so, eBay is attempting to combat this problem with the recent addition of some new combined shipping features. These features will give sellers more flexibility in managing their inventory, and allow them to pass on better savings in shipping to their buyers. eBay will be introducing three main features to the public in the upcoming weeks, and look for Auction Inn to take advantage of them!

This feature will serve as messages to buyers when they are looking at items, encouraging them to make multiple purchases, leading to repeat and increased sales. eBay has also made it much simpler for buyers to “window shop” and see which items a certain discount applies to.

We all know that not every item will cost the same to ship. Some items are larger or heavier or both. The new discount flexibility will provide a seller with more room to apply discounts to different items. You can set rules to discount your heavy items differently than your lighter or smaller items. This will hopefully take away the fear of purchasing large or heavy items online due to the increased shipping costs.

Lastly, eBay has implemented one more shipping feature, which may prove to be the most successful. It will enable sellers to promote their shipping discounts with special terms, and show buyers what items they apply to. Promotions such as “Spend $25 and get free shipping!”, or “Buy 4 items and shipping is $5!” will encourage people to feel more comfortable buying more items, knowing their shipping costs won’t set them over their limits.

On Wednesday March 7th the Auction Inn York and Lancaster team, including members of the Workable Job Training Program, went to QVC’s Studio Park in West Chester, PA for an interesting and informative day. The day began with a tour of QVC’s Customer Service Division. Housed in a separate building from the studios, this tour was a behind the scenes look at how QVC deals with customer inquiries through several different forms of communication. Highlights included observing live chats with buyers, viewing the automated e-mail response system, and listening in on customer calls. Savannah King, a trainee in the Workable Program, enjoyed the Customer Service portion of the tour because of the advanced technology that was used. “I was interested in the behind the scenes. I found out how they get everything done at QVC.”

The day progressed with lunch in the impressive QVC Studio Park Cafeteria. After a delicious meal, members of the AI Team ventured through the studios with an informative tour guide. After a brief history of QVC and a showing of the first QVC show, the tour took us on a walk above the studios on a catwalk, where a live show was being filmed. At the conclusion of the formal tour, the team was given a rare look backstage on the actual studio floor! A tour of the photography studio proved to be an informative comparison into Auction Inn’s own photography procedures. Later in the day, the Quality Assurance team led a detailed tour through both the package testing area and the product testing area. In the package testing area, the physics of packaging materials were thoroughly explored. Carl Bealer, a graduate of Auction Inn York’s Workable Program, particularly enjoyed this section of the tour as it applied to his daily tasks of packing and shipping items. “It really gave me insight into the process, because we are shipping very valuable items. I really enjoyed the whole tour.” He feels this experience will really improve his daily activities in shipping items out of the York facility.

To round out the day, the team was shown how items are tested before they are sold by QVC. Disassembling, testing of electronic devices, safety features and quality of craftsmanship are all explored before an item is ever sold on a QVC show. Everyone who went to QVC had an enjoyable and extremely informative day! “It opened my eyes to how a big business runs their operations so smoothly. It was the best tour I was ever on,” said Edgar Santiago, a Workable trainee from Lancaster. We are grateful to everyone at QVC for providing such a great experience for us.

Kristin Burkhart
- Training Manager, Lancaster & York

Savannah King started with us as an employee of The Connections Café, run by The Boys and Girls Club of Lancaster, about 4 years ago. She started the Workable Training program about 2 years ago, and is currently trying to complete her training with us. Savannah says her favorite part of the program is Customer Service because she loves helping people with their problems and working with them to find solutions. She is also currently attending HACC as a sophomore accounting student, and hopes to graduate in the next year or so. From there she would like to take the experience she has gained with the Workable Training Program, along with her college degree, and get a job at another small business doing payroll.

When Savannah is not at work or school, she enjoys roller skating and dancing. She has a 2 year old son who she loves to color with. She moved here 5 years ago from New York City, and now at the age of 20, says she likes the Training Program because she loves the type of business Auction Inn does. We are very happy to have Savannah as part of our team and wish her continued success in the future!

Have you ever wanted to learn more about buying and selling your own items on eBay? If so, we are offering you an opportunity to do just that. Auction Inn will be holding weekly training seminars on different aspects of the eBay Community. Each session will be approximately 2 hours long, and all will start with ‘the basics’ on buying and selling things on eBay. Each week the trainers will focus on a different specialized area of eBay, this way every session you attend will give you more knowledge to become a better online buyer or seller. The classes are completely free, and open to anyone that is able to attend. The sessions will begin Monday, April 16th, from 6pm-8pm, and run every Monday for the remainder of the year. For more information please contact Brandon Weese at bweese@auctioninn.com or call 888-TO-THE-INN.

During the month of March, Auction Inn Lancaster was able to sell more items than ever previously, and we couldn’t have done it without the help of our community members. Because of this, we would like to feature our top selling residential item of every month. This month’s item was consigned to us as part of a Palm Beach Estate liquidation, and was just recently sold to a buyer in West Virginia. This is an Antique white marble wooden table, with gold gilt surrounding the marble top. This beautiful table sold for $705.00, and we hope it’s a hit at the new home!

Spring Valley Woodworking, our featured commercial manufacturer, is a local company specializing in authentic wooden wheelbarrows and wagons patterned from designs in the late 1800s. They were started in 1998 by Isaac and Rebecca Lapp, and were originally known as Scenic Road Manufacturing, owned by Isaac’s uncle from 1988 to 1998. Shortly before Spring Valley was founded, its owner, Isaac was working in construction locally. “I realized I went to work every day and my family was at home, and I wasn’t there to help.” He knew he needed to make a change, and from there he acquired a piece of land from his family, along with an already budding business, and the rest is history. The company began its first year with approximately 3 employees (including Isaac and his wife) and $120,000 in sales and has now quickly grown to about 8 full-time and part-time employees and $249,000 in 2006 sales.

Isaac credits his company’s success to the people who helped him build it. "The employees get all the credit, “he said when discussing how quickly his business has grown in the past 9 years. He states they strive to produce unique and quality products for the gardening and flower enthusiasts, with items that have the feel of “The Good ‘Ole Days” Spring Valley was a company built on strong family values and the desire to produce outstanding products, and we are very glad to help them a achieve their goals. Please click HERE to view our complete product line of Spring Valley Woodworking.

Auction Inn Lancaster is very excited to be hosting a fundraiser for The Water Street Rescue Mission in late April. We are asking anyone in the area to donate items on Water Street Rescue Mission’s behalf, and any net profits of the sale will go right back to aiding the Mission’s cause. For over 100 years, Water Street Rescue Mission has been accepting estates and donations at their facility, and using these items to help citizens of Lancaster get back on their feet. Auction Inn has partnered with the Rescue Mission, and will now be taking in all their donated and estate items and working with them to generate profits through eBay. We encourage anyone that is in the area to stop by on either Friday, April 27th (4-6pm), or Saturday, April 28th (9am-1pm) and donate items to help a great cause! We will be stationed with 101.3 FM “The Rose” at 1262 Lititz Pike, Lancaster, in the Walgreen’s parking lot. Hope to see you there!

Update from Jeremy Meeks, Store Manager of Auction Inn York

You might notice a new addition to the Auction Inn newsletter - AUCTION INN YORK! We had our grand opening on March 2nd and 3rd and had a great response. Our "Selling York County" fundraiser brought in nearly $2,000.00 for local and national charities. We gathered lots of items from charitable York individuals and businesses including a handmade prayer quilt, 2 tickets to see Trace Adkins at the 2007 York Fair, 2 Hand made wreaths by Radio Personality Gary Sutton and many more items right out of York County.

In addition to raising money for charity, we've sold lots of merchandise for local York residents and businesses. Click here to take a look at AUCTIONINNYORK auctions to see industrial equipment, Boyd’s Bears, antiques, Longaberger baskets, a huge ORION telescope and lots of eclectic and interesting items from York county and the surrounding area.

If you're in York, please feel free to stop in, meet the team and bring in a few items for evaluation! We are located right across from the York Fairgrounds. GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY BIDDING!

Carol Shewell, a lister at Auction Inn York, started her training on September 11, 2006, and was welcomed as a permanent employee on October 31, 2006. Carol was referred to Auction Inn York as a participant in the Work-Able Training Problem from Bell Socialization. Before becoming part of our team, Carol had worked with Bell as a secretary in the Mental Retardation Department for 6 years. Currently Carol focuses on listing, researching, and categorizing items every day. She takes extra care in making sure each item is accurately and fully depicted in the auction, giving potential buyers the full experience as if the item was there in front of them. Carol spends about 25 hours a week with us, but when she is not at Auction Inn York, she really enjoys reading as much as possible. We truly appreciate the special attention Carol gives to her job and the difference her hard work makes for the overall team! Click here to view some of Carols' auctions online right now!

Since the grand opening of the York location, business has been booming. This month has seen many different and unique items from the community, a majority of which have sold very well. March’s top selling residential item was a Men’s Rolex 18k Gold and Diamond Watch. This was consigned by a local York community member, and was purchased by a buyer in Addison, TX for $3,150.00. This was an exquisite piece of jewelry, and we hope the new owner enjoys it as much as the consignor did!

This month Auction Inn York is introducing a new feature to our already full line of services available to the community! There has been a growing need in the York area for people who have oversized or large quantities of items to find an efficient and safe way to transport them to our facility. Up until now, we were unable to effectively handle these types of situations, but soon this will no longer be a problem. After acquiring a company van, the team is ready to take on the largest estates in York County! There is a lot of excitement over this new facet of the operation, and we are very eager to begin our mobile intake service. Anyone who has large items or large lots of items will be able to take advantage of this service, so please give a call and we will be happy to stop by!