posted on December 16, 2000 05:56:24 AM
...hurting your sales.
One seller for example, who is selling the same item as I am.
He has an opening bid of 500.00. OK, but he has a painfully short, three sentence description, which is 12 words total. 12 words. And almost half of those words are "this" "the" "is" "in". So, he says virtually nothing about the item. But, he only has one cruddy and blurry photo to show it, and that has a horrible and distracting background. You can't even hardly see the thing, let alone get an idea of the condition.
Plus, no TOS at all, no payment or shipping info in the description and need I say it? No bids.
This is the second time he's tried to sell it with no changes at all, except to lower the price a bit.
I'm not trying to be cruel toward the seller, just trying to make a point.
[ edited by loosecannon on Dec 16, 2000 06:44 AM ]
posted on December 16, 2000 10:30:40 AM
It may tear you up to see what are obvious shortcoming to you but resist the temptation to help the person if your living depends on your sales. You owe your creditors and family more than this stranger who is competing with you.
posted on December 16, 2000 10:44:55 AM
No, I haven't offered to help him, nor would I.
The sad thing is that what he is trying to sell is possibly worth the 500.00 (depending on a lot of things), or close to it anyway.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that just because there may be others selling the same item as yours, it doesn't mean that they are going to get your potential customer's bids if you can present yours in a better way.
[ edited by loosecannon on Dec 16, 2000 10:56 AM ]
posted on December 16, 2000 02:00:31 PM
I don't bid on auctions that have non-formatted text. If the seller can't take the time to make a "pretty" auction, they probably won't take the time to pack right or take the time to provide customer service.
posted on December 16, 2000 02:13:44 PM
I found an item I really wanted and emailed the seller asking for more information. They had no bids, a one sentence generic description and a horrible fuzzy picture. The seller emailed back with the reserve price but no info.
The item did not sell and I had bid but could not go the reserve without a clearer picture. I told the seller all of this.
It was relisted immediately, same picture, no reserve, same description. Still no bids.
posted on December 16, 2000 02:20:59 PM
I see this every day when browsing the listings. Sellers with red stars that haven't learned how to take a decent pic, or don't write more than one sentence descriptions.
Gotta luv em, they make MY items look so much more appealing.
posted on December 16, 2000 02:34:42 PM
Hmmm Seems to me when you post what you think your competitors short falls are in a public board you help him and all others like him big time.
I do have to disagree here to a point when I surf listings More often then not I find the plain white label auctions with the uncluttered Listing few well placed words asking for interested partys to email the seller for more info many times get far more bids and higher prices for there goods.
ALso a guy listing and selling 100 Items a week takeing 5 mins per listing will have more time for the packaging of items then the guy spend an hour per fancy formated listing this guy uses 100 hours perweek pctures and listing 20 mins packing.
In any Job or Business Useing the K.I.S.S Rule is best.
A good Writer can Write two or three sentences and make you feel Emotions you never knew you had a bad writer can right a 120000 page book and make you feel nothing but like nodding off.
Your competition isn't Really hurting you if your Items are Noticed Items are noticed three ways Title, search and a single picture is worth a thousand words.
posted on December 16, 2000 02:54:12 PMHmmm Seems to me when you post what you think your competitors short falls are in a public board you help him and all others like him big time.
Well, that would be only if they read this board and then do something about it, now wouldn't it?
posted on December 16, 2000 03:03:10 PMI don't bid on auctions that have non-formatted text. If the seller can't take the time to make a "pretty" auction, they probably won't take the time to pack right or take the time to provide customer service.
Oh, now that makes sense. Say a seller has excellent feedback for customer service, great packing, etc. You wouldn't bid just because it isn't formatted...OK.
posted on December 16, 2000 03:48:46 PM
I do not quite agree that a "non-formatted" auction will lead to poor packing....Nor can I agree that a "fancy" listing will also lead to bad packing...dman It takes no time at all to type a template on NotePad, and only 1 second to copy it and another second to paste it on the Ebay page.
