Where Vintage Never Gets Old...
My items are flying out of my shop!!!
I haven't been able to post recently because I have been too busy listing and selling. Unfortunately, it hasn't been in my Bonanza booth. It isn't the economy, it isn't because I'm not doing enough social networking, it isn't because my items are not right for the venue, it isn't because my items are too expensive. I started listing my vintage items on Etsy around Oct 1 . These are the same exact items I had languishing on Bonz for many months. By the way, I did all the social networking to promote that they say you should over at Bonz, hours and hours and hours of it. When I started to list on Etsy I stopped all promoting on Bonz and did no promoting on Etsy as an experiment. My booth views dropped and stayed in the vicinity of about 25 views a week at Bonz. In the month of November I sold 35 items on Etsy and 0 on Bonz. On Etsy I have not gone 1 day without a sale since I started, this week alone I sold 12 items. I am writing this because I feel for my fellow vintage peeps. There are no statistics as to what sells on Bonz, this site is just plain secretive about everything. I still have a booth there and will continue to because I can only list vintage on Etsy. I like Bonz, I want it to succeed but the bottom line is that I cannot justify spending all those hours on promoting when the result in no sales. My opinion is that the owners of Bonz do not lift a finger to do any PR for that site and no one knows it exists. The site owners depend on the sellers to do all of their PR and it isn't working. The poor sellers on Bonz work their tails off promoting so it isn't them and the site owners aren't getting the message and there is no sign that they ever will.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by OldOldStuff on -
Hmmm,,,,fascinating...I've been listing on Ebaaaay for many years now, and have even gone along with being forced to upgrade to a bigger store commitment just to keep my nickel postings. I have over 700 items listed on both sites. I am selling 50 items a month on ebay, more than double what I did so I;m not complaining...but lucky to sell 1 or 2 items a month on Bonzanza..the best I ever did was 10 items last december so am curious to see if it was the season that was the reason. I honestly don't spend a bunch of time promoting myself....and minimal time listing. But geez, what for? How strict is Etsy whenit comes to defining "Vintage" and who patrols/reports it?
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Permalink Reply by Coconut Road Vintage on -
I hear ya! Here's my take on Bonanza. First of all, the name stinks. Bonanza or Bonanzle...they're both awful. Most of the people I've told about it can't seem to get there mind around the name. Not a good sign.
Second, no advertising. No apologies by the owners of the site. I'd sure like to open a selling site and take money in for doing nothing to get people to shop there. Nice gig!
Thirdly...all those sales advertised on the front page are off-putting to the sellers who price their items to sell without sales!!!
It's just a low-class operation and I'm pulling out after Xmas. I'm moving the vintage stuff over to my etsy or Artfire shops.
Etsy has it's problems, too. They are letting all kinds of resellers in. The word is they want to sell the site and are pumping up sales and revenue. Guess it looks better on paper. There's lots of favoritism when it comes to the very lucrative front page selections, too. If you watch who make the front page you will see the same names come up quite often. Vintage has been infiltrated by people selling items that are not 20 years old. Sad, it was a wonderful venue for a couple of years and still is but, their reputation has been tarnished.
The bottom line is there are no perfect sites. Artfire is just starting out and doesn't have a name around the web yet. I wish I had found etsy when it first started out so that's why I opened a shop on Artfire.
Glad to hear you are doing so well on etsy. Hope you have a great holiday season. -
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Permalink Reply by CoveredBridgeStore on -
yippee! glad to hear it, Fiori! : )
and it doesn't surprise me about having few sales on Bananaz - Bill may be a whiz on programming, but he has no sense whatsoever in marketing and promoting (other than marketing/convincing the same bunch of Stepford Wives that mindlessly repeat over and over how wonderful Bananaz is ... LOL)
I haven't been back there in weeks (not even a peek) since I got the boot - having too much fun on my website : ) -
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Permalink Reply by Pacesetter Eclectica on -
Oh Wonderful Fiori! I'm so thrilled for you :-) I suppose...I may try a new venue, too..but it takes such internal fortitude to move....I commend you on Just Doing It :) I tweet a lot and retweet more etsy than bonanza tweets by far because I see etsy tweeters out there in twitter land much more -a good sign
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Permalink Reply by fioridizucca on -
You have to just start, just do one, be brave. I still haven't got all mine done yet. I'm selling faster than I'm able to list and I can't usually get more than 2 a day done. You don't have to move your items you can have them in both places. My Etsy items also come up immediately in Google search and you don't have to do attributes at all. I spent hours and hours doing attributes on my Bonz items and they are still buried. Etsy is as difficult to list on as Bonz so it is extremely time consuming, the photo uploading is as ridiculous as Bonz but in a different way. Etsy has its problems, it needs serious technical updating, quite shocking how technically challenged it is there but you can put up with it when you are selling. I didn't go to Etsy first because they charge to list, big mistake, well worth the .20 listing fee. We can't sit around and hope that Bonz will some day figure out they need to do PR. It is truly unfortunate but I personally don't think they ever will. Vintage is alive and well and selling on Etsy. Booth views from Nov 8 to Nov 12 on Bonz 25, Etsy 843. I rest my case.
Pacesetter Eclectica said:Oh Wonderful Fiori! I'm so thrilled for you :-) I suppose...I may try a new venue, too..but it takes such internal fortitude to move....I commend you on Just Doing It :) I tweet a lot and retweet more etsy than bonanza tweets by far because I see etsy tweeters out there in twitter land much more -a good sign -
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Permalink Reply by fioridizucca on
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Coconut, I agree with your assessment of Bonz. I also agree that Etsy has problems. I've read elsewhere all you stated above so I know what you have to say is valid. I can't get involved with what is vintage and what isn't, buyers have to figure that out for themselves, some things in life are out of our control.
The bottom line is that I'm doing this to make money, it's a business, I have to go where the traffic and buyers are and I do not want my own website. I'm selling on 4 different venues and do have sales but Etsy is in 1st place. As I have said in previous posts I would really like more sellers to share their true experiences with their businesses since the demise of Ebay so all the vintage peeps can benefit. I got so depressed from the smoke and mirrors act at Bonz that I really started to believe it was over for me. Thanks to Covered Bridge for saying a few things that made me do some thinking and decide to get out there and give it a go again. I'm here to tell you that VINTAGE LIVES, PEOPLE ARE BUYING! I also want to add that they are buying in all different price ranges. I love Vintage Village and wish I had more time to hang but it is holiday sales time guys!!!
Coconut Road Vintage said:I hear ya! Here's my take on Bonanza. First of all, the name stinks. Bonanza or Bonanzle...they're both awful. Most of the people I've told about it can't seem to get there mind around the name. Not a good sign.
Second, no advertising. No apologies by the owners of the site. I'd sure like to open a selling site and take money in for doing nothing to get people to shop there. Nice gig!
Thirdly...all those sales advertised on the front page are off-putting to the sellers who price their items to sell without sales!!!
It's just a low-class operation and I'm pulling out after Xmas. I'm moving the vintage stuff over to my etsy or Artfire shops.
Etsy has it's problems, too. They are letting all kinds of resellers in. The word is they want to sell the site and are pumping up sales and revenue. Guess it looks better on paper. There's lots of favoritism when it comes to the very lucrative front page selections, too. If you watch who make the front page you will see the same names come up quite often. Vintage has been infiltrated by people selling items that are not 20 years old. Sad, it was a wonderful venue for a couple of years and still is but, their reputation has been tarnished.
The bottom line is there are no perfect sites. Artfire is just starting out and doesn't have a name around the web yet. I wish I had found etsy when it first started out so that's why I opened a shop on Artfire.
Glad to hear you are doing so well on etsy. Hope you have a great holiday season. -
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Permalink Reply by Debsgreatfinds on
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I closed my booth on Bonz.. doesn't Etsy only let you list craft handmade items? and do they charge?
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Permalink Reply by fioridizucca on
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Etsy allows vintage items and hamdmade items that have to be made by the seller. The fee is .20 per item listing and the listing is for 4 months. My purpose in posting is not to get everyone to leave Bonz for Etsy. My message is to tell my vintage peeps that antiques and collectibles are selling very well and people are spending money. Maybe we will hear from other sellers that are making sales on other venues.
Debsgreatfinds said:I closed my booth on Bonz.. doesn't Etsy only let you list craft handmade items? and do they charge? -
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I left Bonz on my own last week I closed it I had a few sales but not enough to keep me there I said I would give it a year and I did.. now my blujay stores and ecrater store are doing great now my addoway store I will give it a year will see..
fioridizucca said:Etsy allows vintage items and hamdmade items that have to be made by the seller. The fee is .20 per item listing and the listing is for 4 months. My purpose in posting is not to get everyone to leave Bonz for Etsy. My message is to tell my vintage peeps that antiques and collectibles are selling very well and people are spending money. Maybe we will hear from other sellers that are making sales on other venues.
Debsgreatfinds said:I closed my booth on Bonz.. doesn't Etsy only let you list craft handmade items? and do they charge? -
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Permalink Reply by Luv2LuvAntiques on -
Hello! I just joined this group so I could post to this discussion!
A few months ago, I tried putting more items in my Bonanza booth, but I didn't sell a thing! I started to move things over to my Etsy shop last night. Already, a vintage tea towel that I just moved there...sold!
This experiment tells me to 'pull up shop' at Bonanza, and concentrate on my etsy shop, and websites!
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Permalink Reply by fioridizucca on
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Good for you! I have been on Etsy since October and sold 115 items. Since May on Bonanza I've sold 20 items. That is with the same items on each site and doing no social networking at all. Almost all of the sales I made on Bonanza were from my ebay customers who never heard of Bonanza. I don't know who is selling what on Bonanza but my shop only gets about 20 views a week compared to hundreds of views on Etsy. I wish you the best of luck over there.
Diane McQueen said:Hello! I just joined this group so I could post to this discussion!
A few months ago, I tried putting more items in my Bonanza booth, but I didn't sell a thing! I started to move things over to my Etsy shop last night. Already, a vintage tea towel that I just moved there...sold!
This experiment tells me to 'pull up shop' at Bonanza, and concentrate on my etsy shop, and websites!
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Permalink Reply by Vintagechic's Shop on -
Hi everyone....I too have a booth at Bonanza...haven't sold to much at all...just want to give you all a link where you can sell Vintage and Antiques no fees for listing or on what you sell.....
Tonja
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