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BEST EBAY STORES/AUCTIONS
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A Picture Paints a Thousand Words and Creates Auction Euphor
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by:
Mike Ralph
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Ever since I sold my first item on ebay I have
been addicted to the site and I have steadily developed it as a
supplementary source of income over the last two years. As I gained
experience from listing items, I rapidly became aware that the
inclusion of pictures in the listings was a major selling point as
buyers could literally see what they were buying and as such create a
greater interest and desire within them which in turn led to greater
selling prices.
To sum it up in one sentance :
Pictures attract attention, help explain details and more importantly stimulates desire which leads to Auction Euphoria.
Auction Euphoria
is that process whereby the desire to own an item is that great that
all logic goes out the window and the buyer rebids to ensure that they
win it, thus increasing the selling price.
This simple bit of
knowledge has allowed me to push my final selling prices up on average
between 10-30% and as such it amazes me that so many listings do not
include one picture and just type out the details in one long line of
text (usually all in capitals!). I am not complaining however because
this fact alone has allowed my auctions to stand out and make the money.
I
started off using eBays add additional photo service to include extra
images in my listings which people could use as a reference point and I
found out the following :
1. Always make sure that the image is
clear and of the actual item for sale, otherwise what is the point of
including it? You will find that poorly presented pictures suggest that
the seller doesn't care and hence will devalue the potential selling
price of the item which is of no use to anyone.
2. Never use a
stock photograph of the item for sale, with the increase in fraudulant
transactions (especially on the higher value items) this will serve to
put the buyer off, again serving to devalue your final selling price.
Taking a little extra time to get an actual photograpah shows yours
buyers that you care and will endear them to you.
3. Where
possible use a digital camera, these are very easily accessable
nowadays and relatively cheap and they produce excellent images. A
webcam can also be used but does give a grainier picture. Remember the
cost of the digital camera can be offset by the gain in final selling
prices.
4. Have good lighting on your images a poorly lit image
may as well not be there. Where possible I take mine outside into the
garden, put it onto a chair with white paper behind it and take
advantage of the natural light. Its a few minutes work that pays
dividends in the end in cold hard cash!
5. Never just use one
image, always use at least two. I tend to use one image for every one
of the details (or faults) that I mention in the listing. This
illustrates what you are actually trying to describe and helps to
prevent the dreaded negative feedback of 'the item wasn't as described'.
Using
the above meant my auctions stood out and I was considered to be true
to my word by my buyers so much so that I have multiple return buyers
and the Auction Euphoria effect is evident on my auctions as there
regularly go for higher prices than similar items listed on eBay.
As
I developed my auctions I realised that using eBays additional picture
service was COSTING ME a large proportion of my profit so I looked into
other ways of getting my pictures on my listings. I also realised that
the format of the listings was another major factor. I wanted to use
the additional pictures to illustrate a detail or fault but it was no
use having the picture at the bottom of the listing away from the
description as per eBays standard approach.
So I did some
research and learned that the answer to my problems was HTML to
generate a template for my listings and allow me to pull my images into
them without having to use eBays image service, sure it was still gonna
cost me to host my own images but no where near what eBay was charging
me. Using this has meant that my eBay Listing Fees have dropped by
nearly 90%.
My buyers then started to ask me if they could use
my templates and how they could include images on thier listings,
advice which I always gave to them. I then decided to put this advice
together on a few webpages so that they could use it as a reference and
to upload some of the templates that I have used in the past so that
anyone can use them for FREE.
I hope that these simple bits of advice help you to take advantage of Auction Euphoria, and really develop your profits from the amazing, and addictive, animal that is eBay auctions.
About the Author
Mike - Webmaster and eBay Power Seller.
Online Auction Trader
FREE eBay Selling Templates, can be used by anyone you dont need to ask my permission to use them anywhere you want.
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