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 Marketplace / Theory / 1802
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Subject: 
Re: Streamlining the parts selling process
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.market.theory
Date: 
Tue, 5 Dec 2000 05:05:23 GMT
Viewed: 
1003 times
  
In lugnet.market.theory, James Brown writes:
In lugnet.market.theory, Mike Stanley writes:
<snip>
What I think makes the most sense is what Troy (I think) mentioned - having
two different kinds of lots at different prices.  Lot A would be some bulk
number, say 50 of part XXXX at 10 cents each.  Lot B would be either the
same part, but able to be bought individually - say for 15 or 20 cents each.

That sounds good in theory, but Brickbay doesn't provide for that directly,
and trying to keep track of multiple lots of the same part manually would be
nightmare.

Brickbay does do it (last I checked).  List your 25 rare blue snergwiffles
(single lot, or whatever).  Then add more rare blue snergwiffles.  Brickbay
tells you that you already have blue snergwiffles listed, and asks if you want
to just update the quantity - tell it no.

Well, to be honest, I considered that a both ... and statement there.  So
even if Brickbay does allow for a way to handle that sort of multiple
listing, to do it across the board would be a *nightmare* for me.  I have 10
60-drawer chests that I use for my parts, usually with 4-5 in use storing
current inventory (posted to Brickbay) and 4-5 in use for sorting new sets
at any one time.  They take up a good bit of room and are a chore to keep up
with and keep straight, usually moving from downstairs to upstairs and then
from one room to another, then back down.

To try to say that any part of, say quantity 20 or above would be split into
a lot of 10 and a lot of 10 that could be bought 1 at a time would almost
double the amount of storage containers I would need, probably double the
amount of time it would take to sort, and then double the time it would take
to sort out an order once it came in.

I'll do this for some things, and especially for some larger items (I'm
already usually offering minifigs available at 1x), but it won't ever be
possible to do it for everything.

Nor, really, do I feel much monetary reason to do so.  I know it would make
a few people really happy, but the reality is I got an order from one of my
best regular buyers today with the following lot sizes:  66, 39, 210, 165,
180, 45, 60, along with several smaller ones.  The reality is this buyer is
going to be happy with his purchase, I'm going to be happy with the sale,
and while it may have been impossible for 3 other people wanting 4-10
inverted 1x3 low slope bricks to get them from me (because the lot size was
210), the whole thing will take tons less time and get to the one buyer a
lot quicker than all those pieces would take to distribute to 5-20 other
buyers looking for small quantities.

I think what I will end up doing is running a multi-staged sort of shop.
Initially I will offer almost completely bulk-sized lots.  That will allow
those people looking for large quantities to get what they want, and it'll
relieve me of a goodly portion of my inventory.  Then I'll probably change
buy quantities to less than bulk (for example instead of 100 2x2 medium
slopes I might change the lot to 100 (x10 or x20)) although I will probably
adjust the price a bit higher.  At some point I may go back to bulk and
offer a discount, although that might make more sense to do before going to
smaller quantities.

It'll take a while to figure out what works well.  What I'm doing *now*
works pretty darn good - I got more than $100 in orders in the last couple
of days, for instance.  And I think the vast majority of my buyers are
happy, and since that number is so large, I have more of an incentive to
keep them happy than to change things too drastically.  I know Tim would
rather I sell him one or two of things, but looking back over my orders I'd
have to weigh his opinion against that of the numerous people who have
bought hundreds of dollars worth of parts from me (each) who seem to be
happy with how I am doing things.



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Streamlining the parts selling process
 
In lugnet.market.theory, Mike Stanley writes: <snip> (...) Brickbay does do it (last I checked). List your 25 rare blue snergwiffles (single lot, or whatever). Then add more rare blue snergwiffles. Brickbay tells you that you already have blue (...) (24 years ago, 5-Dec-00, to lugnet.market.theory)

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