Stop Milking Me! - Cow’s Journey To Financial Freedom

Right before my big plan to move our brick and motor kitchenware store online, I tested the water by buying and selling on eBay in the past a few days. I bought 3 items, all rock climbing gears and sold 2 pieces of junkies I’ve owned for a while. Unfornately, my shining yellow donut ring cushion which I used when I broke my tailbone might not have customers at all.

If you think selling or buying on eBay is easy, it certainly ain’t easy for me. The selling process took a lot longer than anticipated. I sold a game and my snowboard helmet, all ended up with decent prices. But I probably spent about 1 – 2 hours going through the past sales records and doing research. The historical sales data definitely helps me to optimize the sales. If you’ve never used this system, check it out.

I also did an extensive amount of research on one of our kitchenware store’s product line. The past sales data is very useful when trying to determine whether a particular product will sell or not, and at what price. By conducting the research, I noticed the huge difference between the eBay buyers and the main stream customers. For example, if you look at the past sales of the stainless steel pans which are only used in restaurant kitchens, the used ones are selling great on eBay but most of the new ones ended up with no bids. However, in the traditional brick and motor stores, the new ones are very popular. I guess the reason causing such a big difference in buying behavior is because most of the online customers are looking for deep discount bargains. Hey, if the restaurant customers don’t have to see what the chefs are using in the backstage, why bother buying new?

That said, the ultimate goal is to sell to the broader audiences in addition to the eBayers. But with eBay as a bridge, I can get a jump start on it. At least that’s what I am hoping for. The next three months will be my trial sales period before I launch an official online store. We’ll see how that goes