J. Rose Online

I am only sharing my experiences in having a few of my own blog sales, purchasing from other blog sales and from running the Beauty Blog Sale Directory. Please take what you read here with a grain of salt. While some ideas may have worked for myself or for others, it may not be what's right for you.

With that in mind, continue reading....

As a seller, most of the time, your reasons for having a blog sale is to rid of your unused, unwanted makeup and to make a few bucks back on what you originally purchased your items for. Most of the time, if not all the time, you are not going to profit on anything you sell. Unless it is brand new and limited edition.

A few things to always remember is to be professional about your transactions, respond to emails in a timely matter and also ship out products in a timely matter. While blog sales may be an informal way to sell off your makeup, you're still engaging in a transaction involving the trade of money for goods and should be treated in a professional manner.

Some DOs as a seller:

- Be honest about the condition and provide a clear, good quality picture of item for sale

- Respond to email requests and/or questions in a timely matter

- Sanitize any and all used makeup you are going to sell

- Do ship as soon as you can

- Keep in contact with your buyer/s if there should be any delays in shipping

- Do purchase Delivery Confirmation (if I'm not mistaken, it's about $0.70-$0.85 for US) This is a requirement for Paypal Seller Protection Policy

- Explain your sale rules clearly. IE: How long they have to make payment, shipping charges, and if you sell internationally.

- Package the products in a way that they will not break during shipment.

- Don't sell used mascara, that is just so unsanitary

- Don't sell lipglosses that have been used on the lips and the wand has been re-dipped into the tube. Bacteria can harbor itself on the wand, again unsanitary

- Don't ask your buyers pay your Paypal fees

- Don't charge a ridiculous amount on shipping

- Don't make a new blog just for your blog sale, especially if it's just a one or two time thing (will explain more below)

- Don't be lazy! Send your buyer an invoice or money request. Don't make the buyer send you the money up front. It makes it easier for the buyer to just click on the email and log in to their paypal account to pay you.

Paypal Fees: On a few occasions, the seller asked for the buyer to pay the Paypal fees. It is a fee that Paypal charges you for receiving money whether it was sent to you because of a purchase of goods or services (either on eBay or a Paypal Invoice) or if someone sent you money as a gift. The only way to not get charged a fee is if the buyer is purchasing with funds already in their Paypal account. I rarely have funds in my Paypal account.

In my opinion a seller shouldn't ask their buyer to pay "their" Paypal fees. Asking someone to pay Paypal fees is like telling them, "I want to sale this item for $8, but I don't want to lose out on the $0.55 that Paypal is going to charge me, so you pay for it so that way I can make the full $8 at your expense." Really?!?! If you are concerned about Paypal fees, your best bet is to add or factor that fee into the bottom line price of your items you are selling on your blog sale. Think of it this way: Do people on eBay charge you a Paypal fee or ask you to pay their fees because it's a convenience fee to buy their items?

Still concerned about the few bucks (depending on the amount you sell) that Paypal will charge you to use their service, then change your payment terms to check, money order or concealed cash.

Reasons to use Paypal (and why they charge fees): Paypal offers a seller protection policy. If you ship to other Paypal users whose account has been verified and shipping addresses have been confirmed, you will be protected. What does this mean? It means that if the other person should dispute the sale and/or charge, you are protected and after investigation you may be qualified to not have those funds taken away from your account.

Paypal is easy and convenient. Since your Paypal account is linked to your bank account and/or credit card, you can easily send and receive money. It's the fastest way, right?

Pricing: Depending on the condition, don't charge a ridiculous amount for used makeup even if it was just used once or twice. For example, MAC Carbon eyeshadow is a permanent MAC eyeshadow color. A pro pan is $11 and the pot is $14.50, you probably won't get anyone interested in a price of $10 plus any shipping fees you may have. They can just go to their local MAC store or counter. Price your items reasonably.

But on the other hand, limited edition items may be worth a little more, even used. Obviously you can charge more for a Brand New in Box item. What I usually do is check eBay to see what the going price for limited edition goes for and price it below. I figure I would love to save my readers the hassle of going through eBay.

Don't make a new blog just for your blog sale. I don't know about you, but if I come across a blog sale (especially if it was re-tweeted, posted on someones blog other than the blog sale owner or a link from the Beauty Blog Sale Directory) and it was just a posting of stuff for sale, I'll get a little skeptical.

If you post your blog sales on your own beauty blog or personal blog, then the potential buyers will have some sort of sense of security knowing that they are buying from a real person (being able to read their past entries)

If you still insist on keeping your blog sale separately (don't know why you would) then make sure you have a link back to your original blog.

BE PATIENT If your blog does not get a steady amount of viewers, you may not sell off your makeup right away. What helps is to tweet to your followers and ask them to help you retweet it to their followers on Twitter. If there are other bloggers you know that are kind enough to re-blog about your sale, then that will help too. You can also post it on sites like http://www.beautyblogsaledirectory.com to help get traffic. Alternatively, you can always post it on eBay. You get way more exposure on there, but at the same time you will have more fees to pay. And I don't know what it's like selling used makeup on there.

Remember your buyers are doing YOU a favor by giving you their money to take away things that you are not using anymore.

Here are some tips as a BUYER: Pay ON TIME! Most of the blog sale owners will let you know how long you have to make a payment. If you want some type of arrangement, always email the seller to negotiate payment arrangements.

Don't waste the sellers time, if you are serious about purchasing, then by all means contact the seller.

Do NOT try and haggle the seller in lowering their prices. If you are buying a bulk of their items, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't hurt to ask for a volume discount. But keep in mind that they are already selling it at a lower price that you may not always get the discount. If you can't live with that, move on and find another blog sale or buy off of eBay.

Most importantly, always sanitize any used products you buy. Do not buy used mascaras, liquid eyeliners, foundation, concealers (in tubes with wands) & lipglosses. There are quite a few YouTube videos on How to Sanitize Makeup

Make sure you use the correct address in your Paypal account when paying for your items. Sometimes, the seller will have no communication with you until after they send out your stuff. And if your address is incorrect or outdated, there's no way to retrieve the package especially if the post office is already closed. Update your addresses and/or remove outdated addresses.

When contacting the seller, it is wise to let the seller know if you are in a different country so that they can calculate in the shipping charges to your final total if they offer international shipping.

If you are spending quite a few bucks, I would suggest asking the seller to purchase insurance. It can cost up to an additional $5 depending on the value. If in case the package gets lost, you will get compensated for your loss.

In Conclusion: These are just a few tips I've come across as a blog sale owner, blog sale buyer and maintaining the Beauty Blog Sale Directory. I hope this helps some of you out. Again, this is based on my experience and what has worked for me. If there is something I may have missed out on discussing or you would like to throw in your two cents, feel free to do so in the comments.