I would like to say “Thank You” to all the readers who took the time to comment or send emails with your recommendations and ideas in response to the post Help Me Improve The Auction Rebel.
Based upon the ideas you provided, you can expect to see the following in the coming weeks:
- More posts about selling books on Amazon. I guess I don’t talk about this all that much because I view it as more of a “pay for the gas” thing rather than a major part of my business. However quite a few of you expressed interest in Amazon, so there will be information coming soon about setting up an Amazon account, what kind of books I find work best there (this may vary for some of you), and the tools I use.
- More posts covering specific items I buy and why I buy them. I used to do this on a regular basis on a membership site, but have gotten away from it since that site shut down and more emphasis has been placed on this blog.
- A series of posts about bootstrapping an eBay business. This will be written with the beginner in mind, but after the basics are out of the way, there will be some information that should be useful to most readers.
The one common thing mentioned by nearly everyone who responded was the addition of a forum.
This is something I’ve thought about from time to time, and looked into a few times, but when I start weighing the pluses vs the minuses, I’ve backed away each time.
On the plus side, I see:
- Allow for interaction between readers.
- Possibly increase the number of people who read this blog.
On the minus side, I see:
- A forum would likely tend to replace the comment section of the blog. Comments tend to aid in search engine optimization which hopefully would attract more readers.
- Successful forums require near constant moderation to make them work. I have neither the time, nor the desire, to do that.
- I don’t know if I’m aware of an eBay related forum where most of the conversation doesn’t center on the negative rather than the positive. From what I’ve seen, eBay forums attract whiners who generate a large percentage of the conversation. I want The Auction Rebel to be known as a positive place and not a negative one.
- Forum attract spam. I deal with enough of that with the blog, I don’t need to double the spam headache that already exists here.
I will continue to explore the possibility of incorporating one into the blog, but some of the minuses above will have to be solved before it happens.
In the meantime, if anyone would like to start a conversation about a particular subject, let me know what you’d like to discuss via the Contact Gary page of the blog. As long as it’s eBay related and doesn’t have a completely negative slant, I’ll be happy to start a Question & Answer post about it and the conversation can take place via the post comments.
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August 4th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Gary,
Like you, I feel that the “Forum” format only breeds a bunch of ‘bitching banter’ and ‘whining’!!
I think the topic specific comment section is much more beneficial!!
Do yourself a favor and don’t turn this blog into another place where folks come to complain, bitch and moan about all things eBay…there are enough of those already!!
P.S. - I’m all for the Amazon info…Hip hip hooray!!
P.P.S - By the way, did you see my lot of 65 Assorted Fire King Mugs Lot sold for $435 bucks…Yoo-Hoo!!
August 4th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
I had initially thought a Forum would be OK, but agree 100% with you that it could easily turn into an ebay complaining Forum (which we do not need!) and can readily see the benfits of ’staying the course’ with your great blog.
The Amazon model is something I’d love to get into, but I reside in Canada. I do all my shipping/receiving in the U.S., but they will not accept my Canadian based credit card on Amazon.com and direct me to Amazon.ca ….. which I’m guessing has about 1/10 of the audience, negating much of the benefit.
Any suggestions on how to move a large lot of varied ‘collectible’ inventory in one shot (other than a local auctioneer)? These are things (apparently poor purchases) that we have accumulated over the years that do not have enough potential for ebay to make it worthwhile to list them individually. I’m trying a ‘garage sale’ ad in Kijiji for local cites to see if I can draw some interest there.
August 4th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Ron,
I use various methods of liquidating unwanted inventory, from donations, to an annual 4-Day garage sale, consignment sales in several local antique outlets, as well as live local auctions.
I just cleand out a storage shed about 2 weeks ago with the majority of the contents going to a local auction…just received a $850 check in the mail yesterday.
You seem to be on the right track, just follow your instincts and you’ll do just fine!
Good Luck!!
August 4th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Gary,
I for one woild love to hear about your systems for inventory tracking and business management.
August 6th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
I agree, I think a forum would be a big negative.
You know what I’d love to see here is a way to network with other dealers and auctioneers. You have a great blog, and a nice audience. If people could network together to trade lots back and forth that would be great. Also, I’m not sure what would be considered spam in this case. For example, I have a blog where I do free online appraisals, if I type in here http://www.auctionwally.com to get people to look at it, is that spam? I’m not trying to be “cute” by doing that, I really want to know. Because I will gladly link to and mention your blog on my page. I guess I don’t think it’s spam if it’s relevant to what your doing.
Anyway, if you moderate and cut out this comment I understand, and then I’ll know,
Thanks Walt
August 7th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Stephen,
Inventory tracking and business management will be included in the Bootstrapping series that will be starting shortly.
Gary H.
August 7th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Walt,
I’m have no problem with links being included in comments if the comment itself contributes to the discussion of the original post; and if the site the link leads to also adds value to the post.
If a comment contributes nothing to the conversation generated by a post, but appears to have been left just so someone can include a link to their web site, I would have a problem, and the comment would likely be deleted.
When readers register, which they must to in order to be able to comment, they have the opportunity to include the URL to their web site. If they do that, whenever they leave a comment their name at the top of the comment is hyperlinked to their web site (for example, your user ID leads to http://appraisals.auctionwally.com/ for example.
I guess I feel that when someone reads a comment left by another reader, if that person finds the comment of enough value, they will click the user ID to learn more about that person or their site.
Gary H
August 10th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Thanks for your reply, I understand the process better now. I hope to become an active member of this auction community, you’ve got a great blog.
Walt