New Subtitle - $.50

[ospreylinks]

I list on the US site and see that Ebay is now offering the ability to offer a subtitle line for only $.50.

Seems a bit high (in my opinion it should be free).

(I don't know if the Cdn site offers the same)

Jeff

[hugelyimpressive]

I have noticed this too, the UK site offers it also. I was surprised to see some subtitles while searching for items to buy. It makes the item leap off the listing page!

Not worth it in my opinion. However, as with any gimmick, too cheap and it's all over the place and lost its impact.

Would be worth it to me for the higher-priced stuff I do, maybe.


Ashley

[amberwoodottawa]

Great idea for ebay to generate more income for itself as there is No Cost to eBay to have the option available.

I agree that once 30% of the people listing start using it, it looses its distinctiveness.

Further, people dont purchase or bid because of the TITLE being bold or having large fonts.

If someone wants to purchase a green widgit, they will take the time and look at all green widgits that are listed. Your description of your green widgit and pictures is what will convince someone to keep bidding on yours, not the big bold title.

I think you will find that people who seldomly list on eBay are the ones that will take advantage of all the options that eBay gives them to help sell their widgits.

I dont think that eBay expects PSers would be the ones to use those types of marketing tools. They would like that but I dont think that was their intention nor included in their profitability forecasts.

Malcolm

[treasure-pot]

Sorry, Malcolm, they are directing sub-titles at PS'ers.

A quick visit to the .com PS'er discussion board has a very prominent display ad for sub-titles on the right hand margin.

You are right in one respect, it costs eBay nothing to insert sub-titles. It is just another "add-on" that eBay is offering to benefit their bottom line.

Will it have an impact on increasing sales for sellers? IMHO, nominal, which makes it a very expensive add-on.

Bill

[amberwoodottawa]

Bill
I made an assumption about it not being targeted to PSers. Are they nuts?

That is like paying extra for their generic backgrounds and highlights when it can be accomplished using HTML, same with extra pictures and enlargements.

Its tough enough to make a buck after paying eBay listing fees and commissions and Paypal commissions let alone the extra $.50 for bold or $1.00 for something else etc etc.

I know that if I didnt have the resources to have in-house HTML and graphic design, and digital photographs etc., I would probably rely more on all the extras ebay provides however I wouldnt last long as a seller on eBay as all my profits would be spent on marketing my items and paying eBay those extra $.50 and $1.00.

Its not unlike running a retail store and having an accounting firm do your bookkeeping, paying an advertising company design your ads, paying a designer to set up your store and your displays, having Musac provide piped-in music etc.

Looks good, looks professional but are you selling enough of your goods at a high enough profit to pay for everything and put $$$ in your own pocket?

And if you are, how many of those things can you do yourself or inhouse to put more $$$ into your pocket?

There are alot of people who are prepared to live off your sweat and ideas and provide you a service without taking any risk. I am not interested in supporting their lifestyle or padding their bank account.

Malcolm

[treasure-pot]

eBay has long been a proponent of the PT Barnum school "there is one born every minute". If they can take sellers for another $.50 a listing they will make every effort to do so. Any day they will offer a free subtitle listing day. The purpose will be to get scads of people trying it for free.

Of course, once you have checked off the box for subtitles on your selling page the memory feature of that page will automatically insert it for the next go round. How many sellers will forget to turn it off and how much will it cost them.

Speaking of which, I'm a little confused with that little memory feature that eBay has for the selling pages. It seems to be very capable of consistently remembering to show that I accept PayPal for my auctions (an eBay company so eBay makes money on this) or what my payment instructions are (revenue neutral) but it can't seem to remember that I prefer 7 day listings and keeps inserting either 3 or 5 days. Even when I use a "Sell a Similar Item" link or "Relist This Item" link it seems to "forget" my preference. Is that so, if I am not paying attention, I wind up listing more frequently so that eBay can increase it's billings? I would love to hear a pink's explanation of this one.

Bill

[ospreylinks]

Bill...off topic on this one but in explanation of Ebay relisting items for 5 or 3 days when 7 is your preference, what I found was that when items sold prior to the expiration of their listing period and you clicked on relist item, it would then try to find the remainder of the listing period (ie a 7 day item sells after 4 days and you elect to relist from the sold item page, remainder is 3 days from the original listing so this is what it defaults to in this case).

However if you go to relist an unsuccessful item, it will remain at what the item was originally listed for.

I got caught on this a few times, hence was receiving notification of auction ending when I thought I had relisted it for the original period....

I did find that if you caught the error early enough and then went in to revise the auction with a longer duration, you were not charged additional fees....

Jeff

PS - This is off the original topic.

[ospreylinks]

Here is another question off topic.... I have started two discussions since arriving here and I am wondering why neither of them have that neat little icon for new or updated discussions.....

Other people have it, but I can't seem to find anywhere to add it to a discussion?

[amberwoodottawa]

Jeff that hasnt happened to me yet. Often I have goods sold as a BIN within 2 days of listing and I will relist again but they have always defaulted to a new 7 day listing.

Do you list on .com or .ca?

I list on .ca.

[muminlaw]

Jeff, re the icon thingie -- I think you just don't see it when it's your own posting until someone adds to the discussion.

I don't use buy it now so I have nothing useful to add to that discussion and I fully agree that most of eBay's add-ons do nothing much to help sales. Most of my customers search on two or three key words so I try to make sure that at least 2 of them are included in my titles (none of them are L@@K)!!!

Glenda

[dan.j.m]

I tried it out for a couple DVDs and it worked out quite well. Two identical DVDs, took very little time to sell once I added the subtitles. Considering that I hiked the price by $1, it easily covers the $0.50, and my BIN price was higher than what most of the completed items went for.

Of course, I did have a pretty cool subtitle: "Drink from me and live forever" for the DVD "Interview With the Vampire"

I'll try more subtitles when I re-list the rest of my DVDs that don't sell.

If Ebay were smart, they'd charge extra to have, say, 60 characters in your title instead of 45. I'd pay a few extra coins for that on some items.

[north-of-55]

I have used it 3 times when wanting to add a "bonus" item to my product - I have had great success, however I can't be sure the subtitle made any difference... Ebay is $1.50 richer however...

[hugelyimpressive]

As a frequent buyer as well as a seller, I find the subtitle exciting and eye-catching (and no, I'm not a pink!). It will lose its impact if there are too many people using it, of course.

It's clever way for Ebay to add value. Its worth to PSs is probably minor. However, I feel I will be using it on occasion, when I am offering something very special.

Ashley