I'm about to launch a $99 US dollar kit with free worldwide shipping to convert to EOS close to 50 of some of the best FL/FD/FDn manual focus Canon lenses ever made.
The problem I am dealing with is that up until now I have sold all my edmika adapter kits on eBay. Many have been stand alone listings but one has been a single listing with 12 lens types requiring the buyer to contact me with what specific lens they want converted. The trouble with this is that about a quarter of my buyers forget to contact me to let me know which lens they have. This is a real pain for my production and shipping system as I often have to send several messages before I get a reply if at all sometimes.
I don't want to have to 50+ different eBay listings, mostly because many of the more obscure ones (like the excellent but nearly unknown 85/2.8 soft focus or the 20-35/3.5L or the 85/1.2 Aspherical) would never show up very high on the eBay search algorithm. What I have seen some of my competitors (and copycats) do is just live with a single listing and deal with the customer chasing problems. This ensures that that their listing stays high on the hit list because of the relatively high sales volumes.
What I really need is a multi-variation listing which would allow me to ensure my customers select the appropriate lens on checkout. The problem is only eBay Australia allows multi-variation listings in the Camera category/subcategories. If I list in crafts category which allows MVar Listings on eBay Canada, when people search FD to EF adapters, eBay search prompts them to click on these terms in the camera adapters category (so my craft category listings would be missed for those clicking the suggested search term).
I've been asking eBay Canada to include the Camera category in multi-variation listings for over a year but customer service has been a brick wall. eBay today represents a 2003 user interface, zero customer service, illogical listing rules, no real seller protections and unfortunately for the type of product I develop and sell still the only game in town where my buyers go first. To top it off I get ever rising fees (they own paypal too so combined they collectively take more from me than even the Canadian Government does in corporate taxes). I just spent another hour on the phone with eBay Canada getting the run around with lots of feigned empathy but no answers and being repeatedly put on hold until I hang up in frustration.
I'm seriously looking at finally including a storefront on edmika.com or trying Amazon out but I'm afraid I'd be losing a lot of buyers who look for that kind of product on eBay first. I know for many obscure things eBay personally is my first stop as well.
Any good selling direction suggestions from the canonrumors crowd?
The problem I am dealing with is that up until now I have sold all my edmika adapter kits on eBay. Many have been stand alone listings but one has been a single listing with 12 lens types requiring the buyer to contact me with what specific lens they want converted. The trouble with this is that about a quarter of my buyers forget to contact me to let me know which lens they have. This is a real pain for my production and shipping system as I often have to send several messages before I get a reply if at all sometimes.
I don't want to have to 50+ different eBay listings, mostly because many of the more obscure ones (like the excellent but nearly unknown 85/2.8 soft focus or the 20-35/3.5L or the 85/1.2 Aspherical) would never show up very high on the eBay search algorithm. What I have seen some of my competitors (and copycats) do is just live with a single listing and deal with the customer chasing problems. This ensures that that their listing stays high on the hit list because of the relatively high sales volumes.
What I really need is a multi-variation listing which would allow me to ensure my customers select the appropriate lens on checkout. The problem is only eBay Australia allows multi-variation listings in the Camera category/subcategories. If I list in crafts category which allows MVar Listings on eBay Canada, when people search FD to EF adapters, eBay search prompts them to click on these terms in the camera adapters category (so my craft category listings would be missed for those clicking the suggested search term).
I've been asking eBay Canada to include the Camera category in multi-variation listings for over a year but customer service has been a brick wall. eBay today represents a 2003 user interface, zero customer service, illogical listing rules, no real seller protections and unfortunately for the type of product I develop and sell still the only game in town where my buyers go first. To top it off I get ever rising fees (they own paypal too so combined they collectively take more from me than even the Canadian Government does in corporate taxes). I just spent another hour on the phone with eBay Canada getting the run around with lots of feigned empathy but no answers and being repeatedly put on hold until I hang up in frustration.
I'm seriously looking at finally including a storefront on edmika.com or trying Amazon out but I'm afraid I'd be losing a lot of buyers who look for that kind of product on eBay first. I know for many obscure things eBay personally is my first stop as well.
Any good selling direction suggestions from the canonrumors crowd?