Newest video on MightyBeanz247, brought to you by http://MightyBeanz.biz for all your Mighty Beanz needs, is another series 4 unboxing of 6-bean packs. You can find a couple other series 4 videos on MightyBeanz247 and 1 or 2 on menoknow3 as well.
So, without further ado, here is our newest Mighty Beanz video!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Redakai Power Pack Box Break Opening Part 3 (packs 17 through 24)
This video was just uploaded earlier today to the Redakai247 channel.
If you missed part 1 and part 2, you may want to watch those first...
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji28fn-pHLI
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFHT1dkxquc
Otherwise, you may watch part 3 right below! Don't forget to subscribe (click Redakai247 in the upper corner of the video and a new tab will open where you can subscribe) and also follow this blog ;-)
If you missed part 1 and part 2, you may want to watch those first...
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji28fn-pHLI
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFHT1dkxquc
Otherwise, you may watch part 3 right below! Don't forget to subscribe (click Redakai247 in the upper corner of the video and a new tab will open where you can subscribe) and also follow this blog ;-)
ToyGamingEmporium.com Blog to Update for All Youtube Channels....
As many of you may or may not know, we at Toy Gaming Emporium presently use 9 youtube channels actively. The main one, menoknow3, 7 different channels ending in '247' which each specialize in one specific toy or card line, and my fiance's channel, PenguinChick86 which focuses mostly on the more girly of toy lines. While we still encourage you to of course be subscribed to all these channels, it can still be hard to keep up and keep track of new video uploads between all those channels. Thus, effective immediately, each time a new video is uploaded to any of our channels, we will make a brief blog post on this blog. Thus, this can serve as your one stop shop for keeping up to date with all of our newest videos! Haven't been good at finding time to make blog posts about new toys and such which was my original intention and want to utilize this blog. I think this will prove a good use for it.
So...make sure you are subscribed to our 'family' of youtube channels for which links are all just below and also be sure to follow this blog as well to keep updated and fully informed on all our newest video uploads! Thank you for all the support!
Our channels (click each to access them)...
menoknow3
PenguinChick86
Beyblades247
PokemonCards247
BakuganToys247
MightyBeanz247
MoshiMonsters247
Gomu247
Redakai247
So...make sure you are subscribed to our 'family' of youtube channels for which links are all just below and also be sure to follow this blog as well to keep updated and fully informed on all our newest video uploads! Thank you for all the support!
Our channels (click each to access them)...
menoknow3
PenguinChick86
Beyblades247
PokemonCards247
BakuganToys247
MightyBeanz247
MoshiMonsters247
Gomu247
Redakai247
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Redakai Trading Card Game Has Arrived
After much hype, the Redakai
Trading Card Game has finally been released as of June 4th, 2011, and is IN STOCK NOW on http://ToyGamingEmporium.com. Distributed by Spin Master (the same makers of hit toys like Bakugan, Mighty Beanz, and Zoobles) with expectations of Redakai quickly becoming more popular than Bakugan, many couldn't wait for this new trading card game to be released. It is the first trading card game with Blast 3D animation in EVERY card. These aren't your everyday cardboard trading cards either. Every card is made of plastic which helps with the 3D animation technology. Every card looks sharp and has its own animation built in. When playing the game and dealing out attacks, you can actually see the characters and monsters getting attacked and damaged. The game also uses a stacking mechanism which keeps track of all the damage automatically for you. No need to keep track of how much life you have left on a scrap piece of paper.
However, there are of course downsides to this card game as well. Firstly, since all cards are plastic and more 'fancy' than most traditional trading cards, they cost more too. A 'gold pack
' which contains a total of 6 cards retails for $4.99 while an 11 card 'power pack
' retails for $5.99. In comparison, a pack of Pokemon cards contains 10 cards per pack and retails for about $3.99. For the advanced rules, you will need a full deck of exactly 43 cards. If you just want to play the most basic rules for the game, a single 'power pack' is all you would need.
Another disadvantage is that you pretty much NEED to have the accessories that go with the cards, all of which come in a Championship Set
which retails for $29.99. The Championship Set comes with a total of 44 cards (a random 43 card deck with rare slots and a special 'Ky' card exclusive to the set) as well as a deck holder, a card screen which holds the cards in your hand shielding them from your opponent, and a battlefield tray in which you play your character and monster cards and, on top of your opponents character/monster cards, attacks.
Here's a youtube video I made opening up 3 of the Redakai 'Gold Packs' to get a hands on looks at these new cards (they look even cooler in person)!
I will likely be getting a hold of at least 1 booster box of each pack type (gold and power) as well as a championship and maybe a box of preconstructed decks
(which retail for $18.99each) and get a more complete first hand look and try playing the card game as well. Stay tuned to my youtube channel, menoknow3, for more videos about Redakai. If it becomes very big and popular, then future videos related to Redakai may be uploaded to the channel Redakai247.
Please take a second to comment and share your thoughts about this new card game!
Trading Card Game has finally been released as of June 4th, 2011, and is IN STOCK NOW on http://ToyGamingEmporium.com. Distributed by Spin Master (the same makers of hit toys like Bakugan, Mighty Beanz, and Zoobles) with expectations of Redakai quickly becoming more popular than Bakugan, many couldn't wait for this new trading card game to be released. It is the first trading card game with Blast 3D animation in EVERY card. These aren't your everyday cardboard trading cards either. Every card is made of plastic which helps with the 3D animation technology. Every card looks sharp and has its own animation built in. When playing the game and dealing out attacks, you can actually see the characters and monsters getting attacked and damaged. The game also uses a stacking mechanism which keeps track of all the damage automatically for you. No need to keep track of how much life you have left on a scrap piece of paper. However, there are of course downsides to this card game as well. Firstly, since all cards are plastic and more 'fancy' than most traditional trading cards, they cost more too. A 'gold pack
' which contains a total of 6 cards retails for $4.99 while an 11 card 'power pack' retails for $5.99. In comparison, a pack of Pokemon cards contains 10 cards per pack and retails for about $3.99. For the advanced rules, you will need a full deck of exactly 43 cards. If you just want to play the most basic rules for the game, a single 'power pack' is all you would need.Another disadvantage is that you pretty much NEED to have the accessories that go with the cards, all of which come in a Championship Set
which retails for $29.99. The Championship Set comes with a total of 44 cards (a random 43 card deck with rare slots and a special 'Ky' card exclusive to the set) as well as a deck holder, a card screen which holds the cards in your hand shielding them from your opponent, and a battlefield tray in which you play your character and monster cards and, on top of your opponents character/monster cards, attacks. Here's a youtube video I made opening up 3 of the Redakai 'Gold Packs' to get a hands on looks at these new cards (they look even cooler in person)!
I will likely be getting a hold of at least 1 booster box of each pack type (gold and power) as well as a championship and maybe a box of preconstructed decks
(which retail for $18.99each) and get a more complete first hand look and try playing the card game as well. Stay tuned to my youtube channel, menoknow3, for more videos about Redakai. If it becomes very big and popular, then future videos related to Redakai may be uploaded to the channel Redakai247.Please take a second to comment and share your thoughts about this new card game!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Disney Pixar Cars 2 Mighty Beanz Rolling Into A Store Near You!
With the Cars 2 Movie set to hit theaters in about a month (June 24th) a slew of merchandise associated with the movie hit major retailers big time this past week. A wide range of diecast cars, clothing, squinkies, and...the focus of this blog post... MIGHTY BEANZ!
The Cars set of Mighty Beanz consists of 54 Beanz. They come in packs of 4 beanz where 1 bean is visible. Those retail for about $5. There is also a Lightning McQueen tin which comes with 2 beanz and can hold about 40. That retails for about $20. If buying select singles is more your thing, then you'll want to check out MightyBeanz.biz for a selection of single Cars Beanz (along with a very wide selection from other Mighty Beanz sets as well)!
Thus far, with the set having just been released this week, many of the beanz do not yet seem to be available just yet. Here is what we've been able to compile for a checklist thus far:
1) Lightning McQueen
2) Luigi
3) Sarge
4) N/A
5) Guido
6) Fillmore
7) N/A
8) Sally
9) Cruisin Lightning McQueen
10) N/A
11) Ramone
12) Mater (New)
13) Mater
14) Flo
15) Sheriff
16) Lightning McQueen
17) N/A
18) Mater
19) N/A
20) Spy Mater
21) N/A
22) N/A
23) N/A
24) Snot Rod
25) Rescue Squad Mater
26) Mater the Greater
27) N/A
28) N/A
29) N/A
30) N/A
31) N/A
32) N/A
33) N/A
34) N/A
35) Piston Cup Trophy
36) N/A
37) N/A
38) N/A
39) N/A
40) N/A
41) N/A
42) N/A
43) N/A
44) N/A
45) N/A
46) N/A
47) N/A
48) N/A
49) N/A
50) N/A
51) N/A
52) N/A
53) N/A
54) N/A
If you want to see a more up close look at these new beanz, then watch the video below to watch us unbox a few packs of the Cars Mighty Beanz. Be sure to watch the whole thing though...that is if you like FREE stuff and want to know how to be qualified to have a chance at winning a FREE sealed pack of Cars Mighty Beanz!
Movie set to hit theaters in about a month (June 24th) a slew of merchandise associated with the movie hit major retailers big time this past week. A wide range of diecast cars, clothing, squinkies, and...the focus of this blog post... MIGHTY BEANZ!The Cars set of Mighty Beanz consists of 54 Beanz. They come in packs of 4 beanz where 1 bean is visible. Those retail for about $5. There is also a Lightning McQueen tin which comes with 2 beanz and can hold about 40. That retails for about $20. If buying select singles is more your thing, then you'll want to check out MightyBeanz.biz for a selection of single Cars Beanz (along with a very wide selection from other Mighty Beanz sets as well)!
Thus far, with the set having just been released this week, many of the beanz do not yet seem to be available just yet. Here is what we've been able to compile for a checklist thus far:
1) Lightning McQueen
2) Luigi
3) Sarge
4) N/A
5) Guido
6) Fillmore
7) N/A
8) Sally
9) Cruisin Lightning McQueen
10) N/A
11) Ramone
12) Mater (New)
13) Mater
14) Flo
15) Sheriff
16) Lightning McQueen
17) N/A
18) Mater
19) N/A
20) Spy Mater
21) N/A
22) N/A
23) N/A
24) Snot Rod
25) Rescue Squad Mater
26) Mater the Greater
27) N/A
28) N/A
29) N/A
30) N/A
31) N/A
32) N/A
33) N/A
34) N/A
35) Piston Cup Trophy
36) N/A
37) N/A
38) N/A
39) N/A
40) N/A
41) N/A
42) N/A
43) N/A
44) N/A
45) N/A
46) N/A
47) N/A
48) N/A
49) N/A
50) N/A
51) N/A
52) N/A
53) N/A
54) N/A
If you want to see a more up close look at these new beanz, then watch the video below to watch us unbox a few packs of the Cars Mighty Beanz. Be sure to watch the whole thing though...that is if you like FREE stuff and want to know how to be qualified to have a chance at winning a FREE sealed pack of Cars Mighty Beanz!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Gomu Collectible Erasers ... New for 2011!
A new year is upon us and with that comes all sorts of new toy releases. With the story of our e-commerce journey so far completed, we can now move on to discussing various toy lines during the coming weeks, months, and years! Many of the toys we discuss will be available on our website, ToyGamingEmporium.com and/or our eBay and Amazon store. Links for those and other sites of ours can be found in the side margin here on the blog.
The first toy we will be discussing is 'Gomu.' They are small collectible erasers which retail for about $1 each. We first spotted them at a Wal-Mart in late December and they are just now starting to pop up at more locations. Targets are currently resetting their toy aisles (each Target seems to have a slightly different schedule as some I've been to have all the aisles reset and others are part way through the process) and, once they do so, are also stocking Gomu now.
Currently, it looks like there will be at least 3 different types of packaging for Gomu. Single packs for which you can't see what you are getting which retails for $1. 3-packs in which 2 are visible and 1 is a hidden mystery which retails for $3. Lastly, 6-packs which have 4 showing and 2 hidden which retails for $5.
In this first release of Gomu there are over 100 to collect. Checking the collector guide on gomu.com, it looks like there 107 erasers in all to be exact. Also on the collector guide, each collectible eraser has its own 'Gomu Point Value.' The higher the point value, the more rare and valuable the eraser is. There are a few which have a value of just 5 gomu points. The rarest is a Gold Key on a Blue Key chain, worth 10,000 gomu points.
We opened a whole box of 35 single packs (which we did in a total of 4 videos which will be uploaded to youtube...the 1st part can be seen below) of Gomu Collectible Erasers. The rarest we got, based on the Gomu point values, is a yellow drum set with red trim. It is worth 550 points. Got a couple others over 500 points as well.
Every Gomu Eraser comes in 3 varieties with different rarities and point values. For instance, the duck Gomu eraser comes in yellow, purple and blue. The yellow is 65 points, the purple is 215 points, and the blue is 365 points. The rarest of the 3 colors seems to always be a bit translucent. An example of this would be the blue bird (penguin?) we got in the video embedded above.
A very unique feature with these erasers is that they can be taken apart and even mixed with another eraser of the same type. In general, each piece is one solid color. Thus, if an eraser has multiple colors, it also has multiple pieces. In the fashion categoy there are 3 different girl's shoes. All of them are white but also have a colored bow and bottom...either blue, green, or pink. So, if you got the blue and green one, you could switch the bows on the 2 shoes so that 1 would have a blue bow with green bottom and the other would have a green bow with a blue bottom. Others have many more parts/pieces than that, so if you get all 3 different of an alike eraser you make have dozens or more different combinations you can create.
Being that these are actual erasers, Gomu can be considered a school supply and thus is something kids should actually be able to take to school and trade with their friends (not during class though!). This should give them extra appeal as many other small collectibles have been banned in many schools such as Silly Bandz. I'm sure if these become extremely popular and ultimately become a distraction in schools, they could get banned as well though...you never know.
Commercials for these have started airing on channels like Nickelodeon and it seems that it's pretty catchy. Gomu GOMU G-G-G-GOMU! So, if your kids don't know about these yet, they probably will very soon either from seeing the commercial or a friend of their's that has seen the commercial and/or has some of them already.
We will be adding a limited selection of these to our website within a few days at ToyGamingEmporium.com. If they do well we will bring in additional quantity and thus larger variety/selection.
Also subscribe to our youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/menoknow3, and check back in the coming days for additional Gomu Pack Opening videos. Should have all 4 parts uploaded by Monday at the latest.
Please comment below and let us know what you think about this new collectible toy!
The first toy we will be discussing is 'Gomu.' They are small collectible erasers which retail for about $1 each. We first spotted them at a Wal-Mart in late December and they are just now starting to pop up at more locations. Targets are currently resetting their toy aisles (each Target seems to have a slightly different schedule as some I've been to have all the aisles reset and others are part way through the process) and, once they do so, are also stocking Gomu now.
Currently, it looks like there will be at least 3 different types of packaging for Gomu. Single packs for which you can't see what you are getting which retails for $1. 3-packs in which 2 are visible and 1 is a hidden mystery which retails for $3. Lastly, 6-packs which have 4 showing and 2 hidden which retails for $5.
In this first release of Gomu there are over 100 to collect. Checking the collector guide on gomu.com, it looks like there 107 erasers in all to be exact. Also on the collector guide, each collectible eraser has its own 'Gomu Point Value.' The higher the point value, the more rare and valuable the eraser is. There are a few which have a value of just 5 gomu points. The rarest is a Gold Key on a Blue Key chain, worth 10,000 gomu points.
We opened a whole box of 35 single packs (which we did in a total of 4 videos which will be uploaded to youtube...the 1st part can be seen below) of Gomu Collectible Erasers. The rarest we got, based on the Gomu point values, is a yellow drum set with red trim. It is worth 550 points. Got a couple others over 500 points as well.
Every Gomu Eraser comes in 3 varieties with different rarities and point values. For instance, the duck Gomu eraser comes in yellow, purple and blue. The yellow is 65 points, the purple is 215 points, and the blue is 365 points. The rarest of the 3 colors seems to always be a bit translucent. An example of this would be the blue bird (penguin?) we got in the video embedded above.
A very unique feature with these erasers is that they can be taken apart and even mixed with another eraser of the same type. In general, each piece is one solid color. Thus, if an eraser has multiple colors, it also has multiple pieces. In the fashion categoy there are 3 different girl's shoes. All of them are white but also have a colored bow and bottom...either blue, green, or pink. So, if you got the blue and green one, you could switch the bows on the 2 shoes so that 1 would have a blue bow with green bottom and the other would have a green bow with a blue bottom. Others have many more parts/pieces than that, so if you get all 3 different of an alike eraser you make have dozens or more different combinations you can create.
Being that these are actual erasers, Gomu can be considered a school supply and thus is something kids should actually be able to take to school and trade with their friends (not during class though!). This should give them extra appeal as many other small collectibles have been banned in many schools such as Silly Bandz. I'm sure if these become extremely popular and ultimately become a distraction in schools, they could get banned as well though...you never know.
Commercials for these have started airing on channels like Nickelodeon and it seems that it's pretty catchy. Gomu GOMU G-G-G-GOMU! So, if your kids don't know about these yet, they probably will very soon either from seeing the commercial or a friend of their's that has seen the commercial and/or has some of them already.
We will be adding a limited selection of these to our website within a few days at ToyGamingEmporium.com. If they do well we will bring in additional quantity and thus larger variety/selection.
Also subscribe to our youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/menoknow3, and check back in the coming days for additional Gomu Pack Opening videos. Should have all 4 parts uploaded by Monday at the latest.
Please comment below and let us know what you think about this new collectible toy!
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Our E-Commerce Journey So Far...Part 7 (The Final Chapter!)
In February of 2010, I started buying and selling Mighty Beanz. I actually discovered these thanks to a friend of mine who I helped educate about selling on eBay and such and he informed me about Mighty Beanz. For the vast majority of 2010, Mighty beanz have been my top grossing seller. However, in August 2010, with no real 'fall back' lines that were doing anywhere near the sales Mighty beanz was, I actually attended a job fair at United Health Group to became a customer service rep for those on Medicare and such. I got the job which I started on August 16th. Kept my website, http://ToyGamingEmporium.com up and running, my amazon seller account, and eBay store, and my girlfriend took over the pack/shipping of all orders. However, with my hours tied up at a J-O-B and then not wanting to do much other work related stuff when I got home, things didn't relisted as often, new items weren't acquired, and sales across the board quickly dipped. After being at the job for about 5 weeks I did some number crunching and figured that the paycheck I was bringing in was only marginally better than my loss of sales on the flip side. So, I concluded that all I was really gaining was better and cheaper health insurance, more stress, and less happiness. After discussing with my girlfriend and consulting with my parents, I left the job at the end of September...after about 6 weeks. Working for someone else just isn't me and this world of e-commerce is my true passion and true calling.
While I still had the job, I actually had some new revenue streams open up I didn't previously have as well to give me a little more safety as far as income goes. Launched a new website for just Mighty beanz at http://MightyBeanz.biz which I'll be adding a lot more stuff (Mighty beanz of course) to over the coming weeks. Also became a YouTube partner literally days after starting my job. Hope to grow that all we can to make the a more prominent revenue stream. It's also a great source of marketing for us and all the various toys I sell. You can see some of our videos off to the side here on the blog and within some of our blog posts. Our future blog posts will focus on current/hot toys and most will be accompanied by a YouTube video we do featuring that product. This series of posts about our e-commerce journey so far wound up being longer than I anticipated so am excited to start doing posts about toys going forward!
We've come a long way in the past 5+ years. Just finished up the latest holiday season with better results than ever before. There wasn't one real breakout hit toys like Zhu Zhu Pets last year but a wide range of hot toys instead. We did very well with Sing-A-Ma-Jigs, Beyblade Metal Fusion, Mighty Beanz
, Zoobles, Halo Mega Bloks
, Teacup Piggies, and more. In prior years our only sales channel was eBay. This year, we added amazon, http://ToyGamingEmporium.com and very recently http://Mightybeanz.biz. With today being Christmas, obviously the holiday rush is officially over so naturally things will slow back down now. Was hard keeping up with orders the past few weeks so wasn't able to relist everything as quickly as usual and our eBay store really decreased as amazon took up a lot of our time. Now, with sales slowing, will need to work on relisting/restocking all our channels, adding additional products and product lines, and anxiously await what 2011 will bring us.
Be sure to follow our blog and stay tuned for new posts about new and hot toys. You can also find links to our selling channels and social networking pages in the left margins here of the blog :-)
. I actually discovered these thanks to a friend of mine who I helped educate about selling on eBay and such and he informed me about Mighty Beanz. For the vast majority of 2010, Mighty beanz have been my top grossing seller. However, in August 2010, with no real 'fall back' lines that were doing anywhere near the sales Mighty beanz was, I actually attended a job fair at United Health Group to became a customer service rep for those on Medicare and such. I got the job which I started on August 16th. Kept my website, http://ToyGamingEmporium.com up and running, my amazon seller account, and eBay store, and my girlfriend took over the pack/shipping of all orders. However, with my hours tied up at a J-O-B and then not wanting to do much other work related stuff when I got home, things didn't relisted as often, new items weren't acquired, and sales across the board quickly dipped. After being at the job for about 5 weeks I did some number crunching and figured that the paycheck I was bringing in was only marginally better than my loss of sales on the flip side. So, I concluded that all I was really gaining was better and cheaper health insurance, more stress, and less happiness. After discussing with my girlfriend and consulting with my parents, I left the job at the end of September...after about 6 weeks. Working for someone else just isn't me and this world of e-commerce is my true passion and true calling.While I still had the job, I actually had some new revenue streams open up I didn't previously have as well to give me a little more safety as far as income goes. Launched a new website for just Mighty beanz at http://MightyBeanz.biz which I'll be adding a lot more stuff (Mighty beanz of course) to over the coming weeks. Also became a YouTube partner literally days after starting my job. Hope to grow that all we can to make the a more prominent revenue stream. It's also a great source of marketing for us and all the various toys I sell. You can see some of our videos off to the side here on the blog and within some of our blog posts. Our future blog posts will focus on current/hot toys and most will be accompanied by a YouTube video we do featuring that product. This series of posts about our e-commerce journey so far wound up being longer than I anticipated so am excited to start doing posts about toys going forward!
We've come a long way in the past 5+ years. Just finished up the latest holiday season with better results than ever before. There wasn't one real breakout hit toys like Zhu Zhu Pets
last year but a wide range of hot toys instead. We did very well with Sing-A-Ma-Jigs, Beyblade Metal Fusion, Mighty Beanz, Zoobles, Halo Mega Bloks, Teacup Piggies, and more. In prior years our only sales channel was eBay. This year, we added amazon, http://ToyGamingEmporium.com and very recently http://Mightybeanz.biz. With today being Christmas, obviously the holiday rush is officially over so naturally things will slow back down now. Was hard keeping up with orders the past few weeks so wasn't able to relist everything as quickly as usual and our eBay store really decreased as amazon took up a lot of our time. Now, with sales slowing, will need to work on relisting/restocking all our channels, adding additional products and product lines, and anxiously await what 2011 will bring us.Be sure to follow our blog and stay tuned for new posts about new and hot toys. You can also find links to our selling channels and social networking pages in the left margins here of the blog :-)
Friday, December 10, 2010
Our E-Commerce Journey So Far...Part 6
With all my inventory taking over my parents house, it was time to consider getting my own place. Luckily, 1st time home buyers at this time were eligible for an $8,000 credit...so that made it seem like an even better idea!
My dad actually did the legwork of finding places and viewing them. After he saw a few he took me to take a look at the ones he thought were worthwhile. The very first one I looked at seemed to work great for me. 1 story with good square footage...which translates into a spacious garage which is a very high priority for me and all my 'stuff.' Looked at others but ultimately went with that first house.
Having my own place meant having more space...way more space than I had in that efficiency apartment in college (check the previous blog posts for videos of it!). Naturally, I've filled it with more and more stuff since moving in. In a way...I guess I'm kind of like a fish. I believe most (maybe all?) fish will grow bigger if they have a bigger tank. If you keep them in a small fish bowl they won't grow all that much. Put them in a larger tank, and they will grow larger. I've gone from a college dorm room with a roommate to an efficiency apartment, to having basically half or more of my parents house for storage, to having my own place, but as my space grows so does my inventory and I never seem to have enough space. If I get a 5,000 square foot warehouse sometime in the near future, I'm sure within 1-2 years of getting that I'd be running out of space there too.
Anyways...back to the actual products and business itself! After the holiday season of 2009 nothing was really standing out to me as the next big thing to sell. Webkinz were big for me in 2007. Bakugan were big for me in 2008 and still do a fair amount with that line. And November/December of 2009, Zhu Zhu Pets were a huge success for me. Caught wind of them a little late, so, in order to acquire adequate inventory, I'd go to Target and Shopko (shopko is only really in the upper midwest so many of you may know nothing of that store) for 8am open every day to check for restocks of zhu zhu pets. I made some occasional big hauls. In early December every Shopko got a big stock of zhu zhu pets in the same day and I have 5 Shopko stores within 10-15 miles of me. I came away with a few dozens hamsters and 40+ of the starter sets which included Patches the Hamster. Those cost $20 or $25 and sold super fast for $45-50. However, after Christmas most retailers ended up with massive supply of zhu zhu pets and the secondary market on them died...at least if your goal was to make a profit.
Now...the question was...."what's the next big thing." I was getting by on other stuff but nothing stood out as something that could bring in 25-50% or more of my total sales and be my niche of the year or longer. With the future looking uncertain....I actually started looking at the want ads and applying for J-O-B-S....
My dad actually did the legwork of finding places and viewing them. After he saw a few he took me to take a look at the ones he thought were worthwhile. The very first one I looked at seemed to work great for me. 1 story with good square footage...which translates into a spacious garage which is a very high priority for me and all my 'stuff.' Looked at others but ultimately went with that first house.
Having my own place meant having more space...way more space than I had in that efficiency apartment in college (check the previous blog posts for videos of it!). Naturally, I've filled it with more and more stuff since moving in. In a way...I guess I'm kind of like a fish. I believe most (maybe all?) fish will grow bigger if they have a bigger tank. If you keep them in a small fish bowl they won't grow all that much. Put them in a larger tank, and they will grow larger. I've gone from a college dorm room with a roommate to an efficiency apartment, to having basically half or more of my parents house for storage, to having my own place, but as my space grows so does my inventory and I never seem to have enough space. If I get a 5,000 square foot warehouse sometime in the near future, I'm sure within 1-2 years of getting that I'd be running out of space there too.
Anyways...back to the actual products and business itself! After the holiday season of 2009 nothing was really standing out to me as the next big thing to sell. Webkinz
were big for me in 2007. Bakugan were big for me in 2008 and still do a fair amount with that line. And November/December of 2009, Zhu Zhu Pets were a huge success for me. Caught wind of them a little late, so, in order to acquire adequate inventory, I'd go to Target and Shopko (shopko is only really in the upper midwest so many of you may know nothing of that store) for 8am open every day to check for restocks of zhu zhu pets. I made some occasional big hauls. In early December every Shopko got a big stock of zhu zhu pets in the same day and I have 5 Shopko stores within 10-15 miles of me. I came away with a few dozens hamsters and 40+ of the starter sets which included Patches the Hamster. Those cost $20 or $25 and sold super fast for $45-50. However, after Christmas most retailers ended up with massive supply of zhu zhu pets and the secondary market on them died...at least if your goal was to make a profit. Now...the question was...."what's the next big thing." I was getting by on other stuff but nothing stood out as something that could bring in 25-50% or more of my total sales and be my niche of the year or longer. With the future looking uncertain....I actually started looking at the want ads and applying for J-O-B-S....
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Our E-Commerce Journey So Far...Part 5
With my eBay account suspended in the midst of end of semester projects and upcoming finals, I didn't really have the time to go through all the necessary hoops to get the account reinstated. Once my semester ended and I was back at my parent's for winter break I had the time to look more into it. However, 1 of the steps involved faxing in some paper work which I didn't have easy access to. I was unable to do that until the following semester started and I faxed in what I needed on campus. About a month later in mid February, I finally had my account back. If I remember right, all my listing templates and such were gone so I basically had to relist everything from scratch, but at least I was back up and running!
Sparing much of the detail, the rest of my time at college the business continued to grow with additional product lines and thus additional inventory in my efficiency apartment. By the time I graduated in May of 2008...well....I'll let the video do the talking (sorry about the camera work...especially when I turn the camera sideways multiple times forgetting that only works for pictures)....
To get a better feel for the growth, check the video in part 3 to see what the apartment looked like after my 1st semester there. The above video is after 2 years (4 semesters).
Needless to say, moving everything out of that apartment was no easy task..especially with home, my parents house, being nearly a 3 hour drive each way. Roughly...I believe we filled up a van 3 or 4 times and filled up a standard 4 door car for at least another 5-6 times. My dad would come down about once a week or so for the few weeks leading up to the end of the semester and I'd make trips home and back as well on the weekends.
Once I was back at my parents and settled, the business of course continued with orders constantly coming and going and the business, before long, overtook my parents house. Half of the living room was my office space with my desk, a few 5-tier shelving units and a few 3-drawer carts with various inventory on and in them. The 2 car garage became a 1 car garage and my dad and I both kept our cars outside in the driveway to allow more space for inventory. The basement gathered lots of inventory as did my bedroom. Eventually, my dad purchased a shed to put in the back yard against the garage in an attempt to be able to get 2 cars in the garage again in time for winter.
To get a small taste of how the house ended up, here's a short clip of our cat (RIP) howling in the hallway where everyone regularly walks through. So, just image how the basement, garage, etc looked!
Now, don't get me wrong, my parents did and do love me, but all the clutter, not really being able to have company over, etc really did it's number and they wanted me, or at least my stuff, elsewhere.....
Sparing much of the detail, the rest of my time at college the business continued to grow with additional product lines and thus additional inventory in my efficiency apartment. By the time I graduated in May of 2008...well....I'll let the video do the talking (sorry about the camera work...especially when I turn the camera sideways multiple times forgetting that only works for pictures)....
To get a better feel for the growth, check the video in part 3 to see what the apartment looked like after my 1st semester there. The above video is after 2 years (4 semesters).
Needless to say, moving everything out of that apartment was no easy task..especially with home, my parents house, being nearly a 3 hour drive each way. Roughly...I believe we filled up a van 3 or 4 times and filled up a standard 4 door car for at least another 5-6 times. My dad would come down about once a week or so for the few weeks leading up to the end of the semester and I'd make trips home and back as well on the weekends.
Once I was back at my parents and settled, the business of course continued with orders constantly coming and going and the business, before long, overtook my parents house. Half of the living room was my office space with my desk, a few 5-tier shelving units and a few 3-drawer carts with various inventory on and in them. The 2 car garage became a 1 car garage and my dad and I both kept our cars outside in the driveway to allow more space for inventory. The basement gathered lots of inventory as did my bedroom. Eventually, my dad purchased a shed to put in the back yard against the garage in an attempt to be able to get 2 cars in the garage again in time for winter.
To get a small taste of how the house ended up, here's a short clip of our cat (RIP) howling in the hallway where everyone regularly walks through. So, just image how the basement, garage, etc looked!
Now, don't get me wrong, my parents did and do love me, but all the clutter, not really being able to have company over, etc really did it's number and they wanted me, or at least my stuff, elsewhere.....
Friday, December 3, 2010
Our E-Commerce Journey So Far...Part 4
As we left off in our previous post...Neopets was fading as a source of income due to rising costs and limited liability. Come April 2007, we finally found our next primary product line....
At that time (April 2007) I was home, at my parents house, for spring break (exiting I know). Browsing around at the local mall I passed by a gift store which typically carried a lot of various hot and fad-esque items. At the very front of the store they had a fairly large display which included a small TV which, on a loop, was explaining more about the product. That product...was Webkinz. What got me very interested in them very quickly was the simple fact that each one came with code (to access their online world). I did very well with Neopets strictly because of the codes that came in the packs, so naturally these Webkinz were very intriguing to me. So, I jotted down 'webkinz' on a piece of paper and looked into them further online when I got home.
Longer story shortened...they appeared to be profitable so I began acquiring them. At that point they were already fairly high in popularity and you couldn't just walk into any store that sold them and expect to find a wide selection. Often times many stores that carried them would be completely sold out. During spring break I probably acquired around 200-250 of them or so. More than enough to 'test the waters' first hand.
As I sold more of them and became more known as a seller of them and got a nice amount of repeat buyers coming back often, I needed to be able to get larger quantities more easily. Preferably, also at a lower price than the various retail outlets I was acquiring them from up to that point. I was able to find a couple sources from which I could buy them by the case (36 of the same webkinz per case) for a much more reasonable cost than retail so went with it. I didn't buy anything and everything though as some sold much better than others. 36 of the same webkinz for certain styles could take awhile to sell through and/or have very slim profit margins.
Things went well and that meant more and more inventory coming in and accumulating as well. Things got even better with Webkinz when a lightbulb finally clicked on. My previous primary seller was selling neopets virtual prize codes and then typing/emailing the codes. Well...with webkinz, the code is the primary draw and many people have more than enough plush toys as it is. Thus, many would rather bypass getting the plush, saving the shipping costs, and just having the codes emailed. That helped grow sales on Webkinz all the more as I would list them both as plush with unused code included and also as code only via email.
Now, that was all well and good...or so I thought. I must have missed or overlooked an eBay rule or policy change or something at some point. On December 4th, 2007, I received an email from eBay which started as follows:
"Dear menoknow3,
Your eBay account has been suspended for a minimum of seven days due to a violation of the eBay Copyright Violation - Unauthorized Item policy. We suspended your account after carefully considering each violation and verifying that the correct action was taken."
and the following primary bits of info...
"eBay prohibits the sale of virtual items or related software that violate copyrights."
"All of your current listings have been removed from eBay."
"You are not allowed to use eBay in any way during your suspension."
Timing obviously couldn't be worse...3 weeks before Christmas and in the middle of the holiday sales rush. Also didn't help that when all that happened, anybody that had bought from me within the past day or two which didn't get their order shipped yet...well....my eBay items awaiting shipment was wiped clean. However, I was first informed by phone by someone from eBay that my account was getting suspended. While on the phone, I asked if I'd be able to access my eBay account to fill currently existing orders and was told that I would not be able to access my eBay account in anyway, only paypal. So, I made sure I had the phone call last long enough for me to print off all my 'items awaiting shipment' list on eBay so I could use gmail's search for those users that I had unshipped orders for and see if they still wanted me to ship or if they preferred I simply refunded instead. I had over 50 orders awaiting shipment so that was no quick/easy task even with a 'cheat sheet' so I knew who I all had to contact. Especially being that at the time I was a senior in college with the 1st semester in it's last couple of weeks with multiple group projects and such I was in the middle of. It appeared as if my Christmas wasn't going to be as merry as planned :-(
was fading as a source of income due to rising costs and limited liability. Come April 2007, we finally found our next primary product line....At that time (April 2007) I was home, at my parents house, for spring break (exiting I know). Browsing around at the local mall I passed by a gift store which typically carried a lot of various hot and fad-esque items. At the very front of the store they had a fairly large display which included a small TV which, on a loop, was explaining more about the product. That product...was Webkinz
. What got me very interested in them very quickly was the simple fact that each one came with code (to access their online world). I did very well with Neopets strictly because of the codes that came in the packs, so naturally these Webkinz were very intriguing to me. So, I jotted down 'webkinz' on a piece of paper and looked into them further online when I got home.Longer story shortened...they appeared to be profitable so I began acquiring them. At that point they were already fairly high in popularity and you couldn't just walk into any store that sold them and expect to find a wide selection. Often times many stores that carried them would be completely sold out. During spring break I probably acquired around 200-250 of them or so. More than enough to 'test the waters' first hand.
As I sold more of them and became more known as a seller of them and got a nice amount of repeat buyers coming back often, I needed to be able to get larger quantities more easily. Preferably, also at a lower price than the various retail outlets I was acquiring them from up to that point. I was able to find a couple sources from which I could buy them by the case (36 of the same webkinz per case) for a much more reasonable cost than retail so went with it. I didn't buy anything and everything though as some sold much better than others. 36 of the same webkinz for certain styles could take awhile to sell through and/or have very slim profit margins.
Things went well and that meant more and more inventory coming in and accumulating as well. Things got even better with Webkinz when a lightbulb finally clicked on. My previous primary seller was selling neopets virtual prize codes and then typing/emailing the codes. Well...with webkinz, the code is the primary draw and many people have more than enough plush toys as it is. Thus, many would rather bypass getting the plush, saving the shipping costs, and just having the codes emailed. That helped grow sales on Webkinz all the more as I would list them both as plush with unused code included and also as code only via email.
Now, that was all well and good...or so I thought. I must have missed or overlooked an eBay rule or policy change or something at some point. On December 4th, 2007, I received an email from eBay which started as follows:
"Dear menoknow3,
Your eBay account has been suspended for a minimum of seven days due to a violation of the eBay Copyright Violation - Unauthorized Item policy. We suspended your account after carefully considering each violation and verifying that the correct action was taken."
and the following primary bits of info...
"eBay prohibits the sale of virtual items or related software that violate copyrights."
"All of your current listings have been removed from eBay."
"You are not allowed to use eBay in any way during your suspension."
Timing obviously couldn't be worse...3 weeks before Christmas and in the middle of the holiday sales rush. Also didn't help that when all that happened, anybody that had bought from me within the past day or two which didn't get their order shipped yet...well....my eBay items awaiting shipment was wiped clean. However, I was first informed by phone by someone from eBay that my account was getting suspended. While on the phone, I asked if I'd be able to access my eBay account to fill currently existing orders and was told that I would not be able to access my eBay account in anyway, only paypal. So, I made sure I had the phone call last long enough for me to print off all my 'items awaiting shipment' list on eBay so I could use gmail's search for those users that I had unshipped orders for and see if they still wanted me to ship or if they preferred I simply refunded instead. I had over 50 orders awaiting shipment so that was no quick/easy task even with a 'cheat sheet' so I knew who I all had to contact. Especially being that at the time I was a senior in college with the 1st semester in it's last couple of weeks with multiple group projects and such I was in the middle of. It appeared as if my Christmas wasn't going to be as merry as planned :-(
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