Read our blog
What we are building, and what we are learning
Notes from the people making Metzee, and from the sellers on it.
Follow along without visiting: subscribe by RSS · guides by category
74 posts tagged growth
Common mistakes selling video games
Writing "working" about something you have not switched on, and never saying the region.
Common mistakes selling records
Posting the record inside its sleeve. It splits the seam, and the seam is money.
Common mistakes selling books and films
Writing "first edition" without showing the copyright page, and using "good" to mean good.
Common mistakes selling sarees
Photographing it folded, and making a claim about zari you cannot support.
Common mistakes selling comics
Selling a reprint as a first, and finding out on camera that you never looked at the indicia.
Common mistakes selling coins and notes
Cleaning one. There is no second place.
Common mistakes selling trading cards
A predicted grade in the title, and a card photographed flat.
Common mistakes selling jewellery and watches
Not weighing it on camera, and writing the word "genuine" about something you cannot show.
Common mistakes selling sneakers
Posting a deadstock pair in their own box is the expensive one. Hiding the sole is the slow one.
Is live selling just a fad?
A fair question. Here is where it has lasted, where it has not, and what it is actually good at.
Auction or fixed price — which earns more
The trade-off is specific, and the answer changes per item rather than per seller.
Metzee vs selling on Instagram
Instagram has the audience and none of the structure. Here is what each actually does, including what Instagram does better.
The discount bidders apply for uncertainty
An undescribed flaw is not hidden. It is priced in, at the worst case, by everybody in the room.
What people collect in India
An honest look at which categories have depth of buyers here, and which are still thin.
Your buyers may not read your language
A practical argument for describing things in a way that survives being read by somebody whose first language is different.
Selling and shipping around festivals
Demand goes up, courier capacity goes down, and the gap between them is where promises break.
What is a boost?
Paying to be seen first, labelled Promoted, for a set time — with the numbers shown and the unspent budget returned.
Inviting a friend, and what you both get
₹100 to you and ₹50 to them — paid when their first order of ₹299 or more is actually delivered.
Nobody is bidding — what now
Four moves that work, and the honest possibility that the stock is wrong rather than the show.
Scheduling a show so people turn up
Announcing it matters more than the hour you pick. Regularity matters more than either.
What to say when you are holding the item
A structure you can repeat forty times an hour, so you never have to think of something.
Setting a starting price
A low start usually ends higher. Here is why, and the cases where it does not.
Photographing an item for a listing
A window, a plain surface and a phone. The expensive part is knowing which shots to take.
Why naming the flaw raises the price
Bidders discount for uncertainty. Telling them exactly what is wrong removes the discount.
There is a show on right now.
Nothing to install — it runs in this browser.