Use Interesting Information to Improve Your eBay Item Descriptions

Information is interesting. People who are shopping have an almost insatiable appetite for it, too. Think about it. Whenever you buy something, you also pick up some information that you pass along to friends. I recently bought a car which was previously a church van. The salesman told me about it, and it made the car a little more attractive (they just shuttled church-goers around and never towed anything with the vehicle). I tell people that Jesus now rides shotgun with me.

When you buy Snapple you get a little extra information under the cap -- those "facts." They don't really relate to the tea, but they're fun, and they reinforce the fun aspect of the Snapple brand.

There's all kinds of interesting information about the products you sell on eBay. All you need to do is do a little creative Googling. Or, perhaps you already know some interesting things about your products. Make sure that information is in your descriptions. Also, add more value to your products and entertain your customers with relevant information. When people buy things, especially expensive things, they want a rich experience (and that includes complementary information). Think about wine -- this product category has a huge contextual information element. Year, location, country, producer, history, grape variety, process, esoteric descriptions, fruit descriptions, etc.

You may be asking, "What if I sell something like toner or RAM? What kind of interesting information can I build into my auctions?" This is where you have to get creative. You can package your shipments with famous quotes or inspiring messages (kind of like Snapple). You can just put them on the packing slip template, too. You can include practical information and tips that help people get more life out of their toner cartridges or improve their memory performance. There are lots of possibilities. The main point is, you're adding more value and engaging the customer in something interesting that they will associate with your store/product.

Speaking of interesting facts, here are some nifty ones that came through my email this morning. Enjoy:

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW --- BUT PROBABLY DON 'T

1. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.

2. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper.

3. The dot over the letter I is called a "tittle."

4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

5. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.

6. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

7. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

8. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor, who had red eyes. He was albino.

9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents, daily.

10. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.

11. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small sized dog.

12. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

13. Most lipstick contains fish scales (eeww).

14. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
15. Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.

16. Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case
that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.

17. Leonardo DaVinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time. (Hence, multitasking was invented.)

18. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood

19. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

20. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never a recorded Wendy before!

21. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, Purple, and silver!

22. Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

23. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

24. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a Captain Kirk's mask painted white.

25. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19, you also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar (good to know).

26. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand (and you thought this list was completely useless).

27. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

28. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

29. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples!

30. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!

31. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

32. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

33. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it.

34. George Carlin said it best about Martha Stewart. "Boy, I feel a lot safer now that she's behind bars. O. J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant are still walking around; Osama Bin Laden too, but they take the ONE woman
in America willing to cook, clean, and work in the yard, and they haul her off to jail."