Looking for advice with my listing description formatting choices

[gwzcomps]

I am considering updating how I format my descriptions such as in 373091520568.  Two things I am considering eliminating.  Essentially the first and last 2 lines of text. 

• A while back I was told it was helpful to copy the title as the first line of the description.  I don't remember why since that was a long time ago.  I think it was one of those eBay "help" phone calls where a rep looks over the account and gives feedback and ideas.

• The last two lines "Free shipping is only for the continental US States. Free shipping is not available for P.O. Boxes, Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico sorry. Shipping is not available for APO/FPO boxes sorry." are kinda pointless.  My buyer requirements stop people under those circumstances from buying from me.  Whether the policy itself is a good idea?  Well I don't feel like dealing with the problems that have been caused in the past.  I am guessing I should just delete those lines.

• Font size is another thing I have been thinking about.  Seems no one follows what I assumed was common sense advice that I learned in my HTML class in high school.  It was something to the tune of  "When making your site pretend your user spent the last 24 hours staring at a screen."  Essentially a sarcastic way of saying make your site easy to read.  The 18 point font I prefer seems easier to read on desktop and mobile.

Overall people are too lazy to read descriptions so now sure why I even care 😂

[mr_lincoln]

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@gwzcomps wrote:

I am considering updating how I format my descriptions such as in 373091520568.  Two things I am considering eliminating.  Essentially the first and last 2 lines of text. 

• A while back I was told it was helpful to copy the title as the first line of the description.  I don't remember why since that was a long time ago.  I think it was one of those eBay "help" phone calls where a rep looks over the account and gives feedback and ideas.

• The last two lines "Free shipping is only for the continental US States. Free shipping is not available for P.O. Boxes, Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico sorry. Shipping is not available for APO/FPO boxes sorry." are kinda pointless.  My buyer requirements stop people under those circumstances from buying from me.  Whether the policy itself is a good idea?  Well I don't feel like dealing with the problems that have been caused in the past.  I am guessing I should just delete those lines.  Your listings are either FREE shipping or they aren't ... once a purchase occurs you can't go back and ask for more money for shipping.  Shipping to PO Boxes is fine, not sure what the hang up is there?  If you don't want to ship to Puerto Rico turn it off in Site Preferences.  Keep in mind ... Buyers are NOT responsible to read the listing.

• Font size is another thing I have been thinking about.  Seems no one follows what I assumed was common sense advice that I learned in my HTML class in high school.  It was something to the tune of  "When making your site pretend your user spent the last 24 hours staring at a screen."  Essentially a sarcastic way of saying make your site easy to read.  The 18 point font I prefer seems easier to read on desktop and mobile.  Just use the standard font eBay supplies on the listing form, don't add fancy colors, text styles, font sizes, etc.  The standard eBay supplies is ALREADY MOBILE FRIENDLY ... at or over 50% of all purchases are from a mobile device.

Overall people are too lazy to read descriptions so now sure why I even care 😂

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[wastingtime101]

Point 1 - you can go either way with that.

Point 2 - get rid of it and let your shipping settings do the work.

Point 3 - Don't go bigger than 14pt. 18pt requires way too much scrolling, even on desktop. 18pt is so big that it's distracting and it's off-balance with the rest of the listing info (specs, etc).

[gwzcomps]

PO boxes were mostly a problem with items I don't primarily ship USPS. If I did calculated shipping and specified my shipping service a lot of those problems would probably go away. Free shipping works better though so the only alternative is to make a second account where I sell items that only go USPS.

All the formatting I use is the stuff eBay supplies in their advanced listing tool. I don't understand why eBay supplies formatting options that are broken, but I guess MP kinda makes that question pointless.

[mtgraves7984]

I'll bite.

- The first line works. I think with what you sell, it's helpful down close to the description.

- I'd skip the last two lines. I've sold to all of those types of addresses and have had no problems with USPS.

- Your font size works, plus I like the typeface.

+ I think your two info paragraphs would be easier to read if they were aligned left. But that's just me...

[gwzcomps]

The left align suggestion feels weird, but probably because I am used to having the text centered.  If I could use "Justify" for the alignment I would consider that, but it can create weird word spacing for websites.  Also I can't figure out why the site messed up my bullet point alignment.

[thebreakroom123]

I honestly wouldn't get too carried away with descriptions, but then again Im not a power seller by any means. But from what I've seen, the product will usually sell itself, unless it's something very obscure that needs a detailed description. I've seen auctions of the same product, where there are just a few words for a description vs. a very detailed description, and they both sell for practically the same price.

[wastingtime101]

I agree with the suggestion to use a left alignment. Center alignment is more difficult to read.

You have a whole lot of extraneous HTML code in your descriptions - you should strip it out.