My First Bonanzle Sale - Hurray!

Sold the Kate Spade Christas to a lovely woman who plans to wear them on her wedding day. :)  They are KINDA blue... maybe there's hope for Bonanzle after all!

This Blog is a Marketing Ploy and Other Platitudes

So, I've been working on my marketing strategy, and I gotta tell you I'm getting pretty discouraged. I need to drive more traffic to my blog AND to my items, I can't continue to rely on eBay's rules about listing visibility. They force me to take risks with the price of my items that I don't want to take.

I've tried a few marketing tactics since I started my eBay venture, and I have to tell you, I haven't really found anything that works well for me. I made the collage above to put in a flyer I'm going to be posting around my building. Unfortunately, I tried putting the flyer up on a bulletin board in the mail room but the management took it down. Facebook works to a certain extent, but the people who like me on Facebook are mostly friends and family, most of whom would never buy anything off eBay and many of them who have never set foot on this blog (some of them don't even know what a blog is!).  Twitter is completely useless and I get more and more frustrated with it every day.  I swear to God, tweeting is like talking to yourself.  No matter how much you support people there by retweeting their posts and engaging with them rarely, if EVER, do they return the favor, and few people respond to my tweets, so what's the use?

And then there's this blog.  Now, strictly speaking this isn't a marketing tool, or at least that's not its intended purpose. However, more than one of you has probably peeked at my items after reading one of my posts.  Funnily enough, I've gotten more reverse traffic (eBay to blog) than eBay traffic from this, which means that rather that a means for exposing people to my products, it's been a means of exposing my buyers to my business philosophy.  However, the thing I've discovered about blogging is that there is a lot of etiquette and frankly, a lot of bullshit that I have no energy or patience for.

So where does that leave me? I don't know. I really don't.  I think Twitter definitely needs to go, but not before I unfollow a few people just to screw with them (yes, I have a mean streak sometimes, surprise!).  I mean there's nothing that bothers me more than lack of reciprocity.  Facebook will probably stay.

And then there's this blog. I don't want to gradually abandon this blog, like a lukewarm relationship.  If I'm going to quit, I'm going to say good-bye to you guys and quit.  I don't think I'm ready to say good-bye just yet though.

What about you guys?  Do you think it's time for an amicable break-up?

Free Cash if You Guess the Selling Price of These Prada Sandals

I think it's time to play the guessing game again!! You ready to play? Here we go.

I'm auctioning off these beautiful Prada Vitello Shine Stud sandals in a size 7.5. I've set the starting bid very low: $49.99. They are authentic Prada sandals, purchased at Neiman Marcus. The person who guesses the exact selling price of the sandals will get 10% of the final sale price as soon as the winning bidder pays.

Click here to go to the listing

You should be able to see the number of visits the item has received from eBay's standard counter. The listing has received no bids so far, as of the writing of this entry.

Now here are the rules.

1) Enter by Commenting. In order to send me your guess, you have to post a comment on this blog entry with your best guess for the final selling price, including dollars and cents.

2) No Anonymous Entries. You cannot comment anonymously (otherwise I can't verify you're really the winner!), and must come back to the blog on June 13th to see who the giveaway winner was.  If you are the winner, I will ask you to provide your contact details so I can send you your prize.

3) One Entry per Participant. Sorry, but you can't submit more than one guess.

4) First One to Guess Wins. If you submit the same guess as someone else, the time stamp on the comment will determine who submitted that guess first.

5) Genuine Bidding Allowed. You are allowed to place a bid on the item that is equal to your guess. However, you MUST actually intend to purchase the item if you win it! After all, if you win and you don't pay I won't have any proceeds to give you the 10% OF.

6) Winnings through Paypal or eBay Only. If you win, you can claim your winnings one of two ways. I can either give you cash via Paypal only, OR I can apply the 10% as a credit toward your next purchase(s) from me. If you pick the second option, you have to send me your eBay username over email so I'll know to award the discount when you bid on one of my items.

7) Game Ends Before Listing. The game will end at 15:00 Eastern US time on June 12. Entries received after that will sadly not be considered.

I think that's it folks! Let the guessing begin!

Huge Bidding War in the Making

Remember this dress??  I had it in an 8 and it sold very well.  I then went back to Banana Republic and ended up winning a $500 shopping spree, so I got it again to sell in a 6.  It's got FORTY watchers and 4 bids.  A holy bidding war is about to break out.  Check it out here.

Don't miss it!!

Bloggie Quickie - Recap

I'm waiting for a train to come but I had a lot to share so I decided to do a mini-entry, with pictures to come. I have two min so here we go:

1) Resolved the problem with the dissatisfied buyer. She was very accommodating and ended up leaving some wonderful follow-up to her original feedback. She has also offered to revise her original feedback but I think I would rather leave the follow-up instead so that buyers understand that while I am not perfect, I will do anything in my power to resolve a problem (remember the stolen jeans??).

2). Sold the first of the Kalahs! It was one of the studded snakeskin bags. The buyer got a great price and this awesome bag is going to a great home - the buyer is incredibly nice and has awesome taste. :)

I've been making lots of friends on eBay this week.  Weds was a day full of questions, back and forth emailing, and all the stuff I love about eBay.  If nothing else, this exercise has been a fantastic lesson is the marketing uses of social media.

Here comes my train, have a great weekend!

I Need Some Sort of System

I have about six pairs of shoes for sale now, and about 4 of them are a 7.5.  I think I naturally gravitate to that size because, guess what?  I wear a 7.5.  The problem with that is that I'm tempted to keep the shoes if they don't sell, and trust me, I don't need $2,000 worth of shoes.

I think what I'm going to start doing is carrying one in each size between 6 and 9.  Once a size sells I will allow myself to replace it with another shoe in that same size.  That way no one feels left out!

PS: I decided to listen to you guys about my crazy promotion idea.... for now. :)

Why Does eBay Hate Me?

Wow it's been slow.  Maybe it's because I've been listing higher price items.  Maybe eBay in general is just slow because of this weekend's sales.  Who knows, but tonight's auctions were terrible AND I have a non-paying bidder from last week's listings.  Super.

I'm thinking of putting my publicity stunt in play tonight.  Remember I mentioned it here.  I have a pair of Louboutin pumps I haven't listed yet, as well as a pair of $1200 Alaia shoes that I got for... well, I'm not going to tell you, but it's a LOT less than $1200.  I think the Louboutins would get me SO much publicity, but at the same time:

a) Oh my GOD what if they sell for like $9, and
b) Will people think they're fake or that there's something fishy that I'm listing a brand new pair of designer shoes for 99 cents?

What do you guys think?  I'm curious.  If you saw a pair of Louboutin pumps in your size listed for $9.99, would you bid?  More importantly, would you check out the sellers other auctions?

Send me your comments!!