Newbie help - nobody is looking at our listings
Hi everyone,
I'm helping my FIL sell his 60k+ postcards that he's collected over his lifetime. It is high quality stuff and he used to sell at shows when he was younger. We've only listed about 10 and it's only been a little over a week, but most of our listings don't even have any views. Any advice on how to start?
Specifically, I'd like to ask these questions, but really any help is GREATLY appreciated:
Do auctions sell better than store listings?
What are people looking for? Like do they want cheaper/quantity or highest quality postcards? Sets? Something else?
Thank you so much for anyone taking the time to read and respond. He's an amazing guy and has really great stuff, but it doesn't matter if nobody ever sees it.
I'm helping my FIL sell his 60k+ postcards that he's collected over his lifetime. It is high quality stuff and he used to sell at shows when he was younger. We've only listed about 10 and it's only been a little over a week, but most of our listings don't even have any views. Any advice on how to start?
Specifically, I'd like to ask these questions, but really any help is GREATLY appreciated:
Do auctions sell better than store listings?
What are people looking for? Like do they want cheaper/quantity or highest quality postcards? Sets? Something else?
Thank you so much for anyone taking the time to read and respond. He's an amazing guy and has really great stuff, but it doesn't matter if nobody ever sees it.
Comments
(1) no "link" from your post or your forum handle ("bill mix") page to your store;
(2) I tried general Search but of course that approach seems limited to items themselves;
(3) I noticed "Stores" in a menu area so clicked on that, and got a search field for "Stores" (names), all we have then was "bill mix" so tried that, and got "PostcardPoppy(0)" of June 2022 with 15 items, but there's no "bill mix" on an item page when I selected one to bring up.
Lesson for posters -- if you want Help regarding items, please provide "Store" name, etc.!
Whoever PostcardPoppy is, I know they did one great thing for the few items so far -- they marked whether postally Used or not. OVER 98.7% of all postcards are NOT marked ("buy it now" category, USA category stats), so I cannot review the "400,000 cards added for July" or the "2 million" that HipPostcard keeps emailing me to check out, since I'm only interested in used.
Then there's the not so great thing, deal-killer actually, about PostcardPoppy's used cards -- no posted side pics!! So I cannot browse this store.
Thanks,
George
https://www.hippostcard.com/store/docgfd-postcards
Regarding Auctions vs. Buy It Now, I haven't had much success with Auctions here, although I do believe they have a place here. What do people want? That is a tough question. I sometimes go to postcard shows and vintage postcards predominate. I also belong to a Worldwide Postcard Exchange site called "Postcrossing." They have over 800,000 members. Granted many are not active. But you can see from stated preferences what the popular topics are. For example, series postcards are hugely popular now: "Flags of the World" "Maps of the World" etc. The key thing is to stick with this. As one veteran seller said here long ago, HipPostcard is a great venue for buyers. My own experience confirms that; I have several repeat customers and the other day a fairly good size order came in.
https://www.hippostcard.com/store/union-hill
So far, my best sale on HipPostcard wasn't for a postcard, but for a menu from a Hawaiian restaurant from the 1940s.
I am wondering how to get more sales on HipPostcard too. I appreciate all the advice given above. But could use more.
https://www.hippostcard.com/store/ramshackle-empire
Just a quick look at your store and a quick response. What I think I see is about 5,000 of your listings are matchbook covers in the Ephemera (Old Paper) category of your store, leaving about 700 (?) postcard listings. Your feedback suggests most all of your sales are the matchbook covers. Only 1 or 2 postcard sales.
I'm not sure what the cross-selling rate is between postcards and matchbook covers but guess it's fairly low. HipPostcard is (obviously) pitched at postcard collectors. So, increasing sales here on HP would probably involve listing more postcards - and trying to set the prices "about right" in terms of what buyers actually pay here for different kinds of cards. Alternatively, if you have a level of store that comes with a email sales newsletter option, that might work to bring in previous and new customers. If your business focuses mainly on matchbook cover sales, then perhaps reaching out to HipPostcard to see if they'd work with you to set up a mailing list of previous matchbook cover buyers on HP to send a email newsletter to them might be the best way to go - if you can get them interested in it.
Since my store focuses on postcards, I get regular and good response to the email newsletters that HP sends out on my behalf. My email spam filter blocks those emails (how dare it!) so I usually don't know when the marketing emails go out. But whenever one of those emails goes out I know because sales start popping (as happened yesterday and so far today). Not always huge, but enough to keep me interested.
Best of luck!
Thanks,
https://www.hippostcard.com/store/memories-in-postcards