eBay Listings That Sell For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) [Paperback]

Marsha Collier (Author), Patti Louise Ruby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0471789127 | ISBN-13: 978-0471789123 | Edition: 1

No matter what you want to sell on eBay—auto parts or designer apparel…weird, unique wares or pricey antiques—the principles and basic rules for successful listings are the same. eBay Listings That Sell For Dummies follows the advice it gives you for your ads—it tells you what you need to know without bogging you down with lots of fluff and peripheral stuff. From the mechanics to descriptive ad copy to photography to getting it on eBay, this guide covers:

• eBay options that can boost the appeal of your listings, including Buy It Now (BIN), Subtitle, Bold Title, Highlight, Box border, Home Page Featured, Featured Plus!,  and Gallery Picture (a must)
• Constructing catchy listings with a title that sells and keywords that pay off
• eBay Acronyms you’ll need to know
• Tackling and completing eBay’s Sell Your Item form
• HTML formatting basics plus some free JavaScript scripts you can use to dress up your listing
• Embedding images, creating thumbnails, and adding bells and whistles (or not)
• Buying a digital camera for taking eBay photos and equipping your “studio”
• Lighting correctly, and using the Cloud Dome, light cubes, panels, and umbrellas
• Retrieving your images and uploading them to a server (your free ISP space, AOL, eBay, eBay’s Picture Manager, or others)
• Editing your photos, including cropping, enhancing, resizing, sharpening, and more
• A checklist of techniques for preparing elegant, fast-loading images for your ads
• Sprucing up your eBay store
• Posting your listing to other sites such as half.com, amazon.com, and overstock.com
• Automating with HTML Generators, including eBay’s Turbo Lister, or Third-Party HTML generators such as Mpire.com Launcher or the authors’ free tool from www.coolebaytools.com

Written by eBay pros Marsha Collier, a successful PowerSeller, and Patti Louise Ruby, a trainer at eBay University events and eBay Live, eBay Listings That Sell For Dummies is loaded with tricks of the trade. It’s complete with step-by-step instructions for many tasks, tables and checklists, lots of screen shots, and examples of good and bad ads. With this friendly guide, your merchandise will quickly be going…going…gone on eBay.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Discover the tricks top sellers use to grab attention

Create your own unique eBay selling pages with time-tested techniques

So you know your way around eBay, but you're not getting the highest bids for your items? Maybe your listings need a makeover! Here are all the techie secrets for taking better merchandise photos, writing hot copy and formatting it in HTML, "branding" your eBay store, making your listings look great on anybody's browser, and a whole lot more.

Discover how to

• Get all you can out of eBay's tools
• Tweak HTML for eye-popping results
• Equip your own eBay photo studio
• Shoot product photos designed to impress
• Avoid rookie selling mistakes

About the Author

Marsha Collier spends most of her time on things related to eBay. She’s a charter member eBay PowerSeller, as well as one of the original instructors for eBay University. As a columnist, an author of four best-selling books on eBay, a television and radio expert, and a lecturer, she shares her knowledge of eBay with millions of online shoppers. Thousands of eBay fans also visit her Web site, www.coolebaytools.com, to get Marsha’s latest insights on e-commerce.
Out of college, Marsha worked in fashion advertising for the Miami Herald and then as special-projects manager for the Los Angeles Daily News. She also founded a home-based advertising and marketing business. Her successful business, the Collier Company, Inc., was featured by Entrepreneur magazine in 1986, and in 1990, Marsha’s company received the Small Business of the Year award from her California State Assemblyman and the Northridge Chamber of Commerce.
Bargains drew Marsha to eBay in 1996, but profitable sales keep her busy on the site now. Marsha applies her business acumen and photography skills to her eBay business — and in this book, she shares her knowledge about what makes good, profit-promoting listings on eBay.

Patti “Louise” Ruby, an Indianapolis native, was born to work on a computer. In junior high, she took a class in the programming language Fortran. She excelled and enjoyed the class: The die was cast. Patti went through several jobs as a programmer and then became a consultant. In the late ’90s, Patti was part-owner of an antique mall, and coincidentally found a Web site called AuctionWeb (the original eBay). She was fascinated by the concept, and began selling on the site. She also became an integral part of the chat rooms, which initially served as loose customer support where users helped other users. Patti’s ease with computers helped many a new user feel comfortable on the boards — and with using the AuctionWeb system.
In February 1997, Patti was hired as AuctionWeb’s second Customer Support Representative. In this position, she became the main interface between the engineering staff and the user community, where she communicated members’ “bug” reports and suggestions for site enhancements. When AuctionWeb became the new eBay site in the fall of 1997, she headed up a “live” question-and-answer board that was set up to help members make the transition between platforms.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471789127
• ISBN-13: 978-0471789123
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #486,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Retail Businesses

More About the Author

In 1998 Marsha created the first edition of eBay For Dummies, then, followed up the success of the first book with a second book targeting individuals interested in making e-commerce their full time profession, Starting an eBay Business For Dummies. That book became an instant nationwide hit, making several notable Best Seller lists. Since then, Marsha has updated each of her books and published many more.

On a lighter note, for buyers who want to get a good deal online, Marsha penned a fun book, Santa Shops on eBay. Marsha's books have sold over 1,000,000 copies. (Not including the special editions in foreign countries; two in Australia, two in Canada and two in the United Kingdom - as well as translations in Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese and German).

Along with her writing, Marsha is also an experienced e-commerce educator. She was the lead instructor for eBay University (teaching at seminars all over the United States), as well as a regular presenter at the eBay Live national convention since its inception. Marsha also hosted "Make Your Fortune Online," a PBS special on online business that premiered in 2005. The show was the basis for her PBS premium five DVD set, "Your Online Business Plan." In 2006, she was invited to address the Innovations Conference in Singapore to present the ideas of e-commerce to a new market. In 2008, she was dubbed one of twenty influential iCitizens in Kelly Mooney's The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web Made World.

During the holiday season, she also does several national satellite media tours to explain the safety of shopping online. She hosts Computer & Technology Radio on KTRB 860 AM in San Francisco - as well as on the web at www.computerandtechnologyradio.com. She also makes regular appearances on television, radio, and in print to discuss customer needs and online commerce.

Marsha currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. She can be reached via her Web site, www.marshacollier.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Helpful, January 6, 2007

By 

windy (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: eBay Listings That Sell For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) (Paperback)

This was a very helpful book, and made me think about the details when creating my listing and taking my pictures. It explains how to take clearer pictures and the important information to put in your listing. Most importantly, it tells you what things you should not do.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars not worth the money, November 26, 2006

By 

Kamz Pirzada "Grendizer" (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: eBay Listings That Sell For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) (Paperback)

My wife has an ebay business and bought this for insights. This is cmoon sense, and there are enough free guides available that provide the same information.

We returned the book promptly.

17 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the book eBay sellers asked for!, May 8, 2006

By 

Steven Hayes "Dummies Editor" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: eBay Listings That Sell For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) (Paperback)

I'm the editor who worked with Patti & Marsha on this book. When we attended the eBay Live convention in 2005, we had the chance to ask a lot of eBay sellers what kind of information they needed that they couldn't find. We got the same replies over and over:

* They wanted info on how to take better photos for their sales, especially how to take photos of smaller items like jewelry and coins.
* They wanted to know how to dress up their sales with HTML tweaks.
* They wanted to know how to write better listing copy.

We answered all those questions in this book plus a lot of others. This is the book you need if you want to get a leg up on other sellers and post the best looking listing with the best photos. It's a proven fact that the better your listing and photos looks, the higher your bids will be!