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I know , I know, no one reads descriptions and most of you don’t use them much. But I always use complete, thorough, maybe over the top descriptions.
Just had a question about a board game – how much money is in it. Odd, but ok.
Check the description before I dig it out and start counting… Low and behold, had entered an exact count of the money in the game. Ok, guess I have issues, who would do that! ( but use dictation on the iPhone to enter the info, it takes no time.
But should I have added item specifics like $500 play money bills: 20
So, politely answered, though did ask if they read the description. don’t expect a reply or offer, but a little sad to accept that
NO ONE READS THE DESCRIPTIONS!!!
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I would not say that all buyers don’t read. But I suspect that some people just cannot read everything on the phone. The screen is too small and it is not like looking at a full screen.
I just got an INAD on a bible size which was in the item specifics. I called Ebay. Buyer cannot retract the INAD (??). I politely told buyer that measurements were in the listing and I would be more than happy to take back the item if they will ship it back. I did not “accept” the return through the INAD because I believe that would be “admitting” that it is an INAD.
Waiting for buyer to ship item back or reply through the INAD…
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We use a fairly lengthy set of Item Specifics incl. many custom fields. We still get questions all the time, how tall is this, what color is it, etc.
We have a standard SOP that invites them to see the IS area and quickly instructs them to click on the little blue arrow or the blue “see more info” link.
Funny how so many people, much younger than us, seem to not know how to use their mobile cell phones. Hhmmmm!
We then get a quick reply, “Oh thank you, we didn’t know that or didn’t see that”.
Guess all the customers who buy without a question must have figured it out or bought just from the photo and price.
Too bad Ebay can’t force a buyer to have to click to the Item Specifics area then clcik to “agree to have read them” in order to complete the purchase. THEN, refuse any neg. feedback from them IF it was covered in the Item Specifics. That will never happen.
Oh well, answering DA [dumb-a**], questions weekly is just part of the routine.
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I think that some buyers just don’t believe that sellers are posting all of the info. about an item. Some have been so burned before on buying online that they have to double-check that the specifics are correct, or the condition is correct before buying.
I find it’s best to just copy and paste the condition and description notes again and be positive about it. Sometimes, they just want human acknowledgment that they have the item and that it is available, ready to ship.
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Almasty that is a very good point. And could very well be the case. Who knows,but yep, it will always be weekly questions to answer about the obvious.
Guess also some others are new to Ebay or even buying online. Have 6 of an item and a lady bought one of the six day before yesterday. Few hours after we shipped the one, got an email asking, “do you possibly have any more of these in stock?”.
Well guess she didn’t see that 6 were available and she only bought one and could have bought 5 more and gotten combined shipping, but if a newbie doesn’t know what the 5 available / 1 Sold means, hence the question.
Sorry for sounding harsh on them. This has been a week of buyer back and forth questions and issues that has taken a lot of admin. time away from our business. And in our case a HUGE percentage of those with questions never end up buying.
But guess I have to remember all the sales we make without questions or issues which FAR outweigh the small remaining problem children.
Ahh, cool crisp morning here in Atlanta, and Thank the Lord for Coffee!!
Hit two great estate sales from estate dealers we know and made some great buys. The people we know let us come in with our blue Ikea bags, wrap and fill our bags, I make my running list of items with their prices and they trust us, and just work from there. We usually get 75% off on our lists. We do much better at the nicer, larger estate sales than the auctions usually.
But onward and upwards. bunch to list.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
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There’s a series on BBC Radio 4 by Aleks Krotoski- “The Digital Human”. One episode mentioned how an Oxfam thrift shop had increased sales by about 30% by encouraging donors to write little stories about the items they were donating.
“I bought this Luis Vuitton handbag on a rainy Sunday afternoon in November in South Wigston. I took it to the disco that night where it looked resplendent on top of the pile of handbags we were dancing round.”
I’ve never tried this, ‘cos “I found this in a thrift shop, and paid a quid for it” doesn’t have quite the same appeal.
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That’s funny AF: Or got this in a table lot along with 75 other pieces that nobody wanted for $5 and this little “beauty” was right there in the middle. And the price we have on it is $55.00. Yeah, as pro scavengers and business resellers guess our “haul find” stories are not to glamorous.
mike at MDCGFA in Atl.
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There’s no way to quantify this, but for many many years I have added everything possible about an item – especially things that have points of interest to specific collector groups. Old militaria with a name or a history, for example, often gets a better price with those details.
And if there is a story, I like to tell the story. And now and again someone responds, adds a note, asks for more, etc., or, at best, shares another story.
This refutes my subject and represents a hope that descriptions matter, and there is no item specific for “granpa probably swiped this plate from his college dining hall in the late 40’s, it has been stored since that time ” but a recent graduate of the same school really digs that info. ( recently happened! )Hearkens back to the old days, before item specifics and fixed price listings, carefully adding html for background, text , placing photos in between text for relevant message, getting great results.
The game questioner answered with “thanks” so, not a “buyer” – maybe either another seller checking their game, someone looking for info, or wow, maybe my game is missing something!!!!
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Let’s be clear that some sellers are responsible for teaching buyers behaviors like this.
I’ve been buying a ton of stuff from sellers recently and it’s insane how bad most of them are at giving buyers any kind of confidence. Look at how nearly any large seller of consumer electronics handles descriptions – 1 or 2 lines about the item, then a whole bunch of disclaimers (“WILL NOT SHIP TO PO BOXES!!!! NO RETURNS!!!!!”) wrapped in a Web 1.0 graphic design nightmare promoting all their other listings. On more times than I can count I’ve had to Control-F for the item name just to figure out where they discuss the actual thing I’m looking at. Now imagine trying to get to that on the phone – not happening.
Why sort through potentially paragraphs worth of nonsense when “Contact Seller” is right there? If 9 times out of 10 a description just serves as an advertisement for something else, why would I keep clicking it? If every seller on eBay cared just as much about quality as every seller who browsed this forum, we wouldn’t have buyers like this. However, it’s clear we’re outnumbered – well, at least to me it is.
I’d say it’s maybe a 50/50 split on whether someone who messages me actually ends up buying the item, and just about every question is answered by either looking at pictures or the description, but I think it’s a bit presumptuous to assume everyone knows they can swipe to view more pictures, or click a relatively obscure button to learn more.
eBay’s UX is terrible. The entire listing page needs reworked IMO. You can see them experimenting a bit by putting snippits from the description under the title of some listings in search, but that rarely comes up.
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I just wanted to add something to the conversation about someone asking a question and then not buying.
Over a year ago, I had the feeling that some people asking questions were actually just fishing for a discount. I counted up the “conversions” from questions to purchases in the previous few months, and then started making offers when answering questions. The increase in the conversion was pretty substantial. I don’t remember the exact numbers, but something less than 50% to well above it. Definitely not a scientific experiment, but it continues to work for me.
When someone asks a question, I give a short answer with “make offer”. I had a number of sales like this over the summer. Every once in a while, I will not make a sale, but usually I do.
So, just consider that when you get a question that is already in the description. If you can offer just 10-15% off, you might make the sale.
Food for thought, and that 50 cent cup of coffee that Mike keeps talking about!
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Sharyn: You know that is a great idea. I see the MO button on all those answers I send back. We ceratinly have room for a discount for both our items going on Sale and taking Offers on top of it. So if they are asking a question, it surely wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and through a small percentage off in an offer.
Maybe end the answer, with and if you are interested we can do a good deal for you right now or something along those lines.
My old partner always kept saying, you have not because you ask not!
Mike at MDCGFA
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Executive Summary and Acquisition Rationale
Dornoch Capital Advisors, LLC is pleased to present this opportunity for you to purchase the Tranmere Rovers Football Club including its 16,587 all-seater grounds/stadiam (Prenton Park). Our firm, through its exclusive financial advisory relationship with the club and its involvement with management, believe that the acquisition of the club presents a unique opportunity for a wealthy sports enthusiast at this time due to the following:
Historic brand and fan base in FA football dating back over 100 years;
Strong capitalization of the club with zero indebtedness in a period when English Football is in the process of de-gearing/de-leveraging;
Low cost of entry for club with significant potential for promotion to the second division or potentially the Premiership;
Demographics and location in Merseyside with Liverpool being the European Center of Culture in 2008 and the Open Championship being played at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in 2007 make this 1.3 million population region quite attractive to sports owners;
The ability of the acquirer to institute industry best practice (U.S. style sports management and merchandising) to upgrade the fan experience in food/beverage, on-pitch performance, and match day entertainment thus driving additional revenues, earnings, promotions and cup titles;
The potential to pay for a portion of the acquisition through subsequent divestitures of excess/ non-income producing real estate with NO financial risk to the common shareholders;
Ability to generate pro-forma double digit returns on for the new investors;
Purchasing a Championship League caliber club at less than League One metrics;
FA Football represents the only worldwide sports brand which continues to grow at double-digit sponsorship and television media revenue growth; and
A current owner who will continue to capitalize the club through his preferred equity ownership interest and if desired by the new owners, an emeritus chairmanship/directorship.
TRFC finished only one point away from a playoff spot for promotion to the Coca Cola Championships league during their 2008/2009 campaignListed for a starting bid of $10,000,000 on eBay in 2009.
Item location: Pinehurst, NC, United States
Ships to: United States
Payments: PayPal, Pay on pickup“[Owner Peter] Johnson had hired Dornoch Capital, a specialist in selling sports franchises, to sell his shareholding. The listing was removed immediately following a public outcry.” (from Wikipedia) Apparently the club’s still for sale- make an offer, it’s been on the market since 2002.
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