baseball card & autograph listing

RYAN HOWARD CARD+FREE PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES AUTOGRAPHS?


ended - Thursday, April 24, 2008

Auction grade: F

Starting bid: $0.99

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a 2008 Topps baseball card for Ryan Howard. Basic internet research tells us that he plays for the Philadelphia Phillies. Also included with this card, and the main selling point of this auction, is a listing of player's names and home addresses, implying that if you send them a card then they will autograph it and send it back to you.

To start the criticism, the auction's title could use a bit of work. The seller needs to decide on the main item for sale and focus on marketing that item exclusively. Seeing all of the text in the auction's description, I'd guess that the seller is really pushing for people to buy his listing of player's names and addresses. After all, it's virtually free for him to send out e-mails with that kind of information whereas baseball cards are physical items and need to be shipped.

If the seller were to focus on the actual autograph listings themselves, then key words such as "autograph", "sports", "baseball", "football," and even a few key players' names could be included. Put yourself into the shoes of a buyer and try to use different key words to try to find your auction. See which words are more common than others, and in those searches see how high your auction ranks in the various search listings.

The first time I read through the auction's description, the word "scam" came to my mind. Here's a person using a large font with all capital letters, lots of spacing, and horrible grammar trying to sell us the idea of writing to current and former players and asking for autographs. The concept is simple and from the sound of things anybody can do it and have success doing so. It sounds too good to be true.


Let's take a look at a few examples from this seller's sales pitch.


"YOU ARE LOOKING AT A 2008 TOPPS RYAN HOWARD CARD, IF GRADED I THINK WOULD GET A 8 OR BETTER" - Actually, no we're not. The picture shows other sports cards and this is the only point in the auction that the Ryan Howard card is even mentioned (besides in the title). It's not even clear if it has been autographed or not. What is known is that the card has not been authenticated by anybody, whether it has been signed or not.

"WANT FREE AUTOGRAPHS?,"

"THE WINNER OF THIS ITEM WILL GET A RAMS ADDRESS LIST" - St. Louis Rams? The title talks about the Phillies.

"IM SURE YOU TRIED YOUR LUCK PULLING AUTO'S FROM THOSE 5 AND 10 DOLLAR PACKS AND ENDING UP WITH A JOHN DOE OR NOTHING AT ALL,"

"THE AUTOGRAPHS YOU SEE AINT FOR SELL, JUST TO SHOW YOU WHAT YOU CAN GET THROUGH THE MAIL," - Ahh, yes. It's so easy, anybody can do it!

"THE 1ST WAS SIGNED BY 11 DIFF NFL HOFERS, 2 HAS PASSED AWAY MAKING THIS CARD EVEN MORE RARE,"

"I BEEN COLLECTING THROUGH THE MAIL FOR YEARS AND AND HAVE OBTAINED MORE THEN 2,000 AUTOGRAPHS AND HAD MANY NAMES PSA/DNA CERIFIED"

"WHEN WRITEING TO PLAYERS, BE SURE TO INCLUDE A SELF ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOP, MOST WONT BOTHER WITH YOUR REQUEST WITH OUT IT"

"USE THE BUY IT NOW AND ILL THROW IN ANOTHER LIST OF YOUR CHOOSE"


So there we go. Between the seller's horrible grammar, weird & non-standard abbreviations, inability to form complete sentences, "get rich quick" mentality, and "bait and switch" tactic with using items not for sale in the picture, this auction is in dire need of a makeover to get rid of that scam feeling. Right now it's hard to take this seller seriously.

It's obvious in this auction that the seller is really pushing for you to go along and buy several more of his autograph lists. It's almost pure profit for him to sell them since he claims that he just e-mails them right after he receives your hard-earned money. And with only twenty-one players on the listing, I'm sure the seller has many extra listings that he's eager to sell.

If this was my auction, I would concentrate on selling that Ryan Howard card first (including having a picture of the actual card and making it clear whether or not it has been autographed), and then sell people on the idea of writing to players and asking for autographs. If the seller would rather sell the concept of autograph collecting, then that should be the primary item in this auction instead of the card.

The seller has the right idea with that item combination idea, but the execution is bad. I can see where people might be confused and think that real autographed cards are included in this auction. Then again, some people will read only what they want to read (such as just the title in this auction) and place a bid without knowing everything.

In addition to fixing the picture and all of the text associated with this auction, the shipping fee is way too high for just a baseball card. At least one person made a note about paying the $3.50 fee for something that was just stuck in an envelope. If you're going to sell us the idea that mailing cards to and from former players is so cheap, you could at least extend the same courtesy to the buyers and not rip them off with those shipping charges. This is especially true if the seller e-mails the player address listing instead of sending out a printed copy.

I'm not going to even mention the flaws with buying this card and address listing, hoping to strike it rich with autographs. This blog is only dedicated to actual auctions and the seller's methodology. It's up to the buyers to figure out if this will really work or not.

For an extra laugh, check out the seller's comments in response to buyers' feedback messages. It's always tempting to give buyers sarcastic answers, but his method doesn't quite have the same ring to it.


NOTE TO SELLER --- If you're going to write a snappy answer, you may want to check your own spelling & grammar skills first to avoid confusion as to which one is the dumber person. You may have also noticed by now that it's harder to make certain words stand out for effect when everything is typed in capital letters! On a final note, there are keys on the keyboard called apostrophes. You may want to start using them at some point.