posted on February 16, 2009 10:07:27 AM new
I have a dilemma. I listed an item (on Ruby Lane). A fellow dealer made me an offer - I made a counter offer. She seemed to accept - said thank you for the discount, but didn't start the buying process. So, I sent her another e-mail and said if the price was acceptable, start the purchase process and I would send a corrected invoice.
Before I hear back from her someone else - presumably not a dealer- started the buying process. Which person do you think I should sell the item to?
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___________ http://www.rubylane.com/shops/ceeceescollectibles
posted on February 16, 2009 10:17:30 AM new
always go with the sure thing. this is why our retail business doesn't put items on "hold". I truly hate the notion of holding an item. money talks, first to flash it gets it... especially when it is for more money than the first person was willing to pay.
i had a dealer come into our store once... actually, the scumbag sent in his wife to make an offer on a painting we had. The painting was priced at $169, on sale for $149. Our normal policy is to not discount items on sale. She offered $140. Our employee called us to see if it was ok. I said it was fine. While on the phone with us the woman walked out. Her husband came in and offered our employee $125 for the painting. When our employee told him no, he replied, "you should have just taken the first offer". During the conversation, the dealer told our employee who he was (big mistake).
The guy is a creep who is a member of yelp.com (similar to citysearch). He gave his own store a five star rating, then goes around town and gives all of his competition low ratings and berates them online. He is why dealers get a bad rap.
He left without the painting. The next day, someone came in and purchased the painting for $149. I've had numerous occassions where someone offered less than our asking price, yet still left without purchasing it. Then someone else came in and bought it for more than their offer.
posted on February 16, 2009 01:59:51 PM new
Thanks - I guess I'm too soft - I just hate to disappoint anyone. Not that they seem to mind disappointing me. lol
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___________ http://www.rubylane.com/shops/ceeceescollectibles
posted on February 16, 2009 05:30:09 PM new
Most of the requests we get to "reserve" or "hold" stock are from customers wanting birthday presents or seasonal gifts, which we are happy to do. We do get the occasional dealer or individual that is cash strapped and wants a few days or weeks to get the money sorted (we're cash only; no credit). As almost all our payments are electronic we seldom have to deal with post-dated checks or potentially-fake money orders. When the cash hits our bank account, we ship (and not a moment before) after verifying that the sender is the same party as the buyer.
Sometimes you get an order and then the buyer drops off the face of the earth. It's happened a few times where they want to order, then vanish, only to resurface wanting the same thing a year later. Those that we spot get clobbered with a hefty surcharge (disguised as a price increase or fuel surcharge) for previously wasting our valuable time.
posted on February 18, 2009 06:16:39 AM new
Can someone please tell me what Ruby Lane charge for their site? And if they charge a fee coming & going??
TIA
Mama
posted on February 18, 2009 09:01:50 AM new
Hi Mamachia,
Ruby Lane charges a one time set up fee of $75. A monthly advertising fee of $20. It costs .30 for each item you put in your store.
Direct from the Ruby Lane website description of the monthly maintenance fee "The first 150 items is 30 cents for each item, and then each item over 150 is 20 cents per item Minimum charge of 50 items, or $15 per month
Calculated and charged on the 1st of every month."
There are no commission costs. If you or anyone else decides to open a shop, please list my shop as the one who reccommended you - it would give me a discount.
You can also get a discount for paying fees in advance at $250 or more at a time.
To see more about Ruby Lane - go to their site - hover on the bar that says "SELL" and underneath that click on "Fees and Payments" or any of the other topics that interest you.
posted on February 18, 2009 10:15:15 AM newRuby Lane charges a one time set up fee of $75. A monthly advertising fee of $20. It costs .30 for each item you put in your store.
Sounds like a good business -- for Ruby Lane.
Found this review, from a seller:
For sellers who want control over their shop content, this is not the place to sell. There are no safeguards to protect sellers from coming into your shop, purchasing inventory, and never paying.This is not ebay.
Also, they give sellers with 6 months on the site the ability to "flag" your merchandise. This immediately removes newly listed items from the customers viewing.You must wait for someone from Ruby lane's customer service to divine if your merchandise has a problem.If you are flagged three times, your store is closed down with 24 hour notice to the seller. And you thought negative feedback at ebay was bad?? Since there is incredible competition in certain categories, there is a vindictive small element routinely flagging new seller's items. It's a bit like the fox watching the hen house.
One last thing, the typical selling price point has shifted in the last year. In many categories, 80% of the items sold are under $50.Great for the buyer. Terrible for a better quality seller.
Look elsewhere or, create your own website.
Is it possible that the "fellow dealer" you mention was trying to freeze your item so it couldn't be sold?
posted on February 18, 2009 12:24:13 PM new
Fluff,
I don't think so. If she had wanted to do that she would have actually started the buying process,so that the item showed up in the store as "sale pending". That would have prevented anyone else from buying it. But she didn't do that.
I'm probably not in the incredibly competitive categories - but I've never had an item flagged. Ruby Lane does have quite a few rules - but still fewer, I think, than Ebay. I think if you're going to sell there you should read the rules thorougly and make yourself familiar with them so that there's less likelikehood of an item being flagged.
Also, as I've said many times I'm only a part time, small time seller. I make a profit, but not a huge one and I'm certainly not trying to make a living wage. One would have to put a lot more time and effort into a Ruby Lane store than I do to have a chance at that - but it's a good fit for me.
posted on February 18, 2009 02:21:34 PM new
I knew next to nothing about Ruby Lane before reading your posting, but having done a little research it seems buyers for the most part are thrilled, while some sellers aren't.
If it works for you, that's great. I was just surprised to see how high the fees are, particularly the advertising fees. $240/year with no say over how it gets spent? Yow! You could put together a respectable tightly-targeted AdWords campaign for your own site for that amount of money.
There's a *lot* you can do with $240, come to that.
posted on February 18, 2009 03:16:02 PM new
I just did a quick google for AdWords. Am I correct in believing those things that show up on the right hand side as sponsored links are the results of AdWords?
posted on February 18, 2009 04:08:35 PM new
Yes. The right-hand column is sponsored results. There are often but not always ads at the top of the page as well, usually three.
AdWords is a Google product, but Yahoo has the same thing -- and I'm increasingly seeing more Yahoo ads than Google.
Of course, IF you had your own website ideally you would want to be optimizing it for natural search, which is the part of the page that isn't ads. Some people start out buying AdWords to build traffic, then as time goes on and they uncover keywords, they get better placement in natural search (which is free!).
My experience is that it takes about six months at a minimum to get really good search placement. So one could spread $240 over six months AdWords spend.
posted on February 18, 2009 04:18:07 PM new
I should add (in all fairness) that I wouldn't advise you going this route. I looked through your 100 or so pieces of jewelry. Some very pretty stuff, nicely photographed, but those without compelling keywords (designer marks) are unlikely to do well on a website.
I have two jewelry stores online: One with brand name jewelry, the other with generic jewels. The brand name outsells the other 200 to 1.
COOL. I saw your ad and clicked onto your website.
Fluff - yeah I agree. I don't think I'd go the website route unless I was still interested after I retire (unfortunately still many years away). Working on this is just hit or miss for me.
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___________ http://www.rubylane.com/shops/ceeceescollectibles
posted on February 19, 2009 04:21:49 AM new
From the RubyLane comment:
..Also, they give sellers with 6 months on the site the ability to "flag" ...
As a seller on Ruby Lane, I don't agree with some of their listing rules, but they are at least clear and explicit. If an item is "flagged", a RubyLane person actually investigates the validity (and the person flagging has to provide valid reasons). In addition, if you flag items, I think after three "false flags" your flagging privileges are revoked.
There are many benefits to using Ruby Lane, as there are on eBay, and I have always felt that you can use multiple venues, eBay, B&M, RubyLane, own web site, etc.
