ADVICE NEEDED: What Can I do To Make My Listings Look Better?

[wingzrow]

http://cgi.ebay.com/SUPER-MARIO-BROS-2-NINTENDO-NES-GAME-CLEANED-TESTED-/380298443166?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item588b8db99e

So there's one of my listings as an example. My question is this, what can I do, if anything, to make people more likely to buy my games without just lowering the price? Was taking a picture of the chipset a good or bad idea? I've already said i test my games, AND I clean them using a kit from the nintendo repair store.

If anyone has any tips or suggestions I'm all ears.

[ryborg]

I know you asked for advice other than lowering the price, but the fact remains that price is everything. You could have the cleanest, most perfect cartridge ever, but if your price is way higher than the competition, you won't get any page hits, let alone sales.

The chipset photo is fine, but isn't that a giant waste of time? I couldn't imagine doing that for every single game I've sold over the years. Is that really making people more interested in your items? Just highlight that you professionally clean each game.

Some nitpickyness:

"Due to people not paying for their items on time, all items now require immediate payment to be purchased."

Requiting immediate payment hurts business, I've found. I've done multiple tests and every single time, my sales go way down when I require it for all of my listings. I guess people just like having a time buffer for payment. Yeah, you'll get the occasional NPB, but that's better than losing 20%+ of sales.

"Combined shipping is still offered but your shipping discount will be refunded AFTER your items have been payed for."

This is awful. Buyers don't like this. Just set a combined shipping rate and make it easy for the buyer. Also, the word is "paid" not "payed."

"All items ship within 3-5 business days of purchase and usually arrive 5-7 business days after shipping."

If you're not shipping items out the next day, don't bother saying anything like this. In this day and age, buyers expect immediate shipping. I know it sucks and that's not how it used to be, but it's a reality now.

"I don't refund a purchase unless your item doesn't work when I've clearly said it does, or it was listed as much better condition than the item you received."

Never say you don't send refunds, even for reasonable situations. Paypal will send a refund for any reason, and most buyers know this.

[wingzrow]

Ok, changing most, if not all of what you said.


Items ship 3-5 days later changed to

All items ship THE day of your purchase or after.



"I don't refund a purchase unless your item doesn't work when I've clearly said it does, or it was listed as much better condition than the item you received."

Changed to: "I offer refunds on all my items as long as you ship your item back."

Even if I decide to try it for awhile again I'm not sure how I would set up the shipping discounts rule. Not all of my items ship for the same price.


On the subject of the chip picture, I have to open the games to clean them in the first place so I figured it would be a good idea. It's not a hassle at all really since I'm opening all my carts anyway.

I want to change the immediate payment thing but it's just so much easier for me this way.

[wingzrow]

Ok, i've made a good amount of changes for the better on all my listings now. NOW how do they look?

http://cgi.ebay.com/RAIDEN-TRAD-SNES-GAME-SERVICED-TESTED-/380307003815?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item588c1059a7

Now one thing I noticed was some people actually put up a picture of the game & a tv with it running. I decided to do that in adition to putting a picture of the cartridge's insides but was wondering if I should take that a step further. This guy actually puts up both in his game's thumbnails for his listings.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-Raiden-Trad-SNES-Good-Condition-CLEANED-TESTED-/260463991107?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item3ca4dd1943

[jb143]

When I was selling full time a few years ago, after a bit of experementing with different listing formats, I decided to use a simpler is better approach. Just give the basic facts, no stories, no fancy backgrounds. Just the condition, what is included, a few pics, and basic terms. Usually no more than 2 paragraphs spaced for easy reading. It worked for me at least.

I would also think that taking a picture of the PCB might turn a few people away...as in "He opened it???"...but maybe that's just me.

[bangtango]

ryborg sells a lot more often than I do, so perhaps he will contribute a "second opinion."

However, I never bothered wasting space in the title itself by including that a game is "serviced", "tested" or "cleaned." That stuff can easily be included in the description itself where you have all the room in the world to write.

When I buy single games on Ebay, I assume they are going to work perfectly. Just a quick look at the description of your listings tells me all I need to know about the condition of your product.

Again, maybe ryborg will drop in to offer his own opinion, but you are just using up title space that could be used for better keywords.

[wingzrow]

Well the subtitles on videogame listings atre free so I saw no reason not to take advantage of it. I've been doing some testing and my games seem to sell for more when I list them as serviced. I really have been doing everything i've said though so maybe people are just noticing the quality.

[bangtango]

Well the subtitles on videogame listings atre free so I saw no reason not to take advantage of it. I've been doing some testing and my games seem to sell for more when I list them as serviced. I really have been doing everything i've said though so maybe people are just noticing the quality.

Ha ha, whatever works for you. It's all about the Benjamins, eh? LOL

[ryborg]

Ok, i've made a good amount of changes for the better on all my listings now. NOW how do they look?

Everything looks great. I wouldn't personally use a photo of the game actually running for time reasons (at least for games that aren't worth a small fortune or unbelievably old, like the RCA Studio II I recently sold), but if you have the time and will, go for it. Can't hurt.


However, I never bothered wasting space in the title itself by including that a game is "serviced", "tested" or "cleaned." That stuff can easily be included in the description itself where you have all the room in the world to write.

Definitely true for almost all cases, but there's really not a lot to say in the title for cart-only games. I'd make sure "Super Nintendo" is in there, though, because not everyone searches for "SNES." "Game" is usually unnecessary except to make your title read better, which is kind of unnecessary in of itself too.