How Are Holiday Sales Treating Everyone?

Like a red headed step child so far

what sales?

zip, zero zilch for me.

8/8/14 last large sale ...

*laughs* oh... you're serious... *laughs harder*

After a rash of card sales - my print sales have come back. Three Cyber Monday print sales today!

according to nov of last year, i had about 7 more sales, but twice the profit.

dec is still a bit fresh, though i'm ahead this year by 1 day, so hoping for a slam dunk dec.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

great, now i feel like the odd one out.... oh well.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Thanksgiving was late this year. The selling season is compressed.

Looks like the week of Black Friday sales overwhelmed everyone, retailers have reported 11% off of last year but the low gas prices have put more money in everyone's pocket. In the end this holiday season will probably be a winner.

The wierd thing for me is its alot of my newer stuff thats selling, my old standby's are off of last year by quite a bit. If they would do what they did last year I would be ecstatic!

the thing about that report about friday not being good - they didn't add the whole week. many stores opened wed or thurs, and continued into sat and sun. if they added that up, it would be the same. most don't want to be killed over a tv, so they either go another time or do it online.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Nothing is selling here yet, but it's going good overall. Sales have been consistent since the beginning of November.

Better than last year so far.

--Roz Abellera

ZIPPO !!! but I see Mike IS Santa and I am sure he will give us a cut .....not LOL

A couple in August then 2 more right before Thanksgiving. This is my second year and I'm up from the first year by twice. So I have to say that I'm doing well.

i ended the violent side of santa a while ago. eggnog keeps me calm.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

So far good for me.Right before Thanksgiving was a drop off, but big sale Saturday and a another one today.

notta

I had three print sales in two days to the same person through my Etsy shop. Looks like someone is buying Christmas gifts.

00. No marketing, not complaining.

Nothing yet but we're still hopeful. Had one nice canvas print sale on 11/10

4 in the last 4 days. Ran a promo for today and got nothing....go figure.

Not sure what the deal is on my end - lots of sales past couple years this time of year, now nothing. Screeching halt a couple months ago.

On FAA, I sold two boxes of Christmas cards on November 24.

I'm doing better on another site where I sold 80 cards and 7 calendars.

Nothing for the holiday weekend. I remember last year though - sold well right up to the 18th of Dec.
Have to say I am getting a wee bit nervous at this point.

" I would rather be on a platform that does the marketing for me"


I totally agree, FAA is not the best place for you or anyone selling originals. We have discussed that before. But I seriously believe that you are overstating the idea the eBay or Bonanza are promoting for "you". I have been a four store power seller on eBay and at one time I was the 7th largest selling of prints on eBay. I have never seen eBay promote for me in the 15 plus years I have been on eBay. I think eBay is simply just better suited for your product, as is Bonanza. Not to mention the 164 million members on eBay. That is more then just a little bit bigger pool of buyers then FAA. Couple that with FAA not having been designed to sell original sculptures, I simply don't think your experience is comparable to people selling the product that it was intended for in the first place.

"It should not go unnoticed that the over whelming majority of the post to this thread say they have Zero sales or very little sales and they are not sculptors trying to sell sculptures like me and many have been here for a long time."

Nor should it be unnoticed that less then 1% of the members ever come into the threads to begin with. Couple that with the fact that the people that are most likely to come into the threads are new members just starting out, those looking for information on how to sell, people that are not selling and those that admit they have no idea how to sell or market and have no desire to do so. That IS NOT anywhere near a legitimate cross section or large enough sampling for you or anyone else that wants to condemn the whole system.

If you want to get a better picture of what is happening, go to the recently sold and best sellers pages and track them for a few months. Not one or two days. There are probable 50 or 100 times more members names that show up there then show up in the treads. Very few of the large sellers and none of the really big sellers ever even log into the threads.

I would admit that both samplings, the recently sold/best sellers and the people complaining of no sales are both weighted to their own bias. But the sampling size, like I said is probably at least 50 times larger, meaning the experience of 50 time more people selling, then those in the treads saying they are not is more valid sampling. That would be a much, much better representation of what is going on on FAA.


"I think the FAA business model works excellent for FAA"

The FAA model should work for FAA, it is their business, but it is working for thousands and thousand of members as well. Just because it did not work for the people that are not selling, has no bearing on rather it is going to work for anyone else. And in you case, even less so because you simply have the wrong product in relationship to the what the site was designed to sell.


"the wealth would also be distributed more equally among the artist here."

This is business, this is capitalism, not an exerciser in political philosophy. The wealth is distributed to those that earn it. Equal distribution of wealth is not now, never has been and never will be the goal of any business. What is distributed equally is the opportunity. It is up to the individual to make of that opportunity what the will. It is not the role of the system to do it for you.

"This was true in the AMWAY business also, photo copies of associate pay checks would be circulated showing thousands of dollars in commissions earned, but there were few actually making these big monthly checks and there were thousands and thousands of sales associates,"

This is true in life in general. Some people make it happen for themselves and some sit around and wait for someone else to make it happen for them.

A lot of those that work their butts off never succeed but a lot of them do.

Al most all of those that sit around waiting for someone else to make it happen for them fail.

It is not about the Amway model or the FAA model. It is about the personal model you chose for yourself.

I pretty much wore out towards the end of the year regarding the Christmas push.

What I am attempting to do does not really gear itself to the holidays any longer. In the end, it's not about lollipops, candy-canes, doggies, cats, and flowers for me. That's fine for others, and I respect that. But my sights are set on something different.

I regard these past 5 years here as an introduction. Lots of hiccups and re-arranging now happening going into 2015.

Happy New Year everybody.

Got to wonder how the socialist POD would work. Re-distribute the earnings from the top sellers among the non-sellers? Would there be a cutoff on new members? Tie new membership numbers to increases in revenue or just allow the allocation to go up and down with the market? Would there be incentives in place to produce more work?

....
Ebay is interesting because the search must work differently. I don't think past performance gooses up the search since the search criteria is based on things days to the end of auction, categories, keywords and price.

Its a different model.

"It is not about the Amway model or the FAA model. It is about the personal model you chose for yourself." Yes, so far this statement I can agree with 100%. The bottom line is it's all about sales, some venues are better then others, for me personally ,the best sale is the one that comes with little or no effort on my part, they do exist and it's not a one size fits all solution, but you can make sales without any marketing on your part, I have done it, with original art, prints, and totally unrelated products and still do "daily". Just list and sell! Go to bed at night and wake up to sales in the morning, that's my idea of a successful business, not one in which I have to work to the point of collapse to generate sales. My ideal business model is least amount of effort and cost for most amount of sales. Happy New Year! May the year ahead have more sales for all with little effort on your part.

Auctions are less then 5-15% of eBay sales anymore, depending on how who you get your stats from.

It is a HUGE misconception that eBay is still primarily an auction site. It is just not the case and has not been for years. (see chart below)

The search is based on the DSRs: Detailed Sellers Rating which includes
Item as described
Communication
Shipping time
Shipping and handling charges

It is all part of the Feedback system so the actual rating is also very important, maybe the most important. A buy can rate you Positive, Neutral or Negative. From those ratings you feedback is turned into a percentage figure and the higher the figure the higher you search rating. But you DSR's also play a role. If your each of the four criteria above allow for a 1 to 5 rating. Too may 1's and 2 ratings in the the categorizes will drive your search positioning down drastically.

The you have other things that are considered. Shipping in more then 5 Days even if you tell people exactly what it will be, will no rated as favorable as shipping in under 3. One day shipping rates you higher and if you offer overnight it is even higher. Free shipping give you a higher rating as well.

Past performance is considered as well, but it is not as important on eBay as it is on FAA.

If you do all of these things to eBay's satisfaction you are called a Top Rated Seller and you get the best placement in the search. I had four stores up until a few months back (closed two of the four) and they constantly flowed in and out of Top Rated Seller but mostly there were out.

I never bought into all of that stuff to any grater degree then what it took to keep my overall percentage as high as possible. The reason is the same as why I do not worry about my search ranking on FAA. I also promoted specific listing outside of eBay. I was never big on being solely reliable on eBay's search, just like FAA's search. I like controlling my own destiny.

I have let my ratings slip a bit in the last few months, maybe longer. Just to many other distractions. A lot of golf and traveling. Not to mention just getting to lazy. lol

Auction Revenue Share on eBay

Good points. I know from selling on Amazon its tough to keep on top of the feedback. They want you to ship with a tracking number even if you could offer free shipping and send it first class. In disputes the buyer always wins even if its fraud.

Great! My artwork was published in a book on Christmas Eve...

http://my.bookbaby.com/book/a-is-for-arbol

"In disputes the buyer always wins even if its fraud."

This is the case on eBay pretty most of the time. But it is not as bad as it used to be. There is an appeals process now. Same thing with Negative Feedback.

I have received neg feedback from people that never paid for the item so I never shipped of course. So they left neg feedback. eBay said I did not follow the proper process and I waiting to long to file the up paid item complaint. I was trying to work withe guy. eBay never took that neg feedback off.

The feed back now only goes back 12 moths. It used to go back to day one. So now you can actually work your way back to 100%.

I

Yikes! Way to go Zorro!

26 Foreign Languages? You speak 26 foreign languages? Can you paint in 26 foreign languages too? Just kidding.

Being published. Now that is really cool!

Why on earth would anyone who's actually selling product consistently suddenly want to move to a socialist artists paradise model? I can understand the interest of people who never sell, and the people who sell occasionally (which includes me) but people who sell on a daily basis, and actually feed themselves and their families with their work here, and work at actually doing the work of marketing would leave very very quickly. And given that this isn't an island and no one has a gun to their heads to keep them from leaving it would be a wasteland of less popular photos and paintings selling once or twice a month supporting not only the artists that created them but every person that can't hold a camera level or uploads coloring book pages. The servers would have their plugs pulled by whatever farm they're in six months and all the refugees from here would go and invade society6 or whatever. That's what you'd get if you suddenly redistributed the wealth from this site.

Now, there actually are productive markets where people join in a co-operative manner and sell their art together intentionally. If that's the model you want to be working under, they exist in pretty much every major city and college town in America, here may even be online co-ops but I'm not aware of any. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's a perfectly fine model if everyone who joins it joins willingly.

Floyd, I have SOLD many ORIGINAL paintings from Fine Art America. It's a great
way to show my portfolio. I have at least five fine art original sales that clients
contact me via my FAA websites through email.

"the wealth would also be distributed more equally among the artist here." your reading to deep into this statement I made, if more artist across the board sold more art, the disparity in earnings would be far less apart. It was not a politically motivated socialist statement by any means. You would still have those artist who excelled to higher levels. Those who have little or know knowledge about marketing would also make sales and generate more earnings for the company also. Just a thought.

Amway is almost a dirty word these days and gives people the impression that anything compared to it is a scam. FAA is possibly similar to Amway only in the percentages of artists that earn a certain level of income but not in the way that Amway or MLM companies run their business. Those companies often appear more interested in selling "opportunity" or distributorships than selling actual products and Sean has shown he's more interested in selling more and more art products than he is in just selling the $30 premium memberships.

Thank Floyd -- that was funny.

Genevieve Esson, never said it can not be done. There are people doing it all the time. I have sold signed and numbered limited editions via FAA. But it is not what the platform was designed for. There are other platforms that do a much better job.

I have sold two S/N via FAA, I sell that many and more every week on eBay. About two a month on Bonanza. And more via FrameHouseGallery.biz

Not well, I'm afraid :( It has been a slow few months... I am hoping to receive one soon from a contest I placed in!

" if more artist across the board sold more art, the disparity in earnings would be far less apart.'

Okay, but it was is one of the bases of the socialist movement, redistributing the wealth. So, forget that....

Still I ask, in what universe is that ever been the goal of any business, to see that disparity in earnings would be far less apart? In fact that is the direct opposite of the goals of any business, to some degree.

Every seller here is in business for himself. I really want to see all business succeed at as high of level as possible. Not just on FAA but everywhere!

But I am most concerned about me selling, and me earning as much as I can. That is the goal of any viable business. Profit. I know, some see that as a dirty word. I do not. I see it as the life's blood of he business world.

The disparity is not my fault and not my responsibility, nor FAA's.

Can you image what kid of world it would be if let's say Ford tried to make sure that every Ford dealership had an equal distribution of sales. Or if your Subway Sandwich shop was penalized because you were making so much money more then the other guy's and Subway corporate decided to close that disparity by holding you back? Even if you worked your butt of to sell sandwiches and the other just sat around whining because he wanted some one else to do the selling for him.

Not going to happen.

We made our first i-phone case sale yesterday. It has been since July since making any sales, and it was a welcome site to see. I hope it is a sign things will pick up. Though I suspect is was due to receiving a cell phone for Christmas.

http://pixels.com/saleannouncement.html?id=f06a497c5a803eb4d2c50e2a3d246426

Sold two landmark photos in December--one perhaps as a Christmas gift.


http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=e9aca7b3c48f061d3eba716302befd50


http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=2a30becd07c3c425eb5c7e8f4e8850fa

Sales are up on both my FAA sites by 400 % over last year –
Could not be happier here at FAA –
I dropped a few other POD sites that expect us to work for pennies and haven’t looked back

I visited a co-op gallery in my area yesterday. The artists divide up the wall space somehow and take turns running the cash register. They pay some kind of monthly fee for the rent and lights and the gallery most take a cut but they don't distribute the earnings.

The popular artists bring in customers who might buy something from the lesser knows and the lesser knowns send their friends and relatives in. The downside is the overabundance of art not shown in optimal settings and the sheer amount of competition. Easy to get lost with so much product.

In the end the lesser known artists probably get the best deal out of the situation as they have equal wall space.

Its just like here, someone like Anne Geddes who sells here is a big name draw that everyone can perhaps have a chance at.

Messing with the end of the year figures.

8 cell phone covers in November and 8 again in December. 16 in two months. Four of them were after the shipping deadline so they were probably not for Christmas. But if you look that the four months and in four quarters, the the sales are even distributed indicating no correlation to Christmas.

Sampling way to small to really make anything out of that. I am sure the ones before Christmas include gifts. Just though it was interesting.

For the first half of the new pay period that ends on the 15th of January, I am up 128% over same time last year. That is the fastest start that I have ever had to a pay period. I hope that is a sign of 2015 being a great year for selling for every one!

Happy New Years!!

Well so far the hollidays have been extremely good. Much better then last Christmas. Sold, 4 large prints through my own homepage and 3 medium sized prints, all of Borzoi dogs and winter scenics from Sweden. Can.t work it out really, I charge much more for prints via my homepage then here?

On the commercial side, the Big-G, surprised me with an RM sale way past a four-figure amount.

This is without doubt the best Christmas week I have experienced and its not over yet.

Came home from Vacation and checked out my page on New years eve and found this picture had sold. Great way to start off a New year

Mike! have you changed your avatar or am I cross-eyed?

happy new year.

you could be cross eyed... but i change my avatar every month.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com