Not a bad month for sales on AM. Still only a fraction of what I do on eBay but with much lower fees.

94 Transactions totalling approx $2423.00.

The sales were not bad but I think they could have been better. I have noticed that the traffic is down at a lot of alts because of Google Shopping issues and AM is among those sites. The upside is that I have more buyers finding me through Bing and Yahoo. I think I would have had a much better month if the Google issues didnt exist. Hopefully the Google Base problems will be resolved soon.

Hey Patch congrats on the sales. I have been doing pretty good on my site and the other alternative. I am staying away from the bay for the most part with only a few items listed.

Love to hear this, PatchDog. Hearing about the increased sales at Atomic Mall as well as those at eBid, Bonanzle, eCrater, et al. just makes me happy. I love that alternative venues are gaining momentum. Congratulations.

PatchDog wrote (View Post): › Not a bad month for sales on AM. Still only a fraction of what I do on eBay but with much lower fees. 94 Transactions totalling approx $2423.00.

Well done Patch. OOC, what were your sales from eBay for the same period?


.

My eBay sales for the same period were almost $15,000 but then again, most of my A List stuff is on eBay.

Well, then, Patch - don't you think it's about time you put some of your A-List stuff on other sites and gave them a better chance?

purple_reading_giraffe wrote (View Post): › Well, then, Patch - don't you think it's about time you put some of your A-List stuff on other sites and gave them a better chance?

I do have "some" A List stuff at AM currently although most is at eBay.

I have been building up my presence outside of eBay on a steady pace but o, it isnt time yet to move more A List items to other sites, including AM. eBay is allowing me to build up my "war chest" and to buy additional inventory of which some will end up on AM. To give you an example, last year I spent over 700 dollars in clearence Halloween items and put them on AM. The money to buy those items came from eBay sales. I was pretty late in listing those Halloween items on AM but when the smoke cleared, I still made a profit and I still have a ton of inventory. That inventory is the foundation I will build on.

In the last week I have spent another 1600 dollars on Halloween clearance items, including over 1100 dollars today alone (shirts, costumes, home decorations, etc) that were 80-90 percent off as stores are trying to make room for the Christmas stuff. The 1600 dollars came from eBay sales. Since I will be going to school overseas next year, I am breaking in another partner (my sister) who will be handling the bulk of my businesses for a few years. I provide the finance and she'll start taking pictures, listing and shipping.

After the holidays I'll start moving more A List items to AM and turning more and more inventory over to my sister with the idea being that by April, I wont be doing anything but shopping, proccessing payemnst and handling emails. By the time I leave in May I will have at 3 partners in the US handling different parts of the inventory with varying degrees of responsibility. The transition has been going smoothly so far and I am making money and I have a responsibility to them to ensure that they are making money too and abandoning eBay too quick wouldnt matter much to me but it would to them. I'll continue to sell on eBay and reinvest part of my profits for more inventory to keep the engine running. Maybe in 3 years they'll be a big enough war chest (meaning inventory) that I could make everyone happy and still keep my current lifestyle without using eBay as much but now isnt the time if I want to still be making money 2 years from now.

I'm happy with the results I have gotten from AM so far and look forward to even more sales in the future. My transition from using only eBay to using alternative sites as well has been slow but is also has not been at all painful. I see so many people who say they are leaving eBay for good with no kinda plan. They try out the alts and discover that the alts dont bring in as much money so they give up and return to eBay out of frustration. I prefer to stick with my plan of moving away a bit at a time.

I admire your planning. I guess I'm just confused as to why you don't list more A-list items off-eBay as well as on-eBay. Seems you set the price, and you seem to have more than one of each item, so it seems to me as if dual-listing of items would work. But then, you are the expert on your inventory, not I.

purple_reading_giraffe wrote (View Post): › I admire your planning. I guess I'm just confused as to why you don't list more A-list items off-eBay as well as on-eBay. Seems you set the price, and you seem to have more than one of each item, so it seems to me as if dual-listing of items would work. But then, you are the expert on your inventory, not I.

I dont like to "dual list" items. For one, it's just too much work even with the importer and I dont like to spend as much time on internet sales these days since my family is here. I limit myself to 5 hours a day listing, packing, handling emails and shipping if that much. The rest of the time is doing things with the wife and kids even if it is related to the business like shopping. Poor kids see Daddy buying lots of toys they cant play with although they did pick out a couple costumes today. At this moment I have 2 little firefighters in the room watching Go Diego Go! I get to pick the next show. Time to watch Nightmare Before Christmas <grin> so my wife can complain that it isnt a good movie for the kids.

Also, I dont have an unlimited supply of inventory, or even 5 of the same item 98 percent of the time. I have a large variety of items in mostly small quantities. A lot of people think that because I have connections in China, I buy large quantities of mass produced items and sell the same thing over and over. I actually buy most of my items from stores within a 150 radius of me and online when I see good clearance deals.

PatchDog wrote (View Post): › Poor kids see Daddy buying lots of toys they cant play with

Boy does that bring back memories! Back in my ebay/amazon days I bought a case of Furbies at a good price to resell. Little did I know how hard it would be to keep them hidden from my then 6-year old daughter and her friends.

At the end I think I wound up giving or gifting away half of them - mostly to persistent little girls with big puppy dog eyes. And of course my kidlet decided she needed a PAIR so they could talk to each other.

I suck at saying no. My daughter knows this and uses it to her full advantage to this day.

Kids are our weak spots. I can say no to them but dont like to.

[quote="AtomicMall.com";p="283581"]

PatchDog wrote (View Post): › I suck at saying no.

That's why Atomic Mall sellers are so spoiled!

kittenstreasurechest wrote (View Post): › That's why Atomic Mall sellers are so spoiled!

Possible that it is a contributing factor.

Way to go Patchdog. I just had my first sale recently at Atomic Mall. I do like the site and setup. I just need to find the time to list the rest of my inventory I have.