posted on September 29, 2000 10:14:06 PM
I am so frustrated and just about at my wit's end here with this problem, neither AOL nor eBay have been helpful - I hope someone can shed some light on what might be the problem (and solution) here.
I started selling on eBay this past January - always with a steady stream of bids. I had good months and a couple of not-so-good months but I always had some bids. Suddenly, about 3 weeks ago all bidding has stopped on my items!! I am listing the same type of items I always have and with the same opening prices. I don't understand this! Tonight alone, 20 of my auctions ended - not one had a bid! I had no bids at all this past week. Last Friday there were a few but nothing before that except one in Japan.
Could this be a browser problem? I am able to see all my auctions but maybe others cannot? I have noticed that sometimes when I look at a page to see what someone else is selling-not all the pages loads, it stops halfway around the area where you place the bid. Maybe this is happening to all my auctions and no one can place bids? I use Netscape with a MAC. If anyone has any clues please let me know. An example of one of my items is 451208768. Thank you so much for any help or advice you might give me.
posted on September 29, 2000 10:19:08 PM
Im on AOL and I just looked...everything was fine from this end. Its just kinda slow right now maybe. Hang in there...it will pick up, as the holidays are coming up soon.
posted on September 29, 2000 10:20:48 PM
I checked on your item, made me hungry, great description etc, no picture, everything came up fast and complete for me.
Sorry I couldn't be more help.
posted on September 29, 2000 10:23:59 PM
Maybe someone who is selling similar cookbooks but with pictures has come on the scene? Sometimes items without pictures are a hard sell.
posted on September 29, 2000 10:24:27 PM
Hi Kyriaki,
I looked at three of your auctions. They all loaded just fine. I'm on a PC using Internet Explorer.
One thing, if there are supposed to be pictures of your items, I didn't see any.
posted on September 29, 2000 10:26:31 PM
I checked out several of your auctions & offer a few thoughts:
First, several of them don't state the shipping costs. That might be a turn off to some bidders.
You might want to reconsider some of your categories or titles. For example, you have the baby medical book in household:medical. Perhaps it would do better in a category more related directly to children.
From the title of your sea shell book, I can tell it's for a book, but perhaps others searching in that category might not recognize it as such.
You might want to be a bit more detailed about your items, publisher, publishing date, # of pages & perhaps consider a photo. People don't know if they are bidding on a paperback book w/10 pages or a hardback with 100 pages.
Your title for your Thai book is interesting, but people might look in more if you had NEW w/DJ in the title.
posted on September 29, 2000 10:28:37 PM
I couldn't tell you why the bidding stopped suddenly, but I can tell you that you definitely need a digital camera. A $250 camera will pay for itself in just a few months.
posted on September 29, 2000 11:40:41 PM
I agree that you need to include more info. How about sharing an interesting receipie out of the book with the viewer to show what a delicious offering it is that you have? If you don't sound excited, they won't get excited.
posted on September 30, 2000 12:15:05 AM
I agree with eventer. I don't want to turn this into a shipping thread, but as a bidder it's important to me to know if you are going to charge me $2.00 for book rate or $12.00 for "handling". A lot of bidders won't ask, they just won't bid. I recommend being more specific on your shipping charges.
Also, remember a picture is worth a thousand words. So if you don't have a camera, use a thousand words. How many pages, how old is the book, are there color pics, table of contents, measurements, and anything else you can possibly think of to describe the book will not only help interest, but may also add keywords you may not have thought of.
posted on September 30, 2000 12:28:35 AM
Hello All,
It's been such a short time since I posted my problem and there have been so many responses which I greatly appreciate!
I will take much of your advice to heart. I guess I was looking for a more technical reason for my lack of bids since not having pictures and not always stating shipping information was never a problem previously.
posted on September 30, 2000 01:05:18 AM
Hi there! I looked at the auction too and it loaded without a problem for me. I uses IE5.5
I have sold and bought a few fooks and knowing the shipping price in advance is very important to me.
When I have sold a cookbook, I have included scans of the cover and 4 or 5 pictures of completed recipes scanned from the book, as well as recipe names. Also, let the buyer know who the publisher is, the author, the number of pages, hardcover or softcover... All of those things will make your item more attractive.
Here is one my older closed auctions for a recipe book I sold this summer. Although the pictures have been removed already, it will still give you an idea of how I list. I went into a lot of detail on it and if I had to list a lot of books, I would definitely shorten it.
posted on September 30, 2000 04:11:14 AM
I agree with all the above suggestions. Pictures are important and definitely add the number of pages to the description.
Also, do you accept any other forms of payment besides personal checks? Especially PayPal or one of the electronic services. A lot of buyers (including myself) vastly prefer paying electronically - it's faster and easier.
posted on September 30, 2000 04:15:34 AM
kyriaki =
"New and Mint. Hardcover with dustjacket. Quick and Easy Thai Cuisine Lemon Grass Cookbook is a must have for the lover of Thai
food. Each recipe has several step-by-step color photos as well as a photo of all the ingredients used."
Here's the problem ....
I can't tell how much book I am getting for my money. This could be one of those tiny check-out-stand hardcovers (4x6 inches, maybe 64 pages), a wimpy 96-page 9x11 hardcover, or a huge 300-pager that I could barely lift with hundreds of recipes.
This is the essential information for selling a book:
TITLE:
AUTHOR:
PUBLISHER:
DATE OF PUBLICATION:
Illustrations: (yes, no, maps? Foldouts? colored? B&W?)
SIZE (dimensions and number of pages)
CONDITION: List ALL damage
CONTENTS: For a non-fiction book give number of projects, number of recipes, or some indication of the kind of information the buyer will get. If about a person, give the location and why the person had a book writen about them and when they were active (I have passed up a LOT of auctions because the seller did not give this info and because they never answered my emails abuot it).
Describe it as if you were describing it over the phone to me.
SHIPPING COST/WEIGHT: Most book buyers are aware of 'book rate' ... and you don't mention weight or shipping cost. I don't even know what will you charge me to get this book of unknown size and unknown number of recipes into my hands.
If you do not have a picture, post a recipe or short excerpt form the book. Do this even if you do have a picture
I sold a book that normally sells for $5 for almost double that ... I included a recipe, a commentary on the remaining recipes, and pointed out that it had a vegetarian holiday dinner menu. I 'sold" it. The others were merely listing it.
[ edited by abacaxi on Sep 30, 2000 04:19 AM ]
posted on September 30, 2000 08:28:28 AM
If you can't afford a digital camera, get a scanner as a temporary solution. You can get a decent Canon flatbed for as little as $39.
posted on September 30, 2000 11:24:46 AM
I have been getting a lot less bids since the middle of august too. I think for some of us there has been a slump. It seems to have effected different people at different times.
My bids have started to get better in the last week but they still are not up there where they belong. I don't think it is a technical problem. I can tell by the counters that less people are looking than in july and june.
I have faith it will pick up but I also think they are right about the scanner or camera. I won't bid unless I can see the item I'm bidding for.
I got a scanner the second month I was doing ebay and it paid for itself the next month.
The camera took two months to pay for itself but it did. You might consider it.
posted on October 1, 2000 10:27:03 PM
To everyone who took the time to answer and give me such good advice and auction tips - I thank you. This week one of my prioriies will be checking out those digital cameras. I guess I was just plain lucky that I was able to sell so many items without pictures!
Someday hopefully, I'll be able to help out a poster here on AuctionWatch!
posted on October 2, 2000 12:16:12 PM
There are two things I usually won't bid on..First thing is: auctions that simply dont HAVE a pic, or that say "email seller for picture". If the seller HAS a picture, they should post it. If you are a buyer, you WANT to SEE what your buying. The other thing is the ol' "email seller for shipping costs" (unless its an item that obviously *has* to have calculated shipping) or even worse no mention of shipping costs listed at all. I think that if you are a serious seller, you should have pictures, and list shipping in the auction whenever possible. Just my two cents..
