New seller trying to navigate this site

[theElench]

@ Bittyboy.

I have to admit I didn't know that editing your listings with extra photos resulted in them disappearing. I've rarely paid for extra photos, there's only so many angles you can take pictures of an old vase from without becoming boring !

It does seem wrong as you paid for them and then edited a different part of the listing. Perhaps ask support if you inadvertently did something wrong and if there is way to avoid it happening again ?

It might well take you a while to get things right here, I've had years to play around with titles to see what, if anything, gets extra visibility. I started looking at GS back during Covid lock-down due to boredom and something someone said here on the boards about not having exactly the same ad. title here and on obay, which is what I was doing. GS will show the ad. from the larger site and then ignores the other (from ebid) as a duplicate. My sales did increase, so I experimented further.

Perhaps try starting with a small sample of your ads. I mentioned earlier that some of the later types have names (Yale / Chub), why not edit them to show the name first? That's all I did after trying Robbie's advice about "Art Deco" being too generic. It made my title more specific to the manufacturer's name and straight away if I searched for e.g "Bagley Art Deco Glass" Ebid and some of my listings became visible.

It might work for you and as you know far more about locks than I do, you know what potential buyers might look for and which words need to be moved to the front of the title. If having the name first in your title gets views, that's an improvement, if it doesn't try something different.

Back in glass, another feature that I hope will attract buyers is "Uranium". If after a few months still nothing has sold, I'll edit all my listings with Uranium in the title to move it to the first(strongest) word. It's all hit and miss as Google goes to great lengths to make its workings opaque and "gaming" proof.

[Bittyboy101]

Hi Elench,

Thanks for your last post.

Yes, It's sad that I can't touch/edit those listings on here due to fear of losing all the additional paid photos.

I don't believe that I did anything wrong, I think it's a technical glitch, perhaps poor programming somewhere in the HTML script.

I've had it happen 3 times since I've been on here and it's not nice. Whilst it's not about the money, It is the degree of inconvenience it causes having to locate all the additional pics again and fix what's been lost.

It's only a small matter, so I haven't said anything to eBid support but it does prevent me from opening up those 5 listings to reduce the prices on those items to help them sell more easily.

BTW, Thanks for your suggestions regarding putting the maker's names of the locks I'm selling in my listing titles... I will try this and see what happens.

Just looking at eBay and I can see someone couldn't wait to replace me on there selling very similar locks to mine at very low prices completely pricing me out of the market

EDIT:

If I do go back there and that is a BIG "IF" I'll have to sell something else totally different as with this new seller selling everything so dirt cheap I've got no chance of ever selling any of my locks now unless i sell them for £7 each which is just awful

[theElench]

Good morning Bittyboy

I re-read your earlier post #189 where you say that editing "knocks your photos down to 15". Didn't you say on an earlier post that you'd payed £70 for Platinum Membership? If so I think you're entitled to use up to 20 photos per listing, not 15, so you shouldn't be paying for 'extras' if you're posting 20 or less. I'm pretty sure that by using Platinum listings I can add up to 20 photos, not 100% sure as I rarely use more than half that number.

I know that at 3p a photo it's a minor matter and perhaps not worth bothering Support with, but if this is happening consistently, it does look like a glitch. As editing isn't knocking you down to 15 because the rest are "extras" if you're allowed 20 to begin with, it's deleting some of your entitlement.

I would definitely contact Support to let them know about the problem and I'd also start a thread explaining it to other members on the "Website Glitches" Forum. There is some chance that Support will reply on the thread or that another member can help.

[Bittyboy101]

Good morning Elench,

Yes, I did pay the £69.99 in good faith for the eBid full Platinum membership and you're correct that I should be allowed up to 20 photos per listing.

The setup is like this, they let you have up to 20 photos per listing on full Platinum membership, the first 15 photos are free, and then you have to pay 3 pence for every additional photo you add to your listing after the free 15 photos have all been used up.

Like I said previously in my last post, It's not the money, but the shear inconvenience of suddenly losing the additional photos if i open, edit and then reseal the listing.

This really shouldn't happen but unfortunately it does and I've been stung 3 times by this ! so now I know better then to touch those listings which have more than 15 photographs on them, as in certain cases for some locks I need to record more additional pics to show buyer's clear measurements.

I wish there was a main list where you could revise/edit the price of your listings without needing to go to the listings and manually open them up to do a price revision. This would have been great.

Have a great day Elench

[johnwash1]

...

If I do go back there and that is a BIG "IF" I'll have to sell something else totally different as with this new seller selling everything so dirt cheap I've got no chance of ever selling any of my locks now unless i sell them for £7 each which is just awful

Everyone is different, but my feeling is that to be successful and motivated you either have to sell your clutter or sell a product that you love. I guess drug dealers would disagree with me though!

I'm surprised you're taking so many photos. Regardless of what the upper limit really is, how can you not tell everything relevant about a lock in, say, a dozen photos? The back, the front, some side views, a couple of the inside perhaps. A close-up of a scratch. I'm struggling to think what else. Sometimes less is more?

With my own photos what do I do? Take a hard drive, which I've sold quite a number of. As a minimum I photo the front, back, 4 side views. A close-up of the data panel. Maybe a closeup of the pcb if its visible. So 10 at a push.

But for me books are an exception. Over the other side I've often got up to their limit of 24. Outside of the book, including showing any wear on the spine, can easily be 5. Contents pages, first page of chapter 1, lots of random pages showing the variety of info in the book, including photos/diagrams if they're a relevant aspect. I soon use my allocation.

And my final thought is: don't be suckered into a race to the bottom. Earlier this year I was critical of someone selling jigsaws, pricing them even as high as £10. I'd struggled to sell any for little more than the £3 postage. But I was wrong, they make successful sales, I guess they know their market and not every jigsaw is equally desirable.

I need some AA batteries at present. I'm agonising over it. In the past I've bought a pack of Amazon batteries and they turned out to be rather naff, didn't last long. But I hate buying products that do lots of advertising (Duracell bunnies?), thinking of all the money that ads cost instead of making the product itself. So if your locks are outstandingly good, they should command a premium, but equally you need to be realistic. I find pricing very hard. I'm currently in a back and forth with someone on oBay making offers and I'm getting rather fed up with it.

[Bittyboy101]

@ Johnwash1

As I already said in my last post, I need to take many pictures to show various angles and measurements of the locks, some locks require even more additional photos to show even more measurement details which is very important to some buyers.

With all due respect as a full eBid member I should be able to have up to 20 photos on my listings (if I need them) and if they require additional payment which I have already paid for, then if I decide to lower the price of my listings, those extra photos over the standard 15 should not be disappearing like this. This is poor show.

I am allowed to have those additional photos, They have been paid for, They should still remain even if I edit my listings and seal them up again. after all they are NOT new listings so the 18 photos I have uploaded to some of my listings should not revert back down to 15 when they were 18 BEFORE the price edit took place, no photos were touched (added or deleted by myself) so eBid's server must have a programming issue somewhere is my guess as this should not be happening but it does.

If any of you guys have the full platinum membership, please try this, make a listing, add 16 photos (you'll have to pay 3p for the additional pic), submit the listing and then open it up again to edit it, you will see you now only have 15 photos and the additional 16th photo has now disappeared.

Do this and report back here with your findings.

[SCcoins]

Rather than get into the weeds with the photos I’d just stick to 15 moving forward. You can collage / make a photo grid with any extra photos you need and insert that as photo number 15 as a workaround.

Let whoever is selling those locks at £7 finish their race to the bottom and the category will re-balance. Either they just want quick sales or they are somehow sourcing modern reproductions, which wouldn’t surprise me.

Fakes in certain categories are becoming a massive problem, often manufactured in the same factories where they make the real thing. I’m at a stage now where I ignore most clothing I could pick up for re-sale as I don’t trust it anymore.

[Mandart]

I need some AA batteries at present. I'm agonising over it. In the past I've bought a pack of Amazon batteries and they turned out to be rather naff, didn't last long. But I hate buying products that do lots of advertising (Duracell bunnies?), thinking of all the money that ads cost instead of making the product itself. .

I use Aldi or Lidl alkaline batteries, heard a report on the radio saying just how good they were a couple of years back and they are, especially for the price!

[Bittyboy101]

Thanks the reassurance SC

[StampHammer]

The added images should still be there, check down the bottom of the edit listing page in the 'Extras' section.