The Listia Blog

Hi everyone,

Today’s Listia Tip is about how to ship an item to a winner in the best possible way.  It seems simple enough, to pack it well and take it to a shipping carrier, but here are some time-tested tips to help you sail through the process:

• This goes without saying, but pack your items carefully and with plenty of packing material so that nothing gets damaged.  As the seller, it’s in your best interest to make sure that the item arrives safely and doesn’t get damaged when the delivery man drop-kicks your box.
• If you’re charging for shipping, then it’s a good idea to wait for the payment before shipping.  =)
• It’s a little cost, but it’s often times worth getting a delivery confirmation or a tracking number for your package.  Lost packages happen and it’s one of the top reasons we get a post-auction dispute, so base your decision on how many credits you’ll get for the item.  Think of it as a sort of “insurance” on the amount of credits you’ll get.
• If your item is very valuable, then I recommend taking some clear photos of the item just before it goes into the shipment box, showing everything that’s being included.  It’s not likely, but just in case something happens to the box during shipment, and they can come in real handy should there be any type of dispute with the transaction later.  Taking pictures nowadays is free, so why not?
• If you’re listing an item where the buyer pays the shipping cost, clearly state how much and the payment methods accepted.
• Ship to a verified address only.  Shipping to an address someone emails you instead, leaves you unprotected by the Listia Assurance and exposes you to some unnecessary risk.
• Using Paypal is the recommended shipping payment method, because it’s convenient as well as both parties are protected by Paypal in most cases.
• If you’re the winner, only click the “Got It” button AFTER you’ve actually received the item.  Even if the seller tells you that they need you to do that before you actually get the item.  When you click that button, the seller immediately gets the credits that are held in “escrow” for you.  Be smart.

Follow the above tips and you’re likely to have a perfect shipping/receiving experience.  Do you have any shipping/receiving tips of your own?  If so, add your comment here.

We hope you continue enjoying Listia, getting rid of your old stuff and getting something new.  Happy shipping/receiving everyone!

ListiaTae

We decided that it was time for our auction page to get a fresh new look and we’ve released what we think is a cleaner, more organized way to view auction information!  Some of our newer users may have already been exposed to the new page, but for our veteran users we’re giving some of you a chance to take a sneak peek as we roll out the new design.  Here’s a quick look:

To see if your account is ready to preview the new auction page go to any open auction and see if you have the following link on your page:

If you don’t like it right away you can get back to the old design by clicking the link located at the bottom right hand side of the new auction page (please note, we’ll eventually be moving everyone to the new design):

We hope you’ll stick with the new page and give it a chance to win your heart over ❤  And of course we’d love to hear your feedback so if you’re feeling extra expressive, please tell us what you think in this short questionnaire.  We’ll be reading each and every one of your replies and making changes before switching over to the new page (date TBD).  We hope you like it!

Hi everyone,

Today’s Listia Tip is about how you can help keep Listia the fun and healthy place that it is today.

Did you know that you play a big part on the health of the entire Listia ecosystem?  That’s right.  Listia relies on input from users about auctions that might be questionable or need to be looked into.  We do this with a high performance team of moderators and administrators who help keep the site clean and friendly, but they can’t be everywhere, every minute, of each day.  So that’s where you come in.  If you see something that needs our attention, please help them continually improve the site by flagging questionable auctions.  This is done by clicking the “Flag as inappropriate” link on the Auction Page (located under the description or the verification badges).  This flags the auction for review by our team of experts, who will diligently look over everything to ensure that the content is right for our site.  Almost all flags are now reviewed within a day of getting flagged, most within hours, 24/7.  That’s how dedicated the team is, to ensure that your experience on the site is a fun, safe one.

We hope you continue enjoying Listia, getting rid of your old stuff and getting something new.  And thanks in advance for contributing to the fun and health of our site.

ListiaTae

A bit of mod team trivia: The Listia teams of moderators and admins have a total of 226 combined years of customer support experience.  That’s almost as many years as the age of the good ole’ USA!  They’re friendly and well trained to help keep the site the fun place for everyone.

We’re excited to introduce the latest member of our Listia family, Mike! He comes with years of customer service experience and will make a great asset to our expanding customer support team. As a tradition, we like to introduce all of our new employees by having them share a few facts about them, so here are 5 facts you may (or may not know) about Mike:

1. He grew up in Los Altos, California (he’s a local boy)
2. He can solve the rubix cube in under 3 minutes
3. He is a semi-pro tech blogger. He enjoys writing about the latest techs and gadgets
4. He is a fan of Wes Anderson movies
5. His favorite sports team is the San Francisco Giants

If you’re interested in job opportunities with us, visit more details here: www.listia.com/jobs

Leave a comment for Mike and welcome him to the Listia community!

Recently, we gave tips on how to get more bids and credits from your auctions, but have you considered featuring your auctions?

Featured an auction is simple and is a great way to get gain exposure and drive potential bidders to view your item(s). Users can submit a ticket (with the request type: I am a seller > I want my auction featured) to request their auctions be featured.

If your featured request is granted, you will see a Featured icon next to your auction title (viewable in search results). You can also find your auction amongst the other featured auctions located in the Featured Listings page.

While Listia review all featured requests, note that we can not feature all items that are requested. Here are a some tips on how to make your auctions have a higher change of being featured:

1. Include the complete auction URL with your ticket (e.g. http://www.listia.com/auction/4451367-schwinn-mens-and-womans-cruiser-bike. If the complete URL is not included, the auction usually doesn’t open correctly and we cannot feature your item.
2. Using an image of the actual item in hand will give you a better chance of being featured. We will rarely feature an auction with a stock photo as the first image.
3. Include sharp, clear pictures. Blurry and out of focus pictures don’t showcase your item and we will rarely feature an auction with a blurry photo.
4. Long vertical images don’t work very well so try to stick with landscape style photos.
5. Be sure you have good seller feedback with at least a Seller Wings badge.
6. Include a detailed description of your item

Note: Due to the nature of certain auctions we cannot feature them.  These auctions include the following:

• Mystery
• Tiered
• Winners Choice
• Gift Cards
• Codes

With this new tip, we hope to see your items featured one day! Have a suggestion for a future topic?  Tell us here too.

After a few weeks of beta testing, the Listia Rewards Store has officially launched!

The Rewards Store is a shop curated by us where you can redeem your credits for brand new items at fixed (Get It Now) prices. We’re adding more listings all the time, so you can check back every day for new surprises.

To celebrate our official launch, we’ve added a new Premium category which includes:

• A 7 Night Caribbean Cruise for Two
• 2 Roundtrip Flights to Anywhere in the US
• Gasoline for One Year
• A 5 Day Vacation for Two to Hawaii
• A Brand New 2012 Fiat 500 POP!

If you don’t have enough credits for Premium Rewards, don’t worry – you can start saving up now, or you can shop from a long list of other items. We stock the Rewards Store so there’s something for everyone.

Let us know in the comments what kind of Rewards you want to see added to the Store. Happy trading!

With so many great auctions to see on Listia, browsing through them all can be a bit time consuming (especially if your computer is slow or you have a slower internet connection).  You want to find that gem of an auction as fast as possible, right?  So let me share with you a little “trick of the trade” that may help you see more auctions in a fraction of the time.  This is done using a browser feature that many power-users use—browser tabs.  The exact steps may vary from browser to browser, but the general concept still applies across all modern browsers that support tabs (almost all do).  And this tip can be used to surf the Internet faster, and not just Listia (IE: Google search results page).

1) Do a search on Listia for anything that you’re interested in, and you’ll get a list of matching auctions.
2) Instead of clicking on the one you’re interested in, press the CTRL key down while left-clicking the auction (Windows).  If you’re on a Mac, hold down the Command key when clicking.  When you do this, most browsers will open up that auction in a NEW separate tab without you ever leaving the original page you’re on.  (Note: Some browsers may require you to change a setting so that the new tab opens up in the background.)
3) Continue down the list to the next auction that you want to see, and do it again (CTRL click).  Keep doing that for all the auctions that you’re interested in, and they’ll be individually opened up in the background as separate tabs in the order you opened them.
4) After you’ve done that to a number of auctions, you can click on each of the new tabs to read, comment, and place your bids.  Voila!  Once done, close each tab if desired.

Click the thumbnail below for an example.

See how easy that is?

Benefits: You don’t have to wait for the pages to load because you’re just continuing on and CTRL clicking on all the ones you want to see first.  Meanwhile, the auction pages are all loading in the background and ready whenever you are.  And now, you can power through Listia like a speeding bullet, finding more great things to bid on!

Happy listings/winnings everyone!

What other ways do you power through Listia?

Today we officially launched Listia Local – a set of features that make it easier to trade stuff with your neighbors. We’ve been testing it for a few weeks now, and the response has been so great that we’re releasing Listia Local in four exciting cities.

Why Use Listia Local?

1) Discover Free Things Near You
Nothing is better than free stuff…except maybe free stuff in your area! With our new Listia Local filters, you can now browse all listings near you.

2) Get Your Stuff Faster

With the Local Pick Up option, you can get your items from the seller as soon as a listing ends. No more waiting by the mailbox to collect your winnings.

3) Save Money
Forget about mailing costs. Pick up your winnings locally from a seller, or avoid shipping fees by listing your unwanted stuff for Local Pick Up only.

4) Give and Get Big Things!

Now you can earn credits for that big couch no one uses at your house. Or win a new lawnmower from another local Listian. With Local Pick Up, the possibilities are endless!

How Do I Get Listia Local?

Listia Local is currently available in the following cities, and should be enabled automatically for you if you are in one of those cities. If not, please contact us and we can enable it for you. More cities coming soon!

This morning we launched a feature that allows you to set higher start bids on your auctions!  Now you don’t have to worry about getting too few credits for your items, so start digging through your closet to find more of those things you want to list!  Some awesome benefits:

• List those higher valued items that you were afraid to list before
• List heavier things that you can’t ship like furniture, computer monitors & TVs.  Post them up for local pick up without worrying about your minimum bid.

A couple things you should note when you list a higher start bid in conjunction with Get It Now.

• Your Start Bid must be lower than your Get It Now value.  Makes sense right?
• If your Start Bid is over 50% of your Get It Now value, Get It Now will be disabled after the very first bid

Enjoy and happy listing!