Curse Day Two of eBay Live! 2007

Day Two of eBay Live is definitely to blame for my current state of affairs. Day One had offered little new information or excitement. For my friend Rich it was a more rewarding experience. His main goal was to visit the Help Center and get some one-on-one advice on how to improve his eBay business. His first visit had provided little new advice, but a second visit with a different lab-coated staff member provided more help and ideas. He sat in on a workshop or two, but spent most of the day in the Trade Show area, collecting information and advice. His original plan was to attend Thursday only. But later that night, he called to say he wanted to go again on Friday. Obviously he got more out of Day One than I did.

Visit Rich's eBay store New Hampshire Collectibles at http://stores.ebay.com/NewHampshireCollectibles. He specializes in autographed sports cards, balls, and other memorabilia as well as some of his original photography and artwork t-shirts. His inventory is low right now because he's rebuilding the store and listings -- Curse eBay Live!

My epiphany came relatively early on Friday. I chose to attend two Best Practice Panels to start the day. The first featured three Best in Stores winners discussing how they got started, how they use their stores, and where their success has come from. The first lesson I learned was these people are making money -- a lot of money! They are making a living for more than one person. It's a business and they are serious about it.

(Add to To Do List - Get serious too!)

Here's the eBay stores for the three panelists if you want to take a look:

Period Paper http://stores.ebay.com/Period-Paper

A Fortunate Dog http://stores.ebay.com/A-Fortunate-Dog

Grapevinehill http://stores.ebay.com/Grapevinehill

Lesson 2 -- The Shopping Experience is key. You can't succeed by competing on price -- "It's the race to zero!" as one panelist called it. Someone will always offer it cheaper. Go after the customer who wants a pleasant, fun, informative, exciting, challenging experience. Find ways to give them a reason to come to my store besides the products. How many places can eBay shoppers find the same thing we are selling? Why should they buy from Amoskeag Ltd. rather than any other eBay store?

(Add to To Do List -- Create a Special Shopping Experience at Amoskeag Ltd.)

Lesson 3 -- Use the tools eBay provides. I wasn't aware how valuable the Amoskeag Ltd. Storefront, My World, About Me, and additional pages (Collectors Corner, Opening Acts Music, The Playground, Amoskeag Ltd Art e-Gallery) can be. Not only can they be important for the "Shopping Experience", they are also valuable magnets for search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. As I wrote this I just had to start designing my new store and give the pages a try. So I took a break from writing to throw together some pages -- and throw is the right word! What you'll see if you go there are just goof-around pages. I tried the different formats available through eBay to see what they look like. Obviously, I've got lots to do for the pages to be useable. For now you can just play around.

(Add to To Do List -- Complete Storefront Page)

As one of the panelist urged "Build it, and they will come." So I'm slowly learning the tools eBay provides for creating the pages and links. Thankfully I've already been using many of the features available. A crash course on HTML is obviously needed so --

(Add to To Do List -- Take a Crash Course on HTML)

Lesson 4 -- Find a niche. Specialize. All three panelists have stores that sell one product line. Unfortunately, that's not us. We've got too many interests, too much inventory, and no one single passion to build a store around. Like many eBay sellers, we took the path of selling anything and everything we could. Relying on yard sales, auctions, and close outs, we needed to. There were a few items we focused on a little more as we gained knowledge. Take a look at my list of store categories and you'll see we don't have a niche.

But the advice did get me thinking. How could we create a focused, specialized shopping experience with such diverse products and interests? Later I discovered the answer right in the center of town -- The Village Green. Here in New Hampshire, many towns began as a group of homes encircling a plot of land. It was common ground used by everyone for grazing livestock, growing gardens, and community activities. As the town grew, the town meeting hall, churches, stores, schools, and other enterprises lined the edges of the Town Common or Village Green. Today, most village greens are considered parks. Simply green space with trees, grass, a statues or memorial, maybe a band stand or playground. Some are more active than others hosting art shows, ball fields, concerts, car shows, and fairs. But they are still there and are surrounded by stores, town hall, restaurants, offices, apartment houses, gas stations, and other businesses. Still the center of town life.

So our eBay Store and a soon-to-come website will become that center of commerce and activity for us. A virtual town common -- the e-Village Green. From that central virtual plot, you can visit a variety of stores and locations. We're starting with Collectors Corner shop, Opening Acts Music Hall, e-Village Playground, and Amoskeag Ltd. Art e-Gallery. You can probably guess what will be offered for sale at each. If not you'll have to visit and see as we create each one. As our e-Village grows, other enterprises will be added. Instead of a single store with a niche, we will create multiple "stores" each with its own niche. And we plan to do more than just list products at these "stores." There will also be information, activities, features, calendars of events, links to other sites, etc.  

(Add to To Do List -- Complete Opening Acts Music Page)

I probably should have left eBay Live! after that first session. Ideas were swirling in my head and the To Do list was growing by the minute. But the convention was only half over and now I had a reason to be there. I needed specific information, resources, tools, and more to build my e-Village Green. But the rest of the eBay Live! 2007 has to wait until the next entry -- have to spend a little time on that To Do List -- Curse eBay Live! 2007!!!!

Check Our "Before"

The "After" is Coming!

Curse eBay Live 2007!!! After three days of seminars, roundtables, and discussions in Boston, I came away with way too many ideas, tasks, and projects to tackle. And one of the ideas to try was to start blogging. So here it is!! My first entry. Now I can check that one off the To Do List.

A friend and I decided to attend this year's conference since it was in our backyard. It was too close to pass up. I've always been a big fan of conferences and workshops. Even if you don't get lots of new information, attending seems to renew the enthusiasm and excitement. And that's what I needed. I've been buying and selling on eBay for many years. But a year or so ago, I decided to try making it my vocation rather than a hobby. I was bored with what I was doing for work and needed something new and profitable.

As with any new endeavor, I was excited with the potential. I couldn't wait to implement some new ideas, try some new products, and get the business flying. As soon as the money starting rolling in, I'd quit the companies I was working for and make eBay my life and livelihood!! I opened my store; started buying from auctions, yard sales, wholesalers; and began listing the new found treasures. Some old bottles we found at a yard sale, sold really well. A Chinese jewelry box got loads of bids and made a nice profit. The old trains purchased at an auction sold fast and high.

But with the successes came some disappointments, roadblocks, and struggles. Within a week of starting my store, eBay doubled the fees. Needless to say, I was disheartened and angry. I almost chucked it all right then. Many of the ideas I had couldn't work with the new pricing schedule I worried. But I decided to adjust my strategies and keep going. The time commitment for my regular work grew and the time available for taking photos, writing listings, and managing my business disappeared. I couldn't seem to get more than 100 listing active at any one time. Some of the new products I bought at wholesale, things I thought would be really popular, went nowhere. I couldn't give them away. The inventory at home continued to overflow into free space on the porch, office, work area and my daughter's section of the house. I considered leasing space for storage but we decided to try selling at a group shop. My wife has the summers relatively free so she wanted to give it a try. We reasoned what we spent on booth space would be about the same as storage space and we had the chance to sell some of the inventory. And since I always like to jump in all the way, we actually got space in three different group shops.

So for the past year, we've been selling a little in the group shops, usually covering our monthly rent and little more. Sales on eBay have been up and down. I still couldn't get more than about 150-200 listings active at a time. Work and other activities ate up my time and energy. And we still had a houseful of inventory with more coming in from family and clients than was going out. Essentially, things have been stagnant. And that led to some pretty serious lack of motivation and enthusiasm.

OK, --This is cool swag!

My big hope for eBay Live was a burst of excitement and motivation even if I didn't get any new ideas or strategies. The first day started out slow. The session on marketing your eBay store didn't give me anything new and all the information is available here on the eBay website. I hoped a Roundtable Discussion on Toys would generate some insight from other eBay sellers. It was a huge disappointment with only general information appropriate for any commodity. There was nothing unique to selling toys. A visit to the Trade Show didn't do much to help my mood. There seemed to be few vendors that offered me anything I needed. Even the swag didn't excite me.

The first sign of change came when Celebration came on and the attendees literally raced to find a staffer handing out collector pins. It was a howl! Watching grown men and women acting like Pavlov's dogs whenever the song came on was a riot! Although I usually dance to a different drummer (usually Entrain), I joined right into the fun. I'm a sucker for pins. I've got hats sporting logos from all the ski areas I've skied. We probably dropped as much on pins at Disney World as we spent on airline tickets. My UNH hockey hat is starting to weigh so much from all my Frozen Four trip souvenirs and college hockey team logos I need to wear a neck brace to keep my head up. I have a separate hat for the AHL and NHL pins -- we're Manchester Monarchs fans, the farm club of the Los Angeles Kings. And this time of year, baseball takes precedent. Again, two separate hats collecting appropriate pins depending on the team and event. A bright red Yankees Hater hat carries the Boston Red Sox collection including 2006 Opening Day and a couple different 2004 World Series Championship pins. (I figure a few pins for the same championship is legit since they only come around every 80 years or so.)  For more everyday wear, a New Hampshire Fisher Cats cap showcases a growing collection of pins from new local AA baseball club, an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. I might need to add a second hat for that collection if my buddy and I pull off our Eastern League roadtrip to our opponents ball parks. Thank goodness golf courses don't offer pins in the Pro Shops. For now, my golf hat is limited to the three U.S. Open Golf Championships I've attended -- Bethpage Black, Shinnacock, and Winged Foot.

But back to eBay Live -- tomorrow. It's late and I've got some listing to finish up tonight.