Thursday, April 15, 2010

Well, We Did It, Folks

Last year we had 2 booths at Bonanzle.com and closed one of them and I said I would never have multiple booths there again, Well never say never!.

We just opened 4 new booths, After building one booth to 3,500 items, I started to see a trend, We were not getting sales in certain areas of the booth, So by creating 5 specialized booths, We feel that we will be able to lure repeat buyers, Which we could not do because of the size of the current booth with it's cornucopia of items, The summary of all our booth are located at www.rsalesonline.com at Every Place I sell.

It will take us a while to move and re organize items from our main booth and add all the items that we have still stored in our storage. But being retired from my 9 to 5, Which now is 7 am to 7 pm working for myself,Ha Ha. I'm sure I will get it done one day, Check us out and we welcome any comments good or bad, Bless you all and thank you for listening. Have an awesome day and may God richly bless you this day.

Larry

Monday, January 4, 2010

Just wanted to thank a fellow Bonanzler who was kind enough to leave this response to a post I commented on within Bonanzle, Most of the time I'm left with a bad taste after recieving negative responses to S/H comments as many disagree with idea of making a profit on S/H.
Thank you Salvage Inc

Comment and my post below,

Wonderful Words of Wisdom. Your words Worth repeating exactly as You Said and a copy on my office wall as well.

But remember one important thing when it comes to shipping, WE are in business to make a profit, Therefore doing exact shipping is plain bad business practices, Everything involved it shipping a product to your buyer involves cost and if you fail to include those ether in the mark up of your products or in Handling at some point down the road it will bite you in the b***.

I had a fellow awhile back on another venue say he spent a whole year selling only to find at the end of the year he had actually lost money because he forgot to factor in all his overhead costs, How sad.

Cost include Shipping and Handling, Printers, Ink , Paper, Packing materials, Wear and tear on your PCs,Then there are Paypal fee’s, Bonanzle fee’s, Your time, Gas and wear and tear on your vehicle to and from the Post office and on and on.Hopefully folks are keeping track of all this stuff and not like the guy who at the end of the year found out the hard way,Many Brick & Mortar store find this out the hard way, They just flat run out of money and close shop.

Many of the Antique shops where I use to work have closed there doors, If you fail to make a profit at some point you will run out of cash as many have done already, Even very old establish firms in our area have closed.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

What's new in my world 2010?

Wow, This last year flew by, Can't believe we are here already. Well our Bonanzle booth did well in 2009, Can't complain. Hoping for a much better year in 2010. January will be a time of extensive bookkeeping and then It will be time to dig into revampin all 3,300 listings.

Well in November we opened a new store front on SOC Exchange, Maybe you've heard of it, Maybe not. It's a pretty simple format and cost is $1.00 a month or $10 year in advance, We started by running a few test items to see how things worked, After 2 months we got our first offer for a $10 sale, Followed by a $50 dollar sale, That was enough to get my marketing juices boiling and now I have 52 items in our store at R Sales Online 2. I used the same ID as Bonanzle, So far so good.

www.socexchange/rsalesonline2

There is a big difference between Bonanzle and SOC in that there is no community and very little support, So you better know what you are doing there. Both sales were offers and once accepted neither buyer coudls figure out how to checkout, Easy fix was to just request payment via Paypal and that worked fine.

I'm still waiting after a week for a return email from support, there are no commission fee's here at SOC, So once you pay your subscription your all set, The listing format is pretty simple as it is only one page and allow 7 pictures as well as You-tube up loads to your page, Placement is a problem with the videos in that they cover part of your description which you have no control over.

All in all it's a fun site and I'm looking forward to adding more inventory as time goes by.We have no duplication in this site, Everything is separate from Bonanzle.

As I mentioned or maybe didn't a while back, We have "had" stores on Ebay, Blujay, Ecrater,ProBidz,Yahoo and WagglePop. I have to say bonanzlehas been the best, Since support is awesome and has remained the same since we started with them in Sept 2008. You won't find a better support system anywhere.Plus the community is awesome.

We are looking forward to a prosperous 2010, Wishing for all of you the best year ever, I know for many it's been real tough this last year, Things have to get better

Our thought and Prayers are with each and everyone of our readers.

God bless from Larry & Charline Harris @ R Sales Online

Friday, December 18, 2009

Why do folks think they know more than those who went before us?

I have been doing this online and in B&M retail for over 45 years
That said. I am in business here as a business not a hobby.
That said,I bought my wife an expensive set of Gold earrings and a ring yesterday, Reduced combined S/H was $12.95. Excessive? I think not. Cost to post probably will be about half of that or less (UPS).Someone has to pack and ship these and I’m sure they would like to be paid for that also.You may work for free, I don’t.

Since I started selling in the 60’s there has always been a Handling fee for time involve in preparing and shipping any item, In fact most “as seen on TV” include a second item free for only a processing fee.

I think that online Mom & Pops seller should learn a valuable lesson from very successful online infomercial Guys, Shamwa, Ron-co, Jack La Lain ,QVC and so on.

Why do so many think they know more that the big boys, My feeling is sellers need to learn from those who have spent years learning how to present their products successfully.

Shipping items for postage is not realistic, True It’s your booth and you can do as you please, But remember one important thing,When you do exact shipping you not only short your self the time and supplies necessary to ship your items, You also do a dis service to all other sellers who do charge S/H, Again It’s your business.

I spent 5 hours Packaging and posting online Monday preparing items for shipping, I will not work for free, How about you?

Another sore spot with me are sellers who list items with ridiculously low prices and then show item out of stock once you purchase these items, If you do that, Shame on you.All you do is give us all a bad name here on Bonanzle.

You will never be the lowest priced seller here, So why not be the very best merchant you can be offering good products at reasonable prices with fair S/H.

We all want to see Bonanzle successful, Lets be the best we can be.

Wishing much success to all Bonanzler & a very Merry Christmas to all of you.

Larry

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Where did Summer Go?

Can you believe Summer is almost over? Where did it go? Seems like it just got here and it's leaving. Mornings are a bit brisker, Had Rain yesterday , Boy did we need it.Everything up on the hill is Dry. But, We have a meadow behind the house and this is the first year that I was not able to move the grass due to unusually high water table, Which is strange since rain has been light. Not sure what is causing all the water.I would love to get in there with a Bobcat and dig out a reservoir. I am thinking about digging a well to water my lawn and plants this next summer, Our water rationing does not allow for enough water to keep everything green without paying through the nose. The local water company allows us 6,000 gallons at our base rate and we used 10,000 gallons in July, Oops!

With 7 Lakes in the area, You would not think there would be a supply problem.

Well that's one of my projects this coming year, Dug that well, Install that pump and watch everything go green!!

Well as Summer turns into fall, Hello Leaves and wind and rain, As the weather changes so do the seasons of our lives. So be it. There is beauty in all things, Have a great day and stop and smell the roses and thank God for his Mercy and Grace to us all.

Larry @ Warmbeach777 Bonanzle

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Is More Better?

We started selling on a new venue in September of 2008,After being on many other sites. The new upstart was a place called Bonanzle, Out of Seattle Wa. What a time to start a new venture in a down economy,But 2 brave souls had a dream and look where it is today( 100,000 user in a little over a years time.

We set up our booth and began to move items from places such as Ecrater and Blujay & Ebay. We quickly built our booth up to 3,000 items, On April 2, 2009 we decided to open a second booth to move our clothing into a separate booth, It did not increase sales in that area.

July 14,2009 we split our Collectibles, off the main both thinking it would help buyers to find our items, Well, Not. We immediately became what they called Plus members @ $10 a month. It helps tp increase your search ratings. After about a month, I realized that more may not be better. We decided that returning to one booth would make more sense. From about November of 2008 we were only able to increase inventory by about 300 items due to having to spend to much time bouncing from booth to booth, Since consolidating, We have listed a hundred items in the main booth in just a couple of days.

I should have known better, Having worked in B&M stores and seeing that when you have limited resourses, It's not smart to spread your self to thin. Having said this, We are back to one booth and have upgraded this booth to a Premier membership which allow for more analytic of where sales are generated from, Plus there are many more perks to a membership. It won't necessarily increase sales right away, But we are here for the long haul.

So, More is not always better, There's an old saying KISS, Keep it Simple Stupid, Now where have I seen this thought before? Seems that is Bill & Marks slogan, Simplicity.

So please check out our new and Improved Bonanzle Booth at www.rsalesonline.com

Happy selling and my hope is this Blog will save other the headache I've had to go though.

Larry @ Bonanzle.......Warmbeach777

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Economic condition does not control me!









Welcome to my brand new blog,

We have been selling online for about 10 years, We have been an Ebay store seller 2 or 3 times, We've sold on Yahoo,Wagglepop, Ecrater, Blujay, Pro Bidz and now we have settled on and have 3 Booths on Bonanzle.com

I chose his subject because many of us spend way to much time listening to what world has to say about what is going on around us. But as a Christian I live under a different economy than this old world. Am I effected by the Worlds economy, YES, Am I control by it, NO.

There is a story in the Bible that talks about a widow woman who had a son and was just about to run out of food, When a Prophet of God came by and said, Make me a cake to eat, Now there was a famine in the land(Bad Economy) She told the prophet, I only have enough to make a cake for mr and my son and then we will die. The prophet told her, Put your trust in god to provide, Bake me the cake and god will take care of you both.

As the story goes, The barrel of flour and the cruise of oil never ran dry until he famine was over, So what am I saying, Don't look at the economic conditions and don't let it control your life..

I look at many successful people who in the face of adversity over came, Most every successful
Entrepreneurs who ever succeeded, Fail time and time again, The difference is get up and try again until you find your niche.

Many began as did KFC by opening a restaurant, Just as the interstate by passed the corner where The Kernel just set up biz, He was forced out of business and had to go on the road selling his fried chicken to restaurants, But look where his business
is today

Sam Walton fail in his first attempts to start Wal-Mart, But look at his stores today, and the list goes on. It takes patients and perseverance to succeed.


God Bless