Somebody explain eBay to me
#1

I've been learning to sell a thing or 2 on eBay. Just a babe in the woods, mind you. Now, somebody plz explain this to me.

You only get 45 characters for the main title,
which is what people search on. That's not much !!

What if you just plain need more than that ?? If they
were going to put a hard-limit in, I could imagine
55, 60, maybe 65 characters. But 45 is nothing.

So, is there a way to make the main heading capacity 'expand' ??

- Norm

#2

a place where people get rid of their junk at unbelieveable prices

#3

There is no way to expand the headline. However, the description for the item can also be searched.

The best advice I can give is to:
1. Take a picture
2. Make headline descriptive
3. Sell without a reserve price, have faith.

Bob

#4

This is how it works:

You email me that you have some vintage mint boxed HP41CX's and every peripheral in the 41 series, plus a brand new HP42S, and that you will be listing them as a bulk sale on ebay in a few minutes. You set a Buy-it-Now price of $25.00 and shipping will be another $10.00. Then I bid, you get your money, and I get the stuff.

Sounds fair to me, but you might want to ask someone else.

Best regards to HPcalcjunkies.

#5

I'd agree with Bob's succint description - except to add that the auction title should contain as many different words as you can think of that people might search for: brand name, type of product ("PC"; "digital camera"; "calculator" (!), "battery", ...); model number or other terse description ( e.g. "P(entium) III"); and perhaps condition ("NIB") if likely to make it more desirable.

#6

I see your point :o)

eom.

#7

isn't that $25 and $10 to ship, a little steep ?

How about you can have the pallet load of boxed 41C's for $20.00 and maybe I will drive them to your house for free,
seein' how I have got a pickup truck.

#8

When listing an HP calculator, list the model number as "HP-65" and not "HP 65". If somebody seaches for "HP 65", both headings will match. If somebody seaches for "HP-65" only the first one will. Also best to include the magic words "Hewlett Packard Calculator" and spell them properly.

Never place a hidden reserve price. Set your opening bid at what you would have reserved it for.

Also accept as many forms of payment as you can. "Paypal only" auctions typically bring less than half of what an "any payment that I can convert to bucks" auction does.

#9

As an Australian I would also say do not sell exclusively to US.

#10

david; can you restate that first paragraph so i get? thanks - d

#11

I never liked reserve price either. I start bidding on auctions like that, I put in some fairly hefty numbers,
I push the bid higher and higher,
but it says 'reserve price not met'. Then I say
"come on what the @#$^*& is this @#%@#% thing for sale or not?" and then I quit bidding and dont come back, OR, I email the seller what the reserve is, and then he (usually) tells me, and then I decide I dont want to go that high
so whats the use.

I LIKE THE IDEA ABOUT HP-19 type of listing (include the hyphen). See, lets say you had an HP 19Bii then officially there's no hyphen (because HP lost their marbles about 10 years ago and couldn't even figure out how to quote their own model numbers). So officially it shoudl be listed
as HP 19Bii HOWEVER, you say list it as HP-19Bii and
it will get caught by the searcher whether they type in
HP 19Bii OR HP-19Bii . Smart, very smart.

Hey know whats dumb, very dumb ?? What the @#$%#@$^ is an HP-19Bii ????? SHOULDN'T IT BE HP-19C ?????
What the heck is a 19Bii ?? That means they bumped the rev,
it should be HP-19C. I was wondering back when Ronald Reagan dumped out all the insane asylums and put the kookoos back on the street... where did they all go ? THE HP BOARDROOM!! Ah hah, Carly's past mailing address is now out of the bag.

#12

david; did your spelling comment have anything to do with this guy and his Hewlett-Packerd Compurter?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2729314889&category=14305

#13

Hi db,

This is the funniest auction listing I've read in a long time! Thanks for pointing it out!

Now I guess I'll have to widen my searches to include "Hewlett-Packerd calcurlater."

- Michael

#14

IT IS TIME.
For all the times I have read a chat board,
somebody explain "ROTFLMAO" I have seen
it quite a few times.

I have a hunch on 'LMAO'

but "ROTF" is a real mystery to me.

#15

LOL--- laughing out loud

ROFL-- Rolling on floor laughing

ROFLMAO-- Rolling on floor laughing my asterisk off

ROFLMAOAWMP-- ...and wet my pants.

Have fun on AOL now. ;-)

#16

Sorry; eBay is an unexplainabe phenomenon. Perhaps this famous phrase sums it up:

"There's a sucker born every minute."

-Ernie

#17

>"Hewlett-Packerd calcurlater."

Better that than "You let pecker", hmm? 8^)

-Ernie

#18

For calculators, HP stopped using the suffix for a revision at least on the Woodstocks, where "C" first meant continuous memory. For that matter, I don't think the HP35 was an "A" but the 9100 did have "A" and "B". But on the Pioneers, "B" means business (!) , "S" means scientific - why didn't they call the HP27S the "HP27BS"? So to replace the original purpose of "B", they came up with "II", although the specific meaning seems to be "retrofitted with RPN" (except maybe the 32SII where it might be the opposite), for which we should be thankful.



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