in our midst?? I am contemplating, and have to get onto the action stage soon; have set up e-bay account, paypal account and have taken and sized etc. pictures. Web site should be up soon.... What is stopping me ??? I am terrified of making a mistake :eek: ... I think I need some hand-holding lol
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My site is [url]www.unrealimages.ca[/url]
I made it in Go-live. Really my first attempt at doing a site and it needs a redesign which I'll do once I get this house in order. I was more worried about just getting it to work than the design aspects so now that I've figured that part out I can concentrate on the graphic elements next time.
BTW, unexpected marketing technique hit today. Someone who has been after my house since Oct. stopped by today and asked if they could please look at it. It is a heap, the flooring guy was making a cloud of dust etc. but I let her in. She spotted one of my pet portraits and the next thing you know we're talking that for 20 minutes. She took my card etc. and as I suspected, even though her sister owns an art gallery, she just finds there are some things she doesn't want to pay big bucks for, yet still wants the more arty look on a custom piece.
So it dawned on me that maybe I'll use my hall to display some of the pet portraits and my cards during the open house. Might be an option for those who don't buy my house to use my services. Meanwhile it had never really occurred to me to hang any of them around here before but maybe that is a good thing.
I know I've been there, but what is your site ?? i can't seem to find it in my favourites.
What did you use to write it ??
I think the custom aspect is what is really going to work for you (as well as maybe offering some tried and true stuff if you like). The beauty of computers is really being able to offer that custome touch for a reasonable rate. Good luck with it.
I print them on computer and mount them on wood myself. I also can add special touches, like ribbon bow, or glitter lettering on top of them.
The thing is, I can do any picture, any saying, or poem, or put a name in or whatever you want on whatever size you are willing to pay for (not YOU personally, but you get the drift ...lol)
is an ebay shopper. He always advises to bid with your top price and then forget about it.
No genius no matter how much I'd like to think so. More like it's always some silly thing hanging up a file and if you work like I do, RGB isn't usual.
Nice plaque and I think you could have a good market for them. Are they hand done or computer generated?
thanks heaps
let's see . .
converted it to RGB, will try now
So it saves fine in the format you designate but when you attach it, it's the wrong format? Any chance the file is cmyk?
aaarrrggggh
didn't work again, will try saving as a gif or bmp or something !
I seem to have a problem saving jpgs on my computer, they are "not the right format" whatever that means; I am trying again, have resave to a new file
I think you've mentioned this site before. We also have a buy/sell site associated with our freecycle.
I still don't see the picture you posted. Is it just me or does it show as loaded?
dbd, but that's OK, I don't mind !
I have also found a LOCAL site, i is called kijiji, it is an offshoot of e-bay, but all things are local; we also have a local "yard sale" category, which is an of-shoot of our local Freecycle group, works and looks the same as Freecycle, but people can (and do) ask for money !
Here's the site for Calgary, it lists them all so they're all just a click away lol :)
[url]http://calgary.kijiji.ca/[/url]
Sorry about that.
Meanwhile, either your plaques are very ethereal in style or the attachment didn't load for some reason. I can see only white space.
Actually, it will be interesting to see what you learn about ebay as I am wondering the same sort of thing. I know paypal is easy to arrange (you can use it pretty much instantly to receive payments but it takes a few days before you can transfer money initially as they verify your bank account is correct). I set up an account for my pet portrait site and it was no trouble at all. I've also noticed that many people have 'stores' or some set up to get people to a site within ebay, but that is as far as my experience goes.
I'm thinking I might start with the things of my moms I've found while trying to pack and sort to move (see now we'll tie all the off topic stuff in...). After having so little luck getting anything close to any value for her stuff, I've decided ebay is probably a good option for some of the more collectable stuff. If that works, maybe it'll be some of the digital canvas art that I can do.
BTW, since you do graphics, here is another selling site you might be interested in. Basically (as I understand it) you provide the art/graphic, they provide the medium (print, t shirt, etc.) and people can order what they like while you get a cut of the price. You can also set up a 'store' there.
[url]http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/[/url]
you thread-jacker, you lol :)
I am not selling used furniture, but custom made plaques like this one - I have several more, and am working on a web page where you can customize them ; I want the web page up and running before posting on e-bay so I can post the web site too !
Unfortunately, unless you are selling antiques, used furniture is worth next to nothing. I learned that with my mom's stuff this fall. We tried an apt. sale and thought we were really reasonable ($2,000 sofa/chair/2 yrs old/perfect condition for $500) but no go. We paid (!) to move it to an auction house and when I got the cheque, the set had sold for $100, minus $25 fee, so we got $75. Basically, all the sale did was cover the cost of moving it there. That was true of most of her stuff and she had some nice stuff. It all went for about 10% of what it cost new (and most was only a couple of years old) In the end I have learned you practically have to give stuff away to sell it used.
The consignment shop here that sells nice furniture charges $50 to assess the item, then they take 50% (less $50 for the assessment) commission, and you have moving costs on top if it won't fit in your vehicle to get it there. So in the end, you hardly get anything again.
So, no matter how much you think the ottoman is worth, you may have to rethink it. Even at 50% of what you paid, some could get it new for that on sale so they are looking for a real deal to even consider used. It might be more worth your while to just have it recovered in the colour you want when you consider what you would lose on it.
Meanwhile, I just caught a break that might help you. One of my friends owns some restaurants. She had me list all the stuff I still have to sell here and she posted it in their staff rooms just two days ago. I reduced the prices to what it would cost me to move the stuff and because most of the staff are young, just starting out they are the crowd who is interested. Just yesterday I got rid of a washer/dryer and tonight someone is coming to look at some of the furniture.
So, hitting places where wages are lower, people are younger and just need things to make do, might be a better option for you. As well, posting at the grocery store seems to be something that actually works a lot better than some other places. If you posted in a store in a new area catering to first time home owners, you might get some interest.
I have a car to get rid of that I've been paying insurance on while it just sits taking up space, and now I just want it gone. I am going to post at the grocery stores around here because I figure the university and tech kids shop there and might be interested. Meanwhile after what I've experienced, that car will be posted at half of what I originally thought I could get for it just to get rid of it. It hurts thinking something is worth more than others do, but if you want something gone, you have to make it irrisistable.
Give yourself permission to screw up in the beginning. Everyone has a learning curve when it comes to doing new things, so why should you be different? :)
I have bought stuff on eBay but all I would say is to know your shipping rates and post them so people know that up front, no-one likes surprises. I haven't bought anything lately but browsed a few months ago and noticed more sellers were giving just a few days for the buyers to get their money in. Whenever I bought stuff I would pay for it as soon as I won the auction but I get the feeling many don't.
Did you try contacting a customer service line at e-bay? I bet they get questions all the time.
can return it to the store?
not even you...LOL...you could make it feel better and KEEP IT!!!...just kidding
what about the buy and sell...or did you try that one too?
I've placed lots of free ads actually. I tried my community website, community newsletter, craigslist (but minus the pics, which I haven't had a chance to revise w/pics this time -yet still got lots of replies anyway). And my cousin-in-law just posted on her work intranet -she works for a large company so I'm crossing my fingers there.
Most people say they'd take it if it were brown, and many others in the past thought my price was too high for second hand. But I don't want to give it away for next to nothing. I would think a consignment shop would want it for next to nothing too and if that's the case, I'll just keep it. I also called a few used furniture stores and they don't want it. Those people I called were very VERY rude to me on the phone too. They don't want just 1 peice... they want a lot more to make their trip to pick-up the items worthile. But yeah, I got hung-up on and grunted at. Lots of nastiness out there. :mad:
I feel sorry for my table. Nobody wants it. Poor thing. ;)
I sell on ebay and have had no problems. I was sellig mostly kids books and some other items. There was nothing as large as a coffee table though. Shipping that would probably have to be packaged and shipped with Purolator, FedX or Canpar and could be very pricey for the buyer. You could advertise it as "PickUp" ONLY on ebay though., Also the PayPal acct. takes about 2 weeks to be processed before you can use it.
I doubt Canada Post ships items that large. Before ebay I would post a free ad on craiglist.com or take it to a consignment store.
Why not advertise in your local paper? :)
I don't even know how to buy on ebay, let alone sell! I don't know why, but the entire experience seems so confusing to me, other than the browsing part of course.
I want to sell my coffee table on there but I wouldn't know where to begin. That would mean I have to know how to ship it! ME do THAT?? HA! Ya, no.
Wish I could help ya.
check out your local community centre. I know ours offered a course on buying and selling on e-bay. It was only one evening. I didn't go but thought it would be interesting.