Selling Geocoins

[GregsonVaux]

I am in the process of minting my first geocoin and would like to ask all of you about selling the coins to recoup costs. What are the advantages and disadvantages of selling coins on eBay? The major advantages that I can think of are that the entire selling infrastructure is already in place, so I will not need to set that up. In addition it is a site with high volumes of traffic so advertising will be less of a problem. The major disadvantage is that I will need to pay their fees. I admit that I have not yet looked into this, so I do not know exactly what those fees are.

 

Do people have strong feelings one way or the other?

[GregsonVaux]

I see that this topic has been posted twice. Would the moderator please remove one of them? Thanks.

[+Zelanzy]

To me, the major disadvantage of ebay is time consumption. For example, creating 4 auctions a week, even if you schedule them and use templates, takes time. Then you have to ship as payments come in (and some people don't pay or wait to pay since they are bidding on other auctions of your which may still be "live"), then you have to mark as shipped, then leave feedback, and then keeping your Ebay summary page clear after the process is complete.

 

The major advantage, to me, is that you reach markets other than this message board. Specifically...Germany, UK, & Scandinavian countries.

[GregsonVaux]

 

The major advantage, to me, is that you reach markets other than this message board. Specifically...Germany, UK, & Scandinavian countries.

 

Do you find that international shipping is a problem? If I am going to have to charge something like $14 to ship a single coin, I might limit sales to the U.S. On the other hand, when I buy coins from Germany, they charge $14, so I just order lots of coins at once. My inclination is to keep shippng costs as low as possible. How frequently do shipments to Europe go missing?

[RedShoesGirl]

I am in the process of minting my first geocoin and would like to ask all of you about selling the coins to recoup costs. What are the advantages and disadvantages of selling coins on eBay? The major advantages that I can think of are that the entire selling infrastructure is already in place, so I will not need to set that up. In addition it is a site with high volumes of traffic so advertising will be less of a problem. The major disadvantage is that I will need to pay their fees. I admit that I have not yet looked into this, so I do not know exactly what those fees are.

 

Do people have strong feelings one way or the other?

 

it seems to me i recall some people really do not like sellers who only sell on ebay and not offer coins here first or on a web site with a fixed price. enough so that some members will not buy coins that are only listed on ebay. there are a few vendors that do that. no web store, just ebay.

 

rsg

[+The Moop Along]

The reason I don't buy on Ebay is that I'm impatient. I want a fixed price to buy it right away. The difference between buying a coin today for $8 on the forums (or in a geocoin retail store ), and having it shipped tomorrow OR paying $7.92 next Friday on Ebay if my bid holds, and then waiting a week for the seller to package and ship, is world's apart. Heck, I'd even rather miss an LE sale here on the forums and trade for it the same day, then wait another week to see if my Ebay bid holds. Now, if you have a fixed price Ebay auction for say, $8.49 each, and you ship quickly, then you're a top seller I'll buy from every day.

 

The major advantage to selling on Ebay is reaching a wide variety of markets (#1, and been said above) and also human nature (#2). Human nature can create false price pretenses in the short run, which can be seller advantageous. The secondary market can over the long run gage an approximate price of coin sales, but it's wise to understand that it by no means is an absolute scale. You're better off selling 100 coins here for $8 each, then selling your first 25 pcs. for $12 each on Ebay, and then scraping by at $6 each for the rest to cover your production costs after your audience fizzles.

 

Selling individual LEs and oddities over time on Ebay, well, that's a discussion for another thread. Plus that thread would include how the secondary market goes hand in hand with the primary market and they feed off each other.

 

TMA

[avroair]

There are three basic ways to finance a coin:

(1) all out of pocket

pay for everything by yourself up front, then mint an AE (artist's edition) and sell some of those on ebay, while selling the regular version in the forums and also on ebay.

 

(2) split with a vendor

give the vendor 50 to sell, and have them subtract that much from the costs of the coin. Or mint 200 coins, have the vendor sell 150 and buy 50 for a cheap wholesale price

 

(3) run an event and sell locally

a themed coin can turn into an event coin where you sell them locally to recoup costs.

 

Ebay is not a very good strategy for selling coins enmasse.

[+Droo]

Do people have strong feelings one way or the other?

 

I think if you sell or make available your coin here for trade you'll make a lot of folks happy as well as expand your collection of harder to find coins. But that shouldn't stop you from selling them at auction on Ebay too.

[GregsonVaux]

Do people have strong feelings one way or the other?

 

I think if you sell or make available your coin here for trade you'll make a lot of folks happy as well as expand your collection of harder to find coins. But that shouldn't stop you from selling them at auction on Ebay too.

 

Yes, after talking with people, I am leaning in that direction. My intention, at this time, is to sell the two regular editions in the forum and sell the artist's edition on eBay. The AE will be limited to 50 coins and will never be re-minted. I will be starting by minting only 50 of each of the regular editions, but if they sell well, I will mint more.

[GregsonVaux]

 

 

. . . some people really do not like sellers who only sell on ebay and not offer coins here first . . . there are a few vendors that do that. no web store, just ebay.

 

rsg

 

I tried to set up a web store last night, but my limited computer skills failed me. The software that I downloaded wanted FTP software and said that I needed a host sight . . . blah . . blah . . blah. I am an engineer and do lots of technical work, but setting up an online store just seemed to be more work than I can handle with my very busy life.

 

I think, however, that I can take names by e-mail and send out paypal invoices.

[+Bhob]

several of the issues noted above can be addressed via an eBay sale, using four features

1. fixed price

2. buy-it-now

3. immediate payment

4. multiple units

 

for the buyers -

those who do not like to get out-bid will probably like the fixed price

the purchase happens right away, so no waiting

 

for the seller -

no website setup/maintenance

only a single auction to list

no delayed payments

[+Bhob]

probably needs to be mentioned . . .

 

there have been a few unfortunate instances in the past with new coins promoted on the forums

money was taken, and goods were not delivered

 

there have also been a few sites that went along just fine for a while, and then went belly-up

taking some funds for pre-paid items with them

 

while such happenings are rare, people have long memories

 

with eBay, a buyer has some protection from these situations

1. tracking, if the seller chooses to do so

2. eBay has information about the seller (credit card, etc)

3. if things go wrong, eBay has procedures in place to allow a buyer to get their money back

 

I have no comparitive data

you may get more buyers on eBay, due to the more secure nature of the transaction

or you may get more buyers on the forum and/or a website, due to some buyers not liking eBay

or it could be a wash

 

but I will say this -

some of the best designs have sold well in all three venues

direct forum sales, website sales, and eBay sales

 

if you have a hot product, people will chase it down, no matter where it is

[GregsonVaux]

Bhob,

 

Using eBay with a fixed price is very attractive. Could you tell me about eBay's fees? What percentage of the sale price goes to eBay?

 

About selling to the forum, if the first minting of coins sells and if there is interest, I could make a forum edition that would only be sold here through paypal invoices. For now, it is just an idea, but it would be a way to reward this helpful and friendly community.

 

I want to mention security. I have a business where large quantities of money exchange hands and I am always most comfortable when everyone feels secure and happy. When my customers are happy, I sleep much better at night. This is why I find eBay and Paypal so attractive. No one is sending me money directly, no one gives me financial information such as credit card numbers, and everyone knows that their purchase is protected. As for a forum edition, hopefully by them we will have built up some trust. besides, I would be using Paypal which means that there is a level of protection beyond what you find when dealing with an individual. I will also be avoiding presales because their capacity to annoy is too unacceptable for me.

Edited October 21, 2010 by GregsonVaux

[+wenzelbub]

Could you tell me about eBay's fees? What percentage of the sale price goes to eBay?

 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html (used the help page on eBay to find this)

 

Haven't sold for a long time but this seems to be right:

 

Selling for $8 fixed price:

 

$0.50 Fixed price insertion fee

+ $0.96 Final value fee (12% of the final sale price)

 

= $1.46 fee in total for fixed price

Edited October 21, 2010 by wenzelbub

[+Mauison]

Could you tell me about eBay's fees? What percentage of the sale price goes to eBay?

 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html (used the help page on eBay to find this)

 

Haven't sold for a long time but this seems to be right:

 

Selling for $8 fixed price:

 

$0.50 Fixed price insertion fee

+ $0.96 Final value fee (12% of the final sale price)

 

= $1.46 fee in total for fixed price

 

Don't forget the Paypal fees, $.30 + 2.9% of the total transaction.

[+Mauison]

Double post

Edited October 21, 2010 by Mauison

[+Bhob]

$0.50 Fixed price insertion fee

a small bit of good news, that may ease the pain a bit -

if a multi-item sale is done, the fifty cent fee is per listing, not per item

so, if the listing is for 25 items, it only adds two cents to the price of each item

[GregsonVaux]

Wow, all of those fees add up! It is rather depressing; maybe I will sell through the forum after all. I'll probably run the numbers again as the date draws closer.

 

One problem I could see with a multi listing is that one person could buy 100 coins and then resell them through an auction. I plan on selling the coins for a very reasonable price. Is there a way to limit the number of coins sold to any one person?