Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:02 pm
#8238
Nah no worries, what I wrote was for Ryan to up his costs to cover the Ebay fees & his postal costs a bit due to the fact that if you sell on ebay you know how many charges there are overall, + the fact that unless you have a really cheap source of printing material, printer ink, jiffy bags etc you are never (as a small time salesperson) ever getting down to costing your physical & monetary costs from point A-B, ..not to mention either time spent walking / cycling / driving to your nearest post office & the subsequent time spent there.
No definitely not put it at the same or nearly same price but one that reflects the value of the item, service & opening up your eyes to a new site in a period when people are actively thinking Halloween & Pumpkins, Value has always got to be there especially with the difference in price on the site once you root around enough to find ZP!
BUT if you look at how much time your average guy selling small items on the internet spends in time prepping, wrapping & packing, they are inevitably working for mere pennies per hour, whilst the typical buyer has come to you because you are offering the best deal, most comprehensive & knowledgeable description of the item(s) on offer.
I would happily have paid another dollar or two here or there, to support Ryan's venture as I know what I have to gain in terms of sheer joy of the opportunity to carve lot's of amazing stencils &open the doors on my Halloween obsession.
To invest in stock, store stock, answer q's search out appropriate packaging that you'd be happy to receive goods in yourself is actually a small nightmare.
We for example have a four bedroom house & every room (even the kitchen) is full of stock, would be stock & packaging of one form or another we've yet to turn a proper decent profit after several years of trying, thats with keeping overheads low, you just have to keep expanding to the point that one day there will trickle forth a small profit.
We keep a very tight lid on postage costs & people still moan (bearing in mind they click the commit to buy button) , no-one ever pays postal insurance but expects you to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong! (more paperwork for each proof of posting, which has to be retained and dug out when the worst happens OR they're out & don't pick up the parcel etc..so you have to have some form of financial buffer so you can actually be generous in both time & re-sends., rather than enraged, twisted & cynical.
I'd rather people pay what I put for each item in both cost & postal costs t(as we're cheap & fast generally) ..then pop them in something that I bought in bulk (more cost & stock to hold) than offer them 50p discount (and wasted time re-invoicing em) ..thats worth £2 -£3 and is linked into what they've already purchased.
People buy cheap nowadays, expect more discount on top, & top notch service when margins have been busted as low as 5% profit!
(IMHE)
Ultimately each sale that turns a profit is a prerogative to carry on, but you do have to turn every opportunity your way, if that means bouncing a higher cost sale & adjusting it according to the market fine! ...unless you can guarantee me they'll then sign up to ZP (which they probably weren't aware of in the first place then I'm happy on the mere fact that they got it cheaper than the others currently listed on the format the prospective customer chose to browse.
premium products, speedy service & a good descriptive write up make for good sales, along with a competitive price compared to the one page of optional plastic fun scraper kits.
