LOT of NASCAR items

Toy Car Nascar Racing Lot of 3 Petty Cards Book(#6)


ended - Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Auction grade: C-

Starting bid: $1.99

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a small collection of semi-vintage, assorted NASCAR memorabilia.

The auction's title looks a little bit weird because it doesn't make much sense reading it from left to right, but the seller did manage to hit the major key words. This auction should have enough exposure, but by rearranging the words more people will click on the link and take a look at what's for sale.

The auction's description is where the seller really dropped the ball. The text and flow of words is horrible, and the seller failed to describe the items for sale.

"Lot of Three Neat Nascar Racing Items"

This part isn't bad despite the seller capitalizing the first letter of each word. On a side note, all of the letters in NASCAR are supposed to be capitalized. After all, it is an acronym for "National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing".

"Included are one Nascar toy car
A set of Richard Petty Cards
and a Nascar Collectible Book"

If you're going to do the trouble and pay the money for listing an auction, don't you think you could have done a slightly better job with the description than this? Let's look at this one line at a time.

"Included are one Nascar toy car"

First of all, if you're going to make a listing, use a colon followed by bullet points to separate the items. Otherwise, you'll end up with a sloppy and unprofessional statement like this.

Aside from the grammar problems, the seller failed to mention anything about the "toy car". Many buyers and fans of racing would like to know that this is a recreation of Dale Earnhardt, Junior's #3 ACDelco Chevy Monte Carlo car that he used when he won the 1998 Busch Grand Nationals Series Championship. (It took me less than two minutes to find that information chock-full of excellent key words.)

"A set of Richard Petty Cards"

So are these playing cards you would use in games like poker and blackjack, or is this some type of a NASCAR collector card set featuring highlights of the driver? The picture doesn't show us anything useful about the cards.

"and a Nascar Collectible Book"

Looking closely at the enlarged picture, this is a March 1992 Speedway Limited Edition racing memorabilia pocket price guide. When most people describe a sporting book as being a collectible, that usually means that the book focuses on a player, team, or entire sport for a season and gives you all sorts of facts, pictures, and other pieces of information. What we have here is a guide telling you how much certain memorabilia is worth. Being an outdated pricing guide that is nowhere near correct with today's values and prices for certain items, the book itself isn't exactly a collector's item.

"Email me if you want names or details of each box."

Is this referring to this lot, or is there something else that the seller didn't mention?

How about just taking the few extra minutes and listing everything in the auction in the first place?


Luckily for us potential buyers, this seller provided a large enough picture for us to see enough details about the items (except for the Richard Petty cards). The problem (aside from the problems already addressed above) is that showing items in a picture does not equal actually writing about them in the auction. The eBay search engine cannot look at the picture to see if something that somebody is searching for is in your auction.

For example, if somebody had their heart set on finding that 1992 Speedway Limited Edition racing memorabilia guide, they're certainly not going to find it from this seller. I found one available from a different seller, and it's only $0.49 (auction ends in twelve hours).


This seller has a lifetime history of over 6,000 positive pieces of feedback. Many of this person's other non-NASCAR auctions look neat and professional, so, obviously, they know how to sell on eBay and they've been doing it for a while. The seller admits that they don't know anything about racing by saying "I am not sure about these cars or the drivers" in a previous auction for a couple of die cast NASCAR cars.

I cannot say this clear enough: By not doing simple research you are leaving money on the table!

Take the few extra minutes and do some quick Google and Wikipedia searches and see what you can find.

Impossipuzzle puzzle

550 pc. IMPOSSIPIZZLE --BEANS


ended - Sunday, March 30, 2008

Auction grade: C+

Starting bid: $2.99

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a rather challenging type of jigsaw puzzle. This is known as an Impossipuzzle and is virtually guaranteed to keep puzzle fans busy for hours.

The auction's title is pretty weak and could benefit from another key word or two such as "puzzle", "game" or even "hard". The seller also needs to check their work and spell the item correctly.

The overall description isn't bad, but the flow of words and sentence fragments make it sound weird at times. For example:

"It is a fun but challenging puzzle to do" would probably sound better as "It is a challenging but fun puzzle to do."

"It is in good condition but used" should be something like "It was used but is still in very good condition."

"Winter is here, a nice way to spend your Long days." -- This is the wrong time of year to use this line. The seller has the right idea by giving the buyer a classic product usage scenario, but this is spring. As those waves of fresh warm air go rolling through the area it's time to get active and do things outdoors instead of staying cooped up in the house. This would be better suggested as a different type of birthday or "good grades in school" type gift.

The auction's picture looks pretty good and certainly gives the buyer a taste of what they're in for with a puzzle like this. The complicated and repetitive pattern is going to drive many people crazy as they search for the connecting pieces.

The last thing to touch on is the shipping price. I personally believe that $7.99 is a bit steep and that the seller is better off using a higher starting bid rather than guaranteeing money for themselves by hitting the buyers with high shipping costs. Most puzzles are very light weight and should only cost a couple of bucks to have it shipped economically across the country.


Overall, this isn't that bad of an auction, but a few changes with the title and description will definitely help with its exposure to more potential buyers.

Computer game bundle

Wheel of Fortune & Rollercoaster Tycoon PC Game *NEW*


ended - Saturday, March 29, 2008

Auction grade: D+

Starting bid: $0.01

Final selling price: $0.01


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a computer game double pack with Wheel of Fortune and the ever-popular RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. This is brand new and still in the factory sealed case.

The title for this auction looks very good. The one small modification to make is adding the number 2 to the "Rollercoaster Tycoon" computer game in the title. That is a series of amusement park creation games, so as you can probably imagine, it's very important to mention which one it is of the series.


The auction's description is where the seller loses a lot of credibility. It's nice knowing that Wheel of Fortune is a fun game, but you don't need to mention it twice and in that manner. The overall flow of text just doesn't seem quite right. Here's what the seller says about Wheel of Fortune:

"The original game, Wheel of Fortune: A fun Game, is a humorous time consuming game featuring the beautiful but friendly Vanna White .

Vanna must spin the wheel to bring your fortune to grandeur, if successful, it could bring you lots of money.

Play it and have loads of FUN!!!"

This makes me wonder if the seller has even played this version of the game versus just rewriting what might be written on the back of the package or what others may have said at a place like Amazon. There's nothing wrong with typing the official description as long as you cite the box as the source and put the words in quotation marks. The marketing company is using that text to sell their product, and you can do the same thing, too.


The next part of the description is where the seller loses even more credibility and respect.

"Rollercoaster Tycoon is the secound game on this CD package."

A) It's spelled RollerCoaster Tycoon (not that it really matters).

B) This is the second game in the series. The giant #2 on the package does have a meaning.

C) "second" is misspelled.

So what does that tell us about the seller?

This is a person who does not pay attention to detail and doesn't even bother to check their work.

The next part of the description is a flat-out lie.

"Ride game as you would at Six Flags Theme Park!!"

Yes, this version of the game does incorporate some of the Six Flags amusement parks and roller coasters, but you are not able to "ride" them in the game. The ability to ride your coasters in the first person point-of-view was not added until the third version of the RollerCoaster Tycoon series.


What bothers me the most is that this is an auction by an eBay PowerSeller who specializes in computer software and electronic accessories. The auctions all have the same feeling to them, though many that I checked weren't nearly as bad as this one. The seller needs to go back and redo this auction. This time putting a little effort into it.

The complete lack of attention to detail and proper product research led to the low score.

Hardcover children books

Lot of 5 Hard Cover Childrens Books.


ended - Friday, March 28, 2008

Auction grade: C-

Starting bid: $0.99

Final selling price: $0.99


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a small collection of five hardcover books for children. Seeing the titles, it looks like these are for early children or those looking to help their kids start reading.

The title isn't bad, but it'll need a few changes to help draw in more potential buyers. First, I would combine "hard cover" into one word (hardcover) and also remove the "s" off of "childrens". A lot more people will search for "children" rather than "childrens". eBay does not consider the two words as being the same, so you'll have different search results depending on which version you use.

The seller will also benefit from having the following key words in their title: "early", "young", and "kids". "Books" is the most important key word, and any other relevant terms describing the target age would be helpful.

The auction's description is where the seller gets sloppy and inconsistent with their work. Four of the five listed titles are either misspelled or missing a word. Surprisingly, it looks like all of the author's names are spelled correctly.

"The Wind in the Willow" should be "The Wind in the Willows"

"Danny the Dinosaur" should be "Danny and the Dinosaur"

"Songs of Shiprock" should be "Songs of Shiprock Fair"

"The Horroble Book" should be "Horrorble Book"

Check your work before you post an auction!!!

Despite the stupid mistakes with the titles, I like how the seller listed the books and their respective authors. I also like how one of the books has a short little description. That's also where the seller is inconsistent with this auction. If you're going to tell us about one of the books, then why not also write a sentence telling us about each of the other books? Remember that you don't want to have your customers go somewhere else to research a title and see what the book is about.

The picture is pretty good and all of the books are visible in the image. It's just too bad that the camera's flash is reflecting off of the bottom book. That can be corrected through proper camera techniques.

Overall, this isn't that bad of an auction. The main reason for the low score is from the seller being sloppy and not checking their work. The picture is pretty good and the low starting bid should entice some people to place a bid. The $4.50 shipping cost is a fairly reasonable price for five hardcover children books.

The only serious issue is whether or not to sell books like this on eBay. Unless you have rare out of print, first edition, or autographed titles, it's hard to make money by selling used books on eBay. The best approach for selling common titles is to sell them by the lot in either random collections (like this one), or by a common author/genre/theme.

Old baby doll carriage

Old Metal Baby Doll Carage


ended - Thursday, March 27, 2008

Auction grade: D

Starting bid: $9.99

Final selling price: $9.99


Up for sale in this eBay auction is an old, metal baby doll carriage / stroller. There's no indication of the age or general condition of the stroller.

The auction's title needs a lot of work. First of all, the seller needs to know how to spell "carriage" correctly. In addition to that, the following key words would be most beneficial for search engine results: "stroller", "child", "vintage", "antique", and a word I hate to use because of its general overuse in other applications, "buggy".

The current title is bland and looks unappealing, and the lack of key words will prevent it from showing up in most default searches.

The auction's description doesn't add much to the desirability either.

"Old metal doll stroller. The wheeles are wooden. I don't know much about this item."

So as a potential buyer, right now we don't know anything about the stroller's age, general condition (it looks really shoddy in the pictures), manufacturer, or even if a particular type of doll was made for a stroller of that size. If the seller's mother-in-law is somewhat of an antique dealer, she should have been able to provide some kind of information about the stroller. At least we know that the wheels are wooden.

I like how the seller used a ruler to give the buyers a sense of scale in the pictures, though the main picture doesn't load correctly for me. Also, the ruler doesn't line up anywhere near the end of the stroller in the second picture. I would have been nice if the seller at least gave us the stroller's basic dimensions (LxWxH).

Overall, I'll be very surprised if this item sells on eBay. The main problems with this auction are with the poor title and lack of information regarding the stroller. By not having any information and charging at least $18.94 ($9.99 starting bid + $8.95 shipping), it's going to be hard to make the sale.

20 toy military aircraft

Die Cast U.S.A. Toy Fighter Planes New 20


ended - Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Auction grade: C

Starting bid: $14.99

Final selling price: $14.99


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a small collection of twenty toy military aircraft. These are die-cast metal and look to be about 1/64th of their original size. I know that because I used to collect those exact toys a long time ago. I'm an aviation & military history dork :)

The title looks pretty good, but the seller will benefit by finding ways to add words and phrases such as "military", "bomber", "metal", "American", and even something like "LOT of 20".

The auction's description definitely needs some work. Here's exactly what it says:

"Up for your bids is this Really Neat set of 20 Fighter Planes. These are New, Never been played with. Just taken out of box to take picture. No broken parts. Absolutely a Must Have for the Military collector."

The first problem is the almost random capitalization of certain words. It makes no sense and I can only assume that the seller doesn't know how to write correctly. The same is true for the sentence fragments in the description.

My next problem is the way that the seller uses the generic "fighter planes" description for all of the aircraft in the collection. That is certainly not true. I know that the description on the box says "20 PC FAMOUS FIGHTER SET" and most people don't know or care that it technically isn't correct. This is just a seller trying to pass on some merchandise to the next person.

The description is another excellent place to use more key words talking about the different aircraft in the collection. Comments about the military would be useful as well as aviation in general. I'm willing to bet that there are some people that would enjoy setting up a display case with such aircraft, but they're going to have a hard time finding this auction.

The last problem that I noticed in the auction's description is when the seller mentions "No broken parts." That's a lie. Looking at the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter on the right side of the picture, the rotors blades are bent and broken. Those blades are plastic and it's very easy to bend and brake them with improper packaging. The winning bidder is going to be very sad when they examine that chopper and see the damage. This picture is evidence that it's already broken while still in the seller's possession, yet nothing is mentioned.

Just for fun, here's a listing of all of the aircraft in the picture: F-15, F-18, F-4, F-16, F-111, B-1, F-117, A-6, E-2, A-4, AV-8B, F-14, UH-60, A-10, B-52, SR-71, X-29, F-22, A-26 (not positive about that one), and a C-5. Five of them don't even carry any offensive weapons, and four others are bombers. That leaves the rest of them as fighter and attack aircraft.

That's just me being technical. From a selling point-of-view, if you don't know anything about military aircraft, then you would have a very hard time trying to identify the different aircraft in the collection. For this being a small collection of toys, that really isn't necessary. It would be better to leave that blank rather than guessing and incorrectly identifying some of the airplanes.

A final note is that there isn't any mention of the shipping costs. The seller only says that the shipping amount is the total weight and distance to your zip code.

Overall, this isn't that bad of an auction for toy aircraft. I know that I'm overly picky about certain aspects of auctions and items. The title isn't bad and the picture is pretty good. I like the way the seller neatly spaced out the different aircraft and all of them are visible in the picture.

I do believe that the seller is turning away business by not accepting online payments through PayPal or even Google Checkout. By making people mail you their payment and waiting days (even over a week at times) before the item is even mailed out will discourage people from making a bid.

Camping knives collection

*Collection of CAMPING KNIVES *SWISS ARMY TYPE & MORE!


ended - Sunday, March 23, 2008

Auction grade: D

Starting bid: $9.90

Final selling price: $18.12


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a small collection of apparently used (explained below) small folding knives used for camping and hiking. This must be an extremely rare collection since the subtitle on the search results page says "Over 5000 years old! *All Authentic *NOT COPIES! Real!!"

Starting out, the auction's title actually isn't that bad. I would have thrown in the word "hiking" and downgraded some of the capitalization, but the title has a few good key words. Apart from the picture, the rest of the auction goes downhill fast.

As it is shown above, the auction's subtitle is a riot. I didn't know that we had the technology 5,000 years ago to make such tools. It's also good to know that these knives aren't copies and are very much real. The "All Authentic" part isn't exactly truthful as the folding knife with all of the add-on features is a Swiss Army-type knife and not a real one.

Rest assured, the seller does point out the look-alike Swiss Army knife by saying: "PLEASE NOTE: THE LARGE SWISS ARMY STYLE KNIFE, IS NOT A SWISS ARMY KNIFE. BUT IT IS ALMOST LIKE ONE. AMAZING QUALITY LIKE A SWISS ARMY KNIFE. *IT'S NOT CHEAP." This invalidates the "All Authentic" part of the subtitle.

Starting at the top of the description you will find phrases like "INSANE LOW PRICES!", "COLLECTION", and the ever popular, "Super Cool." Is this a cheap discount store or a professional eBay PowerSeller?

The seller then goes on to list the knives in the auction using her own random pattern and terminology. It would have been nice if the knives were listed in order as they are in the picture. Buyers like to know exactly what they're receiving, and it cases like this you need to point out each one exactly. The "UNIPRICE SKINNING KNIFE" and "*INSTA-OPEN KNIVES" were new terms to me and to Google.

"YOU FIVE KNIVES TOTAL." - A) Can you say that in English? B) By my count there are six knives in the picture and the description.

"PAYPAL, MONEY ORDERS, OR CHECKS IS ACCEPTED AS PAYMENT!" - It's good that they are accepted as payment.

"Recieved" - received

"inconvience" - inconvenience

"The shipping discount is 1 dollar off per action. If you don't agree with the shipping policy. Please refrain from bidding." - Ok, but do you discount for shipping multiple auctions? Also, the last two sentences would probably be much better if they were put together as one sentence.

"I sell used items, and problems can always be exspected." - So therefore these knives are most likely used. That kind of information needs to be made clearer for the customers. More importantly, if problems can always be expected, then why should anyone do business with you?

"I promiss good customer service." - Such a promise shouldn't be needed from a PowerSeller. At eBay, your feedback lets people know how well you handle such things like that.

"COMBINE SHIPPING DISCOUNT" - Combined shipping discount

"Hi everybody, My Name is Jan." - Howdy, Jan! It's nice to meet you!

"I list everything for only .99 cents." - Ummm, that's not true for this auction. If so, then the buyer needs a discount of $8.91. Spot checking a few of her sold items, some were listed with starting bids of $9.90, while others were only $0.69. That tells me that this seller cannot hit keys correctly on the numeric keypad nor does she even bother to check her work.

"No reserved. So everybody will have a fair chance to bid." - I like this strategy (honest!) as I'm not a fan of participating in reserve auctions myself. This would look better without the sentence fragments.

The shipping & handling price for these knives is too high. You'll just scare away potential customers when you charge fees like that. Scamming people with high fees is not the way to win back repeat business. The $1 off combined shipping discount with each add-on item isn't a deal to the customers when your fees are that high.


Overall, this is a very sloppy and unprofessional auction. The seller made absolutely no effort to correct the many grammar and auction errors throughout this entire auction. The region / culture for these knives is not Japan, and the seller needs to make it known for a fact whether these knives are new or used. The auction's picture is very good and the title isn't bad, but the rest of it needs a complete makeover.

What bothers me the most is that this auction is by a PowerSeller with almost 1,900 positive pieces of feedback in the past twelve months. Obviously, the seller does not care about the inconsistencies with the "I list everything for .99 cents except when I can't hit the keys correctly" starting bids or other problems. What's equally scary are the number of people who reward a sloppy and very unprofessional person like this with business.

With the Internet and free tools such as Dictionary, Google, and Wikipedia, it's ridiculously easy to do basic research and checking. Take the time to double check your work and keep things consistent. As a PowerSeller, you shouldn't have auctions that look this poor and childish.

1982 U.S. coins proof set

1982 UNITED STATES PROOF SET !


ended - Saturday, March 22, 2008

Auction grade: C

Starting bid: $5.00

Final selling price: $5.00


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a 1982 proof set of U.S. coins. The coins are displayed in a holder and are in uncirculated condition.

In addition to taking the title off of all caps, the seller needs to add in key words such as "coin", "rare", "historic", "collection" and possibly even "uncirculated". Those are all relevant search terms (though some will debate as to whether or not they can be classified as rare and historic) and it will increase the number of search results. For best effect, I would definitely use the term "coin collection".

The auction's description is where the seller becomes very unprofessional. With the combination of the all capitalized text and various color patterns, it's as if the seller is copying universal auction text and just changing the blue parts to fit this auction. It looks tacky and just downright weird. This could also just be the seller's attempt at being creative. Either way, it doesn't work here in this auction.

The description is also where the seller dropped the ball and is going to miss being in a lot of searches. The seller should have listed every type of coin on the auction along with the presidents and scenes on each coin. It only takes a minute, but the possibility of drawing in other bidders not even looking for coins is enormous. Bullet points with each coin would probably be the best way to list this information.

The pictures look pretty good. I like how the seller is showing us both sides of the set of coins. That part looks fine.

It looks like the pricing probably won't go much higher than the current bid. By the time you combine the bid with the shipping price, you're in the price range that other sellers are using both on and off of eBay. Unless you're selling hundreds of small items each day, you're not going to be able to retire early selling low priced items like this on eBay.

Overall, the title and description need quite a bit of attention. Adding in those extra key words and descriptions will only help give the seller's auction the attention that it deserves. It's hard to make a sale when nobody knows that you're there.

Dale Junior remote controlled go-kart

REMOTE CONTROL DALE JR CART CAR WORKS NEEDS BATTERIES


ended - Friday, March 21, 2008

Auction grade: D

Starting bid: $9.99

Final selling price: $9.99


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a used Dale Earnhardt, Junior radio controlled go-kart. The kart has Dale Junior behind the wheel and ready to race around a driveway or other smooth surface.

As you can probably expect, the title needs work. First, the entire title doesn't need to be capitalized like that. The part that says "WORKS NEEDS BATTERIES" isn't necessary as those are low ranking search terms. The seller is better off with relevant key words such as "#8", "NASCAR" and even "go-kart". It's easy to use words and phrases relating to both the popular NASCAR driver and the actual toy car.

Looking at the description, it's obvious that the seller knows nothing about racing and Dale Junior, and this person has the typing skills of somebody in elementary school. I know that a lot of both buyers and sellers don't care about presenting themselves in a professional manner, but if you can't type, people will laugh at you and turn away from the sale. You're only hurting yourself in the end.

This item's description is a prime area to throw out a little information about the driver. As most race fans know, this is the old version of Dale Junior with his old number, sponsor and color scheme. In essence this is a collector's item that people are willing to collect. The problem is that many collectors are going to miss this auction because the seller failed to market it properly. A simple blurb about NASCAR and the driver will do wonders to the search results. It would also help to SPELL THE DRIVER'S NAME CORRECTLY!!!

This particular remote controlled car is a little bit different than the traditional and far more popular stock cars that most people sell online. This one has Dale behind the wheel of a go-kart (note - it's not spelled "cart") like he's racing in the Endurance Karting or other similar go-kart racing league. With this being different and rather unconventional, this is a great chance to draw extra attention to the auction. A special reference to this in the title and description will help draw in a few more potential buyers.

As a used item with moving parts, the seller needs to mention the go-kart's condition and say if there are any driving or control problems. All we know is that it works and needs batteries. We also need to know the size of the go-kart. There's no indication of the size or scale of the car in the description or picture.

In addition to fixing the title and description, the picture needs to be changed, too. This is a poor resolution picture showing the car from a horrible angle. It's very hard to see any details. The seller may want to put the controller in the picture, too.

For a used remote controlled car, I feel that the pricing for this one is a little bit too high. Considering that you'll be paying at least $20 ($10.49 + $9.95 for shipping) for the toy, that could be put towards a new remote controlled stock car. Most people are selling brand new 1/32 scale remote controlled NASCAR stock cars for around $22-25.

Overall, many parts of this auction need work and adjusting to help draw in more bidders. If you're going to go through the hassle and effort to pay for and list an item, you might as well do some research and try to draw in as many bidders as possible. Use online tools such as Google and Wikipedia to your advantage. A few minutes of research can go a long way.

2MP DSC-P51 Sony digital camera

Great Deal! Sony DSC-P51- See It's Pictures- Extras!


ended - Thursday, March 20, 2008

Auction grade: C-

Starting bid: $48.75

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a Sony DSC-P51 digital camera. This is a 2 mega-pixel camera with a 2x optical zoom and a 6x digital zoom. Overall, this is considered a very basic digital camera in today's society. As a comparison, my own Sony Ericsson cell phone has a 2 mega-pixel camera.

For starters, this auction's title needs quite a bit of work. Apart from using the wrong version of "its" (check your grammar), the seller is also leaving out important key words such as "digital camera", "2MP", and even "Cyber-shot". In this case, the seller may want to mention it being a beginner's camera to help entice other bidders.

The auction's description needs a little bit of adjusting, too. For someone who starts their description by saying "Please read this description carefully!", the seller ironically chose a bad typing format. All of the camera, auction, and shipping information is in one giant paragraph. The darkish blue font on the white background looks pretty good, but the general layout needs to be fixed.

All of the camera's technical information needs to be listed separately and with bullet points. There's no point in hiding what little the camera can do, and by suggesting that people check other reviews on the internet means that they will find out the details anyway. You may as well be honest and list everything that you can about the camera right here in the description.

In addition to the camera's information, all of the accessories need to be listed separately and with bullet points, too. Let the buyers know that this comes with a few rechargeable batteries and a charger. Be proud of throwing in the hand strap and those massive memory cards (4mb and 64mb).

The pictures of the camera and all of the included accessories look pretty good. The sample images are where I have my problems. Apart from being very small, they also look like garbage.

This "landscape" shot looks like the seller took a picture of a painting or picture (you can see the flash's reflection on the bottom, tape holding the top of picture against the wall, and the upper edge of the picture in the top right of the image). If you're going to do the trouble of taking a sample image, show us a real full size image of a real landscape shot.

(Next time provide a link to a real landscape picture that you took, not a picture of a picture.)

Overall, this is a basic, used camera trying to compete with today's current cameras. I can't fault the seller for trying to sell the camera and hype up all of its features, but I'll be surprised if it sells. The camera's 2x optical zoom isn't going to make any real difference, and the 6x digital zoom is a complete joke (digital zoom itself is useless unless you like pixelated and low resolution images). The selling point of "Really neat is that the camera driver downloads to your PC from the camera itself!" isn't that special today. Almost all of today's cameras can plug into your computer with a USB cable, and some basic models even include a special "docking port" to do the same thing.

This camera did receive quite a few favorable reviews on different websites. That's true. It's also true that the seller will be lucky to get any bids with a starting bid that high. After encouraging buyers to look at the camera reviews, he is essentially making them educate themselves. How many people are going to want to spend at least $58 (starting bid + shipping) for an old, used, outdated digital camera when that much money can be put to a new one?

I would focus on selling the camera itself as an excellent beginner's camera and cut the starting bid in half. I also wouldn't tell people to research the reviews (keep their attention here at the auction). In addition to that, I would list the common picture resolution sizes and show them real sample images of what the camera can do in various lighting conditions.

The reasons for the auction's lower score are for the title needing a lot of work, the description needing spacing and formatting, and the poor / fake sample images.

Asian bowl & spoon

Japanese Or Chinese Bowl with Spoon ????


ended - Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Auction grade: D+

Starting bid: $9.99

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is an antique Asian bowl and spoon. The exact type of material isn't mentioned, whether it's ceramic or something else. The seller claims that her father brought it back from Japan sometime well before the 1960's. This bowl and spoon combination has been displayed in a china cabinet for quite some time and is in a nearly perfect condition.

First, the auction's title definitely needs some work. It's obvious the seller has no clue as to the bowl's origins besides the fact that it's from Asia. Both "Japanese" and "Chinese" are good words, but I would also use "Asian" and "antique". If this is ceramic, then that fact should also be mentioned in the title.

The other main problem with the auction title is that the seller is admitting that she has no idea about the item. The buyers who have specific knowledge about items like this may take advantage of the seller, while other average buyers who are just shopping are going to stay away because the seller can't tell them anything specific. The auction's title needs to look both vague and specific at the same time. Make it look like you're fishing with key words and not just guessing to the item's history. If you honestly don't know anything about the item, make a mention of it in the description, not the title.

The item's description is in desperate need of an editor. After reading through the seller's rambling, it's known that her father was stationed in Japan while he was in the military (big fault on the seller for not knowing when her father was there!), and when he came home he brought back this bowl & spoon amongst other items. The seller also mentions how the bowl and spoon were displayed in a china cabinet for a very long time, and at this point in time they're still in excellent condition. It's free of chips and cracks and apparently is extremely clean.

That part of the description is great (besides the butchering of the English language and complete lack of family knowledge). As a buyer you know that it came from overseas and the owners took care of it. By being in a closed cabinet it remained relatively free of dirt, dust and human fingerprints. This would most likely look good in your own collection.

The last part of the auction's description is completely unnecessary. Nobody really wants to hear about how you have a bunch of kids running around somewhere near Denver and how you want to buy them new clothes and take them to the local amusement park. Lots of people have children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews and want to do lots of things with them, too. Trying to use sympathy like this is not the best way to make a sale on eBay. Perhaps a special "I-want-to-spend-lots-of-money-on-my-grandchildren-please-help-us-have-fun" locally advertised garage sale would produce better results.

Using sympathy is one of the oldest tricks used in marketing. I'm not saying this is the case here, but online scam artists commonly play the roles of an elderly lady or mother of really sick children to force people to donate. By not actually knowing the seller you really don't know if their pet dog needs a $5,000.00 operation or if that elderly lady's home is about to be taken away from her. It's human nature to want to help others in their time of need, but two statements come to mind each time these stories happen:
1) Not every person can be helped. Everybody has problems and most of them will be worked out in one way or another. It's not possible or practical to fix every single problem out there.
2) Not every problem is legitimate. Scam artists will beg and plead until you're out of money before they move on to the next person and repeat the process. Without actually meeting the customers in person or even on the phone, it's very easy to impersonate somebody else.

In this auction we honestly don't know the seller and her comments about the children. The typing style generally reflects an uneducated, older female. She chose to tell us about the grandchildren for a reason. Her story is no different than hundreds of other sellers out there.

If you're going to use sympathy as a selling strategy, make it as legitimate as possible. If you have a life threatening condition and desperately need money for an operation, try to get the story backed by the local media. In most cases they'll gladly cover a story like that. Have a link in the auction to the official story and let people see it for themselves. In addition to increased sales, you'll also receive donations from random people.

Save sympathy for those people that really need it.

Getting back to problems with the actual auction, the pictures are plenty but blurry. The seller gets extra credit for posting multiple pictures like this, but it doesn't do much good when they're blurry and it's hard to see the details.

The final part to point out is the shipping and handling cost. The actual auction doesn't have a fee listed, but the search results shows a charge of $9.80 to send the bowl from Denver to here in Atlanta. The seller mentions charging an 85 cent handling fee, but unless the bowl weighs about eight or nine pounds, it sounds like she's overcharging by more than that.

Overall, this auction needs to be completely rewritten. The seller had a couple of good points with the bowl's physical condition and the extra pictures, but all of the text needs to go through a grammar checker. It would be better if the seller just presented herself as just a kind grandmother instead of a grandmother looking for extra money to spend on the grandchildren. If she was creative enough to label the item's location as "Purple Mountains Majesty" instead of the actual town name (Idaho Springs? Colorado Springs?), then I'm sure she can find a more creative way to sell her items.

1944 Greyhound bus time table & map

1944 Greyhound Bus Time Table "Buy War Bonds & Stamps"


ended - Friday, March 14, 2008

Auction grade: B+

Starting bid: $5.00

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a vintage bus time table and map for Greyhound back in 1944. This is a special World War 2 edition that advertises buying war bonds and stamps on its cover.

For the most part, this looks like a pretty good auction. The title is very descriptive and the pictures are excellent.

The title could be modified a little bit by adding "vintage", "map", and "world war 2" / "WW2" key words. Space is going to be an issue, and in this case it may be necessary to remove the "Buy War Bonds & Stamps" part to make room for other key words.

The auction's description could also use a little bit of more words, too. The seller mentions that the time table is fourteen pages long, but it's hard to see it in the pictures. One picture has the cover of the time table, and the other picture has the large fold-out map. Is the map separate from the time table, or is all of that information printed on the other side of the map?

The seller also needs to mention the route map in the description. This is a vintage item that would look great framed and hanging on a wall. By mentioning something like that and giving people ideas of how to preserve this time table, you're creating a sense of value for the item. When people can realistically picture using the item or putting it on display in their home or office, they're going to be more likely to make a bid. Don't be afraid to mention how this map would be perfect for those interested in transportation, or for people who used to travel by bus back in those days.

The two pictures look really good. I would take a third picture and show the other side of the map. I like how the seller used a ruler to show a sense of scale.

Overall, this is a pretty good auction that only needs a couple of minor changes to bring in more customers.

Vintage Walt Disney World candy dish

NEAT WALT DISNEY WORLD CANDY DISH FROM THE EARLY 1970's


ended - Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Auction grade: D

Starting bid: $0.99

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a vintage candy dish from the Walt Disney World Resort back in the 1970's. Not a whole lot of information was provided by the seller.

For starters, the auction title needs some work. Along with changing the text so that it isn't in all capital letters, the seller needs to add key words such as "vintage", "WDW", "70s", "monorail" and/or "Magic Kingdom".

The main body of text definitely needs more work. As you can see below, the text is nearly identical to the auction title.

"THIS IS A NEAT CANDY DISH FROM THE WALT DISNEY WORLD MAGIC KINGDOM FROM THE EARLY 1970's."

The thing to know about selling Disney merchandise, especially from the movies and theme parks, is that most of the fans are knowledgeable and particular. They know the names of the different characters, theme parks, hotels, lands, and attractions. They also know how to search for them on eBay using a variety of search techniques.

This seller really dropped the ball by not being nearly as descriptive in the auction's description. It isn't necessary to go into detail and history of the resort, but it's fairly easy to list each of the different scenes on the candy dish. Remember, the auction's description is searchable as long as the box is checked (in the advanced search options).

If you don't know the different scenes, there are dozens of WDW websites filled with pictures of the resort area. For example, one of them is The Florida Project. For selling a unique and vintage item like this one, you need to take the time to list it correctly. Otherwise, you're just throwing your money down the drain.

We also need to know the size of the candy dish. What is the diameter? How tall is it?

In addition to fixing the title and description, this auction is also in need of a new, clear picture. The one here is washed out and looks like it was taken back in the 1970's. It's hard to make out some of the scenes on the candy dish. A close-up picture of a scene or two on the dish would also help.

On a final note, the shipping rate is a little bit high. Unless this is a very large or heavy dish (an unknown, as noted above), the $8.95 rate is high.

Overall, this is a poorly constructed auction in need of some desperate work. I'm surprised that a PowerSeller created an auction like this one and expects it to sell. Especially with this being an Orlando-based seller trying to sell Disney merchandise.

USAF Sabre Jet Motor Lodge sign

AIR FORCE SABRE JET MOTOR LODGE SIGN AGED METAL


ended - Sunday, March 9, 2008

Auction grade: B

Starting bid: $22.95

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for bid in this eBay auction is a vintage motor lodge sign featuring the USAF F-86 Sabre. The seller claims that this a current production sign with a 1950's theme to it.


I like this sign and the vintage look to it, but changes need to be made to increase traffic.

First, the title needs some adjusting. It needs to be written with regular sized characters, and certainly not all caps like it is now. Also, a few more keys words need to be added to the title. "USAF" and "military" will definitely help increase the number of viewers.

The other main part of the auction that needs adjusting is the item's description.

First, the seller needs to say directly whether or not this exact sign was made in the 1950's or if it was made today and designed to look like it was from that era. The title says "aged metal", but the description mentions "current production sign." Well, which one is it? Vintage items are popular these days, and some companies are producing modern day replicas of vintage signs, furniture, etc.

Second, the seller could easily have gone into a little detail about the F-86 Sabre. I know from my own independent military aviation studies that the F-86 was the primary fighter used by our forces during the Korean Conflict. It hunted and destroyed Soviet-made and Soviet/Chinese/Korean-piloted MiG-15 fighters in "MiG Alley" on the China-Korean border. Any facts and pieces of information like that are excellent add-ons for the item's description. By mentioning a little bit about the aircraft, USAF, military, and Korean War, all of a sudden you have a bunch of excellent key words. It will also help you look more professional as long as your facts are correct.

Third, the spacing and general format of the description needs to be fixed. A bunch of sentence fragments separated only by periods (no spacing) isn't the way to do it. Dimensions are best being listed separately so they stand out and are easier to read. Facts and observations should be listed first in one paragraph, and opinions and other pieces of information need to go in following paragraphs.

It's interesting to see that the sign has the aircraft spelled "SABER JET". The military spelled the aircraft as either "Sabre" or "Sabrejet" (no space). The seller even spelled it correctly in the title. Did the designer of the sign intentionally misspell the aircraft, or was it an accident?

Runaway slaves wanted poster

1837 wanted poster 3 runaway slaves make offer


ends - Thursday, March 6, 2008

Auction grade: C+

Starting bid: $200.00

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is an antique wanted poster for three runaway slaves back in 1837 in northern Kentucky. A $300 cash reward is being offered for the return of the slaves.

The title for this auction doesn't look that bad. Apart from putting the word "wanted" in all capital letters for effect, I would also add key words such as "vintage", "antique", "historic" and probably even "Kentucky". The "make offer" part could easily be removed and replaced with a better key word or words.

The main body of text needs a lot of work to make it more professional and easier to read. Things like periods and actual paragraphs will make it much easier to read and follow what the seller is trying to say. It's amusing to see how someone back in 1837 could write much better than someone from the same general area today.

I like how the seller says how he acquired the item and gives some physical details about the wanted poster. I also appreciate the seller's honesty when it's mentioned that at least one dealer could not tell if it's authentic or not. That's also going to be a death blow for this auction. Without some sort of certificate of authenticity to prove its age, it's highly unlikely that somebody is going to place a bid. Also, stuff like "so take a chance if real is valued at 5000.00 if not look how neat" doesn't exactly sound convincing either.

The seller mentions making him an offer for the wanted posted. It would help if the "Best Offer" was actually available for buyers. When setting up the auction, you need to select the "Best Offer" option when telling eBay that you also want to do a fixed price format. When it's activated, you'll see the words "or Best Offer" under the "Buy It Now" logo. It'll also appear in its own section near the top of the actual auction with its own link.

Is this seller trying to pull a fast one by advising you to use the "Buy It Now" link to make an offer even though it won't work that way?

The final things to change are the details in the "item specifics" section. The region/culture is not Asian or China, and I wouldn't classify this as being black memorabilia. When determining the target audience for this type of wanted poster, I would most likely use the general "historical memorabilia" tag in the "antiques" category.

On a plus side, the pictures are excellent. The seller did it right by showing the document from many angles and levels of zoom.

Overall, this advertisement needs extensive editing in the item specifics and main body of text. The seller also needs to enable the "Best Offer" option if he wants buyers to be able to use it.

Is this an authentic wanted poster from 1837 and an apparently good deal, or is this a hoax? I honestly don't know. How many other buyers feel the same way?

Nikon Coolpix S1 digital camera

Nikon Coolpix S1 5.1 Megapixel


ended - Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Auction grade: B+

Starting bid: $0.99

Final selling price: $28.00


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a used Nikon Coolpix S1 compact digital camera. In addition to listing some technical details, the seller also mentions a couple of problems with the camera.

The title of this auction does a good job mentioning the manufacturer and model, but the seller forgets to include key words such as "compact" and the critical "digital camera." The advertisement will receive much more exposure by mentioning the type of item in the title. Key words are critical in the title!

The main body of the auction is neatly laid out and easy to read. Certain details about the camera are easy to find. I appreciate the seller's honesty when he mentions the problems and missing equipment. The malfunctioning flash and mysterious circles in some photos will turn away most bidders. It could be user error like the seller says, but with an instruction manual and with most point-and-shoot cameras being very simple to operate, I would say that this is most likely a more serious problem with the camera.

For this auction, I would have liked to know how long the seller has had the camera and roughly how often it was used. Digital cameras aren't known for having the longest lifespans, especially when people take them on vacation.

Apart from adding key words to the title, the seller also didn't mention any shipping information. There's no mention on how much you'll have to pay to have this camera shipped from Columbus, Ohio.

Overall, this is a nice looking and well organized auction. A few changes will help bring in more potential bidders. I do give this seller credit for trying to sell a possibly damaged camera on eBay, knowing full well that the final price might be next to nothing.