Comments on: eBay Seller Tips: The Great Experiment

By: Charles

Charles — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:22:22 +0000

Good design does nothing for sales. Bad design can sometimes be better than good design. eBay buyers will teach you that lesson quickly if you sell a lot of stuff.

By: Easy On Me

Easy On Me — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:50:52 +0000

@Rita: Doh! Thank you!

By: Easy On Me

Easy On Me — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:49:45 +0000

@littleearthquakes (love that handle) I’ve seen lots of big sellers with AWFUL listings. I bet you’re wrong (though I personally am swayed by good esign). We’ll test it!

By: Rita Bendixen

Rita Bendixen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:42:23 +0000

+fb positive feedback?

By: littlearthquakes

littlearthquakes — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:12:22 +0000

Using a very well put together template employing your html and graphic design skills, to make your auction appear to be the best thing in the world is very important. Ebay sells borders but they are nothing different and all they show buyers is that you were willing to spend a few cents to put some ugly thing on your listing. Headings are very important, keeping everything organized. You really are looking to be different from everyone else who is offering the same thing. Buying online is such a visual experience that I think visual appeal and a good command of the language is of the utmost import. That and having great feedback. It would be interesting to see if paying the extra for featuring an ipod listing would get you a higher sale than having a regular listing.

By: Easy On Me

Easy On Me — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:50:11 +0000

@Media-Mover: Excellent feedback on not putting anything on it. And centered text…gag me! But what’s + fb? and why did you stop being a bigtime seller?

Cheers,

Tom Campbell

By: Easy On Me

Easy On Me — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:48:59 +0000

@Media-Mover. Interesting! I wonder why it works with books but not other things?

By: Media-Mover

Media-Mover — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:29:48 +0000

Oh yeah. I agree…good pics. Nothing spells death to an item like an IPOD as stock pics. The only thing stock pics work well for is books.

By: Media-Mover

Media-Mover — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:28:35 +0000

Do NOT put anything on it. Repeat ad naseum that it’s an APPLE IPOD SHUFFLE. There have been a lot of fakes for sale and you have to drum it into a buyer’s head.

Have lots of + fb. This may seem obvious, but it really makes a difference in the final bids. Perception of trustworthyness is essential.

Don’t center your text, don’t use more than 2 colors and use a small, legible font.

Do not scare people away with 9,000 lines of terms. The ONLY terms that should be in your description are what I call ‘selling terms’: those terms that will persuade someone to buy.

If possible, pic, description, terms: all on the same eye level. People don’t like to scroll, the eye gets tired quickly having to scan a wide table. (I no longer follow this advice, but I’m now just a casual seller of something no one else has, so I don’t care).

At one time I was the top seller (by a very comfy margin) in 8 Health and Beauty categories.

By: Charles

Charles — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:29:20 +0000

You need to test only ONE thing across all 6 iPods, and you need to make sure everything else is equal.

So I would just change the TITLE of the auction in each one – and list all 6 at exactly the same time, with exactly the same starting price and description.

If you change more than one thing you’ll never be able to tell what it was that worked.