Lets Get Noticed More

[deltadelta48]

Good points about inflated prices. Saw that last weekend. Milwaukee just finished hosting a huge international bead show sponsored by Bead and button magazine. This is about the 10th year. It has at least 400 vendors, plus classes by well known authors etc.contests, etc. Ran for more than a week.

Well this is the first year I attended where a huge crowd was not breaking down doors to get in. Much smaller crowds. Money is extremely tight now.. But many vendors who drove across country to bring their wares did not take the hint and got very few sales. They stocked $50 strings of gemstones, high end pearls, etc. Lots of sad faces, as most payed something like $4000 for the booth and few people shopped there.

Just as this discussion mentioned, some dealers stuck to their guns and did not lower prices, did not have a "sale", just waited with their $25 strings of freshwater pearls while the other vendors with the $3 ones got all the sales. And when a crowd gathered in the "cheaper" booths, then more shoppers ran over, looked and bought. After a while I just went with the crowd.

That is what happens here and on other auction sites. High prices, excellent goods, no sale, no discount, no effort made to lower cost a smidge, and no sales (at least they do not have to haul 10,000 lbs of strings of beads back to Florida). You can sit on your stuff, not wanting to bend your principles (this should be worth XXX, even thu I paid only 1/2 X) or you can have a sale and move the stuff out earning some much needed feedback. i.e. the guy with the $25 pearls probably paid $1.50 or $1.75, and took them all home. The other guys paid same, and sold all, just doubling their priceto $3, instead of trying to make a HUGE profit. In tough times, we all have to do this..

I do have more expensive items, that sit for a while, they are a bargain but people obviously can't afford them, and it takes a month or more to get a bid. That happens, meanwhile the $3 stuff is selling. That is fine. Just so sellers know that having all high end things means they may sit and, like I always say, now is the time to slip in a lot of $10 and under items until things pick up.

[knights1066]

Good points about inflated prices. Saw that last weekend. Milwaukee just finished hosting a huge international bead show sponsored by Bead and button magazine. This is about the 10th year. It has at least 400 vendors, plus classes by well known authors etc.contests, etc. Ran for more than a week.

Well this is the first year I attended where a huge crowd was not breaking down doors to get in. Much smaller crowds. Money is extremely tight now.. But many vendors who drove across country to bring their wares did not take the hint and got very few sales. They stocked $50 strings of gemstones, high end pearls, etc. Lots of sad faces, as most payed something like $4000 for the booth and few people shopped there.

Just as this discussion mentioned, some dealers stuck to their guns and did not lower prices, did not have a "sale", just waited with their $25 strings of freshwater pearls while the other vendors with the $3 ones got all the sales. And when a crowd gathered in the "cheaper" booths, then more shoppers ran over, looked and bought. After a while I just went with the crowd.

That is what happens here and on other auction sites. High prices, excellent goods, no sale, no discount, no effort made to lower cost a smidge, and no sales (at least they do not have to haul 10,000 lbs of strings of beads back to Florida). You can sit on your stuff, not wanting to bend your principles (this should be worth XXX, even thu I paid only 1/2 X) or you can have a sale and move the stuff out earning some much needed feedback. i.e. the guy with the $25 pearls probably paid $1.50 or $1.75, and took them all home. The other guys paid same, and sold all, just doubling their priceto $3, instead of trying to make a HUGE profit. In tough times, we all have to do this..

I do have more expensive items, that sit for a while, they are a bargain but people obviously can't afford them, and it takes a month or more to get a bid. That happens, meanwhile the $3 stuff is selling. That is fine. Just so sellers know that having all high end things means they may sit and, like I always say, now is the time to slip in a lot of $10 and under items until things pick up.

It's an unfortunate sign of our times I'm afraid, and all started by the greediest bunch of 'em all, those irksome little bankers!!!

I can see some dangers here though. Whilst businesses have to cut their profits to survive during a recession this could be a double edged sword.
We all know that a lot of consumer goods are overpriced anyway, more so here than in the states I would say. A recession helps bring prices back into line and down to a more realistic level. The danger is though if you cut your prices to rock bottom in order to shift stuff then that's the price that people will come to expect to have to pay for them. So when the recovery hits and they try to restore back to normal prices they are going to find that difficult to achieve.
I know for a fact that there are sellers on beloved ebay that have been selling stuff at ridiculous prices. They can't be making any money out of it, just upping their feedback, but do they rely on their profit to put food on the table? In the meantime the rest of us are struggling, not because we're being greedy but because we can't cut prices any lower and survive.
On the flip side their are some buyers who are using the recession as little more than an excuse to drive prices down because they know it is a buyers market. I normally find (from selling direct-face to face) that most of these are people who are not struggling, merely trying to get things as cheap as possible.

There is no right or wrong to this conundrum, after all it is a free market, which is why some will survive and some will not. But it sure as hell makes you wonder where we're heading?

[kengillam]

As I've said before a good deal is where both parties are satisfied, the buyer that they got a good deal and the seller that he has made a reasonable profit.

[knights1066]

As I've said before a good deal is where both parties are satisfied, the buyer that they got a good deal and the seller that he has made a reasonable profit.

Now that is a statement you can't argue with!

[heatemyfather]

I think all the women should do a nude eBid calendar and give the proceeds to charity, that'll get noticed.

Call it 'eBid Hotties' or something like that.

[cambsmills]

I think all the women should do a nude eBid calendar and give the proceeds to charity, that'll get noticed.

Call it 'eBid Hotties' or something like that.

The men would be fighting each other to get a copy as all of us ebid woman are gorgeous.

But us women need something to look at too....Ebid 'Studs' Calendar?

[canuckbid]

A calendar might not be a bad thing. Probally some of our members will get offers to be models! I like to see people with good idea's. The ones that post about slow sales would be better off spending their time promoting.

[Rubysafira]

I think all the women should do a nude eBid calendar and give the proceeds to charity, that'll get noticed.

Call it 'eBid Hotties' or something like that.

Personally speaking, I think many would use it as a dart board!

[JudesNiceThings]

I wouldn't wish to frighten the horses!!

[suestreasurecloset]

Actually this all isnt really true, here in usa. Most people are visually stimulated it will really only take the big ebid with round red circle to catch the attention of everyone. We really need to do something and something fast. Flyers around the neighborhood, local newspapers with an ad using the round symbol w big ebid.net on it. It will work!!!! Ration spots, the money should be taken out of the lifetime memberships, i am even willing to contribute more. Sincerely, suseen from suestreasurecloset i need help too... Im starting to get worried, $100 net a month with almost 1000 items at 75% retail price is unbelievable... Yes on ebay it would take alot of profit but i did make alot more, i dont want to go back with my tail stuck between my legs after giving them a piece of my mind. I love ebid, i see that massive potential it has but it needed to help us out too. Where does out money go? I know its only $50 but i also know how much programming costs are and we should all get together and help out. I do everything i can here locally, the only thing left i would have to do is advertise in the paper. Part of me really wants to shell out more for myself but it would help everyone and i want to be a great christian, i do shop those people who shop me but i really need to make more money. We have amazon, ebay and google here. Now ebid. I want to stay exclusive with ebid. I left ebay already but income went down almost 92% and im getting scared. ): Sincerely, suseen with suestreasurecloset