Selling online sites?

[btdhome]

OK folks,
anyone tried anywhere other than eBay for selling online.

Your own website, CPG, Yahoo, etc.

Any luck??

[SatansProdigy]

I tried selling on Yahoo Auctions for awhile with no luck. Tried a few of the smaller auction sites like bidville, again no luck. Had my own site for awhile, but just couldn't seem to bring in the customers. Out of the "other" options I did better with my own site. If I would have had the money to pump into it I may have done really well.

[fulltimer56]

I have listed over on "Overstock.com" and sold a few things and I might still sell there but the format is a bit different and I found that it isn't all the PayPal friendly. But I haven't been been on that site for a while. Anyone?

Linda

[Greg]

Yahoo auctions are terrible. I think there are only three buyers there.

[Rick Bradford]

For anybody who wants to try having their "own" site, eCrater.com is an option. It's free, easy to set up and you can attach your own domain to it (whatever you call that).

It could still use a few bells and whistles but they're making improvements and adding features all the time.

The thing with eCrater (and having your own site) is that it takes tons of work to get people there. The upside to eBay, of course, is that at least the masses are in the neighborhood so all you have to do is get them to your store. With your own site it's also up to you to get them into the neighborhood...

[rowand]

Nice info. I did poorly SELLING on Yahoo. How was buying there?

[comixdepot]

I am actually trying my hand by selling thru my own site. But it's harder than it seems. It is also a part-time thing so I am not putting all my energy (and money) on it. I am using the OSCOMMERCE store (http://www.oscommerce.com). It's relatively easy to use.

I did sell on ebay and probably will again in the future.

[Hoss]

OS commerce is great! That's what my store is going to be as well. For free software, it is wonderful and fully featured.

Hoss

[btdhome]

Hmmm, hadn't heard of them before.
Which is exactly the problem. Tons of great sites for selling, but no recognition.
Prior to ebay booting out the small sellers, I hadn't heard of almost all of the other sites.

[oxbladder]

I won't touch Ebay selling ever again. The last few times I gave it a shot half of the winning bidders didn't pay ... and wee are talking pocket change. I have had a little store on my own site for awhile now with no success at all but then again I have not put a huge effort into it nor listed many things in it for that matter. One of these days that will change though.

[StlComics]

I spent the better part of a year building an OSComerce store. It was great software, and I learned a lot building it up as I wanted. Problem was though that even with an already established site and paid advertising, I still couldn't get anyone in there to buy anything. I kept my ebay store open the entire time, and it kept selling. I didn't take a genius to figure out what was working and what wasn't. I've since closed down the OSC store and have started filling up the ebay store again. :roll:

[btdhome]

Yeah, I hated giving up my ebay store, but the fees were just too much.
I know the idea was to dump the stuff that didn't sell, but really, after building up my inventory to 1500 or so, the average sale would have some new stuff, but also some items that had been there over a year as well.
The $100 a month just wasn't worth it any more.

[SILLYSHIP--pirate eye--]

I had part ownership in 80 longs of mostly modern and ater being shut down by a troll named Jarod Bryan I closed my store, took some of the boxes from my partner, let him keep the rest, and am selling those on eBay. I get crap for the modern and yet see all sorts of nice sales on Heritage and Comicslink for really ground breaking storyline based Ga and SA on
http://www.comiclink.com/
of all the sites I would consider them rated as
Heritage
eBay
comiclink

But..... Well, let's face it, you have to have good comics, not just modern age junk that can be found on eBay all day every day. I sell modern age stuff on eBay and let it go cheap and never look back, because it is away from me and I can focus on upgrading my stock and thereby my knowledge.

In my opinion the worst part about this collectible market now is that people are buying comics based on the covers. And copper age books, I would say Spawn #1 and all that stuff by image and Jim Lee inspired art is what I'm talking about. I know that I recently got into cover art with
#1--The Schomburg cover interest I found.
#2--The fact that you can only see the cover in a slabbed book
#3--The fact that so many speculative buyers buy on the value according to first the guide and then the eBay sales, or vice versa, depending on knowlede and time spent. And what do they see in the guide or on eBay, a cover or maybe at most a "key" listing, showing why the issue is important, and 1st app. is key above all keys.
#4--The Gerber guides, which thank god are not that popular.
And buyng comics based on just the cover art made me feel dirty. Like I was disrespecting the whole reason I read comics.

The eBay chat room is full of your daily covers.

Look at the Ghost Rider's recent series as an example of comics sold on cover images alone. And I say again, what the hell is a sketch cover anyway? Come on folks didn't we learn anythng from the 90's? I have a bunch of those X-Men multiple cover copies if someone wants to buy some? You can put them side by side and make a bigger picture. And how are those Chromium, die cut, glow in the dark covers and different? And those Wizard 1/2's are the same thing.

Comics belong to the readers. That's my new philosophy.
And yes I don't read off the "rack" but that's just a money thing. I can stock up on stories for cheaper after they are done. I feel bad not supporting the market, but not as bad as I did when I let my cassettes go on eBay for a pittance of what I paid for them.

[gifflefunk]

Yeah, I hated giving up my ebay store, but the fees were just too much.
I know the idea was to dump the stuff that didn't sell, but really, after building up my inventory to 1500 or so, the average sale would have some new stuff, but also some items that had been there over a year as well.
The $100 a month just wasn't worth it any more.

You should check out bipcomics.com, I've upgraded things substantially. BIP 2.0 just released with search, image hosting, and a set of navigation enhancements to make it easier to find and add/edit items.

And no up front listing fees (ever) and at this point no sales fees either, so feel free to list those cheap books without fear of someone cutting into the sale! I will eventually (2008?) be charging some minimal fee when an item sells (either some flat charge or a small percentage of the sale price), but at this point I'm just looking for sellers/dealers to help fill the virtual shelves with comics... the more items BIP can offer the more traffic it will generate which in turn will get more interest from other sellers/dealers to use BIP.

[dhennen]

I'm trying ecrater and hoping for the best... I've been getting good hits and actually sold two books in the month or so I've been setup. It's a start

The responses I'm seeing make me think my goal of opening a brick and mortar store is still a good idea. I can handle advertising in the local newspapers, tacking up ads on area college bulletin boards, maybe even a cheesy ad on the local cable access. I'm pretty good with names and faces and don't mind dealing with the public. But the short attention span of the faceless horde on the internet makes it so difficult to "drive traffic" to any particular www destination and have them stay or come back.

As far as ebay, I'll continue to sell there when the product is something really unique or hard to find. But the Non paying bidders, lack of sales and fees make selling there a pain in the butt, no surprise to anyone here I'm sure

[UnlimitedRealities]

What differentiates bipcomics from your competition? I've seen several sites that have a similar function, most are not free, but at least 2 I can think of come with software that helps you catalogue your comics and list them on the site with just a couple button presses.

How many comics are listed on your site now, and how many sales is your site averaging per month? How much effort is involved with creating a listing?

I have several thousand golden, silver, and bronze books to list, and I've been looking for a non-feeBay solution, so convince me.

[koolstuffguyscomics]

We've been selling on eBay for several years and have been doing quite well. We just recently added comic books to our site and also started a website. One option is to open an eBay ProStore because you can redirect your eBay checkouts to your Prostore thus bringing your eBay traffic legally with you.

We have chosen to try the less expensive route and went ecrater (free) for selling comics. The whole trick is luring the people there. That is the hardest job!

[btdhome]

I know.
Once I get them to stop by my Blujay shop, I usually make a sale and many times gain a repeat customer.
But weaning them off ebay...there's the rub.

[fulltimer56]

But weaning them off ebay...there's the rub.

Amen, btdhome!

[fastballspecial]

Yahoo auctions are terrible. I think there are only three buyers there.

One of them was me. I bought 5 35 cent variants there, several hidden modern variants, I missed a Hulk 181 at $200 that was damn near NM(at least it looked it), and the list goes on. I miss it soo.....

[SILLYSHIP--pirate eye--]

"But weaning them off ebay...there's the rub."

I third that.

[koolstuffguyscomics]

We are on Comic Collector Live and are doing really well! We are just in the process of closing down our eBAy comic store and moving all of the stock to CCL. Defintely worth checking out!

Chris

[matteman]

comiccollectorlive.com has done awesome for me. I love it, and it organizes your comics for free.

[koolstuffguyscomics]

SInce our last post on this subject our sales have greatly increased on CCL. There doesn't appear to be a traffic problem since all of the traffic are looking for what you have.

We aren't missing eBAy at all! Our sales are much better then they were on eBay.

[Shadeglen]

We should have used CCL. Instead, our entire collection is in ComicsPriceGuide and CCL doesn't like to import other spreads.

CPG was great for cataloging but I personally never had any luck selling anything. I found a couple other sites like mycomicshop.com but they really don't give much for books. Seems like they operate more like if you take your books to your local shop.

Ebay sucks. Apparently they are changing their pricing structure and making a bunch of other changes to feedback and such. But they still suck. I am not entirely on board with their changes, either. I managed to sell a bulk lot of comics that I didn't care about but I think it will be a waste of time and money for the rest of this collection. To maximize I would have to list a lot singly and...well..almost 4000 books. So no thanks Ebay.

[toz1960]

I have been over there snooping but I cant seem to find out what the fees are or how much the membership is.Something I would really like to know first.

Also some of the books I looked at in different sellers stores didn't have too much info listed.Does anyone there even list a grade on the books?

Enquiring minds want to know.it looks pretty good but the info is not available up front.

[habib]

I have been over there snooping but I cant seem to find out what the fees are or how much the membership is.Something I would really like to know first.

Also some of the books I looked at in different sellers stores didn't have too much info listed.Does anyone there even list a grade on the books?

Enquiring minds want to know.it looks pretty good but the info is not available up front.

Ditto....

Any info from CCL users??

[razorz000]

why not sell here on this board??

it's free - and many people come through here quit often.

I've done qiut well just listing a few books here and there.
doesn't hurt to try & you never know until you do.

[habib]

why not sell here on this board??

it's free - and many people come through here quit often.

I've done qiut well just listing a few books here and there.
doesn't hurt to try & you never know until you do.

Razor.....I do sell here....lots. Just ask MG, SP, Linda, Illuminated and Hoss (just off the top of my head). I am a big want list filler! :)

Plus I now have my own little Corral "store" thread with items for sale (I like filling want lists better ;) )

Still....I would like the info on CCL....never hurts to have several places to peddle one's wares.....

[marvelguy]

Razor.....I do sell here....lots. Just ask MG, SP, Linda, Illuminated and Hoss (just off the top of my head). I am a big want list filler! :)

Plus I now have my own little Corral "store" thread with items for sale (I like filling want lists better ;) )

Still....I would like the info on CCL....never hurts to have several places to peddle one's wares.....

Yep, I do buy lots and lots of books from him. he comes highly recommended!

[toz1960]

Sadly from what I have seen on other sites,ebay is still the best bet.Someone prove me wrong and post some proof otherwise.

Thinking very seriously about opening a store.I do have a few high dollar items and that looks to be the best place.

[bolt_boy]

Has anyone here tried Atomic Avenue? I've been selling books on it for several months with no complaints. You need the Comic Base software to list, but it's totally commission based, so there are no listing fees. I already had the software, so I was able to list thousands of books at once with only to a few clicks of the mouse. You can't get any easier than that. Check it out.

-Ben

[fulltimer56]

Hi Ben,

How about a link?

Linda

[habib]

Here you go Linda!

Atomic Avenue (http://www.atomicavenue.com/atomic/News.aspx)

[fulltimer56]

Thanks, habib!!

[kenmacny]

Sadly from what I have seen on other sites,ebay is still the best bet.Someone prove me wrong and post some proof otherwise.

Thinking very seriously about opening a store.I do have a few high dollar items and that looks to be the best place.

Store has worked out ok for me Toz. Ebay also runs promotions where they give you the 1st month of store for free. I did that and ended up keeping it. It helps if you sell stuff as cheap as I do. But I bet you could make it work. Good luck.

[comicstock]

Has anyone here tried Atomic Avenue? I've been selling books on it for several months with no complaints. You need the Comic Base software to list, but it's totally commission based, so there are no listing fees. I already had the software, so I was able to list thousands of books at once with only to a few clicks of the mouse. You can't get any easier than that. Check it out.

If I may ask, what kind of sales have you been getting? Gold, Silver, Bronze, Modern? When I look at various dealers on the site, there doesn't seem to be much activity in their numbers. What I mean is, it looks like sellers who've been active on the site with lots of inventory moved only about 2-5 dozen items in the 6-12 month period. To me, that's not much unless a lot of the books have been high dollar. I like the site and am considering it but that doesn't seem like a lot of sales.

[bolt_boy]

I've sold close to 600 books on Atomic Avenue. Everything from a Captain America #100 to a Detective Comics #806. I've been on the site for almost a year, so if I were trying to make a living off this, I'd be in trouble. Fortunately, I'm just doing it to trim my collection a little to make room for new acquisitions. I like the site because you don't have to upload pictures, create descriptions, or pay listing fees. There's even a feature that automatically lowers your sale price over time if you choose to use it. There is also a pretty good feedback system in place. The only thing missing is more traffic.

[comicstock]

For the most part, what kind of prices are you getting. Guide-ish?

[bolt_boy]

The Comic Base software has it's own prices which they base on the Comic Buyer's Guide price guide. These are the default prices for Atomic Avenue, but you can change them yourself with no problem to reflect Overstreet. I generally list with the default unless the books are key or in high demand. Here's a sample of some of the books I've sold with the price paid:

Captain America #100 (G) $25.00
Watchmen #1 (F) $2.75
Conan the Barbarian #153 (NM) $2.00
Ultimate Spider-man #15 (VF/NM) $3.57
Uncanny X-men #295 (NM) $1.49
Daredevil #96 (F) $5.00
Extremist #3 (VF/NM) $1.96
Amazing Spider-man #375 (NM) $4.76
Silver Surfer #9 (VF) $52.40
Superboy #188 (VG) $6.00

You can do pretty well with the older stuff. There's a lot more competition for the Modern books, so those generally won't sell for as much.

[comicstock]

Thanks!