Sell sell sell!!!!

[daniboy0812]

Hi Guys

Been selling just the mugs for bout 8 months now which started as a 'sideline'. Have pretty much cracked it!! Getting really good print & sales for oct-jan 2010 - roughly 12k worth of mugs just through eBay. Will be getting new kit & new products when sales pick up a little.

Here's my dilema:
Due to the snow I've attracted some comes idiots off eBay - one guy purchased on 24th dec & left neg feedback as mug didn't arrive in time for xmas while another bought on 14th jan & left neg feedback on 18th. Ebay cant remove the feedback (even though they could remove one on my listings) so i currently have 97.4% ++ feedback on feew thousand transactions. I have been sending out parcels 1st class post, registered post not worth it as too expensive. Have had many complaints of customers not getting their orders - i should imagine some will be thinking 'one for home, one for work lets just say i didn't get my item & hey presto' 2 mugs - customer wins!! So anyone who wants to trade on eBay beware as it is a minefield & can cost you dearly but also make you a fortune. I am well in profit so it was well worth it.

So thought right, lets get off eBay & get into the likes of uni's & local business'. Was thinking right lets get a pop up banner (got) demo printed mugs (got) personalised invoices (got) digi picture frames x2 (got) loads of other stuff to look the part (got). Now for the idea of how to sell (not got) Just to make myself mobile & get into business' setting up in let's say, the canteen (high footfall)

Contacted a major uni & they said yes yes yes then after many phone calls & 'i'll have to pass it higher but a very good idea' its now no no no!! AARRGGHHHH!!!

So my question is; do i go into local business' with my goodie bag of mugs & plead for my little business?

Doesn't look very professional. So can i have some views & tips on how you guys sell your wares?

Not got any strong contacts like NHS or police (only on friday nites after a few too many) so what is the best way to get into large organisations & is there any other technique that i can capitalise on for the smaller sales

Thought of fetes but i want my mugs truly personal so i cant print 'on site'

Any tricks & tips will be awesome

People are either holding onto their cash till payday or my eBay feedback has really killed it 5-8 sales per day now :-(

cheers joel

[smitch6]

wow well done for making it work
how much do you sell your mugs for on ebay because this was a question we were asking each other in another thread

saying the norm is 4.99 but some are saying thats too cheap

as for the other thing if we all knew how to get our business out there we'd all be rich lol

[Justin]

That's some sales on eBay, you must have hit upon a secret market :-) Surely you're feedback would be 99.9%+ with just a couple of negatives, you'd need more to get it down to 97.4%?

[accdave]

12k in a few months. I think you should be giving us advice not the other way round :)

[AdamB]

Well done mate - what's your ebay id/shop - let's have a look at your wares :-)

[jennywren]

Would walkers whiskey give us the recipe to there whiskey so we can flood the market and devalue our product, no it the same here nobody is going to tell you how to go out and where, you have to find your own niche. I'm sure you won't tell us when you do. We all have difficult customers and like the rest of us you will just have to take the good times with the bad, That's business or as you say a side line. I would like to say more but I sure i would offend

[AdamB]

Well done mate - what's your ebay id/shop - let's have a look at your wares :-)

Found you ............. you said a "few" negative customers ................... the last month you have had 194 postive, 15 neutral and 19 negative ........... ???

Those "19" unhappy customers will be putting your feedback down - sorry mate, but I have to say - that is more than just a few, and 15 of them were from 2011 (this month)!

Oh, and it was easy to find you (I didn't go hunting, I was curious to what your niche was) as your homepage (under user profile) has your website that has a link to your e-bay shop.

[THE METAL MAN]

THE GUY WHO SUPPLIES HIS BLANK MUGS MUST BE HAPPY
PRESS MUST BE GOING 24hr

[DREAMGLASS]

Sadly eBay has turned into idiotsville since they changed the rules and sellers could no longer leave negative feedback for buyers. Some buyers seem to leave negative feedback for virtually everyone they trade with, but eBay does nothing to remove those clowns, whilst still happily taking the fees from the sellers. A lot of big sellers have vacated eBay over the last couple of years as they quite rightly don't want to do business that way.

As regards Xmas sales, I always close my shop a few days before Xmas to deter the last minute muppets. They do after all, have all of November and most of December to purchase in plenty of time for Xmas gifts.

There are lots of opportunities to sell products offline, you just need to be creative as to how you pursue those new openings. Its all about thinking 'outside of the box'.

[Justin]

Somebody is going to ask the question so it may as well be me. Do you have the licences to print all of those designs? If so, you have no need for our advice whatsoever :-)