Buying and Selling on eBay: Tips, Tricks, Problems & Questions - Page 34

Quote:

Originally Posted by FaceOfBoh 

Has anyone tried goofy key word/title descriptions?
I'm not talking COOL or LUXURY, more like SPERM. Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

I figure that the market for this shirt is a club goer - I can just seem some drunken idiot telling everyone about it.
Or is using this word going to flag with the eBay admins?

I personally wouldn't use goofy keyword or title descriptions to sell my own stuff, though I have searched for things using random words just to see what shows up....  If that's a tie, I saw one at GW the other day that had a real sperm print - not just a passing resemblance - and I passed on it due to condition issues (else might have picked it up as a lark / novelty).  The image above is "micro paisley" in my book...

gonna go out on a limb here and say the word semen will never be in the title or description of one of my ebay auctions

STUDY: Listing items every night VS. Listing on Thursday nights with 10 day duration ending on Sunday.

Ok, this is for whoever is interested.

Disclaimer:

This study is somewhat inaccurate due to the fact I have been very busy with an upcoming friend's wedding and have had much less time to run my store. I also had to temporarily switch from 1 day to 3 day handling, which seems to have had a mojor impact on my traffic patterns, possibly due to premium exposure offered for certain power seller criteria. But anyway this is my data for the last few weeks.

About 3 weeks ago I switched over to ending all (at least 95%) of my listings on Sunday nights with most of them beginning on Thursday with a 10 day duration.

Numbers based on the average sales of the last 3 weeks and the average sales of the 3 weeks prior:

I have seen a 25.2% increase in my average final selling price. (truly was 38%, but I threw out two recent sales of high dollar items I do not normally sell to make this more accurate)

Due to my hectic schedule I actually a 38.6% decrease in the number of sold items.  (I only listed about 55% of the volume I usually list.)

I will report back with my findings after the wedding, once I have a more reliable test study based on weeks of equal listing volume and using my normal 1 day handling.

But according to these numbers, It is probably safe to assume the numbers will only get better.

Note: I still have been shipping with 1 day handling, but am just giving myself a cushion due to the constant out of town travel.

Mondays have become insane with shipping activity, so you will definitely need to have that night free to do it this way.

Oh yeah....Thanks Spoo for the suggestion!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GMMcL 


GarageSale sounds great. Until you read that it's only available on MacOS. And my ambivalence to Apple has turned only to detest since the recent request to enjoin "infringing" phones. (Yes, Spoo, I did.)
So until they open it up to Windows (and yes, I realize MSFT is just as evil), I can't use it.
Spooster (or anyone else, I guess): Thoughts and feedback on some of my formats? Nothing fancy, but I have created a template for the various categories I sell and generally cut and paste. I do a mix of BINOBO and 10 day auctions starting Thursdays (or other days, if I want to throw a loss leader out there to drive some traffic). Here's one of my current listings:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200816444964?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I think they look pretty good. Pretty good photos too. Only thing I would change is putting an actual exterior photo of the Sal Ferragamo shoes as the gallery photo....although perhaps in this case the logo shot will bring in more traffic than the tassels will.

Quote:

Originally Posted by capnwes 

Quote:

Originally Posted by GMMcL 

GarageSale sounds great. Until you read that it's only available on MacOS. And my ambivalence to Apple has turned only to detest since the recent request to enjoin "infringing" phones. (Yes, Spoo, I did.)
So until they open it up to Windows (and yes, I realize MSFT is just as evil), I can't use it.
Spooster (or anyone else, I guess): Thoughts and feedback on some of my formats? Nothing fancy, but I have created a template for the various categories I sell and generally cut and paste. I do a mix of BINOBO and 10 day auctions starting Thursdays (or other days, if I want to throw a loss leader out there to drive some traffic). Here's one of my current listings:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200816444964?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I think they look pretty good. Pretty good photos too. Only thing I would change is putting an actual exterior photo of the Sal Ferragamo shoes as the gallery photo....although perhaps in this case the logo shot will bring in more traffic than the tassels will.

+1 on the Ferragamo logo (I know what there logo looks like, I want to see th shoes). Same goes for the Zegna shoes in the box...you're selling me a $200 box.... I always like to see the actual item. When you get the ebay saved search results in the morning, I get 50-60 of them a day, and just skim the photos so would prob skip over a photo of a box.

Not to be tooo picky, but this is just a pet peeve of mine and bothers me when seller do it. You know you have very nice expensive high quality leather shoes. Why would you wrest the foot of one (dirty, rough, etc) on to the nice smooth soft finish of the other???? This is the same thing as when you see suits laid out on the sidewalk or grass outside. I'm like WTF is the seller thinking, why would I want to buy a suit that he puts on the dirty ground outside. You Can get the same photo to shoot the inside potion of the shoes with a number of different little "props" like a match box, folded piece of paper, shoe box top, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brianpore 

Not to be tooo picky, but this is just a pet peeve of mine and bothers me when seller do it. You know you have very nice expensive high quality leather shoes. Why would you wrest the foot of one (dirty, rough, etc) on to the nice smooth soft finish of the other???? This is the same thing as when you see suits laid out on the sidewalk or grass outside. I'm like WTF is the seller thinking, why would I want to buy a suit that he puts on the dirty ground outside. You Can get the same photo to shoot the inside potion of the shoes with a number of different little "props" like a match box, folded piece of paper, shoe box top, etc.

 

 

Agreed, on the shoe on top of another shoe...I mean..I just spent at least half an hour polishing those muthers. I have been experimenting with a shot like this, showing both insteps at the same time. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by capnwes 

STUDY: Listing items every night VS. Listing on Thursday nights with 10 day duration ending on Sunday.

 

Ok, this is for whoever is interested.

 

Disclaimer:

This study is somewhat inaccurate due to the fact I have been very busy with an upcoming friend's wedding and have had much less time to run my store. I also had to temporarily switch from 1 day to 3 day handling, which seems to have had a mojor impact on my traffic patterns, possibly due to premium exposure offered for certain power seller criteria. But anyway this is my data for the last few weeks.

 

 

About 3 weeks ago I switched over to ending all (at least 95%) of my listings on Sunday nights with most of them beginning on Thursday with a 10 day duration.

 

Numbers based on the average sales of the last 3 weeks and the average sales of the 3 weeks prior:

 

I have seen a 25.2% increase in my average final selling price. (truly was 38%, but I threw out two recent sales of high dollar items I do not normally sell to make this more accurate)

Due to my hectic schedule I actually a 38.6% decrease in the number of sold items.  (I only listed about 55% of the volume I usually list.)

 

I will report back with my findings after the wedding, once I have a more reliable test study based on weeks of equal listing volume and using my normal 1 day handling.

 

But according to these numbers, It is probably safe to assume the numbers will only get better.

 

Note: I still have been shipping with 1 day handling, but am just giving myself a cushion due to the constant out of town travel.

Mondays have become insane with shipping activity, so you will definitely need to have that night free to do it this way.

 

 

Oh yeah....Thanks Spoo for the suggestion!

Forgot to mention....my traffic report shows that I currently took a 72% hit on my views for not offering 1 day handling.  That is to say, I am only getting a little more than 25% of the exposure I was in previous 3 weeks. I imagine my numbers will increase significantly when I am able to offer 1 day handling again and get better exposure. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Smith 

Quote:

Originally Posted by capnwes 

Forgot to mention....my traffic report shows that I currently took a 72% hit on my views for not offering 1 day handling.  That is to say, I am only getting a little more than 25% of the exposure I was in previous 3 weeks. I imagine my numbers will increase significantly when I am able to offer 1 day handling again and get better exposure. 

Can a prospective customer see that you are not offering 1 day handling without opening your auction?

You get a higher search result for 1 day handling and if you have free shipping you get the fast & free logo (I think)

IMO there is no reason not to offer 1 day handling. Worst case (not that I do this often), but you print the label and ship it the next day. The way ebay tracks 1 day handling for its "top rated seller" statistic, is when the shipping label is printed, not from when the package actually ships. Its another thing if your buyer can determine (and actually cares) that it took you an extra day.