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By Michele Meyer (Badseed)
I'm the owner of a "me, myself and I", small but growing business. I'd call it a "mom and pop" business but there is a whole lot more mom than anything. Feel free to laugh. The same thing happens each year. I carefully choose what I want to grow and offer for sale. I listen to my local shoppers and start seeds for their veggies. Then I get in cuttings to root, followed by the arrival of plant plugs. The next thing I know, both greenhouses are full. Then the overflow takes over the shelves outside. Then the gravel path is lined with potted plants. I have to honestly say, once summer rolls around, I get bored with the sale plants and I want to work on my own gardens. The same thing happens in my gardens. I start off with a pot of this and a pot of that. Round about the fourth year, I'm dividing those because they've outgrown their allotted space. All those tropicals I bought need to be dragged in come fall and I don't have anywhere to store them. What is it that makes us act this way?? We start off with nothing and it quickly grows to more than we can manage. So what do we do with all this extra stuff? I was first enthused with the "Classified Ads" at Daves Garden. It is a very easy venue where you can post plants, seeds and anything else garden related and sometimes not. For the lowly price of $5 you can post for sale almost any good you can ship. I've even seen real estate and critters for sale. It's a great place to offer up your extra items for sale and it works! I didn't think it could get much better but now we have a second option! I can't say how many years some of us have given Dave a hard time, joking about starting an auction and calling it Dbay. Okay, it was not really original but it was funny and we were pretty much serious. Sometime later, the idea was revisited and escalated to something necessary, worthwhile and demanding attention. Many members pitched in ideas and thoughts, offered suggestions and added input as to what they did and didn't like about other auction sites. True to Dave's nature and being the builder that he is, he rolled all these ideas and input into the "Marketplace". Now I was hesitant at first. I'm one of those tried and true, "why should I change?" types. I didn't jump right on the wagon and dig right in. A few weeks ago I placed a Classified Ad. I ran into a small problem. A classified ad is just like an ad in the newspaper. You post it and what it says, it says until it runs out. So I found myself nagging Terry because I couldn't change my inventory once my ad was posted. Being the kind, helpful soul she is, she explained the Marketplace and told me to give it a go. I didn't go easily. I'm not easily converted. Boy was that stupid! So I go click the Marketplace tab, thinking it was going to be hard, a bunch of reading, too much to figure out, where do I put my picture, how much will it cost, how do I track my inventory and sales...pant pant gasp gasp. I was truly relieved once I clicked the link and read the first page. No way is it really THAT easy! The first thing I see: There are no buyer fees. Sellers will be charged for their sales using the following fee schedule:
Wow! That is the cheapest listing I've ever seen and I've seen a lot of them! So I get brave now and click the link that says: » Sellers: Click here to enter our Sellers Management area I'm feeling really sparky now and I decide to move forward. Clicking that link leads to: » First time seller? Click here to read our tutorial! » Click here to manage your products » Click here to manage the orders you've received » Click here to change your Marketplace preferences So I click the first link and run through it. It takes you through how to make your listing and tells you where to go once you are ready to list your first item. The second link takes you to the products you have listed, tells you if you have no products, tells you which items you have listed and also has a link to list a new item. SIMPLE! The third link keeps track of the orders you have received and what step you are at in the transaction, like order received, order paid for, order shipped. The fourth link is super easy. It allows you to add your email address if you take Paypal payments and allows you to chose whether or not you will accept checks or money orders.
Wow! This really is simple! I placed my first listing and it went very well! I sold the products that I wanted to sell and the system kept track of my offerings and sales. Several days later, I placed a second listing. This time I only had one offer and the listing went away when it sold. The absolute best feature is the Dmail (email at Daves Garden) system. I received updates telling me when I had a sale and asking me to fill in the shipping charge, letting me know what was going on EVERY step of the sale, up to payment and shipping. Another great feature is that the buyer can click your name to ask questions and the Dmails stay on your home page until you address the current step in the transaction. To make it even better, the site also sends automated mail to the buyer, letting them know what is going on any time a change is made while you "manage" your sale. They will know when you mark the item paid and when it is shipped. The Dave's Garden Marketplace is the easiest auction site I've ever used! One note I might add, whether you are the buyer or the seller, be sure to check your Dmail for updates and mail. The whole system is site contained so all correspondence will come via your Dmail and not your regular email account. The only way that would differ is if you actually email through the sellers website if they have one. Surely you have some extra plants, seeds or garden related items that you'd like to sell! There are ten different categories for listings and I think nearly anything would fit one or more of them. Turn those unwanted and surplus items into some fast cash. If you are looking for something, check it out. There is a button on the top right that allows you to search the marketplace and you can limit the search to products from certain countries! It's another fabulous "for gardeners, by gardeners" feature.
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