Friday, December 24, 2010
Authenticating Dennis Hopper's Jacket
This is Going to be tricky, isen't it? About 13 years ago I lived in California, and I constantly went yard sale shopping with my mother. It was a constant every Saturday ritual. We bought things to sell in her little consignment space and I found trinkets and beads and things of interest that honestly were just fun to get. We went to a yard sale in the San Fernando Valley, That was our Stomping grounds... The West side, Not the hills or past the Boulivard, just the regular neighborhoods. This one sale had some interesting items. This man worked I believe as a lighting specialist for the movie industry which was very common and still is for the valley. He had 2 things that I picked up and bought. One was an authentic Gremlin cast of ( I cant remember the mean Gremlin's Name atthis moment) but It was a foam of some sort cast that they made many of and then they would paint them and use them for the movie. This particualr one was flawed. It only was the bust head down to the start of the legs. It was awesome, and through the years many people wanted to paint it. It was toldto me from the owner that the same mold complete was in Michael Jacksons house, No doubt, This is a neat piece... But did I keep it?? Yes! But I eventually sold it to a girl who was wishing to paint it. I wish I still had it, But that was a long time ago,.... and .... I needed money at the time. The other thing I bought from this man was a Jacket from a movie. He told me it was Dennis Hoppers jacket he wore. It was definitly from some movie. Apparently whomever wore it got pretty "Fake" Bloody. It has lots of stage blood, Bullet holes, stage flesh wounds, ect. Dennis is a little guy, This is a little jacket. It is western looking, and it is seamstress made, not bought. It is really neat, but I have no way to authenticate it. I will post pictures. I also have no clue as to which movie it has come from. I need to figure it out... Any help would be appreciated. I know the words of someone at a garage sale mean nothing, but he wasnt looking to make a lot of money on any of these things.. I think I paid maybe 5 bucks for the jacket and possibly 10 for the Gremilin. So why would he lie? He looked like he just needed to get red of all this crap out of this garage, and thats it... So is it real??? I have yet to find out... I will post as I search this out...
Wyld Rabbit
My latest thought is why is it that I can sell excellent vintage fabric for a fraction of what others are selling for and still have less sales. Why ? I ship quick,and respond fast to problems, I am quick to respond to customers and I take low ball offers. If I did not take low ball offers I wouldn't have a lot of sales. Then I go and look at other peoples cotton fabrics that they are selling for twice the price I am selling mine for. I don't know what the answer is as to how to win over customers and get sales . What are they doing that I am not. #1, I need to get my status of top rated back, but even when I had it, I still had low balls and no sales. I do have a lot of sales, but not like my competitors. It is frustrating. ...
I do have a new store, through Ioffer and I am hoping to draw some attention to that. More later.
I do have a new store, through Ioffer and I am hoping to draw some attention to that. More later.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Guide to Selling Crafts on ECommerce Sites
I am starting from scratch on this,. and I do not encourage anyone of buy patterns... Mostly because I want them... But if you come across some patterns. Here are some tips to selling them. This goes for any kind of crafty item you wish to sell.. or actually anything you wish to sell..
1) You need to get a good scanner or be good at photographs and cropping pictures.
2) Get the front and back of the pattern. It will save you time. Trust me.
3) Take the Time, You lazy ass.. To actually count the pieces of the pattern you are about the sell. There are few people who will pay even .99 cents for a pattern you wont count. You gotta just do it. Its not that big of a deal.
4) If you are really motivated you should make sure the pieces are all for the right pattern. 98% of the time they are.. but occasionally there are those troubling ones that surprise me.
5) Research what people pay for patterns. It is usually not a lot. Your not going to get rich, but in a pinch, they do well, if you buy good ones and take the time to list them right.
6) this is important for any product you sell.. Get them into the mail as fast as you can. You can really win over your customers by doing this. I am a buyer who wants instant gratification. If it is not in my hands in a week, I will almost surly never shop with them again,. I am frugal and I am not much of a shopper,.. But I bet there are others out there who feel the same way.
7) Try to send an Invoice with your product and don't forget that packaging is the key to happiness. If I receive a new pair of shoes stuffed into a flat rate envelope or I get a piece of fabric that is wrapped in a Wall mart bag,smells like smoke and is in an old box that fell apart on delivery, I can guarantee i will not be visiting their web store anymore.
8) Don't send dirty merchandise. Not unless you state it as such. Most people do not appreciate something that looks like it came out of the trash.
9) invest in business cards. Vista print has free ones. its 5.00 for shipping and the cards are free.. you fill them out and submit the order and you are set.
10) When you have an idea of what to sell... no matter what it is, research it. Find out if it is worth it before putting money into it. Don't forget... if you are listing with Ebay...They have a fee for just about everything.
If you want a store... There are prices... if you want fun borders around your listings , you will pay for that too.. Just pay attention to what you are getting.
right now.. Ebay is offering 100 listings a month for auctions Free if you list for .99 cents or less.. But... That does not mean you will Not get charged a fee when it sells , because you will.. and you cannot take advantage of this if you are a ebay store owner. But remember... you sell something for .99 cents. and then pay 10% to ebay.. you are down to .91 cents... then Paypal takes their cut which is around 6%, and if you use a tool like Vendio... they take a % also.. You may end up with about a quarter when all the fees are done.. And what did you pay for this item? Add that in, and you are loosing money fast. Now, the item could go up. It could go for any price you can dream of, but research it and make sure that will happen before you throw it on the block for nothing.
Some people have become savy and have been charging outrageous shipping prices to make up for the amount they list for. Ebay Police and Dare I say .. Ebay Nazi's have been searching for these perpetrators and knocking them off the site for this behavior. So don't think that you can do that to save yourself. You will get a bad reputation and sometimes even be suspended for bad behavior. Trust me, Customers are becoming savy. They can ruin you if they even try a little bit.
11) That brings me to eleven... Beware of pissing off the wrong person. Ebay and paypal side with the Money. Meaning they will side every time with the customer unless you can prove without a shadow of a doubt you were wronged by that customer. It is a difficult task but it is getting easier ... Tracking packages will save you if you keep your receipts.. Always keep your receipts. Especially for overseas. The worst scammers are from Spain and Italy. Some people are great,Never a problem...occationally sellers get taken by customers.
I am in the middle of a sure to loose situation where I sent a man a Camera in Spain. He gave me a positive comment and everything ... Now a month later and when his receipt most likely got tossed, I cannot find it for the life of me... He wants his money back because he said it never arrived. Unless you are sending an item express or priority with insurance., there is no tracking for overseas. There is a customs number which I have been told is basically worthless.. The only proof you have is a receipt from the post office. God help you if you loose that., All I could do is send the note that he gave me as a positive saying Perfecto... I doubt that is enough proof. I am out 70.00. Really Sux, But what can I do? Probably nothing..
Always keep your receipts, folks.
12) Keep an Eye on Listings that double.. I have had sales for things... that I do not have anymore. Being that my inventory is large it is hard to keep track of everything... And It is always a bad taste in my customers mouths When I tell them I do not have what they bought.It is never a good conversation and usually easily could lead to an unsatisfied customer and a negative or neutral.
I never use to be afraid of negs or neutral comments. mostly because I could tell my part of the story and rate the customer back. But because people used this tactic to threaten customers , ebay did the wildly unscrupulous thing and that is to give the seller no way to rate the buyer. Positive comments only. So customers can be awful hags and all we can do is just eat it. It honestly sucks balls. I half understand ... but customers should not have a rating system because it is a lie. Sellers have a lot to work to do to get a positive and to get those 5 stars. Customers think it is no big deal to rate you as you should be rated, but without those 5 stars.,... You get knocked down in the pack of greedy sellers who have so many points that when someone knocks them with a negative or low stars it doesn't count against them, and then for the smaller sellers like myself, one bad comment gets me knocked down to the bottom of the page and I get no sales because of it. And it is for at least a month. I have been a top rated seller so many times I cannot tell you, and then, now even though my numbers are way up, because I do everything I can including giving things away, my numbers are not enough to get me that top rated place again, and I am still placed in the low end of the field. Meaning someone looks up a pattern i have . there are 15 others that have the same pattern. Mine will be at the bottom of the page... most people pick from the top 5... mine gets no sales. so I have to offer free shipping and low ball everyone on the page to make the sale. Its rough, but that is how you play the game.
That's all I can think of for right now.
1) You need to get a good scanner or be good at photographs and cropping pictures.
2) Get the front and back of the pattern. It will save you time. Trust me.
3) Take the Time, You lazy ass.. To actually count the pieces of the pattern you are about the sell. There are few people who will pay even .99 cents for a pattern you wont count. You gotta just do it. Its not that big of a deal.
4) If you are really motivated you should make sure the pieces are all for the right pattern. 98% of the time they are.. but occasionally there are those troubling ones that surprise me.
5) Research what people pay for patterns. It is usually not a lot. Your not going to get rich, but in a pinch, they do well, if you buy good ones and take the time to list them right.
6) this is important for any product you sell.. Get them into the mail as fast as you can. You can really win over your customers by doing this. I am a buyer who wants instant gratification. If it is not in my hands in a week, I will almost surly never shop with them again,. I am frugal and I am not much of a shopper,.. But I bet there are others out there who feel the same way.
7) Try to send an Invoice with your product and don't forget that packaging is the key to happiness. If I receive a new pair of shoes stuffed into a flat rate envelope or I get a piece of fabric that is wrapped in a Wall mart bag,smells like smoke and is in an old box that fell apart on delivery, I can guarantee i will not be visiting their web store anymore.
8) Don't send dirty merchandise. Not unless you state it as such. Most people do not appreciate something that looks like it came out of the trash.
9) invest in business cards. Vista print has free ones. its 5.00 for shipping and the cards are free.. you fill them out and submit the order and you are set.
10) When you have an idea of what to sell... no matter what it is, research it. Find out if it is worth it before putting money into it. Don't forget... if you are listing with Ebay...They have a fee for just about everything.
If you want a store... There are prices... if you want fun borders around your listings , you will pay for that too.. Just pay attention to what you are getting.
right now.. Ebay is offering 100 listings a month for auctions Free if you list for .99 cents or less.. But... That does not mean you will Not get charged a fee when it sells , because you will.. and you cannot take advantage of this if you are a ebay store owner. But remember... you sell something for .99 cents. and then pay 10% to ebay.. you are down to .91 cents... then Paypal takes their cut which is around 6%, and if you use a tool like Vendio... they take a % also.. You may end up with about a quarter when all the fees are done.. And what did you pay for this item? Add that in, and you are loosing money fast. Now, the item could go up. It could go for any price you can dream of, but research it and make sure that will happen before you throw it on the block for nothing.
Some people have become savy and have been charging outrageous shipping prices to make up for the amount they list for. Ebay Police and Dare I say .. Ebay Nazi's have been searching for these perpetrators and knocking them off the site for this behavior. So don't think that you can do that to save yourself. You will get a bad reputation and sometimes even be suspended for bad behavior. Trust me, Customers are becoming savy. They can ruin you if they even try a little bit.
11) That brings me to eleven... Beware of pissing off the wrong person. Ebay and paypal side with the Money. Meaning they will side every time with the customer unless you can prove without a shadow of a doubt you were wronged by that customer. It is a difficult task but it is getting easier ... Tracking packages will save you if you keep your receipts.. Always keep your receipts. Especially for overseas. The worst scammers are from Spain and Italy. Some people are great,Never a problem...occationally sellers get taken by customers.
I am in the middle of a sure to loose situation where I sent a man a Camera in Spain. He gave me a positive comment and everything ... Now a month later and when his receipt most likely got tossed, I cannot find it for the life of me... He wants his money back because he said it never arrived. Unless you are sending an item express or priority with insurance., there is no tracking for overseas. There is a customs number which I have been told is basically worthless.. The only proof you have is a receipt from the post office. God help you if you loose that., All I could do is send the note that he gave me as a positive saying Perfecto... I doubt that is enough proof. I am out 70.00. Really Sux, But what can I do? Probably nothing..
Always keep your receipts, folks.
12) Keep an Eye on Listings that double.. I have had sales for things... that I do not have anymore. Being that my inventory is large it is hard to keep track of everything... And It is always a bad taste in my customers mouths When I tell them I do not have what they bought.It is never a good conversation and usually easily could lead to an unsatisfied customer and a negative or neutral.
I never use to be afraid of negs or neutral comments. mostly because I could tell my part of the story and rate the customer back. But because people used this tactic to threaten customers , ebay did the wildly unscrupulous thing and that is to give the seller no way to rate the buyer. Positive comments only. So customers can be awful hags and all we can do is just eat it. It honestly sucks balls. I half understand ... but customers should not have a rating system because it is a lie. Sellers have a lot to work to do to get a positive and to get those 5 stars. Customers think it is no big deal to rate you as you should be rated, but without those 5 stars.,... You get knocked down in the pack of greedy sellers who have so many points that when someone knocks them with a negative or low stars it doesn't count against them, and then for the smaller sellers like myself, one bad comment gets me knocked down to the bottom of the page and I get no sales because of it. And it is for at least a month. I have been a top rated seller so many times I cannot tell you, and then, now even though my numbers are way up, because I do everything I can including giving things away, my numbers are not enough to get me that top rated place again, and I am still placed in the low end of the field. Meaning someone looks up a pattern i have . there are 15 others that have the same pattern. Mine will be at the bottom of the page... most people pick from the top 5... mine gets no sales. so I have to offer free shipping and low ball everyone on the page to make the sale. Its rough, but that is how you play the game.
That's all I can think of for right now.
Is there Life Outside Ebay Commerce?
This is a question I have been asking myself for at least 8 years now. What started for me as trading and selling in and through the Recycler newspaper, has become a half income for me. But, Like many.... I wonder if there is an alternative to the high fees and low support from the Gods of Ebay. They frown on advertising about your other web address on any piece of business that comes from them, so it is completely up to the seller to motivate themselves to not only be a marketeer, but also a customer service rep,a computer whiz,a business person,a stock person,a shipping clerk, and an accountant. Let me say this right off. Ebay has saved our asses so many times I cannot count them on 2 hands. I will not stop trading on that site. I have been on there since 1999, and I will continue my patronage to them. But... Because I have small stock meaning most sells for under 5.00 and I have about 100,000 things I need to list... I cannot see myself digging that deep into the hole to get a 3.00 pattern to someone. I do have 49 people who subscribe to my store newsletter. I am proud of that number. But I want a place I can list all. I have been searching for the perfect place... I have found there is no such thing. Here is my blog of what I have experienced on my search for an Ecommerce site that will give me the most.
Currently I am working hard with iOffer. Now... I know they have tons of hate mail. They also are not completely free. but what intrigued me the most is the number of sales the people who are on iOffer have gotten. That, My friends is worth everything, that is the golden ticket. you find a site that has customers , you have found a home.
First off... It is not Free. Now this is misleading. What Is Great is there is no fee for starting a store. That is a relief. There also is no fee for listing. another score... Those 2 and customer attention is a huge incentive. They also allow you to list as many pics as you want for free. ..
What they do charge for is after the listing is bought... there is a fee. Under I think 3.00 it is .75 cents or under 5.00 it is .75 cents or .75 cents is the lowest cost.. It goes up from there.. I am not sure how much, But it is cheaper than Ebay.
They have shopping carts, and they have Paypal. I know.. No big Feat.. But it is to me. The listing tools are simple.
Here are the things that bug the hell out of me....
First ... they allow transfers from other sites ,.. Ebay included. This is wonderful.. no problem.. The problems come from the young software or old software they use. You cant choose what transfers over. Now my ebay store has over 900 items in it. It took a week and a half to transfer the listings... and hold on... your not finished. once the transfer is in the works.... Your listings now on iOffer are not complete. All they say is Make offer and free shipping. Now hold the boat on this one.. good way to completely loose your shirt. Plus all my listings have different prices.. I have to guesstimate price as I put prices in.
They have a bulk edit button... I thought would work out fantastic. Well.. I was hoping I could take all my patterns and set the shipping price to free for the united states and have a set price for overseas... or have a shipping calculator for everyone and set it at 8 oz. .. No. They will let you set shipping.. but only worldwide and no shipping calculator. I made the mistake of going ahead and putting 3.50 for shipping for everyone ..... Then now I am still in the process of going in and individually changing all 925 listings to have the correct shipping.. I am not on dial up anymore since last month actually, But now I have Hughes Net.. Which is great... Except they have limited bandwidth per day... and ... I don't know if it is the satellite or iOffer, but i am constantly hit with notes saying the web page is unavailable or I will list and list and my things will not show up.
Its frustrating. I also will do key searches to see what is selling and I get hit with the same problems. I know it is an issue that Paypal,Vendio,auctionwatch,Ebay have had in the past, so I am OK with it. It is just frustrating.
What is good is that after a week , I had 2 sales. Now.. you may think that is terrible, but I have stores on Vendio,Ecrater,Etsy,And a few others I will get to ,and there is no sales. Ecrater I was rooting for... but I have had nothing come of the site
Another thing to watch out for is accounting for your merchandise. as I sell on Ebay, I must keep good records and delete the listings on Ioffer and other places so I do not over sell a product.
Again, Listing is a snap. I love that. I listed over 25 things yesterday in 2 hours ... It was Cake.
Another thing that is annoying is searching for something in the entire iOffer catalog, and the search is for entire posts and not just titles. so you get too many things that have nothing to do with what you are looking for, and when you use the sdubcatagories to narrow down the search, many times the site knocks you off, and you use the go back buttons and the website is no longer avalible. this type of frustration will keep customers away. they need to work on the software.
I have already invested time and patience into Ioffer and I am willing to go the distance with it. I feel that if they are able to get something tangible out of the sellers theyare less likly to immediatly start charging listing and store fees. Please God... Dont let them.. I would be very disheartened.
Currently I am working hard with iOffer. Now... I know they have tons of hate mail. They also are not completely free. but what intrigued me the most is the number of sales the people who are on iOffer have gotten. That, My friends is worth everything, that is the golden ticket. you find a site that has customers , you have found a home.
First off... It is not Free. Now this is misleading. What Is Great is there is no fee for starting a store. That is a relief. There also is no fee for listing. another score... Those 2 and customer attention is a huge incentive. They also allow you to list as many pics as you want for free. ..
What they do charge for is after the listing is bought... there is a fee. Under I think 3.00 it is .75 cents or under 5.00 it is .75 cents or .75 cents is the lowest cost.. It goes up from there.. I am not sure how much, But it is cheaper than Ebay.
They have shopping carts, and they have Paypal. I know.. No big Feat.. But it is to me. The listing tools are simple.
Here are the things that bug the hell out of me....
First ... they allow transfers from other sites ,.. Ebay included. This is wonderful.. no problem.. The problems come from the young software or old software they use. You cant choose what transfers over. Now my ebay store has over 900 items in it. It took a week and a half to transfer the listings... and hold on... your not finished. once the transfer is in the works.... Your listings now on iOffer are not complete. All they say is Make offer and free shipping. Now hold the boat on this one.. good way to completely loose your shirt. Plus all my listings have different prices.. I have to guesstimate price as I put prices in.
They have a bulk edit button... I thought would work out fantastic. Well.. I was hoping I could take all my patterns and set the shipping price to free for the united states and have a set price for overseas... or have a shipping calculator for everyone and set it at 8 oz. .. No. They will let you set shipping.. but only worldwide and no shipping calculator. I made the mistake of going ahead and putting 3.50 for shipping for everyone ..... Then now I am still in the process of going in and individually changing all 925 listings to have the correct shipping.. I am not on dial up anymore since last month actually, But now I have Hughes Net.. Which is great... Except they have limited bandwidth per day... and ... I don't know if it is the satellite or iOffer, but i am constantly hit with notes saying the web page is unavailable or I will list and list and my things will not show up.
Its frustrating. I also will do key searches to see what is selling and I get hit with the same problems. I know it is an issue that Paypal,Vendio,auctionwatch,Ebay have had in the past, so I am OK with it. It is just frustrating.
What is good is that after a week , I had 2 sales. Now.. you may think that is terrible, but I have stores on Vendio,Ecrater,Etsy,And a few others I will get to ,and there is no sales. Ecrater I was rooting for... but I have had nothing come of the site
Another thing to watch out for is accounting for your merchandise. as I sell on Ebay, I must keep good records and delete the listings on Ioffer and other places so I do not over sell a product.
Again, Listing is a snap. I love that. I listed over 25 things yesterday in 2 hours ... It was Cake.
Another thing that is annoying is searching for something in the entire iOffer catalog, and the search is for entire posts and not just titles. so you get too many things that have nothing to do with what you are looking for, and when you use the sdubcatagories to narrow down the search, many times the site knocks you off, and you use the go back buttons and the website is no longer avalible. this type of frustration will keep customers away. they need to work on the software.
I have already invested time and patience into Ioffer and I am willing to go the distance with it. I feel that if they are able to get something tangible out of the sellers theyare less likly to immediatly start charging listing and store fees. Please God... Dont let them.. I would be very disheartened.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Don't Believe The Hype ~ Job Hunting "marketing opportunity" Whistle Blower Blog
This is the first time I have ever blogged, so please excuse me if I do it wrong.
This is how it is... I think that possibly someone should go ahead and tell the community what is out there if you are unfortunate enough to not only be out of work and want to work, but you are also naive normal trusting people just like us, who believe the Hype.
I am a so-so Internet Savoy American girl. I am just like most people. I try my hardest to find the best in everyone, no matter what, no one is pure evil like you see in comic books and movies, where it is easy to distinguish good from evil. Nothing is that Simple. When you are out of work, that is when you find the worst of the worst. You get contacted by scams,and slave laborers who can't understand why it would be such a problem to work for free.
Donating your time to a charity because it is the right thing to do is one thing, donating your time to a business who claims to be the next best thing and has "Unlimited Earning Potential" is another. Get rich quick schemes are darkly coveted and hiding under wonder descriptions like "Office Managers needed Now! Starting pay base $800-$2000 weekly." Gosh, sounds good especially when they name a well respected telephone and Internet company in the title. You actually think that (ha ha yeah, stupid to think that is possible, but when you are really hungry and out of frikken work, it sounds like a dream come true to a Marketing Hero.. and his trusting wife.) It is a possible scenario. Well. It isn't. At least not until after you scam at least 10 individuals to work for free walking neighborhoods and knocking on doors, buying equipment and cell phones,clothing to be embroidered and spending at least $20 out of pocket every day to drive into rich neighborhoods to sell products that most people have had the opportunity to buy over the phone for at least 6 months. More Later......
This is how it is... I think that possibly someone should go ahead and tell the community what is out there if you are unfortunate enough to not only be out of work and want to work, but you are also naive normal trusting people just like us, who believe the Hype.
I am a so-so Internet Savoy American girl. I am just like most people. I try my hardest to find the best in everyone, no matter what, no one is pure evil like you see in comic books and movies, where it is easy to distinguish good from evil. Nothing is that Simple. When you are out of work, that is when you find the worst of the worst. You get contacted by scams,and slave laborers who can't understand why it would be such a problem to work for free.
Donating your time to a charity because it is the right thing to do is one thing, donating your time to a business who claims to be the next best thing and has "Unlimited Earning Potential" is another. Get rich quick schemes are darkly coveted and hiding under wonder descriptions like "Office Managers needed Now! Starting pay base $800-$2000 weekly." Gosh, sounds good especially when they name a well respected telephone and Internet company in the title. You actually think that (ha ha yeah, stupid to think that is possible, but when you are really hungry and out of frikken work, it sounds like a dream come true to a Marketing Hero.. and his trusting wife.) It is a possible scenario. Well. It isn't. At least not until after you scam at least 10 individuals to work for free walking neighborhoods and knocking on doors, buying equipment and cell phones,clothing to be embroidered and spending at least $20 out of pocket every day to drive into rich neighborhoods to sell products that most people have had the opportunity to buy over the phone for at least 6 months. More Later......
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