Pictures - Probably the MOST important element in your Ebay listing

Put yourself in the seat of your buyers. Lets say today we are looking for a formal dress to wear to holiday parties this season. Here are some examples of pictures that I've run across in this pretend search.


Really, would you spend good money on a dress that you can't even see? As sellers we are already crippled by the fact that our buyers can't try on our clothes or feel the fabric, so we must make sure that they can at least see what it looks like! That wedding dress up there has a $600 starting bid and that was the BEST of all the pics that seller posted. Do you think it will sell?

I've read some debates in the discussion boards about whether or not a model should be used. Some say no and I agree in some cases (like underware), however, I think seeing how something fits on a regular human being versus hanging on a hanger can be very effective. So, when possible, I use both. I have some listings that have a picture of a shirt laying flat on a table, on a mannequin AND on a model. I figure, what can it hurt?

I don't really get the controversy about the models. What exactly is it that folks assume? When you go to a store and try something on then buy it, wouldn't it be safe to assume that you probably were not the first one to put your body in that garment?

Any-hoo.

The fact is, no matter what it is that you are selling, pictures are important. If you sell clothes, invest in a mannequin (you can get them on ebay for cheap!), if you sell small items where detail is important you should get a light box and some lighting. Something like this would be great.

I just found this on ebay and borrowed the pic from seller id: time_4_bidding

The one I have is not as fancy as this because I rarely have small items to sell, but because I am a trading assistant and you never quite know what you're gonna get next, it is good to have. You'll obviously need to choose whatever is appropriate for you.

Photo editor - You need a photo editor. If it is just the one that came with your camera, fine. Just learn to use it! Even the lower level editors have many functions that can do some amazing things. 2 seconds would be all that it would take for those sideways pics up there to be right side up again. Photoshop is very well known but also very very expensive. Maybe if you are in the photography or design business, but for everyone else....I think it is unnecessary. I've got adobe's lower level software called Elements. It is about a hundred dollars but has saved me hours and hours of manual editing time. It does so much that I really just can't imagine how much extra stuff photoshop would have to have in order to justify the price being over ten times higher!
I've got this weird thing about backgrounds. For some reason I can't stand them so I go in and take them out. This took some time back when I was using the software that came with the camera, but now it only takes seconds. Here is an example of what I'm talking about.


I know, it is a little silly, but I just prefer to have the background in all my photos match. Just my personal thing.
It also will give you the ability to put more than one picture into a single picture therefore getting the most for your money when it comes to gallery. Take this on for example:


I got the model and the shirt all in one pic!
And you can use it to watermark your stuff too if you like. I don't bother, but my competitor does. (Ya always gotta know what they are up to!)


As you can see, my competition takes some really GREAT photos so I need to quit blogging and get to work on my photos!

Hooray for the sellers who make ebay great

Earlier I had written a post about the sellers who ruin it for the rest of us, well today I'm writing about the opposite.
I made two purchases on ebay this week and both of them deserved some recognition.
I am a seamstress and I was about half-way through a project when I discovered that I was a quarter of a yard short on fabric. So, l look it up on ebay. There were about 6 sellers that had what I needed and all of them were around the same price and all with good feedback. How do I choose? I narrowed it down by the seller closest to me because I wanted it fast and figured the quicker the better. I chose right!
This seller clockcrazylady was awesome. I paid right away and sent a note saying that I'd appreciate if she would send it right away. I know, I'm a seller, I should know better but I tried to be as polite as can be.
Clockcrazylady responded right away and even though it was a holiday week, got my fabric to me in 1 day!!
She mainly sells clocks, if you want to see her store click here
She's got a Hannah Montana clock that I'm pretty sure I will be getting for my 7 year old cousin for Christmas. Little ones are CRAZY for that Hannah Montana!

And then, after I cut the fabric and continued on with my sewing I realized that I didn't have enough boning to finish the project either! How frustrating. So, again, I go straight to ebay. I've bought boning from this seller before so I knew right where to go. Seller lilmunchin has never let me down. I purchased, paid right away and got it in three days. One of those days was Thanksgiving, so I guess you could say I got it in two!
if you want to see her store click here
this store is a sewer/crafters dream come true. Tons of great products and prices that put the local brick and mortar shops to shame.
Sellers like these are what makes people continue to come back to ebay. Simple, honest selling.
Kudos.

Using Ebay to Go to promote your stuff all over the place

Ebay has traffic. Lots of traffic. But, wouldn't it be great to have even MORE?

I try to look at things from the eyes of my buyers. Lets say that someone was looking for a pair of FSU medical scrub pants (or as I would think of them....pajamas)

If they go to google and type in "FSU scrubs pants" you won't get an ebay listing in the result, and even if you did... would it be the ones that you are selling? Doubtful.

So, why not bring in your own traffic? Do you have a blog? A website? the ability to add an html signature to your emails? a MySpace page? All of these things are just things off the top of my head that you should be advertising on.

I've been doing this forever but ebay finally came around and gave us a tool to make it look nice. EbayToGo!

Here is what the difference is, if you click the picture of those pants, it will take you right to the listing. And, so will clicking the widget below. I don't have to explain the difference to you... it is plain to see. Someone reading your blog or your myspace page may not know to click. Also, if it is an auction, I think the widget drums up some excitement too.

I'll try my best to walk you through the process of using it, so here goes. First off, I personally find it difficult to find so make sure to bookmark it once you get there. http://togo.ebay.com/

You will need to choose the one you want. This really just depends on what you are advertising. You can advertise your whole store if you want to, or just a few items.

It is up to you. If you are just going to advertise one item or a select few, than you will need the item number(s). Then you will need to choose an eBay search that will show up after your item has ended. This is something that you have to enter, but I recommend taking down or updating your widget before it gets to this point because what is the use if you aren't showcasing YOUR stuff?

Then Voila... it generates the code for you.

Now all you have to do is copy and paste it wherever you like.

You can even post it on eBay's blogs!

*special note: if you plan to use it on craigslist, you can't do it directly without breaking their rules. You will have to post it on your website or blog or somewhere else then post a link on craigslist.

I just LOVE ebay! But, some ruin it for the rest of us.

I love ebay! But, one must admit that ebay has a bad reputation sometimes. Recently FedEx lost my brother's ipod. He was staying with me for 6 weeks and had forgotten it at home out of state, so he had his friend ship it to him. We chose FedEx overnight thinking that it would be the most reliable. Well, it wasn't. It never showed up. So, we filed a claim and got some money from FedEx. He didn't want the new video nano ipod, he wanted the old one, just the regular ipod nano that he had before. Well, they no longer sell them in stores, so where do you think we could find what he wanted....hmmmm.....EBAY.

So, we go online and of course there are thousands of them for sale on ebay. He rarely uses ebay and has been burned so he is very worried about this. So, I volunteered to help. Just about every listing that we pulled up had something questionable about it. It took me, an ebay junkie, over an hour to find one that I believed wasn't a scam.

Over and over I found ipods that were listed with all the details then way down buried in their fine print in very small font tells that it is refurbished.

I don't have a problem with a refurbished product, what I have a problem with is the seller who tries to mislead someone.

I also found several that clearly were meant to look and sound like it was an ipod but if you read into the listing and read through their purposefully misleading text, you'll find it is for a CASE or a pair of headphones and not the ipod itself!

I realize that some products have a higher rate of fraud than others, and I'm sure that there are many many ipod sellers out there that are wonderful. But it sure is annoying to have to dig through to find the good ones.

There have been times that I was researching my competition and have run across a listing for a new with tags product in a brand that I carry that is listed for below the wholesale cost. When I find that, I switch to my buyer ID and bid right away. My competition is probably trying to use the low priced auction to drive eyes to their store, I do it too. So, if figure I'll take the gamble and if I win, great, I'll sell it for a profit later. If I don't win, that is ok, I've just driven up the price of their auction, in turn driving up the market value of a brand that I sell. Win-win. However, sometimes it is a loss.
Not everyone is honest. I've gotten things that were CLEARLY used, reeking of perfume and smoke. I've gotten things that were factory seconds with crooked seams, I've gotten things that were ripped, damaged and discolored. I've dealt with sellers that were rude. I've dealt with sellers that took a month after taking my money to put my item in the mail. I've dealt with sellers that charged me $8.00 for UPS shipping and then sent USPS parcel post. I've dealt with sellers who only sent me the top half of a bathing suit and half the money back without ever contacting me first. (Now what good is half a suit?)
Well, my point being, if I wasn't already an ebay junkie who made my living off of this, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't shop at ebay anymore after experiences like these. I've boycotted brick and mortar stores for much smaller offenses.
To those out there that ruin it for the rest of us: Please, be honest. If it is a factory second and has a missing seam, just state that. If you take a month to get around to shipping something, just state that. And if you run into a problem like loosing half the merchandise, email them first letting them know before sending half of it. Please, either shape up your business or sell somewhere else.... you are ruining it for the rest of us!
Ebay's marketplace is huge and there are buyers out there for everything. I personally have purchased ripped or damaged things before on purpose (I am a seamstress and I was going to cut it to pieces anyway). I've purchased things that I didn't need until a month later so it wouldn't have mattered if you told me that I'd have to wait. Just don't lie!
And, as proof. All but one of those damaged, missing or otherwise items that I've written about here were sold by me on ebay later, for a profit! I took good pictures of the damage, stated clearly what the deal was and have a good reputation to back it up. You can do this too.

Cool new feature ebay has added

I am so excited! Ebay has recently added a cool new feature. Most times lately the things ebay has added haven't really been useful to me but this one is! I love the 'Best Offer' option and use it for just about every listing. I set the automatic decline threshold at about 50% of the price. I set it so low because I like to send a counteroffer when the initial offer is too low, however, if someone is offering me less than $75 for a $150 dress than it is obvious that we are not going to agree on suitable terms so I don't waste my time.
Now, you can set an automatic ACCEPT amount. What a time saver! I can't wait until I get an automatically accepted offer....so exciting!

The weak dollar

I don't know the exact numbers because I've just got too much to keep up with to follow that too, but I can tell you that I've seen it in my sales!
The dollar is very weak right now and with the dropping housing market too, if you aren't selling internationally, it is time to start.
Yes, shipping international does take more time and slightly more effort but it is worth it. I'm looking at my pile of outgoing packages and today there isn't a single domestic one in the bunch! I sell clothing so I am mainly shipping items under a pound or just slightly over a pound. And my items are on average around $50 per sale so First class international is my best option.
The drawback is that I cannot get tracking or delivery confirmation. This means if something goes wrong I'm screwed.
But, if I were to lose one or even two of just today's outgoing packages it would have still been worth it!
Priority international is a little better, but for items under a pound, significantly more expensive. Under a pound to Australia = $5.20 for First class (very affordable!) but $21.00 for priority! $21 to ship would be alright for a high dollar item, but if it is a $20-$50 item, no one is going to want to spend that to ship. You'll need to weigh out what would be appropriate for you.
If you use paypal shipping, like me, and you want to ship first class international you'll either need to go to the post office or sign up for a service in order to allow you to print labels from home, paypal only offers priority international or express international.
As I'm looking at this pile of international shipments I can tell you the $9.95 a month I spend with Endicia is worth it. I have a slightly higher handling charge on international shipments and this helps me justify the extra time and pays for the service.
Think it all through and put your policies in place. Also, consider the worst case scenerio too and have a plan for that. Also, make sure to have your policies for payment in place. I've had some interesting requests from international customers. Some countries doing bank transfers is commonplace, or even sending cash!
Good luck.

Customs charges, duty, taxes and fees for importing and exporting

My policies state that I do not forge documents and I refuse to do so. I don't have it written in huge font clearly across my listings, but it is there if one chooses to read all the fine print.
I mulled over placement and wording of this policy for quite a bit and still don't know if my way is the right way but here is my logic. I figure that paying the taxes, duty or whatever other fees that your government accesses is the 'right thing to do'. As much as I feel that governments (in general) over-spend, having income is a necessity in order to keep the country running. So, fees and taxes that are accessed at the borders are just a part of that system. Just like our state taxes, federal taxes and sales taxes, of course we would like to keep them to a minimum but we can't avoid them.
I feel that it is actually rude for someone to ask me to lie for them. It would be rude in other instances so why is it acceptable when it comes to shipping out of (or into) the country?
I feel that filling out the papers honestly is what I am SUPPOSED to do and that stating that I will do exactly what I am supposed to do is unnecessary. This is why I have only stated it briefly and in the fine print.
I am SUPPOSED to send them their item, but I don't feel that it is necessary for me to state "I will send you this item" in my listings.
Things always look a little different when taken out of context.
Like the request I got once asking me to still state that they paid XX amount but to manipulate it to state that they paid only $29.99 for the item and the rest was shipping costs. If I went to sears and purchased a new refrigerator, what do you think the clerk would say if I asked could my fridge be rung up for $99.00 and the rest be rung up as a delivery fee in order to only pay sales tax on the first $99?
I also understand that sometimes the fees are quite hefty so I am sympathetic, but just not wiling to risk my business.
What are your thoughts?