I know. I saw those too. I don't know what to say. I really believed in it. I bought 400 of these. And I signed up for 4 months at the mall costing a total of 20k in rent. I haven't paid November yet. If I don't pay I'll just have to file for bankruptcy and have bad credit for seven years.
OP, frankly your auction listing sucks and is only going to cost you eBay fees. 1) Your title won't attract buyers. The title is how buyers find your listing. No one searching for Transformers is intending to buy these. Limit the "Transformers" comparison to the description. You fail to state the brand and toy line, unlike your eBay competitors, "buddy balls" | eBay Use one of their titles at the very least. Adding "Popples" is probably a good idea too since that may attract sales from people searching for Popples. You also fail to state the individual name of the character (ie, Max, Eva, etc) which your competitors do. 2) Your description is lacking. Again, refer to your eBay competitors for all the info they use, but don't copy their descriptions word-for-word. You should also be using the manufacturer's toy descriptions & info, no doubt available on their website. Spruce up your listing to make it more visually appealing. You should make your listings look professional, not just unformatted text. 3) None of your eBay competitors have sold any Buddy Balls, "buddy balls" | eBay If you can, consider selling yours for the same price or cheaper. Also, this is the type of product I wouldn't expect to sell well until the holiday season roles around, when Grandmas start shopping. Lots of retail establishments are in the red until then, so you should plan to be too.
dude.. Jeesh.. I dont even know where to start. As someone who has worked in the big business world. Developed product, and built an entire "pitch ready" sales system for (at the time) the worlds largest supplier of building materials.. I gotta say.. I feel bad for ya. 1st..I would never..EVER have relied on any sales whatsoever from a mall booth. To me, thats like saying people still go to those little photomatt booths in parking lots. I seen your ebay listing. $250 for 8, so your trying to market these to someone to buy the entire line to, or for others to buy to resell? Neither of which are feasible. Your best bet is to try to recoup all your costs in one shot, by taking all your existing product and trying to get a few minutes with a place like Ollies, Ross..or any other store that does close outs. But then again..from my experience they will only buy items literally dirt cheap to make a fair mark up. At this point..I dont even know what you would do. Im going to do a little experiment. When my kids get home from school..Im going to show them these. 1- See what they say -I am expecting they will say "WOW! those are neat!" 2- IF they like what they see ask them in a very kid friendly way, what would you rather have (Example @$30 toy/game/item COMPARED TO your prodect) and see what they would rather have. - I am expecting when I tell my son (Who is 7 and still loves his teddy bear) you could have one of these OR a voyager TF/GIJOE set/DS game he will say.."well..Id rather NOT have the bear then" I really get that you went for quality. Thats important to me, and its important when I sell shit. Keep in mind, I market myself on these boards as a "complete dumbass" so as noone ever expects too much from me. But from what I see, If you could not get these MADE for around $5-$9, and sell them for $20, its a sinking ship on paper before its even made. With this item...Quality or not..$19.99 seems to be the golden number for me. Anything over $20 parents will gloss over, no matter how much kids want them. Of course youll have high income families that will dribble a few sales your way..but this would need MASS market attention to succeed. Best of luck dude. Sorry your feeling beaten..but remember..sometimes you HAVE to lose, so that you can learn, build up, and trim yourself into a more successful entrepreneur. Ill see what my kids say. I find this interesting, and was not expecting this when I opened this thread. Dave
OK, if you don't mind I'll offer up some advice? Try and stop the mall stall immediately, you've only been in there a few days so check your contract carefully and there should be an early break clause (or something similar) in there. Alternatively talk to centre management and tell them your situation, if they're reasonable they might just let you go. No sense in chasing money if it's not going to be there. This should allow you to leave early and suffer minimal loss of just your deposit or something. That way you don't have to declare bankruptcy and you get to keep your stock. That way it's not money lost, just 'not sold yet' giving you breathing space to sell them in your own time through cheaper avenues (ie, eBay or Facebook sales). If you can't stop the mall stall and are forced to declare bankruptcy, the (slightly underhanded) alternative is to sell your stock to another entity (ie another company you've set up) for cheap, so you can declare bankruptcy without loosing your stock... but this presumes you're trading these bears from a limited company right now and not as a personal trader? If you're in this as a personal trader then they can chase you directly for monies owed and thus take your stock away to try and recoup their losses. So yeah, try and get out of the mall stall as quick as you can, that's the thing that's on a time limit and going to strangle you.
You're absolutely right. I get them for 10.43 each. My rent at this mall, Woodfield mall is so high. I had them at my stand for 29.99, I lowered to 24.99 and still no interest. What I noticed is that kids faces light up when they see this but the parents aren't stopping. Not even to check the price. Some people will stop but leave when I say 24.99. If I lower the price to 19.99 I will need to sell 262 of them in October just to break even, and then 786 in November to break even and another 786 in December to break even. I think I'm on a sinking ship.
I read tikgnat posts.. He's a smart dude. I agree. Halt. I don't know why you bought mall space now. If you were serious and check ANY analytics you would know not to buy mall space now, and you should have reserved space for November and December. The only chance you had at a decent sales number in the whole year were those two months, with mid to late December bringing 70% of all revenue
I'm sure dude. It IS a nice product, if it's high quality that's even better for kids.. Im not going to go the hindsight thing and beat you up on what should have been done, but right now you need to recoup as much as possible. Period. Priority one. Paramount. I would go so far as to truck them to local flea markets and take a small hit on individual sales until figured a way to dump them all at once. They look nice... But the math just isn't there. Keep in mind.. Im just one dumbass on the innernet'! I'll report back what my kids say. My 7 year old is just started to get money/value concept. It could be interesting. Start searching for retailers looking for Christmas product that you can sell to. Get the hell out of the mall thing as soon as you can. Anyway.. Have a lawyer buddy look at the contract to see if there's a legal loophole to save your ass. Anything. Now is not the time to wallow in sorrow and wonder what to do. It's scramble, survival mode if you ask me..
I was going to mention popples but you beat me to it. My wife still has hers from when she was a child, in fact, my daughter plays with it now! Hopefully things work out for the op!
hey cooking is my strong suit, not sewing. but some people made stuffed animals that looked comparable to what is being sold as the transforming teddy bear. just hopping on the band wagon that they are way over priced
This, completely man. He's got some great tips. Break them up into individual listings might help too, One listing for Football Bears, one for Soccer, etc. These are obviously made by someone else, correct? So you're just a reseller/retail outlet for them, but that price is SUPER hard to swallow. I love stuffed animals, and loved Popples, but like $20 shipped is the most I would pay for one. Maybe bundle some deals, like any 3 balls and save $5 or something?
Flea markets? Are you kidding? The flea market is the where the cheapest of the cheap will haggle him down to literal pocket change. Forget getting $10 there, he'll be set up beside somebody with crates of crappy Chinese bears tagged at $2. Sure, those bears may fall apart on the ride home but they're cheap cheap cheap and that's all that matters until it's too late. Plus, we're at the time of year (in the northeast anyway) where the weather practically shuts down alot of flea markets and their traffic. If you're really sure the mall kiosk isn't going to even partway work, maybe better advice would be to adopt that $20 pricepoint and blow them out on eBay.
Update**** It looks like I have really gotten myself into a pickle LOL. My inexperience and eagerness to start my own business will be my own demise, how ironic my life has been. I signed a contract for the last week of September and the full months of Oct, Nov and Dec. My rent for Sep is $667, Oct $2500, Nov $7500, Dec $7500, and Jan $2500. Initially I thought I was getting myself a good deal because they had started with quotes of Oct $6000, Nov $13,500, Dec $13,500, and Jan $6000. I thought I negotiated a good deal... How stupid of me. The location is at Woodfield Mall, the number one traffic location in Illinois and number two location in the midwest, so it's not a horrible place to start. Anyway I originally thought I would sell the items at $29.99 at the suggestion of the supplier (from whom I buy for $10.43 each). On my first few days I understood that $29.99 was too much, and I lowered it down to $24.99, thinking I could still make a profit during the holidays, but people still didn't buy for $24.99, so now I've lowered it again to $19.99, so now I'm making a paltry $9.56 per item sold, which goes towards rent. I can't even break even for one day. I have only sold 15 of these items in the week that I have already been in business. I asked the mall to let me out of the contract and they could keep the $2,500 I already paid for October and that I just wanted to be out of the nightmare, but they are refusing, instead wanting to set up another contract to arrange a payment plan for november and december since I seem nervous about being able to pay those amounts that I signed for. If I stay for the month of October and just leave before November starts, will their lawyers come after me? Even if I file for bankruptcy? I don't own a car or a home, and I have no personal assets. I read online that they can still collect money from my earnings directly from my future employers. Is that true? I am so young and stupid and I didn't realize all this two weeks ago. Is this the end for me? I see no way out. All I wanted to do was start my own business and make my family proud, but instead I have disappointed myself and everyone around me. I think this may be the end. How I wish I could go back to being a kid watching beast wars...
There must be some kind of early get out/break clause in the contract you signed. Absolutely read through ALL of that contract and get out of the mall quick as you can. Chances are the centre have said that because they see you as a kid who they can strongarm and want you to go into Oct and pay October rent at the very least. Sucks that they are being difficult. If you've only been in less than a week you should be able to extricate yourself. Go get advice from a Citizens Advice Bureau. They'll probably say the same thing as me. BUT READ THAT CONTRACT. Worst comes to the worst inform Centre management and just leave. You might be in breach of contract but if they want the money they'll have to take you to court but it's not going to be worth their time if you a) have no money and b) all they stand to gain is $17,500 or so.
I'm having trouble understanding how you thought this was a good idea. Spending thousands on stuffed animals and mall space on a whim? Without even testing the market in some way? I don't get it. Did someone con you into it?
YOU ARE ON A SINKING SHIP YOU NEED TO DO EVERYTHING ROBOTIC PLANET SAID THEN EVERYTHING TIKGNAT SAID Then stop posting links about buying four figure transformers.1, 2 Brother, I make good money with a stable job with opportunities and I don't buy stuff like that. Then, take a financial literacy class. Because you need to educate yourself NOW. Then, you have to...man, just reset your life. I don't know. Like you can't go back in time and correct your decision-making process. And it sounds like you have more than one issue...like I think you live with your parents? So...it's been a while since I suggested this, and I've really changed a lot in my views, but one option I think might work for you specifically would be: Join the Army. For real. 1 http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans...648566-big-convoy-first-shot-need-advice.html 2 http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-toy-discussion/856253-g1-optimus-prime-afa-graded.html
Yeah I know I have a lot of issues. I read the contract word for word and I am not able to get out of it. So do I just stop paying the rent and leave? And let them come after me with their lawyers? I don't care if my credit goes bad, it's better than losing another 17.5k and months of my life. If I file for bankruptcy what can they do? I have no personal assets. The biggest question is this, can they collect my paychecks from any future work that I do?
You need to stop asking question and find a contract lawyer who can tell you specifically what can be done. Asking people on the internet isn't going to get you anywhere.