eBay as a Home Business Part III: Watch the Typos and Use Better Descriptions

Do an eBay search for a video game console or movie on DVD and you’re bound to find dozens (if not hundreds) of auctions, and likely a lot of competition. However, try misspelling “Xbox 360” as something like “X-box” and you will find far few auctions and possibly far less competition from other bidders. That could be good news if you’re buying, but bad news if you’re selling and can’t type so well!

Now when buying, you could try to type “box 360” and “xbox36” but why go through the trouble when a Web site can help you. New sites such as Auction Bloopers actually will search not only for the actual/proper spelling of an item but includes a variety of typos as well. The downside is that it means you’ll have more pages to scroll through, but on the plus side you won’t have to waste time seeing if the competition already decided to look up “Xbbox 360” before you.

There are also Typo Bay and ItsAllTypos, both of which will are also free to use, and allows users to look up misspelled auctions. So the question is with all these tools would anyone want to create a misspelling on purpose?

Actually probably not say the experts, because you risk the chance of not being found. If the item doesn’t sell you’re out the listing fees at the very least. More importantly you risk an item selling for far under market value.

Use Better Descriptions!
Instead of thinking about typos, you should make sure your listing description is accurate and detailed. Do some searches for similar items to see how other products are listed. Look at current auctions and do a search for completed auctions as well. This way you can see what sold (and thus worked) and what didn’t move.

Likewise, provide good photos. One blurry photo of a common item isn’t going to help potential bidders. If you have a unique item you can say, “additional photos by request.” This option is good because it helps you know what the interest level might be like.

Price your item to sell, but be cautious that a low priced item could end up being a steal for someone. If you start the listing too high you might not get bids. If you start it too low you could end up taking a loss. But this reporter would say to stay away from using reserve price. You pay extra for a reserve and all this tells potential bidders is that the opening bid WON’T win them the item. As a frequent bidder I usually keep looking when I see the words “reserve not met.”

You should also make it easy to pay for an item. PayPal charges a fee yes, but it is easy for buyers to pay for items. More importantly don’t scold your audience with blanket statements such as “if you don’t pay in three days I will leave NEGATIVE feedback,” (not that you can actually do so anymore anyway). Nor should you provide lengthy rules. Be firm but be friendly. It is better to say, “I will ship items quickly when I’m paid quickly,” rather than “because there are idiots I must wait for all payments to clear, and I only ship once a week.” The first statement can say the same thing… but in a nice way!

Finally, communicate with your bidders and buyers. If someone asks questions try and answer them. If eBay is your home based business you need to make your customers happy. I’ve had transactions so bad I’ve passed on items from the same sellers that I really wanted. It just wasn’t worth the hassle.