Question
I am again looking at TIAS and Ruby lane as additions to my antique/collectible venues.
Does anyone sell there? How long have you been there? Are you making sales that you feel are worth the time and effort? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
There are things I like and dislike about both sites so I'm still pondering.
Thanks,
Jo
Answer
I have had an online store for several years at Rubylane. You are welcome to email me with any questions about selling at Rubylane.
Answer
I sold at both venues, RL longer than TIAS, over a year for TIAS, about 2 and a half, maybe 3 for RL.
My reasons for leaving were not dependent on sales, I went back to school full time, so just didn't have the time to put into it anymore.
Your success will depend on your patience, and what you expect for your investment.
Each of the venues has strengths - each has weaknesses.
The Pros:
Both - you will realize higher prices than you would at eBay, and the customers are generally nicer.
Ruby Lane - much easier to upload pictures and descriptions. The category system is much easier to navigate. I think their software is more intuitive, but YMMV. It might be just what you get used to. Also, I think RL has a much easier checkout/inventory/accounting system from the seller's end - TIAS was super complicated, at least to me. Sales were much better and steady here, as well.
TIAS - Absolutely excellent customer service! When I was setting up shop, they were very nice and helpful. They can help you set up your shop if you have another one somewhere, which makes it much easier.
The cons:
Both - Much of the time, you wait a little longer for sales than on eBay. Neither is johnny on the spot about getting your stuff into search engines. If you have inventory mirrored on both sites, be prepared for buyers on a mission to buy the same item from both sites, thinking you have multiples. It happens more often than you would think.
RL - The first and biggest con is the owners. These guys are capricious, vindictive, greedy, and not very knowledgable about antiques and collectibles. NEVER prepay more money than you would feel comfortable flushing down the toilet, should things go south in a hurry, no matter what kind of credit they give you. The second biggest con, which is in direct relation to the first, is that there is a flagging system that is kind of like e-bay's "report anything you don't like, we'll yank it and ask questions later" system. It is equally hard to resolve the situation (think e-bay customer service intelligence with the personality of Tom from Auctiva). The other big con is the prices. They are simply outrageous for the services provided in return. If you aren't a charter shop, I don't see how you could make it without consistently selling in the mid 4 to 5 figures per month. I understand they just raised their advertising prices, as well. Believe me, they don't earn it! Oh, and there are no ways for sellers to communicate with each other, in order to inform about scams, or discuss situations. Evidently, the owners got tired of people asking them what they were doing with the seller's money. Enough on that, let me know if you have any other questions, I'll be happy to give you more concise details.
TIAS - biggest drawback was after the initial month, sales sucked, LOL! The software was also confusing, as was the layout of their pages. I don't think they do quite as well in the search engines, because the hits aren't there, either. Also, its a personal preference, but I'm not too fond of the shop layouts - some are REALLY bad, LOL! Oh, and categories aren't standardized, which makes it kind of hard to search, again, YMMV.
Hope this helps!
Answer
Jo, thanks for asking this and Deb, thanks for giving such great insight. I've been wondering about these venues as well.
Answer
We looked at both TIAS and RL for off-ebay sales over a year ago. Both had fee structures I wasn't willing to pay. I wanted to get away from commission based fees.
Have a look here:
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusine...er/detail.mspx
Limited, yes... but for the money, you can't beat it.
Cheers
(Edited to add)
This post means no malice to RL and TIAS... I've heard many success stories at both!
Answer
Momelie, thank you for the detailed information. That's exactly what I was looking for and frankly, everything you said ties in with my personal opinion on what I saw.
treats, do you have any other insight to add to this?
FiberGuy, I checked out your link. I'm hoping to discover something that's more antique/collectible oriented. So far, the only 2 that have even tweaked my interest at all were TIAS and Ruby Lane.
Thanks again for all the input.
Jo
Answer
Originally Posted by Momelie
RL - The first and biggest con is the owners. These guys are capricious, vindictive, greedy, and not very knowledgable about antiques and collectibles.
That is one of the main reason I left RL. Those guys, one especially, took the fun out of selling; along with closing the RL board. However, in October 2005, the sellers of RL got a great reward for staying on.
I am writing to let you know of a change at the helm of Ruby Lane. As company co-founder, I have assumed the title of Ruby Lane president. Company co-founder Jim Wilcoxson has resigned as president, choosing to pursue other interests. For those of you who might not know, Jim and I founded the business together in 1998.
How does this affect you, the shop owner, as well as the site overall? You can expect a seamless, invisible transition that in fact has been well underway for several months. As company president, I am excited about moving the company forward with new vigor, along with the Ruby Lane team of highly skilled strategic, technical, marketing and customer service specialists that you, the shop owner and your customers have come to know and appreciate. Ruby Lane's company culture and vision remain constant and strong, and will continue as such into the future under my leadership.
Shortly, we will be releasing a list of new and improved tools and features that you can expect in the following few weeks and months, all based on popular demand from shops. You'll see that it's still the same Ruby Lane, just more effective and user-friendly, as always.
Sincerely,
Tom Johnson
President
Ruby Lane
Wonder how many RL sellers shouted Hallelujah to the top of their lungs?
Have you looked into Cyberattic? Their monthly/yearly fees with no commission.
Or Go Antiques? They are not as cheap as Cyberattic.
Answer
I tried Trocadero a couple years ago and it was as though I was completely invisible. No sales, no questions, no nothing. I left after 4 months. I might have stayed longer if I had gotten ANY interest of ANY kind at all.
Cyberattic is Trocadero owned. It's certainly cheap enough.
But is it just that I'm too tired tonight or is there no way to actually BROWSE listings?
Thanks!
Jo
Answer
Jo, there are several ways to browse. Click on the categories on the home page (the first link). Browse by category or by seller. On each category, there are featured stores.
I have read where a couple of people are quiting TIAS and/or Ruby Lane and going with Cyberattic.
P.S. I'm not a seller from either Cyberattic or Go Antiques.
Answer
I sell at both sites. I also have my own website and an Ebay store.
I have threatened to quit Tias for years due to the lack of sales there, but it's only $35 a month or 10%. So far I still make a little money there, and once in awhile I have a great month and make good money, so I hang on.
What Momelie said about Ruby Lane's pricing structure - it's ridiculously high if you have a large inventory (more reasonable if you don't), but again I manage to sell enough to be profitable there. When that changes I'll leave. However I'm a Charter Shop member, which means I pay half the listing and maintenance fees that newer shops pay. I truly don't see how non-Charter shops can afford to stay there.
One key difference if you sell antiques/collectibles between the two sites - at Tias, almost anything goes. At Ruby Lane, you can't sell anything less than 20 years old (with 2 very narrow exceptions) and you can't keyword spam. Listings with titles like McCoy? Shawnee? Hull? Roseville? aren't allowed, and you can't call something McCoy in the title but say in your description that you "think" it may be McCoy, or that it "looks like" it.
New (China made) stuff and reproductions are all over the place at Tias (though many Tias repro dealers state that their items are "new collectibles"). At Ruby Lane, their flagging system does weed that kind of stuff out. I personally hate repops in general because of what they do to the market for legitimate stuff, and I loathe sellers of it who try to pass off their newly made items as old, either by omission, implication, or outright lying. There's a core of Ruby Lane buyers who are very loyal to the site for that reason - they feel they can trust the dealers there, and/or trust management to boot the bad ones off.
You do get much better prices at the malls than on Ebay auctions, but your items generally take longer to sell. I personally think the only way to make a full time online living in antiques and collectibles is to have your items mirrored on as many sites as you can afford, and have a fairly large inventory. None of the mall sites have the traffic or sales to provide a full-time income by themselves, IMO.