This is one of, if not the most important part of your auction listing. If you get this wrong it can cause you so many headaches, lost sales and buyer disputes than any other part of the listing.
There are a couple of ways to write and item description. You can either write either write a full description or use simple bullet points. Either way is fine and both have their pros and cons.
If you going to go to the trouble and expense of listing an item for sale on eBay, when you get to the the item description part you actually need to put a bit of effort in and actually write something of substance. Simply writing one sentence won't cut it unless you selling something so simple it doesn't even warrant an description. When I'm looking for anything to buy on eBay nothing has me hitting the back button faster than a poorly written or incomplete description. To actually sell an item on eBay is quite expensive. so do yourself a favour, separate yourself from a number of lazy sellers on eBay and write some substance in any description.
Every Good item description on EBay has these 6 Attributes
There are a couple of ways to write and item description. You can either write either write a full description or use simple bullet points. Either way is fine and both have their pros and cons.
If you going to go to the trouble and expense of listing an item for sale on eBay, when you get to the the item description part you actually need to put a bit of effort in and actually write something of substance. Simply writing one sentence won't cut it unless you selling something so simple it doesn't even warrant an description. When I'm looking for anything to buy on eBay nothing has me hitting the back button faster than a poorly written or incomplete description. To actually sell an item on eBay is quite expensive. so do yourself a favour, separate yourself from a number of lazy sellers on eBay and write some substance in any description.
Every Good item description on EBay has these 6 Attributes
Overall condition
Describe the condition of item honestly. You don't have to point out every little mark, dent or scratch. However if there is a fairly large scratch or mark don't try and hide it be honest about it. Add a couple of measurements if you think it will help. If the item still works fine even with the large scratch, write that as well. Something like "there is a large scratch along the bottom edge however this has no effect on how the item works." If there is anything missing make sure you add this. While missing parts will affect the final price people are sometimes just looking for parts to make their own complete and want to keep the price down. Games consoles are prime example of this. I rarely sell a full games console package I break them down into component parts. I always make more money this Way
Describe a feature then sell the benefit.
As an example "This Satnav is equipped with blue tooth, which allows you to safely make hands free calls while driving from a blue tooth enabled phone." This sounds so much better than just writing the feature i.e. “it’s got blue tooth." Adding a feature and selling the benefit also touches the persons emotions by painting a picture. A prospective buyer may see themselves talking to their partner ion the way home or thinking about the last time they got pulled over by the police for using their phone. Write and as many features as you can about your item and then sell a benefit for each and every one of them.
Any unique points
These can be anything from a limited edition to a celebrity signed copy or it has historical value. However if your going to state anything like this you must have good evidence to go along with your statement.
Spelling and grammar.
Put your description through a spell checker and make sure it reads easily and flows well. While spelling and grammar errors will usually be overlooked major errors in the listing can put people off buying.
Independent reviews.
eBay will let you put links in your item description to item reviews sites. I use quite a lot as it adds weight to what I'm saying. My personal opinion with this, the more the merrier. These are best used at the end of your description, just add them as a list
First the bad and ugly then the good.
Get the bad & ugly points of your item out of the way first. Be honest about them but don't linger on them by going into minute detail. Then go onto the good points of your item and why the looker should become a buyer. List as many features of the item as you can then sell the benefit of each and every feature. When someone is looking at your item they are sort of weighing everything and you need to add as much weight to the good side as possible so they click on "Bid Now" button. The more weight you add to the good side the more bidders you'll get and the more money you'll make.
Describe the condition of item honestly. You don't have to point out every little mark, dent or scratch. However if there is a fairly large scratch or mark don't try and hide it be honest about it. Add a couple of measurements if you think it will help. If the item still works fine even with the large scratch, write that as well. Something like "there is a large scratch along the bottom edge however this has no effect on how the item works." If there is anything missing make sure you add this. While missing parts will affect the final price people are sometimes just looking for parts to make their own complete and want to keep the price down. Games consoles are prime example of this. I rarely sell a full games console package I break them down into component parts. I always make more money this Way
Describe a feature then sell the benefit.
As an example "This Satnav is equipped with blue tooth, which allows you to safely make hands free calls while driving from a blue tooth enabled phone." This sounds so much better than just writing the feature i.e. “it’s got blue tooth." Adding a feature and selling the benefit also touches the persons emotions by painting a picture. A prospective buyer may see themselves talking to their partner ion the way home or thinking about the last time they got pulled over by the police for using their phone. Write and as many features as you can about your item and then sell a benefit for each and every one of them.
Any unique points
These can be anything from a limited edition to a celebrity signed copy or it has historical value. However if your going to state anything like this you must have good evidence to go along with your statement.
Spelling and grammar.
Put your description through a spell checker and make sure it reads easily and flows well. While spelling and grammar errors will usually be overlooked major errors in the listing can put people off buying.
Independent reviews.
eBay will let you put links in your item description to item reviews sites. I use quite a lot as it adds weight to what I'm saying. My personal opinion with this, the more the merrier. These are best used at the end of your description, just add them as a list
First the bad and ugly then the good.
Get the bad & ugly points of your item out of the way first. Be honest about them but don't linger on them by going into minute detail. Then go onto the good points of your item and why the looker should become a buyer. List as many features of the item as you can then sell the benefit of each and every feature. When someone is looking at your item they are sort of weighing everything and you need to add as much weight to the good side as possible so they click on "Bid Now" button. The more weight you add to the good side the more bidders you'll get and the more money you'll make.
You will usually come across two types of description, either a full description or one written in bullet point form and either one is fine. Some sellers will use one or the other for all their auctions and wont deviate. However I've personally found that using both styles for different types of items is the best way to make the most money
This is the way I write the bullet point item descriptions
- From 1985 so over 30 Years young
- Contents are 100% complete
- Small amount of damage to the plastic liner but nothing serious
- The contents are all in very good condition with only a few played with marks and some fading
- Comes complete with 2 X stickers which have not been applied to the board
- Tiles all easy to read with no flaking or cracked tiles
- The box lid and base has a few marks, scratches and wearing but again nothing serious.
- For up to four players
- Instructions printed on the inside of the box lid
- A great fun game for the whole family.
Full item Descriptions are more suited to more expensive and complicated items that have a lot of parts
This is a great game controller for the PS1 I've tested the controller fully and it plays really well. There are some played with marks and scratches but nothing serious and certainly nothing that affects the operation of the controller. The lead is also free from kinks or breaks. These Official Sony PSone controllers are now getting quite hard to come by and this item would be great to to add to any PSone console bundle.
This is a great game controller for the PS1 I've tested the controller fully and it plays really well. There are some played with marks and scratches but nothing serious and certainly nothing that affects the operation of the controller. The lead is also free from kinks or breaks. These Official Sony PSone controllers are now getting quite hard to come by and this item would be great to to add to any PSone console bundle.
Writing a great auction description takes time and a good bit of effort, however you will only get out what you to put in. If your looking just to put no effort in all you'll get out is buyer disputes and not a lot of sales. The more you write good compelling item descriptions the easier & faster it will become. Just remember these points when writing a description for any auction site. Over all condition including any missing parts, Describe a feature then sell the benefit of that feature, any points unique with supporting evidence, run a spell and grammar check, link to independent reviews, start with the bad points then finish with the good points, use bullet point descriptions for simple items & use long full descriptions for more expensive complicated items. Till next time have a great week and eBay hard.
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