vintage trinket / jewelry box

vintage painted box


ended - Thursday, May 15, 2008

Auction grade: D-

Starting bid: $1.99

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is some sort of vintage painted box. That's all that I can really say about it myself as the seller provided very little information about the actual item for sale.

The auction's title is virtually useless when it comes to search engine optimization. With the lack of key words and phrases, it's going to be blind luck that most people interested in this sort of item will actually find it from this seller. What good is taking the time, effort and money to create an auction if very little people are going to find it?

The auction's description is also very short and mysterious, providing the buyers with very little information about the item for sale. It's never a good sign when the seller types more information about their policies and other auctions than about the actual item for sale.

"6 1/2x31/2x2 inch box, Please look at my other auctions as I always have lots of neat stuff, I DO NOT ACCEPT PAYPAL"

For starters, the seller needs to space out the dimensions and make it easier to read. The version written above is garbled and cramped together, looking very sloppy and unprofessional.

We, the buyers, have no idea anything else dealing with this box. There's no indication of its age or origins, the material it's made out of, or even its overall condition. Nothing at all!

In the "Item Specifics" section, it's mentioned that this is a "trinket box". To me, that's an excellent key word that needs to be worked into the title and description. "Jewelry box" should also be used the same way in this auction.

Despite taking the time to take pretty good pictures of this painted box, the seller isn't even trying to sell it to potential buyers. The auction's description is a prime spot to write a small blurb about different ways the potential buyers can use and/or display this vintage box in their home. Don't just rely on pictures and a shoddy title & description to do that work for you. Take the time to at least try to make the advertisement more professional and enticing to potential buyers.

Looking at this seller's other items for sale, there's a definite pattern on the seller's lack of wording in both the title and description. True, this person has sold quite a bit of merchandise on eBay over the past year, but think of how much more could have been sold and for higher final selling prices. Obviously there's a demand for these older goods, but through proper internet marketing there is a great potential for even more sales.

One final note is that the seller is only turning away potential buyers by not accepting PayPal. That company may have some unfair policies and high fees at times, but you'll still come out ahead of the deal by offering customers as many ways of making payments as possible. This is especially true for those in today's fast paced world who would rather make an online payment and have their item shipped out that much faster.