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Author Topic: Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?  (Read 2411 times)

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Offline Loreofyore

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Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?
« on: December 26, 2018, 09:30:06 PM »
 :dizzy:
Ebay…. I think it’s about the last place many people want to go back to, too many weird policy changes too often, too many long-standing people on the community forums there getting burned out and needing to start over every-time ebay re-dictates a new policy, meanwhile buyers still getting ripped off by the triangulating amazon drop ship crowd they can’t reign in. They say assume people are basically good but with all the hype around every update about controling the reverse the community vibe feels heavily like the opposite is happening.

 :poke: It’s time to start selling most of my collections but not all of them  are old enough for etsy.

Facebook, lax security, stalkers, and indestructible accounts aside, is primarily designed for social butterfly followings of persona. :cheer:  Not my tea and I don’t think I’m ready to change my life just to clear the excess toys from my closets, but I hear it really works for gamers at least.


 :nope: Amazon so I’ve heard no longer lets you sell used toys?

  :shrug: I’d been about to open on Bonanza this Christmas, but they had a tech issue that blocked bidders from even seeing searches in the peak season that the community there reports had been going on for some time. I have reported it myself about a week ago but some people say it’s been happening all month to folk without accounts and a smattering with them. Doing the only thing I could I did some research and posted the obscure actual phone number back to those forums.

  :freak: ioffer looks rather exciting if you have a certain kind of phone but I don’t unfortunately and thus can’t download the app.

 :angel: ebid.net ? It’s supposed to get good traffic for a little alternative. You are supposed to be able to sign up for a free seller’s account according to the FAQ but the form to confirm the account looks like it keeps trying to get me to upgrade to seller’s+ lifetime which you must pay for $49.99 which is great if you are large and established but I’d rather just try it… they also seem to want you to agree to the terms of service for a second time... I tried to find a tutorial on youtube… but everything I could find was outdated despite the reported traffic ranking of ebid.net compared to some smaller more recent alternative startups with more offline promotion...

 :tumble: Webstore.com offers just the basic nuts and bolts and looks interesting to sellers but does it look too obscure and shabby to a buyer? The GUI has a real 90s feel.

 :inlove: Craigslist people just don’t seem to be all that active around my area sadly until it’s actually free… then they’ll flood ya as if they were knowing lying in wait. Hee -hee.

And I'm sure I've not gotten to a half of the options that are out there to tantalyze and mystify the surfer. :whew:

Am I the only person feeling frustrated and confused with the alternative scene? I know we don’t want ebay to have the monopoly it enjoys especially as it’s beginning to look more and more like Alibaba for westerners to those of us in the US, and I feel the part about it would be good to spice up some small sites with some collectibles they presently lack… but where out there to go? Anyone else with this interest have thoughts or stories?  :chat:

Figured I'd start a thread and see how people respond. As I think folk here have a wider variety of toys to trade at some point than just those individual ponies back and forth. And the net today is the wonderland of services getting ever bigger or smaller.... meanwhile most of the self help articles geared to rope you into the startups assume your goods would be mostly of fashion and other alleged 'grown up things'. They rarely fail to skip the review for toys as a catagory when you've done your homework as if that trade is comparitive nonsense. :green:

Offline banditpony

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Re: Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2018, 02:20:57 AM »
I always going to sell on ebay unless it's a niche item I think I can sell elsewhere. *shrug* It has the most buyers, I can set my price and do immediate payment. Sure there's going to be a bad buyer or two, but that's going to happen no matter where you sell.

That said, since that's not an alternative, maybe look into mercari. But since I'm fairly sure that's app too... then that's out.

Why not just create an alternative email for yourself, and an alternative facebook account? No one is going to stalk you if you don't know who you are, and anyone can join not "social butterflies". I think that's the best venue for you.
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Offline Pokeyonekenobie

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Re: Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2018, 07:10:32 AM »
Have you tried a classified ad (though that might work better if you're doing a lot instead of individual items)?  Out here I can put one on the news website so it doesn't cost anything.  Then set up a pick up point in a public place.  Our police station has a "meeting place" that is under video surveillance so they'll know if anything happens during the exchange.

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Re: Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2018, 08:20:56 AM »
well this is topical - I was just wondering whether to go the evilbay route or try an alternative

yes ebay is big but the whole auction environment actually isn't IMO a good fit for the BIN deal with the "I wanna deal" mentality = I wasn't hoping to do the whole fake-account for FB sales as the hope was to work through boards but the back and forth for just regular G1 US/UK dragged out

it does make it hard to accomplish a fair trade some days this is for sure when it comes to MLP
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Re: Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2018, 08:27:04 AM »
I haven't personally tried eCrater, but I know some people are selling their vintage toys there.
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Offline Loreofyore

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Re: Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?
« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2018, 02:54:04 PM »
Thanks guys, You know I really wasn't sure what kind of reaction I'd get but am glad I opened this. I think we are often reflecting a need in the general community about wanting to have choices at least. I'm glad this is opened up now in the pony community because most of the discussion is happening absent any toysellers and we've got to be among the most bewildered sellers when trying to branch out.
,
Have you tried a classified ad (though that might work better if you're doing a lot instead of individual items)?  Out here I can put one on the news website so it doesn't cost anything.  Then set up a pick up point in a public place.  Our police station has a "meeting place" that is under video surveillance so they'll know if anything happens during the exchange.
As old fashioned as I am I hadn't thought of them still in a long time and then only as the paper no one reads or that charge you to place, but now I'll to look into what my area offers.
I always going to sell on ebay unless it's a niche item I think I can sell elsewhere. *shrug* It has the most buyers, I can set my price and do immediate payment. Sure there's going to be a bad buyer or two, but that's going to happen no matter where you sell.

That said, since that's not an alternative, maybe look into mercari. But since I'm fairly sure that's app too... then that's out.

Why not just create an alternative email for yourself, and an alternative facebook account? No one is going to stalk you if you don't know who you are, and anyone can join not "social butterflies". I think that's the best venue for you.
That too is interesting, last I heard Facebook wouldn't let you do an alias and it was such a problem that members of the indigenous community were being banned for just for using actual legal names, my mixed family lost it's connection to the tribal communites generations ago but missed them enough to name me for an animal in part as an effort anyway at mantaining that link for me, so I wasn't even sure I could use my full name without facebook turning me down these days.
well this is topical - I was just wondering whether to go the evilbay route or try an alternative

yes ebay is big but the whole auction environment actually isn't IMO a good fit for the BIN deal with the "I wanna deal" mentality = I wasn't hoping to do the whole fake-account for FB sales as the hope was to work through boards but the back and forth for just regular G1 US/UK dragged out

it does make it hard to accomplish a fair trade some days this is for sure when it comes to MLP
Thank you for all the good stories, advice, & thoughts I'd love us to hear more about what we've found out there. I'd really been excited to try Bonanza before the tech error, there is still not a stellar selection of stuff out there but multiple toysellers for most brands so I thought it might be more likely a customer would return to look for toys there. Ecrater seems to do better than Bonanza however at showing up in my google shopping searches for particular toys. I'm not sure why that is but that has been my impression. :drunk:
Me I think I just want to resell my excess and then only bother with if something major comes my way because without a car or a cell phone I just can't compete with most pickers as what I collected rarely comes into second hand shops anymore.
I'll probably settle down with design or some new kind of crafts while my ulnar nerves slowly heal, or videos or something, I have time to experiment in order to find something better sustainable, but even then I'd want the internet to have choices not just one big megastore fits all mom&pops, thus it makes sense to feed some alternative my amassed loot, I have mostly your standard popular branded toys and few items that I think are hard enough to find to draw first time shoppers in a niche or two out to somewhere... come to think that description might fit more than just me... but alas it's a wonderland... to which 'somewhere' does one go?

Offline banditpony

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Re: Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?
« Reply #6 on: December 27, 2018, 03:16:19 PM »

I always going to sell on ebay unless it's a niche item I think I can sell elsewhere. *shrug* It has the most buyers, I can set my price and do immediate payment. Sure there's going to be a bad buyer or two, but that's going to happen no matter where you sell.

That said, since that's not an alternative, maybe look into mercari. But since I'm fairly sure that's app too... then that's out.

Why not just create an alternative email for yourself, and an alternative facebook account? No one is going to stalk you if you don't know who you are, and anyone can join not "social butterflies". I think that's the best venue for you.
That too is interesting, last I heard Facebook wouldn't let you do an alias and it was such a problem that members of the indigenous community were being banned for just for using actual legal names, my mixed family lost it's connection to the tribal communites generations ago but missed them enough to name me for an animal in part as an effort anyway at mantaining that link for me, so I wasn't even sure I could use my full name without facebook turning me down these days.
[/quote]

Hm. People have suggested to me I use a fake name as I have a fairly identifiable name, and have had a stalker. FB has always frowned upon fake names, but people still use them.

I mean to be honest, the best thing if you want to sell is get use the platform that the majority of the buyers go to. (ebay, facebook). The other places are going to be slower to move items unless you have a strategic marketing strategy (How else are people going to know something is for sale?).

But the thing about selling things is it takes time to take pictures, and list. -__- at least we have pick up by the USPS now trips to the PO aren't needed. Have you considered selling to any resellers/flippers in your area? (Maybe someone who has a toystore locally, or someone who sells at a flea market?). I'm just tossing out another idea-- it might not be right for you.

Or another idea is maybe get a cheap phone for some of the garage sale apps? (like ioffer or mercari). You don't have to get a plan, you could just run it off your wifi.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2018, 03:48:08 PM by banditpony »
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Offline Loreofyore

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Re: Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?
« Reply #7 on: December 27, 2018, 04:42:24 PM »

I always going to sell on ebay unless it's a niche item I think I can sell elsewhere. *shrug* It has the most buyers, I can set my price and do immediate payment. Sure there's going to be a bad buyer or two, but that's going to happen no matter where you sell.

That said, since that's not an alternative, maybe look into mercari. But since I'm fairly sure that's app too... then that's out.

Why not just create an alternative email for yourself, and an alternative facebook account? No one is going to stalk you if you don't know who you are, and anyone can join not "social butterflies". I think that's the best venue for you.
That too is interesting, last I heard Facebook wouldn't let you do an alias and it was such a problem that members of the indigenous community were being banned for just for using actual legal names, my mixed family lost it's connection to the tribal communites generations ago but missed them enough to name me for an animal in part as an effort anyway at mantaining that link for me, so I wasn't even sure I could use my full name without facebook turning me down these days.

Hm. People have suggested to me I use a fake name as I have a fairly identifiable name, and have had a stalker. FB has always frowned upon fake names, but people still use them.

I mean to be honest, the best thing if you want to sell is get use the platform that the majority of the buyers go to. (ebay, facebook). The other places are going to be slower to move items unless you have a strategic marketing strategy (How else are people going to know something is for sale?).

But the thing about selling things is it takes time to take pictures, and list. -__- at least we have pick up by the USPS now trips to the PO aren't needed. Have you considered selling to any resellers/flippers in your area? (Maybe someone who has a toystore locally, or someone who sells at a flea market?). I'm just tossing out another idea-- it might not be right for you.

Or another idea is maybe get a cheap phone for some of the garage sale apps? (like ioffer or mercari). You don't have to get a plan, you could just run it off your wifi.
[/quote]
Well there's an eventual idea, I've never had a cell and figured I'd need a plan, I don't have wifi but the library does.

Offline Taffeta

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Re: Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?
« Reply #8 on: December 28, 2018, 04:14:52 AM »
I'm not sure how applicable this discussion is to me as I'm not in the US (so apologies if I am trespassing by posting here) but I agree that Ebay has become more focused on new stock and bigger sellers rather than being the online attic sale it used to be (which is why many of us joined in the first place).

Even in spite of that, when I get around to selling my pony doubles, I will begin here and then probably take them to ebay. A lot of people do sell on facebook, but I'm naturally cautious about social media in general and it's not something I want to do. I think as we;ve seen from other situations the fact that sellers and buyers banned from an online community like this can operate freely and without much likelihood of being stopped on social media, I'm very wary of using this as an option.

For international people like me it is more complicated because selling is automatically more difficult and I can't comment on all the other options you mentioned as I am either unaware of them or they don't apply here. But I know a bunch of people do sell on etsy. I believe their support system isn't great either, though, so that is maybe something you want to look into first if you decide to go down that route.

If I can clear ponies on the Arena then I will. But for me, I will take the ponies to a local carboot sale and sell them there before I'll do deals on social media, even if it means losing money. Setting up a dupe account is a bit risky as well, but my biggest concern is that there's so little protection from social media sites and they're as you say, not designed for transactions. If they're to be the platform of the future for sales, they need to do a lot more work.

I miss the days of ebay as it used to be. :( There doesn't seem to be a natural replacement as everyone seems to think selling old stuff or as a private seller rather than a business no longer exists. (The irony being that mostly the private sellers selling old stuff predate the big companies and mass wholesalers in terms of online selling, but they've now taken over what was our market :/)

It does take a long time to photograph, list etc as well. I think the idea of finding a local flipper if you don't have the time to do that is a grreat one. Or even a not so local one, if there's someone in the community of whatever toy you are selling that is interested in buying in bulk.
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Offline Loreofyore

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Re: Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?
« Reply #9 on: December 28, 2018, 11:16:32 AM »
I'm not sure how applicable this discussion is to me as I'm not in the US (so apologies if I am trespassing by posting here) but I agree that Ebay has become more focused on new stock and bigger sellers rather than being the online attic sale it used to be (which is why many of us joined in the first place).

Even in spite of that, when I get around to selling my pony doubles, I will begin here and then probably take them to ebay. A lot of people do sell on facebook, but I'm naturally cautious about social media in general and it's not something I want to do. I think as we;ve seen from other situations the fact that sellers and buyers banned from an online community like this can operate freely and without much likelihood of being stopped on social media, I'm very wary of using this as an option.

For international people like me it is more complicated because selling is automatically more difficult and I can't comment on all the other options you mentioned as I am either unaware of them or they don't apply here. But I know a bunch of people do sell on etsy. I believe their support system isn't great either, though, so that is maybe something you want to look into first if you decide to go down that route.

If I can clear ponies on the Arena then I will. But for me, I will take the ponies to a local carboot sale and sell them there before I'll do deals on social media, even if it means losing money. Setting up a dupe account is a bit risky as well, but my biggest concern is that there's so little protection from social media sites and they're as you say, not designed for transactions. If they're to be the platform of the future for sales, they need to do a lot more work.

I miss the days of ebay as it used to be. :( There doesn't seem to be a natural replacement as everyone seems to think selling old stuff or as a private seller rather than a business no longer exists. (The irony being that mostly the private sellers selling old stuff predate the big companies and mass wholesalers in terms of online selling, but they've now taken over what was our market :/)

It does take a long time to photograph, list etc as well. I think the idea of finding a local flipper if you don't have the time to do that is a grreat one. Or even a not so local one, if there's someone in the community of whatever toy you are selling that is interested in buying in bulk.
Well though a few tips may not be as applicable to many of us in North America, totally yes I’m interested in your thoughts as a toy seller looking for alternatives to whatever dominates your area and I thank you for them. I’m certain others would too.
I suspect our experience is somewhat global because despite the overwhelming amount of old toys resold online each year, trading in them is still treated as if it’s obscure enough to overlook especially in comparison to new goods. Thus, it’s much harder to find advice when trying new avenues if your customer base is looking for alleged used ‘kid stuff’ and is not a parent.

For example there is this site in the us, takes pre-owned kid and toddler stuff, I kept getting referred to that but though they did have a reasonable selection of more recent toys the rules were...
https://support.swap.com/hc/en-us/articles/212130146-How-Does-SurePrice-Work-

It was geared to parents not to any sort of toy collectors, thus you were normally expected to ship your items to this online consignment and it would price them for the market of what looked like infant to 8 year olds whose parents were trying either trying to save money or get cash for stuff kids had ‘outgrown’ and take it’s additional cut from the low selling price it elbowed you to...
 https://support.swap.com/hc/en-us/articles/203330985-Children-s-Acceptance-Criteria-

 In other words it was a site with a category for toys yes, but never geared to any hard to find toys, which is a completely different customer base. I’m no stranger to at loss collectibles selling to parents I’ve even had my tagsales out in the yard and had great fun giving away some vintage dollhouses just plain too big for most to pay the ship. It was worth it just to get these off the lawn and clear up some household space… happy kids are golden... but for adults it is honestly impossible to actually make a living doing this. Don’t know much about life in Europe but sounds like your carboots lost money too.

The American junior market is near impossible to compete inside  as a toy reseller due to the preponderance of newly imported cheap retail toys even before you’ve considered any shipping costs. Handmade can do well here and collectible can do well here but that’s about it in the USA where most toys for decades have come fresh from a Chinese factory. I imagine that the Chinese My Little Pony collectors must either resell their customized art or deal at utter wholesale to earn anything as saturated as the market must be much closer to the source of MLP.

And it’s true as well that the online web-business media has lately seemed to utterly shift gears to all shiny new advising you to drop-ship toys and anything else etc. But let’s take a closer look shall we? This is what taking advantage of ESL (English as a Second Language in the USA)  entails in under two minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq3o7ribxwk
All those ‘small business success story’ American stores edging you out online with shiny new foreign toys plus free shipping on ebay don’t have these amazing international business connections they simply have a webapp or other. Their suppliers can translate between two languages far better than they can… no if you are a drop-shipper who has the respect and foresight to trouble yourself to learn fluent Mandarin in order to sell foreign goods back to westerners than I am not talking about your honest facilitation of international trade, the translator-middleman is an ancient proved business model. But all those preaching the new gospel urging you that you can find riches in profiting off someone whose second-language skills online are not as good yet as a native speaker’s and encouraging you to take advantage of people who don’t read or speak English so well by buying from their English language websites to resell on your English language websites, by the time that these complain of the Chinese or Taiwanese supplier taking over such a proxy home business the foreigner has earned the right of apprenticeship from the original English web-advertisement and customer support that enabled him to be your supplier, to the manufacture, development, and end order customer fuffillment plus returns… has done near all the work for the American… in contrast what has the American done but fill out a web app, resize some pics and sometimes chat online? Normally that is the floor salesman's job not the shopkeepers. I hope this kind of ‘successful’ marketer businessman we are instructed to emulate is prudent enough today to save heavily but I fear they are being hyped up as if their 'better English' were a solid career. There is such a thing as too big and streamlined to be the future... something has got to give especially if we don't want every little playmate on the block to own identical playsets. Already the 80s gen learned to customize to satisfy the urge to be different.

Just remember that the next time you are bathing a beat up horse and currying and ironing it’s matted plastic hair at what is likely under minimum wage to get some pony that new home. You are competing with a dream, awaken they must.

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Re: Misfit toys and the ecommerence alternatives wonderland?
« Reply #10 on: December 28, 2018, 04:50:23 PM »
I have to say that in the 20 years since I've used ebay, it's changed a lot and not for the better. It's become big and commercialised and so has the world as well I guess...but more impersonal and less rewarding for people selling vintage toys in particular. I think the chinese seller aspect only impacts G4 buying, although it probably has an impact there - but there are a lot of issues with ebay that I have ranted about before but will spare you here xD. In 1998 even Ebay accepted payments from overseas in $US cash. I don't advocate that now, but there was more of a sense that even though that was risky, there was some level of trust. Between buyer and seller too - probably partly because MLP hadn't become a fad then with everyone trying to get in on the profit. One of our tabloids wrote an article a while back telling the readers a lot of information about valuable g1 (with many mistakes), which is never helpful.

Ebay's trashing of the vintage category for MLP is a major bugbear for me and so is the GSP. We also have higher prices on shipping anyway which helps put people off. But I think that aside from pandering to big or small businesses rather than individuals, ebay is also pandering to the smartphone generation who don't bother with a description, just 'see pics'. In short, people who want money but don't want to do any of the work to get that money that maybe in previous years would be necessary...

So anyway, after 20 years of online pony trading, selling and buying, my preferred option is here at the Arena simply because it's easier to negotiate prices between people, deal in multiple currencies if necessary and because there's a network of feedback and references and thus a community aspect. I've been through the stages of having my own sale website for MLP and Jem, but I no longer have the time to do that, and am limited in when I can sell anyway, so I gave that up. Here it is a bit more flexible albeit you can't guarantee selling everything :/
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