~~ The Drawing Room ~~

[jaymor8]

I thought about this yesterday when I was looking for Lisa. I was getting impatient wondering if anyone had seen her. I didn't want to post in another thread because it may have been mised, so I had to email her instead. (Which was no problem by the way)

Then I thought...maybe we could have a thread where we could come and ask about someone or just to say something that just doesn't pertain to anything in particular. It's always a bit weird going 'off subject' in someone else's thread.

So, this thread will be for EVERYone and it could be about ANYthing. You don't ever have to use it, but if you need to, great. Doesn't mean you can't make your own thread, it just mimics the ski chalet after a day of skiing. Say what you want - ask what you want - show your pictures - comment on the dot com threads (yuk yuk) A veritable freebie. I hope it will be useful but if it's not - then...$screw you guys - I'm going home! 🙂

Jackie...

[jaymor8]

Bingo, now yer talking!!!!

[jaymor8]

Bush claims that Saddam was a part of Clinton's agenda and he just adopted it as his own but I think he carried the grudge over from his father's admin. I think it has become personal for the Bushes and I think that if they don't find any WMD soon, they had better treat Bush like they're treating Saddam. He single handedly rendered the UN useless and powerless - he's making a mockery of the Geveva Convention. MHO

Jackie...

[amberwoodottawa]

Monica Luweinski was part of Clinton's agenda and what has Bush dont about finishing up on that one so far?

Malcolm

[jaymor8]

LOL Malcolm....good one. I don't know about that, but I have a feeling that this is all about to come out in the wash. Daddy's boy could be in some deep doodoo...

J...

[amberwoodottawa]

Had it come out in the wash, Clinton wouldnt have been in trouhble!
Malcolm

[jaymor8]

ROFLMAO Malcolm!!!!!

[amberwoodottawa]

I thought that I would get off a pleasant Good Morning posting to everyone this morning.
Good Morning!

Its great to start a day with no nasty emails waiting for you and only one or two virus attempts. We had somneone spamming us yesterday, trying to use our server to forward spams. We had over 40,000 enquiries in 45 minutes and then we started blocking all his attempts. He was going through about 9 servers to hide his identity.

I'm off to sign a contract this morning to sell the entire contents of someone's home on eBay (anyone interested in original and expensive Chinese furniture and Chinese place settings etc?).

If this works out, it could be a new way for me to go this year on eBay in addition to selling musical instruments (and collectable comics, if that works).

Anyway, good luck selling as we go into another cold wintery day. This should keep eBayers at home bidding on all your items this weekend.

Malcolm

[jaymor8]

Well, don't know about you, but it was a horrible week for me. I figured the cold would keep folks in the house and therefore at their computers but if they did, they didn't see MY site. Oh well, maybe around Valentine's it will pick up 😞

Jackie...

[amberwoodottawa]

Jackie
Sorry about the slow start. Its really hard to predict with this eBay thing isnt it. Well actually sales in general is hard to predict.

My source for instruments reported to me last week that the sale of musical instruments for 2003 was down 47% in North Americal last year. His sales were up 68% and I must admit I closed the year with a bang in my eBay and off eBay sales.

Remembering the peaks and valleys of last year (not seasonal more Iraqie war, anti-Canadian etc). I am adding substantially to whay I will be selling and I am getting quite excited by it all.

I planned for a quiet January so I could get everything organized so I am content selling only 4 or 5 instruments per week right now. What is great about it is most of my sales are not through eBay, they are people who had seen our listings before and are contacting us or repeat customers.

Why I am happy about this is that my plan was to make this business "perpetual" that is to have customers coming to us to see if we have something to suit their needs without us having to go to them.

On top of that I have 3 businesse that have approached us to distribute our instruments as retailers in their own communities (one in Western Canada and 2 in Ontario).

That means I will be selling instruments in truckload quantities as well as the individual retail sales I am enjoying.

Jackie, I just had a look at your auctions and I would like to offer you a suggestion. Dont wait for Valentine's business come to you.

You need to market your jewellery with a Valentine's Day theme right now. You need to have the men on eBay see your auctions and be convinced that buying your items is the perfect thing to do for their wife for Feb 14th.

Toss out your blue background for the next month and throw in reds and roses and splatteryour ads with "Valentine Day" throughout.

Gear your ads to the men who will be window shoppong on eBay.

We started our Christmas Theme in October and geared our sales to parents purchasing for their kids and sold 90% of all our listings in December (about 75% or so in November).

I should have done something for Valentine's Day as well but I missed the boat with our new product lines coming in and getting our web page ready to open in another week.

Blow them away for the 14th Jackie!

Malcolm

[jaymor8]

Gezzzus, I never even thought about Valentine's. That is a great idea, Malcolm. I will make some changes ASAP. Good catch me boyo :))

Hugs,

Jackie...

[jaymor8]

Well, I guess I will have to wait till next week. I don't know to edit my background after it's been uploaded. I use TurboLister 😞

Sounds like you are doing really well Malcolm and I am so glad for you. Keep up the good work!

Jackie...

[ospreylinks]

Malcolm,

How are your comic book sales going? (have been reading extensively how you are upramping your Ebay listings outside of muscial instruments).

Not looking at competing, just interested.

Jeff

PS - You know, I think I still have a pile of old Archie comics from the late 60's early 70's under my old bed at my mothers house.... (she has been instructed to leave my room as I left it, just in case I want to go home and relive my youth.... haven't spent a night in the house since being married 18 years ago, but my bed is still there and maybe even my old Archie comics...

[amberwoodottawa]

Jeff
We statred listing comisc for the first week last week and sold none, so I have to change how we are approaching the market.

We will start relisiting the few we started with last week and use a different approach (BIN, reserves etc.) plus we will make some adjustments to our terms re: postage pricing, insurance etc.

Jeff, part of my secret to making money on eBay is not owning any inventory NOTHING! yet having access to incredible amounts of items to sell.

I negotiate deals for supply where either I will purchase items for a set price (such as with my musical instruments) or work on a commission.

With the instruments I am totally involved even with ordering in new shipments and designs and colours etc. I get paid by the customers for the product and shipping and I havent laid out a red penny for anything until the very day I ship.

I have avaialble at any time an inventory of instruments exceeding $2 million.

With the comics, I have available to me an inventory of over 500,000 and work it on a commission basis.

This week we will start selling fine Chinese furniture (I have a full household available to me) and I will sell on a commission basis again, no cash outlay until we are going to ship and by that time, the customer's money is already in my bank account.

The margins can be pretty thin with eBay so I explored how I wanted to do it and came up with the method we have been using for just over a year now.

As time progreeses we will introduce more and more lines of articles to sell, some we may carry a small inventory of, such as used items but why bother unless I could make a real killing. Right now this is all 110% positive cash flow for me.

I had negotiated with several other businesses to represent their product lines but did not feel the timing was right so I am holding those off in reserve until maybe some point later this year..

Malcolm

[muminlaw]

Malcolm, when we added postcards to our eBay repertoire, it took 3 or 4 weeks before we started to get bids on any. It seems in the collectible market, you have to be around a few times before the collectors find you.

We have a huge following in the postcard market in real life - we're full time dealers - but on eBay we were known for tokens. Now our postcard sales are picking up and I expect them to rival tokens before long.

All I'm saying is, don't expect too much too soon when you're dealing in collectibles! Give the collectors time to realize you're in for long haul!

Glenda

[muminlaw]

Oops,

-- "Now our postcard sales are picking up"

I meant: "Now our eBay postcard sales ....

[amberwoodottawa]

Glenda
Thanks for the input. I agree that being recognized as someine in for the long haul is important to collectors and not someone just doing a quick 'dump' of their old collection from when yhet were kids.

One of the thngs we are doing, for each product line we sell, is create a template that reflects what we are selling. With the postcards, we created a template that looks like an index card to suggest that is how we inventory our comics.

I recognized several things with our ads for the comics that I didnt find very appealing so I know we have to adjust them somewhat in order to get some moevement.

What I like is spending $0.36 per dad when I am used to spending $8-$12 with my instruments. It makes it alot easier to eat $036 sould it not sell then rack up a dozen non-selling instruments at $10 per pop.

Malcolm

[amberwoodottawa]

Sorry Glenda I said postcards, thinking about what you sell, I meant comics.
Malcolm

[amberwoodottawa]

Jackie
Havent heard from you since I suggested Valentine's advertising on your listings.

Did you get into the Valentine's mood and become too occupied to participate on these threads? You know practise, practise, practise!

We took our system down yesterday for over 16 hours to upgrade our hardware (a planned move).

Snowing like crazy earlier today, stuck my head outside a couple of times and said "Why Bother" and came back in.

I've been trying to set values for the Chinese art, furniture and collectables that we will probably start listing tonight.

I have a couple of really rare pieces and cant find anything, anywhere like them. I've spent hours on the net looking.

Well there's my break, time to leave the Drawing Room and back into the sweat shop.

Malcolm

[jaymor8]

Hi Malcolm - nice to hear from you. Never too busy to pop in here. I always peek in to see if anyone is around. Looks like many of us are occupied with real life, lately.

I did take your advice on the Valentine's thing. I tried to revise my listings but I couldn't. However, I had 2 new ones to upload on Monday and they are done in the Valentine background. That was such a good idea, Malcolm.

I love Chinese artifacts. I had a black laquered tilt-top table once that was inlaid with mother of pearl. It had belonged to a man who perished on the Titanic. Anyway, I bought it at an estate sale for $80. When I realized that it was highly collectible, I walked around the streets of Montreal with it, popping into all of the antique shops. I wanted to see what they would offer me. How young and stupid I was back then. I actually believed that someone would give me a fair shake. But, eventually, one dealer offered me $1200 for it and I took it. I have always always regretted it. I would give anything to have that puppy back now.

Well Malcolm, you are about to start a whole new line of stuff, huh? Oh I hope it works out well for you. That should keep you endlessly busy, I'm sure. Don't get so involved that you have no tome left for your family.

Anyway that's it for now. I have to run and make dinner. Your snow has just arrived here. I don't know how much we are going to get. What a winter this has been. Hi Glenda girl. How have you been??? Long time no hear. Is it spring there yet???? LOL

Cheers everyone,

Jackie...

[muminlaw]

Hi Jackie! I've been here off and on, although not always in the Drawing Room.

Spring? Well, actually ..... {{{whisper -- our spring bulbs are popping up.}}} We've been spending a couple of mornings a week golfing and the rest of the time photographing and editing tokens and postcards to try to get a little ahead for eBay listing. Much chance!!

Just bought a small PC collection from a woman who told us she also has a small, old Chinese cabinet, with drawers full of what she thought were ivory mahjongg pieces. I guess that'll take a bit of research time once we at least see a picture of the piece.

Jackie, it's still hard for me to think of anyone making dinner when we've barely finished lunch and haven't even had our afternoon snack yet! Oh well, I guess I'll adjust ... it sure gets lonesome around here at around 11:00 pm our time though!

Stay warm! Glenda