1978 Kiss trading cards

1978 KISS ROCK BAND UNOPENED PACK


ended - Saturday, May 31, 2008

Auction grade: D-

Starting bid: $5.00

Final selling price: $5.50


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a set of unopened Kiss bubble gum trading cards from 1978.

Aside from not typing in all capital letters, the seller needs to find a way to add "trading cards" into the title. If there's enough room "bubble gum cards" would also work. No matter what, you always need to mention the actual item for sale in the title.

The actual description for this item is a lot worse than the title. One of my rules is to never mention yourself or your company before talking about the item for sale. It's fine to add it in the description to help the potential buyers decide to buy from you, but you never want to talk about yourself first. The buyer clicked on the item to learn more about it, not you!

So why does this description suck and need to be rewritten? Here are some items needing immediate adjusting:

1) Everything it typed in all capital letters (big no-no in the online world).

2) There's absolutely no spacing between sentences, making it hard to read what this person is trying to say.

3) The actual item information is very limited and the fourth and fifth sentences in that giant mess of text.


Here's all that the seller could say about this item for sale: "JUST PURCHASED A UNOPENED 1978 KISS ROCK BAND PACK.NEAT ITEM."

That's it. All of the other text deals with the seller taking about his company, shipping and payment information, and other items for sale. There's no information about this package of playing cards or even any basic information about Kiss.

The problem with being this basic and non-descriptive is that unless you're already a huge fan of the rock band, there's absolutely no desirability in this auction. Nothing in the text or picture wants to make you place a bid. It's a workout reading through the unorganized (and at times grammatically incorrect) text and it leaves you more depressed than anxious to buy the item for sale.

I know that this is a PowerSeller who apparently does quite a bit of business each month here on eBay. Almost all of this person's other auctions are listed in the same format, so obviously this person isn't going to be changing their ways anytime soon. After all, why go through the trouble of changing when you're already pulling in good business? The answer is in the form of a pair of questions: How much more money could you be making if customers weren't turned away by the fact that the auction is very basic and hard to read? Is it worth it taking the extra couple of minutes to present a much better looking auction that creates desirability and makes even more people want to buy from you?

If this were my auction, in the description I would first mention everything that I could about the actual trading cards in the first paragraph. After that would be a small paragraph either talking about the rock band or card collecting in general. If I had the extra time I would probably talk about both subjects and how the cards are an investment and appreciate in value. Finally, after creating that high level of desirability I would talk about my auction company. In this case, bullet points showing off the high levels of business and customer satisfaction rating would be excellent.

Remember, sell the product first and then yourself second. Most people don't shop by looking at eBay user names but by the title and picture of the items for sale. People are there to save money and acquire rare and hard-to-find items.

Had it not been for the clear picture of the unopened trading cards, I would have given this auction a failing score. Between the title not mentioning the actual item for sale and the horrible text in the description, this auction has a lot of areas for improvement.

Tour service brochure for Chicago's 1933 World's Fair

THE GRAY LINE, A Century Of Progress,World's Fair


ended - Thursday, May 22, 2008

Auction grade: C-

Starting bid: $1.00

Final selling price: $3.25


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a bus tour guide for when Chicago hosted the "A Century of Progress" themed World's Fair.

This auction's title can easily be rewritten to include more key words and avoid having a subtitle. For low cost auctions like this one, it's actually not worth it to have the subtitle because that directly cuts right into your profit (assuming the auction even sells). Save the subtitles for higher priced auctions.

"Chicago", "World's Fair", "Gray Line", "bus tour", "vintage", and even "antique" should all be able to fit into a new title, along with possibly adding the years of the fair itself.

The auction's description leaves a lot of room for improvement.

"This is a very good Print in very good condition for The Grey Line bus tour's of The World;s Fair Chicago."

- "very good" - redundant when used twice in a row like that

- "Print" - "print"

- "Grey Line" - "Gray Line" (just like how it's printed on the brochure)

- "bus tour's" - should be "bus tours"

- "World;s" - "World's"

- "The World;s Fair Chicago" - could be rewritten such as "Chicago's 1933 World's Fair"


Apart from that poorly constructed sentence above, there isn't any other information about this item or Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair. This is a golden opportunity to add a little bit of extra information to A) add in a few extra key words, and B) educate and get the customer more interested in the fair and this item from that period in time.

The auction's pictures also need to be improved. I like how the seller made an official backdrop for the pictures. That part looks very nice and shows that the seller is trying to be professional. The unprofessional parts are how the seller shot in a widescreen resolution (16:9 or 16:10 instead of the usual 4:3 that most people use) for a tall and narrow item. It's fine to shoot pictures that way for wide items, but not for something like this. The seller also should have rotated the camera onto its side to take vertical pictures of the brochure.

Personally, I also believe that the seller is displaying too many pictures of this brochure. Old flyers and brochures typically have low final selling prices, so every extra item added to this auction (subtitle, extra pictures, etc.) just lowers your final profit. In this case I would just use the two main fold-out pictures that show the brochure in general. It shows the buyers enough information without them being able to read everything in the brochure and not placing a bid.

Overall, this auction can be trimmed down and improved to slightly increase the chances of having it being sold on eBay. I used the term "slightly" because sold individually, most old and vintage brochures like this one typically sell for very low prices, if they sell at all. This has a reasonable starting bid and a very low shipping price, but there still isn't much of a market for items like this to be sold by themselves. If this was my auction and I had other old brochures similar to this, I would just group them together and sell them as a lot (after I scan them and keep a copy of it for myself, first ;) ).

On a side note:

"I am liquidating a estate and have allot of very neat things"

- "a estate" - "an estate"

- "allot" - "a lot"