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Posts: 36I know that a lot of artists sell on both their own site and ebay. How do you decide with a particular bear which one it will be posted to? Most of the time, I prefer to buy directly from an artist's site. I guess I am an instant gratification type person. I like to be able to pay the money and know 100% for sure that the item is mine. I don't like being outbid at the last minute for a doll or bear I really want when the person has only outbid me by 1.00!
What an interesting question, Patty. And a relevant one for me at this particular time. I've never sold from my website, but I just changed my business plan and have eliminated all my retailers and will be starting to sell from my website in the very near future, while continuing to sell on eBay, which I've done since the beginning of my bearmaking.
So I'll be curious to hear about how people make this decision, just like you!
I was thinking of simply alternating my sales venues, selling one bear from my site and the next one on eBay. But one has to keep in mind that continuity on eBay is sometimes important to good sales. Meaning that it can be important to make "regular, frequent" appearances there. So if it's a long time between bears, that might play a role in deciding which piece to sell, where, and when.
Can't wait to hear from others on this!
Posts: 36Shelli,
I was disappointed when visiting your website, that you weren't selling any bears on there. I would absolutely love to have one of your bears.
Back Road BearsThough I haven't sold on eBay for a while I'll share my reasons for selling on both.
On eBay an artist gains exposure. An artist might take the risk of selling at a lower price on eBay just to get their work in front of collectors who might not know about their work other wise. This in turn may create a following for an artist who can then direct them directly to his/her website OR continue selling to this following on eBay where 'bidding wars' will eventualy happen on artist bears that become popular and in demand, driving prices up.
At the same time, an artist who is promoting thier website in anyway.... magazine ads or handing out business cards at shows, etc. needs to have something for sale on their website to keep collectors interested.
So, when I was selling on eBay I just went back and forth...."One for eBay, one for the website. One for eBay...." and the ones that didn't sell on eBay went onto my website and vise versa.
It'll be intersting to hear other's reasons.
I must further add.... when I first started making and selling my bears I didn't have money for advertising in magazines and shows were few and far between so the only way for me to get my name 'out there' was to use the internet. But, given that I didn't do shows and my family and friends already knew about my bears....how was I going to attract a following? eBay seemed the only answer at that time. There are now other online bear websites an artist can advertise on but eBay continues to have the highest amount of traffic thus greatest potential of reachiing new collectors.
Shelli - I'm thrilled you are going to be selling on your website!
Well thank you! The good news is that I will be selling from there at some point soon. I sent my last bear off to my last retailer just last month. Boy, there were a lot of "lasts" in that sentence! It was a kind of phasing out process..
In case anyone is wondering, I thought I'd share that there were a lot of reasons why I decided to entirely self-represent my work, some of which had to do with the fact that I felt pressured -- not by my retailers, who were truly lovely; I adored them and they were easy to work with -- but by myself, to meet deadlines. Which I often didn't meet, anyway! I hate letting people down but like many I'm mom first and sometimes life intervenes.
The other reasons I'm now self-representing include:
-- a desire to deal with my collectors directly with EVERY new bear I offer, which I really enjoy immensely. I missed "meeting" the people who brought home my retailer-sold bears. Since my retailers were my middle-men, those collectors "slipped by" me and I didn't get to say HI and THANK YOU! to them, personally
-- a desire to have enough bears available, per month, to sell on eBay and offer on my website. Prior to this business plan change, I was selling on eBay and then trying to get out two or three bears per month to a small handful of retailers, which didn't leave anything for me to sell from my site because I work at an absolute snail's pace and am lucky if I finish 2.5 bears every 30 days. Yes, 2.5. That's pretty much my average over my few years in this industry
-- the purely practical fact that there's a much quicker turnaround for me, financially, when I'm in complete control of my sales. That's true of any product, any industry. And I'm not trying to badmouth working with retailers in any way. The exposure I got, the friendships I made, the discipline I learned -- and even the stress I put myself under! -- were all great for me and for my bear business. I highly recommend it! I'm just trying something new for now.
Anyway... Hopefully someone will have some good advice about the strategy for offering bears from websites vs. eBay that I can learn from and follow!
Bears by JodiPatty,
Did you realize that some of us sell bears from this sight ? Go to the top of the page press index it is in the top left corner.Then scroll down to Bears and Friends section. Then towards the top of the page you will see artists click on the scroll button go to mine for example Jodi Falk ( Bears By Jodi) and click on it. Every thing I have right now for sale is there. Price and how to contact me. Some other artists will also do this or tell you it is on e bay or what ever. I also sell from Bear Pile and E Bay. If something sells on ebay then I go mark it sold here on TT and Bear Pile. My web sight is not up yet but soon . An artist can always send you a paypal bill with just using your e mail address.Or I am sure allot of us will take a money order. Others only do shows. Different things work for different people.
Posts: 36Thanks, Jodi! Yes, I have seen that section.
Cleathero CreationsWell, when I am selling I try to keep one on ebay all the time, and have one on my site. Because of the last few months though I haven't had anything up. But eBay can be very good especially if you keep yourself in their eyes.
Did you realize that some of us sell bears from this sight ?
Great point, Jodi! The TT Bears for Sale area is a great sort of "classified ad" section where you can see a listing of artist bears available from just about EVERY sales venue.
Thanks for mentioning this, Jodi.
Bears by JodiShelli,
I love your new Avatar !! You keep changing it !!! I can't figure out what I want mine to be soooooooooooo its still just old ME !!! :crackup:
Jodi Falk
dusty attic bearsI always have trouble trying to decide which bears to put where, so now I do it purely on a selfish level. Some times I make a bear that I`m going to be really sad to part with so I put him on my web site ,hoping to have him around a little longer,my bears mainly sale on e bay first time, ( SO FAR SO GOOD) so I don,t get to enjoy them for so long.I know this may sound silly, but my hubby always says "you can`t keep every bear that you like". I`ve only kept 2 out of around 175 bears that I have made now, I don`t think thats toooo bad!!!
Melbourne, Australiaor should I say, I have always been, up until a lot of shows were cancelled ... but have now decided to try Bid4Bears rather than Ebay ... it's more bear focussed (besides which, I'd rather pay auction fees to a "bear person", than some big company that only cares about itself)!!!
Hugs,
I have been pondering this myself for quite a while now. Do I want to sell on eBay and Bid4Bears, or just continue as I've been doing lately and list on my website and BearPile? My conclusion is this: I need to find a way to do both, as some have already mentioned doing.
I started out with only eBay listings, which either went really well for me, or really bad. And I was having more bad than good, which cost me a bit of $$ with listing fees and such that I wasn't ready to absorb at that time. So, I got my website up and started listing on BearPile. That's been wonderful as I have sold nearly all the bears I've listed there within a week or two, and often in a matter of just hours after listing. Most of my sales have been repeat customers, which is absolutely great........but I believe the exposure of eBay is going to be needed as well to draw new collectors. I haven't decided yet how I'm going to go about this. I'm kind of waiting until all the work is done with our house so I can really concentrate on my bears. 
What I might try is alternate between the two. Or list a bear in one place, and if it doesn't go, place it on the other site. These options have already been mentioned, so I guess I'm just joining in here. I know that whatever I do, it will be trial and error for quite some time before I find a method I'm happy with. And then things are always open to change! 
Wild Thyme OriginalsI tend to focus more on eBay for one particular reason... I REALLY have a heck of a time pricing my own work. Honestly. I know it's a complete cop out in a lot of ways, but I have no real way of placing that dollar figure on there and saying, I'd be happy to accept x amount. In the last couple of years, I have tried to get a bear made, then post pics on my picturetrail site, then notify my mailing list (which is really CLOSE to "selling from a website"). The first person to express a firm intent to purchase got the bear. Each and every time I think that I had the bear sold within less than an hour, but I also ended up with a person or two who thought that I must have sold the bear "out from under them." Of course, I never actually DID that.. and my honest word on the subject was generally enough to ease their mind and soothe their soul... but I couldn't help but feel like I had disappointed people! And that I just hated!
But... really, my problem lies with placing a dollar figure on my own work. It's just HARD!
Kim Basta
Wild Thyme Originals
Sunnie BearsI sell my bears both from my website, at shows, and on ebay. If I list a bear on ebay, I remove my "buy it" button and add a note that it is listed on ebay to the website. That way no one can buy it from the website while it is listed on ebay, and it is easy to add the "buy it" button back to my website if it doesn't sell on ebay.
When I go to a show, I take all of my bears with me. I then add a note on the home page of my site to let customers know that I am at a show and to please email me to check availability prior to making a purchase.
Bears by EdieInteresting discussion! I don't have a web site so I pretty much sell exclusively on ebay - with the odd show or private sales. I can understand your point, Patty, about hating to get outbid at the last minute - I hate that too! A lot of people have told me I should have a web site but I am so computer challenged I couldn't figure out how to do something like that and I did inquire about Bear Piles but the fellow didn't respond to my email so still don't know how to get started on there. At this point I feel that I am so close to the end of my bear making career that it doesn't seem worthwhile to do much more than plug along on ebay.
P. S. I DO try to list all my bears for sale here on the "Bears for Sale" section of TT as well!
Bears by JodiOh no Chin up !!! Don't give up you make great bears. Just keep promoting your self. Send pictures to the teddy bear magazines.Do all the free things you can . Keep looking , searching !!! Contact bear pile again . I have been on there 2 months, no sales but... over 1000 people have seen some of my bears !!! Where else can you do that ? With in the first few minutes the numbers went to around 100 per bear on the hits !! It was amazing. Money is tight right now for people and as soon as it loosens up we all will be ready !!! :dance: We have to stick together and share when we find an opening that really works !!
LET THE FUR FLY !!!!!
Jodi Falk
PS: I don't have a web sight yet either ...for the same reason but... I WILL DO IT !!! Every thing in its own time !!!
Bears by EdieOh Jodi, I didn't mean that I am giving up on making bears because of slow sales or anything - just that I've been doing this for almost 20 years and feel it is getting close to time to retire!!! I'll likely never quit bears entirely - unless someone wants all my fabric stash - I had set a goal for myself of 5000 bears and am just a few hundred away from that now. Course my hubby keeps saying, "No, you can't quit!" - guess he thinks he'd have to keep me in spending money then!
Bears by JodiOh Jodi, I didn't mean that I am giving up on making bears because of slow sales or anything - just that I've been doing this for almost 20 years and feel it is getting close to time to retire!!! I'll likely never quit bears entirely - unless someone wants all my fabric stash -
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Ok You scared me !!! Your bears are so cute !!! And if I had extra money yours would be one that I would order. !!!
Bears by EdieThanks Jodi! That means a lot coming from you, when you make such great bears!
I have only tried once to sell on e-bay to no avail so at this point have not gone back but hope to at some time. I wanted to say that I feel we should support Nancy and Bid4Bears as much as we can as she has put a lot of money and time into getting this venue up and running. She is as someone else mentioned also a bear artist herself so deserves our support. After lying dormant for the Summer there are at present 3 bears listed on the site. I believe someone from TT mentioned elsewhere on TT that if we could it might be helpful if we could list say one bear each per month on her site. This would help to generate traffic to the site.
As a disclaimer I am not employed by Nancy but do greatly admire her as an artist and person who is trying very hard to promote the bear industry in a multitude of ways
Hugs
Gail
Hi Patty
You raise a really interesting question....you may have noticed through some of the threads on this board that ebay poses lots of questions too for us artists too, but it's good to think of it from a collector's perspective too, so thank you!
I use a combination of ebay and my website for several reasons. I work full time and fit bear making in to my spare time. I aim to have one bear a week for sale, but that doesn't always happen (mostly not!) At the moment I probably sell 5 or 6 bears on my website (and 3 or 4 other orders) for every one bear that I put on ebay.
When I first began to sell my bears (late 2004) I didn't have a website, and living at the bottom of the world in New Zealand, don't have much opportunity to show my work to many collectors. I actually stumbled into ebay when I took part in the "circus parade" auctions that were organised by a mini artist (Stacey Alverado I think) and that lots of mini artists around the world took part in. From then on Ebay was my only selling source until I started my website a year ago.
Thanks to an article or two in UK magazine teddy bear scene, exposure on the old Bear Pile, and exposure here on Teddy Talk, I have a little group of regular buyers and I have begun to sell more and more from my website, as most of my bears seem to sell within a day of listing them there (something that still amazes me :redface: ). My usual practice is to put my bear on my website, put it on TT and put it on Bear Pile (though I don't know if I will continue with Bear Pile) and then to send an email to people on my mailing list.
My policy is to always give the bear to the first person who emails me about it and that sometimes depends on the time of day that I list a bear.
For me personally, ebay is about advertising and not price. Usually my bears go for less on ebay than they do on my website, especially when you take fees into account. I don't think that my work fits into any of the current ebay fads (and boy do people jump on the fad bandwagon!) and I don't have a reputation by name as other artists do, so my bears don't particularly attract attention. To be perfectly honest, sometimes the low prices frustrate me - especially when I know I could have sold it on my website, but as other people have said, as a way of advertising your work, Ebay is the cheapest (apart from Teddy Talk!!) and I usually have a couple of hundred views on an auction which is more than my bear would get on my website.
My other reason for listing on ebay is what I alluded to above - my collectors live in 3 very different time zones - some in the US, some in the Uk and some in NZ and Australia. No matter what time of day I list a bear, someone is going to possibly miss out simply because they're asleep or at work when I post the emails. I'm sure every bear artist has that problem as does every bear buyer (I've missed out on more than one bear because the auction finishes at 4am and I refuse to use a sniping service). I know I can't solve the problem but I still feel a little guilty. This probably sounds mad, but I vary the time of day that I send out emails so that everyone gets a fair go sometime or other!
That's one of the reasons I still use ebay - to give everyone a chance.
However, I know that not all my collectors use ebay, and I don't want to push anyone into using it just because I sell there. I want buying one of my bears to be a pleasurable experience not an anxious nail-biting moment worrying that a bear you've fallen for is going to be taken by someone else...the few bears that I buy myself are bought on an incredibly tight budget and I swear I have nearly given myself a stomach ulcer bidding on a couple of bears!!
I personally enjoy the website experience a whole lot more. I love connecting with my bears' new mums and knowing that they are going to a good home! My bears fall into my two distinctive styles - mini minis under two inches who are made from the upholstery type fabrics and "big" (for me) bears of about 4 inches, who are made from mohair, synthetics etc. My wee group of customers tend to favour one or the other category, usually buying only the big bears or only the minis. When I finish a bear, I love to look at it and I have a wee bet with the bear and myself about who he or she will go home with....90% of the time I'm right, occasionally someone will suprise me, as was the case with Plum Delightful last week. One of my collector's always picks my absolute favourites, and I love knowing that at her house is a little family of my best ever bears.
I do find it incredibly hard to price my bears - I know that I underpriced them at first but I still cringe when I put the price on my website and I would love guidance from someone more expert in the matter!! I will sit for half an hour changing the price before I upload a new bear . While I can't deny that I would love it if one of my special bears got a great price on ebay, I also like knowing that my bears are relatively affordable. The way I think of it...I would like to be able to afford one of my bears if I was a collector
.
None of this probably makes much sense...but it's my funny little reasons for selling the way I do. :redface:
