First Long Beach and Now Miami. What is behind The eBay seller meetings?

Are these the "series of events" eBay promised when they cancelled eBay  Live?

Last month eBay held a meeting in Long Beach, CA for selected sellers (mostly large sellers) and last week they held another one in Miami.  All sellers who attended the meeting were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.  eBay told one seller this was so everyone could talk freely and not worry about misinformation leaking out.

Actually i get that. But what I don’t understand is why the meetings are limited to very large sellers.  When eBay cancelled eBay Live this year, they promised to replace it with a series of events around the country.  Is this the "series of events?" If it is, I am not impressed.

eBay continues to suffer bad PR from the larger community of smaller sellers (Bronze, Silver and Gold). The Platinum and Titanium Power Sellers see eBay as just another venue along with their own websites, Amazon, Overstock and the major shopping engines. But smaller sellers are mostly eBay-only.  It is these thousands of small sellers who bring the product diversity, uniqueness and consumer interest to eBay. And, it is these same small to medium-sized sellers eBay keeps ignoring.  The recent annual meeting was another example of this. eBay dealt solely with plans and issues for mega sellers –ignoring small sellers altogether.

I happen to know that eBay knows how important the thousands of small and medium sellers are to their success –they just seem to be incapable of letting them know and of introducing programs, policies and promotions targeted at them.

I have objected to some of eBay’s policies and supported others –but I have consistently supported the long-term success of the eBay platform.  The large sellers have a voice with groups like PESA, IMA and ECMTA, but the only voice for small sellers has blogs like this.  About all small sellers can do is vote with their feet as many have.  So far its a trickle but unless eBay starts paying some attention, it could become a river (pun intended).

Come on eBay –Reach out!  We are eager and willing to help you grow the platform and bring some of the fun back to eBay.

See Also

• Learn How To Make Extra Money Selling Used Books on eBay, Amazon and The Internet
  Low risk, low startup costs. This is a very easy and profitable eBay business to start.

How to Choose the Right eBay Product Category.

Some people think it’s easy to choose the right eBay category, and often it is. Sometimes, though, it might not be quite clear exactly what to go for.

Why is it Even Important?

Plenty of people use the category system to find items, when they’re not looking for something specific. If your item is listed in the wrong category – or you’ve just given up and listed it in ‘Everything Else’ – then these people aren’t going to find your auction.

Also, listing items in the wrong categories is against eBay’s rules, and eBay say they will remove any auctions that are wrongly categorised. They don’t often actually do this, but it’s not worth the risk – especially since breaking any rules can cause them to penalise your account, including losing PowerSeller status if you have it.

So What Can You Do?

eBay will suggest categories for you when you sell your item, if you type in a few words to describe the item on the category selection page and click ’search’. You can make the best of this feature by typing in exactly what your item is, with brand name and model number (if any), so that eBay can find the best category for you.

If that doesn’t work for you, then search yourself for items like yours, and pay attention to which category most of them seem to be in (you can see this near the top of each item’s description page). Try different words and see which ones come back with the most results. You can also browse through all the available categories from eBay’s front page.

Remember that the more specific the category is, the better – use as many subcategories as are appropriate. Don’t just list your HP laptop in the ‘Computers’ category, for example – list it in ‘Computers > Laptops > HP’. Don’t worry: your item will still appear in the ‘Computers’ category, as well as ‘Computers > Laptops’, because items listed in subcategories are always listed in every category above.

Take some time to look through all the categories and get familiar with the way eBay as a whole is laid out. After all, that’s better than getting a few months down the line and finding that you still think of eBay’s category system like it’s some kind of scary jungle.

What if More Than One Category Fits?

Don’t worry, eBay have you covered. For a small extra fee, you can list your item in an extra category, to increase the number of potential buyers who will see it. This isn’t always worth it, though – some items only really fit properly in one category, and listing them in extra categories is just a waste.

Once you know where to list your item, the next step is to write your auction’s title. The title is the most important thing about your auction – the difference between a good title and a bad title can be the difference between $10 and $100. That’s why I’ll take you through the dos and don’ts in the next email.

Nothing big happening on eBay today so I just thought I would share a story with you:

An old country preacher had a teenage son, and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many young men his age, the boy didn’t really know what he wanted to do, and he didn’t seem too concerned about it. One day, while the boy was
away at school, his father decided to try an experiment. He went into the boy’s room and placed on his study table four objects:

1. A Bible.

2. A Silver Dollar.

3. A Bottle of Whisky.

4. And a Playboy Magazine.

"I’ll just hide behind the door," the old preacher said to himself. "When he comes home from school today, I’ll see which object he picks up."

"If it’s the bible, he’s going to be a preacher like me, and what blessing that would be! If he picks up the dollar, he’s going to be a business man, and that would be okay, too. But if he picks up the
bottle, he’s going to be a no-good drunken bum, and Lord, what a shame that would be. And worst of all if he picks up that magazine he’s going to be a skirt-chasing womanizer."

The old man waited anxiously, and soon heard his son’s footsteps as he entered the house whistling and headed for his room.

The boy tossed his books on the bed, and as he turned to leave the room he spotted the objects on the table. With curiosity in his eye, he walked over to inspect them.

Finally, he picked up the Bible and placed it under his arm. He picked up the silver dollar and dropped into his pocket. He uncorked the bottle and took a big drink, while he admired this month’s centerfold.

"Lord have mercy," the old preacher disgustedly whispered. "He’s gonna run for Congress."

See Also

• The Used Book Market is Booming. Learn how to make money selling used books on eBay, Amazon and the Internet
  Complete course by eBay PowerSeller, Skip McGrath, show you how to enter this low cost, low risk online market
• The Official Geezer Guide To Making Money Online
  Are you retired and looking to make some extra money? Check out The Official Geezer Guides.

The New Best Match Algorithm puts a big question mark around the Featured First (formerly Featured Plus or Category featured).

In the past, this featured option used to place you listing at the top of the first search page that came up with your listings on it. For example, even if you were on page three of the results, your listing would be listed with the “featured” items at the top of the first page.  At $24.95 for up to 10 days and $74.95 in Fixed Price listings up to 30 days this is a pretty expensive option. Most sellers only use this for very expensive items. But now even that is in question.

How Featured First Works According to eBay

• If you purchase Featured First, each time a buyer enters search criteria that may result in your listing appearing in the search results, there is a chance that your listing will appear on the first page of search results.
• When the buyer performs this search, a number of Featured First listings will be randomly selected to appear on the first page of search results in the Featured Items section.
• Your listing will have a chance to be randomly selected to appear in the Featured area as long as you maintain a Standard or Raised Search Standing – until the Featured First option expires.
• If your Search Standing falls to "Lowered" during the duration of your Featured First option, your items will be excluded from the random selection. However, if your search standing improves again before the Featured First option expires, your listing will again have the chance to be randomly selected.
• If you are a new seller you might not have enough feedback to have a Seller Dashboard yet. In this case, you can contact eBay Customer Support and find out your current Seller Search Standing.

This was brought to my attention this week by one of my newsletter readers. I want to protect his identity so I will call him SW.  SW called eBay PowerSeller support a few days ago and recorded the following transcript.  He is identified as “me” in the transcript. This makes for very interesting reading. The person identified as David Li is the eBay PowerSeller support person on the call.

I also use the featured feature and frankly didn’t notice the change.  This seems to be typical of eBay to make a change like this and not point it out.

Here is the transcript:

me:         Hello. I paid for Featured Plus but my item is not showing up on the first page of the search results

12:44:52 AM David Li.     Good evening. Featured first/plus doesn’t guarantee the item will fall on the first page of the results. The way the upgrade works is the item will be moved to the top of the page it naturally falls on.

12:47:47 AM  me:             It used to be (6 months ago or more?) that it would always show on the first page

12:48:11 AM  David Li.:   Right, it would appear on the first page of category results. I believe they changed it last fall.

12:48:18 AM  me:             I think that, with the advent of "Best match" the value of the Featured Plus upgrade has been SEVERLY diminished

12:48:23 AM  me              Do you think they will ever change it back?

12:48:39 AM  David Li.    I haven’t heard any word of a change, but we usually don’t get a lot of notice.

12:48:42 AM  me:             Or is there another way / upgrade that will mirror the old Featured Plus?

12:49:24 AM  David Li.    The closest we have is Featured First and that will randomly display the item within the first page, so it’s still not guaranteed. My personal feelings are it’s usually not worth it unless you’re making enough profit to cover the upgrade.

12:50:21 AM  me              I deal solely in items that cost upwards of $500 usually so I almost always got the Featured Plus upgrade and it was of massive benefit

12:51:01 AM  David Li.    Yeah, seems like it wouldn’t be too bad in that case. I’m not sure how many people use best match, but it would be moved to the top of the page with other sort methods as well.

12:51:33 AM  David Li.    I always sort by ending soonest when I shop on the site since I don’t bid on auctions until the last couple hours.

12:52:04 AM  me              With the way FP works now, my sales have been significantly impacted for the worse as the number of hits to my auctions is noticeably down and I feel that it is primarily due to the the change.

12:52:28 AM  me              What do you mean when you say "but it would be moved to the top of the page with other sort methods as well."

12:53:20 AM  David Li.    For example, if someone sorts by duration, chances are it’s going to be on the first page when there’s a day left. Since it has featured, it would then be at the top of the first page.

12:53:40 AM  David Li.

I realize that’s not quite as good as how it used to work, but it does have it’s benefits.

12:54:29 AM  me

Thanks for the clarification. If you could kindly put in a vote for reverting back to the vastly superior Featured Plus, this (some time) PowerSeller would be very appreciative

12:54:51 AM  David Li:    Sure, I’ll pass that along at least. You’re welcome as well.

12:55:12 AM  me:             Have others mentioned this? I am kind of surprised that there is not more of an uproar

12:55:14 AM  me: ……..

12:56:16 AM  David Li.    I’ve spoken to a couple people who didn’t realize it changed. I probably get a contact about once every couple weeks.

12:56:57 AM  me              OK – thanks again and please pass it along. I would *really* love the old FP back (for obvious reasons.) Have a great night / day and take care.

12:57:16 AM  David Li.    Sure, no problem. Have yourself a nice evening as well.

See Also

• The Complete eBay Marketing System by Skip McGrath – Start making money on eBay today
  This is a printed training course in all aspects of starting and running an eBay business.