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.
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