Talk about taking a wrong turn somewhere… (What do you think – boy whale? – it apparently didn’t for directions… Someone should spring for a Thomas Guide for that one. LOL)

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If you want to turn your selling on eBay into an art form, check out this lady’s ad:

“LOT OF POKEMON CARDS THAT MY KIDS TRIED TO SNEAK BY ME – (eBay item 130144061675 end time Aug-22-07 12:03:50 PDT)

Description (revised)I’m selling a bunch of Pokemon cards. Why? Because my kids sneaked them into my shopping cart while at the grocery store and I ended up buying them because I didn’t notice they were there until we got home. How could I have possibly not noticed they were in my cart, you ask? Let me explain.

You haven’t lived until you’ve gone grocery shopping with six kids in tow. I would rather swim, covered in bait, through the English Channel, be a contestant on Fear Factor when they’re having pig brains for lunch, or do fourth grade math than to take my six kids to the grocery store. Because I absolutely detest grocery shopping, I tend to put it off as long as possible. There comes a time, however, when you’re peering into your fridge and thinking, ‘Hmmm, what can I make with ketchup, Italian dressing, and half an onion,’ that you decide you cannot avoid going to the grocery store any longer. Before beginning this most treacherous mission, I gather all the kids together and give them “The Lecture“.”

And it keeps on going hilariously from there.

Now that’s making use of all the marketing ‘tips and tricks’: appeal to your audience’s emotions, engage them with intelligent, funny writing, make the content relevant to the product, don’t appear to be really trying to sell them, have a product that lots of people look for and more.

She’s really got this down as evinced by the number of hits she had as of auction close: 179,000!! And that will keep growing as more people look for her ad just out of curiosity. (Bet she wishes she had a few more items up at the same time, eh? But who knew it would take off to SUCH a degree, hummm?? She does now…)

Talk about a natural marketer!! And given her writing style, she should definitely branch out into magazine articles or books. I bet she could give Erma Bombeck’s books a run for their money…

Of course, if ALL eBay ads start going from a few description lines or paragraphs to entire short stories (or, heaven forbid, complete novels!), the system might not work as well (or crash, eh?) But every once in while, having something fun to read while online shopping definitely makes the experience that much more fascinating and interesting. Kudos to dawnm5723 and her ever-ongoing battle of the grocery cart. I hope she continues selling on eBay for a long time – I need a good laugh every once in a while.