Auction Site Just For Puppets

[Pickles Da Clown]

Ebay is the dominated auction site on the web these days. I have been watching sales of puppets on there. I've seen some really fantastic puppets go off for some very low prices. Could this be because eBay has become the likes of an online yard sale and everyone is hunting for a bargain? I was wondering...looking for your opinions...I have been on the hunt for software to build an auction site or possibly just create a craft mall of sorts for anything to do with puppets. I think I have found the software I have been looking for. I want to know from all of you if something like this would be of interest to anyone.

[John Parisi]

EBay has always been a yard sale, it the people who think it is more that are ruining it. You’re supposed to get a deal at an auction, if you want to set up a "sale page," that seems more useable than an auction. But remember that builders don’t buy figures; they make them from scratch but some designers don’t want to see others figure for fear they might make something too similar later, sub-consciously. It’s great that Puppet View is growing everyday but there are a thousand vents on WORLDVENTS and very few buy figures from others on the site.
Here the rub, the person buying puppets on eBay is the average person who would like a figure for their school or church. Not the professional puppeteer who understand that a professional puppet may not always be the most durable thing they have ever bought or understands the amount of dangerous material that is used in professional figures.
Mean John Dean
Reality stinks!

[Pickles Da Clown]

Thank you for your opinion John! Great insite! If I do make an auction site or an online craft mall it would not be within this site. It would be a site all to it's own.

[Larry Harris]

John,

I could not agree more with your comments.

Cheers,

Larry Harris - ComicVent

[Wilma Swartz]

Lately I've noticed ebay has had people selling items using pictures from someone else's website. These people don't have the merchandise they claim they have and the poor, unsuspecting, buyer pays for the merchandise then never receives the product. It just recently happened with a vent figure. I think you've a great idea but once you get it up and running, what steps will you do to prevent undesireables from doing it on your site. ebay seems to have gotten so large that they can't police themselves. I've products that I'd like to sell but I'm concerned to do anything more through ebay because of all the problems they've been having regarding the above mentioned con. I don't want my name or the company name associated with a company like ebay that's permitting scam artists to rip off the public. I know as a retired private investigator that these scammers, once you're up and running, will most likely try you out to see if they can get away with it. Before you start this great idea, you need to figure out how to scrutinize prospective sellers and at the same time, not scare the true seller away.

[Linda McKinsey]

I think that is a great idea. But keeping the scammers away will be the biggest challenge. You might need to make it more like Craigs list as opposed to Ebay.

[Pickles Da Clown]

Excellent suggestions gang! WOW!

I agree that ebay does have it's scammers. I am in the works of coming up with all the rules and regulations. It's not like I'm jumping into this feet first. I am doing my research and crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's! I am not out to copy ebay. I just want to give puppet builders a place to sell their art under one roof, so to speak. I'm still deciding if I will do an auction site or an online mall. Keep the suggestions coming! It will help me decide what to do. I have a target date of January 2009, but if all goes well it could be sooner!

[Montgomery Puppets]

This sounds interesting. I have delt with Ebay for many years now on both ends of the spectrum as a buyer and a seller. I have sold many puppets on there with varying prices. As of recently, it seems that the 'fees' involved are starting to deter some sellers and cause them to look for Ebay alternatives, of which I am always on the look out for such an avenue. Not to long ago I got involved with Etsy.com, whih is a sight for selling hand made items only. It has been up for several years now I believe & there are some puppet sellers on that site as well. The fees on Etsy are much less, but there are some limitations as to the style of listing you can insert. Also, I don't believe it is currently drawing as much traffic in the custom puppet area, but this could change with time. I have explored some other sites out there such as Ebid, ioffer, ect.........but have not seen a lot of activity relating to puppet sellers on those alternatve sites. So a site as you are speaking of might be good. A big thing will be getting exposure with the new site and as someone already mentioned - keeping the scammers away.

[Tim Davies]

I have been selling puppets on ebay since the beginning of the year but have been watching the prices for about a year now.
First I would like to say that the quality puppet builders are not setting reasonable reserves on these pieces of art and are therefore letting them go waaaay toooo cheap sometimes. This hurts all of us since it devalues the other builders puppets.
I dont know that there is anything we can do about that (I made that mistake once myself.)
But I think the economy right now is not really friendly to an impulse or luxury item right now such as puppets. I do not know if a site devoted to these things would help that but it might be worth a try.
At least we could build up a registry of puppet builders for those who are in the market for something original and it could refer them to puppet builders.
Just a couple of my thoughts.

Tim

[Tim Davies]

One more quick thing. I just checked out the etsy site and it looks all right but most of the puppets were poorly made so I typed in professional puppets and low and behold there was the group that is selling unauthorized muppet replicas. I don't know about the rest of you guys but this blatant ripoff of someone else's copyrighted work burns my chaps. I would never steal someone else's designs and I am upset with those that do.... sorry just venting.

If you set up a site, can that be monitored? They get bumped off ebay and just come back on with another name.

okay I'm done now.... sigh

Tim

[Pickles Da Clown]

Awwww Tim! I hear what you're saying! Go ahead and vent! Remember...venting is a good thing in the world of puppets! Ooooooooooo...that was a bad joke!

Seriously...I would be monitoring the site. I have a partner, my sister, that will be doing the same. The site will be more for I guess you can say REAL puppet builders. No replica Muppets allowed. I feel that is disrespectful to Jim Henson and his entire family.

I am looking to create a place for puppet builders to sell their art respectfully. I am thinking that the site membership will be mostly by invitation and by submission of work for approval to sell. It may sound a little snooty to do that, but this way I could weed out the copy cats and wannabes.

Like I said before...I am in the planning stages. Your input is a HUGE help! I've seen your auctions on eBay. Some puppet sellers let their puppets go at lower prices for many reasons. There could be several reasons why they do, but that's another discussion topic.

[Montgomery Puppets]

Very well spoken!