Six Foot Godzilla

on Sep 16 in Devotions by al about sales

Six Foot Godzilla

 

In an earlier blog, I eluded that my hobby had turned into a full-fledged business.

For years in the auto recycling industry, my inventory was primarily sourced at auction.  This naturally attracted me to other auctions, estate sales, liquidation sales, and closeouts, where I could pick up antiques, art, as well as unique items for my personal collection.

What’s this have to do with a 6ft Godzilla?  Hold on, I’ll get to it.

The past year has been a buying opportunity, as I’ve had the free time to seek out quality estates. The economy seemed to be encouraging sellers to liquidate at record numbers.   It didn’t take long before I had to secure warehouse space for the ever expanding collection of  goodies.

During this same time period, shows like American Pickers, Storage Wars, and Pawn Stars were becoming popular and reaching an audience that perhaps had no prior interest, in antiques or collectibles.

I saw this is a great “selling opportunity”.

Armed with a warehouse full of inventory, I started selling some of my finds, via antique malls, auctions, and Ebay.

Is this where Godzilla fits in?  Almost, hang in there.

Originally, I had sought after rare or high quality items, like this German Lehmann Wind-Up Toy Car circa 1915, which is in my personal collection.

 

I realized however, there was a great opportunity to increase sales by offering a wide variety of unique and collectible items, regardless if they necessarily appealed to me.

 

The foundation of this blog is to help you become a better salesperson whether face to face, or telephone selling.    Ever think about non-verbal selling?    It exists and you come across it practically every day.   The junk mail that lands at your doorstep, or the spam email in your inbox, are all attempts to sell you something non-verbally.   Writers that can create content that pull you in to not only read, but purchase, earn a very nice living.  They may desire to be called “writers” but really they’re salespeople.

Now, let’s introduce 6ft Godzilla.  I found at an estate auction, a box of inflatable Godzilla’s in original (but torn) boxes.   These were made in 1985 and there were 6 of them together in a box.  Since I realized that expanding my offerings would increase sales,  I paid $88.00 for the lot.  Most people felt I vastly overpaid.

I honestly didn’t know, but I figured at a little under 15 bucks each, It was worth the risk.  Ebay, I felt was the best venue to market them on, so I offered one up at auction.

Here was the result: (click photo to enlarge)

 

OK, wow $82.00 – That’s great, and it almost paid for the whole lot.  However, I noticed there was a tremendous amount of traffic viewing the auction, so I felt the next should do better.

Since Ebay is a form of non verbal selling, I tweaked the description and placed the next one for sale as a buy it now, for 127.99.  It sold in 3 days. (click photo to enlarge)

Nice.  I was well in the profit zone, so I listed another as a buy it now for 127.99.  This one sold in 4 hours. (click photo to enlarge)

 

Sweet!  I was tempted to raise the price on the next one, but I didn’t.  The logic – I wasn’t quite sure how many more people would be interested in Godzilla, along with the fact that this price was achieving a fantastic margin in a short period of time.

I listed another at 127.99 Buy it now.   This one sold in twenty minutes. (click photo to enlarge)

 

Wow!  Now I knew that the market was very strong, so I decided to list one more.   This time I decided to go auction style as the demand was there.  It was now time for some non-verbal salesmanship in order to maximize the selling price.  I decided to put one of these away for my personal collection (or for sale at a later time), so I was going to offer this one as the last of the lot.

Here’s how the description read: (click photo to enlarge)

 

This was very simple with subtle suggestion that this could be the last one of these to be had, and they have been in very high demand, therefore don’t miss out.

Here is the result of the auction: (click photo to enlarge)

Yup, that’s correct.  $315.50 is what the last one of these sold for.  Not a bad return on the investment.

Hopefully, you’ll take away from this fact. Sales skills matter, regardless if the mode of communication is verbal, or non verbal.

What’s the “real” value of 6 ft Godzilla?  $82.00 as the first one sold for?  $127.99 as that was the “retail” price I assigned and sold three of them for?  Or $315.50 as that was the free market competitive price when the last of the lot was offered up?

The answer is all of the above.  It’s a supply and demand moving target, influenced by a variety of factors. Many of which are controlled by the seller.

Ebay is a great platform to earn some extra money, as well as hone your non-verbal “sales” skills.  Before you toss out some unwanted items, take a shot at offering them to someone else with a dazzling Ebay description.

Now go sell something!