The first one is behind us

Good Afternoon,

Well the 1st sale on EBAY seemed to go through smoothly.  That said, I've been on the phone at least 2 times every day with EBAY since I opened the store with one problem or another.  ETSY is much simpler, but we're starting to get the hang of things.

And here we thought FNS's were fun to watch.  The winning bid was $126.39, which is in essence the same price we would have gotten in a FNS, so we're satisfied, although a bit shocked when we actually saw the sum total of the fees.  Net/Net, we lost money over selling it on ETSY, but hey, it's our 1st auction and overall we're very pleased with it.

As I've tried to explain, this whole thing is a fluid plan to say the least.  What we're thinking as of right this minute (don't worry it'll change, it has about 50 times already), is that we'll shuffle sticks between the 2 platforms.  In other words, if a listing doesn't sell on ETSY after a few days, it's off to EBAY, and vice versa.

Initially I'm planning for all spec. sticks to first be listed on EBAY, and if it doesn't open, it comes back to ETSY where it would have ordinarily been priced (remember, they're all going into EBAY at a set price of $100 irrespective of design).   So for today's example, the winning bidder purchased the stick for 84% of it's ETSY's retail value, as it would have been listed for $150, so not a bad deal.  Customs however will only be done thru ETSY, not unless the custom request comes thru EBAY.  If that's the case, the custom price will be either the greater of the retail ETSY price, or the winning bid price if it's a stick that was sold thru auction.  Suffice it say, I don't recommend you sending me a custom request through EBAY.  This is how I plan on keeping the prices set for those that follow the blog, I told you I wasn't going to raise the prices for you all, and I won't. 

So, let's take tomorrow for example:  If the current stick that's in the ETSY shop hasn't sold, which has been in inventory for 4 days, we will deactivate it in ETSY and list it on EBAY.  As for the stick that has no opening bids with the auction ending tomorrow morning, if it doesn't open, then it comes back to ETSY at it's normal retail price.  If they just flat out don't sell after all of that, the stick is clearly a loser and we'll either have a FNS or just give it away. 

I've spent a couple of hours now trying to get all of the platforms linked up.  You can see that I've added links to the different sites right under our banner.  It was a painful process for me, as doing computer stuff is one of the last things that I like to do, but it needed to be done.

Have a great afternoon!