Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: LuckyDuck on April 24, 2013, 05:08 am
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I've run several legit businesses but started a vendor account on SR because I see it could be far more lucrative. Except for one factor: getting burned.
From reading this forum, I realize a lot of irresponsible folks are buying on SR and failing to finalize, or asking for refunds.
On top of that, lots of new sellers are really scammers, taking money from buyers and not delivering product.
Now throw in the stated seller's policy that a seller should never ask anyone to finalize early.
My questions are:
1) AS A NEW VENDOR, HOW CAN I GET BUSINESS?
I see some of the Indian vendors giving stuff away; I can't afford to do this.
But I know folks will naturally be suspicious of me as a new vendor.
2) I've read the Seller's policy many times.
It seems the worst case scenario when a buyer fails to finalize, is that my funds
will be held in escrow for 17 days.
IS THAT A TRUE STATEMENT?
3) HEDGING/NOT HEDGING
I notice lots of vendors do NOT hedge. That seems unthinkable to me with the btc
being so volatile. WHY WOULD A VENDOR *NOT* HEDGE?
4) ANY ADVICE FROM VENDORS WELCOME.
Thanks!
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Hey LuckyDuck, if the site wasn't down I'd be just starting out as a vendor too, I feel I've grasped most aspects of buying/selling on the road, but I won't be speaking from experience, rather, how I'm planning to approach selling.
"1) AS A NEW VENDOR, HOW CAN I GET BUSINESS?
I see some of the Indian vendors giving stuff away; I can't afford to do this.
But I know folks will naturally be suspicious of me as a new vendor."
I'm planning to sell small 'tester' amounts at low prices to try and attract custom. This will minimize financial risk for both me and the buyer. I'm also planning to add extra doses for my first few customers to thank them for taking the plunge.
"2) I've read the Seller's policy many times.
It seems the worst case scenario when a buyer fails to finalize, is that my funds
will be held in escrow for 17 days.
IS THAT A TRUE STATEMENT?"
You've probably read it more times than me and as I can't access it right now, I can't verify that. In saying that, 17 days sounds about right, Ebay has a similar policy (28 days). It'd be only if the buyer opens a dispute, then auto-finalizing would be disabled.
"3) HEDGING/NOT HEDGING
I notice lots of vendors do NOT hedge. That seems unthinkable to me with the btc
being so volatile. WHY WOULD A VENDOR *NOT* HEDGE?"
It seems quite strange to me too. How do you know that lots of Vendors do not hedge?
Good luck for when SR's back up, hope you find it very lucrative.
Peace&Love
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It seems quite strange to me too. How do you know that lots of Vendors do not hedge?
When you place an order the system tells you if it is hedged or not.
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"I see it could be far more lucrative. Except for one factor: getting burned."
-----Use delivery confirmation so that you can show proof of delivery in resolution. As far as not finalizing goes, all orders auto-finalize after 17 days if the buyer does not enter into resolution.
"1) AS A NEW VENDOR, HOW CAN I GET BUSINESS?
I see some of the Indian vendors giving stuff away; I can't afford to do this."
That's the best way to do it. You don't have to give away a ton of freebies, but it's very helpful for a new vendor to offer a few. Even if you don't want to ship free samples, you can try offering bonuses to the first 10 buyers (for example - use whatever number you like). I'm not sure what your selling, so it's hard to give an example. Hypothetically, if it's weed, offer a free gram sample to your first 5 customers or offer an additional gram with purchase as a promo (again limit the number of buyers). If it's something like pills, then one pill is adequate for a sample (or adding an additional pill to each purchase if you prefer).
If you had the money to put out for a vendor account, then you should be able to offer SMALL freebies to your 1st 5-10 customers. Trust me; that will more than pay for itself in future sales.
The other option is to start out by pricing your items to be the cheapest on the road (within reason -- some listings are fake, so use street pricing as a guide). Once you've got some history under your belt, you can raise your prices.
"2) I've read the Seller's policy many times.
It seems the worst case scenario when a buyer fails to finalize, is that my funds
will be held in escrow for 17 days.
IS THAT A TRUE STATEMENT?"
-----Yes with a but. As I've said above, the buyer has the option of entering resolution in the last 4 days of that timeframe. If they do, the funds can be held in escrow for longer. In resolution, the buyer lists the reason that they are entering into resolution and proposes a solution (e.g. wait longer to receive, refund/reship, etc.). The seller can either accept or reject the buyer's request. If they can't reach agreement, then SR steps in (That's my understanding of the process -- in the 18 months or so that I've been purchasing here, I've only had to enter into resolution once and I agreed to extend the timeframe. The item arrived 4 days later and I finalized, so I didn't have to have SR moderate it).
"3) HEDGING/NOT HEDGING
I notice lots of vendors do NOT hedge. That seems unthinkable to me with the btc
being so volatile. WHY WOULD A VENDOR *NOT* HEDGE?"
-----This part I'm not crystal clear on. I *think* there are additional fees charged by SR for a hedged item (a percentage of it's price i believe). Hedging is only a factor in refunds and in cancellations, so some probably feel that not hedging is a risk worth taking (I wouldn't -- but that's me).
"4) ANY ADVICE FROM VENDORS WELCOME."
I'm not a vendor, but I am a long time buyer who's dealt with many vendors (legit and fake). I've also researched vending a lot because it's something that I've been considering doing for a long time now. I could do much better selling my wares here than on the street based on the prices I've seen, but the risk is so high, particularly for what I'd be selling.
My best advice is to scour the forum for research purposes. Don't sell to anyone with less than 5 transactions (and add a total dollars spent component
to that requirement -- it's easy to rack up a million "digital goods" transactions that are something like 0.01 or 0.001 btc in value -- this is worthless in judging a buyer's credibility).
I think that as a new vendor, you're not permitted to require FE from buyers that have little or no history (or anyone else), so I would carefully assess everyone's stats (buying stats are funny though -- since they're in btc, they are slightly misleading -- in my case, btc was trading for $5 or less when I first started here, and after about 6 months to a year of buying, it crept up to $10 and stayed between $10-15 for another few months before skyrocketing in value somewhere mid-2012 -- so at today's rates, it would appear that I've spent far more then I actually have in USD -- You have to factor in total transactions, how long the buyer has been a member, refund and auto-finalization rates, etc., all of which are available to you).
Don't send to anyone who your not comfortable selling to. Even if it's just a hunch. As a new vendor, I wouldn't accept orders from anyone who recently joined this site, anyone with limited transactions, and/or with a high auto-finalization or refund rates (or both).
Somewhere in the Rumor Mill section there are threads for bad buyers. You can search those, or you can just search the entire forum for a user's user name.
Above all, be cautious. Be wary of those who need you to "hold their hands" through the entire process. That's always a little suspicious.
You can try messaging other established vendors for the merchandise you plan on selling, but I wouldn't do that personally. If I were to do that, I would send them some coin 1st.
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Thanks for the tips, I'm interested in opening a vendor account but am uncertain as to how to navigate the first few transactions and attract customers early in the game.