Recently in eBay Experiences Category

vzaar were lucky enough to be invited onto the Savvy Seller’s Podcast Series and we thought you might like to listen in! If you are new to vzaar then you might find it a useful guide to how vzaar works but for the more experienced user, Marlene and I also cover:

• Video Types
• Benefits of Video to eBay Sellers
• Embedding Video on other websites
• vzaar versus YouTube
• vzaar Pricing
  
  click on the play button to listen

I have to say a big thanks to Marlene and point you in the direction of her fantastic blog on all things eBay, Intenert Marketing and Social Networking

The eBay community have always been a very giving set of people. During my time at the company I was constantly impressed at the lengths strangers would go to help one another with advice, pointers or just encouragement. Sadly ever since eBay UK put a halt to the eBay University programme there has been a pronounced gap in the social calendar for eBay sellers to actually meet face to face. Whilst events like ChannelAdvisor’s Catalyst offer certain sellers the chance to meet, socialise and share in experiences, the ball now appears to be firmly in the court of sellers themselves.

Thankfully various social networking tools now make the idea of organising and rounding up a few sellers a little less onerous that it used to be. There are Facebook Groups, Twitter Feeds and various online forums around which people can meet on and offline. Adding to that list is the new London eBay Seller Meetup. Loosely based around a monthly gathering, the MeetUp website allows any person to set up there own social event.

Last month vzaar was invited to come along and meet some of the eBay sellers in attendance at one of the newly set up eBay meets in London. Never one to turn down a beer, I met with ex eBay staffer and MeetUp organiser, Nathan O’Hanlon, who has done his best to create an evening that is both relaxed and welcoming.

Held on the third Thursday of every month the eBay London Meet Up gather upstairs at the Walkabout pub in Putney and its well worth dropping in if you fancy networking with fellow users of the auction platform. Here’s Nathan with a personal invite!

Although its in its early days Nathan has some lofty aims and I can see how quickly such an event could quite easily grow into a more powerful and educational voice. As with any of these meets you tend to get back what you put in so why not pop along? The next meeting for the London group is on Thursday 19th February and to sign up you can click here

Everyone likes presents at Christmas…especially unexpected ones!

Last week the eBay Developer Team contacted us out, like the Secret Santas they are, to say that we had won a special eBay prize. Yeh!

To celebrate the 8th anniversary of the eBay API platform some Third Party Services have been recognised for their involvement in the rather cool initiative, Project Echo, which vzaar will be a part of in 2009. So over the weekend we excitedly wondered what might be winging its way across the Atlantic to vzaar HQ - I for one couldn’t sleep last night.

And here is it, our very own office Magic 8 ball. Have a look at the video to see what we asked of it…

Charities have for some years now been using eBay as a great venue for extending their brand profile and to also raise some much needed money along the way. It makes utter sense given the sheer number of buyers visiting eBay with money to spend.

For a while though I’ve had a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the quality of the attempts to sell on eBay by some of the bigger high street charity names. Many have taken eBay too lightly in my opinion and not paid due attention to the commercial opportunities that the site offers. Well, thanks to Good Cause Auctions we are starting to see some professionalism hitting our PC screens!

Run by eBay advocates Julie Dawson and Mark Buckingham, Good Cause Auctions offer services from consultancy and support, to a fully integrated service comprising PR, campaign planning, design, auction management and logistics. Aimed at increasing awareness of a cause and building an extended or new base of support they really are the go to people if you are a charity looking to sell on eBay but perhaps don’t have the full resource to support it or to bring the idea to life. What’s more the company are firm believers in the value of video, especially for charities that want to show bidders how monies are spent, so it was natural for vzaar to hook up with them!

As an example check out their Shelter Men Only Aloud Christmas auction on eBay for your chance to have the BBC award winning choir sing in your local community.

When it comes to eBay, change is the only constant. This year, so far,we've seen changes to fees, feedback, listing policies and now Shops,selling formats and fees (again) in what represents a huge shift in how the marketplace works. Of course, there's been plenty of good news, but from the conversations we've been having at vzaar HQ with sellers big and small. We know a lot of eBay sellers have struggled to keep up with the avalanche of announcements. eBay sellers are busy people.

So whether you're taking a well-earned break or already neck deep preparing for Christmas, here's the vzaar 5 minute guide to yesterday's announcements.

- From 24th September, Gallery is free. It's been a penny for most of the summer but before that it was 15p. Make sure you're getting your freebie.

- SIF is dead. If your listing strategy depends on driving traffic to your cheaper Shop (SIF) listings using auctions and Buy it Nows as signposts, then you'll need to rethink. BINs, regardless of value and multiples, will cost a flat 40p. What do you need to do to take advantage of this?

- Monthly Shops subscriptions are going up: basic Shop £6 to £14.95, featured Shop from £30 to £49.95 and anchor Shop from £300 to £349.95. But a new Shop perk will be reductions to the flat 40p: 20p for a basic Shop, 5p for a featured shop and 1p for an anchor Shop.

- BINs will not be visible internationally from 24th September. Do you depend on BIN buyers from abroad for some of your sales? Consider switching to internationally visible auctions as a way of attracting foreign buyers.

For a full digest of the changes, check out Tamebay.

This aeroplane made from fizzy drinks cans shows that recycling is really taking off.

I'm not sure why a car might need a siren that makes a horse noise. But just in case, we've got one.

On Thursday 7th August 2008, all eBay.co.uk Insertion Fees are half price for any listing using the Auction-style, Auction-with-Buy It Now or Buy It Now Only (Fixed Price) formats in eligible categories. As always, there are a whole host of Ts & Cs which you can check out here.

Lots of sellers worry that their items get lost in the cheap listings maelstrom. More sellers list more items. Conversion rates suffer and for some it can be a bane rather than a boon. Here are some tips for getting the most out of this Thursday's CLD:

- Try using 5, 3, and 1 day listings. Most people want to make the most out of the promotion and put their items up for 10 days, or 7. Items get the most visibility in their closing hours, so shorter durations can mean you have less competition.

- Have a clear out. Have you got stock that isn't moving? Put it on eBay at rock bottom prices using the lower fees and try and shift it. Storing and maintaining stock costs money and some times it can make real sense to just get rid. You'll need all that valuable space in anticipation of the christmas rush.

- Experiment. The insertion fee reduction is a good chance to experiement with less risk. Have you considered testing out some sales with Free P&P?

- Pray for rain. August is a quiet month on eBay for many sellers and if the sun's out, it can be even quieter. So when it comes to eBay sales, the rain is a good thing.

Check out some of these videos that are on vzaar right now.

This video of a delightful narrowboat just makes you want to chuck it all in and take to the rivers and canals of England.

A great example of why it pays not to be shy: this engaging peiece to camera really shows off the item for sale.

This charming water feature will be a hit in any garden. But, must dash, need to go to the toilet...

Hello All,

For those of you that missed eBay live! in Chicago this year - I've put together a small video of our trip to give you a taste of what you missed.

...Dan says it looks like a holiday video - but I promise I was working extremely hard and I thought it important to give a taste of Chicago too!

We’ve all dreamt of chucking it all in and building a whole new better life at some time or other (haven’t we?) and Ian User is doing just that. He’s selling his life on eBay: a sort of Reggie Perrin 2.0. You’ve probably seen it in the press (see the coverage on the BBC and in the Telegraph and Metro by clicking the links). When the sale concludes he’ll walk away with the money, the clothes he’s wearing and his passport. At the airport, he’ll get the first ticket to anywhere and head off in to the wild blue yonder.

The bidding has been frantic and it looks like Ian is well on his way to getting the price he wants for his ‘life’. Check out the lovely vzaar videos to get a real sense of what he’s flogging.

The sale includes his three-bedroom home in the Western Australian city of Perth and everything in it, including a car, motorcycle, jet ski and computer equipment. You can also win Ian’s job… although you’ll have to pass an initial trail. It all seems a bit crazy. But on this grey and rainy day, with doom and gloom on the news, escaping to the sunny beachlife of Perth seems rather attractive.

It’s day three and we’re back on the eBay Live Exhibition floor for more meeting and greeting and getting the word out about vzaar. Last night we had a lovely shindig at Chicago’s premier English theme pub, the Elephant and Castle.

With our friends from Frooition, Channel Advisor and Tamebay, we welcomed dozens of chums from all over the world to raise a pint and celebrate in the time-honoured British manner: by having a few drinks. And, it must be said, that a splendid time was had by all. Thanks for coming. How was your head this morning? I was still scratching mine and wondering why any English theme pub thinks it’s typical to have a huge picture of Mrs T. on the wall.

As the exhibition closes in less than an hour, we’re still signing up punters and selling vzaar. We’ve had a good day. There seem to be a lot of day delegates making the trip in for Saturday only and our stand has been brisk. Sometimes working a stand and talking to dozens of people a day can be a gruesome trial. You can be rebuffed by negativity or dispirited by a lack of interest. But that hasn’t been our experience at all in Chicago. There is an easy, American enthusiasm for experimentation and taking on new things that is great news for vzaar. Most people are sold on the notion of video and keen to give it a try.

eBay Live! draws to a close this evening with the Gala (apparently pronounced 'gay-la') and a star performance from Chris Isaak (does it get any cooler?). And, needless to say, Team vzaar will be tucked up in bed long before the witching hour. Adieu.

So here we are, team vzaar loaded on caffeine and colourful looking doughnuts, at the eBay keynote address, and its not even 9am!

This is the pivital moment for the eBay management. A golden opportunity to set the mood, not only for the remainder of the event, but the year ahead as they layout their roadmap for success. It's what the seller particularly will go away ringing in their ears and what will define in part how much inventory they commit to the site.

So with one eye on video and it's future adoption on eBay what did we learn?

- Feedback is still very much the currency of eBay. Sellers are driven by it and we need to ensure that video is seen as an emerging tactic that helps to improve a seller's feedback DSRs.

- $60bn worth of goods were traded in 2007, three times their nearest competitor. eBay remains the right marketplace to launch vzaar on. Phew!

- Trust remains at the heart of all eBay transactions. Seller Protection is now expanded to all US sellers (will inevitably roll out internationally). We're confident that video helps inspire trust in one another. It eliminates doubt.

- eBay wants more of your inventory. To that end we need to continue to work hard on ensuring that video integration is as seamless and easy as possible. In part, that is why we are here in Chicago, to meet with the 3rd parties that help sellers manage their inventory.

And so that was pretty much it. You can read a more thorough update here on the eBayink but it leaves me to tell you that the doughnuts have been eaten, I have sugar all over my laptop and now its time to get back to the vzaar stand for day two!