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Lobby Marketing Mix topic #1069

Subject: "Where To Sell?" Previous topic | Next topic
golddiggerSat Jun-07-08 02:41 PM
 
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"Where To Sell?"


          

golddigger

Hello everyone,

I am new to this site and so thrilled to meet all of you. Thank you for the wealth of information you?re all sharing here.
This is my first post and I ?m expecting to get some advice from anyone who went through my ordeal, or anyone who could help with any idea.
A few years ago I had heard so much about eBay and about the wealth people were (are) building on eBay the very easy way. I was in a very distressed financial situation , had nothing to sell and had absolutely no business idea, but out of curiosity I signed up in 2005. It was really fun learning the whole process of selling and buying. Then it became even more fun watching the number of bidders growing and visualizing them ?snatching? posted items from each other?s hands. After a while - and after having sold a few items from around the house- the excitement subsided, and I stayed away from eBay for almost a year. But one day on my way home from work, I stumbled on a famous brand female handbag tossed on top of a neighborhood garbage can. It was in excellent condition, thrown away probably by the wealthy who could afford to buy a newest one. I picked it up and immediately got the idea of posting it on eBay. I did it and I was amazed by the unexpected huge number of bidders who wanted it, although I had mentioned it was a second hand ( may be third!) bag. The bag finally sold for $ 60. Wow! I thought. At that very moment the idea of starting a serious business on eBay sparkled in my head, thinking that I had found my niche selling handbags. I intended on starting on eBay while designing my own website and structuring my new business. Alas, it didn?t take long for my dream to be shattered:

I listed a few bags during the first week and just a couple of them sold. The second week I increased the number of bags to get as much sales as I could. I was surprised by the heavy response from the US and abroad. I saw the bids growing and growing and I couldn?t wait for the auction to close ( the next day) to see many of my bags sold. It was at that very exciting moment that I realized my website had been shut down and an e-mail followed notifying me that I had infringed the copyright law by selling counterfeit. But I knew that I had put myself in such a position by responding to a potential buyer stating that I was not sure if the handbag she was interested in was authentic. I didn?t know then how serious and damaging my statement was. Of course now I realize that it was stupid and irresponsible but honest and naïve as well. It took me a month to get my website up and running again after signing an affidavit promising that it won?t happen again. All the pre-paid fees were lost of course. Thinking that it will never happen to me again, the race towards buying and stocking bags and different goods increased to the extent it became rather addictive. Before I knew it, my apartment started to look like a garage sale?and at that point the unpredictable hit again! My website was shut down again costing me not only the many bidders but the fees for a long list of posted items that were taken off the website. This time I was victim because the incriminated item was authentic since I managed to post it later on eBay and it did sell without any complaint from the buyer. I tried to prove my innocence but eBay would say that another organization called VERO was responsible for these ?disciplinary? actions. I decided to quit altogether but after a while as my website got reinstated I wanted to give it a try again and it worked very well for me for a little over two months with no problems. The excitement kept me going crazy looking for deals and buying more and more?with credit cards. When I thought I had overcome the obstacles and was there for the long run my business was over. For the third time my website was down and this time I was given one year before I could ask for reinstatement. The loss was tremendous as the listings got bigger and bigger. After that I still had to pay the bill, close to $ 250 in fees, for the long list of items taken off the site. I worried about my credit because I knew it could be damaged for much less than that, so I paid the bill. This time I got hit very hard because my home became like a storage place where every corner was filled with boxes, plastic bags, large containers and I had no clue what to do to get rid of that clutter. I couldn?t give my stuff away because I got in deep debt to buy all of it, and I couldn?t keep living in such a messy environment for long. I tried Craigslist but it didn?t work. After a year I asked for reinstatement at eBay just to do my best, get rid of everything and quit for good, but my request got rejected. And here was the grim reality: still stuck with my stored bags and so much other stuff and here where I need your help guys. Please enlighten me with any idea, any suggestion where I could sell my stuff without losing much. I just got my Tax Identification Number to try and sell in flea markets but I soon realized that the owners of those spaces charge $ 120 (plus table fee) per day. But I?m not sure that I?ll be making enough to cover that fee alone.
Any suggestion will greatly appreciated. Thank you all.

  

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