Stuart Turnbull's Blog

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eBay Spot The Differences Competition!

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It is time for my annual eBay “spot the differences competition”!

I ran a similar competition around this time last year and it proved to be a lot of fun and a unique way to teach the eBay listing techniques that enable me to consistently out-sell the competition on eBay.

This is how it works:

Below I have featured screenshots from two recent vintage print auctions on eBay (click on each screen shot to see a full sized image).

The first auction is one of mine and the second is from another seller for an identical print taken from the same edition of the same book.

You will notice a difference in the number of hits and also the final values and what you have to do is write a list of differences between the two auction listings that you believe contributed to the widely different results.

Please send your list to me by email: stuart@stuart-turnbull.com

I will select the winner based on the most comprehensive list of differences.

The prize is a bumper package of “Prints Make Profits” products! (or cash equivalent if you have already purchased the products!)

Ready?

OK, in this first screenshot you can see my final value and the number of bids:

(if you would like to convert the pound sterling values to your own currency click this link for a handy currency converter widget)

Screenshot 2 shows my description and item specifics:

You can see the number of hits on my listing in screenshot 3:

And finally you can see the bidding history in screenshot 4:

 

Turning now to my competitor’s auction, screenshot 1 shows the final value:

Screenshots 2 & 3 feature the item specifics and description:

 

And the last screenshot shows the number of hits to my competitor’s auction:

 

(I haven’t included a screenshot of the category because we both listed in the same category)

The closing date for your entry is midnight 5th of December and the winner will be announced on my blog on the 7th of December.

Best of luck!

 

 

 

 

 




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Comments

  1. Greetings Stuart and other folks and so great to be here. Well, just submitted my observations at 7:07 MY time (AST) and I know Mr. Stuart is sitting home at 11:07 HIS time waiting for all to come in. Actually, I wasn’t quite sure about whether this had to be submitted by HIS time, or, everyone else’s time but I figured in four hours time difference just to be sure.

    Thanks all for reading and thanks Stuart for the fun!

    Stay tuned…*s

  2. Hi Stuart

    Wow, is it a whole year since your last Spot the Difference contest? Where does the time go?!

    I really enjoy doing these contests and I have emailed my entry. Your competitor has a thing or two to learn, I think they need to subscribe to your newsletter 🙂

    Good luck, everyone.

    Lynn

  4. Hi Stuart,

    A good few entries. It was fun doing it and I have already emailed my entry.I’m having a problem with my computer, need to get it fixed. Pulled an old one out of the cupboard and got it working. I need now to try and find old receipts to get my stuff downloaded again. Hope it’s not my HDD or I will be crying lots…. let me tell you.

    It’s going to hold me back. Anyway, I digress again. The difference in the two ads is unbelievable. I used your ideas for mine and hopefully it’ll work for me. thanks again for your help.

    Regards

    Donald

    P.S. Good luck guys…. hope you all do well and you’re all second below ME!! lol

  5. Stewart,
    Your listing has more information in the title and your competition has wasted words. The fact that you give some facts about the artist makes it more interesting especially the words sporting artist.
    Your photo is much more enticing and the fact that you have matted the print.
    I also like the fact that you added the years of the artist’s life and and quoted his obituary.
    This makes your listing more personal and attractive.

  6. Now this was fun AND educational
    Very nice contest.
    Hope more people will do stuff like this to teach us through fun ways like this contest.

    I learned so much Stuart.
    Thanks for opening my eyes to some awesome techniques.

  8. Stuart,

    Your Title:
    Cecil Aldin original vintage antique fox hunting horse hunt print c1900

    The first thing I notice is your title contains only “useful” information – nothing extraneous.

    When someone sees this title they know it is original, vintage, a hunting print and contains horses.

    The inclusion of the word horse is very important. Horse prints sell!

    You Competition Title:
    Brilliant Cecil Aldin fox hunting print of 1911 “Wo-ay’ Oss! Wo-ay!”

    Your competitions inclusion of the words “Brilliant” and “of” in the title, do nothing to help the buyer in searching for this print. They actually waste space. Also the Title of the print, while occasionally helpful, will not in this case help. It would only be useful in the case of a very famous print.

    Your use of several photos also improves the likelihood of someone buying from you. I generally feel the more pictures the better.

    I am not sure if your print being mounted is a factor or not.

    My experience in this respect is unclear. I have sold both mounted and unmounted prints and can see very little difference in the resulting number of sales. Yes, unmounted generally sell for lower price but they are easier to ship and I don’t have the cost of mounting them.

    As for the descriptions, yours is clean and neat. The competition is a little “over the top” for me.

    I feel that clean, straight forward, well described and photographed prints, sell better.

    Keep up the good work.

    • Hey Stuart. This is fun!! Your item specifics are different. You list vintage. Your competition lists realism. People use the word vintage much more than realism. You also list chromolithograph which is more specific. The other difference (Other then the obvious differences) I see is that you list fox hunting and not sporting.

  9. Hey Stuart,
    This is Lucille and my husband subscribes to your newletter and I read this one and wanted to participate and it locks me out, so what do I do then? I use his email address because I don’t have one and am not very computer literate.

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