How do two free tickets (incl. airfare and hotel) to see the New York Yankees take on the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in September sound? They could be yours if you’re going to eBay Live in Boston and will stop by our booth (#423) to register for this grand prize. I am drooling and I am not even a baseball fan.

Make sure you speak to a ChannelAdvisor team member when you register and quiz them on the following:

• Automating your eBay business
• Planning and building a comprehensive multi-channel portfolio
• Using search and Comparison Shopping Engines to drive traffic to your own website
• Evaluating a Channel Management Solution

Need some rest from the eBay Live bustle or a refreshment? We have experts standing by to talk to you about your eCommerce strategy and give a one-on-one demo our ChannelAdvisor Complete solution — in a quiet and serene environment.

Don’t forget to check out Scot’s thoughts on what we may see as well as great suggestions on sessions you should not miss. And look me up at the event if you would like to brainstorm on eBay, Amazon or Overstock Shopping, checkout or fraud.

See you in Boston.

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There are many unsung eCommerce heroes so we’re always excited to see a ChannelAdvisor merchant get recognition for a lot of hard work, perseverance and determination. And there’s probably some part secret sauce thrown in here as well.

First, Lanny Morton from Sportscloseouts.com was featured in an update to Entrepreneur Magazine’s eBay Millionaires last month. Then he joined eBay CEO Meg Whitman in New York City to accept the prestigious Webby Award last week on behalf of the thousands of eBay sellers (here’s a CNN clip on the event).

I caught up with Lanny to get some tips on his success.

What’s the single biggest advice you would give a new online retailer?

Lanny: “Send me money. I am a good guy and I can use the cash. OK, seriously, Don’t quit. No matter what, don’t quit. The internet rocks, there is no other place in the history of man like this that gives us the opportunity to reach the worldwide audience without spending a ton of cash.”

What would you do different if you could do it all over again?

Lanny: “I wouldn’t do much different. Deena and I were flat broke when I started so I am grateful for everything that has happened and wouldn’t change much. Two huge mistakes stick out in my mind that cost us a lot of money. The first was not making sure we were being charged what we were supposed to be on outgoing packages. We found a mistake that cost us close to $100,000 over the course of a year. The second was spending $35,000-$40,000 with a SMB ERP vendor. That was a waste of money. That reminds me of a couple more: We paid these guys in Texas $15,000 to build a website and drive traffic. Knowing what I know now, it was a rip off and they were making money on Google Adsense along with the fee’s we paid them on our web page.”

Where do you see Sportscloseouts in five years?

Lanny: “Selling out to Google for $1.65 Billion because we think of a really good idea that revolutionizes e-commerce and Google can’t live without us. If that doesn’t happen, plan B would be to grow the business to $20 Million in sales. We have some really good ideas of how we can do it and we have an amazing group of people here (Deena, Chris and Ken and others) that are totally capable of creating great things. As internet devices become smaller, more mobile and more affordable, I believe that the number of people shopping on the web will continue to increase. I see people at a Dick’s Sporting Goods store looking at a product and using their internet-enabled phone to log into our site to buy it because it is a lot less expensive and because they like us a lot.”

—

FTW = For The Win.

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As announced on their blog, the Google Checkout team is hosting a Boston Tea Party-style protest fest during eBay Live with free food, free drinks, free music and better yet (after a long day) free massages.

Are you an online seller attending eBay Live! in Boston this week? If so, join us for a celebration of user choice at the Google Checkout Freedom Party on Thursday night (6/14). To get to the party, just hop on the classic Beantown trolley in front of the Boston Convention Center and follow the freedom trail to the Old South Meeting House. We’ll use the same spot where revolutionaries launched the Boston Tea Party to celebrate freedom with free food, free drinks, free live music — even free massages. Join us and bring a friend. RSVP here.

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I think I’ve finally dug out of my e-mail from Internet Retailer, in time to head up to eBay Live in Boston.

Seriously, though, it was great to talk to so many people at the Internet Retailer conference about the comparison shopping industry, especially if we were kicking back a few drinks at the time.

If you missed us out at the show, or just want a chance to learn a little more, just a reminder that there is a webinar today about our ShoppingAdvisor product that you can sign up for here at 2:00 PM Eastern time.

Part of the webinar will include a live question and answer, so it may become a version of Click & Clack’s “Stump the Chump” if I’m not careful.

Happy Tuesday.

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What will be the hottest consumer electronics gadget in years promises to create some great opportunities on eBay this holiday season. And it looks like eBay is batten down the hatches in preparation for the bidding fun by tightening rules for the iPhone.

Apple iPhone Pre-Sales are prohibited. This highly-anticipated device will be in high demand after the US release on June 29th, 2007. Prior to the release of similar high-demand electronics, we saw a high number of well-intentioned sellers unable to meet their pre-sale obligations to buyers due to restricted supply, as well as an increase in fraudulent listings for these items. To prevent similar problems with the iPhone, eBay is prohibiting all pre-sales of this device.

Criteria for Apple iPhone Post-Launch Sales. In order to continue to ensure protection for our Community after these items are made available by the manufacturer, the following requirements have been put in place for the sale of the iPhone:

o The listing must include a unique photograph of the item or items
o Your User ID must be clearly displayed within the photograph (watermarks will not be accepted).
o To ensure buyer protection, PayPal must be the only accepted form of payment

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