Recently I blogged about eBay Policy compliance issues, and have now have a similar problem myself !

I have in mind a new tool, third party application, call it what you want. This NEW tool was destined to fit in with the other eBay tools I provide here . At this moment it is only an idea ‘on paper’ and I  ran its proposed functionality by eBays Trust and Safety just to satisfy myself use of this tool would be eBay Policy Compliant – no point in providing a seller application if its going to cause them to be non eBay Policy Compliant is there!

Guess what – no policy covers it use, but use of such a tool would be ‘discouraged’ by eBay because it has the potential to be misused. It doesn’t matter that the way the tool would work can already be used on eBay  listings  (if you know how) and no doubt some eBay sellers already use this technique, all I would be doing is providing a very easy way, almost fully automated to create the exact same functionallity.

Its the words ‘discouraged by eBay’ that sort of stopped me in my tracks on this. If eBay don’t want sellers to use this type of technique – then make a damned policy about it so we ALL know where we stand, as it is at the moment, on the face of it sellers could (and can) use this technique – but making it easy for those and any other sellers by way of a tool would be ‘discouraged by eBay’ !

Hello avid readers who understand eBay, and who will also understand the vagaries of eBay Policy Compliance, which in a nutshell means that eBay has an ever changing list of do’s and don’ts (called policies) and basically have a policy for everything, finding and understanding a policy  is a different matter of course, especially when you cannot find a particular policy – and fail to meet any eBay policy requirements and you are in non-compliance!

What am I rambling about, well PageMage to be precise, the new and I must say at this stage, a  very cool application, very innovative with lots of possibilities for eBay sellers. Indeed it has been well publicised :

AuctionBytes talks about it : http://prune.it/sk2s

eBays Uncle Griff talks about : http://prune.it/59XA

Lots of PR about it : http://prune.it/PCUs

So, I had to go and look  to see what it actually is and one thing jumped out at me straight away – users would be creating an entire auction description in a Flash movie  (Flash file), which would be hosted outside of eBay, and none of the content (item description, seller terms etc) would form part of the eBay view item page – as text formatted or not.

Why is this an important issue, well think of it this way, imagine the entire item description was an image hosted outside of eBay, an unscrupulous seller could edit that image and swap it – thus changing the item description, even if the auction has bids – something you cannot do where you simply enter text, as that becomes part of the eBay page and is non editable once an item receives a bid.

There are of course other implications which I will not detail here, but a simple one would be what if a Flash blocker is used,  and what about eBay Policy Compliance ?

Yes, I know there is a ‘report this item’  function, and one of the options is:

 ”Item description and/or terms of sale hosted outside of eBay”

But where is the damned eBay Policy page about this, I cannot find it, neither can other people, does it actually exist, and just because it doesn’t exist does that mean you cannot break an non existent policy, thus making users of PageMage eBay policy compliant (even though it appears to be a reportable option and thus against eBay policy) 

I wish PageMage well, as I said at the outset, I like the application, but am worried if or not sellers using it would be eBay Policy Compliant ?

What does all this mean – quite simply,  by default eBay may use one (or more if you are VERY lucky) of your  item images for their Product Catalogue, you can opt out of this if you wish, and a ‘how to’ is explained hereby my friend across the pond and profilific eBay writer Marsha Collier.

Very briefly, an eBays Product Catalogue item is what may be shown to a buyer when search keywords match, they will see an image, generic description, a pick of the top sellers of this item then the same item from  other sellers. IF your image is used, there wil also be a credit link to your eBay My World page.

For me this is a bonus, and I don’t care if eBay is using one of my images to promote other sellers listings of the same item. Yes its my image, I took the trouble photographing the item, carefully editing the image etc but think about it, if you are lucky enough to have your image used, think of the traffic it could generate to your My World page, traffic = potential sales. The chances of getting that much traffic any other way is nigh on impossible (within eBay policy of course).

So, don’t be over protective about your images – they could make you sales you didn’t expect !

Arson, shootings and now hand grenades !

For months now, local Southport  news reports have included details of vendetta attacks against a local business man, those attacks include arson random shootings and now the latest yesterday (Sunday 26/07/2009) two men were ‘disturbed’ later captured and found to be in possesion of a hand grenade.

It doesn’t end there though, that business man also has (or had) a business partner, who  has also been subject to similar attacks. Local gossip ‘assumed’ it was the two named business men ’attacking’  each other – not so, I am reliably informed !

Apparently, the two concerned sold a business and all was not what it was supposed to be with the business, the buyer, who was backed by ‘somebody’ tried to get some recourse – unsuccesfully, the local dynamic duo were having none of it!

So, the backer/silent partner in all this went about getting recourse in a way which is familiar to them, its not about the money anymore, its all about satisfaction and pride – at any cost including hand grenades at dawn !

A short video, (my first real attempt at one) showing how easy it is to use self hosting for FREE multiple images on eBay auctions.