Kimono Sell-Off

I've decided to sell a number of my kimono, mostly the lined komon because I won't be able to wear them anymore. I thought I'd recoup some of my costs ^^;

I've invited a few of my fellow IG forumers and kimono friends to my flat for first dibs, and because they're friends, they get 50% discount :D Anything they don't buy gets put on the IG June trade thread, and anything that doesn't go THEN will be sold in the July Richmond event thing that Hong is going to. She and Isla are renting a table for the weekend, and Isla has made a bunch of really really cute kanzashi to sell! Hong said she might do a yukata dressing booth, and my kimono can be sold at Isla's table.

I'm wondering about selling these things online - I really don't trust eBay for selling stuff after all those horror stories I've heard from IG-ers, but I don't know where else to sell these.... IG only has one week-long trade thread every month, and I'm not familiar enough with the people on the Tsuruko Maiko forums to feel comfortable trading there. I did manage to make one trade through Flickr, but I don't want to set up a business there...

After looking at Yukikahou's blog shop, and this LiveJournal kimono page, I wondered... What if I created another blog on Blogger, but use that as a shop instead? It's a recent idea, so I haven't gotten out all of the details, but I was thinking of having a "Rules and Disclaimers" as well as payment details and Kimono Categories in the side-bar, and in the main body, I'd post each item for sale in individual posts. There will be one main picture on the post, and details of the item written in it, and a link to a Flickr set that will have more detailed pictures of the item. Payments will have to go through Paypal.

It all sounds well and good, but there is one major problem: the shipping. Since I'm moving back to Malaysia soon, I don't know how I will handle that. If I lived in the UK, I know my way about and the Post Office is easy enough to figure out. Buuuuut.. I'm not at all familiar with Malaysian post offices. In fact, I've never stepped in one before. Yeah, sheltered life. My mum posted all letters for me, and everything else came delivered. I guess I'll just have to learn.

There's also the matter of packaging items properly. I suppose my mum can get packaging materials really cheap from Petaling Street. Maybe she can teach me, so I can do it myself.

What about timing? When do I send out parcels? Theoretically, if I had a job like my sister's, I could always check for sales and confirmed payments every night when I come home from work, then pack any items before I go to bed and send it off the next day during my lunch break. I really don't know how well that would work out in practice.

I did think that I could add a little incentive for Malaysians to buy them, like "For people living in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, I'm willing to arrange a pick-up of the item at the following shopping centers on Saturdays or Sundays.." etc.

Of course, that all assumes that I actually succeed with the shop, and have pretty regular sales, which is impossible given that I don't actually have many things to sell. Hmmm.. Now there's an idea :P While looking for a job, I can set up a shop haha. When I do get a job, I can always maintain this shop as a form of extra income hehe. Hmmm, more excuses to buy kimono lots from YJA then.... :P

Yukikahou's blog did give me an idea on renting out kimono and yukata, and dressing other people in them for a small fee. I was very tempted to do the same thing with my kimono and yukata, but I'm not entirely sure I trust random people with my kimono and yukata... Still, Hong and I were discussing renting out my yukata as some form of income, and we thought I'd start out small, like at Bon Odori or something.

This week, I'm going to sort out all my kimono stuff and see which ones are for sale, and which ones I'm to keep. Once that's done, I'm going to measure each piece, check the condition, take detailed pictures and price them. When I'm finished cataloguing my stock, I'll turn to sorting my stuff-to-keep. I've organized and recorded most of my pieces, somewhat, but not all of them, and I think I'll need some sort of reference for myself on how to price these items.

In th meantime, I'm going to set up a new blog to test my shop idea :D I don't know if it's actually allowed to have a blog shop on Blogger... The rules state "Unless expressly authorised in writing by Google, you agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes (a) any portion of the Service, (b) use of the Service or (c) access to the Service." in no. 7 of the terms and conditions page. Is a blog shop considered to be "commercial purposes" if it's just a place for me to get rid of stuff I don't want? Oh well. Otherwise, I can go to Geocities and create a webshop there.

What think you of my idea?