Miniatures Sales are Crazy!

      Live sales can be very hectic at times. If you are relaxed you are likely moving too slowly. The people watching probably don't want to watch you search for your items or stand around saying "um" a lot. I try to prep for my live sales as much as I possibly can. Which is tricky if you are not completely sure what to expect. 

      For the miniatures sale I started off with my tripod all set up, with my clipboard of notes underneath. I had open, blank bags standing up, ready for name stickers or for me to write names on (if I didn't have a pre-made sticker). The sheets of name labels were off to the left. And all of my inventory was bagged and in order according to the PDF I posted last Monday. 

     The extra Breyer items I found at the last minute were stacked on my pillows and my (dead) battery pack for my phone was waiting just in case. It died about 30 seconds into using it before the live and I could not find the correct charger to get it ready. I had a feeling I might need it. 

     In total I had 89 individual items for sale. Most of them I had multiples of. My biggest fear was that showing 89 different items would take an incredibly long time. I was right about that. I also got a low battery notification on my phone when I still had a whole column of items to go. I had to run and get my charger and find an outlet the fairly short cord would reach. That little snafu completely messed me up. I had to move the claim bags to move the tripod and then the order was messed up. I started having trouble finding people's bags. I felt the live was dragging near the end, and not just because it was past the 3 hour mark.

     One of my customers described it as organized chaos. Which I feel sort of sums up my entire life. I am in fact incredibly organized. But things can, and do, get very chaotic.This is the other corner of the room after that sale. My knee pillows (which don't work like they claim, I still have back issues), my socks, empty bags and empty claim bags. I really do not have a ton of space but I use it the best way I can. 

     Something new I tried this time around, to save time and a bit of money for myself, was to do just a couple of larger prizes for share prizes. Facebook gives you a list of everyone who has shared your stuff publicly. So right after the live ended (really, it was within minutes) I went to the list and copied the names into a random name chooser wheel. And I took a video of each choosing. 

      It is quite fast to copy the names into the easy to use list that adds them to the wheel. And then you click, it spins and chooses, and afterwards if gives you the option of removing the winning name. Which made round 2 even easier. I really like the idea of giving somewhat larger prizes for sharing the video and I like this very easy way to do it. 

    There was still a lot more work to do, so I will talk more about the sale tomorrow.