A Picture Paints a Thousand Words and Creates Auction Euphoria
on eBay
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.