Where Do I Sell My Golf Pants?

They were vintage plaid IZOD with the original tags, navy blue and kelly green, size 34/34, perfect time of year for a sale. But which outlet - Ruby Lane or an online auction? The answer is simple - both!

For business owners on Ruby Lane, a simple-to-learn process can open new doors for your selling and others’ buying. In the selling business, we all know the importance of networking and reaching out to new customers. Here’s how:

1. Research the item you wish to sell both at Ruby Lane AND the online auction company of your choice. Scan both sites quickly for numbers of similar items listed, quality, prices, and recent sales.
2. List your item on Ruby Lane at your desired price.
3. Be patient. Continue to watch the market at both selling venues to see what happens.
4. To keep items in your shop moving, consider sending unsold items to an online auction.
5. Under Manage Transactions click Send To Auction.
6. Select the item you wish to send to auction and click on Send To Auction.
7. A Ruby Lane connection page asks you several questions: which auction venue to use, whether or not to post shipping and insurance and payment information (I recommend posting all of these), and whether or not you want to keep the item in your shop or put it in your backroom while it is at auction (I recommend keeping in your shop so Ruby Lane customers can email you for auction information if interested in bidding on the item).
8. At the bottom of that page, select a color background. This selection will hold for all future items sent to auction if you desire, or you can change it per item.
9. Click on Next Step.
10. The next viewing will be a split page designed for your convenience by Ruby Lane. On the left you will see the Ruby Lane information for the item you selected. On the right you will see the home page for the auction site you selected earlier.
11. Login to your auction site.
12. For the title of the item to be sold, simply right click on your Ruby Lane selling title and click again on Select All from the menu. The title should then show highlighted in blue. Right click on the Ruby Lane blue-highlighted title and select Copy from the menu.
13. Go to the right side of the page for your auction listing and right click on the title box. Select Paste from the menu. This will move your title from Ruby Lane to the auction site without retyping.
14. Add one photo to your auction site. No need to add more photos because your buyers will be able to see all the photos you posted on Ruby Lane. This will save you money in photo charges.
15. Follow the same Select All, Copy and Paste procedure for your Item Description. Be sure to place your auction description box in HTML format.
16. Add the rest of the information needed to finalize your order on the auction sight, click on List Your Item, then return to the Ruby Lane box on the left side of the screen. Ruby Lane will need the auction listing number for reference as well as the number of days the item will be on the auction block.
17. Close both windows or follow the same procedure to list more items.
18. When your item sells, be sure to Report A Sale under Manage Transactions.

Trust me, at first this process seems like a lot of work. But remember, we had those same feelings when we first began posting items on Ruby Lane. It is just unfamiliar at the beginning. With a little practice, the process becomes familiar and you will realize very simple to use.

ADVANTAGES TO SENDING ITEMS TO AUCTION:

• Cleans out stagnant items from your shop to make room for newer fresh items.
• If buyers on Ruby Lane see items on their wish list only staying in your shop for, say, 30 days before being sent to auction, then they are more likely to buy the item rather than just wishing for it.
• All the buyers from your online auction site are directed to your Ruby Lane store when viewing your item for bid at auction. If you have three pairs of golf pants and only send one to auction you may suddenly have a buyer for all three pairs of pants.
• Ultimately, a sale is a sale and sometimes items that don’t sell as quickly at Ruby Lane find a different market of buyers on an online auction while still drawing buyers to your Ruby Lane store.

TIPS TO REMEMBER WHEN SENDING ITEMS TO AUCTION:

• Although items listed at auction from the Ruby Lane site draw potential buyers to your Ruby Lane store, most online auction sites will NOT allow you to list your store website in a posting. Items on Ebay with a listed website, for example, will be removed from the auction listings and no longer available for auction. Be sure to read the auction guidelines.
• Package your sold-by-auction items in that special wrapping like you do for your Ruby Lane customers. Most items sold by online auction venues are packaged quickly and without the care Ruby Lane sellers put into “making it look special” to the buyer. Besides the wrapping, include your Ruby Lane business card and postcard inviting them to view your Ruby Lane shop.
• Add the names of online auction buyers to your mailing list. Mail a “special promotion” postcard to all your Ruby Lane customers PLUS your online auction customers at least once a year.

Fear not the online auction as a boost to your Ruby Lane sales! By keeping your merchandise moving, attracting new buyers to your Ruby Lane store, and building your customer mailing list you only help Ruby Lane as a whole.

In the end, the IZOD golf pants sold for $20.00 more than their original list price on Ruby Lane, but more than the money I found a wonderful new buyer. After selling the pants and packaging them with my Ruby Lane merchandising items, I received the following email: “Cassie, the golf pants are even better than I expected. And thank you for leading me to Ruby Lane. I will definitely continue to shop there in the future.”

Happy selling—and hopefully a little more time for golfing!

Cassie at Venti Vintage on Ruby Lane

http://ventivintage.rubylane.com