I’ve been selling collectibles pretty much my entire life, starting out with baseball cards, but touching just about everything in between on the way to my current specialties, Movie Cards and Collectibles from the Silent Period through the 1950s and Magazine Back Numbers from the Nineteenth Century to present. I’ve been selling online since 2000, full-time since 2004.
My first web site, things-and-other-stuff.com, went online in 2002 and started as a very sloppy general collectibles site–that’s what I sold then and things-and-other-stuff was, and is, my eBay ID. Over time the site dropped everything else to focus on vintage Movie Cards and Collectibles, especially ephemeral items, and it’s recently been re-dubbed Immortal Ephemera.
In 2009 I started writing more about the stars of those classic movies both as the New York Classic Movies Examiner and as part of the VintageMeld, a general collectibles blog I was running which is now pretty much defunct. By late 2009 I killed both of those avenues and combined it all into Immortal Ephemera, a blog attached directly to things-and-other-stuff.com that not only links to the latest card and collectible updates on the main site but also includes the movie star biographies and classic movie reviews that I write.
I also blog about general collectibles and collecting; e-commerce, especially eBay; vintage magazine back issues and their contents; the 1930′s and 40′s film star Warren William, all on my own sites and as contributor to other people’s sites.
Hope you enjoy,
Cliff Aliperti
Hi Cliff:
Questions:
- I gather that working both your own store AND eBay and that you work both of them very hard. Kind of a dumb question, but just wondered if u had any further thoughts on that or if you’ve already blogged about it and cd point me to your links?
- I gather you’re not using the auction side of eBay? Any thoughts on that?
- Have you found any good and ACTIVE forums or chatrooms for Inkfroggers?
I just ran across your blog while trying to figure out how to do something in Inkfrog. I sell on eBay and Amazon (Quickdrawartist) and my partner and I both use Macs, and after much trial and error finally settled on Inkfrog as the best app for Apple users.
I’m still developing my customer base in eBay, and plan to get serious about an outside store in a few more months. I just took a look at Ecwid, which you mentioned and it looks very good indeed.
I see that you’re a WordPress enthusiast, as am I and I’m just getting my feet wet moving my various websites over to WP as webdev tool.
I’ve been selling on eBay for years, but only got serious recently. I’m glad I ran across you, you’re an inspiration.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Frank
Hi Frank,
Thank you for the comment and a Happy Thanksgiving to you.
Most of the info over here is pretty old and I’m afraid quite a bit of it is dated, but I’m still using eBay, Inkfrog and Ecwid. Gave up on Amazon, never seemed to get much but aggravation from them.
I’m on a PC so I couldn’t speak to what’s best for a Mac user.
I do use auctions on eBay for a variety of reasons though most of my goods are listed as Fixed Price items. I’ll use auctions: 1) Can’t prove this one, but feels like it juices my listings overall to run as many different formats as I can, so along with standard FP I always try to have some auctions going along with a Markdown Manager sale and some Best Offer items. 2) Some of the recent free and penny auction sales have been hard to resist, I’ve used them to update old listings and then attempt to blow them out at low opening bids. Haven’t made a lot on the format, but I’m cleaning things up and at a penny any sale made is extra cash.. 3) I use them to debut the best of my new items, especially those I think could go for more than I am asking. Not as effective as it used to be, but it still works sometimes. 4) I also use auctions for bulk lots of old goods.
Not sure about an Inkfrog forum. They used to have one themselves but closed it up in favor of a Help Desk type set-up that’s more one-sided and doesn’t allow for communication between users.
Still like Ecwid a lot. Of all the solutions I find it best for my situation, which fits some sellers: Unique items, a high number of items, low average selling price of said items. It and Highwire are the only solutions I found where I could list 10-20 thousand items at the same price most solutions allow you to have only 100 or 1,000. I’m happy with both (though not using Highwire at the moment, just Ecwid) so I haven’t shopped for new store solutions in the 18 months or so since I’ve found them–that means there are probably some other good ones out there. For Ecwid the final selling point here is that it integrates so seeminlessly with WordPress and as I have sites with as much original writing and content on them as sales offerings it’s a good fit!
Regarding eBay, I forget the plan name but I’m signed up on the level that comes with a 5¢ listing fee for each Fixed Price item. It’s the best for my number of items on the site (currently over 6,000) and to pay any higher rate would force me to have to end 4-5 thousand of those listings. Over the years at various listing fees that’s what I’ve done–my eBay store has had as many as 8,000 items in the old, old days to as few as 500 back when they were charging, I think, a dime. A nickel is perfect for me.
It’s been okay recently but this summer on eBay was the worst I’ve had in my 11 years on the site. It’s given me serious thought to closing the eBay Store come next June 1, selectively list Auction and FP items instead, and re-open the shop September 1. The listing fees ate a lot of money this past summer (still get more eyeballs for my buck than anywhere else though). I’m not sure I’m going to do that, but hope that the results I see on the site in the Spring will lead me to the proper decision.
My Amazon situation seems somewhat unique. I’ve had nothing but technical difficulties and poor service in my couple of years selling there. In fact over the last year I pretty much avoided it and only finally escaped when they offered free return of FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) goods. Of course they damaged 80-90% of what I requested back so I’m not too sure how good that deal was. That’s where many say the buyers are now, and great, but I must be honest as someone who frequently shops the site, I find the integration of third party sellers on the platform confusing as a buyer. I’ve bought several items I expected to be delivered from Amazon itself that came from third party sellers and not all of them always in new condition. I’ve definitely lost a long cherished fan-boy status with them.
I hope some of that helps out. Again, we’re all kind of unique as sellers, so while all of what I just typed out relates to me, maybe there are some bits in there of use to you.
Thanks, Cliff