Dealers, eBay and random ideas
Pinchdatail
Posts: 141 ✭
In the discussion on the Orlando show in January, a few of you started talking about dealers and how few of them ever reach out to collectors before putting stuff on eBay. I'd like to start a new string on this, and offer a few suggestions & comments.
1. eBay seems to have solved one of the biggest issues that I had with dealers as a collector, and that is access to the dealer's inventory. While sitting in a card shop for six hours sifting through inventory may be fun for some who miss the early days of playing checkers at the barbershop, I found it to be terribly frustrating. A lot of dealers and card shop owners relied on memory for whether they had a specific card, which always seemed ludicrous to me. Also, a lot of inventory was always "in the back" because of limited space in the shops. As anyone in retail will tell you, inventory turnover is key and no one in the industry seemed to try to automate it before eBay offered an alternative that is more buyer focused.
2. Following the retail idea, it's hard for me to believe that no one is taking advantage of the marketing technology available that would automate the contacting of prospective buyers of particular cards. It would not be that hard to set up a wish-list database that would immediately contact collectors as soon as a new card hit the dealer's inventory.
Anyone out there have any best practices that they could share on role-model dealer businesses? I'd like to help them be successful, and it seems sad to me that they are not fully taking advantage of retail software that's out there that could substantially increase their profitability.
I am a buyer. I have money. I have specific wants. Please sell me what I want. Sounds like a retailers wet dream to me.
1. eBay seems to have solved one of the biggest issues that I had with dealers as a collector, and that is access to the dealer's inventory. While sitting in a card shop for six hours sifting through inventory may be fun for some who miss the early days of playing checkers at the barbershop, I found it to be terribly frustrating. A lot of dealers and card shop owners relied on memory for whether they had a specific card, which always seemed ludicrous to me. Also, a lot of inventory was always "in the back" because of limited space in the shops. As anyone in retail will tell you, inventory turnover is key and no one in the industry seemed to try to automate it before eBay offered an alternative that is more buyer focused.
2. Following the retail idea, it's hard for me to believe that no one is taking advantage of the marketing technology available that would automate the contacting of prospective buyers of particular cards. It would not be that hard to set up a wish-list database that would immediately contact collectors as soon as a new card hit the dealer's inventory.
Anyone out there have any best practices that they could share on role-model dealer businesses? I'd like to help them be successful, and it seems sad to me that they are not fully taking advantage of retail software that's out there that could substantially increase their profitability.
I am a buyer. I have money. I have specific wants. Please sell me what I want. Sounds like a retailers wet dream to me.
Always looking for PSA 9 or 10 Pete Maravich cards!
#1 Pete Maravich Master Set AGAIN!
The Ultimate Pete Maravich Card Collection
#1 Pete Maravich Master Set AGAIN!
The Ultimate Pete Maravich Card Collection
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