St. Lou, MO Research on toy and comic sellers/vendors

Hi,
I'm a student at Webster University, St. Louis, and I'm taking a qualitative research methods class. For this class we are supposed to design and conduct a research project on a topic of our choice. I am looking at seller/vendor behavior of people who sell items at toy and comic shows. Basically I am conducting interviews of people who sell at these types of venues, own their own toy/comic show (not a chain, but the local mom and pop type), or who possibly sell on on-line marketplaces like EBay.

St. Louis does not have many of these types of venues so I am conducting some "interviews" on-line. If you are a vendor/seller either on-line or at toy and/or comic shows, could you please take the time to answer the following questions? It should not take long, and your information will be invaluable to me. Please answer as throughly and as honestly as possible.

If you would like more information on my current and past studies please visit my site or contact me.

Please email or PM your responses to me. Feel free to post any questions you may have here.

Thanks,
Dajuan


1. Name: (first or screen name only)
2. Age:
3. Gender:
4. When did you begin selling items at toy and/or comic shows and for how many years?
?How often do you sell at them?
?What kinds of things do you?
?How did you start selling?
?How do you judge supply and demand or do you just sell what you want to sell?

5. Do you travel to other cities to sell your goods or do you just stick to the St. Louis area?
?If you travel, where do you go and why do you choose those locations?

6. Are you personally a ?collector??
?Are these items from your private collection or things you obtain specifically to sell?
?How do you decide what to keep and what to sell?
?If it is a private collection why are you selling it?
?Do you prefer to sell to your collection only to other collectors?
?When someone shows an interest in an object do you share your personal history with that object?

7. In addition to selling at shows, do you own your own store?
?If yes, why do you come here to sell?
?If no, do you want your own store? Why or why not?
?Do you have partners (either at sale or store)?

8. Can you tell me a little about the selling group at the shows you frequent?
?Are they primarily male or female?
?What kind of differences do you see in how males and females buy and sell?
?Which do you prefer to work with?
?Do you think sellers treat female buyers differently than male buyers?

9. Can you tell me something about the work?
?Do you consider this a job or a hobby?
?About how often do you attend comic/toy shows to sell your items?
?About how much time per month do you think you devote to these shows? (Include preparation time as well. I.e. buying your merchandise, pricing, setting up, taking down etc.)
?In a year?s time do you usually make money, lose money, or break even?
?If you loose or break even, do you still want to continue to sell?
?Have you had any long breaks in selling? When and why?

10. Can you tell me something about the use of bargaining?
?Do you engage in bargaining behavior?
?When and why do you barter?
?What do you do if the buyer starts bargaining super low, almost insultingly so?
?Do people mark up prices to encourage bargaining?

11. Do you ever offer discounted rates (when the buyer does not ask, you offer)? Why?
?On multiple purchases?
?If the buyer seems interested but reluctant?
?If you like someone or have dealt with them before?
?At the end or beginning of the day?

12. Do you or any one you know use on on-line market places like EBay or similar markets? What do you think about that kind of selling?

13. Can you tell me what your family thinks about you doing these shows? Are they involved?



Thank you again for your help. Please be assured that all of y

 

Has anyone actually responded to this?

 

One person, but I've gotten no data yet. I still have a couple shows to hit, so all is not lost.