The Collectors Site

International sales have finally started picking up here again, which is great–they’re a necessary part of my business, and one of the aspects which really drew me to online selling in the first place. The items I sell don’t do very well with a general or localized audience, they’re niche and thus really benefit from a worldwide net of customers.

Perhaps this post was brought on by our friend TheBrewsNews tweeting out that they had a sale to North Pole, Alaska recently, but I thought it’d be nice for once to post the best places to sell internationally–at least my own favorite. More often then not when e-commerce people talk international they talk about the negative, but I think by this point we all know Italy isn’t the funnest place to ship (though I’ve done okay there personally).

I qualify my list in advance by stating I sell vintage collectibles and close to 100% of what I sell are flats, all single purchases under 2 lbs with about half of them coming as just 2-3 oz flat packages. That said, I’ve had sales to all countries mentioned below where I stuff a flat-rate envelope or even box, so while all single sales are flats anything goes for multiples.

Here they are, my favorite non-U.S. countries to ship to:

1. Anywhere I haven’t shipped before. #1 is based purely on ego. I just get a little charge out of shipping somewhere I haven’t sent anything before.

Half my goods deal with English text (magazine back issues) and the other half with American pop icons (vintage movie cards and collectibles), so you’ll see several of the following countries are natively English-speaking. But a recent highlight to me was a package to Russia. I only get about one of those per year. Same rate for China–with all of those people you’d think it’d take more than one hand to count the fans of old-time American movie stars! Same rate for the entire Middle East, though Egypt sticks out as not quite so unfamiliar territory. South America is poor for me, surprising because I do buy a lot from there. Germany is good, a regular place for me to ship, but with the amount I buy from there I’d figure there’d be stronger demand to send some stuff back–lots of German movie cards for example. Sub-Saharan Africa is pretty much non-existent, excluding South Africa.

2. Australia – A good number of semi-regulars who don’t mind paying to fill up a flat rate box. On a related note, I used to have more customers than I’d ever expect from New Zealand, but that seems to have dried up. Hopefully they come back soon.

3. Great Britain – Highest volume. Only drawback: those long addresses which either cramp my hand (first class) or hurt my eyes (priority).

4. Japan – Not as many buyers, but lots of multiples sold to the customers I do have. Not so great communications-wise usually, but often doesn’t matter because the transactions are quick and easy.

5. Spain – See Australia. Many of my customers from Spain disappeared over the past year, I assume due to the economy, but I’ve noticed them trickling back through the door.

6. Canada – Neck and neck with Great Britain as far as number of customers, and they’re great people to deal with for the most part, I just think their postal system sucks and exposes me to more “Where’s my stuff” e-mails than I’d like to see. I’m shipping from New York, my customers in the UK typically receive their items ahead of my customers in Canada when I mail out the same day.

7. Netherlands – Seems to be growing. Nice easy transactions, for me usually just 1 item at a time. Usually a language barrier, but like Japan doesn’t seem to factor much.

8. Germany – As mentioned above I’m disappointed by the volume I do to Germany, but frankly there’s nothing else to complain about. The customers are there and more of them speak English than I would have thought. The transactions are universally pleasant, the delivery times are good.

9. Italy – Yes, Italy. I admit, I cringe a little on a large order to Italy because I know it’s going to take them at least a month to receive it, but I haven’t seen the volume of complaints other sellers seem to see, there’s a good number of customers, and I feel a little more secure since I’ve started using Inkfrog’s insurance on First Class International packages.

10. France – I think you can kind of substitute all I’ve said for Italy on France. Their delivery times don’t thrill me.

Related note: A recent eBay change that seems popular–the removal of international transactions from DSR counts–leave me feeling neutral though slightly uneasy. I ship Priority International next business day, First Class only once per week, but I do fine with my International feedback and DSR’s.

But really my main worry about this comes as a buyer–now, I’m not familiar with how anybody’s feedback and/or DSR counts work outside of the U.S.A., but as somebody who buys about as much from International sellers as I do from U.S. sellers, I’d be disappointed if my transactions weren’t held to the same standards as these sellers own domestic transactions. If the U.S. DSR policy is replicated in other countries I’d be less likely to purchase as aggressively from that country for fear of poor service and yes, just exposing myself to a great chance of being ripped off.

Turn those emotions around as a seller. Will international buyers still feel secure buying from U.S. sellers on eBay? I’d have to think no.

Did I miss any? What’s your favorite place to ship?

I’d expected feedback #10,000 on eBay to occur right about the time of my 10 year anniversary on the site, but I beat that estimate by a good 7 months. So after nearly 9-1/2 years on the site my star finally shoots. I remember back when my 999 flipped over to 1,000 thinking I’d never see a shooting star, but here I am. I guess at this pace I’ll have to live another 80-90 years to crack the 100,000 club, but then again, who knows, things happen, business models change.

After all, if eBay hadn’t made changes in how feedback was calculated then my 10 year anniversary very likely would have come first. If I recall correctly I believe I got bumped up from about a 6,500 count to around 8,000 overnight when that happened.

I got to 10,000 selling unique collectible items the entire time. Every listing a new one. Will that continue? Likely, because that’s where my heart is, but who knows. Never say never.

Did I ever tell you about how I got my start on eBay in 2000? Actually the seed was planted as early as 1998. I was in college (I’m not that young, I just didn’t start til I was 25) and pretty much piss-poor all the time. Not only did I not have a computer, I’d yet to even enter the electronic age–I’d drop classes if there was any kind of computer requirement, wanted nothing to do with it. Anyway, I was at my Uncle’s for Christmas, or one holiday or another, this is the same fellow who got me doing card shows back in the 80′s and he showed me this thing called eBay.

In about two minutes while I was standing there he listed an item–imagine that now. No picture, just his standard terms copied in along with a repetition of the title in the body of the listing, all done. Then he showed me his My eBay page and all the bids he had … on crap! Absolute garbage was being bid up 5-10 times higher than we used to get at the live auctions. “Collectibles” he’d bought in such bulk that he’d been selling them for years. A little saliva dripped down the corner of my mouth. I was sold.

Fast forward to December 1999, I graduated from school and started sending out the resumes. I trudged from one end of Manhattan to another several times a week, and this Long Island boy had about as much of a clue about New York City at that time as I did computers. Finally, after a few months of seeking employment as an editorial assistant I did land work at a magazine … in advertising sales. I really clicked with the woman who was to be my boss, we were to be a small two person department, and, oh yeah, she’d be headed off for a 2-week vacation the day I started. Huh? “Just let them sell themselves the ads til I come back,” she told me. Okay.

I love my old boss, but she knows as well as I that I completely BSed her about my computer experience. The first time I was at a computer for any more than a ten minute gap of space was my first day on the job. When did I start? That’s easily enough discovered, it says I registered my things-and-other-stuff eBay account on April 10, 2000, that’s the day I started work.

By the time my boss had returned from her vacation I’d learned about snipers, sold some ads, ordered my own computer online from Gateway, had a drawerful of used books from an antique shop I’d discovered around the corner from the office, made my first sale on eBay, packed my first order from my desk, purchased several money orders to mail out payments to eBay sellers, registered with PayPal…or maybe it was BillPoint…or both perhaps, garnered my first star, a yellow one I guess, and more. Hooked, totally hooked!

Before I left that job in 2004 I’d reached the point where eBay was paying me as much as my paycheck, but I was doing well more than double-duty to earn it, sleeping about 2 hours continuously at night and an hour each way on the Long Island Railroad every morning and afternoon. I was exhausted! I’d had at least two opportunities to go back to the cubicle over the intervening years, I passed each time, and though I did offer to help out in a pinch once nothing came of it.

While 10,000 looked impossible from even 1,000, and that 100k still looks unobtainable, I do have to say, I wonder what I’ll be up to and how business will be when I grab feedback #20,000.

If you have any ideas on how to fix any of these things, please do share below.  I do completely understand the customer’s perspective on eBay, and e-commerce in general — that is, “I paid, gimme my stuff, and quick” — so I’m not a big believer in excuses, but there are a few mistakes I make from time to time, little ones usually, which I don’t see any way I can correct.

1.  I claim not to charge handling fees on Priority Mail, and I really don’t intend too, but if I display the shipping charge on my shipping label printed through PayPal, which has correctly been recommended by Henrietta of RedInkDiary, my PayPal discount for Shipping shows up.  In other words, yes, it does cost $4.95 to ship a Priority Package to you, really, that’s on the USPS rate sheet, but it only costs me $4.80 when I print my label online.  That’s not so bad, but when I charge $8-plus for a 2 lb package and the label only shows $7 the change stands out to the buyer a little more.

Because of the varying weights and shipping locations of my packages I see no possible way to correct this inaccuracy.

It goes both ways too, the eBay Shipping Calculator is often a few cents off in the buyers’ favor on First Class International packages…of course, this excuse wouldn’t placate domestic customers.

2.  I really can’t control how fast my packages get to you.  I can minimize any potential USPS problems by packing my items uniformly with no strange corners or edges, clear shipping labels, a nice “Do Not Bend” stamped on each side.  But if the item falls off a stack in the mail truck and takes two weeks to reach you instead of two days, I really can’t do much to help you.

This is one sellers really need to see from the buyer’s perspective, which, need I remind you, is “I paid, gimme my stuff, and quick.“  That’s actually quite reasonable.  This is a case where the only solution I see is polite communication requesting patience, in other words, basically stalling them.  My own standard line is that “in 10 years of e-commerce I’ve never actually had a package go lost.”  And that’s true, just ask the fellow in Malaysia who paid me again 4 months after filing a PayPal claim.

A bad transaction like this is just freak chance.  You’re going to have to suck it up, eat the refund, eat the negative feedback, eat the “1″ DSR.  We all get these, but thankfully, as much as I complain about them, the USPS is on the whole pretty good.

3.  Buyer misplaces package, believes it didn’t arrive.  See number 2 above, which is why I should add during communication with buyer it may be wise to in some way politely ask if anyone else in the house takes in their mail.

4.  Buyer pays for the item, I go to ship it within 2 business days and it’s not in stock.  Let me say up front that if you sold the item through another site and forgot to remove your eBay listing, sorry, but you deserve to get hammered by your buyer.

But over the years I’ve found it a necessary evil of keeping electronic inventory (especially of unique items) that you’re going to come by this problem honestly.  It happens to me about once per year.  Your customer doesn’t want to hear it.  There’s no way to tell them about the rarity of this problem without having it come off as your suggesting they’ve won some sort of jackpot and them thinking you’re just a jackass for saying so. Perhaps if they’re reasonable they’ll understand it, but in the back of their minds they’re just thinking, “I paid, gimme my stuff, and quick.”

I actually had this one happen a couple of weeks ago (and perhaps in the back of my mind it spurred on this essay).  I sold a Johnny Weissmuller card and when I went to pack it it was nowhere to be found.  I searched my sold items and saw that I had sold a similar, though different, Weissmuller card to a buyer in Belgium a couple of months earlier.  I’d never heard from the Belgian buyer again, had received positive feedback from him, but I decided to check, and sure enough I’d sent him the wrong card.  Ouch.  There’s really no way I can write this buyer in Belgium, where beyond the ridiculousness of such an email there may also be a language barrier, and ask to correct the transaction 2 months later.

This is totally my bad, I probably packed this at 4 am one night and just screwed up.  But what’s done is done, I had to suck it up and beg buyer forgiveness from my new Weissmuller customer.

I apologized profusely and offered the buyer his choice of 1) store credit; 2) the other Weissmuller card (which was more valuable); or 3) a full refund.  His reply came in all caps: I DO NOT WISH TO COMPROMISE. REFUND ME.  That hurt a little, but he was entirely within his rights so I apologized again and issued the refund within minutes of receiving the request.

What to do?  Again, I see nothing.  This was my fault, and 2 weeks later I’m still bracing for a potential negative feedback response, but it’s yet to come.  Note: I ate the eBay fees in this case, not wishing to further antagonize the wronged buyer by requesting he complete a form to mutually dismiss the transaction.

Beware, you can be perfect packing and sometimes this one’s just going to happen: you can goof in relisting a sold item or eBay can goof for you with a double-listing glitch.  Rare, but it happens.

5.  If you don’t update your zip code on PayPal, sorry, but I’m going with what they recommend.  A few years ago when I first started using PayPal shipping I’d always contact the buyer to confirm their zip code when PayPal disagreed–their reply always indicated PayPal had it right.  I’m rolling with that.  Same case if the name of your city or town has changed.  I’m going with the PayPal suggestion without asking.

Why?  Because you can’t force the label through with the incorrect and outdated information and again, because PayPal has proven itself right in these cases 100% of the time for me — the risk of sending the item to an incorrect address seems minimal in comparison to the risk of losing a day or more in communication before shipping.

Solution.  I’m sorry, but to me this one is on PayPal.  I don’t understand why when a buyer makes payment PayPal doesn’t force them to correct incorrect information at that time.  It’d be a simple one-page screen, or pop-up even, saying here’s your revised address, please confirm,

And for god’s sake PayPal, correct everyone in Saint Louis already.  EVERYBODY from Saint Louis lists their address as St. Louis, just like the Cardinals do.  Can’t print a label with St. though, it has to be Saint.  And, of course, there are other similar cities throughout the U.S.

That’s about all I can think of on the spur of the moment.  Do you have any little problems that put your DSR’s at risk?  Let me know below, maybe we can work together on a solution.  Be honest, if it’s something you could correct, but it’s frankly not cost efficient to do so (like I believe my #5 is) say so. 

Keep our friend John “ColderICE” Lawson’s words in mind before posting:

I should probably warn you John’s video is rated PG-13 for language, but then again, so’s this site, so sorry for any potential issues.

This is the third entry into the “What I’m Doing” series of posts, but the first to appear on The Collectors Site, as the first two showed up on the VintageMeld–see, this is why I have so many blogs: I had an idea, I created the posts around that idea as they naturally came to me, and I decided these posts didn’t fit where they started. I noticed rather than focusing on collectibles, the first couple of columns touched upon them, in mentioning what was coming in and what was being listed, but it really was more of, what the title proclaims, what I’ve been up to recently. Given that I enjoyed writing these it did occur to me that they might best fit here, on The Collectors Site, which while being my space to blog about e-commerce is really my most personal site without a generally declared clear goal other than speaking my mind.

So here goes, I’ve unintentionally had more time than anticipated to concentrate on my writing lately, and, no, I don’t mean that I’ve written more than intended, but I mean I’ve had a lot of clock on my hands to read and re-read, edit and tinker, as my internet connection for the past week to ten days can best be described as lousy. This morning for instance, I was able to log into my email, delete the junk, Tweet out the posts I wrote last night, all by 7 am–it is now 1:30 pm and I’ve been able to do nothing else online. This has been typical for the past week-plus. I’ve found the night hours even more productive than I normally do, but in this case it is simply because the daytime hours are not only unproductive, but basically broken for me right now.

I’m on a cable line from Cablevision and also have phone service through them … which is also black during these outages. I’m trying not to fly off the handle because I do recall the exact same thing happening last year right around this same time. Yes, I am getting close to calling, but frankly I don’t need Cablevision employees suggesting I check my connections and failing that as the cause purchase new equipment because, like I said, had this happen last year and after the 1-2 weeks of misery when service returned it has returned practically without a flaw or a glitch over the past 50 or so weeks. Not my problem, it’s their problem, they’re only making it my problem. My spare time has allotted me extra hours for daydreaming in which I’ve now convinced myself that this problem has something to do with the earth’s tilt or alignment to the sun during this particular month of the year. Hey, a stretch, but it makes me feel better.

I’ve got the ad up in the left sidebar on the VintageMeld for the Greer Garson biography “A Rose for Mrs. Miniver” by Michael Troyan (which my current connectivity issues is going to cause me to finish way faster than anticipated!) and I’m enjoying it very much. While not the utter crank that John Oller presented Jean Arthur as in another biography I’ve recently read, at 150 pages in I’d say Garson could best be described as temperamental. I found it interesting after her arrival to the States from Britain she held out on accepting any supporting roles, convinced that a move from headlining the London stage to support in Hollywood would doom her career before it really got started. It’s with this attitude that she came to “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” with much hesitation, but luckily for her legacy was convinced to take the role by a trusted friend. She complained too about “Mrs. Miniver,” largely because of Billy Wilder, but I just read my way through “Random Harvest” and that was at least one role which she embraced from the very beginning.

Have several issues of The Sporting News coming into stock very soon, dated 1947-48, late 1956, and featuring some of the best contemporary coverage you’re going to find about Jackie Robinson’s debut, the death of Babe Ruth and Don Larsen’s perfect game–I know because I’ve handled these before. In fact, right now I’m blowing out close to 20 remaining issues that have been sitting in stock for awhile with sales prices 45-50% off and auction minimum bids at up to 75% off my previous pricing.

Speaking of auctions, again, they ain’t dead, but by the same token I can’t help but to notice most of my recent success comes from Fixed Priced items on eBay. With this in mind I’m scaling way back on auctions for the time being, at least prior to the Holiday season to see how sales develop for items I list initially at Fixed Price. So far, so good, though I’m missing the rigidity of schedule afforded by constantly working to have new nightly auctions listed. I’m by nature a very undisciplined person, and so having structure really helps me to make the most of my time. Especially having rekindled by long love of writing, I have to be very careful to continue to produce sales listings and not just another round of words for the day. It’s a very fine line.

As to the recent round of eBay changes, I’m sure that I’ll delve into details at some point before Implementation A in October and Implementation B in April, but for now I stick by my original brief summary of harmless. At the core of this opinion is my continued, perhaps idealistic, belief that in the end eBay wants people to buy and sell items on their site. I stood by their last round of changes optimistically, and they were rejected by the masses with much greater scorn that this crop has inspired, and do believe they have helped improve the site. Quite honestly as a seller I have not seen a great improvement in what I take in since those changes, though I also believe this had a lot to do with the economy’s nosedive beginning about the same time as my own, in September 2008, but as a regular eBay buyer I have noticed greater service and quicker delivery of typically well-described items. With the stress on Fixed Priced items the buyer in me has not noted less “deals” insomuch as I have many overpriced items. That obviously is a downside. Though in my collectibles categories I highly doubt eBay has welcomed in any of the despised Diamond Sellers, so my gut thought on the overpriced goods are that those sellers are soon going to tire of paying listing fees for items which can’t be selling and soon leave (likely blaming eBay at their exit).

But that was last time, as for this time, it’s obvious eBay continues to try and create a great experience for buyers (or in seller speak ‘eBay sides with buyers over sellers’) and in the end I believe that’s going to trickle up into a better experience for sellers. Again, time will tell. I think not only eBay’s sellers are going to learn a lot come October, but that eBay itself will, and like last time work to correct any policy which seems too onerous–again, I believe they want me there and will do so until the day that they officially ask me to leave. It’s like this, I don’t believe in ghosts, but show me one and I will. A creaking floorboard late at night might make me flinch, and eBay has surely spooked me a few times over the years, but they’ve yet to actually jump out and say “Boo!”

After registering last December I’ve finally gotten around to listing some items on Etsy, generally thought of as the handmade site. I’m not making anything here, but they seemed to have embraced vintage goods, so why not give it a try. With a 20 cent listing fee there is a barrier to entry, so I have to think somewhere in the large number of “vintage” goods on the site are some sales. None here yet, though it’s only been a couple of weeks at most and I am encouraged by the views, though they may be more the result of curious bystanders. I’ve been curious about Etsy for vintage items for some time though and figured I’ve got to try it out to draw any real conclusions. Again, we’ll see what happens.

In the end with this selling game, I’m all about keeping an open mind, but at the same time trying to be positive.

Clicking the title of this post will take you over to a guest post that I did on John Lawson’s ColderICE.com e-commerce blog.

It’s a bit of a follow-up, or perhaps better-stated, a companion piece to this post I wrote back in March of this year.

So I received an envelope with just this inside today:

It took a minute, but what it says is “FYI This JUST arrived – had been slipped among “new” mailers.”

Okay, first reaction, have I had recent contact with this customer? Do I need to apologize for anything. Did I issue a refund?

Time out, then focus.

The damn thing is dated March 10, 2007. That’d be 27-1/2 months ago.

Next thought, if there was a refund I hope this was a small item. After all, this is the only correspondence here, I have no clue what this was.

On a whim I did a search in my PayPal history under the last name from the label (edited out of the image above) and to my surprise the transaction showed up.

It was only about a $10 transaction and no refund anyway.

Oh well, at least they didn’t inquire about a return.

Got a pretty cool email today from a happy customer in Italy. He’d purchased an Italian-language movie collectible item from me on eBay, which if I recall I’d purchased years ago myself on eBay from an Italian seller. Here’s what he wrote:

“a curious thing about this booklet: it was print in the year 1942 from a printing house at the 134 corso Re Umberto – Torino. In the year 2009 it come back from USA at the 138 corso re Umberto 138 – Torino where I live. 67 year after just 30 meters longer!”

Now I don’t know if he was surprised by this and it was a complete coincidence, or if he made the purchase knowing where the item came from, but it’s pretty neat either way. Reminds me of those old dog movies where Fido would get lost and then find his way back to his owners 3,000 miles across the country (I think there were a few of those at least).

Wow, I wish these things came with a copyright date issued on them to really hammer home my point, but I came across this old business card the other day and realized that it was from my first solo venture 18 years ago! Seeing it made me think that this space might be a good place to reminisce about some of those old-card show days because, after all, that what put all this e-commerce stuff in my blood to begin with.

18 years ago I was 19 years old, and so if you’re one of my online friends kind enough to still think me young, well, I was a real baby then! I didn’t just jump right into this myself, if you’ve previously read anything about my background you’d know I started out assisting my Uncle, oh, bout 1983-84 I’d say, and soon graduated to my own few feet on one of his tables. I was lucky in that he got into the baseball card hobby the same year I started collecting as a kid, 1979, and so I was exposed to some really neat vintage items moving in and out of his inventory. My favorite family gatherings growing up were the ones at his house where I spent most of my day inside his baseball card room paging through albums of old cards and flipping through stacks box by box. I can still smell that cardboard!

But, again, let me remind you, I started doing this card show gig on my own when I was 19 and managed to keep myself afloat through age 21 when it all ended on my front stoop with my head in my hands and the realization that I just couldn’t make it work any longer. Looking back now at how incredibly irresponsible I was I laugh thinking it ever had a chance, I think I did pretty well just to keep at it that long.

Prime example of youthful folly — after promising one of my pals I’d take him out drinking later that night if he helped me work a show, he agreed and then we went on to make not one damn sale that night. Desperate for drinking money I flipped a Mickey Mantle card to another dealer I knew at cost. Well, maybe a bad example, because we raised so much hell that night that I remember most of those details too, but you’re not getting that out of me…

I used to do shows Saturday and Sunday, if I recall they’d run about 10am-5pm, and also on Tuesday and Thursday nights. When there was a good show I’d be at the same location both weekend days, and for the best ones there’d be a Friday night preview as well. Typical table fees back then were in the $50-$60 per day range for the run-of-the-mill shows, with weekend fees for the better two day shows at about $140-$150, and the really big 3 day events running around $300.

Think about that eBayers–I’d pay $300 to pack up all my goods, every bit of it I wanted to have a chance to sell, transport it to some location, spend about an hour setting it up, sit behind the table for 8-10 hours making small talk and sales talk, and have no guarantee of making a dime. Then I’d have to break it all down and bring it home Sunday evening. 3 days, $300. Oh, I usually went for two tables too, so double that fee. And you don’t like your eBay bill–trust me, mine is always a bargain.

I did shows the shows all over Long Island, which were usually limited to the Hotels off the Long Island Expressway exits, plus some of the real winners tucked away in dark Knights of Columbus halls around the Island. There was one pretty decent one I did at a Church (I think it was a Church) in Brooklyn, which was a little off the beaten path, but hey, it paid. The better ones were 2 and 3 day events at Hofstra University and especially the Nassau Coliseum, and the best of the best for me were the Rothstein shows held a few times a year just north of NYC in White Plains, NY.

Assisting me were my father, who took the opportunity to put together a set of ’59 Topps baseball cards and then a really friggin’ sharp set of ’56 Topps that I wish he still had so I could pry them away from him to get graded (PSA was kind of new at the tail-end of my card show days). Then I had a friend my age who worked for free in order to sell his stuff–at first I took a small cut, then I took his labor. We weren’t really partners, but it was close enough to lead me to discover that I’d much prefer employees to partners in the future. That’s probably not fair, as we had a lot of fun, but it’s no fun paying all the bills and having someone else get all the sales, you know? I had some other friends who filled in from time to time too, thankfully always for free, as they were (morbidly) curious about the whole lifestyle.

As you might imagine with those Hotel and KofC shows both the cast of dealers and customers were pretty much the same. Same faces every week. Setting up with the same people, selling stuff to the same people. Swapping vintage for new with some dealers, new for vintage with others, and hoping we mixed up our stock enough that the same old customers would have interest rekindled next weekend.

By the early 90′s there was a lot of mail order going on, especially through SCD (Sports Collectors’ Digest) and then there were the bigger sales from the major auction houses, but for those who just saw us same old dealers show after show (hey, it’s that guy AGAIN!), bless em, sometimes they really had to work to give us business. Shoot, sometimes they’d start a new set just because one of the dealers had some singles available!

I preferred vintage even then, as it allowed me to offer something different than most of the other dealers who were all competing in price offering the same new sets, singles, and wax boxes week to week. I did succumb to the lure of easy money through new releases every so often though, my most memorable being the 1992 Topps Brien Taylor rookie cards. Remember him? #1 can’t miss draft pick for the Yankees who missed about as big as you can miss? Well, I had a few sources for his cards and selling them was like printing money for a few months.

So I really looked forward to the bigger shows, both for buying and selling. New dealers, new customers, and usually that meant both had a few bucks behind them. Out of towners were preferred from both sides of the table.

Bringing it back to eBay, re-read that last paragraph and you’ll see why I love selling online in general. Taking it a little further, that paragraph really tells you why you should be selling internationally if you can. No matter your pool of customers, you need to keep finding ways to grow it. Repeat business is great, and I still love having customers come back to me week to week to fill their collections, but new customers (and new collectors) are key to continuing success.

Last memory for now, and really the one which makes me laugh the most in retrospect–Big 3-day Nassau Coliseum show, 200-300 tables, something like that. I go in, get my credentials, locate my tables, which are pretty much right in the middle of the arena. You were allowed to drive into the Coliseum to unload prior to setting up, otherwise you’d have to make multiple trips hauling your goods across the parking lot, down elevators, etc. Anyway, my partner drove in, we unloaded, all set. But when he went to leave his car wouldn’t start and there we were–among all these dealers from all over the country, all scrambling to get ready for business–and us with the engine cranking and exhaust filling the arena! Eventually he got it out of there, but man, talk about youth fostering some low expectations. We weren’t very popular that weekend.

That was fun to write up, so I may do some more of these in the future. If you want to see more feel free to let me know below. Thanks!

Without further ado I wanted to give you easy access to the links for giving. All that further ado appears below the links:

THE MAIN EVENT – ColderICE**Chest to Save Breast**Charity Ad Auction

But ColderICE has also made it possible to give immediately and in smaller increments which may better fit your budget. Here you go:

Buy it Now $50.00 – ColderICE**Chest to Save Breast**Charity Sponser $50.00

Buy it Now $25.00 – ColderICE**Chest to Save Breast**Charity Sponser $25.00

Minimum Bid $9.95 or Buy it Now $10.95 – 4 -BREAST CANCER Pink Ribbon SWEAT BAND sweatband wrist

Leave it to John “ColderICE” Lawson to find a way to turn his marketing skills over to giving instead of the usual getting.

Originally slated to kick off April 27, but due to some technical difficulties pushed back to April 29, John’s “Chest to Save Breasts” promotion works like this: Bid on his eBay Giving Works auction in which 100% of the proceeds go to fighting breast cancer and besides helping out a great cause the “winner” will receive:

The winner of the auction will be allowed to custom design the entire FRONT chest of the shirt I, John from ColderICE, will wear on June 3rd for the opening day of the Ecommerce Merchant Summit 2009 in Atlanta, GA. You will get crazy amounts of exposure for your brand, company, or anything YOU like!

Now, I’m not sure exactly how this is going to work, but it will surely add to the excitement at the close of the event:

The action will be ending with a live show hosted by Auction Wally on the evening of May 4th

(That part is cribbed from the official press release which is presented in its entirety below.)

Following is John Lawson himself speaking about the Auction:

Here’s the official press release for the event written by Richard Brewer Hay of the eBay Ink Blog who donated his time in order to provide the most professional release possible:

Leading ecommerce video blogger uses eBay Giving Works to raise money through innovative branding effort

Snellville, Ga., April 27, 2009 – John Lawson, Founder and CEO of the online urban clothing store, 3rd Power Outlet, and author of business blog, ColderICE.com, today announced the launch of the ColderICE “Chest to Save Breasts” Charity auction. The online auction, running from April 27 – May 4, 2009 will give businesses an opportunity to obtain key brand real-estate at the eCommerce Merchant Summit, June 3, 2009 in Atlanta. Lawson is using his chest as a billboard for the highest bidder. The auction is running on eBay Giving Works with 100% of the proceeds going directly to Breast Cancer research.

“In my opinion, it’s a no-brainer for forward-thinking businesses interested in marketing their company to a captive audience,” said John Lawson.

“We’re also lining up corporate sponsors that will pledge a minimum of $100 to Breast cancer. I will be making daily videos wearing the shirts that business sponsors send to me. These videos are online and shared for weeks, months and years to come. The opportunities are endless and timeless.”

During the 7-day auction week of April 27 – May 4, leading industry bloggers, radio hosts and podcasters will be continually promoting the event, granting additional exposure to each participating sponsor. The action will be ending with a live show hosted by Auction Wally on the evening of May 4th. For more information about the auction, please visit http://ColderICE.com/charity.

About John Lawson

John Lawson, Founder and CEO of the online urban clothing store 3rd Power Outlet (http://www.3rdPowerOutlet.com) and author of business blog ColderICE.com (http://www.ColderICE.com), has been growing and changing his business with the continuously shifting world of e-commerce since he began selling a few used IT books on eBay for extra money in 2001.

Now that he has not only established himself as an eBay Platinum PowerSeller and eBay Certified Education Specialist but also successfully navigated his business through the dot com bubble burst, Lawson is turning his focus to teaching, speaking, and consulting.

Lawson regularly participates in and reports from regional and national eBay and e-commerce business summits and events. Recently, he has been interviewed by The Washington Post, PC World Online Magazine and featured by ChannelAdvisor with a case study of his company. He has also lent his insight and know-how to Wall Street analysts.

MEDIA CONTACT:

John Lawson

Phone: 678.400.0580

Email: John@ColderICE.com

Twitter: @ColderICE

Actually, my very first thoughts are over in the comments section of Walt “AuctionWally” Kolenda’s Examiner.com article about the changes.

The complete list of updates can be found here on eBay.

The text of the change I’ve been focused on is this one:

Package tracking information right in My eBay—print labels on eBay and tracking will show up automatically, or you can upload your own tracking information.

My initial reaction, and I hope it doesn’t look like I’m full of myself if I quote myself, but here I go:

Really, my only concern about what I’ve digested here so far, and it’s minor because it’s easily enough worked around, is if we’ll be able to print shipping labels at all on PayPal anymore–if not, I’ll have to start using USPS Click n Ship on those items I’ve been printing labels for which sell off eBay.

This has been the only one of the announcements I’ve really dwelled upon today.  As I’ve thought about it some more what I want to know is the following:

• Will the current PayPal system for printing labels continue to exist?
• Will the new eBay system for printing labels include all of PayPal’s functionality?

Specifically:

• Will I be able to print labels for items I’ve sold on venues other than eBay?
• Will I be able to easily refund buyers for shipping overpayments?

That last one is what kickstarted me into writing this post.  I just had to send a refund tonight, as I often do.  Why?  On heavier items that are combined the buyer gets screwed if they checkout before I invoice them.  Being the honest fellow I am I always refund them any excess if they’ve gotten ripped off for more than a buck.  Will I still be able to?

As mundane as the announcements are at first glance I have a feeling there will be more questions to come.  If so, I’ll spit them out like this, a little at a time.