A Rainy Day in San Diego

Today is a rare rainy day in San Diego and a welcome one for us as we have been way behind on rainfall this year and that can cause a lot of problems here later on.

Among other things I decided that the rain was a perfect opportunity for me to do my inventory. After about a half an hour I gave up the effort as impossible. Fortunately I keep a location code in all of my listings that tells me where the items are. The problem with this is that things do get moved around and this can cause a problem when someone bids on an item that isn't where it is supposed to be. It usually results in a time consuming and tedious search until the item is found. The bottom line is that taking the inventory is a bigger time hog than searching for the occasional lost item. Thus I give up for now.

This has been a slow week for my swap meet searches. Saturday I picked up 6 small oval platters that are Buffalo Restaurant ware. I'm not sure what they are for. They are a little small for under plates (7" x 4 3/4") so for now I'm just calling them side dishes. Sunday brought me a couple of limited edition collector plates. Normally I steer clear of these, but the price was right.

thanks for listening... Bill aka the old guy

Updated for content (06/09)

New Treasure Found

Well I better update here before I get too far behind again. First of all the latest glitch on Yahoo has been fixed and things are about as back to normal as it ever gets. Kudos to the techs at Yahoo. fixed on Tuesday morning. I call that pretty good response. I know they are undermanned for a major site like Yahoo Auctions.

I also want to let you know about a couple of new found treasures that I will be listing soon, probably on Blujay for now. I picked up an absolutely stunning Vernon Kilns May Flower 14" Platter last weekend. This pattern was issued between 1942 and 1953. It is a fantastic example from the heyday of California Pottery. A great piece to add to your home decor or collection.

Wednesday I came across an item that I think is a real piece of Southern California history. It is a perfect Flintridge Flowering Cactus 14" round platter that was Issued in 1957 as a special order for the Jewelry Research Group convention in Palm Desert, Ca. I have placed a picture of this at the top of this entry. Taped to the back is a note from the owner asking that the plate go to Joseph Jessop Jr. (a famed California Jewelry family). I am assuming that this was in the nature of an estate guideline. I will list this soon either on Yahoo or Blujay.

Enough for now.. thanks for listening.. the old guy

Swap Meet Wednesday

I guess I never mentioned this before, but one of my favorite haunts is a local swap meet that is open Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. It is usually about the only exercise that I get each week and I try hard to make it every week. I used to sell there about 20 years ago and I know many of the sellers, so it is as much a social outing for me as it is a business activity.

I do find many treasures there and I hope it continues in business as long as I do. I don't just buy things there to resell I also buy pottery that I want to research and learn from. I am in a business where knowledge is money and I try to learn something every day.

Today I spent a few bucks. I won't tell you how many as that is a trade secret. I only made three purchases but they were all good buys. Some nice Furstenburg coasters, a wonderful Furnival Platter (I had never heard of them, but it turns out to be Staffordshire of some age), and a beautiful vintage Lefton 50th Wedding Anniversary pitcher in excellent condition.

thanks for listening, the old guy

Where Has The Time Gone!!!

Wow!! It has been over three weeks since I have updated this blog and I really can't figure out why. Probably the biggest reason is my continuing effort to change the shipping info in all of my listings. I am convinced that people do not want to pay exhorbant shipping and handling charges and I have been trying to eliminate all reference to them from my listing descriptions. Unfortunately with over two thousand listings to change manually it is taking a great deal of time away from more pleasurable activities like this blog. I think I am seeing a positive reaction because my sales are improving and so I am determined to complete the task. I'm going to try and put some interesting articles into this blog on a more frequent basis but please bear with me.

thanks for listening Bill aka the old guy
Updated for content (06/09)

New Finds

I have been exceptionally fortunate in my search for more "Quality Junk" inthe past couple of weeks. These are some of the better pieces that I have either listed or am about to list on my Auctions:

A nice selection of Royal Doulton "Thistledown", including the hard to find coffee pot.

Several great pieces of John Maddox & Sons vintage "Montana", including several large platters in great condition.

A variety of Metlox "Woodland Gold" , includes a half dozen serving pieces.

Some Franciscan "Sea Sculpture" & "Blue Sky"

Homer Laughlin "Rochelle"

Much more great vintage dinnerware

Please check my auctions daily for more new items.

thanks for listening... the old guy

A Few Helpful Hints For New Sellers

HELPFUL HINTS
This is a short list of general suggestions that are intended to help new sellers 0n Atomic Mall.

In general, we would like to point out that each seller is different and your approach to selling will depend on many factors. These include but are not limited to: Type of merchandise, Price range, Your personal reasons for selling (Are you trying to make a living here or are you just hoping to make a little extra cash from personal items that you don’t need any more). What works for one seller may very well be a complete waste of time for others. Please try what you are comfortable with first and if that doesn’t work move on to something else.

1. Probably the first thing to remember is that Atomic Mall is an entirely different venue than Ebay and other auctions (Not better or worse, just different) . Because it costs you nothing to list on Atomic Mall, you do not get all the promotional advertising and site support that some of the other sites offer. You have to work harder to promote your own auctions and to make them attractive to the buyers.

2. Because Atomic Mall does not have the traffic that ebay has you will not see huge numbers of page views for your listings. Your items will sell eventually to someone who wants them because your offer is more attractive than the next guy. Remember that you can list merchandise as long as it takes here, while on other sites the fees rapidly eat away any profit you might make unless you can sell them quickly. It isn’t how many page views you get that puts cash in your pocket. It’s how many sales that you make.

3. Many people are impulse buyers and do not want to wait for days or even weeks waiting for an auction to close and get the item that they want. Set your price at what you want to get for your merchandise and list it.

4. While a few sellers and buyers do not want to use on line payment services like Paypal, Amazon and Google to transfer money, the vast majority prefer them and a number of buyers will not even look at your items if you do not accept some form of on line payment. This again speeds up the process and they like that. Probably the most popular system is to offer all the options. On line, Money Orders, Cashier and Personal Checks. If you want, you can add caveats that checks must clear before shipping.

5. Another major issue is shipping charges. If you are offering items that sell for less than $10.00 you will soon find that in many cases the shipping cost will exceed the merchandise price. If you want to be competitive you must minimize these costs. Use lightweight packing materials and try to eliminate extra packing fees. Use on line shipping to avoid delivery confirmation charges. It is a major plus to be able to state in your auction that you only charge exact postage with no additional charges or fees.

6. Selling on line is pretty much the same as selling in a brick and mortar store and the same basic rules apply:

Your customers are your greatest asset, treat them right and they will keep coming back. Please remember that that many new buyers come to Atomic Mall every day, the way things work is different in each site. Just like you have to learn the differences, you are going to have to help them learn them.

Promote your own store any way you can. Many helpful suggestions pop up in various blogs and forums. Try things that you think might work for you.

If you have problems with a buyer, try not to waste time with them, try and end things politely. Be extremely careful when using negative feedback, the buyers reputation is just as important as yours. You have nothing to gain and everything to lose by getting into back and forth retaliatory feedback wars that every other potential buyer and seller will read. Reputation is more than 50% of the game here especially when you are new. Non-paying offers only cost you time. They could care less about reputation. You have to care about yours.

Try to keep everything in your listings on a positive note. If you have more space allotted to your rules and regulations than you use to accurately describe your merchandise, you are going to find that potential customers are turned off and will go elsewhere.

Once again what works for you will be unique to you. Keep trying different ideas until you find a style and modus operandi that works well for you. Be patient and take your time. Enjoy your selling experience it can be very rewarding or very frustrating. It's up to you.

thanks for listening..... the old guy
Updated for content (06/09)

New Merchandise Listings

Just a quick note to let you know what's happening in the world of "Quality Junk". I have come to realize that I have to list more than the 2000 items that were my original goal this year. Until more people realize that Atomic Mall exists and that there are a lot of good deals here, about the only way to make enough sales here to justify the enormous amount of hours I put into my auctions, is to list more items that may attract more buyers.

Although I still have a huge amount of merchandise on hand that is not listed, a lot of it is just to inexpensive to sell on the net, so I am going to try and move it in bulk at a garage sale or to the swap meet dealers I know. I have found a really good source of pottery at decent prices and I am buying whenever I can and listing these pieces in my store. Of course I still have a lot of good bears and paper collectibles and will continue to list them as time allows.

I have faith in Atomic Mall and I believe we have a great future ahead, not as a substitute for eBay but as an alternative venue to sell items that are just not economically feasible to sell on eBay. I could probably do well on eBay with many of my higher end collectibles, but I just don't have the time right now to work on more than one site.

thanks for listening... the old guy

Pricing Policies

I am often ask about my pricing policies and what criteria I use to determine prices. Since I have nothing to hide, I thought I would reveal these highly classified, top secret (LOL) details to you.

Since the bulk of my merchandise is stock that I have accumulated over the last twenty years and I am trying to reduce the pile to a manageable level, the one criteria that I pay very little attention to is my cost (what I paid for the merchandise).

I have been fairly successful in clearing out a lot of this merchandise since I started selling on line and last month I started actively seeking out merchandise that I can turn a real profit on. I am concentrating on pottery and china (mostly dinnerware) I will buy anything that I can put up at a good price for you that will make money for me.

My basic guideline for pricing is to do as much research as time allows. This includes looking at other sites on the Internet to find what similar items are selling for, looking in price guides, and drawing on the expertise of friends and associates. For the most part I will take the average value of the item as determined by this research and reduce it by 35%. This is the price I list the item for. This is pretty much a rule with me for items that I sell for $100.00 or less. Items that have a higher value are harder to find and easier to sell so I scale this percentage up as the value gets higher. In general I will try and sell items valued at over $100.00 at 75% of their average value.

I try to pass along good value to you. This usually will give me a profit margin that I can live with. This may seem high to you but please bear in mind that this is a time consuming business.

I am human like everyone subject to human error. If you ever think I have overpriced an item that you really want, just e mail me, I'll take a look at your offer and give you a polite yes or no reply.

If you are a comparison shopper as most of us are, please do not use auction starting prices as a comparison. Many sellers have a very low starting price with no intention of selling at that price. They usually have a much higher reserve and are only trying to keep their listing fees down and stir up interest. If it looks too good to be true then it probably is. Only look at"BUY IT NOW" and "SOLD" prices to compare with.

If you have any questions about my prices please don't hesitate to ask.

thanks for listening.... Bill aka the old guy

Updated for content (06/09).

Just a Few Rumbles and Rambles

It's been a long, hot and stressful day. I took the bus and trolley all the way downtown and back just to deliver a bicycle to a friend who had damaged hers in an accident and needed one to use until the broken one could be fixed. Of course I had to bring the broken one back to my house to repair as she is only allowed to have one where she is staying. I hadn't seen her in a while and it was good to spend an hour with her over breakfast.

Back to business. I am one of several volunteer moderators on the Yahoo auction sellers group. This group is focused on getting Yahoo to hear our complaints and hopefully take action on them. Half of the listings that sellers post to the group are dedicated to hashing and rehashing the negative experiences that they have had on Yahoo. I have had most of the bad experiences that they have had and I share their frustrations, but I am a believer in dealing with things and moving on. Unless I have something constructive to say or I have a new problem which I haven't seen before, I prefer not to waste my time on these negative issues. "If it ain't broke don't fix it and if you can't fix it move on".

One of the major problems that sellers have on all auction sites is folks that bid on auctions and than never pay or for that matter never even talk to you. These folks waste every one's time and cut into the cash flow by forcing the seller to keep merchandise sitting on the shelves where no one can buy it until he is certain that the sale is lost. The downside of these NPB's (non-paying bidders) is that there really isn't much that anyone can do about them. The upside is, as long as you don't send the merchandise until it's paid for, you don't lose anything but time. They are a pain in the rear but really shouldn't affect business unless you chose to continue to waste time bitching about them.

I really am rambling here, but I am on a crusade to get as many sellers as I can to deal with these folks quickly and then move on. Once they realize that people aren't paying any attention to them they will go away or move on to find an easier target to upset and aggravate.

I know this blog is read by more buyers than sellers, but if you know the amount of frustration that these NPB's cause you will realize why sometimes a seller may seem a little overly cautious in dealing with you even though you are as honest as they come.

Enough for now. thanks for listening..... Bill aka the old guy

Where have I been!!!

Well I have really neglected this blog for the last couple of weeks and I can't seem to come up with a reasonable good excuse so I'm not even going to try. I'm just going to apologize to everyone and try and move on.

As is usual for the summertime the auction business has been a little slow and this is giving me some time to catch up on a few areas that I hope will improve my service to you. As you can see I have reached my goal of 1000 auctions and now I am going to start culling out some of the not so quality junk. I figure if I haven't had any interest in an item in several months then it is time to move along and return it to the dumpster from whence I may have got it in the first place.

With all of the merchandise that I have, I have occasionally had problems locating a piece when it does sell. This tends to aggravate everyone so I have finally came up with a system (LOL) that allows me to eliminate most of this problem. If you have ever wondered what the cryptic numbers and letters are at the bottom of most of my listings, they represent listing dates and Merchandise locations here in my home which has now turned into a warehouse.

I have also been working on a sales database so that I won't go crazy at tax time next year. I was unaware last year that yahoo simply deletes old files after about six months and if you don't keep your own records you have one major headache trying to reconstruct your sales activity for the year.

I'm not going to swear an oath but I am definitely going to try and update this blog more often in the future. I am adding it to my signature link in hopes that more of you good folks will read it.

thanks for listening, the old guy

Two Years Before the Yahoo Mast!!!!

For the first time in what seems like weeks My auctions and my e-mail box are both silent and I thought I would take advantage of this time to say a few words about where I,m at in the wonderful world of Yahoo auctions.

In a few days I will have been participating in Yahoo auctions for 2 years. For the first year I was preoccupied with closing down my brick and mortar store and trying to stabilize my finances which the store adventure had nearly destroyed. I was able to get a few listings on and was at least learning how things worked.

The big turning point for me was in April of 2005 when Yahoo did away with all of their fees and became a totally free site. This was crucial to me because most of my merchandise shares two distinct characteristics that make it important that I have as low an overhead as possible. First, it is almost all very inexpensive which means that even small fees take a big cut out of profits. Secondly, more than 50% of my auction listings are replacement china. This is a line where a dealer must assume that he is going to have to wait 6 months or longer to find a buyer who needs the particular pattern that you are selling. Put these two factors together and you have a situation where you are selling an item for under Ten dollars that you have to pay around 35 cents every 7 days (on e-bay) for six months before it sells. That equates to $9.00 in listing fees paid to sell a $10.00 item. Then when you add in the final value and Paypal fees you have probably worked 6 months to lose a buck or two and this doesn't even take the cost of your merchandise into consideration. It's a no brainer. You are paying the auction site to let you lose money.

When Yahoo took away their fees (which I have to admit were much cheaper than the E bay group), I was able to start listing all of the rest of my merchandise and eventually sell it at a fair profit. I am now running about 1000 auctions with my only expense being my time (I'm retired) and Paypal fees. In the past year I have sold more than 1000 auctions with many of them for multiple units. A side benefit is that I have made dozens of new friends among my repeat customers. I admit my methods are a little unorthodox. I am of the rare breed (at least on the auction circuit) who believes in the old adage "The customer is always right!!".

It seems to be working well for me and I am looking forward to this next year with anticipation of many more good deals and a lot of new friends to add to my growing list.

thanks for listening.... the old guy

Another Word About Shipping

I have been wanting to say a few words about my shipping policies. As we all know shipping is an integral part of the cost of anything you purchase on line.

I use priority mail for all domestic shipping depending on the weight. Many people have requested that I use Parcel Post and I will normally not do this for several reasons.

1. There is really no savings involved unless you have really heavy items. I get free boxes from the Post Office for Priority Mail that are easy to pack and safely ship to you. If I ship something Parcel Post I would have to pass along the price of the box and the additional time involved in packaging. In 99.9% of the items I ship you would lose money.

2. I do not believe that Parcel Post is handled as carefully as Priority and I want to keep the risk down because most of my shipping is fragile.

3. Priority Mail gets the merchandise to you faster than Parcel Post, 2-3 days as opposed to 5-7 days.

4. Finally, and this is the most important to me, if for some reason a Parcel Post package is undeliverable, it will be returned to me and I have to pay the return postage. If the item goes by Priority Mail and it has to be returned the Post Office eats the return Postage.

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Another issue is Delivery confirmation. I have spent around $350 on delivery confirmation fees in the past year. Up until the postal rates went up I would simply pass that along to you. When the raised the rates I decided that I would pay this fee myself and I have for the last six months. The bottom line here is that in all this time I have never had to use the confirmation system once to track a package. It's a waste of money. I will continue to use and pay this fee whenever someone buys from me the first time, but after that I am just going to skip it.

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Finally, let's talk about insurance. As most of you already know, if there is a problem I will almost always resolve it to your satisfaction. I'm here to make friends and return customers, not enemies and bad publicity. The Post Office will only reimburse you for the amount that you paid me for the item. You are out the shipping cost, even if they accept responsibility for the breakage. Since most of my items are under $10, you will be paying $1.30 to insure a $10 or less item that I am going to reimburse you for any way. I do not recommend insurance on items under $50 and on more expensive items I will normally pay for insurance myself.

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What I am trying to do here is minimize the cost to you for your purchase. As in off-line (brick & mortar) stores, look at the total cost and buy where you get the best value and service.

Thanks for listening.... the old guy

Updated for content 06/09.

Time Flies By Again

It's been so long since I updated this blog that I probably lost all of my readers by now. I am going to try and update every morning before I get sidetracked with the everyday maintenance tasks on the auctions. Even if all I have to say is Hi.

I have reached another milestone and completed another resolution I made on this blog for the new year. I have finally reached 1000 Auctions on Yahoo. I hope to keep things within 10% of this figure for the next few months. I have a lot more merchandise to list for you, but I find that 1000 auctions is barely a manageable number. I do not use bulk loaders so every auction has to be individually listed and re listed.

I will continue to list new auctions, but I intend to start culling some of the items that no one seems to have any interest in to make room for the new.

I think I'm making good progress toward my goal of personal service for everyone. While I am here to try and improve my finances, this is not just a money making proposition for me. I have made many friends while I have been selling here for the past two years and I hope to make many more.

Thanks for listening, the old guy

What a Weekend!!!!

This entry should be better named as ranting and raving! I have spent the best part of the memorial weekend trying to work around a major problem with Yahoo's software again. There is something major wrong with their auction clock and it is preventing us from listing or relisting auctions in the normal fashion. This is an ongoing problem but as usual (with a lot of help from the Yahoo Sellers Group) we have figured out a temporary fix and I have finally caught up with my relisting. Unfortunately the fix takes 5 times the time of the normal procedure. I probably won't be able to get new listings on until they have this problem fixed.

This may cause my newsletter to be a little late this month. I don't know where the time goes. Hang in there folks I have a lot more Quality Junk to show you so don't give up on me yet.

thanks for listening - the old guy

Poetry 101 - The Only Day

The Only Day

are you concerned about the past

be glad it's done and gone at last

or does the future make you blue

why? no one can have a clue

unless you wish for constant strife

let past nor future rule your life

look around!! What can you do

This is the only day for you

If you owe some long gone debt

don't waste your time, don't sit and fret

do what you can don't try for more

take your best shot then close the door

release your past and future hell

use your time to live life well

act here and now and please don't miss

for the only day you have is this

the old guy

11 mar 2005

Back To The Grind !!!

Well it's a fairly quiet Saturday before Easter and I am trying to recover from the trauma of having my taxes finished. As usual Uncle got most of what I had and then some. At least it's over for another year and I can get back to trying to pay off the rest of the world.

Thanks to you good folks who keep buying my quality junk I am getting the old bills paid a little at a time.

I have finally reached 900 auction listings and I am certain I will reach my New Years goal of 1000 soon.

I am changing my format totally away from bidding and gradually changing all of my auctions back to the buy it now format. In two years I have only had three auctions with more than one bid so why waste your time and mine waiting for auctions to close. I really believe that many folks look at an item and just don't want to bid on it because there's a number of days before the auction closes. It is much simpler to just buy it now. I price my auctions at what I need to get from them and so I'm not really interested in these so called bidding wars. My philosophy is going to be this. If you must fight to spend your hard earned money, go somewhere where the sellers need your money to pay their fees. E bay is the place to be if your anxious to fight other people for the right to buy things. I always close bids for my repeat customers anyway so this really isn't much of a change.

OK enough about business. I hope all of you folks have a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend. I'm going to take what's left of it and put some more "Quality Junk" on the net.

thanks for listening.... the old guy!!

Updated for content 06/09

Ramblings

I thought I'd better take this opportunity to let you know where I'm at these days because I will be tied up from now until the 15th doing what I should have done months ago. My taxes. I don't know why but I have a phobia about taxes and always put them off until the last minute. They always seem to work out alright, it's just the way I am.


One of my New Years resolutions that I addressed in this blog was to reach 1000 listings this year without listing each cup and plate individually. This morning I reached 900 so I'll probably make it. It's a slow process because you good folks keep buying my "Quality Junk" and I have to play catch up a lot. (Don't get me wrong I definitely want you to keep on bidding).

Now that summer is approaching I have started taking most of my photos outside in natural light and this is giving me a much better picture quality for you. (This was another one of my New Years Resolutions).

Well I think that's enough rambling for now, wish me luck with the taxes.

thanks for listening... the old guy

Updated for content 06/09.

Gifts For Sale

I am going to start a new category of merchandise for my store called gifts. My spouse has been a preschool teacher for almost 20 years and she has been rewarded by her students and parents with dozens of gifts over the years. She loves the kids and their gifts but the time has come to move some out to make room for more. Most of these items are in Brand New condition and have never been used. I will title all of these with the word GIFT so you can find them in an alphabetical title search under the Letter "G". I will list them as I have time along with all my Quality Junk.
Keep your eyes open for these as they will be bargains compared to store retail prices.

thanks for listening...the old guy

Updated for content 06/09.

Poetry 101 - Choices

I wrote this during a period when I knew that I had to make some dramatic changes in my life and I knew that many choices had to be made. Only God knows whether I made the right ones. I certainly don't.

I apologize to anyone who may be offended by my choice of words.

CHOICES

life is full of choices
advised by many voices.

should we laugh or should we cry
should we shout or should we sigh.

shall we rise or stay in bed
live by heart or by head.

eat our food sweet or tart
suffer pain or let a fart.

do we walk or will we run
making choices is no fun.

will we sleep or lust this night
bake a cake or fly a kite.

go to school or play some pool
make wrong choices play the fool.

will we dress or naked stay
make a choice straight or gay.

all day long i strive to see
what choices are alright for me.

The old guy
11 mar 2001

thanks for listening....the old guy

Poetry 101 - The Lonely Mailbox

I wrote this for myself one day while I was on my pity pot waiting for a letter from a friend.

I now dedicate it to all of our servicemen and women and to those at home who wait anxiously for mail.

in my front yard there sits an object so forlorn
it very often wonders why that it was ever born

every day it stands & waits its door is always open
and deep inside its metal hide its heart is always hopin'

it knows that somewhere out in space a missive is enroute
someday soon it will arrive and slide right down its chute

but alas it seems as if that day will never come
But if it does there is no doubt that it will really hum

every day i speak to it and bid it not to cry
i tell it that our friend will write and that is not a lie

now the man has stopped in front he's looking in his bag
he looks at us and shakes his head our spirits they do sag

where are the words That we have waited long for
the news that she's still happy & that her spirits soar

when they do come the little mailbox sitting all alone
will sing and dance and leap about never more to moan.

More from the old guy

thanks for listening .........