Tips & Tricks

for
Advanced Sellers
instructor:
David A. Karp
author, eBay Hacks &
eBay PowerSeller: The Missing Manual
editor, PayPal Hacks
 Disclaimers of the day: The views expressed in this presentation are
those of the presenter, and do not necessarily reflect those of eBay
Inc. / eBay and the eBay logo are trademarks of eBay Inc. / Please
don't take our picture or record the class without asking permission.

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Engineering Titles & Subtitles -
Titles seed search results, so first priority should be the words
for which your customers are searching.

Include:
- Manufacturer name
- Model name
- Model number (e.g. SJ-27)
- What it is (e.g. camera, silverware, book, antique sword)
- Necessary variations
(e.g. SJ-27 SJ27, Barbecue Barbeque BBQ, Recumbent Recumbant)

Tip: if you’re unsure of spelling, punctuation, etc., copy usage directly

from product or product packaging.

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Engineering Titles & Subtitles -
You have 55 characters in the title (not 45), and another 55 in the
subtitle.

Avoid these unnecessary variations:

- Nearly all punctuation (: ; \ - . ! @ # $ % ^ & _ = + , ~) is

equivalent to spaces, so “1-43” is the same as “1 43” and “1:43”

- Some variations and plurals are equivalent

(tip: test by searching and comparing results)

- Manufacturer/product names other than what you’re actually

selling

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Choosing a Starting Price -
Empty Restaurant Syndrome

- Weigh risk of selling too low with risk of not selling at all

Reserve Judgement

- Reserve price is the most-commonly misused feature; use it

only if research turns up nothing

- Don’t scare off customers

- Consider higher opening price

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Choosing a Starting Price -
Insertion fees: tiered pricing structure is misleading

Starting Price,
Opening Value or Insertion Fee Does it make sense to
Reserve Price set starting price to
$0.01 - $0.99 $0.30
$1.00 - $9.99 $0.35
$9.99 to save 25¢?
$10.00 - $24.99 $0.60
$25.00 - $49.99 $1.20 Do the math:
$50.00 - $199.99 $2.40
$200.00 - $499.99 $3.60 1 bid at $9.99
$500.00 and up $4.80 vs.
1 bid at $12.99

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Choosing a Starting Price -

(closing price minus insertion fees)

Profit
P r i c e
Closing
Sta
rtin
gP
ric
e
Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers
 - UpSelling Techniques -
Ways to direct customers to other items for sale:

- Link to other listings

- Cross-promote items (now available to non-Stores sellers)

- Include a seller search box

- After-transaction emails & mailing lists

Warning: be careful not to cross the line from promotion to spam!

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - UpSelling Techniques -
Link to other listings or online auctions:

Use this code:

Take a look at <a href=
"http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewS
ellersOtherItems&userid=myebayid">my other
auctions</a> - purchase multiple items and
save on shipping!

And it will look like this:

Take a look at my other auctions - purchase multiple items
and save on shipping!

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - UpSelling Techniques -
Cross-promote items in your eBay Store:

1. Create custom categories and sort your items into them

2. Choose your cross-promotion settings so that items are cross-

promoted with others in same categories.

3.When your customer

purchases an item from
you, this box will appear
in your listings:

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - UpSelling Techniques -
Include a seller search box right in your description:

HTML code available at http://www.ebayhacks.com

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Measure Selling Effectiveness -
Several ways to measure the effectiveness of your selling
techniques and listing options:

- Counters, but only when used to compare similar listings

- Traffic reports (eBay Stores only)

- Your own traffic reports

- Know your market!

Warning: Published statistics can be misleading!

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Measure Selling Effectiveness -
Running tests with counters:

- Create several identical listings

- Vary only one parameter (Bold, Subtitle, Highlight, Duration,

Start time, Gallery, etc.)

- Compare final prices and weigh against cost of upgrade

- Use counters only to measure traffic, useful for testing

promotional upgrades only

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Measure Selling Effectiveness -
Traffic Reports (eBay Stores only):

- Measures page views, not

closing prices or profits

- Use to measure trends,

but don’t rely on traffic
reports to compare selling
techniques or listing
upgrades

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Measure Selling Effectiveness -
Build your own traffic analysis tool:

1. Devote a domain name/IP address to eBay photos only

2. Install Webalyzer

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Better Photos in your Listings -
The photo is everything, so make it count:

- Include photo of actual item being sold

- Use neutral background (white is best), and crop out anything

not being sold

- Photograph item at an angle

- Light from two sources

- Understand depth of field

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Better Photos in your Listings -
Depth of field is the width of the plane in which your subject will
be in focus:

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Better Photos in your Listings -
Host your own photos to overcome limitations of eBay Picture
Services:

- Include as many photos as you like at no additional charge.

- Control the quality (compression) settings of your JPG photos.
- Include large photos with no "supersize" fees.
- Use very long or very wide images that don’t conform to the
standard 4:3 aspect ratio.
- Place your photos directly in the text of your listing
descriptions (good for logos and close-ups)
- Reuse the same photos for multiple listings without having to
upload them repeatedly.

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Better Photos in your Listings -
The gallery photo might make the difference between a customer
clicking on your listing and passing it by:

- Use white background!

- Host the file yourself so you can control the size

- Over-crop your subject:

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Developing with the eBay API -
API = Application Programming Interface

Use the API to write software and develop websites that connect
directly to the eBay engine

The basic functions of the API let you:

- Retrieve details about any online auction or listing

- Download completed-item data
- Search eBay listings
- Retrieve bidder and seller lists
- Read and leave feedback
- Create new listings (example:Turbo Lister)

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Developing with the eBay API -
Some of the things you can do with the API:

- Receive notifications whenever bidders with a zero or negative

feedback bid on your listings

- Use your existing product database to create eBay listings

without using constructing each listing individually

- Automatically relist unsold items with a lower price

- Create a “search robot” to improve upon eBay’s “favorite

searches” by performing your favorite searches every hour and
returning all results (not just the first few)

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Developing with the eBay API -
Some of the post-transaction things you can do with the API:

- Send custom emails to winning bidders automatically

- Leave automatic reciprocal feedback

- Import sales data into Quicken/Quickbooks

- Use in conjunction with the PayPal API to automate shipping

and payment management

- All this and more with no third-party fees!

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Developing with the eBay API -
How to get started with the API:

1. Complete the application at http://developer.ebay.com

2. Sign up for the “Individual” license

3. Download the API documentation and SDK (Software

Development Kit)

4. Create a test application and get certified.

5. Go live and start using your application with real listing data!

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Developing with the eBay API -
Sample API script: SEARCH.PL:
#!/usr/bin/perl
require 'ebay.pl';

use Getopt::Std;
getopts('d');
$keywords = shift @ARGV or die "Usage: $0 [-d] keywords";

PAGE:
while (1) {
my $rsp = call_api({ Verb => 'GetSearchResults',
DetailLevel => 0,
Query => $keywords,
SearchInDescription => $opt_d ? 1 : 0,
Skip => $page_number * 100,
});
if ($rsp->{Errors}) {
print_error($rsp);
last PAGE;
}
$current_time = $rsp->{eBayTime};

foreach (@{$rsp->{Search}{Items}{Item}}) {
my %i = %$_;
($price, $time, $title, $id) = @i{qw/CurrentPrice EndTime Title Id/};
print "($id) $title [\$$price, ends $time]\n";
}
last PAGE unless $rsp->{Search}{HasMoreItems};
$page_number++;
}

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 - Expectation Management -
Eliminate deadbeat bidders and negative feedback while improving
sales.

Expectation management is the art of setting your customer

expectations so that they’ll be happy with your product and your
service:

- Over-explain the condition of your item, including any defects.

- Double the expected lead time, and then ship immediately

- Place a “what’s included” box at the top of your description, and

clearly explain shipping costs and exclusions

Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers

 Tips & Tricks for Advanced Sellers
instructor: David A. Karp
A copy of this presentation is available at:
http://www.ebayhacks.com

Look for these books:

eBay Hacks

PayPal Hacks

eBay PowerSeller:The Missing Manual