26th JULY: The New Ebay

[ms*patricia]

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200907241947DOWJONESDJONLINE000807_FORTUNE5.htm

[poozybear]

Kim, have you looked into Bonanzle? A lot of people are reporting an increase in art sales over there. They have a category for ACEOs, and many eBayers are over there now. It's free to set up a booth, very user friendly, excellent customer service. You might want to give it a look. -- Kathy

[poozybear]

Also, I'm hearing some good reports about ArtFire. -- Kathy

[purplehorse75]

Kathy, I've looked at ArtFire, but it cost so much a month for more than 12 active listings at a time, so I'm undecided on that one. I'm also learning how to post PayPal buttons on other websites, so I'm trying to get the most out of other venues. I've also been updating my EBSQ portfollio and doing their shows for more exposture. I'll check out Bonanzle and see what it's like. Thanks! Kim

[poozybear]

They've set up a special forum for questions on the announcement: http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum/72709-Announcements-Discussion/5200000005 Kim, you might want to ask AnnRan (drawdog5) about Bonanzle. She's had some sales there. Her booth is: bonanzle DOT com/booths/AnnRan -- Kathy

[artistjillian]

I'm on Imagekind. Think it's OK if you promote yourself heavily. I haven't sold anything. I've been there around 6 months. -- ~Jillian artist, Jillian Crider ... google me!

[purplehorse75]

I've been doing nothing but research all day (I think I must be back in college). I've been looking at all kinds of sites to sell art on. Those that charge a monthly fee usually don't take any of the money from sold items. That's a plus, but all of those monthly fees really add up. It looks like the best thing to do is treat each site like its a department within a retail store: handcrafts to aunt betsy, maybe ACEO's to artcardswanted, 4 x 6's artwork to OSWOA(R), fine art prints to imagekind, you get the picture. Also, having a website to tie all the departments together is a must. I did find a couple of free website hosting sites. One is wix and the other is zhibit. One of my studio arts classmates has a wix website. We compared search engines for google typing his name and my name in and my eBay auctions popped up over his everytime. (I think if you get the paid account you'd probably come up higher in the search). Oh, and I went to ecrater to look around and discovered someone from Hong Kong selling an 'original' meadowlark drawing copied from one I just sold on eBay in June. The seller's name is wallart. Just an FYI incase they've copied other artists' work. Kim

[purplehorse75]

I have a headache from all of the research I just did (plus I'm kinda burned up about the Hong Kong copy 'artist'). All of my horses are up from the bottom pasture (we had 2 new foals on 7/21!). I think I'll go and play with them for awhile. Kim

[originalartbysms]

Thank you all for postings that have kept me up to date. I am a small e bay fish . I find that it really isn't fun any more . The auction seems to be fading ,on my sales it has been rare to get more than 1 bid, but it always seems that someone comes out of no where when I am buying at an auction. Thanks for passing information on . I appreciate it. Lucy

[poozybear]

You're welcome Lucy. I think most of us here are small fish, so, sticking together. :) Something interesting. Someone in that forum asked if templates were being phased out, and the pink refused to answer, saying that they would only address issues that related to today's announcement. Not very reassuring. I sure wouldn't recommend that anyone go out and pay to have a template designed at this point. -- Kathy

[artistjillian]

Have you checked out 'artbyus' (dot) com? I love that site. * * * * * * * * * Kathy, somewhere, I am SURE it says that templates are being phased out. All links gone, all extra images in descriptions out. Editing what you can even say about yourself in there - nothing about give me 5 stars or I'm trying to make it 5 star service. I'm gobsmaked over all this. -- ~Jillian artist, Jillian Crider ... google me!

[artistjillian]

(Though not surprised, as they have tried to do this bit by bit, and now ... the crunch! -- ~Jillian artist, Jillian Crider ... google me!

[ms*patricia]

I'm also on Imagekind - sold a couple of prints there - you get such a tiny percentage but its better than nothing. I sold a painting on artists rising - a woman in great britain bought it outright - nice sale - no commission. We ended up being pretty friendly and writing back and forth - mostly because the dumb USPS sent the painting to Canada where it wandered around for almost a month before they noticed the address and sent it on to great britain. I was lucky that wasn't an Ebay sale LOL Anyway, she took it pretty well and later sent me a picture of the painting all framed and hanging at the top of her staircase. Almost a miracle that it arrived in good condition since it was a large painting and had traveled all over the place.

[ms*patricia]

I sold several paintings on Bonanzle and you get a free booth and free listings. The fee is very small when you sell. I sold a large painting there for 150 or so - it was probably more but I don't remember - they only charged me a 5.00 fee.

[poozybear]

Yeah, Bonanzle is very affordable. And like you said the booth is free, so you have nothing to lose by trying. -- Kathy

[poozybear]

Kathy, somewhere, I am SURE it says that templates are being phased out. It does. I saw it too. It wasn't stated directly, but definitely implied. That's why I got so mad when the pink refused to address the question. I think they have so many questions to field right now that they're sweeping as much as possible under the rug. But yeah, I'm positive that I saw it too. -- Kathy -- Edited by poozybear at 07/27/2009 7:41 PM PDT