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Back in college, I used to sell niche stuff to make some extra money. Did that for some years after college too - as I had built up a pretty decent number of cu

Back in college, I used to sell niche stuff to make some extra money. Did that for some years after college too - as I had built up a pretty decent number of customers. Free shipping from larger companies started to change the mentality of many buyers. It was now expected that you too could / should offer free shipping, while maintaining low prices. Of course, small sellers like me don't have the economy of scale to offer such things, without jacking the price considerably. My second observation was that dealing with the "free" demographics was such a hassle, it is almost never worth it. People that are bargain hunters tend to be more demanding, and for some reason have higher expectations. The only disputes I EVER had, were with those kind of buyers - on extremely cheap items (think under $5). I even got into disputes with people over freebies - i.e. I sent them some free stuff, and they didn't like those. So on quitting this all together, I figured out that if you're gonna be a small-volume seller, you're better off focusing on the premium / quality segment. It's extremely difficult to compete against amazon on price and shipping.

asddubs 4y ago
I bought a pinephone and I've been kind of thinking about the economics of it lately. It's a niche product, you're never going to sell a lot of units, but the customer base is kind of a sweet ride. technical people who will fix their own problems, and in exchange for keeping things open, you don't even have to deal with the software side at all. you just release the hardware and let people figure it out themselves. If you're gonna do low volume, it doesn't seem like the worst market segment to target
- AussieWog93 4y ago
  It's funny you mention that. I run two businesses with very different customer bases (one selling USB oscilloscopes, the other used video games) and the differences are exactly as stark as you said. The contact I get from the oscilloscope business tend to either be genuine requests for technical support, bug reports/feature requests or just simply kind comments (usually from old, retired engineers). It's not that some of the technical-minded guys don't take up time, but at least they're interesting and pleasant to talk to. I can think of literally two Karens over the course of 6 years since I started the first crowdfunding campaign, and one of the two seemed to genuinely be going through a manic episode, so I just told him he was right (which, to be fair, he was) and moved on. Compare that to the video games business, where we'll have to deal with people who are demanding, unreasonable, manipulative or just simply wasting our time on a daily basis. Probably 30% of the messages we receive I won't even respond to as it's a bottomless pit of frustration. And my God, GP hit the nail on the head when it comes to the low-value buyers being the ones that kick up a fuss. Anything to try and get something for free/discount.
bin_bash 4y ago
This is one reason if you want to get rid of a couch or something it’s best to put it on the curb with a “$20” sign rather than one that says “free”. If someone wants to buy it they’ll value it more and be easier to deal with. Or someone might just “steal” it.
- RhodesianHunter 4y ago
  I'm not sure I follow this one. When you put something on the street with a "free" sign it either disappears or it doesn't.
  - bin_bash 4y ago
    For those of us that live on the West coast there is a worse option: transients soiling it. In my experience putting a value on something makes it more likely someone will steal it—which is the preferable outcome.
- novok 4y ago
  IMO it's significantly easier to get rid of something as free than to even sell it for $10 on Craigslist, even if it costs hundreds of dollars originally.
  - sdoering 4y ago
    Personally I have to disagree. Whenever I tried to sell/give away stuff online I experience way more requests for additional infos for free stuff. Also way more no shows after I already removed the offer from the platforms. Asking for a low price removed no shows, unnecessary people asking dumb questions already answered in the description and over all just a massive amount of hassle.
  - dionidium 4y ago
    This has not been my experience. I routinely sell stuff on Craigslist and FB Marketplace. My experience is that "free" generates a flood of demanding crazies, but asking a nominal fee (even if you don't really care about the money) attracts much more reasonable people. People who respond to "free" listings are much more likely to be rude, to no-show, to ask dozens of time-consuming questions, to complain, and so on.
robocat 4y ago
> People that are bargain hunters tend to be more demanding I wonder if it is because it is a selection bias for people that just don’t value their own time? Selecting people that tend to waste many hours for the sake of a few cents. The type of person with the time available, and who think wasting time complaining is a useful thing to invest time and effort on? And a person who is not smart enough to spend their time wisely, is more likely to have nonsensical or silly complaints?

asddubs 4y ago

I bought a pinephone and I've been kind of thinking about the economics of it lately. It's a niche product, you're never going to sell a lot of units, but the customer base is kind of a sweet ride. technical people who will fix their own problems, and in exchange for keeping things open, you don't even have to deal with the software side at all. you just release the hardware and let people figure it out themselves. If you're gonna do low volume, it doesn't seem like the worst market segment to target

AussieWog93 4y ago
It's funny you mention that. I run two businesses with very different customer bases (one selling USB oscilloscopes, the other used video games) and the differences are exactly as stark as you said. The contact I get from the oscilloscope business tend to either be genuine requests for technical support, bug reports/feature requests or just simply kind comments (usually from old, retired engineers). It's not that some of the technical-minded guys don't take up time, but at least they're interesting and pleasant to talk to. I can think of literally two Karens over the course of 6 years since I started the first crowdfunding campaign, and one of the two seemed to genuinely be going through a manic episode, so I just told him he was right (which, to be fair, he was) and moved on. Compare that to the video games business, where we'll have to deal with people who are demanding, unreasonable, manipulative or just simply wasting our time on a daily basis. Probably 30% of the messages we receive I won't even respond to as it's a bottomless pit of frustration. And my God, GP hit the nail on the head when it comes to the low-value buyers being the ones that kick up a fuss. Anything to try and get something for free/discount.

bin_bash 4y ago

This is one reason if you want to get rid of a couch or something it’s best to put it on the curb with a “$20” sign rather than one that says “free”. If someone wants to buy it they’ll value it more and be easier to deal with. Or someone might just “steal” it.

RhodesianHunter 4y ago
I'm not sure I follow this one. When you put something on the street with a "free" sign it either disappears or it doesn't.
- bin_bash 4y ago
  For those of us that live on the West coast there is a worse option: transients soiling it. In my experience putting a value on something makes it more likely someone will steal it—which is the preferable outcome.
novok 4y ago
IMO it's significantly easier to get rid of something as free than to even sell it for $10 on Craigslist, even if it costs hundreds of dollars originally.
- sdoering 4y ago
  Personally I have to disagree. Whenever I tried to sell/give away stuff online I experience way more requests for additional infos for free stuff. Also way more no shows after I already removed the offer from the platforms. Asking for a low price removed no shows, unnecessary people asking dumb questions already answered in the description and over all just a massive amount of hassle.
- dionidium 4y ago
  This has not been my experience. I routinely sell stuff on Craigslist and FB Marketplace. My experience is that "free" generates a flood of demanding crazies, but asking a nominal fee (even if you don't really care about the money) attracts much more reasonable people. People who respond to "free" listings are much more likely to be rude, to no-show, to ask dozens of time-consuming questions, to complain, and so on.

robocat 4y ago

> People that are bargain hunters tend to be more demanding I wonder if it is because it is a selection bias for people that just don’t value their own time? Selecting people that tend to waste many hours for the sake of a few cents. The type of person with the time available, and who think wasting time complaining is a useful thing to invest time and effort on? And a person who is not smart enough to spend their time wisely, is more likely to have nonsensical or silly complaints?