Your eBid Listings & Google Shopping

eBid uploads listings to Google Products (aka google shopping/base or Froogle). For your items to qualify they MUST have a BuyNow Price. They can also have an auction price if you wish, but google products ignores this.

Normal "countdown" style listings are uploaded to google when they are first posted, & again each time they repost. Items listed as RunTilSold or OnFirstBid are uploaded when the listing is first posted, & again at indeterminate intervals (it SHOULD be every 30 days).

If you live in the UK your listings are uploaded to google shopping UK, in the USA to google shopping USA. It used to be possible to upload your own listings,but google have recently stopped this.

Google has recently announced that eBid is one of its three Marketplace Partners.

More info can be found at:-
http://googlemerchantblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/announcing-our-first-product-search.html
http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/products/gmp.html

Before you start listing - Setting Defaults

At the moment the only way to bulk upload your items is by spreadsheet, although a new Ninja Lister is in the pipeline it's not available yet. Most users list online one item at a time, although it sounds time consuming there are ways of speeding it up.

eBid uses a one page listing format.

Before you start listing your items I suggest you go into My eBid - My Defaults & choose the type of editor you wish to use, the choices are Plain HTML, Simple WYSIWYG, or Advanced WYSIWYG then click on Save General Defaults.

From that page you can also set up your auction defaults, in fact you can set up 25 different sets if so wish.
Give the set of defaults a name.

The ONE section I suggest you make sure you do set, is Section 4 Featured & Extras, in that section you get to choose the auction type, make sure Featured isn't selected, unless you want to end up with a big bill.
You can still run featured auctions even if you have set it not to in My Defaults, but only if you choose to, not by accident.

You can also set up any other things you use regularly, countries available to, postage options things like that. Save your defaults then make sure you tick the "Use this set for new auctions" checkbox

Half-Price Membership Offer Extended

The half price Seller + membership offer on eBid has been extended, there has been no announcement as to how long this deal will run.

RSS Feeds have been added to the site, for your listings, your stores, or even a store category.

The new 'Ninja Lister' is soon to be launched, (Turbo Lister Equivalent).

Three more countries are due to be added to the site although we don't know which ones yet.

eBid Special Membership Deal to coincide with the eBay Boycott Feb 2008

eBid are running a Special Seller+ Lifetime Membership Deal Promotion to coincide with the eBay Boycott Feb 18 - 25 2008.

Seller+ Lifetime Membership has been reduced by half to 49.99 (you choose the currency).

This offer will only run for a limited time, so don't miss out sign up for this great deal today.

Things that catch New eBid Sellers Out

The listing rules on eBid are different from those on ebay. I suggest you read the Banned Item List before you start listing your items for sale. The big difference is that eBid enforce their rules, if you're lucky the listings are just removed, if not you account may be put on hold. The ones that are different & seem to catch most sellers out are

• Multiple Identical Listings are not allowed.
• No Ebooks, get rich quick schemes, selling links, lotteries, raffles, bulk e-mail lists, or any of the other scam type auctions prevalent on ebay & used mainly as a way of gaining feedback.

The ones that people are not used to being enforced are

• Copies of television programs, including pay-per-view events, from the TV or the web are prohibited.
• Selling Recopied Media, Music, TV, Movies or Software.
• Format changed media is banned, so you cannot sell your Audio Books or Music CD's converted to mp3's, or your PAL DVD's converted to NTSC.

Auction types available on eBid - Part 2

Auction Formats Exclusive to eBid, include '60 Minute' & 'Happy Hour' Auctions, both of these auctions types are featured on the frontpage of eBid.

'60 Minute' Auctions', were stopped 20th February 2008, to make way for a new frontpage feature.

'Happy Hour' Auctions', run for four hours every day, they start at 6pm & end at 10pm, the starting price of the item MUST be £10.00, & you CANNOT set a reserve price. There are 20 slots available every day & 'Happy Hour' Auctions are displayed on the front page from when you list them until bidding ends at 10pm. Depending on when you book a 'Happy Hour Auction' has a listing fee varying from £2.00 to £4.00,you do not pay a gallery or final value fee.

YDC Charity Auctions' are exclusive to eBid UK, & are run by the members. 'YDC' runs the last weekend of every month, currently listing starts at 6pm on the Friday & ends at Midnight on the Sunday. Each month a designated charity/good cause is chosen by the person whose item made the most money the previous month, although you don't have to support that charity you can choose your own.

Current YDC Rules All entries in YDC have to be for a charity or good cause. They must be posted between the stated lising times. They MUST be Auctions with no reserve & no BuyNow. They must run for 7 days. You can list as many items as you like. Items must not break eBid's listing rules. The expected value of the item must be less than £20.00. The auction title must include YDC plus the YDC number (Aug 2007 was YDC47). The item description must include, "This Auction is an entry in YDC, money raised will go to... (then the name of the charity or good cause)".

Auction types available on eBid - Part 1

If you have bought or sold on ebay you are probably used to the terms 'Buy it Now','Dutch Auction' & 'Shop Inventory Format'.
eBid does things a little differently.
I explained 'Standard', 'Free', 'Gallery' & 'Platinum Auctions' in the last blog, this one is about some of the other Auction types available.

Most online auctions start counting down from the minute they are posted,on eBid the time they are listed for can vary from as few as three days, to as many as ninety days, & they can be set to repost automatically up to ten times, but Seller+ sellers also have the option to add 'Auto Extend' to their auctions. This means that it is more like a real life auction, as any bids made within the last 60 seconds of the auction will extend its life by 60 seconds.

You can also post an 'On first Bid Auction', with this option the auction does not start to count down until the first bid is made (you still get to set the time 3 - 90 days). Regardless of the time you set, On first bid auctions only run for 180 days, it just takes a tick in a box top relist them.

Seller+ sellers can also post 'BuyNow Only' auctions (no bidding involved) & set the time to "Run til Sold", this means the auction runs indefinitely until the item (or all the items) are sold. This is the equivalent of Shop Inventory Format,but without the need to relist, or the listing fees.

Featured Auctions, do cost to list, (& to repost), currently the cost is £1.00. For this your item is placed above all the non-featured auctions on search results, they are also shown at the top of your chosen category & subcategory when listings are browsed. You get a gallery thumbnail at no extra cost & you do not pay a final value fee. If you opt for an 'On First Bid' Featured Auction, your item will be posted as featured for 60 days, before it reverts to a normal listing.

Frontpage Auctions, also cost to list, (& relist) currently the price is £2.50, for this your item is featured on the frontpage of eBid for one day, after this it becomes a featured auction, so you do not pay a gallery or final value fee.