Showing posts with label E-Bay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label E-Bay. Show all posts

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Selling at Online Auctions Like E-Bay or Yahoo? Spellcheck!



That joke article about Japan being on sale at Yahoo Japan auctions reminded me of something I saw the other day: Someone had an item for sale on Yahoo auctions and they had spelled the name of the item wrong.




People who can't spell well need to be very careful when using online auction services to sell their goods. Why? Well, if they misspell the item that they are selling then people have a difficult time finding their goods for sale. Even though the search engines are getting better and smarter, incorrect spellings are still a really great way to lose potential bids


If people have a hard time finding the goods, then the seller will get few bids.


There are professional dealers spending lots of times searching these online auction site for people who misspell their items. Because, as I said, the item is misspelled, the seller will get few bids and will let the item go for a lower price. These professional dealers make offers at well below market value then, once the item is bought, turn around and sell it for a much higher price themselves.


So, you need to be careful when you use an online auction site. Always spell check....


Or, take this advice and here's a possible idea on how to start up a side-business from home in here somewhere. 

Entire Country of Japan Goes on Auction for ¥3 Mil. Yen (about $35,000)!



ヤフオク出品中!即決690万、290万円から入札可能,ただし落札者は日本の赤字の支払い義務が生じます!


They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery so I hope the folks at Zerohedge will forgive me for, er, umm, flattering them so! Yeah. That's it! Flattering them! Over there they have a hilarious graphic showing the entire country of Greece on auction at E-Bay.


Absurd! Well, of course that would never work in Japan as no one in this country uses E-Bay. E-Bay came to Japan and failed like many other western countries did before them by not adapting their system to fit Japan and the Japanese mindset... But that's another story for another time.


In Japan, the online auction market is totally and completely dominated by Yahoo Auctions. 


Over at E-Bay, the starting bid for Greece was $1500.00 (USD) but Japan is far and away a bigger, better and more prosperous country than Greece so the price is a bit heftier but well worth the starting bid of about $35,000 (USD).


Check out the Yahoo Japan Auction page for the Wonderful Asian Paradise Auction! Japan!:

click on image for larger view:
Three days left and no bids?! Weird, eh?

There is, though, one tiny-weeny catch though... Beware the fine print! The lucky purchaser also receives the wonderful responsibility of taking over Japan's public debt of ¥1 quadrillion yen.


I'm sure the auctioneer might be guilty of mis-stating the debt on the graphic so let me explain for you:


¥1 quadrillion is a one followed by 15 zeros: ¥1,000,000,000,000,000 


In US dollars that would be about ¥12,000,000,000,000. In mere mortal terms that's 12 trillion dollars.


Will you be paying by cash, credit card or Paypal?  


Apologies to Zerohedge
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