Sales are good, plenty of bidders (of course I'd always like more) and decent prices.
It's difficult to compete if you don't have a good niche. You guys are making things sound so depressing but plenty of sellers are doing very well.
Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
It's difficult to compete if you don't have a good niche. You guys are making things sound so depressing but plenty of sellers are doing very well.
Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
Hi there y'all. Been a while since I hung out at the Canuck board. But where Malcolm goes, I follow. I am his biggest fan, yunno.
Last year around this time, old sterling silver stuff, which I sell, went in the tank. Between the US/CDN dollar, the glut on eBay maybe and the lack of interest, I was losing big time.
So I switched gears immediately and started to sell wierd collectibles. I found just about anything that could get a few keywords cooking on it. That was my criteria - and a goal of a triple or quadrulple margin. Lofty goals, but somehow it was fun and it worked. But man I took some ribbing from my snotty silver friends!
Seems silver is on the up and up again. In the past to weeks I have sold alot of really nice things and in the coming week I am going to list a ton of it. I am buying carefully with some pretty sharp income goals and I may hit and miss.
But the moral of my post is, change and adapt and things might just work out.
Last year around this time, old sterling silver stuff, which I sell, went in the tank. Between the US/CDN dollar, the glut on eBay maybe and the lack of interest, I was losing big time.
So I switched gears immediately and started to sell wierd collectibles. I found just about anything that could get a few keywords cooking on it. That was my criteria - and a goal of a triple or quadrulple margin. Lofty goals, but somehow it was fun and it worked. But man I took some ribbing from my snotty silver friends!
Seems silver is on the up and up again. In the past to weeks I have sold alot of really nice things and in the coming week I am going to list a ton of it. I am buying carefully with some pretty sharp income goals and I may hit and miss.
But the moral of my post is, change and adapt and things might just work out.
My licencing plans are going well. And I just bought a huge whack of silver to list on eBay.
I find this board to be a nice place to visit. From the titles of the thread thy can be a scrappy bunch. Just that the fights seems to be more with pink elephants, like Canada Post. Why bother? Like they are going to change their rates or policies for us?
This is my kind of thread. Tossing around ideas about how to make a business better.
When I had my gallery, one of my strategies for selling paintings was pretty cool. Once a month or so I called up a big charity, who are constantly holding auctions, live or silent, to raise money. I picked a painting off the wall and donated it.
Two things happened. A room of Toronto's wealthiest people who paid up to $500 a ticket were prisoners in a room looking at it for about 5 hours. Also, the army of idle women volunteers, some of who were the society elite with nothing better to do, had to look at it for up to 2 weeks. They also had to come and see me to pick it up. They could not believe my "generosity". HAH!
Funny thing is I could not convince alot of other artists to do this. They thought giving away their precious treasures was beneath them.
Perhaps that was the difference between us. I was a painter who sold paintings. They were artisans.
OK, who am I who question an artisan?
*hey my posts are getting long like yours, Malcolm!*
I find this board to be a nice place to visit. From the titles of the thread thy can be a scrappy bunch. Just that the fights seems to be more with pink elephants, like Canada Post. Why bother? Like they are going to change their rates or policies for us?
This is my kind of thread. Tossing around ideas about how to make a business better.
When I had my gallery, one of my strategies for selling paintings was pretty cool. Once a month or so I called up a big charity, who are constantly holding auctions, live or silent, to raise money. I picked a painting off the wall and donated it.
Two things happened. A room of Toronto's wealthiest people who paid up to $500 a ticket were prisoners in a room looking at it for about 5 hours. Also, the army of idle women volunteers, some of who were the society elite with nothing better to do, had to look at it for up to 2 weeks. They also had to come and see me to pick it up. They could not believe my "generosity". HAH!
Funny thing is I could not convince alot of other artists to do this. They thought giving away their precious treasures was beneath them.
Perhaps that was the difference between us. I was a painter who sold paintings. They were artisans.
OK, who am I who question an artisan?
*hey my posts are getting long like yours, Malcolm!*
