Question
Mildreds said in another thread....
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> but in the mean time, our tourists and business travelers are gone due to Sept 11 and the stock market. The war in Iraq started another round of keeping the billfolds in the purse, <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I feel exactly the same way, only here in Ontario Canada we also have SARS and the West Nile virus scaring the biegebbies?? out of you southern tourists.
Our first local business meeting this year with fellow B&Mmers ....I told them I wasn't spending 5 cents on advertising, it was wasted money, nothing is going to pry $$ out of people's fingers ....a week ago we had our end of summer let's compare notes meeting, and the ones that advertised, are out the advertising dollars and are still down a large percentage, most are down 30-50%..depending on what they sell....clothing down the lesser percentage, giftware and touristy types down more, the local restaurants are down 12-25%, with the unliscensed being down the least amount. ...whcih surprised me, I figured the liquor liscensed ones would be holding their own.
I am only down 8% overall for the year, down 15% for July and up 20% for august....and my bottom line is less because I didn't spend any advertising dollars http://community.here.com/infopop/em...on_biggrin.gif...but we also moved the store in January.
I focused on ebay instead, has gotten me through fine, prices are down in some markets, way up in others and stuff that wasn't selling a year ago is now selling again, so the cycle continues...
I like doing ebay, it is easy and sometimes it is a lot of fun to see 300.00++ little green glass pitchers http://community.here.com/infopop/em.../icon_wink.gif http://community.here.com/infopop/em.../icon_wink.gif right Kevin?
however, the last two weeks in August were VERY VERy good in the store, and not so good on ebay for me, but then I only left relists up there and didn't add anything because my records show every last two weeks in August were poor for us, I will add new stuff tonight....maybe.
If you have a B&M what are your thoughts, if you shop in a B&M what are your thoughts..
and ebay will always be a factor in my business plan, I love it too much to quit.
and my town is less than 10,000 population, not much happens here in the winter. ....well snowmobiling does help quite a bit.
Soooo....talk to me about your observations, plans, expectations both online and off....come on, ramble away....you are my only connection to the outside world. http://community.here.com/infopop/em...on_biggrin.gif http://community.here.com/infopop/em...on_biggrin.gif http://community.here.com/infopop/em.../icon_wink.gif
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Interesting Gabs. We just finished moving to a second booth at our antique mall - basically doubled the space. I figured the busy time of year was the right time to test it, and so we just started out on Saturday, too soon to tell. I don't do much off-line though so it's interesting to see how B&M are doing.
My wholesale business is affected by it though since I sell a lot of linens to dealers who do shows and to B&M stores. Right now things are slightly better than they were 6 months ago, but I'm not holding my breath that the improvement is in any way permanent.
eBay was horrible for us in August, but mainly because of the awful experience we had at Andale, which I now think cost me in excess of $3,000. If I look at our performance once we went back to Vendio and how July was, I place the blame for the poor results 100% at Andale's feet. They have not done anything about it by the way, so it's bye bye!!!
Our website does well, better each month and I have not even done what I should be doing which is focus and spend time on promoting it. Too busy putting out small fires with the eBay business and dealing with other stuff. I've just hired some more help, so once they're trained, hopefully I'll gain about 12-15 hours per week to do other stuff.
eBay is not going away for me, it's still a good market although I do wish we were still doing the business we were doing 12 months ago. The problem is the low threshold for competitors, it forces you to constantly be looking for the next item to sell. But that's part of the fun isn't it?
So I'll be watching our booth and seeing what it does. I've been considering doing some advertising, since eBay pays some with their co-op program and so does the mall, so I can pick up 50% of the costs. Would it be worth it?
My European vintage linens on eBay
Cool non-linen European goodies (from our container!)on eBay
VISIT MY WEBSITE!
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gabs
eBayland is the real world http://community.here.com/infopop/em...icon_smile.gif
We always believe in selling on eBay what we cannot sell locally. That still works since a lot of our eBay sales is international. Helps a little bit with a down U.S. economy.
We always believe in keeping an active local customer base. We never feel it was smart to dump everything on eBay. Working well in that area as local prices are now sometimes much more stable than eBay prices. A lot of local customers know it may be cheaper on eBay. But, they do not want the hassle to search and deal with strangers for measly savings.
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I live outside of a town of 22k, there used to be several antique stores in town including a couple or 3 malls, now they are down to one and they are slowly switching over to new stuff and also were just sold, not sure what direction they will be going in (I know the ex of the lady who owned it though and it hadn't been profitable for quite some time). Totally different than it was even 3 or 4 years ago.
Mel-
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Well ebay has certainly been up for me over last year, I am doing about 5x more than I did last year profit wise, maybe tripling what I listed last year.
My dad does the same thing, but he also has a store. his store does maybe 1/3 or 8k of his monthly revenue, but the other two thirds are from ebay.
All is well in our neck of the woods.
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The real world is where I get my stock, and it is getting harder to do so. Over here, I would suggest that the B&M antique/collectible trade has been riding the crest of a slump for about 10 years. Auction has been getting more popular with the public while less stock is going through the auctions, and too often stuff is passing retail value. I don't need to keep a shop stocked, so I just leap on the stuff when it is available, but I pity those who do need to keep a shop fresh.
At the same time shop sales have been fairly stagnant for the best part of a decade. We had a boom over 1988 (our bicentenary) but things feel away sharply just after that. The last three years have seen shop turnovers mostly fall away fairly steadily. It is probably a sign of that, that this year, other than 2 very good estate auctions, I have gotten some of my best buys retail from shops.
Meanwhile Ebay has been the most eratic this year that it has been for me so far.... but my quality of stock has also been more mixed. The dissappointment is when Ebay (for me anyway) has a soft week, and I have some better stock on. Then a week or two later I can have lacklustre stock and innexplicably get a very good result. It is averaging out about right for me, but it does not feel too reliable. Tie that with the issues that I feel are currently discouraging some users from Ebay, and I am uncertain how reliable this market will be within 12 or 18 months. The pity is that most of those issues and the fragmentation that Ebay has made of the marketplace, are so unnecessary and detrimental to all parties involved.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>The war in Iraq started another round of keeping the billfolds in the purse, <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
On Ebay, for me, oddly enough, it was the "official" end of the war that saw the dollars evaporate. I think one aspect is that people use the computer to get away from the blanket coverage of the war and turn to Ebay to buy trinkets they can enjoy instead. On the "finish" of the war, they could turn back to the media without feeling overwhelmed by it, and it appeared for a few weeks that the dollars being spent on Ebay were way down.
Certainly economies are tight and world uncertainties don't help, so it understandable that Ebay will reflect at many times the tightening of the economy, but using it as an International platform you can still put items in front of people in regions that are doing better - this is where the fragmentation of Ebay into so-called International sites has reduced many areas of competitive bidding at a time when they are the most sought. By setting the defaults on these fragmented sites to search the home country only, only makes many of those bidders even more innaccessable. It is a pity - the original formula for Ebay was intuitive genius for accessing a strong global market, but it has been "managed" to death since by a management team that fails to understand what this marketplace really offered.
Still, it is a major viable marketplace even if it is not what it really could have been.
Cheers, Kevin
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While we don't have a "true" b & m, we do not rely solely on Ebay either.
Ebay is about 25-35% of our sales. The rest come from our website, Word of Mouth, and trade publications. All product is shipped.
I think ebay numbers will be about the same, maybe a tad higher. I think I have worked harder at getting them however. Our non ebay sales have been about the same also. The last few months have been slow (on all fronts), appearing to be picking up a little the last few weeks.
International sales are not that huge for us. We sell vintage parts for GM (american) cars. Percentage of those cars are right here in North America.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> On Ebay, for me, oddly enough, it was the "official" end of the war that saw the dollars evaporate. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I totally agree Kevin. We were on extreme record breaking pace. Then BOOOOM, the bottom fell out about that time.
Some of my "calculations" are somewhat "gut" feelings, but I am sure I am pretty close.
I have just recently hired a high school kid however to help me. Hopefully I can get our second website up and running with my "extra" time.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Still, it is a major viable marketplace even if it is not what it really could have been.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Kevin do you mean..."what it could have been"
or
what it used to be...
eBay used to be heaven, slap it up, poor pics, and major multiple bids, it was soooo easy.
when we first started we could toss on 50 items and sell 45 all for way more than retail.
Now we toss on 100 to sell 60 the first go round and 25 or so the second go round and about 5 the third go round....
which is still very good, no complaints here....but it is on the downslide, just not seriously here....<knock on wood>
We useauctionwatch so no productivity complaints here, we are networked this year, productivity increased by 50%, we also added a great staff, productivity increased by another 100%, yes one good staff doubled our output....
Ebay will never be what it used to be, it could not have possibly stayed there, it was never the only business plan we had, but it gave a lot of people a lot of self confidence and survival skills in the last five years. We all need to be grateful for the people it kept off welfare/social assistance etc...
we also run a service business, a small store and I do free lance and contract work.
We do okay and keep really busy.
We have a person working on our website, but we keep running into minor problems, like time factor...
but they promised launch will be this month, sure hope so. http://community.here.com/infopop/em...on_biggrin.gif
I have paid for a years hosting and we still haven't gotten it going totally, it is built it just needs fully stocked. we only have two or three items per "room"
I like the online work, I hate the stocking of the store part, I hate doing HTML, I like answering email, I like packing the stuff and going to the bank, so I just have to hire someone to do the stocking of the store....
anyone want a job? http://community.here.com/infopop/em...on_biggrin.gif
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> I have paid for a years hosting and we still haven't gotten it going totally, it is built it just needs fully stocked. we only have two or three items per "room"
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Gabs,
That is exactly how we are sitting with our 2nd site. It is all grocery cart. ugh, I don't like that work either http://community.here.com/infopop/em.../icon_wink.gif
You know I keep coming up with more good ideas! Oh I have to get the 20 in front if that one done, don't I http://community.here.com/infopop/em...n_rolleyes.gif
I am good at concepts, just not so good at getting it done http://community.here.com/infopop/em...s/icon_eek.gif
Gabs, I think we could make a team, "dwabbs inc." http://community.here.com/infopop/em...on_biggrin.gif
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I like it...
I can usually get most things done, except this...
I never worry about when things get done, they happen when they are supposed to happen, but me and destiny ain't agreeing on this one, I am getting antsy to launch it, hoping that I will get more motivated after I see it launched, sure hope so, since writing the above post, we discussed hiring another part timer just for website maintenance and some clean up of files etc.,....
wonder if I can find someone worthy of working with our team?
We re-imburse our staff generously, with good quality perks. ....everyone in this town can't understand why our staff stay so long and work so hard, <grin> of course they pay minimum wage and NEVER take the staff on day trips. ....I beleive it is the day trips and the thanx for your help at the end of their shift that makes people WANT to work for us, and I really do mean THANX for the help.
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