Dearth of a Salesman
Determining market value or the going price of something is a skill (art?) I have never acquired. "Or best offer" is a term I do not begin to understand. If the best offer is from someone who tell me he will haul it away for five dollars, does the law require me to accept his offer?
But I'm about decided to sell something. I have a set of four studded winter-tread tires, on rims, with wheel covers (hub caps?) which I'm about to list on KSL.com. I asked a dealer what he thought might be a "fair price" to ask. That was a waste of time. He suggested I read the KSL.com ads and go from there.
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY TIRES ARE ON SALE AT KSL.COM???
I did notice that the ads which caught my eye were those with pictures, so I got one of the tires out of storage and snapped what you see above. Will that picture stand out from a hundred others? Since I have four tires to sell, should the picture include all four of them, or is this close-up, which shows the studs and tread more clearly, a better way to go? ("I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille....")
Besides listing the size (205/70R-15) what else should I say? What sale-cinching terms should I use to entice would-be buyers?
I know there is a knack to this sort of thing because many years ago we had a dog we wanted to give away. (Note that: GIVE AWAY, not sell.) I wrote an ad and submitted it to the local radio station. There was not one single call. ("A salesman's gotta dream; it goes with the territory.") A few days later my friend/office mate, who doubled as an announcer on early morning radio, asked me if we had gotten any offers on our dog. When I told him we had nary a nibble he said "Let me write the ad and I'll read it over the air." I never got a chance to even hear his ad. We got four offers withing fifteen minutes after he went on the air, and "Puff, the Magic Pekingese" found a happy home in Cove.
Yes, indeed, there is an art to selling.
If any of you out there in the real world (as opposed to the world of a retired theatre prof) have any suggestions for me, please feel free to make them.
posted by The Oregonians @ 5:09 PM
6 Comments
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6 Comments:
What a great post, Dad. I've missed your blog. I don't have too much in the way of good advice. I do think photos help on KSL.com. I'd probably just price them a little bit lower than comparable tires and wait for the calls to start rolling in. I think it's more about price than description. We sold some furniture on KSL before we moved (at extremely good prices) and I felt like the most popular person in the universe. Oh, the phone calls we got! I think we sold everything within a half hour.
Hi dad - How exciting for you. You will love the exciting world of ksl.com! Amy helped me write an ad to sell our ungainly sectional sofa on ksl.com a couple of months ago and we had a phone call 5 minutes after we'd posted the ad! The best advise I can give you is to list the tires at a higher price than you really want to sell them because the very first thing people want to do when they call it dicker :)
Love,
Barb
You see what I mean? The real world is different.
"The very first thing people want to do is dicker."
Not once, with all the shows I did, was there ever any "dickering." The royalty was stated up front. You want to do the show, you pay the royalty.
I'd rather state a price I think is right (competitive) and sell the tires to the first person who meets my price.
A pox on the real world.
Anyone for a revival of "The Music Man"?
I'll pass on the music man revival, but I love to "dicker". Actually, there is nothing wrong with your idea to post it at the price you want and give it to the first person who will offer it. When people call and want to bargain, just tell them the price is final. Also, getting a feel for the "market value" by looking up other postings on ksl.com is a good idea. And finally, remember that posting a successful post is all about keywords. Include all of the words in your post that people might search such as "tires", "studded", "snow", "winter", etc. And if they don't sell, you could always make some tire swings.
My advice would be to keep your post simple and with all the info people would need to know exactly what they're getting. Fancy, well-written ads aren't that big of a deal anymore. Just list the details like how old they are, how much you used them, size, etc. I also like it when people put "why" they're selling something. Then I'm not as worried that I'm getting tires with holes in them or ripped off.
I like the close up picture. Keep us posted on how this turns out.
Zig Zeigler has books on this sort of thing.
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