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By Kirsten Hawkins
It’s surprisingly easy to kill your eBay business, if you’re
not careful – sure, you can start over from scratch without it
costing you anything, but do you really want to? Still, if you
want your business to end up dead in the water, here are some
simple ways to do it.
Lie about an item: Say it works fine when it sometimes doesn’t
work. Say it’s in perfect condition when it has a scratch.
Your
customers will hate you!
Post whenever you feel like it: Make sure to leave your
customers hanging around, wondering when their item is going
to
turn up. This makes sure they buy from someone else next time.
Let items end anytime: Few people will be around to care about
your auction if it ends in the middle of the night. Why go to
the trouble of working out whether auctions will end at a good
time?
Don’t bother with email: Customers are just timewasters
anyway.
eBay businesses are supposed to run themselves! Never give
informed responses to questions about your item.
Sell rubbish: Really, it’s just eBay. You can just sell any
old
tat from the market for a 200% profit. Let quality be someone
else’s concern – I mean, really, what do they expect for that
price?
Refuse to give discounts: You know what your items cost, you
know what your profit margin is going to be, and you’re not
going to negotiate. Remember that giving customers special
deals might make them feel good and come back to you again.
Make your listings ugly: As many colours, flashing lights and
animations as possible will really give those customers a
headache. Write as much in CAPITALS!!!! as you can. Preferably
big, red capitals. Be sure to use the fonts Impact and Comic
Sans. For an extra special touch, see if you can figure out a
way to add some music.
Don’t take photos: It’s such trouble, after all. If buyers are
picky enough to actually want to see items before they bid on
them, then screw ‘em, that’s what I say.
Write short descriptions: Be as brief as possible, and use
lots
of mysterious abbreviations. This obviously makes you look
very
cool. You can even just write the title again in the
description box. Think of the effort you’ll save!
Use reserve auctions: Now, this is a fairly controversial
final
choice, but it really is one of the best ways to scare away
your
customers. They’ll see ‘reserve not yet met’, and click that
‘back’ button before you know it. Luckily, they can always bid
in a normal auction for the item somewhere else.
Now that you know the ten ways to kill your eBay business, how
about we explore what to do if you want to do the opposite,
and
make a success of it? The next email will give you ten steps
to
successful selling on eBay.
About The Author: Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet
auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit
www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to
make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.
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