Dear fellow seller of postcards;

Below is an in dept overview into the philosophy of selling here on Delcampe that has worked wonders for us. Feel free to use any of these tips that have worked so well for us, for yourself.

The eternal online selling question. Where else besides Ebay can one sell postcards online?

2 Yrs ago we at SCVIEW recognized the ever decaying situation at ebay within the postcard market. Rising overhead, reduced sales and reduced customer service on Ebay pointed to that site not being economically viable for us in the near future.

So we searched and tried a multitude of websites online, ecrater (Poor), ebid (joke), goantiques (Rip-off), Playle (slim sales) and at last here at Delcampe USA (Very Good).

Adapting to the European market tastes on Delcampe has led us to the point where our sales here are as good as... and better than, what we had during our best times on Ebay.

Sales are so good here that we will shut down our Ebay presence completely by the end of this month.

In two years we have listed 100,00 items here on delcampe, & sold 18,000 of them. Our Average # sales per month have gone from 200/mos to 1,200+/mos now. We like it here.

But I read the forum and I see other American Dealers come and go on this site with minimum success. In almost all the cases I see two major reasons why they are not successful here;

I) A lack of a SALES PLAN &

II) a lack of being willing to adapt to the European centered sales on this site.

Below is what works for us selling on Delcampe. Follow some of these steps and i feel that you can sell here as well.

You need a plan to sell here on Delcampe. To develop one for you that works, you will need to look around this site. Figure out what is popular, figure out where your competition is least among the 9,000,000 + cards listed here, and figure out where you can be the "expert" with the best cards in what ever category you can be in.

What we did To devise our I) SALES PLAN:

First, T\Today (8 sept 2008) there are 5,400,000+ French postcards alone on this site. Yet in the 27 categories of OCEANIA combined there are only 8,300 postcards listed.

It would figure that if one could find and concentrate in the OCEANIA area, one would have less competition and hence more sales rather than putting any effort into trying to become a French postcard seller.

That was how we devised our method of selling on Delcampe. We took the 20 best areas that we found the least amount of competition in and concentrated in listing cards in those areas above all others first.

We also recognized that in two areas we could put up and maintain more cards than anyone else: North & South Carolina. In each case we now have over 2,500 better postcards listed now. These two categories alone account for 27% of our monthly sales every month.

By narrowing our focus at the beginning like this, we ensured that we would have the best chance of selling here on Delcampe.

Do the same. Log onto Delcampe.net, Click on postcards, then click on the "All categories..." link under that. A list will appear with all the total # of listings within each category of postcards on Delcampe. This is a useful tool to use to set yourself up for success here.

Target your 20 best categories & 2 categories you know inside out. List in them alone for the first three months here. You will develop a following of loyal buyers.

After that, simply put up cards on a regular basis in all areas and grow your Delcampe presence. More Sales will come and your customer base will grow.

Unlike Ebay where our average customer bought 1.33 postcard per user ID, Here on Delcampe the average customer has 5.17 sales per user ID. Repeat sales to a loyal customer base is the key to success here on Delcampe.

-Expanding out from 20 categories into more categories:

As you add other categories and topics, pay close attention to sales and questions. If you sell a racing related postcard...put up 5 more the next day. If Andorra sells, put up all you can the next day. Do that for every single sale here on Delcampe.

Every week add cards to your 20 targeted categories and your two specialized ones. Keep you presence growing. Keep adding cards. Do NOT... EVER... allow your number of cards on Delcampe to drop.

Putting cards on..letting them lay around for a while and then deleting them all...will not work.

Shotgunning a bunch of cards with no idea of a plan... will NOT work over the long term.

Remember , You need a plan and you need to stick to it.

II) a lack of being willing to adapt to the European centered sales on this site.

I call this "UGLY AMERICAN syndrome... the illness of failure".

The core reason American Dealers fail on Delcampe is that they act and come across as blockheads and no one wants to do Business with them.

They have terms of sale with coarse & narrow options of payment. They charge excessive shipping charges to non US buyers. They list their sale terms only in English.... and so on.

In short they are not thinking about the buyers who mostly are not American but rather are thinking about themselves.

One most realize what they are facing to sell on Delcampe.

First and foremost. Delcampe is not Ebay. It doesn't need to be.
What works on Ebay will NOT work on Delcampe.
Delcampe is an international site with an European core not a USA site.

So what does that mean?

You have to tailor your listings and terms of sale to make is easier for European buyers to buy. Insisting on USA only terms of sales is short sighted and ineffective.

The biggest #1 drawback to sales is accepting Euros (cash) or not. If you have a "Bank of America" bank near you, accepting Euros is not an issue. In fact accepting Euros is easy. You can simply deposit said currencies directly into your account at the teller window of your bank.

Drawback #2; Charging way too much shipping to European buyers. I know that it does cost more than shipping to USA buyers, but not 200-500% more than in the US. Delcampe buyers understand that.

It only amounts to about 33% more to ship worldwide. The key on S&H costs is using safe & cost effective shipping material. See "esupplystore "dot" com" for cost effective and safe mailing supplies.

Drawback #3; Having only English terms of sale. Your terms of sale should be in English, French, Spanish & German at least. Most buyers on Delcampe are French. Ignoring that fact and not preparing your listings for them is foolish and poor business practice. Note: The Delcampe Forum has a place where members help one another with translations for free.

Our French Translation was done for us by a French Customer. He saw that we tried to use a universal translator to help French customers, and because we tried, he corrected the entire translation correctly for us at no cost. What goes around , Comes around. You'll find that the people here on Delcampe are very nice and receptive to your auctions IF you make an effort to meet them at the very least...half way.

Drawback #4; Not having a Moneybookers account. Moneybookers is the Paypal of a large core of European buyers. The site is a UK banking website and has better security features than paypal, and is also cheaper to use for sellers. Not accepting Moneybookers payments will cost you sales, pure and simple. 27.11% of our buyers pay by moneybookers. Contact your bank and see if any difficulties are foreseen with moneybookers usage (Bank transfers). With Bank of America there are none and there are also no extra charges.

Drawback #5; Not personalizing the invoices within the Delcampe Invoice system. Explain all your terms of sale again (Just cut and paste them into the comment box at the bottom of the invoice). Include step by step directions on how one can pay you by Paypal if they want to.

Even worse is not using the simple Delcampe invoice system at all. Always think about making it easier for your buyers to buy with their own currency from you. If you do, your sales will increase.

Drawback #6; Thinking you can sell junk that doesn't sell on ebay on Delcampe. We find that the opposite is true. European collectors as a group are far more advanced and knowledgeable than USA collectors. Don't sell junk. Sell something interesting.

Other Thoughts:

CRITICAL MASS

In order to maintain a cadre of repeat customers you need to keep listing and expanding your Delcampe listings. Our sales took off once we hit 1,000 items listed, at 10,000 items listed they jumped up again. In fact , if you take a chart of our # of sales Vs # of listings, they almost match in growth.

DELCAMPE GOLD Club membership

It provides you with instant credibility on the website. Very cheap for the immediate boost in sales. (Also reduces fees by 20% a month)

DELCAMPE [PRO] designation.

Credibility and reliability indicator. If you sell full time or just a lot, it is foolish to not obtain this designation.

DELCAMPE FEEDBACK System

Use it for every transaction.

I repeat....Use it for every transaction.

It is where you get repeat customers. From time to time an error in shipping may happen, If it does, just say so. Honesty will go far in establishing your Delcampe sales.

ANSWER TO THE THE ANOTHER BIG QUESTION:

-----What really sells on Delcampe?

note : My opinion below is subject to change without notice depending on the market.

1) Good clean cards, any price range from any where. The key I found was to create a critical Mass of items (1,000 was my number to start) so that you will be taken seriously and also be seen in the vast swimming pool of 9,000,000 postcards for sale that is delcampe. My own sales did not really take off until I had 1,000 items listed.

Our best high end real photograph USA view buyers are French & Italian. Our best German postcard buyer is American.

Top seller categories for us:

High end American Occupational View postcards
Africa
Island Nations early all the way up to modern Chromes.
Ethnic
Angels
Astronomy related
Newspaper related
Derogatory China men
Christmas with kids
Halloween (Most go to Sweden/Norway buyers)
Norway
Poland
France street views
South Carolina
RP Black Americana
RP American Street views
Motorcycles
Madeira
South America
Advertising with animals
Baseball comic
Political (USA especially)
Libraries
Theaters
Mining related worldwide
Australia
Netherlands
Former German areas of Modern European countries
Holiday postcard
New Year Year dates
Austria - PreWWI
UK small towns
Airships
Prop Commercial aviation
Car advertising
New Zealand
Italy
Mexico
Chile
Fire related
Holidays

2) Obtaining critical mass; Target regional areas , or a specialty that interests you and flood it with the best cards you can find. I have 6,000 NC/SC USA postcards as the base of my business and support that with 25,000 European postcards. Every month I sit down and plan an increase in another section of Delcampe and add all I can to that section... Asia, Africa, Oceania, Topical s.. whatever, it varies from month to month. The point is...I keep pushing and adding postcards into my Delcampe storefront. My two base sections ( NC/SC & Europe) each now generate $2,000/mos in sales on Delcampe for me.

3) Market..Market...Market I tell all my old Ebay customers about my Delcampe storefront. All my old customers get periodic emails about items in their collectible area on Delcampe. I run ads advertising my Delcampe storefront website address ... and so on.

4) Never stop adding new cards. Anywhere, Anyplace, Any price range. When you make a sale in an area.... put five more up the next day if you can. Target your buyers with more of what they want. My best new customers come from other customers that are pleased with how I find stuff for them.

5) Look at other dealers listings and emulate what you like and avoid what you do not.

6) Never stop anticipating the next great change in your business.

Example:

Delcampe automatically puts your item into GOOGLEBASE if it is a fixed price item. That puts your item into the most trafficked website on the Internet. Due to Google rules auction items are not indexed by Googlebase.

My reaction: ALL my items are now switched to fixed price after one week at auction.

The results: Sales are climbing. As I write this I have come off of a month of $600/day average sales... and it is still slowly increasing. I haven't changed what I list, I just expose them to googlebase faster to the get the exposure on Google.

I hope that the above "tips" helps you sell more on Delcampe. If you have any ideas that you think will help someone sell more on Delcampe, please add them to this forum.

Thank you

Stefano, Antonio, Marcello & Angelo