Australian Newsagency Blog

I’ve observed here several times about the challenges of retailing Calendars with many retailers discounting in this category from November. They are ruining what was a good (fair) margin business. An employee of mine grabbed some of our remaining calendars when we cut their price to $2.00 to move the last 300 or so we had last week. He bought the stock and has started listing them on eBay. These mostly $19.95 calendars have been discounted from New Year’s Day by 25% then 50% then 75% and finally to $2.00. The first eBay auction ended last night and the results are:

Jude Law - no sale

Tom Jones - no sale

Teri Hatcher - 99 cents

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 99 cents

Audrey Hepburn - $2.25

Usher - $4.25

Natalie Portman - $7.00

Kylie Minogue - $9.50

Charmed - $10.50

Buffy - $16.02

His $20.00 of purchases from my shop resulted in $51.50 in sales. The eBay fees will take around $10.00 of that so it is still a nice margin. It makes me wonder if I would have been better off not discounting at my shop and using eBay to quit the slow moving stock.

Footnote: Poor Tom Jones and Jude Law. What does a no sale in an eBay auction say about their appeal? To be beaten by the teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would be humiliating for anyone.