Ebay or Amazon or Something Else?
I've recently inherited a large amount of vinyl records, mostly older stuff, 50+ years. Some of it's newer 45's and 33 lp's, but the majority is either 78's or phonograph status.
Firstly, I don't want to debate the value of them here. I've been down that road and know full well everything is worth. What I'd like to get some input about where and how I should go about selling them.
Currently I have an ebay account with store and 105 positive feedback. I also have a basic Amazon Seller Account, no feedback. I also have a relevant domain name and hosting, facebook and twitter, which are themed similarly. I have the domain in case I want to go the self hosted route and sell via my own ecommerce setup. FB abd Twitter can support any of the venues listed above, but they setup and ready.
Ebay...This is probably the most obvious place to market them, and I have had some success so far, selling about triple what the fees and costs have been. Not stellar, but at least there's profit. I'm on the fence with the ebay store, as I see the changes they've made to it since I've sold on ebay last, less advantageous to sellers. It used to be, you could list something in your store for a nickel and it stayed there a month. Now it seems an ebay store is just another page that displays your regular auction listings. You do get a break on the listing and final value fees for your $15.95 a month, but on the flip side, you don't get the 50 free listings a non-store subscriber gets.
Amazon...I've had some success selling product on Amazon. I like it because you can park your products there for no up-front money, and pay fees only when something sells. I'm on the basic plan as long as I sell less than 40 items a month. For the sake of discussion, it seems that the fees for ebay and Amazon end up about the same in the long run...give or take. I listed 150 items there at the first of the year, and the sales have trickled in every week so far. My option with Amazon is to go the Amazon Web Store/FBA/SOA route. This carries about a $50 to $65 a month cost plus the selling fees.
My impression of the two is:
Valuable items sell best on ebay...and is some cases very well.
Run of the mill sells eventually on Amazon and they seem to be willing to pay your price.
I honestly think I'm going to need a little of both to make this work best. Ebay's fees will listing after listing add up...Amazon charges up front. You're going to pay both of them when the sale happens.
Amazon Web Store/FBA/SOA, seems to be hot right now. I like the looks of what they're offering and anything listed for sale there gets play elsewhere on the web, ie., yahoo shopping.
I've looked at a couple other options too. Like I said previously, I have a domain, hosting, Facebook, Twitter setup and themed to support all this, however I go about selling day to day. I'd like to host ecommerce myself and try selling that eventually. It will probably be Wordpress with a cart, which is where I have plenty of experience. The two things I've looked at in regards to this are:
Ecwid...this option will provide me with a shopping cart for Facebook, Wordpress, and html as well. A little higher priced, their tools and interface are good, and I have it running in a basic form on my FB account now. They're reviewed well on WF and have a WP plugin. No Amazon integration.
Shop Tab...These guys offer a Facebook cart that imports all your Amazon Web Store listings. It's priced a little lower, but seems comparable to ecwid. They don't do anything with WP, but Amazon provides tools and code, so I could make it happen if I wanted to.
I'm 100% determined to make things integrate with a Facebook shop. I plan on spending both time and money building a following there and will beat Facebook like a rented mule till I'm sweeping my empty, record-less garage...
If there's an ebay option for Facebook that works well, please let me know.
What I'm leaning toward doing is this:
Close the ebay store
List the good stuff auction style with the 50 free I now get because i don't a store anymore.
List the majority of everything in amazon and focus all my fancy marketing and Warrior Forum skills on moving product from there.
Anyone's input is greatly appreciated.
Firstly, I don't want to debate the value of them here. I've been down that road and know full well everything is worth. What I'd like to get some input about where and how I should go about selling them.
Currently I have an ebay account with store and 105 positive feedback. I also have a basic Amazon Seller Account, no feedback. I also have a relevant domain name and hosting, facebook and twitter, which are themed similarly. I have the domain in case I want to go the self hosted route and sell via my own ecommerce setup. FB abd Twitter can support any of the venues listed above, but they setup and ready.
Ebay...This is probably the most obvious place to market them, and I have had some success so far, selling about triple what the fees and costs have been. Not stellar, but at least there's profit. I'm on the fence with the ebay store, as I see the changes they've made to it since I've sold on ebay last, less advantageous to sellers. It used to be, you could list something in your store for a nickel and it stayed there a month. Now it seems an ebay store is just another page that displays your regular auction listings. You do get a break on the listing and final value fees for your $15.95 a month, but on the flip side, you don't get the 50 free listings a non-store subscriber gets.
Amazon...I've had some success selling product on Amazon. I like it because you can park your products there for no up-front money, and pay fees only when something sells. I'm on the basic plan as long as I sell less than 40 items a month. For the sake of discussion, it seems that the fees for ebay and Amazon end up about the same in the long run...give or take. I listed 150 items there at the first of the year, and the sales have trickled in every week so far. My option with Amazon is to go the Amazon Web Store/FBA/SOA route. This carries about a $50 to $65 a month cost plus the selling fees.
My impression of the two is:
Valuable items sell best on ebay...and is some cases very well.
Run of the mill sells eventually on Amazon and they seem to be willing to pay your price.
I honestly think I'm going to need a little of both to make this work best. Ebay's fees will listing after listing add up...Amazon charges up front. You're going to pay both of them when the sale happens.
Amazon Web Store/FBA/SOA, seems to be hot right now. I like the looks of what they're offering and anything listed for sale there gets play elsewhere on the web, ie., yahoo shopping.
I've looked at a couple other options too. Like I said previously, I have a domain, hosting, Facebook, Twitter setup and themed to support all this, however I go about selling day to day. I'd like to host ecommerce myself and try selling that eventually. It will probably be Wordpress with a cart, which is where I have plenty of experience. The two things I've looked at in regards to this are:
Ecwid...this option will provide me with a shopping cart for Facebook, Wordpress, and html as well. A little higher priced, their tools and interface are good, and I have it running in a basic form on my FB account now. They're reviewed well on WF and have a WP plugin. No Amazon integration.
Shop Tab...These guys offer a Facebook cart that imports all your Amazon Web Store listings. It's priced a little lower, but seems comparable to ecwid. They don't do anything with WP, but Amazon provides tools and code, so I could make it happen if I wanted to.
I'm 100% determined to make things integrate with a Facebook shop. I plan on spending both time and money building a following there and will beat Facebook like a rented mule till I'm sweeping my empty, record-less garage...
If there's an ebay option for Facebook that works well, please let me know.
What I'm leaning toward doing is this:
Close the ebay store
List the good stuff auction style with the 50 free I now get because i don't a store anymore.
List the majority of everything in amazon and focus all my fancy marketing and Warrior Forum skills on moving product from there.
Anyone's input is greatly appreciated.