Sometimes our obsessions get in the way of more pressing priorities. We can often get so in to a TV series, computer game, football match or vintage car renovation that we neglect the people we love and cherish the most.
It's also a quality which most of us sane types have to put up with in others. It's sad but true that phrases such as 'football widow' were coined as a result of many men's appreciation for the great game; which often over takes their appreciation of their great wife.
Did you know that watching football actually makes some men incapable of answering simple questions like what they want for tea or how big a ladies bum looks? Similar slang terms have been dreamt up for people who suffer from other obsessions, too.
He's got 'green fingers' we'll say about a plant fixated gardener. He's a 'movie buff' we'll say about someone who never stops watching films long enough to take out the rubbish. And so it goes that we all have these obsessive people in our lives and we're probably fixated with something or other ourselves too!
The man who wants silence when the footy is on, the little sister who just will not stop singing her favourite pop songs, the grandmother who won't stop talking about strictly come dancing. It's something we all live with, but then remarkably when it comes round to getting presents we can't for the life of us think what to get.
Gift Grief
It's not because we're stupid that we don't know what to get for blatantly obsessed people, it's because obsessive people collect items to do with their obsession. Using our pretend family as an example; the little singer has a pink karaoke machine, several microphones and tape recorders, books on singing, DVDs on singing; she's even branched out in to computer programs for making songs and got Nintendo games that involve singing. There's nothing left is there?
Or the football dad? He's got his favourite player's shirts, he's got more childish football stuff than a grown man should ever have and he's even got season tickets to see his team, what else is there?
Experience Days
Okay, so there is something else you could do. It's the sort of thing you'd probably do if you were a millionaire. You could send the little singer off for singing lessons with a real teacher or even better book her in for a real recording studio session to sing her favourite song and make a cute CD.
In real life you might think that sort of thing is either impossible or impractical but times are changing. Experience Days are these simple little gift certificates packed with information that allow people to do things that they never normally could.
That means that you could give some strange obsessive person the chance to take their obsession one step further. Sound dangerous? Don't worry; it's mostly stuff like learning to cook excellent Indian food, or hang gliding, or flying a plane, or racing sail boats.
Experience Days are basically about living a dream for real and you don't have to be a millionaire to buy one as a gift, because they can be as little as 50 or cost as much as a few hundred depending on the activity.
They can also involve one person, a couple or the whole family depending on which experience day package you choose. What's more, experience days also make excellent bargaining chips: 'you can only sing in a recording studio if you stop singing at the dinner table', for example, can be a good deal and benefit many more people than just the gift recipient.
Join 'Em
Sometimes it can be quite hard to see what other people get out of certain interests and pastimes. Some hobbies and obsessions can even be a point of contention if they prevent people from communicating. Many an argument has been had over what was going to be watched on the television or what was and was not appropriate to bring to the dinner table. For the record, dirty football boots, jarred butterflies and car parts are not.
If you find that the obsessive people in your family wear you out, or that you give them a hard time. Getting Experience Days for the whole family can be a great way to apologise for being grumpy or include other people in your weird hobby. The moral of the story really is, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Sometimes it's painful to look at your eBay cometitors' listings, especially if they seem to be doing better than you are. It can make you feel defeated and wonder if you can really be competitive ... WAIT A MINUTE! It's absolutely wonderful to be able to look at your competitors' listings on eBAY because that's how you can figure out what's working and what's not working, then use all of that strategic intelligence to accelerate your own selling performance! So, put on your analytic hat and start learning from your competitors.
Analyse the competition
There are four effective ways to analyse your eBay competitors listings:
Visit your eBay category of interest and from the left menu tick the checkbox 'Completed Listings'. This will show all the listings in your chosen category that ended recently. Look at all the listings with a green price. Green means that the auction or BIN listing ended in a successful sale. Evaluate, by taking notes, which products sold most successfully.
An alternative method to finding completed listings is to use eBay's advanced search feature: search your desired keyword, checking the 'completed listings only' box and setting the minimum number of bids to '1'. (No point in looking at listings that received no bids.) Go through the results carefully (again ignore prices in red - when the price is shown in red it means the auction didn't close with a sale.) and take notes. Both this method and the first method can be a bit tedious, since you have to do everything manually.
A third, newer, method is to browse your chosen eBay category and observe which listings on page 1 and 2 of your category have the longest end date. eBay now ranks listings based on how successful they have been in the past (they no longer rank listings based only on how soon the listing will end). By observing which listings on page 1 and 2 of your preferred category have the longest end date, you can automatically know which products / bundles are performing well. If you can beat those sellers prices (or offer, by selling a bundle with extra bonuses at a higher price) you can have your auction feature on the first two pages of the eBay results for as long as 30 days, receiving maximum exposure.
A fourth, more stable, method is to use market research services like the eSources Market Research Wizard. These services allow you to specify a keyword to obtain statistical data on success rates and average selling prices for your chosen products on eBay. Identify which categories are best for your products, which categories will yield the best sale prices, when is the best time to start and end your auction, for what duration, and much more.
Additional Strategies To Outperform Your eBay Competitors
Titles
Titles are incredibly important. They create the keywords that will bring searchers to the product. Copy the titles and look for commonalities. Are there keywords you should be using? Are they paying for bolding, a subtitle, highlighting? The eSources Market Research Wizard reveals how much extra return you can expect from each extra eBay listings feature, helping you maximise your spend.
Descriptions
How are your competitors descriptions written? Are they long, short, terse, friendly? How much information is given?
Time
When did the auction start and end? How long was the auction? What days of the week were involved? You can again try the eSources Market Research Wizard to reveal the best start and end times for your products.
Pictures
How many views are there? What kind of quality is involved? Anything special about the setting?
Price
What's the price range? Do the variations in price correlate with condition of the item, special circumstances, special offers or anything else?
Shipping
How are your competitors handling shipping? Are high delivery charges correlated with lower pricing? If so, you know why the price is lower. Which shipping strategies seem to be working the best?
Analysis
Now that you've gathered the information, look for tactics that you can use to your advantage as well.
For example:
Are you using the keywords that successful sellers are using? Are successful sellers consistently using any differentiating feature that you are not, such as subtitles or bolding? Do your pictures measure up to photos from the most successful sellers? Are your prices competitive? Is there a way to use price to your advantage?
Once you have a list of proven tactics, you may want to try them all together to get the biggest advantage or, if there is expense involved, you may want to test one or two at a time to see what works best for you, giving you the best cost/benefit ratio.
Take example from your successful eBay competitors and try replicating their strategies to your advantage.
Both Carol Beard & Jane Dawson are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Carol Beard has sinced written about articles on various topics from Bathroom Vanity, Family and Acai Berries. Getting Personal offer unique high quality gifts & personalised gifts at affordable prices, delivered quickly and guaranteed with a smile.To explore our range of. Carol Beard's top article generates over 450000 views. to your Favourites.
Jane Dawson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, How to Sell on Ebay and Stress Management. Visit the eSources for in depth analysis and reports on your eBay competitors. Find. Jane Dawson's top article generates over 2900 views. to your Favourites.