eBay Hacks

Dynamic Text in Auction Descriptions

Use inline frames to change the text in your auction descriptions, even after bids have been placed.

Once bids have been placed on an auction, eBay severely restricts the changes that the seller is allowed to make (see [Hack #50] for details). Probably the most prevelant restriction is the auction description itself, which can only be added to once the auction has received its first bid. Fortunately, you can use iframes (inline frames) to work around this.

Warning

Any text not hardcoded into your auction description will not be indexed by eBay Search, so you’ll want to restrict dynamic text to material not specific to the item being sold (such as payment terms or information about your company).

An inline frame is like a web page within a web page. To try it, place the following code right in your auction description:

<iframe src="http://www.ebayhacks.com/myiframe.html"
         style="width:350;height=200;" align=left>
<a href="http://www.ebayhacks.com/myiframe.html" target=_blank>Click 
here</a> to view additional information about this auction.
</iframe>

The web page designated by the src parameter in the <iframe> tag will load in a window 350 pixels wide and 200 pixels high, as shown in Figure 4-18.

Figure 4-18. Use an inline frame to place an external web page in your auction description that can be changed, even after the auction receives bids

The page ...