eBay UK have today (unannounced, as usual) amended their links policy to allow video on listings. Video can be included so long as it does not break any other eBay policies (for example, by soliciting payment by methods not permitted, or by interfering with buyers’ computers) and so long as it is hosted on one of 14 sites with “strong measures to provide safe content”: in other words, self-hosted video is not permitted.
So why would you want to include video? Many sellers just wouldn’t: a recent thread on the UK PowerSeller board lamented “we’ve got to do videos now as well”! Canny sellers, therefore, will milk this for novelty value while it’s still there. But video can be so much more than just a novelty. It can explain your product in a way that a dozen photographs never can: do you want to buy from Sam Field’s Radiplug listing? How about now:
Video is fun. Moreover, it’s proof that what you’re saying about your item is true: a video shows a TV, a CD player or a train set working, and that has to increase average selling prices. Even admitting your item’s faults in a video can be a positive thing: it says to your buyer, “I’m telling you everything there is to tell”: there’s no small print in a video.
Updated to add the link to the policy change announcement.
