Online Sales Market Research Project

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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.

The Metric

We discussed using a basic 1-3 metric for each category of item, and I came up with the following (cut and paste away!):

  • 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:

The annotated list:

  • abundance (1=unicorns; 3=kudzu)
  • weight (1=less than a kitten; 3=more than a sack of cats)
  • testing (1=little/no testing needed; 3=fussy)
  • interchangeability (1=snowflakes; 3=Pringles)
  • fragility (1=rock; 3=lightbulb)
  • Price we can expect to get with some regularity (1=under $50 3=more than $100)
  • The rare gem we could actually expect to see once in a while (1=up to $100; 3=more than $300)

NB: Sometimes 1 means good, sometimes bad (such as easy to test as well as not abundant). Don't worry about this. Once the numbers are in we can account for this. For now, just answer these based on the above criteria.

Laptops and Laptop Parts

EBeth and Jen

High End Scraptops & AS IS Laptops

  • abundance:2
  • weight:2
  • testing:2
  • interchangeability:1
  • fragility:1
  • Price we can expect to get with some regularity: 3=$100
  • The rare gem we could actually expect to see once in a while:3=$200

General Thoughts: These are time consuming to test all the screens and to post on eBay, since we have to take a new picture of each laptop. So the payoff needs to be fairly significant. Should only list laptops that we will likely sell for $100 or more. Should also create a process for laptop volunteers to test screens and list laptop specs to sell.

High End Scraptop parts (screen, optical drive, ect)

  • abundance:2
  • weight:2
  • testing:3
  • interchangeability:1
  • fragility:2
  • Price we can expect to get with some regularity: screen 2=$50, optical drive 1=$20, keyboard 1=$9
  • The rare gem we could actually expect to see once in a while:$ screen 3=$125

General Thoughts: This is far more time consuming to test and list on eBay, with less profitability than selling the high end scraptop as a whole.

Laptop Ram (sold in bulk)

  • abundance: 3
  • weight: 1
  • testing: 1
  • interchangeability: 3
  • fragility: 2
  • Price we can expect to get with some regularity: 2=about a $1-2 ea, sold in lots of 20 or 50
  • The rare gem we could actually expect to see once in a while:

General Thoughts: Selling bulk laptop ram is profitable because we do not test it and we have heaps of it, more than we could possibly sell in the store. DDR2 & DDR3 2GB is about the only ram worth selling online fetching about $20 ea but we do better to just sell it in the store.

Advanced Testing Stuff

Meredith and Ebeth

RAM (DDR & DDR2)

  • abundance: 2.5
  • weight: in bulk, probably 1.5
  • testing: 1 (we have a built-in process)
  • interchangeability: 2.5 (occasionally some have heat sinks/lights/other document-able fanciness)
  • fragility: 2 (?)
  • Price we can expect to get with some regularity:$5-$30/stick

Hard Drives (Desktop, laptop & external)

  • abundance: 3
  • weight: individually, 1
  • testing: 1 (we have a built-in process)
  • interchangeability: 2.5 (might want different photos for different brands?)
  • fragility: 1.25
  • Price we can expect to get with some regularity: 1-3: $15-$150 depending on size
  • The rare gem we could actually expect to see once in a while: 1 - $60-$70 for 4 GB or smaller SCSI drives

CPUs

  • abundance: 2(?)
  • weight: 1
  • testing: 1 (we have a built-in process)
  • interchangeability: 2.5
  • fragility: 3
  • Price we can expect to get with some regularity: 1 - $8-$180, but mostly $20-$30, dual cores $30-$55

Other thoughts: Motherboards sell for a lot online, but are more work to post individual pictures and descriptions of. This is probably worth investigating further to gauge vs. price in store and considering returns.

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

need to check with Santi

  • 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 look junked out, but sell for mucho. These are rare. Some models of speakers are worth selling as parts, such as drivers, and can bring a lot, even though they are heavy. Very fetish! Not sure how we'd test or how we currently test speaker parts.

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 18:54, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Stepper Motors

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

AC Adapters

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

Jetdirect Network Cards (small lots)

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

Other (in editorial format)

  • Controller boards - need more research. Apparently there are valuable models, but I don't know which ones.
  • Laserjet printers - Generally not worth selling online, I don't think
  • Inkjet printers - Generally not worth selling online.
  • Phasers - some of the wax printers go for good money.
  • Ink - we have a bulk buyer at the moment and this seems like the best option.
  • Refill kits - cheap. Don't think they're worth it.
  • Tested fusers - like the controller boards, I don't know what's worth what. A lot of the fusers online are refurbished and still do not sell very well.
  • Network cards - some sell for good money but we don't seem to get a very good supply. Again, don't know what the gems are.
  • Duplexers - similary to the network cards, but more difficult to ship.
  • Print servers - Similar to the network cards. Maybe there are gems, don't know which ones.
  • Printer memory - Similar to the controller boards. There may be money in it, but I don't know what's what.

Video Games/Accessories

Mike

Macs/Mac parts

Paco

Mac Video Cards (G5's)

  • abundance:2
  • weight:1
  • testing:1 or 2
  • interchangeability:1
  • fragility:2
  • Depending on the specs of the card, we can make from $25 up to $150 each. Should be easy to test. Videos cards for G4 are probably not worth to sell online since they sell for very cheap unless the card is one of those things for high-end graphical work.

G4/G5 Power Mac Power Supplies

  • abundance:2
  • weight:1
  • testing:1 or 2
  • interchangeability:1
  • fragility:1
  • If we make our own Mac power supply TESTER or an easy way to test or make sure there are no blown caps on Mac power supply, we can make from $20 to $80 on each G4 tower power supply and $40 to $140 on each G5 tower power supply.

Keyboard/Mice

  • abundance:1
  • weight:1
  • testing: 2
  • interchangeability:1
  • fragility:1
  • Most old Mac keyboard/Mice will sell for cheap online and is not worth trying. However; there are few(couple models that sell for $80 each. Making a list of those expensive ones will allow us to sort/find the good ones. Then, what, sell?

Imac Screens

  • abundance:2
  • weight:2
  • testing:2 or 3
  • interchangeability:1
  • fragility:3
  • We get muchas screens from Imacs, the bigger they are, the more $ we can get. If we say it is tested when the screen lights on, we should try and sell. ex. 17" screen for Imac G5 can sell from $40 to $70::::::20"screen for Imac G5 from $60 to $140;;;;;;Imac intel 17" screen or 20" from $100 up to $300.

PDAs/Cameras/MP3 (Tom Stuff)

Ian 19:01, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

PDAs

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

Cameras

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

MP3

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

Notes

  • I think these are popular items and will continue to sell well in the store
  • We have been pretty good, it looks like, at pricing these in the store relative to ebay prices.
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