Just came across your site in the middle of the night while looking for something else and had to read the article.

I was a co-owner/operator/buyer/janitor of two different small-business, family O&O home decor stores–a furniture and accessories store and an oil painting store, together in one huge building.. I successfully sold artwork on eBay, and if I had a quantity stock of picture frames, I dropped the price from my retail price, to where I’d still make money when it was all over. I put damaged merchandise n there “as is” and sold it at discounted prices. I even had some repeat customers, and from that one building in The Midwest I even wound up selling something to a guy in France! I could not have gotten that exposure for tat price anywhere else but an auction site, and at the time, they were it.Did I mention this was about 2002 and I was still using a dial-up connection at the office?
But I will agree with you, it is a lot of hassle for very little payoff. Between taking good photos and creating the listing, that took forever.
Nevertheless, I got ambitious and managed to pump 20 items on there one day, some single, some in quantity. I sat down late that night in my office at home–aah, DSL–and I was flooded with questions about the items–it was non-stop.
From then on in, I stopped putting small ticket items on there. My floor was a retail of $100 in the store and maybe $65 on eBay, almost always “buyer pays actual shipping.” I was very happy to sell a painting I retailed at $899 for $400 on eBay, and ship it to California “free.”(it was no small painting–it had to be trucked there). I slowed it down to occasionally listing a few items for which we used to get calls for from all over the country, but I’d list them at less of a discount, closer to actual retail.
I ultimately decided it was wasting my time and money, and stopped.
Thanks for the article!

As I said in the article, art is a fickle category on eBay and online. Unless your art is in high demand and you have a well known brand name to market, I would usually advise against making the eBay plunge.
There are a few exceptions I should mention however…
If your “celebrity” art is a hot commodity or depicts very hot celebrities… Say, like Paris Hilton or possibly Michael Vick (last year), then you may have an idea to formulate an ecommerce business plan with.
The other exception is if you were thinking of using eBay as part of a global plan to increase your brand awareness in conjunction with several other methods (social media, blog development, ppc, etc). Then I would say opening an eBay store and filling it with as much of your art as possible while keeping about 30% of your listings as core (auction or fixed price), could be a great idea. Be aware that sales may be slow and an investment in time and eBay fees may be required before your art becomes a consistent seller or your name becomes a commodity.
Art is a tough business as you may already be well aware. All it takes to become a “hot” artist is for the right person or people to see and buy your work. Word of mouth has always been the life blood of artists, that is until mass marketing artists brought a new vision to the industry. Would you have ever heard of Guy Harvey is he never sold a T-Shirt?
Thanks for your comment and your question. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to use the contact form to drop me a note in email.

Scott Pooler
TA Journal
All Business Auctions

Dale

Sign up at Commission Junction for your eBay affiliate code and your off…

There is more to it than that, but you will have a good start.

Good Luck Sam, Thanks for the comment/question… Stop by anytime!
Scott