Lantern's Light Updates

It's been a productive post-holiday weekend for me to carve out my niche in cyberspace! Along with the template change from this afternoon, I've just added a guestbook and hit counter courtesy of my new friends at Bravenet!

So quickly...go type out a note for the guestbook and let the world know you were here! I'll still be here when you're done.

NEXT - Business lessons from the Fab Four?

Introducing "The Hero Inside"

In order to keep my thoughts and writings focused, I have created a new blog to analyze both mythic and historical heroes. I hope that as content and participation develops that the site helps you develop and nurture the hero within yourself.

Visit http://hero-inside.blogspot.com

NEXT - "Do as I say, not as I do!" Some insights on how to make the eBay sales process most effective!

Prior Planning For Peak Performance

Light dawns...

"And so this is Christmas. And what have you done? Another year over. A new one just begun..."

John Lennon "War Is Over (If You Want It)"

A most Merry Christmas and sincere New Year
to one and all!

The John Lennon song quoted above ranks as one of my favorite Christmas songs. While this would hardly surprise anyone that knows me well, I've always appreciated how the song stands out from the usual glad tidings and jingle bells by forcing the listener to stop just
long enough to take stock of his or her own life - even for the briefest of moments.

"Hey, you've just closed a whole year of your life," it says. "This next year can either be the same thing over again, or you can make a change for the better...if you want it. What's your choice?". Sure does feel a little more poignant than Jessica Simpson performing an umpteenth
rendering of "Oh Holy Night", doesn't it?

So was our lantern's light strong enough to past problems and future issues? Since the future likely involves an upcoming career change, it's safe to say the days to come are an open book for now. Past achievements have their own levels of success and failure. In fact, a seasonal success has pointed out some errors in my own business practices. Let's call this story:

Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

Wrapping up 2004 in household business, we had a successful if brief eBay sales campaign for the holiday season. Personal and professional circumstances kept us from duplicating last year's campaign that began in mid-November and followed through the first two weeks of December when online sales tend to slow down.

Naw...duplicating success would've been too easy for this household! So here we are, over a week into December, and nothing's listed for auction yet. While Susan and I began our own gift shopping for the season, I found myself combing the shelves of the chain bookstore where Suze is employed for the season. Part of my attention is focused on gift ideas for friends and family, the other is mentally reviewing our eBay inventory for items that would sell quickly at a good price. Many of the items in my thoughts are superhero related - rare Batman and Robin figures, a die cast Captain Marvel car from England, even vintage Star Wars items. Usually I prefer my eBay sales campaigns run around a general theme - toys, books, electronics, etc. - and the idea of haphazardly tossing out a grab bag of items for a last minute sales campaign made me uneasy. I AM trying to keep a certain image for the business after all.

Then something about the "grab bag" description pulls at me, and quickly leaps out from my childhood. Since Marvel Comics no longer offered them, it was time for me to recreate the "Giant Holiday Superhero Grab Bag"!

Quickly I find Susan and spill out my idea to her like an excited four-year old. She smiles and nods, but is too focused on our current gift shopping to the the picture the way I do. The only way to show her was to do it, I decided.

Later that night, I grabbed about a dozen items that I felt were good, high-dollar starting items, then began rewriting our eBay :"About Me" page to reflect our current campaign. Unlike previous sales campaigns, I really wanted to talk up the concept of the "Superhero Grab Bag"...if for no other reason than to deflect my use of an idea "borrowed" from an old Marvel Comics treasury sized reprint series.

I'm rather proud of the final result. You can see it here. Sales were particularly good for some vintage Star Wars action figures, and a set of Batman and Robin action figures with magnetic hands and feet.

I know what you're thinking. I would have thought sticking and climbing would be more appropriate for a Spider-Man figure rather than Batman. But they were neat then, cool now, and kept in good enough condition to make them my highest selling item. Here is that final auction result for the curious.

Rips In The Grab Bag

Not everything went flawlessly though. With holiday traffic, work, and juggling one car between two jobs, I wasn't able to get my packages shipped as quickly as normal. Though I anticipated this by offering Priority Mail pricing rather than cheaper methods with longer delivery times, I'm currently fielding a problem from a customer who failed to receive their shipment prior to Christmas.

This is why I never, ever guarantee any shipment. Once it leaves my hands, it's no longer my responsibility. Though I can, and perhaps should, use other methods like USPS Delivery Conformation and Insurance, these services inflate the shipping costs, which in turn inflates the cost of your item, making someone else's bid look like a better deal.

While I'm sure I can correct this error in customer service, I feel it's better to learn from a mistake rather than simply solve the problem over and over again. Repeating the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result is the very definition of insanity.

NEXT - The start of a new blog for Lantern's Light? Stay tuned...

Twilight fades...