Since I don't want this post to be nothing more than a "Hey I've been doing stuff and I'm not going to talk about it" kind of entry, I figure that now is a good time to share another part of the Customized Steampunk Nerf Gun "adventure".In my absence from writing about them, I've managed to create and sell quite a few custom ray guns. Also, for the first time in awhile, I actually have a little bit of a stock of completed guns ready to sell. Go me for being pseudo-productive.
When I last left off in Part 7, I had just completed a couple of customized prop guns with designs that were quite similar to actual firearms and had listed them for sale on my Etsy account. Well, after a little while with no sales, I decided to put them up on eBay (since I had great success there in the past with my creations). Big mistake. This must have been one of the great blunders that a prop maker could perform.
It turns out that if a prop looks too much like an actual gun, it has to have an orange plug and/or orange markings to be able to sell it on eBay. Otherwise, they will remove your listing, notify any bidders that you had that you're a bad person, and put a big red mark on your account. Needless to say, the guns were pulled down. So I was forced to do something that I had wanted to avoid all together. Put orange on a prop gun that wasn't part of the design. After complying with eBay policy, I was then able to list and sell the two guns the second time through. They didn't pull in as much as they were getting before they were yanked, but at least they sold and the buyers were happy with their purchases.
After the "Orange Marking Fiasco" and managing to sell the "PT-37 Phase Rifle" (pictured above), a dieselpunk dihydrogen monoxide ray gun, without any markings, I figured it was smooth sailing. Open mouth. Insert foot. When I attempted to sell a follow-up version to the "Gentleman's Pistol", I realized that I missed one extra bit of policy that eBay likes to throw around some times. All look-alike and prop firearms are not allowed to offer non-domestic shipping. Since I was offering worldwide shipping, the listing got yanked. So I decided to give Etsy another chance to sell one of my props and listed it there. Shortly afterward, the "Gentleman's Pistol MK-II" (pictured below) sold as a birthday present for a girl's boyfriend. He was happy with it, so it proved that Etsy could be a good market for these things.
At the same time that the "Gentleman's Pistol MK-II" was being pulled from eBay, I did manage to successfully sell the "Model No. 239 Blaster", a steampunk dihydrogen monoxide blaster.
Intent on not risking the possibility of making the same mistakes twice, I knew I only had a few options ahead of me.
- Sell on Etsy. No orange markings/plugs needed and I could offer International shipping, but sales were hit or miss.
- Sell on eBay the safe way. I'd have to put markings/plugs on the guns and only sell to the United States to keep my account from getting suspended, but sales were pretty much guaranteed.
- Sell on eBay the risky way. Leave the markings/plugs off the guns and continue offering International shipping. I know I'd get better money out of them, but risk getting my account suspended with another policy violation. I've since looked at the policy more in depth and discovered eBay only requires orange markings/plugs if the prop gun looks like a real gun (i.e. put markings on it if it looks like a .357 magnum, but you can leave them off if it actually looks like a ray gun).
- Quit selling the guns altogether and move on to something else. Slightly tempting, but then I'd have to figure out what to do with the pile of toy guns in my studio.
- Sell on eBay the safe way until a few of the policy violations drop off my account and sell the questionable guns on Etsy.
The amount I was getting had dropped, but I was still selling. So I continued to put the orange markings on the prop guns I was creating. Of course, just because I had to put markings on the guns, didn't mean I had to put large markings.
0 comments:
Post a Comment