When you give EBay a chunk of HTML which contains even one <img> tag with only the image SRC keyword in it, any Netscape browser user that reads the HTML (in other words, when the majority of potential bidders look at your ad) will not be able to see the ad at all until your own website begins to provide that image, and every other <img> tag. Usually, that takes quite a bit of extra time (because most web servers aren't that quick) and so the potential bidder is faced with a blank screen, sometimes for as long as a minute or two... Perhaps even longer if you've got multiple images.

This doesn't happen with Microsoft's Explorer. Explorer will show the page with a small image icon, then more of the page. Then, when it actually gets the image, Explorer will re-write the page, moving text around to accommodate the new image size(s) which in turn causes considerable disorientation on the part of the person trying to read the page. In some ways, this can be even more annoying than not being able to see the page at all.

The solution to the problems caused in both browsers is simple. Just provide the width= and height= keywords inside the <img> tag. Here's an example:

The second example here causes your EBay ad to load immediately, without the bidder having to wait for the image(s) to load in the case of Netscape, and without the ad page re-sizing itself in the case of Explorer. The reason why this works is because although the image may not be loading, the browser knows how big it is going to be and so can go on formatting the page without first having to receive enough of the image to find out for itself what size it is.

For both types of browsers, this means that the bidder will be able to:

• Begin reading your ad immediately, without interruption
• Check out the pricing and bidding information immediately

From your perspective as a seller, it means that more people will read the ad in total, those that stay will feel more comfortable with the ad, and more people will stay to read the ad!

Netscape provides you with a handy way to see the size of an image, so you can set these extra keywords easily: Just build your HTML without the size tags, then view it in Netscape. Now, simply right-click on the image(s) and select "view image". Netscape will show the image, and up in the title bar, it will tell you the width and height, in that order.

Here are the ones I've run into and figured out, knew or had explained to me. From time to time, there will be some here I don't know, as no doubt there are a bunch that I've not yet run into. If you have info about more abbreviations that are used on EBay, let me know and I'll expand this section. My thanks to those who have already helped!

Get more Seller Feedback

Here's my formula:

Second, head over to the specific auction you won, and right-click on the link towards the bottom of the auction that looks like this:

Leave feedback to bidder

...then select the context menu item that copies the shortcut (URL), like this:

What you've done here is made the process of providing feedback for you easy - because it's just one click; motivated - because you provided your feedback first; and timely, because (hopefully) you provided your feedback as soon as you got your item, then turned right around and wrote your e-mail. This is the absolute best way to get your bidder feedback that I have been able to come up with. I wish you luck!

Story Time

Not all that long ago, I encountered one seller who failed to give me feedback, and he gave me what I thought was a very lame excuse. I'll quote it for you here:

I feel it is inappropriate for me to comment on a client on the basis of only one transaction. I'm aware that I'm a bit old-fashioned in this thinking and that there are other point of views, but this is mine.

Well, I read that, and thought mmmmm... this guy could always leave a neutral that said something on the order of "our first transaction, went well, hope for more". So why... my suspicions aroused, I went and looked at the feedback this guy had left for others. I'll tell you how I do that, and you can too, in a moment.

Guess what? This guy had 192 feedback of his own, and he had never left one single feedback for anyone else. What a loser!

Now, I look at how much feedback the seller has given before I bid. I really kind of take offense when I do all the right things and someone can't be bothered to lift a finger to acknowledge it. I have promised myself that when I run into someone who isn't participating in the courtesy system of buyer/seller feedback, I won't be a customer of theirs.

You can check the feedback someone has left easily. Use this URL:

Just change the XXX at the end of the URL to the user ID of the seller, and paste it into the address line of your web browser.

There is no other way that I am aware of that you can see the feedback that others have left on EBay, but this has worked for over a year that I know of. It might stop working at any time, though, as obviously EBay has not seen fit to make this facility directly available to you, so they probably don't intend that you can do this. So no promises, but as I say, it's worked for a long time now.

Picture Size

If you follow my advice in the first hint (use width and height tags on your images) then you become free to use larger images. Why? Because since the page will load completely before the image is in, the bidder won't have to wait for the images - so they can take a while.

In order to pull this off, you'll want to write a longer description, both to help the bidder out, and to simply keep them interested while the image loads.

My preference is to use two images - one small one, so that they get a peek early, and one large one for details.

I can't really follow my own advice yet, as I don't have a good enough imaging system to get quality images online yet, but I am working on that. :-)

All that stuff - counters, animations, etc...

There's a huge downside to a lot of this. Especially counters. Most EBay sellers get those counters from "free" counter sites, and simply because they are free, so do about a zillion other people who want counters. So the obvious thing happens: The sites providing the counters can get really slow at times, and you guessed it, so do the auction pages that use them.

Story Time

Just a few minutes prior to writing this, I was trying to look at a Marantz cassette deck I was interested in, and the page hung for two minutes until my browser finally decided that the counter site wasn't going to ever puke up that counter, then I finally got to see the image of the item I thought I might want to bid on. So why did I hang around for two minutes? Because after about 30 seconds, I had decided to add this hint to this page, and I wanted to see just how long things would lock up based on that stupid counter.

........T..w..o.........l..o..n..g.........m..i..n..u..t..e..s........

Now, I can just about promise that most bidders are going to be elsewhere in two minutes; they're not going to wait for that counter to load (or not load!)

There is one legitimate reason to add counters to your auctions, and that is if you're going to use the information to "tune" your auctions. For instance, you might embed a bunch of keywords in a repeating auction that relate to what you're doing; then the next time you run that auction, embed a different set of keywords. Watching counter totals will tell you which set is better, and when you're repeatedly listing the same items, that's very useful information.

Images and animations that come from your own site are in a different class. If your site's not up, then they're not even going to see the item you're selling (you do have a picture of it, right???) so it's not such a big deal. You sort of have to go in there with the idea that your web source is up. But do remember to put those width and height tags in so that the browser won't "freeze" while trying to load all the images and animations.

Animations themselves are larger than images, because they contain multiple frames of imagery. You'll want to be careful with them for that reason; but there's another reason to be careful... motion attracts the eye - that's why bars and theaters use signs with motion, they "grab" people. But they're trying to get the attention of people who are looking at multiple things on the street, and as such they are well advised to add some flash.

It's important to look at the role of that flash before you go and add it to your auction. A flashing bar sign advertises where you want the potential consumer to go - into the bar, where you have stuff to sell them. Inside the bar, the flashing beer signs further direct the consumer to a brand of beer, which is available for purchase right there. All of this makes sense and works for the bar. That's not the same as EBay's auctions. You can't animate the "outside" sign, you can bold it, make it lead the category, and so on (which EBay will charge you for, of course), but you are still a line item listing. So now (conceptually) we're inside the auction. The customer is "at the bar" and looking at your "beer". Do you really want a flashing sign that says, in effect, "leave the bar"? Were you trying to sell the item in the auction listing, or not? Because if you are, and you direct the consumer elsewhere... that makes no sense.

Let's look at the use of animations on an auction page for a moment, and consider both the intended purpose and the end result.

First, you're presumably trying to impress, catch the attention of, or otherwise favorably dispose the bidders. But you want them to look at the item, don't you? And, they're already on your page, so you're not in the position of trying to attract their attention. They're in there to look at the item already. So what your animation does is takes the bidder's attention away, yes away, from the item they're in there to give you money for. Whoops! The point I'm trying to make here is no, you do not want animations on an auction page, period, unless getting the viewer's attention off the item and onto the animation is going to earn you more money than you'd get if they bid on the item (not bloody likely!)

If it's your intention to flash your general EBay-ness and biz sense, then use small still images; the bidders will look at them if they are impressed enough with the item - and that's a great way to start a business relationship, anyway. Make sure the images are also small in total number of bytes; savvy netizens look upon "fat" images with disfavor. They think that you don't exactly know what you're doing, and unfortunately, they're right.

Here's a quick hint to get some extra flash for essentially nothing. I use this technique, and you can too.

Once a browser loads an image, it's in the cache on your local computer - so that means that (for a while at least) it won't have to download that image again. I use this effect this way: I am able to accept credit cards, so I have some very small images of credit cards in my auctions. I use five images; amex, visa, etc. I make a border around a region using these same images over and over again; I get a lot of image space out of this, but only five tiny images are actually sent over the phone lines, so the auction pages are not slowed significantly - at least, no more than they are to load them into five single positions.

As for cheesy music sequences... well, they're cheesy. Do you want the bidders impression of you to be that you're cheesy, or that the item is cheesy? My advice here is lose the midi sequences and the little waves. And - of course - those midi sequences and wave files take time to load, they delay the showing of the auction page, and that, as always, annoys the bidder. Any marketing person will tell you that the very last thing in the universe you want to do is annoy the person you're trying to sell to. So lose the cheezy music, keep the bidder.

One final observation; many times I encounter things on the web, not just on EBay, that seem to have been done for no other reason than they can be done. That's fine, for your private web page(s). But when you have a goal, a clearly defined one like trying to separate someone from their money, man, don't waste their time, don't annoy them, and above all, remain focused on what you're trying to accomplish. Otherwise, you'll not do as well as you could, and that's not your goal. Right? Right.

Never use ALL CAPS IN YOUR ADS OR AD TITLES!

It's incredibly irritating to try and read an auction that is written entirely in capital letters.

As if the perception of shouting weren't enough, research shows that because the letters are all the same height, there is actually a greater degree of difficulty for the human mind to distinguish one capital letter from the other as compared to distinguishing lower case letters - leading to an actual physical discomfort when reading an "all caps" message. So, the bottom line is simply DON'T DO IT! (Got you, didn't I?)

If none of that deters you, keep this in mind: The internet is now primarily composed of people who have been online for a while. Those people react as I have described here... and they draw the conclusion that you, on the other hand, have not been around for long, since you're making this "newbie" mistake. Which, in turn leads directly to the bidder's loss of confidence in the seller... Oooops!

There are Solution(s) when you have a need to emphasize:

Or, you can choose to use boldface. To boldface something, you simply surround the word(s) to be boldfaced with the boldface begin and end tags. They look like this: <b> and </b>. So that this: <b>This is a test</b> Turns into this: This is a test.

Finally, you can choose to use underline. To underline something, you simply surround the word(s) to be boldfaced with the underline begin and end tags. They look like this: <u> and </u>. So that this: <u>This is a test</u> Turns into this: This is a test.

You can use them in combination, too:

<b><u><i>Holy cow!</i></u></b> will show as: Holy Cow!

It's good to develop the habit of using the "off" tags (the ones with the forward slashes, the slash on the question mark key) in the reverse order you turn them on as shown in my example.

One last quick trick. You have probably read that EBay doesn't want you to use quotation marks in your auctions. Well, you can, but you have to write them funny. Here's what will show up as a quotation mark and not bother EBay: &quot;

So &quot;Fooey&quot; actually shows up as "Fooey".

AOL - America Online

When I click on an auction and the image fails to even begin loading, I look at the email address of the seller. The vast majority of the time, it's an AOL address. I usually will give it 60 seconds, and if the picture hasn't even started to load by the end of a minute, I bail out of the auction (and I do not bid!)

Unfortunately, this happens most of the time. In the last three months, I've run into hundreds of auctions that have images that originate from the AOL servers; I have not seen very many of those images.

People really need to face the fact that AOL is a marketing miracle; it has convinced tons of people that it's "The Bomb" by dint of extremely savvy marketing, when it fact a more appropriate description would be "AOL is a bomb".

AOL users (or victims, as many savvy net users think of you) would do well to locate a real internet provider, obtain some of the inexpensive and very powerful internet software that puts your computer directly on the internet, and join the rest of the world in the wide-open, uncensored, high-speed internet. In the context of EBay auctions, you could then look forward to people being able to see your images the majority of the time, as you would no longer be locked into the overloaded AOL system.

Again, I don't mean to be offensive. This is really very good advice. I know (being an ex-Compuserve denizen) that one tends to get attached to the familiar "wrapper" environment that the big online services provide, but once I had made the break I realized what a terrible mistake I had been making for years. I think the odds favor your reacting similarly. I hope you'll try the real internet soon.

And then we can all see the images for your auctions. You'll certainly get more bids from me!

Another Speed Tip for Sellers

However, since you can include HTML in the body of the ad, many sellers have taken to including the image(s) in the body of the ad, leading to a much better appearance overall.

In order for EBay to indicate that you have an image with the cute little "pic" icon, you still have to fill in a link to an image in the appropriate field.

There are several problems with this. First, EBay doesn't do any formatting of this image; it's jammed up against the left margin. Secondly, no width or height tags are sent to the viewer of the auction, so the entire page locks up until this image is received. That's very bad, as I explain in my first hint on this page.

You can reduce this problem to a minimum and still obtain a quality look to your auctions by including a very small image there, one that doesn't need to be directly related to the item - a logo, anything really. I've been putting up the same little "pic" icon EBay uses, because its tiny and I don't have a logo for my selling operations at this point. My auctions load quite fast (as you may have already noticed) as my server doesn't have to send much extra data.

Another approach is to use the same image as (one of) the images in the body of the ad. This still causes a fast load because once a single copy is loaded, the second copy isn't sent over the net again, it's copied from your computer's local cache instantly, at least if you're using Netscape or explorer. The downside is that it looks kind of klunky to have a duplicate image with no particular obvious reason for existing there.

The final approach is to provide a non-working URL for the image. This causes a fast load, but shows the "broken image icon" which leads the bidder to the (erroneous) conclusion that there is an image of the item that they can't see, causing uncertainty, which (of course) you never want to make a bidder feel.

Suggestions I've sent EBay

Please take them and send them too
(if you agree with these ideas, of course)

1. Provide a checkable item in the SEARCH page that would list NEW listings only. This would both reduce your bandwidth requirements/costs, and help those of us who use the service a lot and really have NO need to see the same items over and over again.

2. When a search returns NO items, currently there is no "new search" CGI entry field on the page. This means that EBay has to provide another page service to the user before they can retry the search. That wastes your bandwidth and the user's time, and serves no possible purpose. That should really be changed, as it's costing you money, time and bandwidth while annoying the users!
   *They implemented this one!

3. Provide the ability to CHANGE the item title, in other words the way it appears. For instance, I had listed an item as "huge smoky quartz" right now. On reflection, I'm quite certain it would have been smarter to list it as "Huge smoky quartz crystal", as there are a lot of "new-agers" out there that are probably searching for crystals. But there was no way to change that once uploaded, so I'd have to re-list it. That's kind of unfortunate, and reduces the auction's viability, bad for everyone, including EBay...

4. You should automatically CENTER the images that are provided in the PIC link for a new item. Images that go to the right aren't well matched visually with the main entry form, which is centered. Since it's easy for you to do, and adds significantly to the presentation of ads, and has no "downside", I think you should do this.

5. If the lister has images in the body of the ad, right now they have to supply a "false image" to the form so they get the PIC icon. That's pretty silly, when you could simply add a checkbox to the listing form and let the lister specify that they do indeed have images. There's no extra functionality gained by the separate insertion of a URL, because you don't check its validity. You can say that when the page shows, the user will see it, but that's also true of embedded images. Bottom line, presentation is enhanced by adding that checkbox, lister satisfaction will go up, and that extra trash at the bottom of the more sophisticated listings will go away, saving bandwidth overall and improving presentation at the same time.

6. You know how you have "featured" listings, and a way for a listing to show up at the top of lists? That's cool, and you do it because people are more likely to hit something right in front of their face - they also get tired and miss things in longer listings. Ok, now you know, I'm sure, that a listing with an image in it is FAR more likely to sell an item than one without. For my part, I won't even BID on an item unless I can see the thing - I find it that annoying that a listing doesn't have a PIC. So, wouldn't it make sense to sort the listings into two groups - first listing those entries that have PICs first, then an entirely secondary listing further down (or on a later page, if there's no room) for those sellers that can't be bothered to supply an image of an item? Since EBay makes a percentage from items that sell, and items with images sell better, and items that are listed earlier sell better, doesn't it make perfect sense to combine the two strong selling points and conjoin them into a higher priority listing? I think this would serve the buyers well, serve EBay well, and encourage (further) sellers to supply a picture with a sale, which in turn increases their chances to sell an item (or simply gives them a chance at all - as I said, I won't even bid on a no-pic item, and I bet I'm in the majority here).

Don't forget the Basics!

Hmmm... Good point! So put the size in the title, so people don't waste time (you don't want to annoy them, they might bid on something else of yours!) Also, if they see their size, they'll be in there like a shot, believe me.

When you list any item, make certain you put all of the basic information in the auction itself. Critical stuff - like size for clothes - you should put in the title.

In the auction for clothes, size is pretty obvious, but people also want to know if clothes have been worn, and if the original tags are present.

Before you write up your description, think about what you would want to know and get it in there.

And as I have said several times, put an image in the auction!

Contact Advice for Sellers

Make yourself a checklist, and make sure that all of the following items are in the body of the email, rather than in the subject line:

1. The title of the item as it was listed on EBay
   Many bidders are involved in more than one auction at once. I know I usually am. Either I'm not bidding at all, or I'm bidding on multiple things. Anyway, when I get an email that says "you have won this auction, please send $4.00 to Joe Schmoe", I get a little freaky. I have to figure out what it was, which can take a while and is inconvenient as heck - and annoying, because the seller should have taken care of this.

2. The EBay item number
   This is important in case the bidder wants to revisit the auction page to double check prices, shipping policies, anything at all. You owe it to the bidder to be consistent, so make sure they can get there easily. Placing the HTTP: address of the auction is also a good idea, though the number will get them there.

3. The final bid in the auction
   Many times, I get email with a final price. But I need to know what the shipping and item price were separately. I bet others do also. So I end up having to hunt down the auction, look at the final bid, subtract it from the total... annoying. Sellers can fix this easily. Don't annoy your bidders!

4. The shipping costs, listed separately
   This is simply the other side of the coin. Price, shipping, total. Simple!

5. The total price, listed separately
   ...and yet again. Price, shipping, total!

6. Your "hold" policy on checks, money orders, etc.
   Do you hold shipment based on check clearance? What about cashiers checks? Did you know that cashier's checks can "bounce", and that the person who wrote the check can cause a "stop payment" on a cashier's check? Well, both are true. Money orders can be falsified, also. Think it over, then create a solid policy to deal with your needs based on the facts. Then stick to it.

7. Your EBay "handle"
   This is the one almost everyone misses. Do you use a handle? If you do, you had better provide this to the bidder, if you have a hope of receiving feedback from them. Your email address is on the email, sure, but that will not get you feedback. Make it easy for the bidder to give you feedback - Put your handle in your email! And if your handle is your email address, then say so. Otherwise, you're making the bidder guess, making them uncertain, and they're less likely to provide feedback. You do want feedback, don't you?

8. A complete mailing address for the bidder to send you payment
   This should be obvious, but believe it or not, I've gotten three emails missing the address where I should send the money. Amazing. :-)

Mailing Advice for Bidders

With that in mind, when you send your money to the seller, make sure that the following are all in the envelope:

1. The money
   It sounds simple enough, but I have several times received mail without payment. Double check that the money is in there, and if you're paying using a check, make sure you signed it!

2. The address the item is to be sent to
   ...and if you're feeling like making a very good impression, include a mailing label. That's really professional, and it makes the day of the seller easier. I've done this almost since the beginning, and I know it's a good idea. :-)

3. The name of the item you're buying
   Remember, sellers often sell more than one thing at a time. They need to know what the heck this envelope is for!

4. The EBay item number
   Same reason as the name. It helps the seller find the item. It will also let them get straight to the item on EBay if they have a question about the final bid price - they can't remember everything, you know.

5. How the money you're sending breaks down
   Tell them how much was the bid price, how much you've provided for shipping, and the total. Any one of these helps jog the memory, and it's just a good idea to be specific about what you're doing.

6. Print all information on paper, using the computer
   If you've got a printer, this is the thing to do. Not everyone can read your handwriting, beautiful copperplate that it is, of course. Some of us sellers can only read Times Roman fonts, we've been looking at computers so long. So do us a favor, ok?

Shipping Advice for Sellers

Then, you want the user to be inspired to provide you with good feedback.

You can ensure this by making certain that you accurately and completely describe the item you sold them, so that they know what they are buying. But... you need to make sure that it arrives in the same condition you sent it.

That seems simple enough. But why then do I receive so many poorly packed items?

Here's how I pack, and it's how I suggest you pack too:

This shows the item inside a box (the aqua box), where it has a primary layer of styrofoam or other cushioning. Then that box is surrounded by two to three inches of additional cushioning, and that's inside another box.

Want it to get there? Pack thusly:

1. The Item...
2. Wrapped in a plastic bag, to keep out the...
3. Two inches of peanuts that surround it on all sides, which...
4. Separate the wrapped item from the inner box, which is...
5. Surrounded on all sides by two inches of peanuts, which...
6. Separate the inner box from the outer box, which...
7. Is marked: GLASS!!! FRAGILE!!! on all sides.

Nothing is perfectly safe, of course, but so far I have had no items damaged in transit to a customer packed this way. On the other hand, I have received a number of items that were damaged, and that happened specifically because the packing wasn't good enough to deal with some of the loonies who work for the shipping companies.

If something gets pretty banged up, you're either going to be taking the (now worthless) item back, or bleeding from the ears because of the negative feedback.

Pack well.