Newbie help - nobody is looking at our listings

Bill Mix

Hi everyone,

I'm helping my FIL sell his 60k+ postcards that he's collected over his lifetime. It is high quality stuff and he used to sell at shows when he was younger. We've only listed about 10 and it's only been a little over a week, but most of our listings don't even have any views. Any advice on how to start?

Specifically, I'd like to ask these questions, but really any help is GREATLY appreciated:
Do auctions sell better than store listings?
What are people looking for? Like do they want cheaper/quantity or highest quality postcards? Sets? Something else?

Thank you so much for anyone taking the time to read and respond. He's an amazing guy and has really great stuff, but it doesn't matter if nobody ever sees it.

George DeKornfeld

I can only parrot what's been said to me. I've been told that the more items one has in a store, the better the odds are that you will make sales. My store only has around 900 listings and that's just a drop in the bucket compared to some stores here. My sales have been light and sporadic, and I can't really provide a trend as they've been all over the place (U.S. linen and chromes to foreign to WWI topics, from inexpensive to more expensive). Also keep in mind that summer is here, and many will be busy with other things. All I can suggest is load up on your store and keep your fingers crossed!

Ron Blanks

I thought to look at your items before reply. That effort was interesting and frustrating, HipPostcard is not going to make it easy, assuming I was successful!
(1) no "link" from your post or your forum handle ("bill mix") page to your store;
(2) I tried general Search but of course that approach seems limited to items themselves;
(3) I noticed "Stores" in a menu area so clicked on that, and got a search field for "Stores" (names), all we have then was "bill mix" so tried that, and got "PostcardPoppy(0)" of June 2022 with 15 items, but there's no "bill mix" on an item page when I selected one to bring up.

Lesson for posters -- if you want Help regarding items, please provide "Store" name, etc.!

Whoever PostcardPoppy is, I know they did one great thing for the few items so far -- they marked whether postally Used or not. OVER 98.7% of all postcards are NOT marked ("buy it now" category, USA category stats), so I cannot review the "400,000 cards added for July" or the "2 million" that HipPostcard keeps emailing me to check out, since I'm only interested in used.
Then there's the not so great thing, deal-killer actually, about PostcardPoppy's used cards -- no posted side pics!! So I cannot browse this store.

George DeKornfeld

Hi Ron ~ I'd appreciate your taking a spin on my store to see if you can be of any help in increasing my sales.
Thanks,
George

https://www.hippostcard.com/store/docgfd-postcards

Ronald Tegeti

My approach has been to offer Modern Picture Postcards, mostly Viewcards. I've been Collecting/Buying/Trading these types since 1978. Although I have a few hundred Unwritten cards in my store, I have a very deep inventory that just needs to be scanned.

Regarding Auctions vs. Buy It Now, I haven't had much success with Auctions here, although I do believe they have a place here. What do people want? That is a tough question. I sometimes go to postcard shows and vintage postcards predominate. I also belong to a Worldwide Postcard Exchange site called "Postcrossing." They have over 800,000 members. Granted many are not active. But you can see from stated preferences what the popular topics are. For example, series postcards are hugely popular now: "Flags of the World" "Maps of the World" etc. The key thing is to stick with this. As one veteran seller said here long ago, HipPostcard is a great venue for buyers. My own experience confirms that; I have several repeat customers and the other day a fairly good size order came in.

https://www.hippostcard.com/store/union-hill

Theresa Embrey

I've been on HipPostcard for over a year now with sporadic small sales. I regularly add postcards, matchbook covers, and other paper ephemera to my store weekly. I mark whether cards are posted or unposted and give details on the stamp and cancel marks when appropriate. I use the eBay sync feature.

So far, my best sale on HipPostcard wasn't for a postcard, but for a menu from a Hawaiian restaurant from the 1940s.

I am wondering how to get more sales on HipPostcard too. I appreciate all the advice given above. But could use more.

https://www.hippostcard.com/store/ramshackle-empire

Brent McClintock

Hi, Theresa,

Just a quick look at your store and a quick response. What I think I see is about 5,000 of your listings are matchbook covers in the Ephemera (Old Paper) category of your store, leaving about 700 (?) postcard listings. Your feedback suggests most all of your sales are the matchbook covers. Only 1 or 2 postcard sales.

I'm not sure what the cross-selling rate is between postcards and matchbook covers but guess it's fairly low. HipPostcard is (obviously) pitched at postcard collectors. So, increasing sales here on HP would probably involve listing more postcards - and trying to set the prices "about right" in terms of what buyers actually pay here for different kinds of cards. Alternatively, if you have a level of store that comes with a email sales newsletter option, that might work to bring in previous and new customers. If your business focuses mainly on matchbook cover sales, then perhaps reaching out to HipPostcard to see if they'd work with you to set up a mailing list of previous matchbook cover buyers on HP to send a email newsletter to them might be the best way to go - if you can get them interested in it.

Since my store focuses on postcards, I get regular and good response to the email newsletters that HP sends out on my behalf. My email spam filter blocks those emails (how dare it!) so I usually don't know when the marketing emails go out. But whenever one of those emails goes out I know because sales start popping (as happened yesterday and so far today). Not always huge, but enough to keep me interested.

Best of luck!

Mitch Mather

I don't know about everyone else, but I have been seeing a drop in sales over the last 6 months. I seem to have to have some sort of sale on to even get folks to look. I keep adding new cards all the time and that seems to help a little, but it is getting to the point where after 2 years here I may need to bail because it is costing me more to have a store than I am selling. I am hoping that is not the case, but early returns are not good. Any input you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

https://www.hippostcard.com/store/memories-in-postcards