2nd Category & Subtitles

[pastime]

Had a look on the Forum for info on adding 2nd Category and or Subtitles - wasn't able to find much in the way of comments.

Any idea how it works - it's only a tiny additional sum, does this occur each time the listing goes through each listing timed cycle/each time the listing cycle finishes and needs to be moved from 'I ran to am running'?
Will the 2nd category show on GS when buyer searches for that type of title in the 2nd cat?

Where will the Subtitle show: both on eBid and GS searches?

Thanks for any info - it certainly looks worthwhile to use, since I worry that that some listings may only show in very precisely worded searches.
Any thoughts gratefully received.

[theElench]

Hi Pastime

I tried adding a second category once, when I was new on ebid. I was also new to on-line selling and had only had the vaguest idea of how listing forms worked so I soon got confused by "parent category" and "second category" and gave up.

Looking at it again, that part looks pretty simple now I know a bit more about categories.

I can see you're a Platinum level seller, while I'm Silver, so there are differences in the fee structure. I pay a listing fee each time I re-list and I've also paid for extra photos again on each re-list.

I would think / guess that as a Platinum Seller with free re-lists, only the listing fee is waived and extras like second cat. and extra photos would be charged again on each re-listing cycle? After all they are 'extra' features, not covered by the Selling Plan you paid for?

As for google shopping, I'm pretty sure google searches by ad. title and description, not category. Just to get my name seen a little more widely I've listed a few items in the "Pressed Glass" sub cat. (as opposed to "Date Lined Glass" where I usually list). When I search on GS for "Art Deco Glass" I've found one or two of my ads. from Pressed Glass mixed in with those from Date Lined Glass.

I take that to mean it's searching both sub-categories for "Art Deco Glass" in the titles. So I would think that if someone searched for Art Deco glass in Pressed Glass, GS would also show them my listings in the Date Lined category.

Hope this is some help!

[pastime]

Yes,
thank you Elench - take you point about 'extra features', Ok by me, just don't like the thought of not being seen just because you haven't got the correct word in the title.
Tried 2nd cat and Subtitle on a listing that falls between 2 stools - 2nd cat not hugely different, so probably not much change there. Subtitle added appeared in caps below Title, but doesn't seem to add to search terms (only quickly checked). Won't be able to see anything on GS until bots have crawled over it.

Re: extra cost - having had a perfect example on Etsy of not one item selling for 4 weeks and then paying a re-listing fee of £15 for that month, shows how the costs mount up (and you can't be sure that they aren't capping sellers views not to mention only appearing on page 40 in a search, plus the take of 6.5% fees on item and the cost of postage.

Mentioned eBid on Etsy forum (don't suppose it will last for long) and several sellers surprised that it's still going - hopefully, it will be re-considered as a site that is free from interference that leaves you free to make your own decisions and doesn't hold on to sellers funds/hand back sellers money to anyone that pretends they haven't received the item (which seems to rife with US buyers, at the moment), which does put me off selling to the US, at the moment.

[theElench]

I think you know my views on esty, just out to fleece its sellers like obay, but more efficient at doing so.

I found a wonderful vase in a local shop being sold as Venetian, it reminded me more of a German company. Trying to identify it, I looked again at esty. At least I didn't get any of the Promoted Strips across the search results this time, but still wouldn't think of trying to sell anything there. I did however see another of my Saved Sellers (and at one time a repeat buyer of my items here) has increased their presence on etsy and seems to be reducing it on obay.

I now confine myself to only replying to the "Nothing ever sells on Ebid" type of thread on obay, but with things so dire on obay they seem to be even more 'sensitive' about anything positive being said about other sites and I got banned from the boards for a month for posting something that might encourage sellers to list elsewhere. The seller I replied to had been selling here for all of two weeks, sold nothing and decided it was a waste of space so gave up!!!

One piece of good news. I seem to have a 'competitor' who looks to be building their listing numbers in Art Deco Glass. Hopefully they'll continue adding to the variety of items on offer, get some sales and stick around.

[pastime]

'The seller I replied to had been selling here for all of two weeks, sold nothing and decided it was a waste of space so gave up!!!'

Yes, a real pity not to wait for a longer period before giving up. Ebid is brilliant for setting up as many stores and listing, after paying a one-off fee, as is wanted. So nothing lost to build bit-by-bit and hope that items are seen on GS and images - and having the freedom not to be dictated/squeezed for every penny/and shoved to the back of the search queue, without even knowing it.
Etsy seems to give new shops a honeymoon period - when they first open, after that many are struggling to be seen behind all the Chinese stuff that purports to be handmade/vintage cheap listings.

I've just had my 10 year anniversary email - amazing to think that I could build up shop listings and then, when I was busy moving house and then decorating, and fixing things before I had time to actively sell, I was able to mothball shops, and pick-up where I left off - that isn't available with Etsy/Bay etc.
That is incredible good value, that can't be found elsewhere.

[theElench]

Oh yes, I started here a few months after you!!

Probably like many others, I made mistakes to begin with. Listed a handful of items to "see how it goes". Predictably nothing happened, no sales for a whole year. But then got into listing anything that didn't sell on obay. (Remember the 'good old days' on obay when 7 day auctions resulted in more sales than unsolds?)

I started getting an occasional sale as the numbers grew and after several more years I realised that as obay sales declined, ebid sales were increasing, so started looking more closely at why.

Obviously more listings = more choice for buyers. Listing two new items a week regularly meant I added 100 listings in a year. I changed my priorities and started listing items on ebid first and only after they failed to sell did I move them onto obay. My "Recent Activity" was only ever a few days old and I began to get a few FBs from buyers. Also as I've found recently, GS seems to show a lot of my older listings, so perhaps after a few years of regular listing, however GS selects what it shows, I usually had something that showed-up?

Another year on and another 100 listings, more sales, more FB and sales about equal to obay. Had to cut regular listings to 1 a week as I'm running out of items. But several more years on and I've never reached 300 items as buyers keep the numbers down.

I find a lot of the detractors on obay are would-be business sellers or perhaps are businesses on that site. They are quite good at obaying, but have very little acumen or experience outside of that. They come here expecting a mini-obay and as soon as they're outside their comfort zone, they fail here and would IMO fail in the real world or on other on-line sites because they can't adapt, think longer term or use their imagination to experiment.

[billsstamps]

I agree with Elench that ebid is not the same kind of platform as ebay. You can do things here that you cannot on the other platform. You gradually learn what works, such as list in thousands and reap your percentage