Posts Tagged ‘ kicks ’

Part 9 – Me vs Ebay: I lost, so what’s next?

August 29, 2011
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If you haven’t been following the story you can check back through the blog and read the Moving from Ebay series. If you don’t feel like doing that, then here is a recap: In June, I was on my way to becoming a powerseller on Ebay. I was generating around thousadns a month from the sell of sneakers and at my local market I was also making thousands. Life was great. Then some character on Ebay said I sold him a pair of Air Jordan 9 Retro (University/White/Black) that were not authentic. Nevermind that I had the receipts from a local sneaker boutique, the pictures of the shoes, box labels and all of the relevant information to prove authenticity, Ebay sided with the buyer. This was the kicker though, the guy was trying to sell my shoes on his Ebay page! He had them posted and was pushing them, but I guess he couldn’t get them sold at the high price so he wanted his money back. I told ebay all of this and sent them the receipts, but in the end they closed my account and my Paypal.

I had to find an alternative. I tried Ebid.net and it was a complete failure. I attempted to use Ecrater, but the site was very shaky although it gave me an alternative to list the shoes. I implemented what I thought was a cool feature on my own site an Auction. It worked. This told me that my site could generate sales, but the problem is the type of people visiting only wanted Js and I carry running shoes, various brands and my focus is not on beign high end. I can do that without a problem but I like to carry a lot of cost effective kicks. You can visit my Sneaker Shop.

After three months of attempting to beat Ebay, today, August 29th, 2011 I concede. Ebay has won. This is not a reason for sadness however. What I learned over this time is that when something is so entrenched in the mind of the people they will only do that one thing even if they can get a better deal.

Here is my final input on Moving From Ebay, try to stay on as long as you can, but if you are just starting do what my man Kelso did at Step By Step Sneakers. Build your base through sneaker shows, facebook, and visiting different pages and dropping your website out there. Only have one primary location that you can be reached. Don’t rely too heavily on Ebay for sales. If sales are low at the start just deal with it and let sells be slow. When you allow Ebay to be your only base, there is always a chance that they can pull the plug on you. My biggest issue was that I had too many websites and my traffic has always been spread out. The key to success is launching the site after building a following.

I am currently awaiting my acceptance into Amazon’s sneaker seller community. The next article I write about selling kicks will be about this process. Thanks for following this short series and keep checking back for updates on ARCH and the sneaker shop.

Chris B.

Part 8: Moving From Ebay – Weekend Update and Websites

July 25, 2011
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Click the pic to read another guys f-ebay story

July is like the longest month of the year and in Memphis, it’s the hottest. Almost every day has been 100 plus. This makes it real hard to stay motivated, but I am consistently challenging and changing the business profile as I continue to work on strategies to help other sneaker lovers out there, move and retake their power in this biz. If you haven’t been checking up on this. I have moved on from ebay, after one of the worst customer service problems ever. I have been documenting this move and just to update you here are all of the links to each article. Once again, the reason I’m doing this is because I just think sneakerheads and small biz people have to have information available. I may not be Nike, or Adidas, but I can teach and if I have info, not sharing is like having a fresh pair of kicks and never wearing them, well wearing them at least once. Here are the backlinks:

Part 1: Copping Sneakers For A CustomerPart 2: Sneaker Shop UpdatePart 3: I Found A New Way To AuctionPart 4 Another Way to BidPart 5 Check out how Ebid LooksPart 6 Updates and InformationPart 7 Don’t Forget Your Refund

My latest update includes the relevant information to help you make an informed decision on how to recreate your website. I am also going to give you the quick list of wholesale kicks I’ve moved this week into the weekend. The www.ebid.net auction site has not worked out at all and I will let my account expire at the end of the month. It will take more sneaker people to move from ebay for ebid to be formidable in the sneaker community. Once again, I’ve posted my Facebook Ad stats and I will say this about Facebook, actually read what I’ve written here: Is Facebook Good For Small Biz? Facebook has so many of the fake Nike/Jordan boot posts that legitimate sneaker heads are being blocked and spammed because people are tired of seeing it. This is a problem Facebook needs to fix or the sneaker community will have a lot to say about it. So this past week was good. Did a wholesale deal for a client that gave him True Blues, AJXI Lows, and Retro Foams for an average of 105/pair. He is a great customer and it was basically private shopping. I didn’t use any of my own cash. I also made a move to a new market locally. My three day total from the new market with no traffic was 910.00. Not bad for about 100 people total coming through. I think I may have found my spot to set up in for the next few months. As the heat begins to die down, the amount will undoubtedly rise.

On to the information, this is really a repost from something I posted on www.stepbystepsneakers.com Facebook page. Since Kels is going through a redesign, which is good since he is making the site cleaner and more accessible, people are giving him information on the site and one of the comments was that he should use Big Cartel. What most people don’t realize is that sneakerheads are in a unique position of authority. The problem is sneakerheads give their power away because of fear. They are afraid to sit on shoes so they give ebay insane amounts of fees to list, they pay Big Cartel monthly fees for pages that they can’t monetize, they give paypal money from every transaction and then most of them don’t have accounts with Fed Ex, or UPS and they miss out on great discounts as well as getting their sneakers to customers maxima cum celeritate (With Great Speed). That’s latin. I’m keeping it edumucated. Here is my response:  

You should not use Big Cartel. Not hating on the product, but WP (www.wordpress.org) offers a ton of various looks that can create clean and simple layouts, but there are also premium templates that can be purchased once without monthly fees. You know like I know that sneakerheads like to see more than one pic for authenticity so if you buy a premium store template from WP you can set up a store that is more concise and doesn’t charge you monthly fees on top of the paypal transactions. Big Cartel looks good and is a great starting tool, but you could definitely make sure you have 3rd party hosting, install WP and then purchase one of the store formats (This blog has a great update on WP E-Commerce) and go from there. Not to mention I don’t think you can monetize bigcartel. No one is too rich not to have ads.
Sneakerheads have to take their power back from ebay and begin recouping some of the crazy fees these companies are making. Big Cartel is nice if you only post one pic it’s free and you advertise for Big Cartel in your sneaker shop name, so other people set up big cartel. The minute you have to add discount codes or an extra pic it’s 9.99 a month and up. Every little bit helps when you are starting out. Why am I posting these updates? It’s important to share information. I’m bringing control back to sneakerheads everywhere through these posts! Spread the word and if you run, buy some kicks below.
Stay motivated, Chris B. 

Moving From Ebay: Part 6 Updates and Info

July 16, 2011
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I just like this pic.

Okay so someone asked me in person, instead of here on the site, why am I writing about my struggles. They said that most people who are in the same business hope that you struggle instead of identifying with what you are going through. No one thinks what happened to you will ever happen to them. I explained back, that I’m not doing it for them, I’m doing this for people who are looking for information. People go through rough patches all the time and most of them give up. If they can see what I’m doing then maybe they will keep pushing. That is why I keep updating this analysis. When the site begins to move again, then there will be a foundation for workshops and that opens a new door. Enough of that. Read more »

Part 5: Check out how Ebid Looks

July 14, 2011
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Those of you who have been reading about my transition from Ebay to my site are aware that I just setup an Ebid store. If you haven’t here are the links to those posts about establishing an online store. I am also linking to Ebid so other sneaker lovers can check out how the bids look and work. Take your power back from Ebay and learn something new.

Part 1     Part 2      Part 3      Part 4

ARCH by CCB Ebid (Auction Site) very cool setup!

Part 3: Moving Away From Ebay, I Found A New Way To Auction!

July 8, 2011
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I haven’t been writing much here about moving away from Ebay lately. There are two other posts for you to read about this process. As I said before it was hard walking away from Ebay, but their lack of seller protection and the constant fees, along with the mistreatment made my decision easier. I have to say again though, I was doing very well there and starting over has been hard. I have primarily moved from being a retailer and selling individual shoes at a nice markup, to selling as a wholesaler because the only people aware of my site are people who buy from me in bulk.  This has kept the money coming in, but imagine if I had been selling this individually:

14 pair of Foamposite Pro Retro, 14 pair of Air Max 90 Infrareds, 7 pair of Air Jordan 7 Retro Cardinals, 8 pair of Lebron 8 v/2 Wolf Greys and the countless other kicks I’ve sold as a wholesaler this past week. Needless to say, my pocket is lighter, but I have peace of mind. I wish more sneakerheads and sellers would think about how ebay is actually hurting the game. Today I looked up alternative auction sites. I looked at Ebid and a few others but I didn’t sign up. The problem with all of these is that the buyer is protected more than the seller. I decided today to become my own auction site.

If you look to the right you will see an auction box. In this box I will be adding auctions everyday and I have the right to refuse bids, accept bids offer Buy Now through e-mails and Google Checkout, the ability to control my site is easier and I can now offer visitors the ability to make a bid and win just like with ebay. I don’t know how this will work, but it is worth the try. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome.

Moving From Ebay: Sneaker Shop Update

July 6, 2011
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I’m still in the process of moving from Ebay and like I said in the previous article, things are slow. I haven’t generated an individual sell through the site yet. Although I had numerous pairs of Foamposite Retros in stock and I was selling them at a lower price than anyone on web or retail, the site still didn’t get any feedback. What I did get was a lot of wholesale inquiries. The same thing occured today when I began posting the latest pick ups for the site. Since these already sold, I just want to keep you aware of what I get for wholesale customers and what is available to anyone who visits the site.

Oh, this is what I’ve done so far in my move from Ebay and Paypal: I did a Facebook Ad which generated 100 new likes on my Facebook page. I’ve also sold 8 Foamposite Pro Retros and today the wholesale deal was for 5 pair of Lebrons and another four pair of Foams. Here are pics of the Lebrons that sold along with 1 pair of Stealth Spizikes. More updates coming soon.

 

 

 

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