I intend to sell it on eBay, so I asked that veritable fount of knowledge on glassware and curios, Lynne Clark aka Josordoni on eBay.

We came up with a working theory. It's likely contemporary with the young princesses featured on the jelly mould. We think that dates it during the second half of the 1930s. It's unlikely that such a frivolous item would have been produced in the austerity of war. Lynne came up with an occasion when such a thing might have been used: King George VI's coronation on 12th May 1937.

It's not hard to imagine street parties in 1937 replete with such jellies. Educated guesses, for sure, but still speculation. Does anyone have any better ideas? Calling all Royal Memorabilia and Kitchenalia specialists!

The pictures in this post will give you an idea. I'll do better ones when I list it on eBay. By the way, I'm not listing it on eBay til September. The August bank holiday weekend is the nadir of eBay's year trafficwise. I want eyeballs!

Click on the image above to embiggen

Take a look for yourself. This is what Anders Behring Breivik bought on eBay, apparently.

The Telegraph is reporting that Norwegian terrorist and confessed murderer Anders Breivik bought some of his equipment and supplies on eBay.

They say he used the now suspended eBay ID andrewbrei. At least one seller will now be regretting that he called Breivik as "a nice fellow to deal with."

A quick look at this buying record does suggest that Anders Breivik was planning his attacks, months and months in advance.

What was he buying? See for yourself on the left. Some sulpher, plastic tubing, protective clothing, something that looks like a telescopic sight.

 The Telegraph says: "MI5 is thought to monitor eBay and other internet sites for individuals buying chemicals which can be used for terrorism."

I have no doubt. The Police certainly look at eBay for stolen goods. HMRC definitely keep an eye on the site. I would be very surprised if the security services don't do the same. eBay is very open.

My advice to anyone who wants to use eBay for any nefarious purpose? Think a bit. If you want to go under the radar, go to small offline retailers and use cash. And don't use your real name.

For a full screengrab of what Anders Breivik bought, with seller's IDs, that's here.

Anders Breivik's eBay feedback page uncropped, that's here.

One thing I find immensely frustrating about being an author is the almost complete lack of numbers that are available to the curious writer. I'm a bit of a metrics bore but I only get a sales update twice a year from my publishers. On a piece of paper. How unlike the digital world I inhabit!

So what's in the book? It's everything that's in paper edition of Make Serious Money on eBay UK:

• Get started as an eBay buyer. Don't get ripped off. Grab some bargains.
• Start selling. Learn the ropes of selling on eBay. Feedback and crafting a perfect listing explained.
• Ramp up your sales. Start an eBay business. Open an eBay Shop.
• Branch out from eBay, and sell on Amazon and other marketplaces.
• Build and market your own ecommerce website.

One thing, I think, that marks my book out from the many eBay handbooks out there is the no-nonsense approach. I don't hold much with hyperbole and I do recognise that building an eBay business is quite tricky and takes a lot of hard work. There are plenty of asides, case studies and few funnies. Natch.

I haven't spoken to anyone who has read my book on a Kindle, and I haven't seen it myself either. I imagine these things are much of a muchness. But if you have any feedback or suggestions on how Make Serious Money on eBay UK looks on a Kindle, drop me a line.

Needless to say, the book and the download are available on Amazon. :O)

Those tweets made for amusing reading in some ways. Everyone loves knocking a corporate giant. Changing the logo to show flies buzzing around a turd was amusingly diverting for a moment. Anyone with half a brain knows that such a stunt did not compromise security at PayPal. No PayPal user's credit/debit card details were ever at risk. This was a Twitter hack.

But I must spare a thought for the community manager, the social media bod, whoever was in the chair tonight. That person is the gatekeeper on that Twitter account. They had a shit evening. They may well have had senior staff bellowing at them down the phone as they tried to make good on the problem. Trust me. I’ve been there.

I want to show solidarity with whoever that was. Won’t anyone think of the social media manager?

That’s entirely normal, I think. Blogger passion ebbs and flows. Other projects loom and the desire to speak up can also wane. I have a dull sense of having been a “bad blogger” in second half of 2010. I enjoyed a flurry around the General Election (thanks for all the comments) but unlike previous years I didn’t have a big “hit” in 2010 that enjoyed a massive surge of traffic. Moreover, my most popular 2010 bloggage (I’ve checked Google Analytics), comes from previous years. There’s good ambient traffic, but no great new stuff. It’s the long tail.

So, to make myself a hostage to fortune, I’ve decided to publish my personal blogging aspirations for this year. I don’t really expect any support or approval, but do promise to report back in January next year. I have always been pleased to have a small cadre of loyal and conversational readers. You will doubtless hold me to it.

Here’s what I’ll continue to blog about in not particular order:

eBay and Ecommerce: I'm freelancing for eBay again. The latest 2011 edition of my book Make Serious Money on eBay UK is out there. The book is also on Kindle for the first time too. There will be more of the same.

Politics: 2011 is a noteworthy year for me personally. I shall be standing as a Labour candidate for Regency ward in the May city council elections in Brighton and Hove. I must confess to having never done anything quite so scary in all my life.

I imagine I’ll blog a lot more politics. And I’m sorry to those of you that dislike that. I try (and don’t always succeed) to blog politically in a particular style. I don’t want to rant. I also think that a few funnies don’t go amiss. I detest boringly partisan stuff, but my views will have a Labour bent. That’s my part of the compass, after all. I certainly don’t seek to make personally derogatory comments. I always want to be accurate. I also enjoy being whimsical, playful and potentially mischievous.

As a general view, if I’m going to express a view, I do also like to offer positive ideas too. As one Green party activist told me after the General Election in 2010: “you’re too balanced to be interesting.” I’ll take that criticism happily.

More Brighton: I enjoy scribbling droll vignettes (expect more of my Brighton Scenes) and I love reflecting on little snippets of Brighton’s history and culture. Cue more Brightoniana.

Net stuff: Yeah, I need to do more of this. I don’t feel like an expert on a lot of this and feel drawn to explanation rather than trend spotting. I also do feel a fairly earnest draw towards being contrary.

Short stories: Here’s a new idea. I have been writing a few short stories lately and want to write a proper collection in 2011. Should I publish them here? They will surely have no commercial value.

Target?
So, a target. Total blogs? Is a pure number a valuable target? I think probably not, but it’s a good thing for a bit of discipline and regularity. So, and I have never managed this before. I’m gonna say I’ll blog 211 times in 2011 for sake of symmetry. By the end of the year, I hope you’ll be begging me to shut up.

It proves something we've know for a while, that eBay is a better way of liquidating your belongings than Cash Converters or the like. The results are stark.

My first start-up was eBay.co.uk way back in 1999. eBay was already a public company and also profitable. International expansion was eBay’s focus with Germany and Britain first. I was an LSE student on an hourly wage.

The mission from the mothership in San Jose was clear. Make it happen now and account for every penny. In that age of dot.com largesse, eBay was stingy. No Boo.com extravagance for us. Our crap office was embarrassingly ill-equipped. They were ever so tight. Quite right too. We had to have all the hunger of a real start-up.

But we had something most start-ups don’t have: transplanted US executives bringing a “playbook”. Mythical and unwritten, they cited it daily. The yanks (all male MBAs replete with khaki slacks and blue Gap shirts) couldn’t see past it. Like aliens, they left as mysteriously as they arrived every now and again. They sought online banner deals with AOL, Yahoo and the like and they were dogged. They wanted to replicate the US success by repeating the same moves. The UK was just another planet.

We Europeans wanted a bit more though. We demanded changes to the platform for our local markets which were rarely forthcoming. Website changes were slow and reluctant. For the most part, I was on the blower, or out and about each day like others, building eBay one Del-boy at a time. I must have met or spoken to 100 stamp and coin dealers that first month with eBay. Plenty of people thought buying and selling on the internet was a crazy idea back then. We feared QXL. Yes, really.

But everyone shared a tremendous sense of urgency. To this day, I have never worked with a team that was so focussed on getting something worthwhile and amazing done every day. Get a result. Now is best. That was the idea. Report some progress. And every day in that summer of 1999 at eBay did end with a gaggle, where everyone was expected to report a result. Critically, it wasn’t an exercise in bullshit or evasion. The camaraderie and enthusiasm was such that you really did want to tell everyone about something brilliant you’d done.

It’s perhaps a blindingly obvious thing to say, but I’ve subsequently found it overlooked in other start-ups. As you look at the horizon, amid the chaos to build something brilliant tomorrow and build a 6-month strategy, can you honestly say you’ve had a good day today?

Here’s an idea. Why not just flog that little something on eBay? Transform that present into cash and everyone’s happy. Your kind friend or relative need ever be any the wiser.

I’m serious. If you have something that other people want, the chances are that you can get something close to a retail price for it if it’s in tip-top condition and you make a good job of listing it. In January, everyone needs a few extra quid, so it’s worth a go.

How do you make it work?

Brand new and boxed: Make sure that your gift is in pristine nick. Unopened, in box, with the packaging. That way, you can sell it as new and eBay buyers love the new stuff. If you’ve meddled and opened it up, you’re stuffed.

Create a sexy listing: Sell the swag with great pictures and a brilliant descriptions. Give your buyers all the information they need to snaffle it. Don’t be shy: if it’s good stuff, tell everyone on eBay how good it is. There are no prizes for shyness.

Get the postage right: How much is it going to send the item to a buyer? Get tooled up with facts and then make sure you’re not overcharging. For bigger items, consider a courier. They’ll collect and you can end even send big and heavy thing for as little as a fiver. Use the the Parcel Checker to ocmpare prices.

Do it auction: Take a risk and start your swag off for 99p in an eBay auction. Everyone loves auctions because people get carried away. Awaken the competitive spirit and start it off low. Don’t worry. Bidding only gets going in the closing minutes in an eBay auction, so hold your nerve til the last minute. Chances are you’ll cash in.

photo credit: R Stanek

The Online Business Forum (OBF) is based on professional network LinkedIN.com. The choice to base it off-eBay is deliberate. It’s a neutral site where all ecommerce can be the topic. We’re already talking Amazon, social media, SEO, accounting, best practice as well as eBay trading. I’m determined that we don’t get bogged in the usual grind of negative feedback and an individual dodgy buyer. Moaning gets tedious. Anti-eBay whingers rehearsing their same old riffs aren’t welcome.*

My aim as editor is a really simple one: let’s create a useful online space where clever and ambitious eBay and ecommerce pioneers can discuss the new trends and share ideas. I’m unequivocal. Let’s make sure our horizons are broad. Eyes wide open and all good ideas (big and small) are welcome. I don’t want a microscopic concentration on boring problems but rather aspirational perspectives on what is the most exciting frontier of retail: ecommerce.

How do you profit from Amazon? Why not set up an independent ecommerce shop? What can Google offer you? Why shouldn’t you double turnover in 2011? What are your great eBay tips? That sounds to me like the sort of stuff serious businesspeople want to talk about.

Does that sound like you? Everyone who wants to turn a shilling by selling online will find the OBF useful. Come and join us. It’s all going on.

*That’s all important, of course, but you can chat and rant about that all over the web. I want the OBF to have a much more optimistic and ambitious focus. If you have an old eBay grudge you want to bloviate about endlessly, go elsewhere. We’re interested in ideas.

As these figures show, there is little doubt that the coalition’s policy to increase VAT is going to hurt small business trading online. More than that, I suspect that the impact will be greater than this survey shows. VAT registered businesses (who were the ones surveyed) can claim VAT back but many small businesses (who might not be turning £70k), who aren’t VAT registered don’t have that opportunity. In my anecdotal experience, most smaller online sellers will be absorbing the whole 2.5% increase. And don’t forget too that they’ll be paying it to when they buy goods and services as well. A double whammy.

The result is going to be a hit on profits for small businesses that are already lean and operating on small margins. eBay sellers know that online buyers are price conscious bargain hunters so they will be reluctant to raise prices. They are also, often, already offering Free P&P to entice buyers in. These small firms, which are the lifeblood of eBay and vital to our recovering economy, will also be hurt if consumer demand also falters over the course of the year.

What can eBay sellers do?

Talk to your accountant: Make sure that your business is as tax efficient as possible and taking advantage of all the various schemes available. It might be time to reconsider registering for VAT or using one of the flat rate schemes.

Monitor the impact closely: The government has indicated that this change will be permanent, so there is no reason to rush into anything this week. Keep an eye on sales and conversion and see what the effects are. It might be hard to discern, but eye the numbers like a hawk. Experiment a bit too. You may be able to edge prices up a little, so test the waters. Audit your listings: it’s a good opportunity to make sure that they are as good as possible.

Examine your competitors: You know who you’re competing with, so keep an eye on them too and see what they’re doing.  If you’re nimble you may well be able to outwit them and find a competitive advantage.

Change tack, if needs be: Just because you’ve decided to decided to absorb the VAT increase now, doesn’t mean that you can’t change your mind later. Keep your options open and prepare to make changes if your business is suffering.

For more chat and eBay expertise, join the Online Business Forum on LinkedIN.