I want to address the selling of Cars die cast toys on Ebay. From the start, people have been hoarding Cars and foolishly selling them for very little profit. I'm going to show you how people selling Cars on Ebay have little to no business smarts!
I got an extra Edwin Kranks at the Kmart Collectors Day back in October. Let me show you how much of a waste of time it was for me to sell it on Ebay! The first time I listed it, I had a starting price of $9.99 with a Buy It Now price of $12.99. It did not sell. The second time I listed it, my starting price was $2.00 with a Buy It Now price of $9.99. This time someone paid the Buy It Now price of $9.99 with $2.95 Shipping and Handling.
Here's how my costs broke down and what I made...The first time I listed it, I paid an Insertion fee of $0.35, a Buy It Now fee of $0.10, for a total of $0.45 cents. The second time I listed it, I paid an Insertion fee of $0.35, a Buy It Now fee of $0.10, a Scheduled fee of $0.10, and a Final Value fee of $0.87 cents. Now, the Insertion fee of $0.35 was refunded because it sold the second time I listed it. My total Ebay fees were $1.45 and constituted a 16% piece to Ebay. The person paid by Paypal and those fees were $0.68 cents, and totalled a 5% piece to Paypal. The cost of shipping was $1.86, and the large bubble envelope cost me $0.50. The cost of the Edwin Kranks Car was $3.72. Total Fees came to $8.21. My gross amount was $12.94 and I netted $4.73 after expenses.
Now, this might seem ok on the surface, but let's look at other unrealized expenses. First, the time I spent going to Kmart and the cost of gas...I spent about two hours dealing with the event. Who knows how much gas I used. The store was about five miles from my house. Now, add to this my time spent listing Edwin for sale, the preparing of the picture, relisting it, packing it and ultimately mailing it. I'd estimate another one and a half hours. Total time spent to make a lousy $4.73...three and a half hours! That means I made $1.35/hour! That is absolutely stupid from a common sense business approach!!
The dumb thing I've heard for years from people selling like this is "I do it for fun!" When I spell it out for you, I ask you, "What is your life worth to you?!" All those hours spent to make so little. I'd really rather have spent those three and a half hours with friends, learning something, or even volunteering my time to enrich another's life. Remember, we have a finite time here. Do you want to spend it so foolishly? These points alone are enough to convince people with a brain to stop doing such fruitless selling. Additionally, think how this hoarding and greed has created shortages of supply. We've all seen those pictures people post that intimate bragging when they show a photo of two dozen of one Chase Car!
The only positive, is that you can often get the Cars you want for a good price. The majority of the Cars toys have never sold for much more than twice their cost. I looked at how many nuts bought the Mac Transporter and opened it to sell Bumper Save. Within a day, the dummies flooded the market with over eighty auctions selling the same darn car! Too many ding dongs have no clue as to what they are doing.
Will addressing this make the selling stop? Of course not! It will ONLY enlighten those with a brain. I don't care what you want to sell, it needs to be profitable and worth your time. Heck, if you really want to waste your time to track Cars down and sell them to me for three or four bucks over retail, go right ahead! You save me tons of time that I can use to sleep, watch movies, workout, and do productive things. Maybe you selling Cars on Ebay is not a waste of my time? Hmmm! ;-) I am Over and OUT!!
http://www.CarsDieCastToys.Blogspot.com
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Disney Pixar Cars - Selling Cars On Ebay Is A Waste Of Time
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Disney Pixar Cars - Kmart Collectors Day Round-Up Report
I had expectations about the Kmart Collectors Day and they all held fairly true. Admittedly, I had no idea how many people would turn out. I figured that the numbers would be similar to Hot Wheels events, and they were. The turn out at three stores myself and my two reporters were at, came in at a count of seven, ten, and ten.
The three stores all managed things differently. The store I was at, allowed people to open cases on a First Come, First Served basis. The other two stores chose people to open cases by pulling their number out of a hat raffle style. The stores setup things differently as well. The store I attended setup a table at the front entrance of the store. The store Reporter One was at, setup near the courtesy desk, while the store Reporter Two was at, setup the table in the back of the store.
The store I was at got six cases of "Mainline" Cars, and three cases of "Minis!" The first six people got to open a case each and choose five Cars. Then, the last two went through all six cases and picked their first five choices. We then came back a second time to pick five more, and then it was a free for all the third time around. The one poster was grabbed by a guy who just took it, and no one cared about the Minis. At the store where I had Reporter One, he was the second person there, but that store went the raffle way and he was picked last to choose. The difference at his store was that most of the people just showed up and got involved because there was a table setup. This actually helped him because they didn't know what to look for when picking their Cars. He also won the poster as they raffled it off and he was chosen. Reporter Two was annoyed by the way the manager ran things. She told me she didn't know what the hell she was doing! Some people tried to cheat by taking more than one raffle ticket. Others tried to manipulate the manager into letting them open more than one case. Reporter Two had been briefed on the rules by me and put a stop to a lot of the nonsense.
Both Reporters were disgusted by the way a number of the adults conducted themselves. They felt they were very immature and selfish. They both indicated they wouldn't want to do it again. The crowd at the store I was at, had a number of dirty, bummy looking people. Beyond people's behavior and hygiene, the thing to come away with is that you can do well in spite of the size of the crowd. In my case, I had the fewest people, but the setup drew more last minute people and the majority knew what to look for. So, you could say that made for a more competitive situation. Reporter One was at an advantage because he knew what to look for, while the other last minute stragglers didn't. And, even though he was drawn last to pick, he still got all the best Cars due to his preparation! Finally, Reporter Two had to deal with taking control of a more devious group and a manager who didn't have a clue. She made things stay fair and knew what to do to get what she wanted.
The one difficult Car to get was Edwin Kranks. There was only one in every other case. So, the day yielded a total of Seven New Cars released...Sputter Stop, View Zeen, Shiny Wax, Transberry Juice, Spare Mint, Edwin Kranks and Small Fred. It was very exciting to add this many Cars to my collection in one fell swoop! I hope you all did as well as I did!
Finally, I hope those of you who followed us on Twitter got some insight, and it helped you do better as you got to your Kmart later in the morning.
http://www.CarsDieCastToys.Blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Disney Pixar Cars Kmart Collectors Day 10/18/08
Mattel will be partnering with Kmart on October 18, 2008 for a Disney Pixar Cars "Collectors Day!" Similar to the Hot Wheels events they've done with Kmart, collectors can go to Kmart with the expectation of seeing Brand NEW releases, raffles and fun!
Here are the Cars die cast toys we can expect to see...
Edwin Kranks will be the first of what I've coined,the "Old Route 66 Days" characters released.
Fred will be released in his New, smaller scale size.I don't believe he will be the Fred with Bumper Stickers Chase version.
But, you never know!
Get ready to see "Shiny Wax," a.k.a. Darren Leadfoot, Car #82!
You'll also meet "Sputter Stop," a.k.a. Murray Clutchburn, Car #92!
"Transberry Juice," a.k.a. Lee Revkins, Car #63 will be stopping by!
You'll clearly see "View Zeen," a.k.a. Ryan Shields, Car #39 on the 18th!
"Spare O Mint," a.k.a Ernie Gearson, Car #93 will freshen up your day!Monday, August 25, 2008
Old Route 66 Days - Fini from Comic-Con '08
Comic-con was a grand buffet for the collector! I've been told next year will be even better and bigger for the Cars line! There were a load of great things I reported on from MattyCollector.com to the coming of "Elvis!" This is my last story from Comic-Con 2008.
If you recall, the scene in Cars where Sally and Lightning are at the Wheel Well Motel looking out over Radiator Springs, Sally reminisces about the good old days when she reminded Lightning that, "Cars didn't drive to make great time, they drove to have a great time!"
Well, you're going to get the opportunity to add the Old Days Cars to your collection as well! I'm going to discuss a couple I saw at Comic-Con to whet your appetite!
The first I'll discuss, is a truck that has a very distinct look...his name is Dustin Mellows. He was a delivery truck for Trophy Spark Plugs in the 1950's and travelled through Radiator Springs each month.
Here's Dustin in die cast form! He looks as if he'll be part of the "Over Sized" line. When will he be released? I don't know that yet.
I also saw this big green machine...Edwin Kranks. A Car who would eat at Flo's each night. Like a human partying and waking up with an unintended tattoo, Edwin woke up to find he had a metal flake green apple paint job. Girls suddenly stared at Edwin quite a bit, and those dinners at Flo's became dinner for two.
Here's Edwin in die cast form! A very cool looking character. Again, no release date as of today. There will be many more of the Old Days Cars. So, buckle your seat belts...there's going to be a great time ahead!http://www.CarsDieCastToys.Blogspot.com
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