How to write a listing description that actually sells
Most listings that sit unsold for weeks aren’t priced wrong — they’re written wrong: buried key facts, missing item details, or a title that never gets found. Here’s what to put where, sourced from eBay’s own Seller Center guidance and policies and Facebook’s official Help Center.
Last updated August 2026
What should the first sentence of a listing description actually say?
Exactly what the item is, its condition, and what’s included — in that order. eBay’s own Seller Center guidance is explicit that a good listing puts the essential information at the top, additional information in the middle, and the least important information at the bottom, starting with a brief overview that gives buyers a quick understanding before they dive into details. Buyers on mobile (which is most eBay traffic) skim; if the first line doesn’t answer “what is this and what shape is it in,” many buyers bounce before reaching your carefully written second paragraph.
How long should an eBay title be, and what goes first?
Use as much of eBay’s 80-character title limit as the item’s real attributes fill, and put the words a buyer would actually search first. eBay’s own guidance says to use the words buyers would type, place the most useful details early, avoid filler, and make sure every keyword matches the item — brand and product type first, then the attributes that narrow it down (size, color, material, model). That front-loading matters beyond the title box itself: on mobile search results, only the first 50–55 characters typically show, so anything padded to the end may never be read.
What are eBay Item Specifics and do they actually matter?
Item Specifics are the structured fields (brand, size, color, style, and so on) that appear at the top of a listing in a consistent format. eBay’s own Seller Center page on the program states that using Item Specifics is free and optional but highly recommended, and that on average, adding Item Specifics results in an increase in bids per listing and an increase in sales per listing. They also gate visibility directly: if a listing doesn’t specify condition through Item Specifics, it won’t show up when a buyer filters search results to “New” or “Used” only. Filling them out completely, and matching them to your title and description, isn’t optional polish — it’s how buyers using eBay’s own filters ever see the listing at all.
What do you legally have to disclose about an item's condition?
Every flaw that would matter to a buyer’s decision. eBay’s Item Description Policy requires that a listing’s description be accurate and complete, matching the actual condition of the item — sellers who misrepresent an item’s condition, authenticity, or completeness are in violation, and disputes over undisclosed damage are one of the most common reasons a sale gets reversed or a seller loses money on a claim. In practice that means naming rips, dents, scratches, missing parts, or repairs explicitly rather than relying on photos alone or vague phrases like “some wear.” It also protects you: an accurate description is your best defense if a buyer later claims the item wasn’t as described.
How is writing a Facebook Marketplace description different from eBay?
Facebook’s Help Center guidance for creating a Marketplace listing centers on the same core idea — clear photos, an accurate description, and a price — but the search behavior is different from eBay’s. Marketplace listings are shown to local buyers browsing a category as often as they’re found by search, so a description that reads naturally (dimensions, material, condition, why you’re selling) tends to perform better than one written purely for keyword density. The essentials still transfer directly: state the brand, model, size, and material where relevant, and disclose condition and flaws honestly — Marketplace has no shipping-dispute safety net the way eBay’s does, so an accurate description matters just as much for avoiding an awkward pickup as it does for making the sale.
What formatting mistakes actually hurt a listing instead of helping it?
Two, most often: heavy HTML templates and keyword stuffing. Most eBay traffic is mobile, where dense templates with background images and multi-column layouts render badly or get stripped entirely — a clean, readable description consistently outperforms a designed one. On the copy side, cramming synonyms and repeated keywords into the body text reads badly to a human buyer and adds little, since the title and Item Specifics carry the actual search weight, not the description body. The fix for both is the same: write for the person reading it, not for an algorithm you’re guessing at.
What's the fastest way to get all of this right without writing it yourself?
Skip the research and let it be generated correctly the first time. That’s exactly what Reclaim does: snap one photo and the AI identifies the item, grades its condition, and writes a title and description built the same way this guide describes — condition and key facts first, real attributes instead of filler, no stuffing — then prices it from real eBay sold data and publishes to eBay and Facebook Marketplace under your own accounts. Every generated field stays fully editable before you publish, so you keep final say over exactly what goes out.
The short version
Lead with what the item is and its condition, use eBay’s full 80-character title with the buyer’s search words first, fill out Item Specifics completely, disclose every flaw honestly, and keep the formatting plain enough to read on a phone. For the pricing half of the equation, see our guide to pricing from sold data instead of asking prices, or start with the eBay beginner walkthrough, or browse our full library of selling guides.
Skip the writing. Just take the photo.
Free to download. Highly rated on the App Store.