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eBay have released a new version of the eBay iPhone and iPod app, which now includes a compelling swatch matching feature. You can take a photo of your favourite fabric and the app will then match the colour and pattern from the image to suggest matching items on eBay.

eBay claim to be the UK’s biggest online marketplace for fashion, and leading brands now selling on the UK site include French Connection, L.K. Bennett, Dune and House of Fraser. These hot high street brands are showcased in eBay’s Spring/Summer 2012 campaign, which celebrates UK women’s individual ‘mix and match’ approach to style. The iPhone app complements this campaign perfectly enabling buyers to snap a friends outfit and the find similar garments from current designer to classic vintage looks on eBay.

I get the feeling that the new app will be more appealing to women shoppers than to most men. If you’re anything like me you’re pushed to have a favourite colour, although I know some guys out there have a tad more fashion sense than me. In general though if it fit (more or less!) I’ll wear it, but for anyone who loves to browse for hours you’ll find the new image swatch matching really addictive.

The eBay press release also added “Following a recent update to include image recognition and Milo technology, the RedLaser barcode scanning app now searches thousands of online and local retailers for the best price products faster than ever”. Sadly when we asked eBay couldn’t name a single UK retailer who have signed up with Milo who we’ll be able to compare prices with. If you have an iPhone and find a local UK retailer recommended please do let us know.

CLD

Three days after last week’s eBay.com 50,000 free auction listing promotion finished on the 13th May eBay have offered another promotion for another 50,000 free listings.

eBay.com sellers can list up to 50,000 auction listings with the Buy It Now feature for free today, Wednesday the 16th of May. Time the promotion is open to all sellers on eBay.com – both eBay Stores subscribers and sellers who do not have an eBay Stores subscription.

According to eBay the only thing that could stop you listing 50,000 items today is existing selling limits on your eBay account. More likely of course if you’d just finished listing 50,000 items on Sunday you simply have nothing left to list!

Full details of the promotion are on eBay.com

Having missed out on a rainy bank holiday weekend eBay have now obliged with the free listing day we were expecting. This weekend for the 12th and 13th May you can list auction style listings on eBay from a private account with free insertion fees.

The start price needs to be £1 or more to qualify for free insertion fees (you already get free insertion fees for auctions with lower start prices as a private seller). All the normal terms apply – private sellers only, no professional listing tools – you can only use the Sell Your Item form, Quick Sell form or mobile apps to list.

Full details on the eBay free listing day promotion page.

There’s another weeks free auction listings for eBay.com sellers with an eBay shop, and the maximum number of free listings is once again 50,000. The promotion applies to all durations apart from 1 day listings.

Unlike the UK, for the eBay.com promotions you can use listing tools, but unless you’ve a huge inventory 50,000 listings is a lot. Don’t forget there’s a duplicate listings policy so you can’t simply list the same items multiple times.

The promotion runs from today, the 7th May and ends on Sunday the 13th May. Full details of the promotion with what’s included and what’s excluded is on the free listing promotion page on eBay.

It’s miserable weather. It’s a bank holiday weekend. There are going to be loads of people on a three day weekend with nothing to do. So where’s our free listing weekend?

eBay have been holding listing promotions in the UK roughly once every two weeks for most of this year, but now with a bank holiday and plenty of time to list there’s nothing. You can pretty much guarantee that whenever we have a bank holiday the weather in Britain will be miserable, and with April having been the wettest on record for 100 years you can bet that the sun won’t perk up over the next few days and give us some blazing sunshine.

Come on eBay, times are tough, give us a listing promotion when you know we’ll be sat at home with nothing better to do!

Site Changes

Three days after last week’s eBay.com 50,000 free auction listing promotion finished on the 13th May eBay have offered another promotion for another 50,000 free listings.

eBay.com sellers can list up to 50,000 auction listings with the Buy It Now feature for free today, Wednesday the 16th of May. Time the promotion is open to all sellers on eBay.com – both eBay Stores subscribers and sellers who do not have an eBay Stores subscription.

According to eBay the only thing that could stop you listing 50,000 items today is existing selling limits on your eBay account. More likely of course if you’d just finished listing 50,000 items on Sunday you simply have nothing left to list!

Full details of the promotion are on eBay.com

Selling Tips

I had a bit of a surprise yesterday. A courier turned up with a parcel neatly addressed to me which isn’t that unusual since I’m regularly buying things online. However I wasn’t expecting something quite this size and when I opened it it turned out to be a rather large car radiator.

I hadn’t ordered a car radiator so the first thing I did was to check my PayPal account and bank account and thankfully nothing was amiss and there were no unexpected transactions. Tracking the seller down however wasn’t that easy as they’re not included an invoice, packing slip or even a business card.

Thankfully I was able to get their contact details from the courier address label but it constantly bemuses me as to why sellers don’t include contact information in each and every shipment. It’s almost like sellers don’t want me to contact them or don’t want me to visit their website and make future purchases. I’m probably going to be most delighted with your product and service at the time I open your parcel so don’t miss this opportunity to tempt me to shop again from you.

If I’m not delighted for any reason making it easy for me to contact you by phone will often save you from poor feedback. If I can ring you it gives the opportunity for you to sort the problem out and turn me into a happy customer without me leaving a less than glowing feedback for you or opening an “Item Not As Described” resolution case on eBay. Even worse if you do mis-address a parcel how is the unintended recipient ever meant to let you know if there are no contact details enclosed?

Anyway to finish the story of the mystery parcel… when I eventually contacted the seller they told me “You bought it on eBay” and gave me the eBay user ID. Turns out that it was a radiator for Bart, Sue’s husband and silent partner in Tamebay. I got hold of him late last night and he asked me to use Parcel2Go to ship the radiator to him in France. It’s just been picked up and is safely on it’s way, although it does beg the question as to why the seller didn’t offer international shipping.

I was laughing with Dan about this earlier today and he casually asked what the cost of sending a car radiator to France was. We are both a bit surprised how cheap international parcels are these days as it was only £20.81 including the PayPal surcharge. Bit of a bargain really for a one off ad hoc delivery of a relatively heavy item.