What goes around comes around if you sell long enough....what I'm doing in todays environment
Summary: ricarmic reflects on changes in the selling market over 48 years, noting a shift back towards a more insulated environment. They share strategies to adapt, including selling on online platforms and increasing investment in antique malls, despite challenges like tariffs and customer spending behaviors. Other participants discuss their own selling experiences, highlighting the benefits and challenges of antique malls and platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace, including safety concerns and financial dynamics. Overall, the discussion centers on adapting to changing market conditions and exploring different selling venues.
When I first started mailorder selling 48 years ago, “advertising” was expensive, and it was especially expensive to try to attract international buyers. Generally I had minimal US buyers, 10 to 15% and almost no international buyers <5%.
27 years ago when selling via the internet came as an option for me, international “advertisting” aka eBay fees etc became very very much cheaper and it was so much easier to acquire international buyers as folks got used to buying stuff from everywhere.
Today, we find ourselves back in a more insulated selling world for a variety of reasons. It is becoming harder to sell to the US and internationally with a few exceptions. Unfortunately the selling market is heading back in the direction I experienced 48 years ago!
Here’s what I’ve done to try to preserve my “market share”
- I continue to sell on 2 online platforms like ebay
- I sell via antique store hosted auctions
- I have begun to move toward selling more material via “antique malls” (which is an unconventional means for selling stamps)
Here’s how I’ve had to adjust to handle selling environmental changes like tariffs, packaging rules, customer spending level/behaviour, etc:
eBay (Tarriff related changes only):
I’ve (temporarily) blocked US buyers from .CA
I’ve (temporarily) changed anything “Canadian” on .COM to have a $100 per item shipping charge (this is about 100 items out of the 2500ish running on .COM, I did it via bulk edit)
I’ve changed other countries with tariffs like China to include the tariff amount in the shipping.
I’ve (“permanently)”blocked 130 countries including virtually all of the EU
Non-eBay but similar style site:
I’ve (temporarily) blocked all US buyers on the other site. Fortunately all items are Canada=domestic so I can block US buyers temporarily quite easily
I’ve (“permanently”) blocked all other buyers except Australia, NZ and UK
Antique store hosted (related to customer attraction/spending levels)
I’ve suspended using this vehicle until market spending increases (ie Customers have more money to spend)
Antique mall hosted
I’m increasing investment and efforts here because it is unaffected by tariffs, and I believe with time I can build a sustainable customer base. (I’m in 2 malls, one has made money almost every month, the other has been more challenging and I’m focusing attention there to try to bring sales up – in the antique malls location is very important, or so it seems).
As an aside for the other stamp folks out there, I’ve been VERY pleased to meet buyers while I’m tidying/adding too my booths who are 30s and younger!!! I’d say that 50% or more are under 40 of the folks I’ve met in person. This is very contrary to the “philatelic field beliefs” that the hobby is dying, nobody collects anymore, no young people are starting to collect etc (PS this is what I heard 48 years ago when I started too!!!).
Anyway, that’s the current state of my world, as for all of us. I’ll adjust as I need to over time. My situation is very fortunately for me a bit less stressful than those trying to make a full time living these days because as I’ve mentioned before I’m “semi-retired” but hopefully something here might be of use to others!
intimewithmusic
·1 week agoThank you for sharing that. At the coast in Fort Langley (approx 30 minutes east of Vancouver) there is a beautiful large permanent antique mall. You rent a space monthly and leave everything on display. You do not have to be in attendance. The people that run it have a cashier and staff.
You can put higher value items in locked display cabinets and a staff member will help prospective buyers. You can leave your business cards for people wth detailed questions. It is in a large early 1900s building in a heritage area not far from the fort were scheduled tours are offered. There are lots of coffee shops and other unique stores. Every weekend the community was packed.
I have no idea what the fees or rent was or possibly some consignment fee. I went there 3 or 4 tmes a year and all of the units seemed to be occupied. I wish we had something like that in the Okanagan.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·1 week ago · EditedThere WAS a consignment shop in one the residential areas just outside of downtown Calgary. It closed suddenly. The people with shops were having a hard time being paid in a timely manner with any consistency according to the news story. It's between creditors and possibly small claims court. Lesson would be if you are going to attempt something like that you have to do mega due diligence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AR6pBXR7wM
There are several farmers markets in town where you can rent space. One quotes 25.00 per square foot. Rent is 2000 per month. I wish. Not on my measly sales.
If it was workable for someone they might be better off with one in small town vs a metropolis. Probably more accomodating.
intimewithmusic
·1 week ago · EditedI think your comparing small town vs metropolis is valid or at least it was. Both Nelson poplation 12K and Trail 8,600 are seeing a large spike in various types of crime. Both those commnities used to be safe.
In Kelowna we have a weekly flea martket. It's not in the best area of town reslting in low selling prices. It requires full attendance by the seller, Sunday set up and take down into a community hall and only a 4 hour selling window.
Having to go thru the court process is tough for those sellers. Many are seniors. If it's criminal you have to stand and identify a thief. I never enjoyed that. If it's civil it's unlikey what you end up with is worth your time.
ricarmic
OP1 week ago · Edited@intimewithmusic Yes this is exactly like the ones I'm in.
The monthly cost of the space varies a lot from economical (like $100) to very high ($1000+) depending on the size and location being used. Note too that there's a commission fee on top of that in the 10% to 15% of sales level. Even the style (locked vs not) makes a very serious difference. I've only been at this style venue for about a year and a half now and I'm slowly learning the right mix of location(s) and "size" to make it work.
The effort/financial dynamic is interesting:
Online selling = highest return per original cost, and highest effort per $ earned
Antique mall selling = lowest return per original cost and lowest effort per $ earned
If things are working well at the malls my "hourly" wage is higher in the mall than via ebay, but there's a big caveat, it takes a lot of time to learn the ropes of making the mall work, and at this time, only one of the 2 is working well, the other has been a big struggle but I think I'm on the cusp of it working well as well. Note that the potential monthly $$ volume of sales on eBay is vastly larger than that at the malls, or so far thats the case.
I'm fortunate that there's a fair chunk of the malls around, I'm not planning on expanding to any more locations, despite only having to drop stuff off, one still has to price it, make the trips, add stuff, tidy the space up again etc. This selling experiment was started during the Postal strike and my goal to reduce the time it takes to sell material.
A number of folks including antique stores around here are selling via vehicles like FB Marketplace, that style is also a lot of "time" per $ sale, at least in my opinion so I've never really pursued that vehicle.
As has always been the case on eBay experimentation is very important to do!!!
intimewithmusic
·1 week ago · EditedThanks for the insight. Sounds like youre wearing a lot of hats. At the coast there was a high crime rate selling on FBM. It seemed less so on Craigslist when that was a thing.
2022 Surrey Police Statement
"Pick a safe public place, like a police station lobby, to meetup with anyone you’re planning to do business with."
Police said their investigation led them to a Surrey homelast week, where they executed a search warrant. There,officers found various weapons including a loaded gun anddocuments linking a suspect to the Facebook scam."
Granted no venue or platform is safe. Besides the seller's risk there's also the effect of crime on buyer's. I like how you have compared your "baskets" using your time factored by profit ratios. that makes sense.
Based on the three platforms you cover I'd say FBM is a bit less work than eBay but you have to absorb a lot of risk. For example counterfeit money has been a problem here. In Vancouver much of the FBM crime eminates from the sellers. (Scams) In Kelowna it seems to be related to buyers. That said there are a lot of large regular FBM sellers here.
transtraders
·1 week agoWish I had access to antique malls here in Moncton area, they are virtually non-existent as far as I know. I used to sell at flea markets but having to "man" the booth and only being open 1 day a week, made it really not worth the time on most weeks.