Not too long ago I won a prize in a competition over at In The Powder Room. I can't remember what the top prize was - probably beauty products of some description - but I was one of the 10 runners-up. I won a new product - Nip + Fab Frown Fix. It duly arrived, it got put on the shelf next to my make-up and I forgot all about it really. That is, until a saw a story in a UK newspaper proclaiming that the Nip + Fab Frown Fix was *the* beauty product of the moment, sold out everywhere and almost 8000 people had registered on a waiting list to buy some when back in stock.
The brain cogs slowly started turning.
I had some Nip + Fab Frown Fix. I wondered if I could use this to my advantage. Could I turn my abandoned prize into a get-rich-quick scheme using the media hype? I thought I'd give it a go.
I took a quick photo of the tube of Frown Fix and wrote a rather splendid description on eBay, then set the auction clock for three days. There's no point in waiting a full week when the action was going to happen in the last 30 seconds.
I tweeted out a link to my eBay auction page and shared the information on Facebook. Slowly and surely the page views climbed higher and higher and the questions started rolling in - mainly from people who already know mewhich goes to prove that I associate myself with a bunch of nutters. You can read the full description here:
Frown Fix Ebay Listing
I clapped my hands with glee. The price was rising slowly but surely. If you could have seen my eyes, they were spinning £ signs like in the cartoons. I was sure to make a few bob here, after all, there were only eight tubes of the Nip + Fab Frown Fix listed when I created my eBay auction. I had also used a real photograph rather than a stock image. This proved that I had the product here and I wasn't riding on the coat-tails of a delivery when back in stock. There were 23 watchers on the item and I'd had just over 800 page views
Then the bubble popped. Two days into the 3-day listing there were 51 tubes of the bloody stuff listed on eBay and reports coming in from all corners that the Frown Fix wasn't actually sold out but available online and at certain stores around the country. There wasn't the flurry of last minute bidders that I'd hoped for and the bidding froze (ha, ironic!) at £15.00. Not enough to retire on but enough for three bottles of wine, I suppose. Maybe *I* was a victim of believing the hype?
It was a bit of fun, thougheven if I am now banned from entering all competitions on In The Powder Room and I am now going to write all my eBay descriptions like that in the future.
The brain cogs slowly started turning.
I had some Nip + Fab Frown Fix. I wondered if I could use this to my advantage. Could I turn my abandoned prize into a get-rich-quick scheme using the media hype? I thought I'd give it a go.
I took a quick photo of the tube of Frown Fix and wrote a rather splendid description on eBay, then set the auction clock for three days. There's no point in waiting a full week when the action was going to happen in the last 30 seconds.
I tweeted out a link to my eBay auction page and shared the information on Facebook. Slowly and surely the page views climbed higher and higher and the questions started rolling in - mainly from people who already know me
Frown Fix Ebay Listing
I clapped my hands with glee. The price was rising slowly but surely. If you could have seen my eyes, they were spinning £ signs like in the cartoons. I was sure to make a few bob here, after all, there were only eight tubes of the Nip + Fab Frown Fix listed when I created my eBay auction. I had also used a real photograph rather than a stock image. This proved that I had the product here and I wasn't riding on the coat-tails of a delivery when back in stock. There were 23 watchers on the item and I'd had just over 800 page views
Then the bubble popped. Two days into the 3-day listing there were 51 tubes of the bloody stuff listed on eBay and reports coming in from all corners that the Frown Fix wasn't actually sold out but available online and at certain stores around the country. There wasn't the flurry of last minute bidders that I'd hoped for and the bidding froze (ha, ironic!) at £15.00. Not enough to retire on but enough for three bottles of wine, I suppose. Maybe *I* was a victim of believing the hype?
It was a bit of fun, though