• Welcome from Brian McGregor 
• Inspirational Quote of the Day
• News and Views
• Fancy Lunch With the Monster-in-Law?
• Five Top Reasons Why Auctions Fail
• Choosing a Good ID and Password
• A Gift from Me to You
• Someone's auctioning what? Unusual items currently available
• Finally
• My Products Catalogue
• Back to Newsletter Archive

Hello and welcome.

A particularly warm welcome to you if you're a new subscriber. It's good to have you as part of the family taking my eBay newsletter.

Well, tomorrow is a red letter day for me. My son hits the big three oh. Wow, doesn't time fly?

I'll tell you what's spooky though - how everybody else around me gets older, yet I don't? I feel as young as I did 10 years ago. No, 20 years ago!

Unfortunately the calendar doesn't lie, and I have a big birthday of my own next year. I won't tell you which. But obviously I was a child bridegroom!

Talking about the passage of time, do you remember me telling you a couple of issues ago how I hated just meandering along?

And that I had to keep trying new things?

And I had just set off some initiatives?

And one of those was the proposal of a series of articles to some newspapers and magazines?

Well, I have just been commissioned to write a four part series about selling on eBay for PC Format magazine. The series starts in the July edition.

As I said at the time, there's nothing I like better than keeping on pushing.

It keeps you young!!!

At least in mind, if not body .....

Speak to you again soon.

Brian
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1. Testing, Testing

As eBay puts it, "The number of items listed on eBay UK grows, finding the right items is becoming increasingly challenging for buyers."

So, during the week beginning 23rd May, eBay is to begin testing a new way to find items. The test will last for around one month and will be confined to the Men’s Shoes and Women’s Shoes categories only. The test will be shown to a random sample of visitors to those categories, as well as any user who chooses to opt in to it.

eBay would like voluntary feedback from anyone who participates.

Information and links to the test will be posted in the week of the 23rd May.

I can't wait.


2. I Didn't Think eBayers Could be So Cruel

I can recall a time when the name Jane Fonda was synonymous with Barbarella. Now, years later, Ms Fonda is gaining a whole new set of admirers with her performance in the film 'Monster-in-Law'. She plays Viola, the mother-in-law from you-know-where!

If you're a fan of Ms Fonda, then you have the unique opportunity to take Sunday lunch with her on June 5th.

How come, I hear you ask?

Well, a luncheon appointment with Ms Fonda is currently on auction on eBay. It's being offered by the National Library for the Blind.

As I write this, the current bid is a puny £97 ($177).

The lunch location is Llangoed Hall, near Hay-on-Wye. If you win, you can take a friend too.

If you'd like the chance to meet a most glamorous 67 year old (truly), you'll find all the details here.

1. Lack of empathy with bidders

How often do you get frustrated in dealing with organisations in your daily life? Whether it's been a large retailer or a local tradesman, you've probably had some less than satisfactory experiences. I would bet you can recall instances where you've wondered why you ever gave them your custom in the first place!
Which reminds me of my kitchen. But I told you all about that last time!

What you and I have to recognise is that when we sell on eBay, WE are the supplier to our customers. How well do you think you come across to your bidders and buyers? How often do you think to yourself, "I don't really need to explain that more fully, any sensible bidder will know what I mean?" Do you think you might ever be guilty of taking your customers for granted?

A useful rule is to create your auctions so that they are completely understandable to any level of bidder - including new eBay members.

Also, if you're brand new to eBay selling, I would always advise you to gain experience of eBay by buying first. Going through the bidding and buying process allows you to see how other sellers treat you as a buyer. In effect, you're putting yourself in the shoes of your future customers. You will appreciate much more what you need include in your auctions to improve the experience of your own customers.

Let me put this another way - you'll sell more on eBay if you treat your bidders and buyers in the same way as you wish to be treated by your suppliers.

2. Poor feedback rating

Some eBay bidders are cautious of sellers with a low feedback rating. If you sell on eBay, or you want to, then you need to give constant attention to your feedback.

There are three aspects which I would advise you to consider. The first is the raw feedback rating i.e. the number of feedbacks you have received. Some bidders feel more comfortable where sellers have a solid number of feedbacks, say 25 and over. If your feedback rating isn't at that level yet, you can get my free report here which shows you how to increase your feedback rating quickly.

The second area of your feedbacks with which you need to be concerned are neutrals and negatives. You will know yourself, whenever you check out a seller's feedback, you're always drawn to those red and grey entries. Even if there's only one or two, and you're like me, you just can't help giving more weight to those. And you'll often skim over the pages of positives, just to get to the neg.

The third aspect of feedback which I recommend you consider is to do with going the extra mile. Which of the following two feedbacks would you prefer to receive?

"Nice transaction - good seller"

"FIVE ***** SELLER, EXCELLENT PRODUCT, FAST SHIPPING"

If you take pride and care in your eBay selling business, you will attract more powerful feedbacks from your customers - like the second example above. And the payback to you is that the stronger your feedbacks are, the more likely an eBay member is to place a bid on your auction.

In summary, your objective is to get your feedback rating higher, to avoid being landed with neutrals and negatives, and to strive to receive great feedbacks by making sure your customer service is as good as it can be.

3. Not accepting credit cards turns bidders away

When you create an eBay auction, you always offers PayPal as a method of payment - don't you?

If you don't, I recommend you think about doing it. The reason is that PayPal is the preferred payment method by many eBay bidders. This is increasingly true since eBay bought PayPal, and have integrated the facility into its auction systems.

The other benefit that now exists for sellers who accept PayPal, is that buyers no longer need to have a PayPal account to use the service. If a buyer doesn't have, or want, a PayPal account, they can simply use a credit card to make their payment without the necessity to create a PayPal account.

If you don't offer PayPal, you'll lose a significant proportion of potential bidders.

As some buyers don't know what Paypal is, or how it works, you should place a PayPal logo on all your auctions and include a link to PayPal in emails to your successful bidders.

4. Weak auction titles lose bids

The last published figures I saw, which is some time ago, said that there were 1 million items on UK eBay and 10 million on US eBay at any point in time.

I did a search to try and confirm this and found out there were in fact over 3 million auctions on UK eBay open one day this week. eBay.com wouldn't let me do the same search as it said there were too many items to return, and I needed to refine my search! However, if we apply the same growth which seems to have taken place in UK auction numbers, then it looks like there could be up to 30 million items on eBay.com at any point in time!

The point of all this is to demonstrate how much competition there is for sellers as we all try and grab the attention of bidders.

It is therefore absolutely essential that your auction title is receptive to searches made by eBay bidders. I have written on this topic many times.

If you want to know why your auction title is the most important 55 characters you'll ever write for your auction, I recommend you read my article in this previous newsletter. (It's item number 3)

5. Poor images can lose you buyers

The saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" is never more true than with eBay auctions. Not having a photo or image of your item will greatly reduce your bids, and lead to unprofitable or unsuccessful auctions. Not only must you have a picture of what you are selling, the image must be accurate and revealing. Poor quality pictures can be counter-productive for your auction.

It's not necessary to be a professional photographer. For many items, eBay bidders realise that sellers are effectively taking snapshots of the products they sell. But, your photo should be clear, and show the item as completely as possible. Here are some tips for good photos:

If the size of an object is not obvious, use a reference such as a ruler or a coin.

Show any flaws or defects. Point them out in the caption if necessary.

Try not to use flash - it causes reflections. Take your photos in open shade or using indirect window light.

Do not use "stock" photos. Bidders prefer to see a picture of the actual item they are bidding on, not a scanned photo from a brochure.

Use a tripod to make sure your photo is sharp.

Keep your photos to less than 300 pixels. Larger photos take too long to load and some impatient bidders may click away from your auction.

Except for flat items such as prints, photos, stamps, cards etc, scanners usually produce an inadequate image for most items.

If you don't have a digital camera, you can take a 35mm photo to most Kodak processors and for a reasonable price they will digitize your images and return them to you on a floppy disk or CD.

Keep on top of these five aspects of selling, and you should see an improvement in your eBay auction success rate.

I guess the vast majority of people reading this will already be registered on eBay. So you might be wondering why would I want to write about creating a good User ID and Password?

Well this item is for you if you don't yet have an eBay ID. But it's also for eBay members who would like to have more than one eBay ID.

More than one ID Brian? What's that all about?

I always recommend to every eBay member that they get a second User ID. It's perfectly allowable.

The reason is to give you an ID to fall back on if you ever lose your first ID. Why should you 'lose' your ID? There are several possibilities:

If you've ever had an auction removed by eBay for some infringement of their rules, your ID is on the vulnerable list. If you do it again, they could suspend your ID.

If you get your eBay ID hi-jacked by a fraudster, when it is returned to you who knows what state your feedback could be in?

Some people prefer to have one ID for buying, and another for selling.

If you use eBay's forums, there is something to be said for not attaching your primary eBay ID to postings you might make.

So, there are a few reasons why a second eBay ID could be useful.

When you set up a new account with eBay, they let you select your own User ID. You can have what you like, as long as it isn't already being used by another member.

Consider choosing an ID that tells a little about yourself. But be careful, if your interests change, you may regret having a User ID which has too narrow a focus.

You can call yourself just about anything; you can be silly or creative or boring. But remember, this ID is how other eBay users will know you. So here are some common-sense rules:

Don't use a name that would embarrass your mother.

Don't use a name that's too weird, such as scam-ace. If people don't trust you, they won't buy from you.

Don't use a name with a negative connotation.

eBay doesn't allow spaces in User IDs, so make sure that the ID makes sense when putting two or more words together.

If you wish to have several words in your User ID, you can use underscores or hyphens to separate them.

As you might expect, eBay also has some User ID rules:

No offensive names (like &*#@guy).
No names with eBay in them.
No names with & (even if you do have both looks&brains).
No names with @ (like @Aboy).
No symbols such as the greater than or less than symbols (> <) or consecutive underscores ___.
No IDs that begin with an e, followed by numbers, an underscore, a dash, a period, or a dot.
No names of one letter (like Q).

Finally, when you choose your User ID, make sure that it isn't a good clue for your password.

Talking about passwords......

Picking a good password is extremely important. Whoever has your password can (in effect) "be you" at eBay — running auctions, bidding on auctions, and leaving dangerous feedback for others. Basically, such an impostor can ruin your eBay career — and possibly cause you serious financial grief.

As with any online password, you should follow these common-sense rules to protect your privacy:

Don't pick anything too obvious, such as your birthday, your first name, or your Social Security or NI number. If it's easy to remember, it's probably easy to crack.

Make things tough for them— combine numbers and letters and create nonsensical words.

Don't give out your password to anyone — it's like giving someone the keys to the front door of your house.

If you even suspect someone has your password, immediately change it.

In any case, change your password every one to two months.

Always have a different password for each system you access e.g. eBay, PayPal, your online bank account, your online credit card account etc.

If you're like me, you probably use about 10% of the capability of Word. It doesn't matter if you use Word at work, in your home business or just in your normal PC activity, it's likely that you only scratch the surface of what Word has available for you.

Here is a neat ebook which I guarantee will have you getting more out of Microsoft Word. It's called 'Secrets of Microsoft Word', and you can download it here.

Nothing surprises me when it comes to internet auctions. Amuse yourself with some of these beauties.

First, a contribution from James:

At least it's re-useable

And some spotted by yours truly....

En-suite rooms, and with Space Invaders!!

Wonder what the postage is?

I've put this one in as a public service to a fellow footie fan

I wonder if it's worth gambling 1 penny?

Disclaimer - I have no association with any of the sellers of the above items.