How to sell signed sports memorabilia
How To Start YOUR OWN Autograph BUSINESS! (AND MAKE $$$) | PSM
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so you want to start your own autograph
business i've been doing this for 16
years now
and let me go ahead and give you five
tips that's going to help make this
a successful venture for you
[Music]
all right hey everybody welcome back to
another episode i am your host
matt powers of the power sports and
mobility show
thank you again for joining me you guys
can visit the website
powersportsmemorabilia.com
and also give me follow over there on
instagram at powers
autographs and if you like these videos
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if you want to go ahead and do that i
certainly would appreciate it and again
thank you for watching so
uh today's video is going to be kind of
really one to help
you guys if you want to get started in
the autograph business
i must every week get a call or an email
from someone who is
looking to start an autographed business
and they're not really sure what to do
they've got questions on x y and z and
and there's really a lot of things to
get into but today
i'm really just going to give you five
tips to kind of help
jump start you and maybe some pitfalls
to kind of avoid
when you are starting and then during
your
autograph business okay so let's go
ahead and start off with
number five and this one was not really
around when i got started in 2004 in
fact it was
just starting but this is facebook and
this is
joining as many autographed facebook
pages
as you can there are there must be
hundreds and hundreds of these things if
not thousands of them
and autograph facebook pages are a great
way to connect with other dealers
collect with connect with other
collectors find
good deals on products hear about
autograph signings
get tips on autographs i mean
authentication you
name it the information is there in
these facebook pages
this is absolutely critical to you
expanding uh your business and meeting
new people
this is the best thing that you can do
and plus the
honestly the best thing about it is it's
free you don't have to pay anything
so you can connect with as many people
as you like again you're going to find
really good deals on stuff like i buy
product all the time through facebook
groups
so it's just a great way for you to jump
start your
uh connections and your autograph
business okay
number four and this is probably one
that i regret the most
and it's one i don't want you to fall
into
and it's this idea of wasting a bunch of
money on a
website i have had probably three or
four
different websites at this point i've
hired
two or three i think two different
companies to help with advertising and
search engine optimization and all that
stuff
and while it is necessary to a certain
extent
it's a huge waste of money when you're
getting started okay i've wasted tens of
thousands
of dollars on on stuff like this it just
is not
uh very important when you are getting
started
you don't just start a website and
immediately start making money it does
not work that way
okay it's gonna take you probably a few
years to start making money off your
website
so my advice to you is if something's
not making you money don't throw a bunch
of money into it
when you're just getting started and i'm
assuming that money is probably
you know a scarcity at this point so
don't throw a bunch of money into your
website when i got started there weren't
these kind of plug and play websites
like there are now with like shopify for
example
where you can just drag and drop stuff
so easy you don't have to go out and
hire all these developers and all that
crazy stuff to get a custom website
so you can do it really on the cheap and
that's what i would suggest doing
just get a website up so you can have
some branding and whatnot
but also you have some products to sell
but don't throw a bunch of money in
advertising seo and all that stuff
until you're a little more established
and you've got a little bit of extra
money
to do that because again you're not
going to make money off that stuff right
away it's a it's a money pit okay that's
a long
long long term play okay so just realize
that you don't just start a website and
start making money
okay does not work that way it's gonna
take time
okay so be patient with it uh number
three
and this is probably the one that we're
doing right now here is start a youtube
channel
here's a couple reasons why you can
start you should start a youtube channel
number one
it's free you can do it for free you
don't have to pay anything you can
edit your own videos you cannot edit
your videos you can just shoot raw
footage you can just put it up with your
iphone
it's so easy so i would suggest just
getting started with
just you know videoing with your iphone
if you go back and look at my old videos
you can see they're really poor quality
i was just videoing on my iphone in fact
i wasn't even doing them in landscape
mode i was doing them in portrait mode
which is the worst way to film
anything on video so i knew nothing
about that so as you go along you're
going to start
you know learning more about youtube and
learning more about
things to do and what not to do but
creating a youtube channel is not only
it's
super fun it's actually way more fun now
that i don't have to edit the videos
but you're going to be able to connect
with again other collectors
you're going to be able to share your
collection you'll be able to share tips
you're going to be able to help people
you're going to be able to promote
signings promote products whatever it is
that you want to do with your youtube
channel
and remember youtube is actually the
second largest search engine
in the entire world of course behind
google so if you get your
uh channel up there you get your brand
up there that makes sense right so
because people are going to be searching
for
information about the autograph industry
and whatnot
but again it's just it's just super fun
i really enjoy doing these i really
enjoy
seeing people getting deals off of stuff
that i mentioned to them and doing top
five lists and all that stuff on certain
autograph athletes
that i think is brings a lot of value to
people because they uh
you know brings them a lot of
information that they maybe they're not
thinking about that time so
and that's what your job is this is to
share your experience and give them some
strategies on stuff so
uh number two and this one is
all these are critical but this one is
is probably one of the more
critical ones and that is connect with
as many
vendors as possible vendors dealers
whatever you want to call them
these are the guys that are putting on
the autograph signings these are the big
companies the small companies middle
companies
everybody's putting these on the more
people you know
the more signings you'll have access to
the more signings you can then offer to
your customers
okay that's how it's going to work where
do you meet these dealers vendors well
of course you can do online research and
all that kind of stuff but really going
to autograph shows
is a great way to meet them you can go
to the national autograph convention
which of course in 2020 is not going to
be happening here but i'm assuming
they'll have it in 2021
that would be a great way there's going
to be tens of dealers i mean hundreds of
tables and whatnot
so really connecting with these dealers
and also by connecting with them not
only are you going to be able to buy
their product to sell to your customers
and offer their autograph signings
you in turn can possibly then resell
product to them so you can wholesale to
them
which is a great way to make some quick
money sell stuff in bulk
so it's just a great way to establish
new relationships with people
and just meet as many of them as you can
you never know when someone is going to
be able to help
you out and you never know we're going
to be able to help someone else out as
well
and my number one tip for you and this
is kind of a
no-brainer but it deserves some uh
some talking about is build up your
following okay that's either through
email addresses your facebook page your
instagram page or if you do snapchat
youtube whatever it is that you choose
to do
is slowly over time
build that up now this is not going to
happen overnight okay
don't worry about likes and followers
and all that stuff it
has nothing to do with that okay you can
have 10 000 people follow your page
but if five people buy stuff it doesn't
make any sense or if
10 people are interested in your stuff
it doesn't make any sense i'd rather
have
10 people follow my page and have 10
people that are interested in autographs
than have
10 000 and have one person that follows
so it's not about the numbers yes
if you can get more numbers of people
that are interested in it obviously that
makes sense okay
but how do you do this this is really
kind of the
the big tip i want to get across for you
in this video
is number one is be as authentic as you
possibly can
your channel your page should be a
representation of
you and your personality okay if you're
a real serious person then make it a
serious video make it a serious channel
but my biggest suggestion is to make
your channel and your pages as
personal as possible in 2020 here and
people really like to know who they're
dealing with okay they like to see a
face
they want to have a phone number they
want to know if there's a problem with
something that they can talk to someone
they want to know if you're going to be
responding to messages
people want to know who they are dealing
with nowadays and the internet makes
that possible so
my biggest suggestion is to make your
pages as personal as possible
and you know take care of your pages you
know be accessible respond to messages
respond to comments don't be just a
robot where you're just
not you're an auto you know tune there
you're just not responding anything okay
be accessible be personable and make it
your
page okay so there's a lot more to get
into but that's just five kind of quick
tips to help you with your
your autograph industry uh venture here
if you guys got any questions on that
stuff you know again you guys can
reach me through the website or you guys
can comment here below again
always appreciate you guys watching and
i will see you guys
on the next episode thanks again
