Our listing of the 23 hottest gifts for the holidays.

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This was part of a press release about the 23 hottest gifts for the holidays this year. Check out details on the items in the list by going to our public collection on iTaggit.

iTaggit, the leading online collection Web site that aims to change the way people collect, organize, and enjoy their personal items and collections, today announced a list of this holiday season’s twenty-three “must-have” gifts. Exactly one month until Black Friday, the biggest holiday shopping day of the year, consumers are already beginning to think about the holiday season. Americans plan to spend an average of $909 on Christmas gifts this season, according to a recent study issued by the Gallup Poll.

“We expect this holiday shopping season to be another busy one and we are preparing for it accordingly” said CEO David Altounian. “As a result of our continually evolving site consumers can use iTaggit to create their own holiday gift wishlists to share with family and friends, as well as catalog and organize what they’re giving others this season.”

The holiday shopping season can often prove stressful and chaotic, but iTaggit provides consumers a way to organize their holiday gift giving plans, as well as manage their own holiday wishlists. Recently released features, including an eBay upload tool and a public wishlist sharing function, make preparation for the 2007 holiday season simple and fast.

Based on the ten most popular categories on iTaggit’s site, iTaggit predicts that their user community will soon have the following products on either their own wishlists or plan to give these items as gifts for the 2007 holiday season:

  • Action Figures: Jakks Pacific’s WWE 6″ Figures and Transformers Optimus Prime
  • Books: Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (And So Can You!) and The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
  • Comics: Spawn #1 from Image Comics and DC Comics’ Batman #1
  • Dolls: Fisher-Price’s TMX Tickle Me Ernie and Disney’s/Play Along’s Singing Hannah Montana In Concert Doll
  • Electronics: Apple’s iPod 16gb Touch, Sony’s Bravia HDTV and Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DVD Player
  • Entertainment (Video & Music): Disney’s High School Musical, DVD set for Sopranos Season 6, Part 2, Transformers DVD and Bruce Springsteen’s “Magic” album
  • Fashion: Coach handbags
  • Sports Memorabilia: Tom Brady’s #12 New England Patriots jersey and MLB Colorado Rockies memorabilia
  • Toys: Fisher-Price’s Smart Cycle and Hasbro’s Nerf N-Strike Disc Shot
  • Video Games: Activision’s Guitar Hero III Bundle, Bungie Studios’ Halo 3 and Valve’s The Orange Box

The next economy

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The economic situation continues to change as our excessive consumption catches up with us. This isn’t a viewpoint from a radical anti-capitalist, it’s the view of a excessive consumer. As our money supply tightens people are going to begin to look at what they have collected and try to convert it to a more fungible commodity (ie, cash!). In order to do this, people are going to need to find tools that help them organize collections of the things that they own or are no longer using.

This surplus asset base is ripe for harvesting. As people are tightening up on cash they are looking for deals. Maybe a used DVD or piece of furniture is a better investment than forking out cold hard cash for new stuff. Maybe there’s a need for liquidity and that comic book collection could bring some needed dollars back into the account. Not only does that person need to manage collections of their things, but they also need to research their collections. One of the biggest barriers to selling on sites like eBay is the fear of being ripped off. iTaggit is trying to provide tools to help users manage, organize, and research the value of things that they have.

I’m interested in research about how much true value is sitting dormant in people’s homes. Think about your home. How much money do you have tied up into surplus assets?

New eBay Listing feature on iTaggit

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This week iTaggit unloaded a new tool to help users organize collections. The eBay listing tool allows users to post items from inside iTaggit directly into eBay. eBay registered users can post directly from iTaggit while non-registered users can create an account with eBay while working in iTaggit. Users will find this new feature very helpful as they manage collections.

Show Off Your Stuff Contest at iTaggit

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Show Your Stuff and Win!!!

Win an iTaggit t-shirt by uploading 10 or more of your favorite things into a new public collection for iTaggit to admire! For every collection of 10 or more items you are also in the running to win a $250 Amazon Gift Card!! Just be the owner of the collection that receives the most views by October 15th to win the grand prize. Good Luck!

To Win a iTaggit t-shirt

1. Create a new iTaggit public collection between September 15th and October 15th.
2. Upload 10 or more items in the collection and we’ll send you an iTaggit t-shirt of your choice.
3. SarahB will contact you once you have successfully uploaded your 10 items to receive your prize. Contact SarahB for any questions or concerns.
*Limit (1) t-shirt per registered user.

Win a $250 Amazon Gift Card

Between September 15th and October 15th, the owner of the public collection that receives the most number of views will receive a $250 Amazon Gift Card. Collections must have at least 10 items to qualify. The leaders will be announced daily on iTaggit’s homepage. The collection that has received the most number of views will be announced on October 15th.

Use iTaggit’s “Send This Collection To a Friend” tool to e-mail your collection to your friends and increase your collection views. To do this:

1. View your collection;
2. Click on the item actions menu AND choose “Send This Collection to a Friend”;
3. Enter as many email addresses as you would like and include a personal message to promote your collection!

Go to www.itaggit.com to join us!

Click here for more contest rules and regulations.

iTaggit Artist Profile: Val Walden

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This month iTaggit is profiling one of the iTaggit users – ‘Val’ who is Val Walden, a local Austin artist who works in Pastels and Watercolors. Val has posted some of her work at iTaggit. Her collection ‘Impressions Left Behind’ and samples of some work from her ‘Red Skies at Night’ collection are on iTaggit. Her work is exciting and incorporates strong, bold colors in stunning visual pieces.

Val is now a resident artist at ArtSpoken Gallery & Studio in Austin, Texas. She is a member of the Waterloo Watercolor Society, the Austin Pastel Society and the Austin Visual Arts Association. More on Val’s beautiful work can be seen at her website www.waldenart.com.

iTaggit is the leading website for managing and organizing your collections. Every month we highlight collectors and artists through our newsletters and online blogs. Check it out at www.itaggit.com.

Time Value of Execution

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Anybody that has taken business courses in school has heard the term ‘time value of money’. That means that money’s value changes over time based on what could be done with it. For example, $100 today has MUCH more value than $100 in 5 years. That’s because if you had $100 today you could invest it at 5% interest and it would be worth around $128. In reverse, if you waited to get the $100 for five years it would only be really worth $78 today. Why is this important? Well, if you are investing in things that would return less than the future value then you are wasting money. Again, for example, if you loaned that $100 to a friend and told him that you would charge him 15% flat interest to use it for 5 years you would have lost almost half of the value that you would have earned if you had invested it.

There is a corollary for business execution too. I call it the Time Value of Execution. If you wait to make a decision too long then you risk wasting time that can never be ‘re-earned’. For example, if I wait to hire the extra sales rep too long then there is an opportunity cost to not serving customers during the period that I haven’t hired someone. This TVE really extends to almost every business decision/action that you need to take.

One of the ways to manage this is to try to understand the ‘time sensitivity’ of the decision using similar terms that you would for Time Value of Money. 1 – What is the PRESENT VALUE in taking the action today (and risk), 2 – What is the FUTURE VALUE of waiting (ie. I need to deposit checks from the register. It’s after 3PM. The value of waiting until the morning is the same as the value of depositing tonight since they won’t post until the morning anyways but I could get XX more things done if I stay and work until end of day and then deposit in the AM). 3 – Every decision action or delay has an Opportunity Cost. Try to identify what that cost is and then make a decision based on the facts.

I painfully deal with this every day at iTaggit as we work to drive our business and we find that every hour is critical time. Just something that I’m learning….

An AMAZING film that will touch your heart

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Alright, I’m usually a little jaded. I’ve been a lot of places and after being a part-time firefighter and EMT for many years I’ve been hardened about many things.

Last night I saw a film, Lost in Woonsocket, that blew my mind. The film was done by John Chester and the guys from Random 1. They had a reality series on A&E for one season about helping people. I caught a few of them but didn’t quite ‘get it’ even though I enjoyed the show. They took one of the stories and created a brilliant documentary about the process and the experience. And they had an effect on me.

The trailer that was used to preview the show is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf_pMWdBgk0.

The trailer doesn’t even do the movie justice. It’s a movie that makes you laugh, cry, wince, but most importantly, have hope. It gives you hope that there are people out there that really do care. It also reinforces that a little bit of caring can go a long, long way.

A new Foundation has been created, Lost in America, to promote the film and to help with fundraising. Watch for this – and if you want to see it – demand that your local independent theater contact the Random 1 guys to show it. Then make your kids see it. It will change their lives.

Taking Action vs. Planning

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A constant debate that I get asked about is the importance of research (planning) vs. action (activity). Some situations (and some people) demand significant planning and research before taking any action. There are also some situations that require action before all of the data and planning that would be desired can be completed.

Here’s my rule of thumb – if time and/or competitive pressures are the critical factors then action is most important. Waiting to ‘think out’ a plan while the competition is taking your customers is not a smart thing to do. It would be much more useful to take some action – even if it’s preliminary.

If the decision requires a significant investment or has long-term impact (like hiring people) then planning before action is important. You wouldn’t want to rush into making personnel or dollar commitments without fully understanding the consequences.

So, what it comes down to is this – awareness and competitive response activities require timely actions – sometimes you just have to go for it. Activities that require large dollars, long-term commitments, and/or personnel moves require much more planning.

Understanding when action is the priority and you can have a nimble, aggressive business. Acting when planning is called for may result in lost dollars, poor execution, and a confused business.

Build a checklist for yourself that allows you to determine quickly which approach is correct.

iTaggit BETA II Released!

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We have released a new version of iTaggit which adds new features and addresses many of the Interface and Navigation changes that have been requested by users over the past few months. Some of these features include:

Full AJAX 1.0 support with new, larger images and icons
Improved navigation buttons
A new Asset Management section in item records
Contact information “cards” for tracking service and sales contact information by item
Delicious and Digg tagging
Ability to add HTML buttons and code to personal profiles
Improved HTML generators for profiles and items
‘Friendly URLs’ for items and collections
Global simple search

Come check out what we’ve done with the site – and we have even more to come in the near future! Any suggestions or comments would be welcome. Just send them to info@itaggit.com.