Hi I'm looking for some feedback on why I haven't had any success selling cards locally here in Canada.
I was getting tired of seeing crummy facebook and kijiji (craigslist) ads with zero transparency (no prices, no lists, "pm me") and ugly google sheets, so I decided I would make a nice looking website so that I could sell cards that I've accumulated to locals in a customer friendly way (typical ecommerce shopping cart with cash on delivery payment).
I live in a city of a million people in a region with a pretty active magic scene and I thought it would be a breeze but I haven't sold anything. I'm only listing about 100 cards at the moment, but I'm beating the prices at my local gaming stores by a minimum of 15% (compared to the cheapest store, which is a good bit cheaper than facetofacegames too) but I haven't had a single nibble.
I worked at a local gaming store for 8 years and played competitively for almost 20 years so I'm pretty familiar with how the magic card market works. I have a day job, so I was hoping that this would be a pretty easy side gig with my minimal overhead and low expected margins but I haven't been able to convince any locals to shop from me.
So my biggest questions are: 1) Is my discount not enticing enough for people to consider buying from me? Are people avoiding filling in a form on my shopping cart? I'm basically doing what other people are doing but in a nicer looking way. And... 2) Should I give up on selling cards locally and look at shipping cards out instead? Some of the card stores in this region are starting to do this and their sites don't look so hot. And if this is the case, should I expand my existing platform or use the facebook groups or just suck up the ebay fees? There are two people in my city with ebay stores that somehow sell tons of stuff at retail prices.
Basically I want to know if I'm just wasting my time or if there just isn't any money to be made in this type of endeavor. I see other people turning over cards at a pretty fast clip so I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong.
Thanks in advance for any feedback/advice you might have.
Id assume youre located in montreal. You say that you know the mtg worlds but do you know how to be a customer.
Your target is too specific. Online buyer located in montreal.
We all have our background on how and where to purchase cards. I was used to ebay and this was the first place i looked for cards. You can quickly sort the lowest buy now and bids on the market.
Eventually, ive learn there was shops selling mtg sometimes at cheaper price than ebay....i found how from some vendors on ebay, name kept comming arround and some gave advertising cards along with my order. So ive started to look arround.
Didnt like some websites, some.other vendors had good prices but the shipping was aweful....to finaly get to coolstuffinc, best website and best vendor out there. And abugames i liked for the quantities, when ive ordered something special, they were the ones able to deliver.
And then ive searched for a good place to get the rare x4 at a better prices and found kidicarus2000 to bid on cards.
So during that timr, only once ive purchase on kijiji, i was looking for a specific card play set and the guy was selling them the same price as ebay. He had an edge because of that stupid global shipping program ebay instated...which is the main reason im not going much anymore on ebay.
If i would still purchase mtg cards, this is where i would be looking, coolstuffinc abugames and kidicarus who could make me a good deal.
I could be living in Montreal, but not once i may have though to look for you on the internet unless looking for something very specific that only you would have....discontinued item for instance....this is the only time i've started to look outside my circle....
Now why am i saying all that is for you to understand, where in all of this could you have targeted me as a customer.
Best option that i see is ebay, by slipping your business website card...and maybe if id feel like it at the time i could have been looking at your website.
The second issue that i can see, is if i was to look at your website, what would i have seen. Now if there was only 100 cards which is not equivalent to on full set of mtg...i would have been disapointed...unless i was looking for some of those cards...
And therefor the reason why i'm saying you re too specific for my perspective...
If you're to have you re own website, i believe you should be running a very wide ammount of cards and sell to at least Canada and the USA.
Otherwise ebay would be your best bet. Kijiji is a smaller circle, not that they arent people on this, but it is more local...
If you would try to target the customer in a local store. People usually tend to want the cards right away...first question would be why not bring your binder...that would be the question as a customer...if the card is 5$ in the store and you re selling the card 4$, does that 1$ difference realy make up for the trouble of trying to make a deal using your system
Best thing that comes to mind is ebay but youll have to sell a little hitgher to cover the fees...and this is the reason looking at the bigger pictures, online shop can.skip the ebay fees and listing and therefor offer a better buy now price than the profesional vendors on ebay...
Thanks, this is exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for.
Take a card like Bloodghast for example. I am selling at $25 when they've been going on ebay for $30-35CAD. Our local stores are either sold out at $30 or are selling at the same price as big online retailers (more$). If my discount is not large enough to sway you, that's fair, that's what I'm trying to find out.
There was a facebook post where someone local was looking for a playset of Bloodghasts and I hit him up with my price (was even lower then) and I didn't get a response, so I'm guessing he felt the same way you do. I was hoping that my nice looking website might actually serve my community in a way that would be win-win, especially against ordering online when you really don't know what condition cards will be in whereas my local customers could verify the condition when they pay me because they'd have the cards in hand.
I understand the inventory concerns too but a lot of people buy small quantities of cards from locals posting on facebook, I just thought I'd go through the trouble of making it look nicer, but maybe I was wasting my energy. But there are other businesses in my region with very few cards in their crystal commerce inventories and they seem to be selling cards and like I said, there are at least two ebay stores from my city who seem to be moving cards at retail prices.
But thanks for the response, I really appreciate what it takes to earn people's business, just honestly thought it would be easier than it has been.
EDIT: Also, selling cards at someone else's store is generally considered poor etiquette.
Maybe that facebook person never saw your message, maybe he already got the cards elsewhere, who know...you cant base your opinion on one person, not even everything ive just wrote.... im here to give you ideas, maybe other people will give you theirs and you can make your own out of this...
Yes its not great selling in someone else store obviously, but its all about how much cards you re sellling. At 100 cards, it feels more like someone's left over cards....but increasing that ammount would look different
Selling 100 cards is different than 5000 cards which is different than 50000 cards.
So maybe 100 cards on facebook is a more suited place. Most people see this more trustworthy because of the nature of facebook...a sens of proximity and get easely in touch...
You would still have to find a way to get yourself known...would probably be easier than your website as it is easier to share among people of same interest...
Thanks guys! I've had a few hundred visits over the past two months, I plan on continuing my cross-promotion on different platforms. Sounds like my local scene will be taking a back seat to selling by mail, which is not my preference but I'm going to go where the business is. Any more advice for acquiring customers, please let me hear it.
I was getting tired of seeing crummy facebook and kijiji (craigslist) ads with zero transparency (no prices, no lists, "pm me") and ugly google sheets, so I decided I would make a nice looking website so that I could sell cards that I've accumulated to locals in a customer friendly way (typical ecommerce shopping cart with cash on delivery payment).
I live in a city of a million people in a region with a pretty active magic scene and I thought it would be a breeze but I haven't sold anything. I'm only listing about 100 cards at the moment, but I'm beating the prices at my local gaming stores by a minimum of 15% (compared to the cheapest store, which is a good bit cheaper than facetofacegames too) but I haven't had a single nibble.
I worked at a local gaming store for 8 years and played competitively for almost 20 years so I'm pretty familiar with how the magic card market works. I have a day job, so I was hoping that this would be a pretty easy side gig with my minimal overhead and low expected margins but I haven't been able to convince any locals to shop from me.
So my biggest questions are: 1) Is my discount not enticing enough for people to consider buying from me? Are people avoiding filling in a form on my shopping cart? I'm basically doing what other people are doing but in a nicer looking way. And... 2) Should I give up on selling cards locally and look at shipping cards out instead? Some of the card stores in this region are starting to do this and their sites don't look so hot. And if this is the case, should I expand my existing platform or use the facebook groups or just suck up the ebay fees? There are two people in my city with ebay stores that somehow sell tons of stuff at retail prices.
Basically I want to know if I'm just wasting my time or if there just isn't any money to be made in this type of endeavor. I see other people turning over cards at a pretty fast clip so I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong.
Thanks in advance for any feedback/advice you might have.
Id assume youre located in montreal. You say that you know the mtg worlds but do you know how to be a customer.
Your target is too specific. Online buyer located in montreal.
We all have our background on how and where to purchase cards. I was used to ebay and this was the first place i looked for cards. You can quickly sort the lowest buy now and bids on the market.
Eventually, ive learn there was shops selling mtg sometimes at cheaper price than ebay....i found how from some vendors on ebay, name kept comming arround and some gave advertising cards along with my order. So ive started to look arround.
Didnt like some websites, some.other vendors had good prices but the shipping was aweful....to finaly get to coolstuffinc, best website and best vendor out there. And abugames i liked for the quantities, when ive ordered something special, they were the ones able to deliver.
And then ive searched for a good place to get the rare x4 at a better prices and found kidicarus2000 to bid on cards.
So during that timr, only once ive purchase on kijiji, i was looking for a specific card play set and the guy was selling them the same price as ebay. He had an edge because of that stupid global shipping program ebay instated...which is the main reason im not going much anymore on ebay.
If i would still purchase mtg cards, this is where i would be looking, coolstuffinc abugames and kidicarus who could make me a good deal.
I could be living in Montreal, but not once i may have though to look for you on the internet unless looking for something very specific that only you would have....discontinued item for instance....this is the only time i've started to look outside my circle....
Now why am i saying all that is for you to understand, where in all of this could you have targeted me as a customer.
Best option that i see is ebay, by slipping your business website card...and maybe if id feel like it at the time i could have been looking at your website.
The second issue that i can see, is if i was to look at your website, what would i have seen. Now if there was only 100 cards which is not equivalent to on full set of mtg...i would have been disapointed...unless i was looking for some of those cards...
And therefor the reason why i'm saying you re too specific for my perspective...
If you're to have you re own website, i believe you should be running a very wide ammount of cards and sell to at least Canada and the USA.
Otherwise ebay would be your best bet. Kijiji is a smaller circle, not that they arent people on this, but it is more local...
If you would try to target the customer in a local store. People usually tend to want the cards right away...first question would be why not bring your binder...that would be the question as a customer...if the card is 5$ in the store and you re selling the card 4$, does that 1$ difference realy make up for the trouble of trying to make a deal using your system
Best thing that comes to mind is ebay but youll have to sell a little hitgher to cover the fees...and this is the reason looking at the bigger pictures, online shop can.skip the ebay fees and listing and therefor offer a better buy now price than the profesional vendors on ebay...
Take a card like Bloodghast for example. I am selling at $25 when they've been going on ebay for $30-35CAD. Our local stores are either sold out at $30 or are selling at the same price as big online retailers (more$). If my discount is not large enough to sway you, that's fair, that's what I'm trying to find out.
There was a facebook post where someone local was looking for a playset of Bloodghasts and I hit him up with my price (was even lower then) and I didn't get a response, so I'm guessing he felt the same way you do. I was hoping that my nice looking website might actually serve my community in a way that would be win-win, especially against ordering online when you really don't know what condition cards will be in whereas my local customers could verify the condition when they pay me because they'd have the cards in hand.
I understand the inventory concerns too but a lot of people buy small quantities of cards from locals posting on facebook, I just thought I'd go through the trouble of making it look nicer, but maybe I was wasting my energy. But there are other businesses in my region with very few cards in their crystal commerce inventories and they seem to be selling cards and like I said, there are at least two ebay stores from my city who seem to be moving cards at retail prices.
But thanks for the response, I really appreciate what it takes to earn people's business, just honestly thought it would be easier than it has been.
EDIT: Also, selling cards at someone else's store is generally considered poor etiquette.
Yes its not great selling in someone else store obviously, but its all about how much cards you re sellling. At 100 cards, it feels more like someone's left over cards....but increasing that ammount would look different
Selling 100 cards is different than 5000 cards which is different than 50000 cards.
So maybe 100 cards on facebook is a more suited place. Most people see this more trustworthy because of the nature of facebook...a sens of proximity and get easely in touch...
You would still have to find a way to get yourself known...would probably be easier than your website as it is easier to share among people of same interest...
It also provides more confidence to buy there as they have the ressource to manage a website as well as a facebook page
Maybe you could do this the other way arround... have your facebook page help you get customer to your webpage
I wanted to do something similar but I'm unsure how without using Crystal Commerce (which is super costly).