posted on April 24, 2001 06:29:14 PM new
Hi everyone!
I've sold at a variety of auction sites over the past couple years and my current specialty is wholesale dolls. Although I sell a variety of other items, it is this area in which I have found the most profit over the past year.
My question is directed at other niche sellers. What is your specialty? What sites have you found effective for your wares?
I'd love to hear from other doll sellers who sell at alternative sites with success. I've tried Doll Nation (part of Collecting Nation) but that has netted nothing. The places I've had the most luck are eBay (daily sales), Yahoo (weekly sales) and BidBay (weekly sales).
I'm also interested in just hearing from anyone who has a specialty and uses more than one venue. Are there really decent wholesale auction sites out there that pull on a consistent basis? Although I enjoy selling to consumers, our business is expanding so rapidly that selling to businesses or entrepreneurs is turning out to be more lucrative.
Thanks for reading this. Any opinions are welcomed!
Karen
CountYourBeans.com
[ edited by countyourbeans on Apr 25, 2001 04:10 PM ]
posted on April 24, 2001 10:23:54 PM new
When I can get them I often times have a good bunch of out-of-date Enesco figurines and such. I've enjoyed quite a bit of success with those on eBay and ePier. I haven't been able to list for a while, though, but I do have a list of sites I'm itching to try.
My main merchandise is clutter of any type, though. I was amazed to see listings I put on ePier actually end up with more page views than they got while they were on eBay.
posted on April 25, 2001 07:23:39 AM new
One of the areas that I specialize in is with Militaria. I have had good success buying and selling on a “Niche” Militaria Auction site. I have found that many of my eBay buyers were in fact members of Militaria Collectibles Auction Haus. So why should I pay the ever rising eBay fees, when I can list at Auction Haus with no listing fees. Same eBay buyers, on a different site.
I for one refuse to let eBay monopolize the Online Auction world. I prefer to have choices.
Militaria Collectibles Auction Haus can be located at:
posted on April 25, 2001 11:48:51 AM new
Tolz, I couldn't agree with you more. A while back someone mentioned the Militaria-Collectibles site and even though I'm not into that kind of thing I had to check it out. That is one great looking auction site. It has such a neat feel to it. If I ever do run into anything I could list there you bet I will.
I've been sick and tired of being pushed around by the big guys. I dealt with too many bullies while I was growing up to put up with it now. That's why I started my newsletter. (No, not trying to be promotional here.) I had a website that was doing nothing but drawing dust so I re-built it into an info site for auction users. It takes up a lot of my time but I feel buyers and sellers deserve much better than what they're getting now.
I love to see these smaller sites getting good traffic. I found one a while back that has bunches of categories, most empty. But there were tons of listing in the hunting and fishing categories and they were getting super bids! If I was looking for that kind of thing I'd definately go there instead of the big site.
posted on April 25, 2001 12:29:43 PM new
Hi again,
I wanted to thank everyone who responded. I like to hear where other people experiment and test the waters, especially if they've had experience selling in a similar line. Everyone's input is valuable though. Tomwiii, I had to LOL at your contribution. What is a niche going for these days anyway?
$1.00?
It was interesting reading about the military collectibles site. Although it's not my area of expertise, my husband used to be in the service and it would be a place I would look at.
I think if you carry multiples of an item, it's good to test market/park some listings at multiple free sites, even if all they do for the short term is sit on auto-relist. You never know when the right buyer will come along. I've made multiple $100+ sales this way (at BidBay) to brand new auction customers who were just exploring at the time and I consider each as an unexpected bonus. Granted, my meat and potatoes is elsewhere but I feel that if there is at least some bidding activity at a site, that it's worth listing there and seeing what happens.
I will take a look at some of the ones mentioned that I was unaware of.
Although this isn't exactly an auction site, I found metaexchange to offer a decent opportunity for people buying/selling Ty Bean Bag products If you're trying to sell or buy in bulk, this is a good place to do so. They also have other categories for hot toys, coins, sports cards, dolls (limited to mainly Barbie & Amazing Ally) and electronics, although I don't know what kind of traffic these places get.
http://www.metaexchange.com/
I know there have to be more sites out there that cater to a particular industry. I hope other people will contribute as well and keep the dialogue going.
Best of luck everyone!
Karen
http://www.countyourbeans.com
[ edited by countyourbeans on Apr 25, 2001 04:10 PM ]
A while back someone mentioned the Militaria-Collectibles site and even though I'm not into that kind of thing I had to check it out. That is one great looking auction site. It has such a neat feel to it. If I ever do run into anything I could list there you bet I will.