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Spice Up Your Online Auctions with Video
By Scott Koegler
September 29, 2004

It's only customary for online auctions to offer photos of items put up for grabs. But replacing photos with video clips could boost credibility and add detail to your offerings -- and you may reap a nice reward from your efforts.

That's the thinking, at least, behind AuctionVideo's flagship application, which lets you record up to 60 seconds of video and audio and add it to your eBay or Yahoo! auction item listing.

This is one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" kind of products because it's such an obvious use of advancing technology. And even though anyone with a little technical knowledge and a Web cam can host their own video clips, AuctionVideo has made it simple to integrate video with eBay and Yahoo!.

Why add video? Credibility, for one thing. Still pictures can be compelling and have done a decent job of showing shoppers what they are bidding on. Even so, shoppers understand that dishonest vendors can take advantage of the fact that pictures can be copied from other sources and used to represent items they don't actually have for sale.

"Crooks don't like to be photographed, much less appear on video," said AuctionVideo Chief Executive Greg Ellis. "We found that showing the seller in the video along with the product for sale adds immense credibility, because the bidder can see the person they're buying from."

And... Action!
The video clips can include audio as well. Most sellers use the audio portion to describe the product verbally. And one-upping still photos or scans, different angles or aspects of a product can be shown and described with ease using multimedia, enabling sellers to communicating a lot of information quickly. Indeed, it turns out that the 60 seconds available for each AuctionVideo is a lot more time than you might think.

All that's required to create a video clip is a Web cam and microphone attached to your PC. AuctionVideo's Flash applet doesn't require installation, and shows your cam view in its own preview window. I was able to click the record button and capture my video while I talked into the microphone. The video is automatically stored on AuctionVideo's server so I didn't even have to upload the video file. I simply clicked the eBay button (there's a Yahoo! button as well) to capture the video's link to my clipboard. All that was left was to paste the link into my eBay item's display window and post my item for sale.

Troy Thoreson, president of eBay Power Seller AucPro, has been pleased with his coin and collectibles shop's tests of AuctionVideo.

"The AuctionVideo system is incredibly easy to use," Thoreson said. "Although I consider our scans to be of the best in the industry, I believe having a quality video will bring our items to life online."

Going Live
When I tested AuctionVideo myself, I had to re-record my video session a few times in order to get it the way I wanted it.

A sample AuctionVideo in an eBay listing.

It may not be Hollywood, but preparation does count. Be sure to have your lighting and background set up, and have a good idea what you are going to say for that full minute. Unfortunately, the AuctionVideo doesn't have any editing functions, so you have to record the entire minute as you want it to appear.

Continued on Page Two: Slideshows and "On Air" Versions.

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