Online Sales Market Research Project

This is a project of OSAC. It is an initial stab at analyzing what opportunities are out there for moving stuff online from our existing gizmo piles.

At our first OSAC meeting, March 10 2011, we had people take on areas for research. This page is a place to dump this research.

Laptops and Laptop Parts

EBeth and Jen

Advanced Testing Stuff

Meredith and Ebeth

A/V

Tony

Vintage Amps/Tuners

abundance: 1
weight: 3
testing: 2(?)
interchangeability: 1
fragility: 3
Price we can expect to get with some regularity: 2
The rare gem we could actually expect to see once in a while: 3

General Thoughts: For rare, vintage and fetish amps, it may be worthwhile to put on ebay, as foreign collectors drive prices up greatly. This involves having to answer questions regarding overseas shipping, and we can expect shipping costs to be close to $50 for these monsters. For items over a couple hundred bucks, this may be a good route. Otherwise, local consignment or selling through the store may be a better avenue.

Vintage Headphones

abundance:
weight:
testing:
interchangeability:
fragility:
Price we can expect to get with some regularity:
The rare gem we could actually expect to see once in a while:

Recording Equipment

abundance: 1
weight: 2
testing: 2
interchangeability: 1
fragility: 2
Price we can expect to get with some regularity: 2
The rare gem we could actually expect to see once in a while: 3

General thoughts: I'm picturing anything ranging from EQ's and microphones, DAT recorders, etc. I think this is an area with proven demand that can fetch much more online than we can expect in the store. The testing would be one-off, oddball, and the q/a from potential buyers would likely be high on some items.

Speakers/Parts

abundance: 1
weight: 3
testing: 2
interchangeability: 1
fragility: 2
Price we can expect to get with some regularity: 2
The rare gem we could actually expect to see once in a while: 3

General thoughts: Some of these

A/C power adapter (groan)

Tony

abundance: 3
weight: 1
testing: 1
interchangeability: 2
fragility: 1
Price we can expect to get with some regularity: 1
The rare gem we could actually expect to see once in a while: 1

General thoughts: There are a few of these that we see good numbers of, that bring around $20 with regularity. This would be a volume item, really only feasible once we had processes down pat and could crank through sales/shipping, maybe utilizing volunteers. There are some oddballs that fetch more than $25 and may be worth looking at. I don't know what I was thinking even saying this out loud, frankly.

Printers

Ian

Video Games/Accessories

Mike

Macs/Mac parts

Paco

PDAs/Camers/MP3 (Tom Stuff)

Ian