Alternative on-line outlets to sell comics?

[nocutename]

I recently ran into an old friend and he was a power seller on ebay. After some disagreement with the company, he has ceased selling on ebay and tried alternative online stores as a source of income.

Here's a list of stores that he provided: Webstore.com, bidonusa.com, ioffer.com, ebid.net, amazon.com.

He told me that at least every week he does get a sale or two on amazon and has very little success with any of the other sites. I checked them out (except ioffer) but they all appear to be lacking for comics. As I understand many of them are free for listing so there is no harm checking out the site. Also, he mentioned that ebid.net had some hidden fees as well. He claims he was charged for accessing bidder's information just by clicking on their username.

However, I don't want to waste time and remember where things are listed. So I am wondering if anyone uses another site with any success rate of selling? Also, how is amazon for selling?

[toz1960]

Here's a list of the top 20 auction/selling sites.Ebid has around 40,000+ comics but as you can tell,not a lot of traffic.I have some items listed but no comics.
http://www.powersellersunite.com/auctionsitewatch.php

Comic collectors live seems to be doing well and I am still debating opening a store there.

Power Sellers Unite also offers a store set up but I've never checked it out.

[korfcomicsgroup]

I've tried other sites. iOffer, eBid, Bonanzle, Atomic Ave & now Comic Collector Live. To be honest, love it or hate it eBay is usually the best place to sell...

Of course other than the Corral.

[toz1960]

To be honest, love it or hate it eBay is usually the best place to sell...



*sighs* with shoulders slumping in despair,"Yes,I'm begining to come to that conclusion myself".#dunno#

[kenmacny]

I'm happy with my Ebay store.

[nocutename]

Here's a list of the top 20 auction/selling sites.Ebid has around 40,000+ comics but as you can tell,not a lot of traffic.I have some items listed but no comics.
http://www.powersellersunite.com/auctionsitewatch.php

Comic collectors live seems to be doing well and I am still debating opening a store there.

Power Sellers Unite also offers a store set up but I've never checked it out.

Thanks for the list, I'll check it out. All the sites I listed really had poor search engines too. eBid doesn't seem terrible however it lumps too many categories with comics.

I don't have enough comics to warrant the cost of CCL plus I am looking for a place to sell other items as well.

[nocutename]

I've tried other sites. iOffer, eBid, Bonanzle, Atomic Ave & now Comic Collector Live. To be honest, love it or hate it eBay is usually the best place to sell...

Of course other than the Corral.

I really like Atomic Avenue however their site is way slow. I think the code boggles down the site too much. If there was a problem with shipment or lack of communication with the seller, an admin would rectify it right away. As a buyer I felt more secure on that site. My only problem is that they don't display the feedback for too long. They should allow the buyer to look at all feedback.

[micasacomics]

It's ashame Yahoo Auctions used to get good Comic Buyers.I use Ecrater.

[nocutename]

Thanks, I never heard of eCrater before. After checking it out it looks like it truly 100% free to open a store. I also found some Katy Keene comics! So I purchased them and the check out is easy too except that I had to type in my address info. The only thing that bothered me was that I ordered 3 comics and the shipping cost didn't combine, it was the same as ordering one comic. So I emailed the seller and told him that I will pay the difference if shipping is more. Does anyone else use the site and have a problem with the shipping calculation? Also, it looks like the site collects the money (using paypal at least) is that true?

I may open a store to try it out but would appreciate any other comments about this site.

Edit: I am confused...There is no help file on the site or any other info on how to use the features. I have read that some of these sites allow for a one time ebay feedback and ebay listings to be loaded. The features list a eBay importer but I don't see that anywhere and would like to know if they import the feedback as well.

[Rick Bradford]

jnine, eCrater is 100% free but it's a nearly-one-man operation and documentation is sparse. The most information available is in the forums which is also a good place to ask questions. In fact, keeping up with the forums is kind of a necessity if you want to know about new features, policy changes, etc.

As for the shipping thing, well, it's somewhat problematic but that's often because the seller didn't set it up right (although not always). There are a few different options but they each have their quirks.

Sellers have the option of offering PayPal, Google Checkout or both. Payments are actually processed at PayPal and GCO and through the individual seller's account so eCrater doesn't have anything to do with the money itself.

Oh, and there is an eBay importer. I've never used it (it's a fairly new feature) but there are some discussions in the forums about it. No feedback importer though (although my view is that most non-eBay shoppers aren't looking for feedback anyway).

[nocutename]

Thanks for all the info. I have been busy and did not sign up yet. I am going to give it a try this week.

[toz1960]

Believe it or not I just made a sale on eBid.It was just a $2.00 book but it's a start.#woohoo#

[vathgar]

So far I have been averaging a sale a day on CCL. Not a huge amount but I also don't have a large inventory posted for folks to choose from. I figure if I can average 2 sales a day in about 6 months that will be enough to make me extremely happy, make a little money and get enough to restock without killing myself time wise. If it gets bigger, great, but my goal is to be at twice the rate I have done for the first couple of weeks, which is decent but not huge or unattainable. I just keep trying to figure out more ways to promote and get the word out to drive folks to the store.

[nocutename]

Great news Toz. I just opened my new store at eCrater but am looking at the shipping stuff before popping in any inventory. I posted something over in the auctions and online stores forum if you care to look.

[Hoss]

Don't forget to add your store link to your signature as well, jnine!

--

[Grico]

Hmm, alot of these sites sound interesting, I'll have to check them out for my excess comic inventory. One site I had decent success selling on was:

http://www.comicbookclassifieds.com/

Its just a message board posting like site but I had gotten quite a few sales through it. Haven't had much of any recently though.

A dedicate store site would be helpful for me. I'm looking into Atomic Avenue now.

[vathgar]

Hmm, alot of these sites sound interesting, I'll have to check them out for my excess comic inventory. One site I had decent success selling on was:

http://www.comicbookclassifieds.com/

Its just a message board posting like site but I had gotten quite a few sales through it. Haven't had much of any recently though.

A dedicate store site would be helpful for me. I'm looking into Atomic Avenue now.

IMHO - I had considered AA but it was annoying for me to navigate as a customer so I ended up at CCL. I have no idea what the traffic is like over there but I figured if I didn't like the way it navigated that others would be the same.

[nocutename]

Hmm, alot of these sites sound interesting, I'll have to check them out for my excess comic inventory. One site I had decent success selling on was:

http://www.comicbookclassifieds.com/

Its just a message board posting like site but I had gotten quite a few sales through it. Haven't had much of any recently though.

A dedicate store site would be helpful for me. I'm looking into Atomic Avenue now.

I use to purchase from that classified site until I got scammed. Luckily it was a small order and I got about half the books. There is an ebay seller there that I would avoid - COMICSATTIC.COM I purchased books from him and he threw them loosely in a box. All damaged made no retributions.

I really love AA but the site is painfully slow. I also just found out that they take 10% of the shipping fees as well. I haven't ordered from them until recently and noticed that their shipping charges are out of whack. When I posted a thread about it none of the admins will answer it. Which is unusually for that site as they are very hands on. But they want to charge almost $6.00 to ship two comics is crazy. My days of doing business there are numbered.

[nocutename]

Don't forget to add your store link to your signature as well, jnine!

--

Thanks for the suggestion. I am going to do that now.

[nocutename]

So doing a store up is different than the auction mentality I have. I put only descriptions and then went back and "enhanced" them with shipping info and etc. It was pointed out that I should remove the boilerplate info and I did. I have to say that it looks cleaner. This is going to be a different experience.

[toz1960]

Ss far I've got 375 items up on Ebid,over 300 of them are comics books.About 2 years I signed up there for a seller+ account for $50 dollars.Sure it's not ebay but there are NO LISTING FEES and my fvf is only 2%.

I got to looking around the site and discovered you don't need to do the seller+ route to sell.You can still sell but the fvf is a little higher at 3%.Here's a link to details on their FAQ page.

http://us.ebid.net/help_selling.php#2

I'm really not sure if I am going this route or CCL.I've poked around CCL a bit and they seem to really be moving some comics.Ebid can work and I will use them for non-comic book stuff.Maybe it will take off.I'm gonna try to help advertise it some.It's worth a try,I've had one sale there so far.

And the people there are really nice & helpfull.That's a plus.Check it out!
__________________________________________________ _____________________________________

[nocutename]

Toz, personally, I would skip ebid for comics and go directly to CCL. Someone I know has many stores all over and he gets very few hits on ebid but does well on Amazon. I had some discussions with him prior to starting this thread. He does not sell comics more collectibles and odds and ends.

[toz1960]

Toz, personally, I would skip ebid for comics and go directly to CCL. Someone I know has many stores all over and he gets very few hits on ebid but does well on Amazon. I had some discussions with him prior to starting this thread. He does not sell comics more collectibles and odds and ends.

How right you are.As soon as I get this a CCL store going I plan on moving all the comics there.

[nocutename]

I'll post this here rather than starting a new thread. The other day I found this link on ebay to their classified section. http://newyork.ebayclassifieds.com/?keyword=ebay+classifieds&crlp=5298003975_413571&MT_ID=766&geo_id=931&mpch=ads Of course this now linked up to NY so you will need to change it to your zip. But I don't remember them having a free like craigslist section. Has anyone used it and were they successful? It looks like a dead zone but you never know.

My listing on craigslist don't really do so well. I list them cheap thinking I don't have to hassle shipping them. But that tends to backfire as all of my sales so far I had to ship!

[nocutename]

Has anyone ever thought about selling comics via social networking sites such as facebook and twitter? I am not part of this social networking community so I am a bit naive about what is out there. For the most part, I thought these sites were just used for advertising not actual ecommerce.

Any thoughts?

[GWiz]

Don't forget to add your store link to your signature as well, jnine!

--

how would you do that? signature doesn't seem to be working. apologies in advance, if this has been answered else where.

[illuminated]

how would you do that? signature doesn't seem to be working. apologies in advance, if this has been answered else where.

Signature working fine for me.

Check your preferences. You may have your personal browsing preferences set to not display signatures.

[kenmacny]

My signature works as well.

[GWiz]

how would you do that? signature doesn't seem to be working. apologies in advance, if this has been answered else where.


My signature works as well.

thank you, put the code in the wrong spot, heheh noobitis

[toz1960]

Whille I had a bunch of stuff listed on ebid,I was getting about 4 to 5 sales a month on comic books and vintage patches.$10 was the biggest sale and total fees were mere pennies.Had around 20-25 sales even though I've only got 15 fb.Same as ebay,not everyone leaves it.I let all my auctions expire,just got tired of selling one thing at a time.The good news is I can relist them at any time,they don't go away as fast as they do on feebay.May crank back up this fall.Going to try the flea market again this year if I can get a table reserved.You heard my problem there last year.

[grininbarrett]

I don't recall that problem

[toz1960]

I don't recall that problem

The flea market is like 50 miles away and when we got there we couldn't get a table and had to come back home and unload everything.That happened twice.When I've been there this year just looking,I've not been able to find the owners to see if I can reserve a table.It's just too much work and too far to drive just to turn around and come back home.

[nocutename]

Toz, how well do comics sell at the fleamarket? Also, do you worry about them sweating in the bag? When I did that tag sale last year it was one of the reasons I left early because I didn't want to ruin the comics that did not sell.

[toz1960]

Toz, how well do comics sell at the fleamarket? Also, do you worry about them sweating in the bag? When I did that tag sale last year it was one of the reasons I left early because I didn't want to ruin the comics that did not sell.

These days I'm not real sure.What I'm counting on is for something different to show up.It seems like when you take something different,for one week it sells like crazy and then the next week,nothing.A couple of years back I took 2 big boxes of cigar boxes.Most from the 1990s.I sold them like wildfire for $5 each.They were all wood but not worth what I got for them.The next week I couldn't give them away.

What few comics are there seems to be ratty bronze and 90's drek that people want from a buck each to 1/2 guide for older overgraded stuff.I feel if I can have some decent stuff,I can move it,some low grade GA should sell near guide,early Marvel hero books in mid grade should move,full runs & sets should do good for a week or two.Also I plan to have a big stack of .25c book.low grade readers & the afore mentioned drek.

As for sweating,I never had that problem.Yeah,it gets how,but at least I will be under a roof out of direct sunlight.My biggest beef is the fine layer of dust that settles all over everything.

[grininbarrett]

Our community has a regular garage sale and I put a bunch of drek on a table outside and quickly found out that I would never do that again.
All the bags were sweating fairly quickly.

[nocutename]

These days I'm not real sure.What I'm counting on is for something different to show up.It seems like when you take something different,for one week it sells like crazy and then the next week,nothing.A couple of years back I took 2 big boxes of cigar boxes.Most from the 1990s.I sold them like wildfire for $5 each.They were all wood but not worth what I got for them.The next week I couldn't give them away.

What few comics are there seems to be ratty bronze and 90's drek that people want from a buck each to 1/2 guide for older overgraded stuff.I feel if I can have some decent stuff,I can move it,some low grade GA should sell near guide,early Marvel hero books in mid grade should move,full runs & sets should do good for a week or two.Also I plan to have a big stack of .25c book.low grade readers & the afore mentioned drek.

As for sweating,I never had that problem.Yeah,it gets how,but at least I will be under a roof out of direct sunlight.My biggest beef is the fine layer of dust that settles all over everything.

Yeah it all depends on your audience at that give moment. I am finding around me that more and more garage sales are having problems selling comics. And these aren't just 90's drek either. Even my craigslistings don't get much responses either.

[nocutename]

Our community has a regular garage sale and I put a bunch of drek on a table outside and quickly found out that I would never do that again.
All the bags were sweating fairly quickly.

What is the alternative? If you don't bag them they are torn to shreds within a few people looking through the box. I was thinking about doing the tag sale this year but hestiate from the lack of sales I am noticing in my area.

[grininbarrett]

Well, I think if I actually had space in my garage, it would allow less temperature fluctuation and I could put them in the night before when the temps are cooler and allow for a longer temp stabilization time. But where our home is located we would not get any drive by traffic unless I had a table out side where people could see it. As it was only 3 people stopped to look and only for a minute or two. Definitely not worth the effort.

[nocutename]

Yeah where I have to put the boxes is out of the main traffic area for a yard sale too. I tried one this year in my apartment complex but no takers. I am just thinking and I was at a garage sale a few weeks back when it was almost 90 degrees outside and their bags weren't sweating at all. I was but the comics were fine. The sun was strong that day and they were all in direct sunlight. I wonder if it matter which type of bag. They just had the cheapies.

[nocutename]

Two silly questions:

1 - Is ebay using more robots to index the auctions? The other day after I listed my items I checked out the list and noticed that a group of them had 17 views already. Impossible because my auctions rarely get more than 5 -10 views for their duration let alone within the first 30 minutes of listing.

2 - Craigslist is now requesting phone numbers as a means of validating posters as actual humans. I refuse to give it as I don't feel there is enough data protection on CL side. I am told that they don't sell the number but it is stored. Really I list maybe 2 items a week on CL and most of the time they are freebies. Does anyone have any thoughts about this or is there an alternative classified site to list things? I know that ebay has one but it looks defunct. I am sure that there are easier ways for CL to validate poster who only use their system on occassion so I just wonder if they are using the numbers for evil ;)

[grininbarrett]

Don't you have an annoying neighbor?
Just use theirs

[nocutename]

Don't think that the thought didn't occur to me ;) I do know that someone has to pick up the phone when they call to verify and I am not sure if they request any interaction.

You my problem is that CL is local and once you give a phone number an address is very easy to obtain these days. In the extremely rare event that I sell something on CL, I met the person at a location away from my home.