eBay readings

Here is what I plan - anyone got any suggestions as to whether this is a good idea? I already have a flourishing eBay shop, but it sells stuff like secondhand books, postcards, stamps etc (an online version of the shops I loved to browse when I lived in Eastern Europe). rather than occult/etc. stuff. Wondered if anyone had experience with eBay or could give me advice.

1) Offering readings using different decks - I have four decks, each of which I consult on different issues. (Avalon - political; Sharman-Caselli - newbies, people who just want general love/life/career etc readings; Morgan-Greer - emotional, spiritually resonant readings; Goddess - feminine empowerment and advice from the Wise Mother).

2) Buy it Now or auction? (eBay offers different formats, auctions are where the price is fixed at the end of the 10-day period by competing bidders; Buy It Nows are when the buyer just comes along and purchases straight off and are what make up shop items) I probably intend to go for the former since it is more direct and I can list more at one time, rather than having to wait for each auction to finish. Setting the price low to start off with will give me more scope.

3) Spreads - will keep it simple. There are several spreads which give me the best readings, so that's not a problem; my favourite is the Pentacle that Lo Scarabeo published with the Avalon deck, though I could do three, five and seven card readings. Also different permutations of deck/spread will give me a number of different choices available.

4) Do I do this on another id or do I offer it on my current one? As I said, I don't tend to offer "occult" stuff for sale, apart from the odd book I finish with. I don't know about regular customers, but I'm not sure about this one. I do have two or three different ids, mainly for posting on the forums there, but I would have to improve their feedback rating before I start putting up listings. Perhaps I should even register my Crowqueen id over there so I can make a fresh start rather than use one of my older ids which have tackier names.

5) Format: thinking of scanning the cards in and posting the link on my own server host to be read online along with text in an email format. Have already scanned in "sample" readings of representative cards - or what the decks themselves think are representative - and prepared them as a sample spread...

Any ideas? Anyone here offer eBay readings? Any suggestions to improvement on the above plan or anything I've forgotten?

Crowqueen,

I offered Ebay readings and I am sorry to say it was complete waste of time! If you are prepared to offer your readings and your time at a ridiculously low price and then build up to a reasonable price then possibly it could work. But prepared to set an extremely low starting price.

Please don't get me wrong, what you are offering, sounds terrific, authentic and quality, but I just don't think you will get a good return for the effort you are going to put in.

The problem with Ebay is they want it cheap, cheaper and cheapest! I am not knocking Ebay here, I love Ebay, especially when I am looking for the cheapest deal possible!

This is my personal experience of offering readings on Ebay.

Sx

It might get me started doing professional stuff - I wouldn't be asking more than a low start price anyway and would help me build up my repertoire reading for others, as there are very few people I know round here who would be interested or would approve.

But thanks for the advice . I know eBay very well, so what you say doesn't surprise me at all.

If I were a reader looking for a reading on eBay, I'd also be looking at feedback, and if yours was under 100, I would move on to another reader.

Not to say your readings wouldn't be good ones, I'd just be looking for a higher feedback number. If I were you, I'd keep the same ID you currently use.

My current FB is 584, but as I say it is mostly from selling my current stock rather than tarot readings.

Crowqueen said:

My current FB is 584, but as I say it is mostly from selling my current stock rather than tarot readings.

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For me, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. I'd want to see what buyers had said about the way you deal with them during a transaction. If 98-99% of that feedback were positive and you were an active seller, I'd be comfortable with that.

I did it, and no-one bought one.

Hmph.

I'm so un-special.

Knight of Wands said:

I did it, and no-one bought one.

Hmph.

I'm so un-special.

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Awwww KofW, not un-special at all. The prospective buyers were just not a discerning lot that day.

(((((((KoW)))))))

I've never offered readings on ebay and I wouldn't for the very reason that Sienna mentioned.

People sell 10 card Celtic Cross readings on ebay for around £5 - goodness me, that's so far below the minimum wage, I just don't think it's worth bothering with.

If you want to do readings for the public and you're really not that bothered about how much you're getting for a reading, why not sign up as a free reader for TABI or the Free Tarot Network?

If it's just practice you want then try the reading exchange here.

If you actually want to get paid for readings then face to face is by far the best (IMO) or why not think about building your own website and selling readings that way?

sharpchick said:

Awwww KofW, not un-special at all. The prospective buyers were just not a discerning lot that day.

(((((((KoW)))))))

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Thanks!

Lol, they didn't know what they were missing out on