There are many tips and tricks to buying and selling on eBay, but one of the most often overlooked is also one of the easiest. When you buy or sell on the world’s largest auction site, you need to be careful to check your spelling carefully. If you fail to take this simple step you could end up costing yourself a bundle in missed sales and low final selling prices.
IDA Express Typo Tool - updated
We have released a new tool that helps you find misspellings. Try our free typo tool. It currently finds three types of typos, duplicate characters, missed characters, and swapped characters. Also keep watching for the next version where we add even more typo variations.
eBay shoppers profit from misspellings
For instance, one gentleman on eBay made quite a bit of money simply purchasing a set of watch gers for a song, then reselling those very same watch gears for a tidy profit. There is a cottage industry of eBay users who constantly search the site for common misspellings in an attempt to profit from them. With millions of items for sale on eBay at any one time, there are always plenty of misspellings to be had.
Brand names
In addition to spelling normal words properly, it is important to be careful to spell brand names correctly when placing a listing. For instance, while a Tiffany lamp may sell for thousands of dollars from eager collectors, a Toffany lamp may attract no bids. Worse yet, it may attract a very low bid from one of those people trolling eBay for spelling errors, and if you failed to set a reserve you would be obligated to sell a very valuable item for a very low price.
Using spell check
Fortunately it is easy to check for spelling errors. Many eBay users will create their listings in Microsoft word or another popular word processing program, then save the file as an HTML file when they are done. Since Word has such a great spell checker you need not worry about any misspellings. In addition, Word gives users the ability to create their own custom dictionaries, so your Tiffany lamp will be recognized as a legitimate spelling.
No matter how you achieve your perfect eBay spelling, it is important to take the final step of proofreading your listing carefully before you submit it. While eBay does give you the ability to edit a listing later on, it is much easier to make sure everything is accurate before the item goes up for sale. Simply avoiding common misspellings can help you improve both your sales and your final selling prices.
