Here are a few of my fresh finds that are available now on OKL.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
New releases
I am still working on my project of moving my inventory off of ebay and dispersing it to my other sales platforms. It seems that I cannot get moved fast enough. I will keep the ebay store open, but it will be very small, just to keep it in place in case they ever actually fix that site. I am loving One Kings Lane and Hunters Alley. If you are a seller of vintage, take a look at HA. It is growing fast and knowing what I know about it's sister coming OKL, it will be outstanding.
Here are a few of my fresh finds that are available now on OKL.
Here are a few of my fresh finds that are available now on OKL.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Big One Kings Lane Release
I have over 100 items being released on One Kings Lane over the next 5 days. Many of the finds are from my personal collection/hoard and have never been offered on line before. Please visit me and check it out. Remember, items are only available on OKL for 5 to 7 days and things sell out fast so if you like it, grab it! Here are a few of the pieces pieces from my collection that were leased today.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Upcoming Finds
Here are some finds that are waiting to be featured on One Kings Lane. The earrings are available on my website as of yesterday. (I am really testing Picmonkey to see if I was able to resize photos to fit this template.)
I should have bought it!
Remember the succulent garden that I photographed last June?
Well here is is today. It is the most pinned photo that I have ever posted with over 10,000 re-pins and no one bought it. Look what happened to it...
Sad Face. I should have bought it. It just wouldn't fit in my car. Dang. Here's a side-by-side comparison. Should I go get it and save it?
Well here is is today. It is the most pinned photo that I have ever posted with over 10,000 re-pins and no one bought it. Look what happened to it...
Sad Face. I should have bought it. It just wouldn't fit in my car. Dang. Here's a side-by-side comparison. Should I go get it and save it?
What's Up with this Changing World of E-Commerce?
What's up? So much! I have not been blogging because I stopped using Inkfrog to host my photos and I cannot find an FTP service that saves photos the correct size to fit the format of this blog. I have not looked very extensively because I have been busy, busy growing and changing with the times. Things are changing fast in the world of E-commerce. Last July, a group of us eBay sellers noticed a drastic drop in traffic and sales on eBay. It was then that we learned of a new search engine called "Cassini". We have run extensive tests as we all watch our eBay businesses die and have learned that Cassini does not work well. So if you are shopping for items that you used to find on eBay and are not having them come up in search, that's the problem. So, how can you find wonderful vintage and antique items? Where are all of the good sellers going? Here's the scoop:
Etsy.
So many of the good ebay sellers that have fine vintage and antique goods can be found now on Etsy. I have been selling there for a year now and I love it. I can offer my finds at lower prices because the fees are lower. It is a friendly environment and a community with great communication. Etsy is just about to update to an all-white clean look so that it will be optimized for smart device viewing. Photos are presented in a larger format and much easier to see than eBay. Try Etsy!
Websites.
Many of us have our own websites now thanks to user friendly sites like Shopify. For the seller it is harder to promote, and for the buyer one has to find the website, but you can see wonderful things that a seller perhaps cannot sell on a traditional platform for one reason or another.
One Kings Lane.
A beautiful place to shop! 100% curated and every seller is hand picked. You will find the best of the best here and can buy with confidence knowing that your purchase is fully protected. You can sell here with the same confidence. The hand picked finds, the designer inspired sales events and the trendy feel of this site is addictive! The site is beautiful, clean and rich.
Hunters Alley.
Owned by One Kings Lane, this is a beautiful up and coming site that made it's debut only last November. It is a socially based site where you can comment on items and favorite them. Each item is hand picked and that entire site is curated. No junk here. Photography is fab, designer events are exciting and the site has a clean look just like it's big sister.
11 Main.
This site promises to be huge competition for ebay. This sales platform is being built now and will enter the BETA phase in the early summer. Every seller is hand picked and every item is curated by designers and category experts. True customer service is the focus. 11 Main wants the seller and customer to get to know each other, just like a Main Street shop. This company treats sellers like gold and that very goodwill is passed right on to buyers. Look for this to be a great place to find good vintage.
So, do you see the trend for selling vintage and antique goods? CURATED. Curated sites. E-commerce is just about 20 years old now. It all got too big. Too many people, too much stuff. We know who the good guys are and we know who the bad guys are. The best of the best are coming together. We have formed seller groups. We are not alone anymore. We talk about where to sell and how to promote our items so that you can find them. We post on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Wanelo so that you can find us where-ever it is that you like to "hang out". We sellers have joined forces. When a new sales platform is introduced, together we evaluate it, discuss it, test it and if it's good, we all go there together. You will now see your favorite sellers on more than one site. You will see us on sites that we hand-picked and that hand-picked us. Our items featured there will be chosen to fit the trends of that site. What does that mean for the shopper, the collector of antique and vintage? No more digging through crap. No more terrible out of focus, poorly lighted photography. No more mean people. No more unprofessional garage sale sellers. No more knowledge deficient "copy cat" bottom feeder sellers trying to rip you off. No more scams. These are the days of social networking. Know who you are buying from. Find the best sellers with the best stuff. Find the sellers with the knowledge and experience who will get to know you and help you find what are looking for.
We are still here. We are growing and moving. We are still buying great things...great things just for you! Branch out and try these other places to shop. I promise that you won't miss the old ones at all.
Etsy.
So many of the good ebay sellers that have fine vintage and antique goods can be found now on Etsy. I have been selling there for a year now and I love it. I can offer my finds at lower prices because the fees are lower. It is a friendly environment and a community with great communication. Etsy is just about to update to an all-white clean look so that it will be optimized for smart device viewing. Photos are presented in a larger format and much easier to see than eBay. Try Etsy!
Websites.
Many of us have our own websites now thanks to user friendly sites like Shopify. For the seller it is harder to promote, and for the buyer one has to find the website, but you can see wonderful things that a seller perhaps cannot sell on a traditional platform for one reason or another.
One Kings Lane.
A beautiful place to shop! 100% curated and every seller is hand picked. You will find the best of the best here and can buy with confidence knowing that your purchase is fully protected. You can sell here with the same confidence. The hand picked finds, the designer inspired sales events and the trendy feel of this site is addictive! The site is beautiful, clean and rich.
Hunters Alley.
Owned by One Kings Lane, this is a beautiful up and coming site that made it's debut only last November. It is a socially based site where you can comment on items and favorite them. Each item is hand picked and that entire site is curated. No junk here. Photography is fab, designer events are exciting and the site has a clean look just like it's big sister.
11 Main.
This site promises to be huge competition for ebay. This sales platform is being built now and will enter the BETA phase in the early summer. Every seller is hand picked and every item is curated by designers and category experts. True customer service is the focus. 11 Main wants the seller and customer to get to know each other, just like a Main Street shop. This company treats sellers like gold and that very goodwill is passed right on to buyers. Look for this to be a great place to find good vintage.
So, do you see the trend for selling vintage and antique goods? CURATED. Curated sites. E-commerce is just about 20 years old now. It all got too big. Too many people, too much stuff. We know who the good guys are and we know who the bad guys are. The best of the best are coming together. We have formed seller groups. We are not alone anymore. We talk about where to sell and how to promote our items so that you can find them. We post on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Wanelo so that you can find us where-ever it is that you like to "hang out". We sellers have joined forces. When a new sales platform is introduced, together we evaluate it, discuss it, test it and if it's good, we all go there together. You will now see your favorite sellers on more than one site. You will see us on sites that we hand-picked and that hand-picked us. Our items featured there will be chosen to fit the trends of that site. What does that mean for the shopper, the collector of antique and vintage? No more digging through crap. No more terrible out of focus, poorly lighted photography. No more mean people. No more unprofessional garage sale sellers. No more knowledge deficient "copy cat" bottom feeder sellers trying to rip you off. No more scams. These are the days of social networking. Know who you are buying from. Find the best sellers with the best stuff. Find the sellers with the knowledge and experience who will get to know you and help you find what are looking for.
We are still here. We are growing and moving. We are still buying great things...great things just for you! Branch out and try these other places to shop. I promise that you won't miss the old ones at all.
Friday, February 7, 2014
GVS Etsy School Week Two-Photography
So it's week two of Etsy school. We are exploring photography. The best way to illustrate photography is with photos. I cannot use photos on our thread so I brought you here.
The official Etsy School guide has information on lighting and how to set your aperture. It is all wonderful information. But, what if you have an older camera and you do not want to buy expensive lighting? And who wants to re-shoot photos that you already shot? What about backgrounds?
The easiest and least expensive thing is this: White poster board. If you want an inexpensive way to shoot white backgrounds, buy some poster board. When it gets dirty looking, throw it away and get a new one. Use daylight if you do not have good photography lights. When you shoot, your white background will still be gray. Don't be alarmed. We can fix that. That's where the tricky part comes in. And, it is not hard at all!
If you have photo editing on your computer, you can use it. But here, I am going to introduce you to your new BFF:
Picmonkey.com.
You can easily pop your photos in, lighten and brighten, save them to your desktop and use them in your listings.
Another wonderful tool they have is a collage tool. I tried to use it below, but the images are too big for this forum. You can use it when you need more than 5 photos to show the world how beautiful your item is.
And get this...Picmonkey is FREE!
One of our wonderful members has given me permission to go into her shop and work with her photos. (Thank you teamie)
You will learn how to quickly change this:
to this:
I work on a MAC, so you may have to change a few steps to work with your computer.
I went into her shop and clicked and dragged a few photos onto my desktop. With these black shoes I just needed to lighten the photo to show that they are covered in elegant black sequins.
I pictured where you should go on picmonkey on the left. Click exposure and lighten it up. The only thing that you should not do is change the color. People want to see the true color. Don't forget to save. Then save it to your desktop. All you are doing by lightening them up is fixing what your camera did when it did not let enough light in through the little hole in the lens.( The aperture was too low.)
Here's another:
Now you can see in detail what is really on the pen.
And here is my favorite. This one had to be lightened up, shadows removed and I had to go to sharpen and clean up the focus. Last, I cropped it and guess what? When you crop, the image gets a little bit bigger. A secret bonus, right? Check it out.
This is amazing!
Once you get used to this site, and it is easy-peasy, you will have photos that are bright and inviting. Bright images get picked way more often for treasuries and increase your sales dramatically. You can use the ones that you already have and just clean them up. Isn't that great? Well..what are you waiting for? Get busy! Post what you did on our discussion board so that we can go look. Let's see it, teamies!
The official Etsy School guide has information on lighting and how to set your aperture. It is all wonderful information. But, what if you have an older camera and you do not want to buy expensive lighting? And who wants to re-shoot photos that you already shot? What about backgrounds?
The easiest and least expensive thing is this: White poster board. If you want an inexpensive way to shoot white backgrounds, buy some poster board. When it gets dirty looking, throw it away and get a new one. Use daylight if you do not have good photography lights. When you shoot, your white background will still be gray. Don't be alarmed. We can fix that. That's where the tricky part comes in. And, it is not hard at all!
If you have photo editing on your computer, you can use it. But here, I am going to introduce you to your new BFF:
Picmonkey.com.
You can easily pop your photos in, lighten and brighten, save them to your desktop and use them in your listings.
Another wonderful tool they have is a collage tool. I tried to use it below, but the images are too big for this forum. You can use it when you need more than 5 photos to show the world how beautiful your item is.
And get this...Picmonkey is FREE!
One of our wonderful members has given me permission to go into her shop and work with her photos. (Thank you teamie)
You will learn how to quickly change this:
to this:
I work on a MAC, so you may have to change a few steps to work with your computer.
I went into her shop and clicked and dragged a few photos onto my desktop. With these black shoes I just needed to lighten the photo to show that they are covered in elegant black sequins.
I pictured where you should go on picmonkey on the left. Click exposure and lighten it up. The only thing that you should not do is change the color. People want to see the true color. Don't forget to save. Then save it to your desktop. All you are doing by lightening them up is fixing what your camera did when it did not let enough light in through the little hole in the lens.( The aperture was too low.)
Here's another:
Now you can see in detail what is really on the pen.
And here is my favorite. This one had to be lightened up, shadows removed and I had to go to sharpen and clean up the focus. Last, I cropped it and guess what? When you crop, the image gets a little bit bigger. A secret bonus, right? Check it out.
This is amazing!
Once you get used to this site, and it is easy-peasy, you will have photos that are bright and inviting. Bright images get picked way more often for treasuries and increase your sales dramatically. You can use the ones that you already have and just clean them up. Isn't that great? Well..what are you waiting for? Get busy! Post what you did on our discussion board so that we can go look. Let's see it, teamies!
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Cool Stuff Along the Way.
Here are a few things that I had to shoot a photo of as I was out doing errands and such. This photo is a live succulent wreath that I found at Chicweed in Solana Beach, CA. It is for sale.
We found a shop called "House of Vintage" I think it was. The next few photos are from that shop located in Solana Beach as well.
This display was found at Solo in Solana Beach.
This is an amazing watercolor/ink stick palette that I found at Art Supply Warehouse in Westminster, CA. It is the best art store in the world. I have been shopping there for over 30 years. I do not have time to paint these days, but I had to have this, just had to have it!
We found a shop called "House of Vintage" I think it was. The next few photos are from that shop located in Solana Beach as well.
This display was found at Solo in Solana Beach.
This is an amazing watercolor/ink stick palette that I found at Art Supply Warehouse in Westminster, CA. It is the best art store in the world. I have been shopping there for over 30 years. I do not have time to paint these days, but I had to have this, just had to have it!
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