Au Revoir to Auctiva Commerce

September 6th, 2009 . Posted in Buyer's Resource, Seller's Resource | No Comments »

Ditched eBay some time ago without regret, and now I’m about to close my AuctivaCommerce account, too. Auctiva is a good service, very feature-rich and reasonably priced, but way overkill for a small business like mine that sells mostly at antique malls and relatively few pieces online. It was also cumbersome to have an online store hosted in a separate place from my website, email accounts and weblog. Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Turns out, too, that PayPal has improved its “buy this” buttons to the point where they’ll estimate shipping cost from weight and zip code. So I can sell just a few things, one button at a time, filling out just one simple form instead of 6 or 7 pages on Auctiva. Paypal even has a built in shopping cart feature, so people can still make multiple purchases. Nice. Very nice.

Bargains at Auction End

September 6th, 2009 . Posted in Buyer's Resource | No Comments »

It’s become clear to me that the best auction bargains are often at the end of the auction, not at the beginning. At the end, the bidding is just less intense – whether due to exhaustion on the part of the audience, or a thinning out of dealers, or a lack of any more cash on the part of the remaining people, or whatever. It didn’t occur to me that attending the end instead of the beginning deliberately might be a good strategy until I was forced to do so because of work. Coming in late, and fresh, really helped (I got a set of Candlewick cups and saucers for next to nothing in one, and several boxes of good glass at another), so I’ve started going late – very late – to auctions.

The Job Auction

April 5th, 2009 . Posted in Tangents | No Comments »

Now that I’m on the job market, I feel right at home, just like I would at an auction, only with those funny glasses that generate multiple copies of what the wearer sees. The people in possession of job openings have not one but dozens of recruiters casting around for bids. The job-seeking audience is huge, competitive, and bidding urgently, although in some cases it looks like the job owner is just kidding, or dyspeptic, or was drunk when writing the job requirement description.

It strikes me that the researchers in the audience are likely to be better at this than the engineers. After all, a bridge has to stand up to traffic first time out, whereas good research usually requires a very large scrap heap of failed tries. A job search is a lot more like the latter.

Getting away from retail…

July 6th, 2008 . Posted in Seller's Resource | No Comments »

One of the things I don’t like about this business is retail selling. That sounds ridiculous – why even start a business selling china if you don’t do retail?

Well for one thing because packing china properly for shipment is an exacting, exhausting, frustrating chore. Because putting things up for auctions online is extraordinarily time-consuming. But mostly because customers can be a problem, and not just for non-payment. After all, if they don’t pay, I don’t send them anything – we’re even, no hard feelings. Nor would I complain about the people who report breakage. It happens no matter how well packed, and I send a partial refund immediately.

No, worst is the customer who gets a box full, tells you it’s all broken, fails to send clear pictures of the breakage, and then insists on all the money back. I can see from other feedback that this person has pulled this stunt with other sellers, and then smeared them up and down if there was any other outcome than a full refund. It’s unlikely everything in the package was broken, but this person knows darn well my reputation is worth more to me than the fifty bucks, and my time is worth more to me than the arduous process of proving a pattern of such behavior, so I refund the payment. All of it. And then feel sick for awhile.

But I don’t want to give up on selling, either. I was able to provide nearly an entire set of Noritake china at a very good price to a family who wanted it for a wedding gift. Many times I’ve been able to replace individual pieces from beloved heirloom dinnerware sets – and have regularly gotten thank you notes from those buyers. You can’t beat that.

I’m getting hints, however, that you can avoid selling directly to the consumer, but still keep in touch with them. It’s harder to make money than on eBay, but it’s do-able. Any consignment shop or antique mall, for example, takes the retail off your hands; they collect the money, deal with problems, answer questions, secure your merchandise, mail anything that needs to be mailed, and submit the sales tax to the state. You don’t even need a tax ID number. I can still direct previous good customers to them and help out my fellow vendors at the same time with good marketing practices. The couple of thefts I’ve endured at the mall are somehow not nearly as creepy as being cheated online by someone in direct contact with me.

And I can sell from my own website, where I can make my own rules and develop a smaller, but better customer base. Yet another possibility is selling directly to specific collectors or dealing with collector’s organizations. I don’t know enough yet to do that, but it’s an idea.

Finally, another venue I’m trying out is re-auctioning items at a higher-end auction house. Fingers crossed. First try this summer. The problem here, of course, is that the customer is kept at too great a distance, if not cut out altogether. That’s not what I had in mind. If the main point of this business is getting something no one wants into the hands of someone who does want it, another auction disrupts that process, or at least lengthens it. I think what I’ll do is put new things up either in the mall or on my website for a specific period of time and then take them to be re-auctioned if they don’t sell there. Rotates the inventory, too.

Stay tuned.

–Gail

For the auction newbie…

June 19th, 2008 . Posted in Buyer's Resource | No Comments »

I have a distribution list to several friends and colleagues that alerts them whenever there’s a good auction nearby. Just goes to show you how clueless I can be – some of them have never been to an auction and didn’t know what happened there. I promised them they’d never buy any overpriced junk in a department store again, and then I showed them the ropes, summarized below:

  • auctions are usually advertised. Our own newspaper in town has completely screwed up the auction listings, but they used to have a very nice section in each Friday paper with the date, time, a general description of the things for sale (particularly the good stuff), and the name and policies of the auctioneer. A good online site for locating auctions is www.auctionzip.com – you put in your zip code and they tell you what auctions are available on any given day within a particular radius of your home. Not all auctioneers advertise in AuctionZip, however, so see if your local newspaper is still making sense.
  • auctioneers must charge sales tax, but often charge a “bidder’s fee” as well – this is a very common fee, tacked on to the cost of winning auctions, and it is sometimes excessive. (You don’t pay a bidder’s fee just to bid – only if you are the winning bidder). Pay attention to this – some auctioneers do not charge bidder’s fees, and I try to attend their auctions to support them. I refuse to attend any auction where the bidder’s fee is over 10% (I’ve seen it as high as 25%), although if you’re a hard-core collector, you do what you need to do.
  • there is usually an opportunity to look over the merchandise before the auction starts. For regular auctions, this is usually scheduled an hour or two before the auction opens, but for real estate and high value items, it may be a different day. (Depends on the auctioneer and what’s being sold.) Go to this if at all possible. Dig around in boxes and under tables and look items of interest over very carefully. Auctions are usually “caveat emptor” – buyer beware – although the best auctioneers will mention damage while they’re calling bids. Items are for sale as is and where is, so this inspection is very important.
  • consignment auctions consist of items from several people – these might be auctioned at a fire hall or other community space, or at a private auction house. Estate auctions sell the estates of individuals, and are often held on the property of that person (although these items might be moved to a community venue or auction house, too).
  • once the auction starts, you need a bidder’s card to participate, so get one early while you’re still inspecting. This generally involves handing over your driver’s license temporarily to an auction employee sitting in front of either a computer or a log book, who will record your contact information, and then give you a card – about 10″ x 4″ in size – that has a large number, the auction rules, and sometimes a space for taking notes on it. That’s the bidder’s card, and it’s a contract. Don’t lose it. Don’t put it down anywhere while you get goodies at the lunch counter or visit the restroom. You’re responsible for payment on anything successfully bid with that number.
  • the auctioneer will go over the rules at the start of an auction, usually very, very fast. (The regulars in the audience don’t even listen – this is pretty standard. ) Then they start calling bids on individual items or “tray/box lots” of items at a time. Each auctioneer will call bids differently. If you’re new, listen until you get the cadence of the bid call. (Each auctioneer is different – some of them are intelligible to anyone, others move very fast indeed and their sing-song is barely understandable.)
  • to bid on an item while the auctioneer is calling bids, raise your card so the auctioneer can see it. If you don’t think the auctioneer sees you, it is usually appropriate to call out “here” or his/her name to get attention. The runners who are holding up the merchandise will help direct the auctioneer’s attention to bidders, but they are busy and can miss people. I personally like to sit either in the front row (although that’s often reserved for dealers and thus unavailable) or on the center aisle. I often stand to one side or in the back, too. Auctions move fast – if you aren’t ready to plunge in, don’t. Just watch until you’re ready.
  • you can check out when you’re done buying (you don’t have to wait until everything is sold). Take your bidder’s card to the same desk where you got it, and pay for your purchases. Most auction houses accept credit cards – some don’t! Find out about this ahead of time. Even auction houses that accept credit cards in general may be unable to do so at particular venues – I was at an estate sale, for example, where I had to pay cash, even though the auction house accepts credit cards most of the time.
  • What if you buy a box lot and don’t want some of the items in it? Or you can’t move a piece of furniture right away? Be careful here! Some auctioneers will have you fined if you leave any unwanted items behind. Others will encourage you to put unwanted goods in a particular location for others to look through. For large items, you can sometimes wait a day or so to arrange pickup, but ask first. When in doubt, assume you are responsible for removing every single thing you buy when the auction ends.

–Gail

The Microsoft TechEd Auction (or maybe circus sideshow)

June 15th, 2008 . Posted in Tangents | No Comments »

Just got back from a gigantic information technology conference sponsored by Microsoft (TechEd, for those of you in the field). Educational from several perspectives, some of which don’t seem apparent to the typical attendee.

There are extremely few women in technology. I think we knew that, but I didn’t get the full force of it until I saw it in action. The only woman on stage during the entire keynote address headed up the entertainment – an excellent African-inspired percussion ensemble – and she did not speak words, only musical calls and shrieks. The technical session leaders were virtually all male (Carolyn Chau an exception), although there did seem to be a larger female contingent at the vendor booths. Among the attendees, maybe 1 in 20 was female. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the “Women in Technology” luncheon was standing room only, but unfortunately that wasn’t because so many women were there but rather because the room was not particularly large.

Now lest you think I’m about to start on some shrill rant about the evils of male domination, forget it. Despite scholarships, trade organization initiatives, spotlights, programs and downright begging on the part of some tech sectors, there still aren’t many women in technology (with the exception of biochemistry, which is about half women now). The innate ability exists, the educational opportunity exists, there are many welcoming open doors in industry, and still women usually spend their talents elsewhere. I don’t know why either, but it might be wise to look for some new angle on cracking this open.

It’s easy to see how Tech-Ed is like a circus sideshow, and the whole event is a giant marketing campaign, but how is it like an auction?

  • To start, there is a lot of diverse material for sale, with a specific theme. And they’re selling more than just software. they’re selling community, comraderie, and friendship
  • The auctioneer – whether session presenter or keynote speaker – whips up interest in the material itself, but also strokes the buyer. (An astonishing amount of effort went into convincing the attendees that we were heroes – an important, underappreciated tribe who get impossible things done.)
  • The audience bids not directly with money but with brand loyalty and purchasing potential. We take home a sense of community and a staggering amount of useful technical information, but also a determination to buy.

Think about it the next time you’re at a conference.

–Gail

What’s it worth? Who will buy it?

June 1st, 2008 . Posted in Auction Story | No Comments »

Attended a very interesting auction yesterday (J. Pandur) – lots of good china and collectibles, good atmosphere, some great deals. Wacko prices, though – the sheer range was astonishing. Someone purchased an empty cardboard box for $400 just because it had a picture of Hopalong Cassidy on it. On the other hand, someone else walked out of there with about 20 antique windup wall clocks for $20 each. I was looking for bargains – and I don’t know much about clocks – so I didn’t bid very often, but I did get some blue Willow china, a few pieces of depression glass, and a cool metal condiment server with 6 etched glass carafes. Let an entire set of Noritake dinnerware go for $20 to someone else because I didn’t know the pattern and I don’t have room for it in inventory, though.

I go hot and cold on inventory. There are days when I think I should just buy good quality things as they come up and store them until the right person comes along to buy. Other days I look around and think “Enough! Let’s get this stuff out of here!” Some compromise, I suppose…6 months? A year? I was about to take all the big china sets to a high end auctioneer and get rid of them last week, and then someone ordered several pieces through the website.

OK. I’ll hold on to them a little longer…someone might need them.

–Gail

Researching China Patterns and Value

February 28th, 2008 . Posted in Buyer's Resource, Seller's Resource | No Comments »

Occasionally people write to me for advice on selling a set of china, or ask me to buy a set from them. In general, Grandma’s gorgeous set isn’t worth as much as you’d hoped (except for relatively few patterns), and selling to a dealer will always raise (far) less money than selling to an end user or collector. I don’t even buy from individuals because of this (I buy only at auction), and I sometimes advise people to just give it to a relative – far more satisfying than selling in many cases. Not what most people want to hear, but with that said, here’s a start on determining value and trying to sell for an acceptable price:

 

  • Try Replacements.com: http://www.replacements.com/identify.htm. If you don’t already know about these guys, they maintain an enormous database of information on china and silver. If you know the pattern, you can look it up on their website. If you send them pictures of the object, particularly the backstamp and details of the rim/center, they’ll try and identify it for you (no cost), and may be able to give you some idea of its value. (Note: their notion of value will be its current market value in general, not its value to a collector.) They also buy china, but at wholesale rates, and you have to pay the shipping.
  • Also, try TIAS.com – they publish a newsletter and maintain a showcase area for various antiques and collectibles: http://www.tias.com/showcase/. Some of the vendors specialize in certain manufacturers or patterns and may be able to help you.
  • After that, look for pottery museums, collector’s groups, and appraisers/auctioneers who specialize in china. Is there an auctioneer in your area who could tell you what it might draw at auction? Be careful here (maybe put a reserve price on it, or make sure it goes up for auction when a number of collectors or dealers are in attendance) – I’ve gotten whole sets of dinnerware for under $50, but I’ve also seen a set go for over $1000. Depends (as with Replacements.com) whether the pattern is in demand.
  • Antique Trader magazine is a good source for buyers, sellers, and the simply curious – they have an extensive classifieds section: http://www.antiquetrader.com/ and it’s not particularly expensive to advertise something for sale.
  • For other antiques sites, Google it – you’ll find hundreds.
  • Find out if there are antique malls in your area. The business model of a mall is to have booths that many different vendors rent to display items for sale. The mall owners do the retail part (taking money from customers, paying sales tax to the state, etc). Some vendors – or the mall owners themselves – may put your set up for sale on consignment.
  • If you want to get rid of a set with the least hassle, donate it to a legitimate charity and take the tax break.
  • If you are determined to sell the set yourself online, sell it by the piece rather than altogether. It’s nearly impossible to sell whole sets of old, good china online these days unless the pattern happens to be in high demand. Ebay (despite the multiple fees, byzantine rules, and chaotic feedback system) is still the most likely place to make a sale.

Good luck!

–Gail

Ebay changes

February 28th, 2008 . Posted in Auction Story, Seller's Resource | 1 Comment »

I have closed my Ebay store. I had been considering that action for some time anyway, but now that they’ve further damaged the feedback system and want to charge even more to sell, I’m out of there. I participated in the initial Ebay boycott with a number of other sellers (despite the increasingly shrill rhetoric), but then figured that I might as well go elsewhere altogether and give Ebay some competition. Found a couple good alternatives, too. One is NeoLoch.com, a brand new site with no listing fees – only opened in late February of this year (so some initial bugs and growing pains) – but there’s something interesting about making a bet on a real new business. Also joined www.onlineauction.com, which charges a flat fee per year, not per item. I’ll be listing some things there, too.

Mostly, though, I’ll be improving and upgrading my gailsfinechina.com website. Signed on with Mal’s E-commerce for a shopping cart, and applied to the post office for access to their shipping calculators.

–Gail

Overpaying for Sentiment

October 12th, 2007 . Posted in Auction Story | No Comments »

I was at an auction a few months ago, where a woman – obviously bidding against a bitterly competitive family member – paid over $3000 for a set of china from an older lady’s (presumably her grandmother’s) estate. The rest of the auction attendees stood there in stunned silence while this went on, and I heard them muttering later about how painful that was to witness – and it was.

And yet… I know what it is to want something owned by a departed loved one. I also know what it’s like to see a relative grotesquely mishandle and misrepresent the last wishes of that loved one, too. There are days when I’m certain the manipulative will inherit the earth.

What would I do in an equivalent situation? I could send an anonymous agent to bid for me, and simply stay away. Then whoever was bidding against me would at least not have the advantage of spite to fuel the battle.

I could also simply replace the set. It was a very fine manufacturer, and the dishes were in excellent condition, but you could have bought all of it by the piece from Replacements, Ltd. for less than a third of what she paid for them.

Then again, I might remember that Grandma gave me a lot more than dishes. Not only did I not have to buy those other things, no one can take them away from me, either.

–Gail

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