Internet Auction Final

Finally we have sold the First Day Cover...

The price we bought it: $16
the price we sell: $26
the start price of bidding: $20
free shipment.
posting:
7 days on the E-bay international
10 days on the E-bay Hong Kong(4 hours after we posted, someone bought it)
payment: check


At the very beginning, we chose to focus on the international market. Since we all thought that this product only issued in hong Kong, and special edition of stamp represents historical moments.
Therefore, we didn't see the potential of local market. There were about 7 shops in the e-bay selling "60th anniversary Foundation of China " special issue. The price ranges from $23 to $40.
The period of time we posting our product on the "e-bay international" only one of them sold one piece of the FDC(First day cover) at the price of about 30. Not many people are concerning about our auction, partially due to that we are the new sellers with no reputation, and other factors may be that there have been too many people selling the similar thing.

After 7 days on the E-bay International, and with not much progress, we made a big decision.
It is the last one FDC sold in the post office that I went to. There were more than 40 people lining behind me, who got up early and waited probably for more than 2 hours just like me. One of the middle-age men argued loudly and almost cried. Recalled these details, and after the failure trial in the international market, we put our eye on the local market.

Before we really started the bid on hong Kong market, we tried to search through the Ebay Hong Kong to find some sold or selling items of "Foundation of China 60th anniversary " for reference of pricing. What surprised us a lot is that no one have sold it even selling it in Hong Kong. There is a market for the FDC, and the location of Hong Kong may benefit us for a lower shipment fee.

We post our FDC at the very same price we post in Ebay International. We even worried about not being able to sell it. However, only 4 hours after our post, there was someone from Hong Kong bought it. Then, we got to think over the whole process of selling and find that we may have underestimated its value.

One day after I sent the FDC out, the buyer connected me for sorry about not be able to pay the bill by Pay-pal. Then he told us he could send us check instead. I thought he could be one the most responsible customers in the Internet auction world.

Our Comment for this auction:::

Through our auction, we think that Hong Kong people are building a habit in doing auctions on internet, since our product are sold quickly, just after we have posted the auction on the net for only four hours. It seemed that Hong Kong people are searching for what they want continuously on the internet so that they can reach to our product easily.

We do think that internet auction is really a nice way to sell things, as we can reach to many potential customers from Hong Kong or even other countries. However, we also think that internet auction need a very strong belief, that is, you need to believe in your customer, especially if the product is very expensive, because we may only get our money after our customer have received our product by postage. If the product is too expensive, we do think that it may be quite dangerous since we may not know that will the customer really send money to us. But luckily our customer really sent us money right after he got our set of Datestamped First Day Cover affixed with a Souvenir Sheet. This experience do strenghten our confindence in internet auction.

All in all, we think that internet auction have potential to become more and more common since it is really very friendly for customers to find what they want, especially for some special or limited products like our First Day Cover. And it is also very friendly for people like us who want to sell some products but do not have our own shops. Internet auction is really a nice platform for seller like us. Lastly, we think that if better security can be proven, internet auction may even have a greater potential in its future.

At last we have chosen the China's 60th anniversary special issue stamp to be our auction product.

We have bought a set of Datestamped First Day Cover affixed with a Souvenir Sheet and a Stamp Sheetlet.

The Datestamped First Day Cover affixed with a Souvenir Sheet is only available at the philatelic office on 1 October 2009 only, so that it should be quite unique and can sell at a higher price.



The Stamp Sheetlet is more common than the Frist Day Cover, but it may still be quite attractive to the stamp collectors outside Hong Kong.



We are going to put our auction on Ebay, since we can contact more foreign stamp collectors on ebays as it is more international.

To let more people know about our auctions, we can:

1. Post auction on forums
As there are some special forums, for example http://www.stamp-forum.com/, which are especially for the stamp collectors, we can open a post there to inform those collectors about our auctions.

2. Post auction on facebook
Since facebook is very famous all around the world and we can easily connect with different people, we can post our auction on our own facebook and spread this message to others. We can also join groups which are for stamp collectors, so that we can post our auction in those groups and let more stamp collectors know about it.

3. More popular wordings as the search keywords
We can use some popular wordings to be the title of our auctions, therefore people can search for our auctions more easily.

Auction Project1

We tried to come up with an idea about what to selling.



finally, 4 kind of products are basically on our list.



there they are.


1# standard bank $150

• info: the Standard Chatered Bank is planning of launching the 1st $150 banknote in world to celebrate its 150 years anniversary.

• reason:

1. Standard will only issue the note in hk.



2. lots of coin and notes collectors around the world.
   
   

• risk assessment:
  

1. Standard claimed that the earned money will be donated to charity. for this sake, they almost double the value of the note. each single pack(note + package) will cost $280. In this way, the possibility of losing money also increased.



2. we may be not able to buy one. at this moment, we don't know the public's attitude. supposing that they are passionate toward the anniversary note, we will facing the situation of waiting in a long line in the bank.



3. some of the collectors collect coins and notes while travelling to other countries
4. we should got enough credit to make the customer when trying to sell this online.
5. shipment and package could be very very careful (they can't be folded and get crease)

• target customers: enthusiastic collectors outside hk and in hk

2# gifts by mcdonalds or cocacola

• info: freshest promotion gift by cocacola or some classic toys by Mcdonalds



• reason:

1. the Cocacola and Mcdonalds has set their brand image and identity for a rather long time. the promotion gifts, one way to enhance the branding and to reach for more audience, has cultivated a collection community now. see the http://coca-cola.cokefans.com/forum-1-1.html，you can realize what a market it is.
   
   
2. the fact is that, both Eva and I are the fans of collecting toys from the Mcdonalds. we have got some of them. or maybe too many of them.


3. there is a set, 3 gift by coca cola, recently being on promotion.

• risk assessment:

1. even though we think that we know there are guys who are so deadly in collecting the gifts, we can't tell how much will the price they find acceptable.
2. it will be far more interesting to take the toy by one's own shopping or dinning.
   

• target customers:

desperate collectors

3# China's 60th anniversary special issue stamp

• info: hong kong has got their own edition of the special issue stamp, including stamps, first-day covers, presentation pack.

• reason:

1. the 60th anniversary is a important day. In chinese tradition philosophy, every anniversary end with "0" and "5", means "50","80" ,"95" and so on, should be celebrated as an unusual one.
2. hong kong has got 8 districts, while each of them has unique postmark. therefore, a full set of first day cover will be eight.
3. collectors over the world.

• risk assessment:

1. who knows the collectors around world will be interested in this issue of stamp or not.
2. we may not be able to get one(if too many people want to buy it)
3. shipment and packaging should be very very careful again(not acceptable for stamps to get crease and folded, that matters the quality of stamp)

• target customers:

stamp collectors outside hk

4#cosmetic

• info:

some special brands of cosmetics

• reason:

1. cosmetics are nowadays the must-have objects for women around the world.( and the market of men is growing rapidly too.) the kinds of cosmetics varies from day cream to night cream, from shampoo to polisher. every inch of skin should be and will be taken care of. Being beauty is not only about appearance, pyschologically say, it is something about confidence as well.
2. according to statistics(which i can't remember the source), cosmetics is one of the must-buy objects for tourists in hk.
3. for the sake of tax and policies, the prices of some brands is conspicuously low than they are of in other coutries. As I have shopped in Beijing, I can tell the difference.

• risk assessment:

1. the shipment could be very costing(for the weight)
2. should work on the tax policies in hk
3. lots of competitors

• target customers:

anyone who care about their wallet and their appearance.

Media we will use: internet

Website we will attach to:

Ebay(which we believe will be a great platform for international internet auction)

notes: risk goes along with interest! we know that!

Which is the most promised one?

---by eva dong