I recently opened up a Bricklink store. I'm not really expecting business anytime soon, because at the moment my feedback is 2, and I only have 3 old Star Wars sets for sale. I was thinking of listing some parts and minifigs, and it got me thinking. I don't really intend on being a large seller, or putting all my parts for sale. I really just want to be able to sell some random stuff that I won't use. (For example: Why did I ever think I needed so many stormtroopers?) What I'm wondering is, are there any other "small sellers" on these boards like this, who have had luck just listing small amounts of parts and figs? How long after you started listing parts did you start getting orders? Do people even bother to order from places with a small selection? Obviously I need to get some more feedback going before people are going to buy anything from me, but I'm just curious about the general viability of a "limited selection" Bricklink store.
Side note: This is kind of a stretch, but the reason I posted this here is that the Fantasy Era Castle sets have caught my fancy. I'm coming out of a mini-dark age that began around 2003, and I'm trying to find ways to drum up cash for some of these excellent new sets. From the looks of the prices on Bricklink, I could probably buy the entire Castle line just by selling all my stupid SW minifigs!
I own a small but thriving Bricklink store mostly to sell my unwanted figs and parts to make some money to fund my actual building projects. My advice for you is to list your items in the low end of the price spectrum and acquire some more feedback as a buyer to secure your reputation as a trustworthy member to sell things. When I first opened my store a year ago, I had a feedback of 50 and listed about $500 worth of minifigs and sold half of that within 24 hours. People will find your store through the price guide and the items-for-sale list if you have good prices.
If you can live with selling unwanted things at a lower, more competitive price, then by all means consider doing that. Particularly if you are like Nannan and simply want to put some cash in your pocket to buy things you want for projects.
Just run the numbers and see what the figs are currently selling at, and then figure out what your comfort level is. If buying is slow, you can speed up the pace by dropping prices here and there to catch more attention.
It is a good idea for growing stores to price competitively as well so that they have faster turnaround. That said, it never hurts to have low prices when you're well established either, but as your selection and volume increases, it will be easier to attract buyers. Making select items more affordable will keep people coming back, though.
Ours is a relatively new store (LibertyBRICK)... during the last two weeks we were quite busy filling orders, and now traffic and business has stopped. When you're smaller, I think you're more likely to have quiet spells on top of the effect that a low feedback rating has.
Low prices on high demand parts will sell by themselves. However, if you're trying to sell off basic parts, you need a larger inventory as people tend to just tack those onto orders for more specific parts.
