Section 6.5. Just Say No

6.5. Just Say No

So far, this chapter has described a bunch of ways to tweak your auctions to increase your visibility and your profits. This section looks at some bright ideas that, when you think it through, turn out not to be so bright. Some of these practices are illegal ( shill bidding); others are against eBay policy (keyword spamming and fee avoidance ). Avoid all these practices to keep your eBay record (and your conscience) clean.

6.5.1. Shill Bidding

Shill bidding (Section 4.3.2) is bidding on your own auction, or having an accomplice bid for you, to drive up an item's price. For example, a seller might have two eBay IDs and use one of them to bid, or convince a friend or family member to bid on an item with no intention of buying it. Shill bidding can be tempting when lots of people are watching an item but no one's biddingjust one false bid to get things rollingor when bidding is slow and it looks like an item will sell for a lot less than the seller thinks it's worth.

No matter how tempting, shill bidding is illegal. In 2001, for example, the federal government charged three men with running an art fraud ring on eBay; the accused listed fake paintings and then bid on each others' auctions to drive up the price, defrauding buyers of hundreds of thousands of dollars during a year and a half of shill bidding. Even if the feds never come after you, if eBay catches you shill bidding, you'll be suspended from the site.

6.5.2. Keyword Spamming

Trying to attract buyers to your auction by putting popular but inappropriate keywords in the title is called keyword spamming , and it's against eBay policy. Sellers often use keyboard spamming to make their items appear in a wider range of search results, even though what they're offering isn't exactly what the buyer is looking for. A title like Brand new wallet COACH VUITTON BURBERRY PRADA is an example. One wallet can't be from all those designers, but the seller wants his title to show up in the search results lists of people searching for wallet and also of anyone searching for any of those designers by name .

eBay contends that keyword spamming is unfair to buyersthat a seller is wasting a buyer's time with a title that promises something that the seller doesn't, in fact, have to offer. There are several kinds of keyword spamming, and eBay frowns on all of them:

• Comparison . Your title must describe what you're selling, not compare it to something you're not selling. For example, a title like Commercial Mixer Like KitchenAid for LESS is a problem. The auction is not for a KitchenAid mixer, but the seller is trying to attract bidders looking for a KitchenAid appliance. Comparisons don't have to use the word like , either. Titles like Even cuter than a Beanie Baby!, Cartier quality at a Kmart price , or Swimsuit NOT Calvin Klein Anne Cole also violate the policy.

  Note: There's an exception to the no-comparison rule. You can compare your item to one similar item, but only in the item description (not the title) and only as long as it's crystal clear that you're not selling the item you're using for a comparison. So writing "This mixer has 12 speeds compared to the Kitchen-Aid's 10 and comes with more attachments" is OK as long as the comparison appears in the item descriptionand as long as it's true.

• Lists of related words . This restriction applies to both titles and descriptions. In a title, you're limited to 55 characters , so you can't make really long lists there. But it's against eBay policy to fill up your item description with long lists of words that are there for no other reason than to attract the attention of shoppers who are searching by both title and description. For example, if you're selling wedding invitations, don't include a list of words like this in the description: wedding invitations bride bridal groom gown veil tiara reception marriage cake honeymoon church organ aisle engagement ring bouquet flowers bridesmaid favors , and so on. Your auction might turn up in more searches, but it'll just annoy buyers who are looking for something entirely different.

• Misleading titles . This policy covers some of the previous taboos but also anything else that could potentially confuse buyers or lead them astray. For example, you might be offering free shipping to buyers who use the Buy It Now option. If that's the case, make sure your title states that the free shipping applies only to a BIN sale. Don't say Super white Xenon headlights! Free shipping! Say Super white Xenon headlights! Free shipping w/BIN !

If you look, you can probably find running auctions that violate each of these rules. Can you get away with it? Maybe for an auction or two, but sooner or later, you'll get caught. If you misuse the brand name of a VeRO member (Section 4.3.2), for example, it's only a matter of time before that member reports you to eBay. And if you violate the keyword-spamming policy and eBay finds out about it, eBay will end your auction, and you'll lose your listing fees. If you keep doing it, eBay will suspend your account.

Note: The same keyword-spamming policy also applies to Want It Now posts (Section 3.1.11).

6.5.3. Stealing Photos

It takes patience, practice, and the right equipment (Section 6.2.3.1) to take great digital photos. So when you see someone else's auction for the same item, and it has that perfect photo you wish you could take, you might be tempted to " borrow " the other seller's photo. No matter how good that photo looks, though, don't do it. Copyright laws apply to the Internet just as they apply to other media. If your competitor discovers that you've stolen her photo (or her words), she'll report you to eBay and have your listing removed. And because smart sellers constantly keep an eye on the competition, chances are high that you'll get caught. Use others' listings for inspiration and ideas, but take your own pictures and write your own description.

6.5.4. Violating VeRO

At any given moment, there are thousands of designer knockoffs and pirated items for sale on eBay. eBay can't monitor every auction, but it does work closely with rights holders to find and shut down auctions that violate trademarks, copyright, and other intellectual property rights. And rights holders who participate in eBay's VeRO program (Section 4.3.2) are very active in protecting their rights.

If you're selling something you have no right to sell, like a movie you recorded from your TV, the VeRO member who holds the movie's copyright can ask eBay to shut down your auction. If your auction is shut down for a VeRO violation, you can't relist the item.

Warning: Here's another reason not to mess with VeRO members ' goods: eBay will, on request from a VeRO member, reveal the name, address, and phone number of any seller that the VeRO member suspects is infringing on his intellectual property rights. All the VeRO member has to do is make a formal request. And many will use that information to serve you with legal papers.

Whatever you do, don't relist a potentially infringing item until you have eBay's OK to do so. If you do, you risk suspension from eBay.

Note: VeRO participants are humans, and all humans occasionally make mistakes. VeRO members must provide contact information, so you can contact the company to resolve the dispute. If you don't hear back, contact eBay (go to Help Contact Us "Ask about selling or billing "My listing was removed by eBay "Request from a copyright/trademark owner to remove your listing), explain the situation, and ask for help getting in touch with the VeRO member.

6.5.5. Avoiding Fees

No doubt about iteBay's fees take a hefty bite out of your profits. And if you accept PayPal, you pay even more. Some sellers would love to market their wares to eBay's zillions of buyers without bothering with pesky little annoyances like Final Value Fees. eBay has a name for this practice: fee avoidance . It means that the seller is trying to circumvent fees he or she legitimately owes. From eBay's point of view, your selling fees are your responsibility, not the buyer's, and trying to avoid them gets you into trouble.

Kinds of fee avoidance include the following:

• Ending an auction early in order to sell a bidder the item directly and cut eBay out of the deal.

• Ending a reserve-price auction early because it doesn't look like bids will reach the reserve.

• Padding shipping and handling charges (see the next section for more about this practice).

• Putting contact information into an auction title so that buyers can contact the seller off eBay.

• Requiring the buyer who wins the auction to buy something else. For example, a certificate for cheap airfare that requires the buyer to pay for three nights in a particular hotel.

• Running auctions that aren't Dutch auctions but should be. For example, when the seller asks the winning bidder to indicate how many items she wants, even though the auction was for just one.

• Running auctions for catalogs, from which the buyer can buy items off eBay.

Bidders often report fee avoidance, especially if they're angry at having to pay more than they thought they would (or angry at seeing an auction end early because the bidding wasn't high enough to justify the fees). Sellers who have a fee-avoidance complaint against them can expect a warning, temporary suspension, or permanent suspension.

6.5.6. Padding S&H Charges

It's worth looking at this kind of fee avoidance on its own, because it's a widespread practiceand one with a very broad gray area. All sellersand most buyerswould agree that it's reasonable to compensate the seller for packing materials and time spent packing and mailing an item. That's the handling part of the shipping and handling charge. But the controversy begins when you ask, "What's reasonable?"

Some sellers figure that a dollar and a half or two dollars on top of postage is a decent handling charge. Other sellers try to anticipate all possible costs associated with the auction (eBay fees, PayPal fees, postage , shipping materials, time spent packing and hauling stuff to the Post Office) and bundle these costs into the S&H charge. Still others figure out the actual shipping charge, double it, and add a couple of dollars for good measure. Then there are the blatant fee avoiders, who'll start an auction for, say, a digital camera at a penny but charge $150 for shipping and handling. If the camera sells for $20, the seller pays a Final Value Fee of only $1.05; if it had sold for what the buyer is actually paying ($170), the seller would owe eBay an FVF of $3.92nearly four times as much. A few bucks might not sound like a lot, but when you multiply those few bucks by the millions of auctions eBay hosts , you can see why avoiding fees through inflated shipping costs is a big deal.

Inflated shipping charges are a top complaint of buyers. Even stating the S&H cost on the auction page doesn't necessarily protect you; many buyers bid before they read all the auction terms, and they'll yell if they feel ripped off. If your handling charge adds too much to the cost of postagesuch as charging $15 for shipping when the postage shows you paid $3.85 for Priority Mailexpect complaints. Some buyers will report you for fee avoidance; others will leave negative feedback. Neither result is worth the few bucks you get.