J.Crew Brown Herringbone Harris Tweed on ebay- please advise

[Joel_Cairo]

I have a couple things up on ebay:

I know J.Crew might seem pedestrian by SF standards, but this sportcoat really has some nice touches (working buttonholes, excellent 3-to-2 roll). Please check out my listing:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NWT-J-Crew-brown...QQcmdZViewItem

Also, I have a new-in-box bottle of YSL's M7 Fresh up on ebay, should anyone here be interested in that:http://cgi.ebay.com/BNIB-100ml-YSL-M...QQcmdZViewItem
SOLD, thanks for all the pointers

These are the very first things I've ever sold on ebay (though I do have a 100% positive feedback rating over at Basenotes), so please critique my listings. Anything that should be added or edited? I plan to include the actual measurements of the jacket once I can find a tape-measure, but any other advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[DocHolliday]

You've done a great job including closeups of the jacket/multiple pics of the perfume. As a buyer, that goes a long way to getting me to bid. My main concern about the jacket listing, aside from the lack of measurements, is the quality of the main picture. The main pic is a straight-ahead shot, which I've found less effective than ones closer to a 3/4 view. And, worse, it's a bit blurry. If you could upgrade that one, you might get more folks clicking into the auction to see the others. Also, it might be worth mentioning the working buttonholes either in the header or in a subtitle -- bidders seem to eat that up.

Another suggestion: You might consider splitting the boilerplate from the advertising copy. That way, there's a break between the glowing description and the business of returns, etc. The pause lets the desirable traits sink in, really emphasizing the desirability of the item. Combining the description and return policy often creates a sudden tone shift that takes the focus from the item itself, I think.

All that said, these look great for first auctions. Much better than the vast majority of stuff I see on eBay.

 

[Joel_Cairo]

thanks very much Doc, I'll get some better pics for the main shot. I've found the herrinbone-ness to be a bit tricky with my midgrade camera, but I'll work on it.

I agree about the whole Block Of Text problem, but I noticed that even when I added spaces and indents, Ebay disregarded those and gave me a big paragraph layout. How is it that everyone gets those nice page layouts?

 

[Arethusa]

HTML. You don't have to be a webpage designer. Just google it and start with learning some basic tags.

 

[Joel_Cairo]

Originally Posted by Arethusa

HTML. You don't have to be a webpage designer. Just google it and start with learning some basic tags.
brilliant, thanks!

 

[j]

Basically, <br><br> is your friend. (Two line breaks, i.e. an empty line between paragraphs.)

 

[nerdykarim]

I don't think your HTML is too bad at all (though it's possible that you could have revised your auction before I saw it).

I also agree with Doc about sleeve measurements. Speaking as a 40S, I can say with certainty that providing sleeve measurements could be worth a bid or two

 

[Joel_Cairo]

Thanks for all your help guys, I'm working on measurements right now. A question though:

for the arm length, I'm told I should measure from the cuff up to where the sleeve meets the jacket. Fair enough, but do I do this at the longest point (outside the arm up to the to the seam atop the shoulder) or at the shorter (under the arm to the armpit, the "inseam" of the sleeve if you will)?

 

[Arethusa]

Longer. Both, if you prefer, but the outside measurement is far more important, and if you only provide one, it's what people will assume.

 

[Joel_Cairo]

Originally Posted by Arethusa

Longer. Both, if you prefer, but the outside measurement is far more important, and if you only provide one, it's what people will assume.
much appreciated Arethusa-

I did the measurements and came up with this. Before putting them up on ebay, I'd like to run them by here to see if they are reasonable 40S proportions, or if I measured something wrong.

Length: just shy of 31 inches. call it 30 3/4
Sleeve: 24 1/2 inches
Across the shoulders in back: 19 inches.

Sound like they were done right?
Thanks again to everyone, I promise to stop bumping the good god out if this thread once my listing is up for good

.

 

[alflauren]

Those measurements sound well within 40S to me.

 

[Arethusa]

They look slightly long for a 40S to me, but not by much. Could just be the way the jacket is. You might want to look over Ask Andy's suit measurement guide. It's pretty useful.

 

[j]

I think a 30.5ish is normal length for a regular.

 

[Arethusa]

Yeah, 30-31" is around Regular length, as is 24-25" for the sleeves.

 

[Joel_Cairo]

Originally Posted by Arethusa

You might want to look over Ask Andy's suit measurement guide. It's pretty useful.
very handy, thanks. I should have known to check through AAAC before barraging you guys with these FAQ. Turns out I was measuring the jacket length incorrectly, so the length of the collar was included. Disregarding that, I think its a proper S length.