Coin website VS Ebay

Hey Gang....
I have decided to go with a website for my coin biz as well as token auctions on the BigE for new customers and a market presense ( sic) untill established, just like I did with the sauce. I had the sauce sauce site built and that person is busy/burried so that option is off the table.
What are some good software web design programs I could do myself without going to school again. I will need easy inventory change over and a simple e-commerce shopping cart thing.
Any ideas?

 

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AJ, i think a website sounds great! I have tried, never really worked for me though.

 

No idea, I havent done anything that advanced!
the most I've done is some simple web-page stuff. lol

well, good luck with it!
maybe some Cointalk members get special deals... and maybe AZ'ers get even better discounts, eh?

and... I didnt know you had a coin biz... lol.
do you have a store or what?


edit: just a note, you dont use "sic" unless you're quoting something, and they misspelled it.

 

edit: just a note, you dont use "sic" unless you're quoting something, and they misspelled it.[/quote]
Im a horrible speller, what can I use now?

No, I don't have a store, HAD an Ebay store..........grrrrrrrrr

Magman...pm me, are you going to the Tucson show in Jan? Im sure you'll be at ANA in March tho huh?

 

Hmm, I don't know of any off the top of my head, but I'll keep my eyes open for you man. :thumb: Best of luck putting one together. :thumb:

Phoenix

 

Good luck Jack.

Haven't looked at software in years. I did mine all in html and it was time consuming but of course mine was more informational with lots of tables.

I had a copy of "Front Page" years ago but never really got into it.

You may consider checking out

http://www.bizland.com

They have a lot of options with checkout etc. Course it costs money.


As for "token" auctions on Greedbay you may also consider listing on other sites just for the exposure.
Not sure exactly about the rules but Overstock might be helpful. Just make sure and list things at what you really need. SGS does booming business there selling garbage but it's hard for legit sellers. Mini ebay as it were but it IS exposure.

You also may have seen Phoenix21 mention

http://www.coinbug.com

5 free listings dude and the site IS growing. I was the fourth member I believe and sell there when I have time. Hell, I've sold to 2 CT members so far.

If we can keep that site "clean" it has TONS of potential and the guy that runs it is just one heck of a nice guy.

Just a few thoughts.

clembo

 

I got a couple of other sites that don't charge ANYTHING to post - you just pay if you actually sell something.

I've mentioned this one before - www.bidville.com. I have never sold on there, but have bought a few things.

The other is www.wensy.com - very small - have no idea about it's potential - but I go there to browse. And I do believe you can post all you want and you only pay for what you actually sell. Actually, just checked out Wensy.com. They've got almost 6,000 coin related items. You can't get an easy total for Bidville.com, but it looks to be over 10,000 items - easy - maybe 15,000 items.

Checked coinbug.com. They only have 861 items listed. Hmmmmm.

I guess I bring these two sites up because some of the dealers that I knew who were on yahoo.com went to bidville and wensy.

Once again, no endorsements - just throwing this out. You should check out all the details of selling to see if there are any "gotchya's".

 

Boy is he ever, coinbug has my highest recomendations. I sent him a pm about it. It has a lot of potential, and hopefully one day will be one of those high names. It's growing like crazy. Something for everyone to consider joining IMO.

Phoenix

 

Thanks for the hints guys, one you have not mentioned is I like coin dot com, see the banner alot across the sreet on other site.

Clembo, I WILL get to Overstock during the holiday break, that has been on my list for a while, if not just to feel it out.

With the FeeBay demise, alternatives are going to happen, either by forc, luck or by hardwork and determination. Something must be done. I glided all summer thru ebay without a scratch, picking up some great value and making good money on what I did sell.

This last week alone, I had the 1 fake 09-S that turned out good, see that post, great seller. Had another 09-S that I had to neg last night, a horrible experience with a 99.9 pos seller that was just plain bad bad bad. I tried soo hard not to neg this guy but he begged for it, I did not like leaving it. I did everything and beyond trying to work it out. He deserved it.

I have returned 2 " BU" VDB's this week, one was actually a picture switcher, not even the coin in the auction. 2 paypal claims to get refunds, just a bad chain of events. The great sellers I meet and wonderful customers make Ebay fun, but I find it more and more wading thru the $)#$* to get the good guys.

I will incorporate Apache Coin, LLC in Janurary and take it from there on my own site and play around with different venues for exposure. Watch for my adds in Coin World starting soon as well. Just Lincolns, nothing more. Specialize specialize specialize.

 

I actually didn't respond to your question. I got sidetracked by the comments about competitive sites to e-bay and I don't think that's what you were asking.

If you're not a computer geek, outsource, outsource, outsource. Yes, there will be fees, but if you don't have the expertise...

I would definitely outsource image-hosting and the shopping cart - because you'll also have to deal with credit cards with the shopping cart - let someone else do that!!! These two you should be able to find pretty easily - just check out e-bay auctions (for those that use external "helpers") and also the various coin-collecting sites on the net. If you see something you like, investigate.

As far as easy inventory control, then I guess I'd think about software sitting on your computer - not outsourced. There will MOST LIKELY be a learning curve on that, but I'm not sure how well outsourcing would go with that.

I would also like to make it clear that it's been about four years since I've had any active participation as webmaster or managing a web-site. I imagine a LOT of things have changed.

I guess I'm saying that I'm just here to muddy the waters!!!!!!

 

I have been real busy at night's getting my inventory photographed and put into software, coin manage just to actually get an idea of what I have. That, I want full control of the images and descriptions, ets.

Hosting and site building? Yeah, that gets farmed out for sure and I plan on paying a fair price for what I want, not the cheapest, but a well put together, easy to navigate and good lookin setup. Mistakes I learned from superspicy can be applied to the new site. For instance, i cannot use coupons on my sauce site, and the webmail is a nightmare.

We learn from experience and I will learn what I can, but Im too old to get an engineering degree in computers/I.T, and wil pay to have it done.

Oh yeah, the Go Daddy girl is a hottie but I have not heard great things about the service. Yahoo smaill business is an option but Im not impressed with the service cost levels. Rates similar to an ebay store with sales manager, but not even close to the amount of traffic.

 

check out GoDaddy.com. I bought my domain, my hosting and everythign else throgh them. I dont have a shopping cart on my site, but they do have that option available. Everythignm is sorta al-la-carte there. you pick the options you want, and nothign else. They also have advertising options via microsoft, they might also have google, not sure. those are the types of ads that appear on other sites, advertising your site, and when someone clicks them and is broguth to your site, you pay a certain amount per click.

I have only used GoDaddy.com, so i dont have anything to compare it to. But i love the whole experience. Their tech support has never wavered to answer any of my questions 24/7 and they always have the correct answer in understandable english.

One last thing, they DO have the options available to design the site for you. There are also sites that will sell you a template and then you just kinda plug in things from there. I built my site from scratch, and made a lot of mistakes!!! i am currently on my third design, and am using HTML, and PHP. I knew nothing when i started! i just stumble until it worked. If i can do it, i know you can too - anyone can!!

 

Godaddy isn't the first place I'd look to. It's cheap, support is sub-par, reported speeds are often slow. I've not had much personal experience with them, other than reading complaints and visiting someone's site and it loading ridiculously slow. The deal in web hosting is ually that if it's dirt cheap and overpromised, then it's a good bet that the server is overpacked in order for the $$$'s to work out. In other words...

CHEAP, RELIABLE, FAST (choose any two)

I run a web hosting forum, more for providers of web hosting than end-users, but since providers come there, many others come there looking for web hosting and advice, etc I prefer not to recommend providers, rather to suggest that people post their needs on the forum and/or in the request areas for direct quotes. If you want the URL, feel free to PM me.

 

Maybe you could buy your own server and rent out the rest of the space.
Nothing like diversification in business.

 

freewebs.com is what have used...interface and picture hosting is easy to navigate.

as with any web based biz...marketing/advertising will be key...put a few biz cards w/ web addy w/ each purchase. posting on all the coins boards/ take out an ad in numis mags/circulars. depending on finances, alternate sources or place ads quarterly because most readers are subscribers.

finding your target niche will be key...do you plan on specializing on any particular denom., series, or price point [budget widgets, high -end widgets, rarities, or esoteric items]

good luck

 

Specalize in Lincoln's, period.


I do not plan on becoming a pro coin dealer per se, but my goal is to provide a type of shopping enviorment I would like to buy from myself. Honesty, integrity, blah blah blah. Customer service will be top priority as well as personal attention to YOUR collection wants and needs.

On superspicy, we have had so many emails and thank you's just for the fact that it is an informative site as well. Health Info, history, news and a user photo dept. Sure, I want to sell you stuff, but I also want to make you more knowledgable about what you spend your money on, and leave knowing you will share with others some nice things to say about us.

I looked at godaddy, and a cpl others. Will be posting my decision soon.

 

I'm currently in the job market and godaddy is one of the places I've applied to!

If I get past the interview stage, I'll let you know!!! (doubt it - applying, but require a lot of web-skills I have, but am not an expert in.)

They apparently have a huge support center here in Iowa..... Go Figure

 

Sure......and I'm sure you will LOVE when the server goes down and you have people calling your number no matter what time of the day or night.

Speedy

 

Battery backup and a micro-server backup for the high-end customer base ?

I'd probably even purchase a generator (I currently have one).
You can buy older servers pretty cheap anymore.
Everyone is upgrading to blade-servers.
You could probably buy 2-3 old servers for less the half of the price of a new one.
Probably not economically viable for Jack at the moment, but it's a thought.

 

My company uses the best Battery Backups out there and the other day we had one die on us. It was a good thing that it wasn't during a power outage. A generator is a great idea but not always needed.
A server isn't that $$ to build....o course if you buy one from Dell you might be talking about $10K....but all of that isn't needed.
Well enought about Servers....I shouldn't be the one off topic

Speedy