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| | | Author: | Ziegelmeister  | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 13:50 | | Subject: | What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 332 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| This site has been an amazing resource the past few weeks while I worked quietly
in the background working on my workflow and getting everything organized. So
up front; thank you to everyone for sharing their stories.
A colossal percentage of what I'm selling are new bricks from sets that I
pilfered from. If things go decently I'm not opposed to buying new sets
to part out so this workflow is largely specific to new bricks.
- Sorting -
At least for now, the fastest way I found to sort small sets (
do do all of the same bags at the same time. These are the sets that have one
bag with 1-2 smaller bags inside.
I tested this last night with 4 of the free swing sets (608 total pieces in 43
lots) and managed to sort and bag them all in ~35 minutes.
For the larger sets I'm planning to do all the main bags first, then all
the smaller bags clustered within their stage. For example, say a set has 30
stages. Dump all of those out, then set the smaller bags in like piles, then
do the like kind bags.
Everything in this step is bagged by type and color. So all 1x2 grey go in their
own bag, all 1x2 grey fluted go in their own, all 1x2 yellow... etc., etc..
- Storage-
I'm using a few hundred shoebox sized plastic containers with lids. They're
coded and labeled in ascending order, and inside are the different colors in
different bags. So 11PS, 11PR and 12P are 1x1 square plates, 1z1 round plates
and 1x2 plates. Then inside those are bags with different colors.
- Picking/Packing -
As long as everything is inputted correctly above, then picking _should_ be efficient.
I plan to take a photo of the items and send them to the buyer in order to help
protect against fraudulent damage claims.
I believe I have my parameters set to $2 minimum and 40 lot maximum. Is the
minimum really necessary?
I went above and beyond and sourced compostable/biodegradable bubble pouches
AND tape (never knew that existed until last week). So that'll hopefully
help with branding.
- Shipping -
Here's where I get a little nervous. I went with flat rate shipping for
now to cover myself until I get properly gauge the shipping rates. I'm only
shipping to the USA for now. I did $5 for the small pouches/boxes and $10 for
the medium boxes up to 5 lbs.
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Are the shipping rates reasonable? Is there a shipping method I overlooked where
it can price things out using the known weight and quantities? Ideally I can
offer free shipping once I get the prices and rates pegged.
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| | | | | Author: | Ziegelmeister | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 13:54 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 73 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| Oh...
And is there a way to reject orders from users with zero or negative feedback
aside from manually cancelling? I know we all need to build red in order to
sell so it's ironic I'm asking this as I just went through the process;
but an order for 50 1x1 bricks from a zero feedback user wouldn't raise an
eyebrow versus an order for 20 collectible minifigs ya know?
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| | | | | | | Author: | cosmicray | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 14:25 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 84 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| | | I believe I have my parameters set to $2 minimum and 40 lot maximum. Is the minimum really necessary?
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Yes and no. If you want to supply to every possible buyer, no matter how small
the order, then set to no minimum. In my view, every order involves an administrative
overhead and a need to show a profit. If you can cover both of those when selling
a single 10-cent part, then more power to you. Some buyers with a minimal order
will expect/desire a minimal shipping cost. So that is part of the value judgement
for an order minimum.
| | And is there a way to reject orders from users with zero or negative feedback
aside from manually cancelling? I know we all need to build red in order to
sell so it's ironic I'm asking this as I just went through the process;
but an order for 50 1x1 bricks from a zero feedback user wouldn't raise an
eyebrow versus an order for 20 collectible minifigs ya know?
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Paying up front (via IC) is the proof you're really looking for.
Nita Rae
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 14:58 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 56 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| | |
Yes and no. If you want to supply to every possible buyer, no matter how small
the order, then set to no minimum. In my view, every order involves an administrative
overhead and a need to show a profit. If you can cover both of those when selling
a single 10-cent part, then more power to you. Some buyers with a minimal order
will expect/desire a minimal shipping cost. So that is part of the value judgement
for an order minimum.
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To add to that, you might get a buyer complain that shipping was 50 times larger
than the order price. Because they chose a 10c part and you have $5 shipping.
Having a minimum value stops both that sort of order and that sort of complaint.
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| | | | | | | Author: | popsicle | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 14:44 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 104 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Yellow.Brick writes:
| | Oh...
And is there a way to reject orders from users with zero or negative feedback
aside from manually cancelling? I know we all need to build red in order to
sell so it's ironic I'm asking this as I just went through the process;
but an order for 50 1x1 bricks from a zero feedback user wouldn't raise an
eyebrow versus an order for 20 collectible minifigs ya know?
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Zero feedback buyers, no, and you shouldn’t feel the need to. I know your concerns
(I think most here do) and they may occasionally need guidance from you, but
they are generally careful, mindful buyers cognizant of their own inexperience.
If it's the con you're more concerned about, that too has never been
an issue in my selling experience with zero-feedback members on this platform.
Could just be luck, I guess 
Although I don’t recall ever transacting with a member with a negative feedback-total,
you can prohibit that sort from buying: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/mystore/management.page
-popsicle
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| | | | | | | Author: | macebobo | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 15:02 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 45 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Yellow.Brick writes:
| | Oh...
And is there a way to reject orders from users with zero or negative feedback
aside from manually cancelling? I know we all need to build red in order to
sell so it's ironic I'm asking this as I just went through the process;
but an order for 50 1x1 bricks from a zero feedback user wouldn't raise an
eyebrow versus an order for 20 collectible minifigs ya know?
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In my experience, I've had zero issues with zero feedback users. I've
had them buy 1 part and I've had them buy a $500+ set. I would do as popsicle
suggests and turn on the disallow negative feedback users and also maybe the
quote option, since I've had new users ask for a quote before they order,
just to be sure it wasn't going to be out of their price range.
Good luck.
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| | | | | | | Author: | zorbanj | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 21:24 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 33 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| Everybody was new once. I have never had an issue with a zero feedback buyer.
2 weeks ago you were a zero feedback buyer yourself.
In Selling, Yellow.Brick writes:
| | Oh...
And is there a way to reject orders from users with zero or negative feedback
aside from manually cancelling? I know we all need to build red in order to
sell so it's ironic I'm asking this as I just went through the process;
but an order for 50 1x1 bricks from a zero feedback user wouldn't raise an
eyebrow versus an order for 20 collectible minifigs ya know?
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| | | | | Author: | Brickitty | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 15:24 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 91 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Yellow.Brick writes:
Looks like you've got this one under control. Your method is fairly efficient.
Not bad. I believe that most sellers use bags and top-opening containers. But
early on, I decided I wanted to invest in something more efficient. Plastic drawers
seemed the best option, so I slowly accumulated over 2,000 drawers in various
sizes that line the walls of my Lego room. The smaller ones are 18-, 39-, and
60-drawer tool organizers -- Ace Hardware's brand ended up being the
cheapest after a cost comparison, far cheaper than Akro-Mils. The larger ones
are regular Sterilite drawers in various sizes from box stores. (One online order
for Sterilite containers took up the entire front stoop when it arrived, most
bulky thing I've ever received in the mail.)
The result is that I can pick extremely quickly compared to most sellers, since
I'm rarely opening bags, and never nested bags. Most lots only require opening
a drawer and removing parts. Based on testing my picking speed with baggies,
I believe using drawers is approximately 3x faster than bagging. Even as a (mostly)
one-person operation, I can pick and package 35+ orders / 400+ lots per day.
And when I part-in sets from my loose pieces and don't need to package them,
I've picked 1,000+ lots in a single day by myself.
So if you have the opportunity to set up a system using drawers instead of bags,
I highly recommend it, especially if you're planning to become a large store.
I don't use minimums or maximums, and I prefer it that way. But you do need
to make sure you cover your overhead.
Make sure you calculate your total handling for each order by taking every single
material you use and figuring how much you use per order, then doing the math.
Ink, tape, paper, mailing label, envelope, bubble wrap, baggies -- everything.
That'll help a lot with setting your shipping prices.
Spend at least a day or two exploring the Instant Checkout setup. Your flat-rate
shipping costs seem reasonable to me, and automating them through Instant Checkout
will lower your unpaid orders to almost zero.
Also, zero-feedback buyers are awesome! I value them highly. Don't try to
avoid them -- if you give them a great experience, they'll be back.
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| | | | | | | Author: | Ziegelmeister | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 17:34 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 39 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| Awesome - Thank you everyone!
I think/know my risk concerns are biased because of (ironically) properly using
the search function. When you do a search for a term; all your results look
like a horror show.
I'm glad I posted this because you're correct, I need to make sure the
IC is set up right.
Thanks again for the suggestions everyone. I'll take a deeper dive on the
shipping and min/max ranges.
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| | | | | | | Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 18:24 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 60 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Brickitty writes:
| | Based on testing my picking speed with baggies,
I believe using drawers is approximately 3x faster than bagging.
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I use bags in drawers. I don't understand how not using bags can possibly
be faster... but you seem to have a lot of experience so probably I would need
to see a video of that in order to be able to understand. My experience is that
bags are the fastest, since it takes only 1 second to open and close them and
you can use both hands when picking parts (that is, one hand in the bag and the
other to hold the bag in the position/direction to get the right part out of
it) and you can see through it easily. And when you're done you just throw
the bag back and close the drawer.
The only thing I see that costs time is identifying the correct bag in the drawer,
but the alternative would be having several times the number of drawers, which
is kind of a zero sum game anyway.
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | zorbanj | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 21:35 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 41 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| I also use bags in drawers. Worked well for me even when I was up to 75k pieces.
Not sure how well it would work with a mega-sized store like Brickitty's
though.
Has anyone here switched from bags to drawers? If so, what made you switch?
In Selling, Teup writes:
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I use bags in drawers. I don't understand how not using bags can possibly
be faster... but you seem to have a lot of experience so probably I would need
to see a video of that in order to be able to understand. My experience is that
bags are the fastest, since it takes only 1 second to open and close them and
you can use both hands when picking parts (that is, one hand in the bag and the
other to hold the bag in the position/direction to get the right part out of
it) and you can see through it easily. And when you're done you just throw
the bag back and close the drawer.
The only thing I see that costs time is identifying the correct bag in the drawer,
but the alternative would be having several times the number of drawers, which
is kind of a zero sum game anyway.
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| | | | | | | | | | | Author: | Ziegelmeister | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 22:40 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 56 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, zorbanj writes:
| | I also use bags in drawers. Worked well for me even when I was up to 75k pieces.
Not sure how well it would work with a mega-sized store like Brickitty's
though.
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I went back and forth on this a bit. On the front end it's far faster to
just scoop all of the same type of bricks together into one pile. ...But according
to my spreadsheets I have several thousand plain 1x2's, so how much more
of a PITA will it be if people buy down one color to where I have 10 remaining
in a bin of 9000 and someone wants them?
I know myself to well. If I looked at 35 pounds of bricks and was tasked with
picking out 10 specific ones, I'd just go buy a new set to part out and then
end up dumping those pieces on top of the pile, further exacerbating the problem.
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | randyipp | | Posted: | Sep 12, 2021 00:08 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 52 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Teup writes:
| | In Selling, Brickitty writes:
| | Based on testing my picking speed with baggies,
I believe using drawers is approximately 3x faster than bagging.
|
I use bags in drawers. I don't understand how not using bags can possibly
be faster... but you seem to have a lot of experience so probably I would need
to see a video of that in order to be able to understand. My experience is that
bags are the fastest, since it takes only 1 second to open and close them and
you can use both hands when picking parts (that is, one hand in the bag and the
other to hold the bag in the position/direction to get the right part out of
it) and you can see through it easily. And when you're done you just throw
the bag back and close the drawer.
The only thing I see that costs time is identifying the correct bag in the drawer,
but the alternative would be having several times the number of drawers, which
is kind of a zero sum game anyway.
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Well 1 second isn't a real amount of time, it is a "well it only takes a
second" which may equate to 10 or 20 seconds in actuality.
If I have a 30 lot, single part per lot order and I can pull them from drawers
it would take me 1/2 the time (maybe less) than going to find and open bags.
My timer test: 2 lots one in bag in a drawer, one just in drawer. It took me
7 seconds to walk over and grab the part, it took me 14.5 seconds to grab a part
that lived in a bag. It sounds fast but when you compare the two bags are simply
a much slower storage solution, they are however much less expensive compared
to lots of drawer units.
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| | | | | | | | | | | Author: | Brickitty | | Posted: | Sep 12, 2021 21:11 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 46 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, randyipp writes:
| | Well 1 second isn't a real amount of time, it is a "well it only takes a
second" which may equate to 10 or 20 seconds in actuality.
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Yup.
| | My timer test: 2 lots one in bag in a drawer, one just in drawer. It took me
7 seconds to walk over and grab the part, it took me 14.5 seconds to grab a part
that lived in a bag. It sounds fast but when you compare the two bags are simply
a much slower storage solution, they are however much less expensive compared
to lots of drawer units.
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And it gets exponentially longer if nested bags are used (think Russian dolls),
which I've seen lots of smaller sellers mention, because then it's opening
twice and closing twice -- or three times -- for a single lot. But yes,
your testing is similar to mine. Opening one bag doubles the time of picking
from a small drawer, and opening two bags triples the time.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Sep 13, 2021 03:24 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 37 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Brickitty writes:
| | In Selling, randyipp writes:
| | Well 1 second isn't a real amount of time, it is a "well it only takes a
second" which may equate to 10 or 20 seconds in actuality.
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Yup.
| | My timer test: 2 lots one in bag in a drawer, one just in drawer. It took me
7 seconds to walk over and grab the part, it took me 14.5 seconds to grab a part
that lived in a bag. It sounds fast but when you compare the two bags are simply
a much slower storage solution, they are however much less expensive compared
to lots of drawer units.
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And it gets exponentially longer if nested bags are used (think Russian dolls),
which I've seen lots of smaller sellers mention, because then it's opening
twice and closing twice -- or three times -- for a single lot. But yes,
your testing is similar to mine. Opening one bag doubles the time of picking
from a small drawer, and opening two bags triples the time.
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That may not matter for a smaller seller dealing with one order every couple
of days. Other things may be more important in that case, such as minimal storage
space or minimal setup costs. Different methods work for different people, none
are wrong or right or best or worse in all cases.
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | zorbanj | | Posted: | Sep 12, 2021 20:39 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 50 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| How do track what bags (pieces) are in a drawer?
In Selling, Teup writes:
| |
I use bags in drawers. I don't understand how not using bags can possibly
be faster... but you seem to have a lot of experience so probably I would need
to see a video of that in order to be able to understand. My experience is that
bags are the fastest, since it takes only 1 second to open and close them and
you can use both hands when picking parts (that is, one hand in the bag and the
other to hold the bag in the position/direction to get the right part out of
it) and you can see through it easily. And when you're done you just throw
the bag back and close the drawer.
The only thing I see that costs time is identifying the correct bag in the drawer,
but the alternative would be having several times the number of drawers, which
is kind of a zero sum game anyway.
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| | | | | | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Sep 13, 2021 03:19 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 36 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, zorbanj writes:
| | How do track what bags (pieces) are in a drawer?
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A bag in a drawer is not really any different to multiple smaller drawers for
tracking parts.
If you stocked just 100 items, then you could have 100 smaller drawers, numbered
1-100. Or you could have just 10 drawers, each with 10 bags, again all numbered.
And if you keep the bags in order in the drawer it will only take a few extra
seconds to get and open the bag while being more space efficient. Of course,
it depends on size of store and the space available as to what is most suitable.
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | Brickitty | | Posted: | Sep 12, 2021 21:54 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 54 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Teup writes:
| | I use bags in drawers. I don't understand how not using bags can possibly
be faster... but you seem to have a lot of experience so probably I would need
to see a video of that in order to be able to understand. My experience is that
bags are the fastest, since it takes only 1 second to open and close them and
you can use both hands when picking parts (that is, one hand in the bag and the
other to hold the bag in the position/direction to get the right part out of
it) and you can see through it easily. And when you're done you just throw
the bag back and close the drawer.
The only thing I see that costs time is identifying the correct bag in the drawer,
but the alternative would be having several times the number of drawers, which
is kind of a zero sum game anyway.
|
And no offense, but I don't understand what you're saying -- how
would adding an extra step be faster? Sure, if I were talking about an enormous
drawer of loose 1x2 plates vs. an enormous drawer of 1x2 plates bagged by color,
that might be true (though perhaps not, judging by how quickly I can pick from
my larger loose-part drawers). But I'm talking small- to medium-sized drawers
where a single glance or at most a quick rustling of parts is sufficient to find
any color I need.
That being said, I have different storage solutions for different items and I
deliberately chose each one for maximum picking efficiency using the space I
have available. For the vast majority of parts, I use loose-part drawers because,
when I timed the picking, they were at least twice as fast as using baggies,
usually 3x as fast. But used bricks are stacked, and I only keep 1 or 2 stacks
of each color in the drawer. All the extras are in overflow storage in another
room, since I only need to access them when I make a large bulk sale -- same
for common plates and a few other bulk parts. Minifigures and Bionicle parts
are stored in nested bags or bags nested in drawers, like you described --
and while I don't think there's a better solution short of buying a ridiculous
number of drawers, it does take me triple the time to pick those compared to
my other parts, so I'm not exactly happy with that solution. Rare parts that
I'll only ever have a few of are grouped together in drawers (such as all
Ladder & Bridge parts in a single drawer). Heads are grouped in drawers in sets
of around 100 (i.e. *bpb100 to *bpb199). Hips & legs are grouped by color in
drawers. Torsos are laid out on broken baseplates, organized by color and then
chronologically, inside a dresser where I can easily browse them with a glance.
Having more drawers isn't a zero-sum game when the organizational system
I use is the same as Bricklink's catalog -- it might sound ridiculous
to you, but I've memorized where just about every part I sell is located,
so I can go directly to the drawer I need each time without taking time to read
labels or reference numbers. The more drawers, the merrier!
However, as another person pointed out, I do have a fairly mega-sized store.
So while these solutions are best for me, they may not be best for others. But
they did also serve me well when I had a much smaller store and only a few sets
of drawers.
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| | | | | Author: | rab1234 | | Posted: | Sep 11, 2021 20:19 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 48 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| I wouldn’t bother with pics of orders and certainly no need to send them to the
buyer. 500+ orders here and there’s only been 1 $5 part that a buyer said was
broken or unsatisfactory that I didn’t believe 100%. Maybe if you sell a $30+
fig to a buyer who is raising concerns for some reason, but otherwise that sounds
like a big time waster.
In Selling, Yellow.Brick writes:
| | This site has been an amazing resource the past few weeks while I worked quietly
in the background working on my workflow and getting everything organized. So
up front; thank you to everyone for sharing their stories.
A colossal percentage of what I'm selling are new bricks from sets that I
pilfered from. If things go decently I'm not opposed to buying new sets
to part out so this workflow is largely specific to new bricks.
- Sorting -
At least for now, the fastest way I found to sort small sets (
do do all of the same bags at the same time. These are the sets that have one
bag with 1-2 smaller bags inside.
I tested this last night with 4 of the free swing sets (608 total pieces in 43
lots) and managed to sort and bag them all in ~35 minutes.
For the larger sets I'm planning to do all the main bags first, then all
the smaller bags clustered within their stage. For example, say a set has 30
stages. Dump all of those out, then set the smaller bags in like piles, then
do the like kind bags.
Everything in this step is bagged by type and color. So all 1x2 grey go in their
own bag, all 1x2 grey fluted go in their own, all 1x2 yellow... etc., etc..
- Storage-
I'm using a few hundred shoebox sized plastic containers with lids. They're
coded and labeled in ascending order, and inside are the different colors in
different bags. So 11PS, 11PR and 12P are 1x1 square plates, 1z1 round plates
and 1x2 plates. Then inside those are bags with different colors.
- Picking/Packing -
As long as everything is inputted correctly above, then picking _should_ be efficient.
I plan to take a photo of the items and send them to the buyer in order to help
protect against fraudulent damage claims.
I believe I have my parameters set to $2 minimum and 40 lot maximum. Is the
minimum really necessary?
I went above and beyond and sourced compostable/biodegradable bubble pouches
AND tape (never knew that existed until last week). So that'll hopefully
help with branding.
- Shipping -
Here's where I get a little nervous. I went with flat rate shipping for
now to cover myself until I get properly gauge the shipping rates. I'm only
shipping to the USA for now. I did $5 for the small pouches/boxes and $10 for
the medium boxes up to 5 lbs.
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Are the shipping rates reasonable? Is there a shipping method I overlooked where
it can price things out using the known weight and quantities? Ideally I can
offer free shipping once I get the prices and rates pegged.
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| | | | | Author: | Sadler_Bricks | | Posted: | Sep 12, 2021 00:24 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 53 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| Looks like you are off to a great start as for me i dont put lot limmits or
min fee atleast not yet anyway but looks like you are on the right track
Sadler_bricks
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| | | | | Author: | Dinosaur | | Posted: | Sep 13, 2021 04:26 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 50 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Yellow.Brick writes:
| | This site has been an amazing resource the past few weeks while I worked quietly
in the background working on my workflow and getting everything organized. So
up front; thank you to everyone for sharing their stories.
A colossal percentage of what I'm selling are new bricks from sets that I
pilfered from. If things go decently I'm not opposed to buying new sets
to part out so this workflow is largely specific to new bricks.
- Sorting -
At least for now, the fastest way I found to sort small sets (
do do all of the same bags at the same time. These are the sets that have one
bag with 1-2 smaller bags inside.
I tested this last night with 4 of the free swing sets (608 total pieces in 43
lots) and managed to sort and bag them all in ~35 minutes.
For the larger sets I'm planning to do all the main bags first, then all
the smaller bags clustered within their stage. For example, say a set has 30
stages. Dump all of those out, then set the smaller bags in like piles, then
do the like kind bags.
Everything in this step is bagged by type and color. So all 1x2 grey go in their
own bag, all 1x2 grey fluted go in their own, all 1x2 yellow... etc., etc..
- Storage-
I'm using a few hundred shoebox sized plastic containers with lids. They're
coded and labeled in ascending order, and inside are the different colors in
different bags. So 11PS, 11PR and 12P are 1x1 square plates, 1z1 round plates
and 1x2 plates. Then inside those are bags with different colors.
- Picking/Packing -
As long as everything is inputted correctly above, then picking _should_ be efficient.
I plan to take a photo of the items and send them to the buyer in order to help
protect against fraudulent damage claims.
I believe I have my parameters set to $2 minimum and 40 lot maximum. Is the
minimum really necessary?
I went above and beyond and sourced compostable/biodegradable bubble pouches
AND tape (never knew that existed until last week). So that'll hopefully
help with branding.
- Shipping -
Here's where I get a little nervous. I went with flat rate shipping for
now to cover myself until I get properly gauge the shipping rates. I'm only
shipping to the USA for now. I did $5 for the small pouches/boxes and $10 for
the medium boxes up to 5 lbs.
----
Are the shipping rates reasonable? Is there a shipping method I overlooked where
it can price things out using the known weight and quantities? Ideally I can
offer free shipping once I get the prices and rates pegged.
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No shipping rate is reasonable, I never pay for shipping, that's why I never
buy on BL, unless the shipping is free or very cheap, some people are kind and
ship without tracking for low priced items, because they trust me and it is one
of their wisest decisions in their life. Some people insist to charge cheap items
with high shipping rate that I will never give in, then they lose the sale.
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| | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Sep 13, 2021 04:41 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 50 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| | | No shipping rate is reasonable, I never pay for shipping, that's why I never
buy on BL, unless the shipping is free or very cheap, some people are kind and
ship without tracking for low priced items, because they trust me and it is one
of their wisest decisions in their life. Some people insist to charge cheap items
with high shipping rate that I will never give in, then they lose the sale.
|
The buyer always pays for shipping, even when it is included in the item price
or "free shipping" as it is sometimes called.
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | Dinosaur | | Posted: | Sep 13, 2021 06:30 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 53 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, yorbrick writes:
| | | | No shipping rate is reasonable, I never pay for shipping, that's why I never
buy on BL, unless the shipping is free or very cheap, some people are kind and
ship without tracking for low priced items, because they trust me and it is one
of their wisest decisions in their life. Some people insist to charge cheap items
with high shipping rate that I will never give in, then they lose the sale.
|
The buyer always pays for shipping, even when it is included in the item price
or "free shipping" as it is sometimes called.
|
It is not the first time I have seen a seller on BL like you to struggle to protest
that shipping on BL isn't particularly higher than anywhere else. But I have
bought
hundreds of Lego sets in recent years (closing to a thousand soon) elsewhere
and every time I checked the price here and I have just bought once here. Customer's
eye is clear
against cosmetic wording.
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| | | | | | | | | | | Author: | tons_of_bricks | | Posted: | Sep 13, 2021 06:49 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 53 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Tim1234567 writes:
| |
It is not the first time I have seen a seller on BL like you to struggle to protest
that shipping on BL isn't particularly higher than anywhere else.
|
??? Umm, I don't see any protesting of higher shipping prices in yorbricks
comment, only that free shipping is not that.
Shipping prices just rose; they're high everywhere. And as I just stated
in my other comment, the seller with either charge the full shipping upfront
or incorporate some of it into his prices and offer a discounted or free shipping
to attract customers.
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| | | | | | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Sep 13, 2021 08:18 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 49 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Tim1234567 writes:
| | In Selling, yorbrick writes:
| | | | No shipping rate is reasonable, I never pay for shipping, that's why I never
buy on BL, unless the shipping is free or very cheap, some people are kind and
ship without tracking for low priced items, because they trust me and it is one
of their wisest decisions in their life. Some people insist to charge cheap items
with high shipping rate that I will never give in, then they lose the sale.
|
The buyer always pays for shipping, even when it is included in the item price
or "free shipping" as it is sometimes called.
|
It is not the first time I have seen a seller on BL like you to struggle to protest
that shipping on BL isn't particularly higher than anywhere else. But I have
bought
hundreds of Lego sets in recent years (closing to a thousand soon) elsewhere
and every time I checked the price here and I have just bought once here. Customer's
eye is clear
against cosmetic wording.
|
I don't really care what is charged for shipping (so long as it is reasonable
and known when placing the order) but most of all I look at the overall cost
of the order. I find free shipping is not always reasonable and in some cases
it is anti consumer. When sellers give free shipping but charge their base price
plus their shipping costs as the single item cost instead, then there is no point
in buying two items from them as you end up paying twice for shipping. And there
is no point buying one item if the item value is low compared to tge actual shipping
costs. This has happened on a lot of low priced items on ebay.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Sep 13, 2021 10:42 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 33 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, yorbrick writes:
| | […]
I don't really care what is charged for shipping (so long as it is reasonable
and known when placing the order) but most of all I look at the overall cost
of the order. I find free shipping is not always reasonable and in some cases
it is anti consumer. When sellers give free shipping but charge their base price
plus their shipping costs as the single item cost instead, then there is no point
in buying two items from them as you end up paying twice for shipping. And there
is no point buying one item if the item value is low compared to tge actual shipping
costs. This has happened on a lot of low priced items on ebay.
|
And don’t forget the “shipping is free… if you subscribe” schemes that all online
sellers are keen to promote these days.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | Ziegelmeister | | Posted: | Sep 19, 2021 21:08 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 35 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, yorbrick writes:
| | In Selling, Tim1234567 writes:
| | In Selling, yorbrick writes:
| | | | No shipping rate is reasonable, I never pay for shipping, that's why I never
buy on BL, unless the shipping is free or very cheap, some people are kind and
ship without tracking for low priced items, because they trust me and it is one
of their wisest decisions in their life. Some people insist to charge cheap items
with high shipping rate that I will never give in, then they lose the sale.
|
The buyer always pays for shipping, even when it is included in the item price
or "free shipping" as it is sometimes called.
|
It is not the first time I have seen a seller on BL like you to struggle to protest
that shipping on BL isn't particularly higher than anywhere else. But I have
bought
hundreds of Lego sets in recent years (closing to a thousand soon) elsewhere
and every time I checked the price here and I have just bought once here. Customer's
eye is clear
against cosmetic wording.
|
I don't really care what is charged for shipping (so long as it is reasonable
and known when placing the order) but most of all I look at the overall cost
of the order. I find free shipping is not always reasonable and in some cases
it is anti consumer. When sellers give free shipping but charge their base price
plus their shipping costs as the single item cost instead, then there is no point
in buying two items from them as you end up paying twice for shipping. And there
is no point buying one item if the item value is low compared to tge actual shipping
costs. This has happened on a lot of low priced items on ebay.
|
I've been parting, sorting, storing and thinking all week, and I keep circling
back to shipping costs. This isn't my first rodeo by any stretch of the
imagination, but it is my first event at the rodeo where items
for sale can cost several multiples less than the price of a stamp. As much
as I want to offer free shipping, I won't do that until I have enough data
points to figure out the mean and median order sizes/prices.
So I made a few changes based on everyone's suggestions such as removing
the min/max, but rounded the flat rate to the USPS First class and Priority flat
rates.
Once I figure out the sweet spot I'll implement the "free shipping for orders
over xxx" rule, but I haven't seen how to do that in the current shipping
presets. If anyone knows how to do that, I would appreciate the input.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | MrPetovan | | Posted: | Sep 19, 2021 23:20 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 28 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In the individual shipping policies, there is a "Discount" block where you can
set up conditional discounts by percentage, so you can set a discount for 100%
of the shipping and handling fee if the order total is over $50 for example.
You have to repeat this for all the shipping methods you intend for the discount
to be applicable.
In Selling, Yellow.Brick writes:
| | Once I figure out the sweet spot I'll implement the "free shipping for orders
over xxx" rule, but I haven't seen how to do that in the current shipping
presets. If anyone knows how to do that, I would appreciate the input.
|
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | Ziegelmeister | | Posted: | Sep 20, 2021 01:00 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 39 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, MrPetovan writes:
| | In the individual shipping policies, there is a "Discount" block where you can
set up conditional discounts by percentage, so you can set a discount for 100%
of the shipping and handling fee if the order total is over $50 for example.
You have to repeat this for all the shipping methods you intend for the discount
to be applicable.
In Selling, Yellow.Brick writes:
| | Once I figure out the sweet spot I'll implement the "free shipping for orders
over xxx" rule, but I haven't seen how to do that in the current shipping
presets. If anyone knows how to do that, I would appreciate the input.
|
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*FACEPALM*
I didn't even click on that because my brain processed it as if I would offer
coupon codes... Sometimes I see things too black and white. Thanks MrPetovan.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | MrPetovan | | Posted: | Sep 20, 2021 06:47 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 32 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| Happy to help!
In Selling, Yellow.Brick writes:
| | *FACEPALM*
I didn't even click on that because my brain processed it as if I would offer
coupon codes... Sometimes I see things too black and white. Thanks MrPetovan.
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| | | | | | | Author: | tons_of_bricks | | Posted: | Sep 13, 2021 06:46 | | Subject: | Re: What would you have done differently? | | Viewed: | 46 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Tim1234567 writes:
| |
I will never give in, then they lose the sale.
|
Sometimes it's better to lose the sale than to lose money.
And like yorbrick says, the customer always pays for shipping, either through
fees or through higher priced items. This applies to any store anywhere, not
just bricklink. That's a very common practice on the auction site. Price
the item a few dollars higher, offer "free" shipping, attract more buyers that
way. Many people fall for it, it sounds like you do.
I have seen many reasonable shipping prices here on BL, with many charging the
exact shipping cost.
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USA, Ohio
United Kingdom, England
Netherlands, Utrecht
Germany, Berlin
France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine