Sell a finite number of identical items on the internet

October 16, 2009 9:48 AM

What is the best way to sell (and accept payment for) a finite number of identical items (50) on the internet? I expect the items to sell out reasonably fast, and so I'll need to be able to take orders as they are received, and stop accepting payment when the 50 are sold.

I'll use it this one time and never again. The items will sell for a yet-undetermined price between $600 - 800. I have minimal coding experience.

I thought that a paypal link would be best, but then I have no way to stop people paying when the 50 are gone.

I considered just having people email, but then I have no way to separate people saying "Oh, I have the money, I'll get it to you next week" and taking the space of people who are actually paying.

I considered phone calls, but I don't know how to process the credit cards. And it would be a pain.

Is ebay an option? If so, how do I set that up? Are the fees comparable to other options?

The item will sell for between $600 and 800 and buyers will have to pay shipping.

posted by monkeystronghold to computers & internet (7 comments total)

eBay's "Buy It Now" has a quantity option, and PayPal will handle accepting payment for you.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 10:02 AM on October 16 [1 favorite]

eBay will do exactly this. You may want to do a trial run of, say, ten or so to see how you like the interface and see what you learn along the way.
posted by jessamyn at 10:04 AM on October 16

You could setup a simple shopping cart with Shopify.
They have inventory control, and it will look professional too!

Although check their commission fees on top of your merchant fees.
posted by avex at 10:24 AM on October 16

Paypal also has inventory control. You can even get an email when items are low, and you can set it to not allow people to buy once you are sold out.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:35 AM on October 16

Big Cartel sounds perfect for you. You can set up one item with 50 pieces inventory, so it's free to host, and they also don't take a cut of your sales. It's pretty great, actually. My girlfriend has hosted her craft shop on there for the past year-plus and we've been really happy with it.
posted by The Michael The at 11:24 AM on October 16 [1 favorite]

I'll nth Big Cartel - you don't want to use ebay - they take a significant cut of your money. With Big Cartel, you still pay for the paypal, so you still have some fees involved.
posted by bigmusic at 12:03 PM on October 16

I second the paypal -- if you're only doing this once, the buttons sound like the way to go. You can configure buttons with inventory amounts, and they will not work once you are sold out!

EXTREMELY simple.
posted by mtstover at 5:59 AM on October 20