posted on August 3, 2001 09:49:22 AM
Several threads in the Outlook here about what buyers hate so I thought I'd post some tips for the auction sellers. This post is in response to the thread by buyers on auctions that they would not bid on...
1) Music - Best to leave it off, I've had buyers complain that the boss got pissed at him when my auction contained music... He was reprimanded about surfing during working hours... Even though others complimented my choice of Beatles songs.
2) Animated Gifs - Best to leave them off, not because of offending buyers, but often it will slow down the loading of pages significantly... Important for those still on 56-28.8 modems. I have a LOT of customers that are not able to get broadband service yet.
3)Large Fonts - I recommend it. While some say they don't like it, I say that I will continue to use them in my ads as it makes for much easier reading for those with poor vision or have a hard time with small print like me. Sorry to those who think my ads scream, it is not my intention, I just want as many people as possible to be able to read my ads easier. Color fonts? Yes, I use them to highlight points I wish to make. It doesn't slow down the loading so I say go for it.
4) Shipping/Handling/Insurance - A long subject that I will only briefly address. I insure 100% of my shipments. Most shipments I include Delivery Confirmation, especially expensive items. I always state my total S/H/I fee to US buyers AND to Int'l buyers. This way, I don't get any unnecessary emails about how much to ship. Sometimes I will have 150+ auctions concurrently going and can you imagine if I got 5 emails on each one every day? In fact, since I state my shipping cost both US and abroad, I rarely get ANY emails... Just good bids! The emails I get are when I accidently omit info or if the bidder just didn't read the entire email. I like it that way!
THIS IS ESPECIALLY HELPFUL FOR SNIPERS, WHO ARE BROWSING CATEGORY AUCTIONS THAT ARE ENDING IN A FEW MINUTES WITH NO TIME TO CONTACT A SELLER. BY INCLUDING ALL NECESSARY INFO, A SNIPER CAN CONFIDENTLY BID ON MY AUCTIONS AND KNOW THE TOTAL PRICE AND S/H CHARGES SO HE CAN FIGURE OUT HIS TOTAL COST WITH SHIPPING WILL BE.
Handling Fees - I do charge a small premium over actual cost to help pay for my listing fees, bubble mailers, envelopes, inkjet cartridges, postage online fees, boxes, bubble wrap, labels, wrapping tape, time waiting in line at the post office, Fedex Ground weekly pickup fee, gas to go to the PO, DSL internet fees, Final Value fees, web hosting fees, merchant acct fees, credit card fees, paypal/billpoint fees, amortization of capital expenditures for digital cameras, scanners, computers, software costs for auction management, html design, spreadsheet for shipping log, toll-free phone line, telephone bill, electricity in California, ebay storage space for inventory, etc. etc... While I work out of the house, all the above fees are a part of doing business and must eventually be paid for ultimately by the buyer.
How much is my handling fee? Generally I charge about the amount that it costs to ship the item via UPS minus the actual cost of shipping. It usually works out to be about $0.50-3 dollars. Basically if I make a sale to the East Coast, I will usually ship Priority Mail and will make about $0.50, if I sell to someone West of the Mississippi, I will usually ship via Media Mail and pocket the savings maybe $1.50-2.50. If I make a sale and the buyer pays by check, I don't hold for clearance, but I will ship via Media Mail (when possible) and then I will pocket the $1.50-2.50 in that event. From coast to coast, Media Mail takes about 2 weeks so that is why I avoid it if someone pays by PP/BP/CC or M.O. I think they should get the item more quickly. If they send a check, that tells me that they are not in a hurry. If someone tells me it's for a gift and time sensitive, I will not charge them extra unless I have to go to extraordinary efforts and expense to make it happen.
5) PowerSeller Logo - I am one, but I don't use it too often, unless I list an item that I'm not normally selling. I use it probably in about 1% of my auctions. There is some negative connotations associated being a PS. Simply a Stereotype.
6) Foreign Buyers - Sellers are really missing the boat if they don't include our foreign friends. About 10-15% of my sales go overseas but they account for about 20-25% of my dollar volume as they are usually willing to pay more, they buy the more rare and collectible items and premium collectibles and I would NEVER think to exclude them.
I do sell a few very heavy, low cost items, that I exclude to int'l buyers as the cost to ship might be double or triple the cost of the item. That said, if an int'l buyer emails me and really wants the item, I am happy to sell it to them if they will pay the full freight.
7) SPEED KILLS - Or lack thereof. If you get fancy, it will really slow down the loading of your auction page. I resize my pics to a max of 35k and use a resolution quality of 72dpi. That's all you need for most monitors. Many sellers with broadband cannot tell how long it would take to load a page... I use Frontpage 2000 (full version) and it tells you how long a page would take to load at various speeds. That's a great sobering bit of info... I see many auctions with 200k images that will take 50+ seconds to load at 28.8. Before I got DSL, even with my 56k modem, the fastest connection I could get at home was only about 31k bps. So you should create your ads so that the masses can view your ads in a reasonable amount of seconds.
Well I will stop here and call it part I. If there's interest and others wish me to continue, let me know...
