zoom box
ended - Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Auction grade: F
Starting bid: $75.00
Final selling price: $75.00
Up for sale in this 10-day eBay auction is a "zoom box". According to the seller, "this is really cool kid friendly projector." That's it. No other text was listed in the auction.
In reality, there is no useful information about this particular eBay item. It's not even spelled correctly in the title (it's actually just one word - "ZOOMBOX"), but luckily for this seller, it still appears in a search for the word "zoombox".
Without a doubt, the title needs more key words such as "Hasbro", "Tiger", "digital projector", "home entertainment", and "DVD". All of that empty space is a waste of money considering the number of people who will not find this auction.
The main body of text also needs a lot of work. Telling us that it's a kid friendly projector is fine. But what else can you say? The online reviews weren't that promising on the unit as a whole, so in this case you need to talk about the different features.
- It can project a 60" image. - Wow, that's huge!
- It has a DVD player. - That's convenient!
- The projector has built in speakers. - More convenience!
- The replacement bulbs are cheap can last for 1,000 hours. - That'll save money in the long run!
- This is a great projector for kids or those wanting to experience a home theater without spending a lot of money. - It's great for beginners!
By using some wording like that people will be less likely to do their own research and find out the negative aspects. My own searching brought up many tales of the poor resolution (hard to read text on the screen) and fact that you'll need a very dark room and your own speakers to really enjoy watching and listening to movies. The below VGA resolution had a lot of people complaining that it was very hard to play console games with this projector.
The stock image needs to be replaced with a picture of the actual projector. If this was brand new, then the stock image would have been acceptable, but in this case the projector has been used. We don't know any details about how much or often it was used, and we definitely need to see a picture of the projector. With the seller advertising this as being "kid friendly", we need to make sure this one isn't damaged or anything else.
Considering the lack of information, the starting bid is too high for this used projector. Other people are selling used projectors with better descriptions (including talking about the condition of the unit) for cheaper prices. It's no wonder on why there aren't any bids this far into the auction process.
Overall, every part of this auction (except for the shipping) needs to be revised, from the starting bid to the title to the picture. The very reasonable shipping cost of only $5 saved this auction from receiving an F- auction grade. If you're going to spend the money to put out a long and somewhat expensive auction like this one, you need to take the time to do it right.
