P T E R (cid:3)9
Connect with Collectors atSpecialized Auction Sites
You probably know from the auction sales you’ve done to this point that selling is amatter of matching each item you have to offer with someone who has been lookingfor just that item—or something exactly like it. If you are lucky enough to find acollector who feels passionately about something and needs exactly that item to fitinto his or her collection, you’ll get eager bidding for your item, and higher pricesthan you probably ever imagined. This is what happened with the woman who foundthe can of Clipper Beer, which had been sitting under her house since it was con-structed in the 1940s. She found some collectors on eBay who needed this rare canto complete their beer can collections, and they drove the final sale price up to anamazing $19,000.
By moving your sales activities beyond eBay to auction sites that cater to a specialniche market, you increase your chances of finding the collectors, enthusiasts, ordevotees you’ve been looking for. In some cases (like firearms and alcohol) you haveto search for niche marketplaces, because eBay won’t allow the sale of these itemsunless they have value as antiques. This chapter discusses some of the reasons to sellwith a niche auction site, what you need to run a successful business on such a site,and a few examples of auction sites devoted to specific collector’s markets.
Why Move to a Specialized Auction Site?
Because eBay attracts collectors of all sorts, it’s a safe bet that just about anyone whocollects anything avidly has searched on eBay for items to round out their collections.Why take the trouble to learn new sales systems and try special niche auction sites?Here are some reasons to consider the move:
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Some Collectors Prefer Their Niche Communities to eBayA niche auction site often has a small but devoted community of buyers and sellerswho prefer to support each other’s businesses first before going to eBay. Items youpost on these sites will get a more thorough look from the buyer than on eBay, andthe feedback you receive from purchasers, whether approving or not, will be moreconstructive than the cursory ‘‘Good, timely’’ comment that makes up most eBayfeedback. This means you can customize your business and inventory much fasterthrough the niche site than through eBay, thereby saving time and energy.
Niche auction sites often have additional features that are useful to the onlinebusiness owner. News and industrial press releases related to your market can befound there, and discussion forums allow you to get a better sense of what othersellers are buying. Personally, I collect fountain pens, and I’m familiar with a nichesite called PenBid.com (http://www.penbid.com) (see Figure 9-1). PenBid’s membersoccasionally sell on eBay, but they know each other well from attending pen collec-tors’ conventions around the world, and they want their own place to congregate andshare their thoughts about their shared passion. When they connect to the PenBidwebsite, they get much more than a place to buy and sell pens. The link COMMUNITYtakes them to an area of the site (http://www.penbid.com/Auction/Community.asp,shown in Figure 9-1) where the editorial director Michael Fultz, who is a well-knowncollector, has assembled a wealth of background information for pen collectors, in-cluding the following:
• An archive of articles for ‘‘insiders’’ on pen- and writing-related topics• A bookstore full of books for collectors that have been chosen by the PenBid
staff
• A set of member links to other collectors’ websites• A link that enables visitors to subscribe to the PenBid newsletter• A link to community forums where pen collectors can answer questions from
newcomers and share their thoughts on the state of the pen industry
Used wisely, information like this can tell you when to post a specific item forsale and when to wait on it. Discussion forums also can sharpen your use of the siteitself, and give you early warning of problem buyers from other sellers.
Using multiple niche auction sites is an exciting opportunity to streamline yoursales. Sometimes eBay sellers find that entire categories of their inventory aren’tselling well. A presence on one or more niche sites can give you flexibility in sales,and even aid in the organization of your inventory.
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Figure 9-1. Niche auction sites frequently offer community resources for their members.
(cid:2) Penbid.com, Inc.
Some Niche Sites Charge Lower Sale Fees than eBayYou probably won’t be surprised, given eBay’s fee increases, to discover that smallerniche auction sites are often cheaper than eBay for the seller. Consider Ticket-Auction.net (http://www.ticketauction.net), a site that guarantees its fees will be halfof eBay’s. I have even found sites that don’t charge any sales fees at all, such asWriterspace (http://writerspace.com/auctions), a book auction site. It’s possible thatthe dollar or two you save per transaction at these sites will provide you with youronly profit on the sale, especially for small-ticket items like used books.
Your Merchandise Stands out Better in a Small Venue than a Large OneNo matter what kind of rare or unusual item you find, it is either posted on eBay orwill be in a week. On a small niche auction site, your unusual and high-quality mer-
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chandise has a better chance of being noticed by both buyers and sellers. This canlead to your business developing a reputation on the site, with buyers maintaininggreater loyalty to your business and sellers referring customers to you for items theyconsider your specialty. You can use your good reputation to refer shoppers to yourwebsite, where you can sell to them directly in a way that builds customer loyalty.(See Chapter 7 for more information on the importance of developing a fully func-tional e-commerce website.)
What Do You Need to Start Selling on a NicheAuction Site?
Every e-commerce website, including eBay, requires you to climb a learning curve.But niche sites are less crowded and generally less complex to use. Ideally, it will helpyour sales and your morale if you are prepared to use the niche auction site you havechosen immediately, rather than spending many frustrating days learning its policies,responding to vague technical questions from buyers, and generally feeling like it wasa mistake to leave eBay’s comforting familiarity. This is why you shouldn’t beginworking with a new auction site until you have thoroughly equipped yourself with allthe information and techniques that you will need. Get the following ‘‘ducks’’ in arow before you start.
Knowledge of the FieldYou don’t have to be an expert to sell on a niche auction site, but it helps if you areat least familiar with the specialized lingo that the enthusiasts who frequent thesesites use to talk to one another. Here are a few examples of special terms collectorson these sites use:
Appellation and horizontal collection are terms used on WineBid.com.
•• What are trade beads? What are jewelry findings? It will help if you know such
•
terms before you start selling on Just Beads.Slip cap, plunger filler, and brassing are terms casually used by pen collectorswho frequent Penbid.com.
In fact, WineBid.com has a full page full of wine and auction terms (http://www.winebid.com/buy_wine/wine_terms/index.aspx) that can help you understand theoften mystifying terms that are thrown around by dedicated collectors.
You don’t necessarily have to be a collector to sell on a niche auction site. But ifyou manage to turn up an especially rare bottle of wine or a fine old fountain pen
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that’s covered with gold or sterling silver, your description will sound more knowl-edgeable if you do a little research beforehand. If knowledgeable collectors feel youare an amateur, they will try to bid as low as possible in order to win, because they’resure you don’t know what the item is worth. If you sound like you know what theitem is worth, they’re more likely to bid higher at the outset—even if you don’t haveany idea of the item’s true value.
Knowledge of Site PoliciesIt’s vital that you master a niche site’s selling policies and fees as soon as possible, sothat you can start building a good reputation and a returning customer base. Mostsites are very helpful toward this end, because they want to avoid problems as muchas you do. Also, do some research into the common practices on the site, like ship-ping and payment trends. Many auction buyers use the payment service PayPal, andwill avoid your listings if you don’t offer it. The auction site may also have unusualstandards you need to meet—for example, GunBroker.com (http://www.gunbroker.com) requires you to check the license of the gun dealer who makes a purchase fromyou against the GunBroker.com database of approved sellers after each sale to makesure the people who buy from you have legitimate business reasons for doing so.
Familiarity with the Site’s CommunityThis is the area of business knowledge that will probably take the longest to acquire,but in the long run, it can turn out to be the most profitable. The more you learnabout the kinds of buyers the site serves, the more you will be able to tailor yourdescriptions and listings to their needs and wants. Individual collectors pay a greatdeal of attention to detail, so they will appreciate a lengthy factual description of anitem without extravagant prose and exclamation points. Dealers or small businessescan be more complicated to deal with, but they will often be the source of that bigsale you want. Pay attention to any requests or trends that appear on discussionboards. Sometimes, media events can bring amateurs to a site looking for a specificitem, as happened with sales of Pinot Noir on WineBid.com after the release of themovie Sideways. Keep your inventory and business contacts as diverse as possible.
Examples of Niche Auction Sites to Visit
There are dozens of niche auction sites around the Internet. Many are listed in Ap-pendix A. The sites listed next are only a small sampling of the options available to
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you. My assistant, Ben Huizenga, and I are personally familiar with these sites andhave discovered that, in some cases, these sites let you sell items you simply couldn’tsell on eBay.
WineBid.comFounded in 1996, WineBid.com is the largest online auction site for wine, with morethan thirty thousand registered users. Buyers can use a user-friendly search engine tolocate auction lots of wines, which they may either purchase or track on their LotTracker page. WineBid.com offers shoppers an Autobid feature that resembles eBay’sproxy bidding system, so that buyers aren’t glued to their computers day and night.Buyers pay their bid, a premium fee, and insurance, to cover accidents in handlingor shipping. WineBid.com maintains a staff of experienced professionals at climate-controlled facilities to ensure the quality of its product. WineBid.com’s weekly auc-tions have more than four thousand lots of consignment and rare wines.
Sellers have it even easier. A registered seller simply e-mails a consignment list toWineBid, which responds with an appraisal report of the wine’s value. The sellerarranges to ship the wine to WineBid a month before the auction, so that the lot maybe inspected. The seller receives a detailed report on the progress of the auction, anda check thirty days after the auction’s close.
The distinguishing feature of WineBid.com for a seller is the turn-around timebetween shipping your merchandise and receiving payment. Two months is standard,and the time involved can take longer. However, given the complexity of shipping aperishable and delicate substance like wine, WineBid.com’s facilities and expertiseare invaluable. Once you get used to the longer process, you’ll see how buyers, espe-cially in this market, appreciate the extra time and care spent to ensure a qualityproduct.
Penbid.comPenbid has become known as the premier Internet auction site for writing instru-ments. One of Forbes’s Best of the Web, PenBid offers fountain and antique pens atprices that range from two dollars to several hundred dollars. This site was launchedin 1997, and it is extremely easy to search. The site’s selection is well organized andclear, with the major categories of pens tabulated for quick searching. The Penbidcommunity section is a great strength to this site, with articles by experts and anactive collector’s forum. This site is an excellent example of the advantages a smallerniche auction site can offer over eBay.
Sellers on PenBid have many of the options available to sellers on eBay to maketheir merchandise stand out. A seller can add a thumbnail photograph of the item,
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have the text of the item bold-faced or highlighted, or even list the auction as afeatured or premiere auction. These options all come with fees, ranging from $.25 to$24.95, but the chance to draw increased attention to your auction is well worth it.Penbid also offers the chance to leave and receive feedback—a useful tool to avoidproblem customers and to identify weaknesses in your sales technique.
PenBid is not a very large site, with listings that include about a thousand itemsat any given time, but its organization and community make it worth your time. Don’texpect huge numbers of sales, but do expect to receive the full value of your offers.
JustBeads.comThis is the top bead auction site on the Internet. Launched in 1999, Just Beads(http://www.justbeads.com, shown in Figure 9-2) offers a comprehensive array offeatures to the bead seller and buyer, supported by an active community of enthusi-asts. Sellers pay a small fee to list an item, can purchase optional premium servicesto make their item more visible, and then pay a small (usually between 2 and 6percent) sales commission rate. Feedback ratings help protect the seller from prob-lem customers, and a chat forum provides a convenient place for buyers to list theirneeds.
Just Beads is a true collector’s site, so be sure you’ve done your homework beforeselling there. Lampwork and annealing are just a couple of the terms you’ll need tobecome familiar with as a seller. With such a visual product, having good pictures ofyour listings is crucial, and the more succinct the description the better.
Just Beads recommends a piece of software called Auction Tamer, which is anauction management tool that can support several different sites, including eBay.Unless you’re seriously getting swamped with the details of your business, I’d recom-mend against this software. The features it offers are largely ones that organizedpeople can perform for themselves, like a countdown to when your auction ends.Some of the automated post-auction tools seem neat, like an automatically generatedwinning bidder form, but it’s easy to set that up yourself on your home PC.
GunBroker.comFirearms are one of the items that are prohibited on eBay unless they’re being soldas antiques. If you have a firearm you want to sell, it’s logical to turn to this venue,which bills itself as the largest online firearms auction site. GunBroker.com (http://www.gunbroker.com) auctions everything from modern rifles to antique pistols, in-cluding accessories and stuffed animal heads. This site is excellent at helping a sellerlearn the value of an item, linked to the Blue Book of Gun Values and also to a
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Figure 9-2. This specialty site for bead enthusiasts includes discussion boards and notices ofupcoming bead shows.
(cid:2) JustBeads.com.
partner site that performs cheap appraisals. GunBroker is also meticulous about fol-lowing the federal laws that govern gun sales.
Note: Only federal firearms license (FFL) gun brokers buy from this site,and all sellers are required to verify these licenses with GunBroker.combefore completing a sale.
The advantage to selling with GunBroker is its reliability. Firearms are difficultto sell online without help, and GunBroker provides it, along with an established
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network of clients. The condition of items is of first importance with this site, so takethe time to learn about the details of muzzle-loaders, caliber sizes, and engravedholsters. Make sure your photographs are first-class, and include any details of theitem’s history that seem noteworthy.
(cid:3)
Where the Booksellers Go: Abebooks.com
You probably already know about Amazon.com (see Chapter 12), but Amazon has itslimitations. It’s a convenient venue for textbooks and recent releases. But when itcomes to obscure, rare, and long-out-of-print books, there’s a better option.
Abebooks is not an auction site, but it is the largest online seller of used and rarebooks. Abebooks is where thousands of booksellers list their merchandise, so that thebuyer can search all of the site’s inventories through one engine. Almost 40 percentof all books bought online are bought here, so even if you don’t use it to sell, you’llwant to use it as an information resource to ﬁnd the best price and match conditionwith other sellers. Sellers pay a ﬂat monthly rate depending on the number of booksthey have listed, (4,000 to 10,000 would be $42), and then pay 8 percent of theselling price in commission. Abe’s search engine is great, and its software for listingto its database is easy to use.
Online sales of books have become enormous in recent years, so competing suc-cessfully depends on knowing which books are worth listing and which aren’t. Get toknow the rare and unusual publishers, and learn about evaluating book condition. Forexample, that rare old Tarzan novel isn’t worth nearly as much without its dust jacket.The number of books that you sell compared with the number of books you list shouldalways be growing.
By using Abebooks and Amazon in tandem, you can come up with an accurateassessment of a book’s value online, and an idea of how many copies are available.With time, you’ll be able to avoid buying books that are always available, and narrowyour inventory to the truly unusual items that dedicated collectors will be eager tobuy from you.
When you change your approach to business from thinking of yourself as an eBayseller to regarding your operation as a full-fledged online business, you’ve got to takeniche marketplaces into account. If you are already an enthusiastic collector, you’llnot only find more buyers for what you have to sell, but you’re quite likely to strike upsome fruitful friendships as well. The Internet is all about connecting small, dedicatedcommunities of individuals. That includes potential buyers in your own local commu-nity—a subject you’ll examine in the next chapter.
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C H A P T E R (cid:3)10
Reaching Local Buyers
The ability to reach buyers around the world is one of the best things about onlineauctions. But there are times when you need to reach bidders across the street oracross town rather than across the globe. The most obvious reason is when you havesomething big and bulky to sell such as a car, a piece of farm equipment, a majorappliance, or a couch. It’s not a piece of construction or medical equipment like theitems covered in Chapter 8, but a single heavy household object. You either don’tknow how to ship the big item or don’t want to bother with the considerable expenseand trouble.
At one time, eBay used to have special resources for local buyers. The site offeredspecial local versions of eBay that gathered together merchandise offered in variousmajor cities in the United States. Now, in order to reach people in your own area,you need to specify your location in your listing and make it clear in the descriptionthat you want buyers to pick up their purchases in person. And you have to hope thatbuyers will search for what you have to offer by zip code, using the Advanced Searchform. It just isn’t reliable, so even the professional eBay drop-off store owners men-tioned in Chapter 18 use Craigslist when someone has a couch to sell, for instance.The ability to conduct transactions with people in your own neighborhood is oneof the best reasons to try sales venues other than eBay. By placing simple classifiedads on Craigslist or other sites, you can sell items that are hard to ship. If you specifythat buyers have to pick up from you in person, you make them do the work after thetransaction, not you; you save yourself the time and trouble of packing and shipping.You can also use Craigslist to offer your professional services, put up notices seekingpersonal items you’ve lost, and plenty of other things. This chapter examines optionsfor local auctions that exist outside of eBay and how to use them to your advantage.
Pickup in Person: LiveDeal.com
At LiveDeal.com (http://www.livedeal.com), buyers search by location. Sellers don’twant to deal with shipping. They offer their merchandise at a starting price, but they
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also invite buyers to make offers with them, just as at a garage sale or flea market.And, just as in those venues, it’s up to the buyer and seller to negotiate shipping andpayment. Picking up in person has many advantages for you, the seller, such as thefollowing:
• You don’t run the risk of having the shipper lose or damage merchandise in
transit.
• You don’t have to deal with insurance claims.• You don’t have to pack and haul your boxes to the shipper.• You don’t have to deal with postage mix-ups and mistakes, which can occurfrequently on eBay—especially if you didn’t estimate the shipping weight accu-rately before the sale. When you hand over an item in person, you know itwas in good condition, so the buyer can’t falsely claim that it was damaged intransit.
LiveDeal doesn’t offer a payment service directly through its site, although youcan list PayPal as a payment option on your listing if you’re a verified seller. Negotiat-ing with the buyer can take patience and time, and you might consider listing yourpayment guidelines along with the item. Many LiveDeal listings are as short as possi-ble and contain no payment information. A typical set of guidelines might look likethis:
I accept PayPal (provide the e-mail address you use with PayPal).
•• Escrow.com (http://www.escrow.com).•Postal money orders.• Western Union BidPay.•
Personal checks (but allow seven to ten days for checks to clear before ship-ping).
Stick with the payment services you’re comfortable with, and kindly request that
the buyer comply with your guidelines.
LiveDeal.com is simple to use. After taking a minute to register an account, youcan immediately begin posting your items. The best part of working with this site isthat there is no listing fee. LiveDeal.com offers a number of premiums to make youritem more noticeable, but posting your item with a description and a photo is free.Listings are removed after thirty days on LiveDeal.com, but there is no charge forreposting an item. If you use a free Web-based e-mail account, like Yahoo!, or if you
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wish to be listed nationally, you will have to pay a $5 fee to have your identity verifiedwith LiveDeal.com.
Tip: LiveDeal describes its fees at http://www.livedeal.com/about/fees.jsp. Notice the $.10 per image fee; you’ll probably want to postimages on another website and make links to them.
Selling Household GoodsThe key to selling household goods on LiveDeal.com is learning to recognize what isworth posting and what isn’t. Ideally, a pleased buyer will click the button that saysSEE SELLER’S OTHER ITEMS, and you want to be sure that those other items look attrac-tive. Take advantage of LiveDeal’s first-photo-free policy, be honest about any defectsin the product, and be willing to come down a little in the price. By far the mostpopular categories on LiveDeal.com are electronic appliances, stereo/computer hard-ware, and luxury items like watches and collectible coins. Make sure you’re not post-ing anything that people can acquire more cheaply at the store next door.
Selling Household PetsLiveDeal.com offers an entire category of merchandise that eBay does not: pets. Youcan list any type of pet or household animal here (such as the puppies shown inFigure 10-1), as well as pet services, such as grooming for dogs.
There are no special requirements for listing and selling the animals on LiveDeal.com, although most buyers will want to meet the pet in person and be satisfied as toits health and behavior before following through with the purchase. (However, manyof the pet listings on the site include a shipping fee for buyers who simply want theiranimals sent to them rather than picking the pets up in person.) A detailed descrip-tion of the pet is a good idea, including age, brief history, and any chronic problems.
Note: Chapter 19 examines the ins and outs of using another offline salesvenue: an auction in your local area held by a live auctioneer.
Just the Facts: Craigslist
Craigslist is a national phenomenon. The site was founded in 1995 by Craig New-mark, a programmer in San Francisco, California. Essentially, Craigslist is a commu-
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Figure 10-1. LiveDeal allows breeders and other pet owners to advertise their animals online.
(cid:2) LiveDeal Inc.
nity classifieds and forum page, with sections for jobs, housing, services, personals,and pretty much everything else. There are now 175 Craigslist sites, serving all 50states and major cities in 34 countries. The site is a tremendous success, as evidencedby the following figures:
•••
2.5 billion page views per month10 million users per month5 million classified ads and 1 million forum postings per month
The reasons for this popularity are straightforward. There are no pop-up or ban-ner ads on Craigslist, there are no charges for posting an ad, and the listings areconstantly refreshed by new users. The site is also designed for simplicity and effi-ciency, without any distracting graphic elements.
Craigslist became a for-profit site in 1999, but so far, the site has been able tomaintain its simplicity by generating revenue from modest job posting fees in a few
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cities. It supports a nonprofit foundation that helps other nonprofits gain attentionand organize events.
Craigslist’s For Sale section is the third-most popular section of the site, so it is agreat place to list those unwieldy items you want to sell. Craigslist suggests that youmake sure the item you want to sell doesn’t fall under any trade restrictions in yourstate. (For most users, this means not selling things that require a license, such astobacco, alcohol, and firearms.) The listing process is fast and easy. You create a titlefor your posting, usually a simple statement of what you’re selling, assign a price anda location, then create a more detailed description. People won’t see your descriptionwithout clicking on the title, so make sure your title is clear and straightforward andsave the details for the description.
Caution: Many individuals who post on Craigslist have a bad habit ofusing capital letters and exclamation marks to get attention, and the com-munity of buyers generally looks down on that tactic. Be honest andfriendly, and you will get all the responses you need.
After you finish your description, you enter your e-mail address to complete theposting. Craigslist can assign you an anonymous forwarding number so that youraddress is protected from casual viewing. You will receive an e-mail address fromCraigslist to complete the posting, and you can edit the description and title at anytime. Craigslist is different from most selling sites in not offering any kind of pre-mium service to increase the visibility of your item, but that is part of why peoplecome here, so enjoy not having to consider such options for a change.
There is no cost—I repeat, no cost—to post sale listings on Craigslist. The only feesfor this site are for job postings in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, andeven in those cities the fees are below the industry standard. Craigslist also uses apopular ‘‘flagging’’ method to weed out spam and other ads that are outside theirguidelines. Visitors to the site can flag an ad that they feel is miscategorized or other-wise inappropriate. Although Craigslist acknowledges that it removes some legitimatepostings, so far the system had been very successful, with only 2 percent of flaggedpostings turning up as legitimate. This largely responsible, and free, use of feedbackallows Craigslist to function as the free, populist site that it is.
Caution: