Views from AK

So I decided that I live in such a BEAUTIFUL place that I should share more pictures with you all. If for no other reason than to give people a simple little break in their Cathologosphere journey to appreciate some of God's picturesque majesty:

-Posted by: Joe

Why Bettye Had Record Sales Last Month on eBay

My friend, Bettye, from Dragonfly Vintage Clothing, just reported on her fabulous eBay sales from last month. January was her highest sales month ever after opening her eBay store 18 months ago. Here are Bettye's top three reasons, in her words, of why her sales have continued to grow and why she believes she had the big jump in January.

1. I'm buying better - more selectively...which I'm able to do only because I'm shopping MORE - I get to at LEAST one thrift store 6 days a week, and, many days, two. On average, I'm in 10 stores a week. This is on top of my full-time M-F, 8:30-4:30 day job. You have to get to a LOT of stores, and see a LOT of items, to allow yourself the luxury of only buying the BEST items. When I used to try and do all my shopping in one day, I had to lower the bar for what I would buy, as I knew there would be no other buying opportunities that week.

2. When ebay works right, it's using a system of exponential growth - which I think only REALLY works when you have a niche. I've done both. I've studied both. I know people who do both, and ON AVERAGE, there seems to be MORE GROWTH in stores that specialize in a certain type of product. Niche sellers have more repeat customers, there is probably more word-of-mouth referrals...and over time, a specialty store gets more and more and MORE regular watchers...as you have more people watching, you have more people likely to bid...and all it takes is two or more people who want the same item, and prices get driven up. When every one of your items is totally different - not even in the same style or genre - repeat customers are not as likely, repeat watchers the same. This exponential growth takes TIME. To Really Succeed on Ebay, I think you need to have/offer one of several things (you don't need all, but you need ONE): HIGHLY rare or desirable and well-recognized things (Coach bags, Apple ipods, etc); or EXTREME savings - if you're The Cheapest in any category, you will get the attention and the sales; or TIME. Time listing above average, well-priced items, in an attractive format, with good pictures, clear descriptions, reasonable shipping, in a specialty - and in TIME, you WILL build up a customer base. I think I'm finally hitting My Time :-)

3. To reiterate #2, I have really taken care to have clean, unfussy auction formats; clear, large pictures (I'm a firm believer in the PICTURE tells the story - the text is just an aside); low starting prices and reasonable shipping with no handling fee. I've held firm to my gut feeling that MY clothes are best shown on a live model, even though it would be easier and cheaper to use a mannequin.

Many thanks to Bettye for allowing me to publish her tips and observations. Bettye's goal for 2008 is to double her eBay sales from 2007. Looks like she's off to a fabulous start. (You go, girl!)

Bettye's store
Bettye's other store

Photo Tips

Someone told me the other day that she thought I did an excellent job at photographing my items for ebay, and she asked for tips. I had to laugh because I have really struggled, and still do sometimes, to get just the right photo. I did give her a couple of suggestions, though, and thought I would share them here as well.

Tip one is to use a lot of light. We recently bought one of the large silver, dome-shaped, clamp-on lights and got a Reveal by GE lightbulb, which produces a very nice, clean, bright light. I back that up (unless I get lazy) with a second one (one we had, which is smaller) and use a white sheet (most of the time - unless it's a light-colored item and then I use red or dark blue) as a backdrop and surface. Position the lights in such a way to avoid shadows as much as possible.

When you compose the photo, try to fill the frame with the item you're photographing and, most certainly, avoid clutter in the background. Look beyond the item to see what will show, in two dimension, in the background. (Did you ever take a picture then get it back and see a tree growing out of the person's head? The tree was there, in the distance in 3D! You just have to learn to look beyond the subject and see the result, which will be flat.)

What has helped me the most is to use Picasa, the free photo-editing software from Google. It is very easy to use. Even with good light my pictures are still somewhat yellow, so I use the Auto Color feature to level that out, the Auto Contrast if I feel it needs it, then add fill light if necessary. I crop the picture to delete as much of the background as possible and I try to make a vertical aspect, as I mentioned in one of my guides, if I'm going to use the picture as a gallery photo because it takes up more space on the search results page.

There are other solutions for photo problems, including using a purchased or homemade light tent or light box, and I may elaborate on those more later. In the meantime, I hope these couple of hints are useful for you.

Have a great ebay day!