Selling on gemm.com

February 22, 2005 12:12 PM

Has anyone had success selling music on gemm.com?

I use ebay, which is great for stuff that's in high demand. But it's not worth the fees and work for items that need longer exposure time to find the right buyer. A ton of stuff is listed on Gemm--it's free to list, after all. But there's no way to track completed sales. Is it worth my time? Any tips for success? (Beyond listing good records for cheap.) Or are there other recommendable US-based alternatives to ebay that reach an international market? I'm selling vinyl mostly, in all sorts of genres.

posted by hydrophonic to computers & internet (11 comments total)

I haven't sold through Gemm, but I have bought a few items from their sellers, and I have no complaints.
posted by mds35 at 12:43 PM on February 22, 2005

I'm with mds35
posted by Pressed Rat at 1:48 PM on February 22, 2005

I know a few people that unloaded some of their collectable punk and garage records via Gemm and think it was the best place to match up avid collectors with people selling good stuff. I don't buy collectables anymore so I stopped going to Gemm since there's seldom a bargain there. But if you've got something good to sell, there's a good chance somebody there know's what it's worth and is looking.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 3:38 PM on February 22, 2005

i have books for sale listed on half.com (which is part of ebay) but the nice thing is that you can leave them there as long as you want. you only get hit up for a fee of some sort if they actually sell (which in my case is a pretty rare occurance)

i've only done books, but i know they have other categories
posted by jacobsee at 4:14 PM on February 22, 2005

GEMM is a great thing! I've been selling on there since early 2002. Much less hassle than ebay in almost every respect.

Once you have listed something, you can just 'fuhgeddaboudit' till you get that email telling you that it's been sold. Pull it, package it, figure the shipping, click. Often as quickly as 1/2 hour later, you get the 'payment received' email, then go to the P.O. the next day. Well over 90% of my sales happen that quickly and easily.

E-me directly if you have further questions. I'll be happy to send you a blank Excel grid for compiling your listings.
posted by omnidrew at 4:25 PM on February 22, 2005

omnidrew points out one of the cool features of Gemm which is that if you have your data in a standard format, you can upload it directly to their servers, or use their backend on your own website. I have neither bought nor sold things via Gemm but one of the guys who runs it lives down the road from me and is a good friend. Anything you can do to keep him in business helps me store my car in his driveway for the winter.
posted by jessamyn at 4:45 PM on February 22, 2005

Jessamyn, please tell your friend from me that he is doing A GOOD THING with GEMM. They process my payments, I get a check and a report every week or so -- simple and regular. Recordkeeping is superb as well. Their services are well worth the % they slice of my music sales pie. Glad to help you have a place to stash your car!
posted by omnidrew at 8:25 PM on February 22, 2005

Omnidrew, can I ask how many items you have listed and how many per week you sell ?
posted by hydrophonic at 9:25 PM on February 22, 2005

Right now I have ~ 2250 records (and CDs and cassettes and posters and magazines...) listed, most from my own collection, some I am brokering for others. For the last week of January I sold 10 items (ranging from $3.99 to $22.99) + 4 commissions on sales by others who visited GEMM via my site there (couldn't resist the self-link!). Today I mailed out 7 packages, 4 of them to addresses outside the US.
posted by omnidrew at 10:03 PM on February 22, 2005

follow-up, I know this is a little PR-ish, but I told Jim that this thread was here and he emailed back a response fwiw. I've known Jim for 5-6 years as he's been building and growing Gemm and I don't feel he's just blowing smoke up your ass here.

hydrophonic,

I encourage you to take a few minutes to sign up in GEMM and upload your catalog to see for yourself. I'm pretty sure GEMM is still the leader in the music marketplace field and yields the highest average weekly sales volume per seller.

Just about any tab-delimited text format from a spreadsheet or database will work, or if you have just a few items to advertise, you can enter them one-at-a-time online.

GEMM does indeed give you detailed tracking of every ordered item, from authorized purchase through shipment and receipt by customer. It also enables people to use credit cards to buy your items. It gives you a self-contained i.e. "http://hydrophonic.gemm.com" website as soon as your catalog is uploaded. Within about 24 hours of your uploading your initial catalog, each of your items will be cross-checked against hundreds of thousands of standing want lists and notifications will be sent to matching buyers. No charge to you for anything.

The most important tip for success is to upload updates of your catalog frequently as items are sold. GEMM shoppers and the automated rating system is particularly sensitive to catalog freshness and % of orders end up being marked "not available". A 5 star rating in GEMM will definitely translate to higher sales volume. The staff at [e-mail] will be glad to answer any questions.

Regards,

Jim Hall
GEMM Co-Founder
posted by jessamyn at 6:53 AM on February 23, 2005

Thanks omnidrew & jessamyn!
I've started my Excel file--lotsa work to do before I catch up to drew's 2000+ listings, though!
posted by hydrophonic at 9:54 AM on February 23, 2005