Hello Everyone!

[bfg9000]

Hello, my name is Andrew and I just started my own used video game business. I deal with pretty much every video game system from Atari 2600 to XBox 360/PS3, as well as full sized arcades & pinball. I had always had a dream of owning my own business, and after years and years of figuring out what I wanted to do with my life, I finally landed on this. My shop has been open for a grand total of a month and a half at this point and I've reached the full blown panic stage. I know that this is a normal part of starting a business out of this air, but some days I let my doubts run the show (which usually ends in disaster). At this point I'm trying to build my customer base and start generating sales with enough volume to cover my expenses. In addition to my physical storefront, I also have an eBay page, website, and Facebook page, but that's really about it. I joined this forum to help get ideas on how to build my business, plus maybe get some feedback from those of you who have been through this.

If any of you happen to be gamers, check out my website Meta Tag (http://www.budget-games.com) and let me know what you think.

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Andrew. I know that panic feeling well. I'd bet many of us here do. It usually takes some time to build a customer base and you need some patience in the beginning. It can be hard to be patient though, since you don't yet know if you have a good business model, etc. Hang in there and don't panic. Keep working at it. Try some different things and see what works.

Ask us any questions you want. We may not always have the right answer, but we're never short on opinions or ideas. Hopefully we can help.

You can post your site in the website review section. More people will probably respond to it there than here in your intro. One quick thing I did notice is your logo doesn't stand out to me. I see the black background behind the letters and it was a noticeable amount of time before I could focus enough to read your company name. I think you want your name to stand out more. I was also wondering if your target market would recognize the space invaders character. I realize your dealing with used games, but my guess is your customers will be younger than some of the games. They'll probably recognize the character, but it's worth thinking about.

Welcome again and thanks for joining the community.

[David Hunter]

Welcome, Andrew!

Have you checked to see if there is a list of people who subscribe to video game magazines... or people who have recently bought a video console? You can then send them postcards, flyers, etc. with special deals... or tell them you buy used games, etc.

What are you doing to drive people to your online stores?

[Gabe]

Hey Andrew, welcome to the forum. Good luck withe business, that's a fun niche.

[bfg9000]

Welcome, Andrew!

Have you checked to see if there is a list of people who subscribe to video game magazines... or people who have recently bought a video console? You can then send them postcards, flyers, etc. with special deals... or tell them you buy used games, etc.

What are you doing to drive people to your online stores?

Any idea where I could find a list like that? I know I keep records of my own sales that includes name and email, but does something like that exist outside of regular bookkeeping?

[bfg9000]

Welcome to the forum Andrew. I know that panic feeling well. I'd bet many of us here do. It usually takes some time to build a customer base and you need some patience in the beginning. It can be hard to be patient though, since you don't yet know if you have a good business model, etc. Hang in there and don't panic. Keep working at it. Try some different things and see what works.

Ask us any questions you want. We may not always have the right answer, but we're never short on opinions or ideas. Hopefully we can help.

You can post your site in the website review section. More people will probably respond to it there than here in your intro. One quick thing I did notice is your logo doesn't stand out to me. I see the black background behind the letters and it was a noticeable amount of time before I could focus enough to read your company name. I think you want your name to stand out more. I was also wondering if your target market would recognize the space invaders character. I realize your dealing with used games, but my guess is your customers will be younger than some of the games. They'll probably recognize the character, but it's worth thinking about.

Welcome again and thanks for joining the community.

I really appreciate your input on my site. I made the rookie mistake of going with a Vistaprint site instead of using a different provider, so my options are kind of limited. I was considering changing the text that had my business name to my actual logo, but just haven't had the time to monkey around with it yet. I used the Space Invaders sprite simply because it was kind of bold and it would clue visitors into the fact that we deal mostly in the older games. I've had a few ideas on things to do with the site overall, and I'll probably start picking away at the list of things that have been bugging me soon.

As for the stress, I know it is just a part of starting a business, but some days it is really hard to stay optimistic. My dad has run his own business for almost 20 years, and he still has days that he worries if things are going ok, so I'm just going to have to learn how to cope.

The nice thing about my business is that we're starting to attend Comic Cons as a way of making a lot of sales in a very short period. It gives us both capital to work with as well as getting our name out to potential customers. We're adjusting things on the fly just to see what works and what doesn't. For example, we thought that selling Japanese imports would be a minor part of the business and most of our income would be from the domestic games. So far, imports account for 40% or more of our sales, so we're trying to emphasize our imports whenever we can.

[David Hunter]

Try SRDS.com. This is a subscription service that allows you to search for list broker's with the lists that you're looking for.

I don't know where you can get the list of people who've subscribed to video game magazines... but they're definitely out there since they have video game magazines. :-)