Alternatives to eBay for selling pearls

[aggiep]

Pattye, you're in Oregon, why not check out the Ashland Shakespeare festival. You would be surprised at how many people with money show up. They also want things that harken back to the Renaissance time, ie pearl necklaces and such. Actual selling time I put in is 3 nights of 2 hours each. i clear over $900 to $1200 a week. That is for little copper Xmas ornaments. I'm told constantly to do a jewelry line. Ashland is a much bigger festival. You would have much larger crowds than I get.

[pattye]

Thanks, Aggie, for thinking of that! I will get some info on it. It is a huge and long festival! I think actually a couple of months! Not sure of their vendor situation, but certainly they would have something organized.

Your ornaments are lovely! And a great remembrance of a fun occasion. How long does your festival last?

[aggiep]

We run for 11 weeks. This year it was from mid June until last night. I get to play dress up all summer and at my age it makes me look perky. I don't have to pay a vendor fee since I'm one of two artists in residence.

[pattye]

Woo, I love the perky part, I could REALLY use some of that!! (Heidi and Blaire, stop laughing, you're gonna snort! Same to all the rest of you who have met me in person!!) Wish I lived closer to Ashland, it is clear across the state to the south from Portland, however, still worth looking in to!

[Amrita]

Wow - this has been such a useful and enlightening thread! Although due to kind of pearl business and location (wholesale FW pearls and China) that I am at, I may not directly benefit from the ideas that you good folks have generously exchanged to increase sales for pearls, I think I might have picked up a few ideas for my Indian Jewelry business (www.myindiastop.com) and might try them out.

It is truly amazing to think what a great team of helpful experts in various areas of pearls, from farming to designing to retailing we have on this forum, and I am so grateful.

[Nerida]

A dress up fair?? That could be heaps of fun!

Another opportunity that has presented to me this week is for a Christmas Shopping Bazaar that one of our big merchant banks runs for its staff during early December - no dressups, no extra perkiness (mm, that could definitely be useful), but hopefully some comfortable bankers who desperately need gifts for their partners?

[gemologist]

Gemologist, there is some really great advice here. Having sold tons of pearls on eBay, I have a few suggestions to add... 1) Make it as clear as possible what the buyer will exactly be getting; 2) Offer true value that is a good as, or better than, they can get elsewhere.

If you were selling 3 really nice white coins or crosses for $1, that would be an attractive way to introduce yourself to buyers who may then become long-term customers. But if they get 3 of the rice pearls in the picture that have deep rings, you may get opposite results - it's so easy on eBay for unhappy buyers to publicly post negative feedback and quickly spoil your business!

But don't give up. Find what works, whether on eBay or elsewhere. Best wishes for your success ...

I have been getting great advice here.

First off, no I don't want to compete with all the websites out there selling pearls for so much money that it makes my head spin. Yes you all have better quality than I do, but I think all pearls are beautiful, not just the perfectly round ones and the most expensive to produce, which is why I avoid the south sea and tahitian forums.

I know that is what the people with money demand, but I am not trying to cater to them, you all are doing a fantastic job, I have seen your sites and so many of you have great products that I would love to buy if I had unlimited funds.

But I don't, and I want to be able to get my customers some really pretty items for cheap, no they aren't heirlooms, no, they aren't a status symbol, but they are pretty, and so I have been looking for ways to get real gemstones and real pearls to the public without making them expensive.

I am a real gemologist, so I believe in using the real deal. I don't like fake stuff, blue topaz and irradiated diamonds... oy, makes me wonder why people bother with the stuff.

I don't have 50,000 to put into a small inventory online, so going high quality is out anyways, although I'll do special orders occasionally.

What I would really like to see is people who are poor be able to wear a pearl necklace that looks nice, and for people who make handmade items find uses for natural, inexpensive gemstones in their work.

Basically, I see God's hand in making pearls and gemstones and it's beautiful, I want to share that with everyone, not just those fortunate enough to have a good paying job, good credit, or a good family backing them up.

I really appreciate everyones advice on my auction here, (if I could get 3 crosses for $.99 shipped to me, I would sell them for that) otherwise, I know I am giving these pearls away for a good price, and doing my best to ensure people are happy with their purchase.

If I had a ton of money the easiest, most lucrative and most popular way to go socially, is surely to shoot for the high end stuff, but that really doesn't help anyone because there are tons of people doing it, I am willing to sacrifice to try to get some pretty, and REAL stuff into the hands of people that have thought that gemstones were out of reach.

So, I have re-listed my auction after reading the advice above, and even though I know many people reading this will automatically object to selling lower quality product and calling them wonderful, I stand by my assertions.



Thanks again all!
-J

[perlinda]

I'm reviving this thread since I've been considering to leave ebay. I just started selling on ebay few months ago, but with the high ebay and paypal fee, shipping cost which I'm giving free (anyway, they're charging fee for the shipping cost too), price war going on, I'm lucky if I'm getting any profit in the end. Not to mention the one-way feedback format (someone complained that the size is too small, even though I already mentioned the exact size which I measured with caliper).

I'm in the process of making my own website now, but once it's ready, I realize it's gonna take months before I can make first sale there. So meanwhile I'm looking for another online outlet to sell my products, anyone ever tried Amazon? The fees can be higher than ebay, but we can put higher price too since the customers there are more sophisticated in general. I'm considering etsy as well...

[Adeline Leigh]

How about Etsy and Artfire? I like the etsy interface and community ALOT and if I ever sell I feel I might explore that platform as it's good on supporting relational (if you can call it that) transactions.

[Lulu]

I second Adeline's suggestion. As a consumer, I have really liked Etsy as a place to find individual artisans and find the layout much cleaner and amenable to random browsing than ebay.

[perlinda]

Thank you for the suggestions, really appreciate the inputs! I've browsed etsy before but have never bought anything there yet. At the moment I'm only selling loose South Sea pearls, I'm still trying to improve my crafting/beading skill before selling any of my creations. The fees on etsy are much better than ebay so I'm gonna give it a shot, I'm gonna check Artfire too. Thanks Adeline and Lulu :-)

[morphius]

I'm reviving this thread since I've been considering to leave ebay. I just started selling on ebay few months ago, but with the high ebay and paypal fee, shipping cost which I'm giving free (anyway, they're charging fee for the shipping cost too), price war going on, I'm lucky if I'm getting any profit in the end. .

Totally agree on this point. eBay is a serious profit robber if you don't have hundreds of products to post and achieve top seller status.
- 10% charge on the first $50 of the selling value
- 8% charge on the next $50 to $1000 of the selling value
- 2% charge on the next $1001 and up of the selling value
- 8% charge on the shipping value
- $0.50 to post an item for 7 days PLUS around $0.50 per image
- then there's PayPal's 2.9% + $0.30 fee when you receive the payment

If you were to sell an item at $400 USD plus $20 for shipping, you'll end up paying around $50.00 in fees...and that's only if the item sells within a week (as an individual seller)...if it takes longer or you buy their 'serious seller' items, you'll pay even more.

Amazon isn't any better either with their fees starting at 20% of the selling price...talk about stealing from people.

[perlinda]

A profit robber indeed

And with free shipping I'm giving, I've counted that in the end I've "lost" around 20% of my selling price. It's not so bad if I'm selling tons of products, but as someone that has just started, I don't have resources to that yet.

What about bonanza? Someone recommended it to me and it looks quite good, but I don't have any experience with it.

[Adeline Leigh]

Good luck to you. No idea about Bonanza.

Well at least with Etsy it's a mere 3.5% of the selling price and $0.20 per listing that lasts for a whopping four months. I know there's paypal charges but I think I can take the pain from their cut.

It's sad because I just had three of my favourite sellers on ebay drop off that platform in the last 6 months. And two of them were retired old dears who had bothered to share with me their passion and chat about gemstones. One was seeking medical treatment in Thailand and needed every cent from his sales while the other was selling his lifetime collection of gems for penny auctions. He was barely making any money, in fact getting into deficit on each and every listing. And this carried on almost two years. They both were so burnt out from their ebay experience when I tried convincing them to go on etsy and artfire they declined, saying they were too old and technology was too hard for them. I often wonder what happened with them.

And Caitlin's advice is really good. I think to sell you have to think like a consumer and their buying patterns. These days people buy in smaller quantities, I guess. The sorted sequins look so pretty; it helps to appeal to their aesthetic as well.

[Unusual Pearls]

unfortunately there is not really a place online that has the web traffic that ebay does. if you can find venues to sell to people in person, that is the best as you can get better prices. fairs, exhibitions, etc. look for one near your home and give it a try.