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The following article was written for GoTo Auctions (formerly known as AuctionRover). The rights have reverted to the author.
To get buyers to tell about themselves, you first should tell them something about yourself, preferably as relates to the product that you are selling. Your first opportunity for this is in the description. Your second is in the followup correspondence.
For example, I had a box of old bottle caps I wanted to sell in small lots. So I told people how I had come by them, giving them some of the flavor of their age, history, and condition.
"Back in the 1950s, I used bottle caps as an alternative to plastic cowboys and Indians. Ones with plain cork innards were the cowboys. Ones with white coverings over the cork (as was common with ginger ale) were cavalry. Ones with silver over the cork (as was common for beer) were the Indians. Sometimes I'd remove the cork to make one of them a chief or general. I wound up saving many hundreds of bottle caps for this purpose. Even when I stopped playing that game (around 1960), I still would occasionally throw a new bottle cap into the box.
"As a result have a great variety of bottle caps today -- some in very good shape, but most with a fair amount of wear. Some are of national brands, but quite a few were produced locally.
"1951-56 I lived in Rockville, MD (near Washington, DC). 1956-58 I lived in Baltimore, MD. 1958-64 I lived in Plymouth, NH.
"I stopped collecting sometime while I was living in Plymouth, so all these bottle caps date from before 1964, with the vast majority dating from before 1958."
Reading this, they would know that I'm not a professional dealer, that the caps aren't in pristine condition, that they are all at least 30 years old. They also get a sense that I have lots of other caps available, and given the places I've lived am likely to have brands specific to those areas. In addition, they have a story that they might identify with if they too had lived in the 1950s and 1960s. Selling such things at eBay, I've learned that many collectors do so not for resale or even for display, but rather to recapture memories of childhood.
That description prompted many queries about other caps that I might have available. Some people let me know that they were collecting based on their last name -- for instance, they wanted everything labeled "Gunther" or "Nesbitt." Others told me that they actually collected old soda or beer bottles, and wanted the caps to match, and hence it didn't matter that they were banged up a bit -- that a flavor of age and authenticity. Others were focusing their collections on New England brands, like Cott and Narragansett, or Maryland and Pennsylvania brands like Old Georgetown. Such information helped me to make a number of off-line deals by email, and helped me know which kinds of caps would be most likely to sell for a good price at eBay.
When a bottle cap auction ended, I also appended to my email to the winner:
"PS -- I have quite a few more bottle caps that I plan to sell at eBay. From your perspective, would it be better if I offered these as sets of four of the same type of bottle cap, or as sets of four different bottle caps?"
Many people took the time to answer this question. Some were just interested in one particular kind of cap -- like Hires -- and wanted as many of them as possible; duplication didn't matter. Others were striving to collect as many different types as possible, with each in the best possible condition -- for them "all different" was best. But most serious collectors and dealers were happy with lots of several of the same kind, using the duplicates as trading stock or resell. Based on that information, I offered my caps in a wide variety of ways -- different size lots, some mixed, some the same -- to try to catch the attention of people with this spectrum of interests. I also did very well with sale caps in poor condition -- accurately described and shown in photos -- which I would never have attempted to sell, if I hadn't learned the motivation of buyers through email correspondence.
I was much less wordy when selling Classics Illustrated comic books:
"Price on cover = 15 cents. Overstreet classification = first edition. Fair to good condition, creases on front cover (see picture).
I collected Classics Illustrated comics as a kid back in the 1950s and have stored them in plastic envelopes."
Once again, my words told buyers that I'm not a professional, that this is a personal collection. But I also let them know that I'd taken good care of these items over the years and understand something about their value to collectors and how to rate their condition.
Sometimes the replies I'd get would be helpful in making followup sales. For instance, one buyer wrote, "I'm a big Fess Parker fan. Even a comic in not so good shape is something I want. If you have any other Fess Parker items -- let me know."
In other cases, the reply was of more value from the perspective of human interest, than for future sales. For example, Broderick Miller wrote, "I'm thrilled to get this comic, by the way, because I sold a pilot to NBC called "Deadwood", which is kind of like "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir", only the ghost is Hickok. The comic will make a nice present to some undeserving producer or exec." When I checked back with him a few months later, he added, "Actually, the producers of "Deadwood" decided not to pitch it as a pilot. I am going to write the story as a feature screenplay and we'll go from there. We all agreed we would rather see it as a movie than a TV show. (It could always become a pilot later)."
And sometimes business and human interest combined, as in the case of someone named Phyllis Presley Collas who said she had bought an old issue of Playboy because it had a picture of Elvis Presley inside. I couldn't resist asking if she was related to Elvis, to which she replied, "It's a long long long story. I am originally from New Jersey, and worked in NYC. I have legally been Phyllis Presley for over 18 years. I have lived in Memphis for over 15 years. I am I guess what you call part of Elvis world here. I have a famous home that the fans visit all of the time ... My home backs up to Graceland. That's the story. If you are ever in Memphis I would love to have you stop by for a visit." Phyllis (known at eBay as "elvis77-99) is an active buyer and seller of Elvis-related items of all kinds, at eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo.
Basically, personal interaction is a natural part of person-to-person online auctions. Doing it well can be both fun and profitable. And the first step is to say something about yourself, giving a friendly human touch to the transaction, rather than being strictly business-like.
Other auction articles by Richard Seltzer
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