MoreI’ve pulled a few more articles out of the vault! This is my Seller Blunder #1. Stay tuned for the other 4, a total of 5 easy eBay seller mistakes for you to avoid!
Seller’s Blunder #1 – Bad Title and Bad Category
Use all 55 Characters in the Title. The majority of buyers search for what they want to buy using a title search only. Sometimes a buyer will search by title and description. However, these searches can bring back too many unrelated items and most buyers will only search by title. The TITLE is the most important part of your listing. USE all the characters. For example, you may have a pair of new men’s socks to sell. Think first about all the ways you can describe them; color, condition, age, brand name, size, fabric, and finally a great adjective. It is easy to use all the characters when you think this way. An example of a bad title would be “Men Socks”. A great title would be “Ralph Lauren Black Men’s Socks New Size 9-12 MWT Super! I used all 55 characters. There is a free article on my website that lists words to use when you have 1 to 13 characters left. It is a great list of adjectives to help you motivate buyers to open your auction instead of your competitors. If you can get them to open your auction—you can get them to bid!
Spelling is Super IMPORTANT. You would not believe how many errors are maed in speelling (oops—just kidding). If you spell it wrong, the item will not come up in a buyer’s search. As an example, we sell a lot of Schafer & Vater. It is an early German porcelain that my Grandmother loved to collect. We had hundreds of pieces and we could never seem to get the spelling right in our listings. When we do spell it right, our items sell for a lot more than when we misspell it. Right now on eBay there are 64 completed auctions for Schafer & Vater and only 2 for Schaefer & Vater. You get the point. As a side note, if you are a savvy buyer you can find some bargains by searching for misspellings!
Pick the Best Category. Do your research and find out which category best fits your item. Many collectors and buyers at online auctions will watch their favorite categories for auctions ending in the immediate future. For example, if you have a Bing & Grondahl Christmas plate to list you have several choices for a category. There are:
2796 Home>All Categories>Pottery & Glass>Pottery & China>Porcelain>Bing & Grondahl
13838 Home>All Categories>Collectibles>Decorative & Holiday>Holiday, Seasonal>Christmas:Modern (1946-90)
3951 Home>All Categories>Collectibles>Decorative & Holiday>Decorative by Brand>Bing & Grondahl Coll Plates
You see how many options you are confronted with. eBay does give the opportunity (at an added expense) of using 2 categories to list an item. They have often quoted statistics saying that listing in double categories will increase your sales price. I have not found this to be true. I would like to hear from anyone who has had a different experience with this. Email me at Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com. Any of the categories listed above would be good to use. My choice would be the last one because it is the most specific. Use your best judgment, do your research and find out which similar items sold for the most in which categories. RESEARCH is so IMPORTANT!
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You are so right!
Research is very inportant.
I do it all the time and this infromation was even more helpful,
Thanks Lynn!
MayLyn