Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Ingenuity
If any of you have not been following trends on eBay, one of the hottest ones right now is mystery auctions. Items that ordinarily would draw little interest in eBay suddenly become hot when coupled with a little ingenuity and mystery.
My son, Jon, has been exploring this phenomenon lately and coming up with some intriguing auctions. After having no success at selling some of the collections he no longer actively collects because of the glut of sellers in those categories, he has now repackaged those items as parts of cleverly devised mystery auctions in which he gives clues as to what exactly is contained in the auction as well as cash that is included with the items auctioned off.
Traffic has been phenomenal, he's gotten lots of free publicity and is having a whole lot of fun in the process. As of today, he's auctioning off his shadow (plus the many items his shadow has "stolen" from him) and is adding excitement to an auction of his baseball card collection by revealing that he has placed a $1, $5, or $10 bill behind each card, depending on its age.
Fun stuff. And some of the questions and answers he posts from potential buyers are as fun as the stories he weaves in his descriptions. You can find his auctions at the following address:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZpokey1299
Enjoy! And let his ideas spark some of your own. The mystery auction category is already filled with those trying to copy the concepts that other sellers have had success with (such as a roll of toilet paper with an undisclosed amount of cash rolled up inside it). But there's still an interest among buyers in finding new and entertaining concepts with genuine creativity. Is there something you can add to this trend?
Jeff
If any of you have not been following trends on eBay, one of the hottest ones right now is mystery auctions. Items that ordinarily would draw little interest in eBay suddenly become hot when coupled with a little ingenuity and mystery.
My son, Jon, has been exploring this phenomenon lately and coming up with some intriguing auctions. After having no success at selling some of the collections he no longer actively collects because of the glut of sellers in those categories, he has now repackaged those items as parts of cleverly devised mystery auctions in which he gives clues as to what exactly is contained in the auction as well as cash that is included with the items auctioned off.
Traffic has been phenomenal, he's gotten lots of free publicity and is having a whole lot of fun in the process. As of today, he's auctioning off his shadow (plus the many items his shadow has "stolen" from him) and is adding excitement to an auction of his baseball card collection by revealing that he has placed a $1, $5, or $10 bill behind each card, depending on its age.
Fun stuff. And some of the questions and answers he posts from potential buyers are as fun as the stories he weaves in his descriptions. You can find his auctions at the following address:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZpokey1299
Enjoy! And let his ideas spark some of your own. The mystery auction category is already filled with those trying to copy the concepts that other sellers have had success with (such as a roll of toilet paper with an undisclosed amount of cash rolled up inside it). But there's still an interest among buyers in finding new and entertaining concepts with genuine creativity. Is there something you can add to this trend?
Jeff
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