Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Crikey, this ebay lark is a bit addictive isn't it? Only this time I'm on the other side, waiting for people to buy my things. I'm looking through the card section going 'hey look, those other cards are shit! don't buy those, buy MINE, mine are much MUCH better.....'

Anyway, now I'm panicking. The majority of cards for sale are quite different to mine. Without wanting to be mean these people, most of the handmade cards are really rubbish. Does this mean that most people who buy cards on ebay have similar taste? Does that mean they look at mine and say 'oooooh no, far too modern and minimal for me - ahh that's better, here's one with a cute little puppy stuck on the front of some gingham paper with a pink ribbon bow in the top corner - much nicer.'

And then there's the relisting issue. You see, ebay pronounce in big letters RELIST FOR FREE, so if you don't sell your item then you can put it up again for free. Then when you read the small print you realise that you only get 1 extra free go. If you don't sell it the second time then they take your 35p and it's tough luck all round.

So this is where I start to wonder. Have the cute-puppy-loving-card-buying-public just deprived me of my 35p?

Only time will tell.

Here's another bit of shamless advertising...buy my cards here!!!

4 Comments:

Blogger Chris said...

I think part of the problem is that people will have trouble finding your cards. If I wanted a birthday card I would enter "Birthday Card" into the search box, and your cards don't start showing up until page 11, but before then you will probably have already come to the conclusion that the only cards sold on Ebay are a bit naff.
Alternatively I might browse the Birthday Cards section, but yours don't show up there at all.
If I were thee, I'd invest in a book about selling on Ebay, plus put another web site online, e.g. on the free web space that you ISP gives you or on pages.google.com, which could act as a kind of gateway to your ebay store, but be in a style more in keeping with your card design than eBay is.
Then it's a case of getting that site up the Google rankings for search terms such as "contemporary birthday card" which is a black art itself.

12:13 PM  
Blogger Christian Briddon said...

I've just had a look on Ebay and ou are right, all the hand made cards are rubbish. Yours are much better.

2:05 PM  
Blogger Rach said...

yeah, I agree it's a bummer they don't show up till page 11, but as time ticks on they will get nearer and nearer the front, so hopefully people won't be as bored by then!

The whole category thing is really wierd. There is a birthday card section in the handcrafted section of the categories listing, which is where I put them. It wasn't until your comment that I went searching for another birthday card category and found it under home and garden/celebrations and occasions/birthdays. However, I agree totally, my cards are in the wrong section. I will rectify that as soon as I finish typing this!

I also agree, I need my own site. Nick has offered to make me a basic one but quite when he'll find the time I don't know! Also he said he's not sure how to make a site that accepts credit card payments, which is why I thought i'd give ebay a go first.

Thank you so much for your comments. I really appreciate it!

6:26 PM  
Blogger Chris said...

If Ebay doesn't work out, a lot of small concerns on the internet seem to use Paypal for handling transactions on their web site. From what I can tell about Paypal, they are fine so long as you read the small print carefully.

9:43 AM  

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