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interesting.
as a matter of fact, I was just about to start the same exact business.
damn, coincidence. Let me go create my account on livestream now for my new business, that I was already starting I mean.
Thanks
I own an auction site for knives swords collectibles etc. I've had it for a while put quite a bit of time and money into it but never found the time to use it.
Well now I think it's time.
What I'd like to do is make it into sort of an interactive shopping channel using something like Ustream, (I'm actually using livestream at the moment)
Id like to have a show a couple nights a week eventually maybe every night where I do product reviews, chat with customers, and the kicker be able to haggle with customers to make deals, and also list items on the site very very cheap in an auction format that only lasts 10 minutes.
Here is my idea for the fast auctions. Say I pay $10 for a samurai sword normal retail for that sword is anywhere from $20-$30. So I start it off at $12 to ensure I make some profit(20 percent) but also have a buy it now where its marked up to $15 (50 percent).
So here is where it gets interesting, you can either place a bid in hopes of getting it basicly at wholesale, or right off the bat snatch it at the buy it now price which is still well below retail. I will only put a quan y of 1 per 10 minute auction I list.
Im just curious as to some people on here's thoughts who often shop online. For the most part the ebay normal auction format is dead. Most sales are now done via buy it now, nobody wants to wait 3 5 7 20 days for an auction to end, they want instant gratification. With my format the most you will wait is 10 minutes(however if a bid happens the last minute the auction extends for 30 seconds)
Please let me know what you think about the video/interactive portion of it and the auction format of it.
Basicly Im hoping that I build this up to something where Im doing dozens of sales each night making a few bucks per sale. Maybe only doing these quick auctions 2 or 3 hours per night to drive up demand. For instance stun guns $5 bucks over my cost I think I would sell a ton of them. Say I sell 10 in one night thats 50 bucks off of just one product. Do you sell the potential if Im selling dozens if not hundreds of products per day?
Your thoughts are appreciated.
By the way the site is http://www.bladeauctions.com its not live yet but my video feed is up right now as I do some testing so feel free to pop in you can chat with me in the video window or goto http://www.livestream.com/BLADEZTV to do the same.
interesting.
as a matter of fact, I was just about to start the same exact business.
damn, coincidence. Let me go create my account on livestream now for my new business, that I was already starting I mean.
Thanks
Could have sworn I blocked your posts.
ever thought about gay advertising links to ur site? might help traffic.....
I think you should be a professional poker player.
I don't know if that's the most effective way of advertising your business, but I can't fault you for trying to be unique.
say whatever you sell increases the size of the penis and in a year you'll be set for life
How many people in these crappy penny saving times are spending money on swords? Just saying sell something that will move in these times like Porn and Booze.
People are still buying without any advertising in the last month ive done $7000+ in sales on my site, i shut down advertising because of the move.
When David Carradine died we did a little over $10k in sales in 3 or 4 days on the autographed swords we still had left.
So believe it or not this sells great.
I've got a gig with UMA in the works right now as well as a product in development with Michael Madsen.
Just what the world needs - more people buying more they don't need.
Don't mind me, I'm just a rationalist, as opposed to a consumer.
(PS No offense intended Heath - I'm having a go at the system under which the world operates, not you in particular).
Life would sure be fun just spending money on food, water, and doctors!
I can't say I think less of someone for owning a $20 replica sword when people have houses with 32 bedrooms and private jets.
I don't get it, you did 7K in sales last month and rather than continue to do what works, and improve on it when possible, you want to do something totally different.
And instead of selling items with a normal markup of 100-200% you want to sell them for as little as 20-50%?
That guy in Baltimore would disagree with you.
Hey Heath, maybe you should market it as a form of self-defense? See if you can get that John Hopkins kid to market for you!
either sell to underage kids?
or webcasts of t he product itself at work, either slicing up a vegetable or fruit etc...watermelon?
Everyone needs a hobby, Ruff. Attending professional sporting events could be considered frivolous by your definition, yet I see a pretty cool pic of you and the Admiral in your avatar.
If people want to collect cheap swords, I don't see how that's any worse than paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to watch guys play basketball.
That being said, men who collect Samari swords are all closet sexuals.
interesting concept, heath. i'm kinda with everyone when they say "why swords?" and all that, but i understand that's what your business is. maybe go with more in-demand items. i don't personally think swords and all that will make this take off the way you'd hope. plus while you try and sell those someone else might take your idea and sell in-demand items. as far as the auctioning part of it, how fast will that be? will it be in a chat-type format. one advantage to that is that i know people hate the way ebay is set up to do auto-bids and all those ebay bid programs. i'd see that as an advantage for your project. work it up, take it to Shark Tank.
I feel you... and would like to offer you a free market analysis. Let's start out with your model demographic:
uhhh...that marketing strategy worked pretty good for Wal-Mart...
Why would I sell at 20-50 percent markup instead of 100-200? It's all about volume. I woud be like the "wal mart" of the knife and sword industry. People want their and they want it cheap, there is a ton of compe ion in my niche and I've done fine but nobody with such a business model.
I sell more than just swords, i sell pocket knives, hunting knives, self defense products such as stun gun, pepper spray, armor, helmets, spears, crossbows. I have access to probably 5000 or so different products to sell to keep it fresh. Ive quickly realized this is the wrong place to ask for opinions. I've been here long enough to where I should have known that.
Just what we need, more people telling people how they should spend their money.
No offense, I'm just someone that believes in that people should be left alone and not preached at what they should do with their own ing money.
Hmm, Tim Duncan collects them.....
Just because it works for Wal-Mart doesn't mean it works for everybody.
Having to do up to ten times the work to make the same amount of money isn't always the best idea.
You also admit it's a niche business, I'm not sure I've ever heard of anyone using the "Wal-Mart" business model with a niche business.
Last edited by PM5K; 09-18-2009 at 06:27 PM.
first I would hire a few dozen or so illegal immigrants while you can. They're not even really employees, so nobody will know about it. They could get your knives shiny and handle your cameras. Afterwards you can turn the in to ICE and say they dealed drugs when your done with them. It's the patriotic thing to do, we need to get this economy going.
God Bless the USA and the internet.
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