New Seller Advice -- Zero Item Views

Hi all! New seller here.

I recently got back into collecting cards after a few decades and want to eventually buy and sell them here. To test the waters and learn, I listed a Star Wars VHS set and a book-club edition Harry Potter book.

While these are not super collectible items I expect people to fight over, SW and HP have a decent enough fanfare where I would have expected some views.

Unfortunately, both items have zero views. I have looked up what I can online about optimizing the items visibility and I even opted for free shipping and the dynamic ads.

I obviously want the items to sell, but of course don't want to spend a large percent of the potential profit on ads and/or shipping.

If anyone has any type of advice for an Ebay newbie who's just looking to generate so traffic on their items, it would be greatly appreciated.

Have a good one, ya'll.

michael_ac23

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Posted 2 years ago·Last reply 2 years ago

13 comments

dhbookds

·2 years ago

1700 View listings

I looked at the solds on the VHS tape and you are overpriced according to most I see........

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=Star+Wars+Trilogy+3-Tape+Set+VHS%2C+1995+Original+Digitally+Mastered&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

When I first started I priced low.........just to build up feedback.........just my experience.

I would add Boxed Set to the title and in the description........that's a good selling point on "sets".........

michael_ac23

OP2 years ago

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Thanks for letting me know!

Based on those top five, I was about $1.66 above average, but having two listings at around $5.00 could certainly hurt my chances.

The "Box Set" suggestion is great because it looks like similar items using that keyword sell slightly higher.

Thanks again!

chapeau-noir

·2 years ago

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Boxed sets, complete sets as well as being the original owner help a lot.

michael_ac23

OP2 years ago

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I'm assuming original owner in this case means I personally bought the item retail and didn't obtain it second hand (thrift store, garage sale, etc.)?

chapeau-noir

·2 years ago

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@michael_ac23 wrote:
I'm assuming original owner in this case means I personally bought the item retail and didn't obtain it second hand (thrift store, garage sale, etc.)?

It's mostly that it wasn't a rental, particularly tape (VHS, cassette, etc.). At least DVDs and books you can easily look for any damage, so if you got those second hand you'd at least have a clear idea of condition, though again, at least in my case, that these are items out of our own library or originally purchased by us and it seems to make a difference.

chapeau-noir

·2 years ago

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I've sold/sell a lot of media - my experience in books is that book club editions are not in demand - as well, the Harry Potter books have been printed and reprinted so they're pretty widely available.

VHS is a hard sell unless it's a very rare title not available in any other format.

Also, eBay has 1.7 billion listings and you only have two - my advice is to keep listing items on a regular basis. You can research desirability and price points for your items by checking 'sold' items.

ETA: I wouldn't bother with ads and the like until you get a better feel for selling here. I use them only because I'm in super saturated categories - media and clothing.

michael_ac23

OP2 years ago

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Thanks for the information! I usually try to lean towards the most sensible solution is usually the right one, and the listings are most likely just being lost amongst the millions of other SW and HP items being sold every single day.

I'm sure I will get a feel for things over time. I have a few other things I may list. I saw a few articles indicate posting items consistently over multiple days instead of all at once can help my listings get views.

Thanks again for the advice!

soh.maryl

·2 years ago

111 View listings

Sorry you are having a hard time getting started. Did you check to see if there are any identical items listed?

michael_ac23

OP2 years ago

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Thank you, I did and even price the item fairly based on sold and completed items.

If I recall, I did the "Sell Something Similar" option to get the correct specifics for someone looking for this item.

I know there is a ton of HP and SW across eBay and internet at large, so perhaps it's just lost in the shuffle? However, I didn't expect to have a combined zero views between them both.

chapeau-noir

·2 years ago

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@michael_ac23 wrote:
Thank you, I did and even price the item fairly based on sold and completed items.

If I recall, I did the "Sell Something Similar" option to get the correct specifics for someone looking for this item.

I know there is a ton of HP and SW across eBay and internet at large, so perhaps it's just lost in the shuffle? However, I didn't expect to have a combined zero views between them both.

We must have cross posted - so you've got the comparisons, that's good.

Just to clarify (you may already know this, anyway) - "Impressions" are when your item shows up on a search engine results page (SERP). "Views" are when the individual actually checks out your listing individually, clicking into it. So your items may be being seen on a SERP, but not clicked into. Lots of reasons for this, but you want to have items that people specifically want to look at, not just come up on a page with a ton of other like items. That becomes harder the denser your market.