Setting up a Personal Webpage-Advice

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Posted By: Joe Drouillard

Hello All,

My son is a professional webpage designer and he wants to design me a Webpage as a Christmas present to show off my Prewar collection and to sell cards. I know that I can do this through Photobucket, but my son claims that he can make me a site that is very professional and would cost very little to maintain.

For an old guy I'm fairly proficient with the computer and I do buy and sell between $500.00 and $2,000.00 dollars of vintage cards each month through eBay. I love trading cards and have done very well building a decent size collection. I would appreciate some advice from any of you that have tried to sell cards through a personal Webpage, if it is worth the time and effort to set one up? Also, are there any pitfalls that I should be aware of? I guess I don't want my son to spend the time designing a site if I end up not using it.

Thanks for any help,

Joe

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Posted By: Rhett Yeakley

Joe, I highly recommend it. I probably get more satisfaction out of my website than anyone else, and I really created it "for myself". My site is admittedly very utilitarian however I didn't use any programs to make it (which probably shows to all the website designers out there) and I kinda like the simplicity of it. For me it added a new aspect of my hobby and has also allowed me to connect with new collectors. My site now shows up on google searches and I get emails periodically from people with similar items looking for more info on what they have.

One of the things I enjoy about picking up new items is being able to add the image to my website. The bulk of my pre-war card collection is on the site, but not every item I have is on the website, some things I like to keep to myself.

Anyways, I guess I would say while it might not be for everyone, I have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of the building of the website, and from the constant updating that goes into it.
-Rhett Yeakley
http://www.starsofthediamond.com

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Posted By: Brian McQueen

Joe,

I would agree with Rhett's entire post actually. One of the neat things about designing your own site is that you're in charge of the look and "feel" of the site. The color schemes, the graphics, the fonts, how the individual pages interact with eachother, how the cards are displayed etc... There's a lot of room for creativity and allows you to more or less "customize" the appearance of your webpage.

There is obviously a little more work and maintenance involved that simply using a photobucket/imagehosting sort of a site. You'll also want to research some web hosting platforms to find one that meets your needs. It is very easy to find one that will give you your own domain name and allow you a certain amount of storage space on your site for a small fee. If your website is small, perhaps a Geocities account would be a good platform to investigate. I've also had good luck dealing with Siteground which charges a small fee annually but can handle larger, more complex websites.

The site that I have is at http://www.geocities.com/redmaccie. I've always enjoyed using the Geocities platform and it's free too. However for these small freebie sites, sometimes they will crash on you if too many people access them at once. The plans that charge you small fee will provide more file storage however so this doesn't happen.

Good luck in whatever avenue you end up choosing.

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Posted By: Phil Garry

I used godaddy.com to build my website, which is very simple as I am not very computer saavy.

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Posted By: Rhett Yeakley

My website is also through Geocities, I pay a small monthly fee (less than $6 I think) and have a ton of storage space, don't have the ads on the front page, don't have to worry about the site crashing, and I got to choose my own web address. Obviously I am a fan of the E254 set so I went with starsofthediamond.com

Anyways, hope you decide to create a site
-Rhett

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Posted By: Joe Drouillard

Thanks Rhett, Ted, Phil and Brian for the advice. I think I will try setting something up after the holidays. Initially, I thought of mainly using it as sales platform, but I can see from looking at the links sent to me on this thread and through email that there are other advantages to building a site, especially if it is built around a theme that you love.

If anyone else has some suggestions I would love to hear from you.

Best wishes,

Joe

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Posted By: Phil Garry

Joe:

Mine is for display purposes and not for selling, but here is the web address:

www.bbhofrc.com

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Posted By: Marty Ogelvie

I think its a great idea. I have been selling sports cards (not vintage baseball) via my own web site for close to 10 years now. I can't imagine doing it any other way. I have total control plus I am able to leverage my site to earn affiliate income via ebay and other advertisers.

It will take some time to get enough visitors to generate some decent money but you can still buy/sell via ebay while your site is growing. Eventually you will not be selling anything via ebay. I buy cards off ebay and sell them for a profit on my own site all the time. I have regulars who will buy from me and never even visit ebay.

Good luck!

martyOgelvie
nyyankeecards.com

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Posted By: Sean

I set up my page to show a bit of my personal collection and to sell a few cards. Not too much action, but I have received a few e-mails.

I have the site running through Tripod and it's pretty cheap ($5 a month or so, to keep banners and pop-ups off the page.) and easy to update.

http://www.millcitycards.com/

Sean bh

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Posted By: Jimmy

I use Network Solutions and they are very good for hosting websites. The process has taken at least 6 months to get the look and design I wanted. I sell through eBay as well and a website is the best way to promote other items you may have. Sales are slow on my site, but feel as I add more it will get better. The main source of sales will always be from eBay until I can provide more items to my customers. I started out with just a few pages myself. If you are just looking for a one page you can do everything yourself through Network Solutions

Good Luck

Jimmy

check out my website at

www.jbsportsauctions.com

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Posted By: Anonymous

I'm a lurker here, but I very strongly encourage people to create nice websites to share their collections. Mine is not along the same lines as most that frequent this site, but I think you might like the layout and design. I do the whole thing for about $100 a year, though a friend did the main page graphics for free.

Here's my site. I hope you enjoy it: http://www.thrill22.com

Creating my page has really helped me reconnect with my collection over the last two years. I love it. It's also put me in touch with tons of other fans and collectors. Finally, it serves as a fantastic virtual checklist. I can quickly check to see if I have a particular card, which comes in handy from time to time.

Drew
http://www.thrill22.com

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Posted By: T206Collector

...the on-line community with a website. So far it has been AWESOME!



Visit t206collector.com for card galleries, articles and more!

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Posted By: Paul Grubor

Hi, If you list items on Ebay can you have a link or mention your website in the description? My brother is setting up a nice website for me and before I stir up any trouble with Ebay I'd like an answer...

Thanks,

Paul

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Posted By: Jimmy

Paul you can have it on your "about me page", but you cannot mention you sell anything - just say check out my website. On listings you can have a link to pictures or pages devoted to your eBay listings, but not your website home page. Research first as it can get confusing - good luck

Jimmy