I have a new online-only out-of-print RPG store based in the UK. Before I go on about how great we are and the sort of things we have in stock, I'd actually like to start out by humbly asking you guys what you think 'best practices' would be for such a store and what sort of behaviour should I absolutely avoid?

Having been a long-time lurker on these forums, I can sympathise with anyone complaining about Hampshire's most notorious eBay seller. (I got burned myself some years back, when one box of a very large order just never arrived. PayPal sorted that one out.) I've seen that people here are very positive about Noble Knight, and if we could be a British version of Noble Knight one day, I'd be very happy and very proud.

Things that we already do that I'd like to think are best practices:
1. Images on our website are actual photos of the actual product you're buying, not stock photos or jpgs of the front cover copied from someone else's website.
2. Card payments are all handled properly through a PayPal payment gateway.
3. We try to be as honest as possible about condition - although there is inevitably some subjectivity.
4. We offer free shipping on UK orders over £20 and flat rate shipping on all other orders. The flat rate is £2.50 for UK orders below £20, £12 for all European orders and £25 for the rest of the world. Flat rate means you pay that charge per order regardless of the number of items you order or the volume or weight of the shipment. I like to be upfront about how much your order is going to cost to ship before you get to checkout. (And I'd love you to buy lots of things in one go.)
5. I'd like to think that our website is very easy to browse through.

Best of Luck !!

One thing that I am keen on is great packing. Perhaps you might provide some description on how items are packed etc.. Others may have different views, but for me, if I am spending £20-30 (or more) on an item then free postage is less important than great packing. That is when I am buying to collect. When I am buying play copies however then the reverse is the case. Also, I say stick around and be part of the community here ... we are all lovely  

Thanks enormously for the advice and the good wishes. I'd missed those NK threads. It might be an inevitable (if sad) consequence of growth. We're certainly not that big. (We have about 1,000 products in stock.)

The point about packaging is a good one. So far what I've used for single softback books is those stiff envelopes; for single hardback books padded envelopes and for multi-item orders, a stiff cardboard box carefully padded to prevent the items moving about in shipment. A very good packing material I've found to fill the gap between product and box is toilet paper roll tubes cut to size - light but strong. (This is not as weird as the eBay purchase I once made that arrived packed in used mens underwear...) I also make sure that all seams in the packing are covered by parcel tape. If an item is particularly vulnerable, I'll use bubble wrap too. It's clearly important to collectors (and justifiably so), so I may well add a page to the website showing typical packaging.

I always ensure that the goods are fully insured in transit - I should mention this more explicitly on the website.

I plan to "stick around and be part of the community". Like I said, I've been a lurker for a while and I've even linked here from my site (for example, referring people to the versions guide for Original D&D). When it comes to proper collecting (as opposed to trading), I have been a pretty dedicated Traveller collector. (This explains why the shop has 339 different Traveller products in stock.)

Pricing is difficult and there are a lot of factors to consider. I find that for lots of items, UK prices tend to be higher than US prices - simply because few copies of certain items ever made it over to this side of the pond. On the other hand, I do want to maintain a decent turnover of stock. We definitely had most of our D&D prices too high to begin with, and I've reduced just about all of those prices in the last couple of days. I'm also conscious that the exchange rate at the moment makes our prices more expensive for American buyers than at some points in the recent past. I'm not scared to reduce prices to shift stock, and we built the website to allow for flexible pricing and discounting.

Your shop looks fine.  Keep it simple is the way to go.  Only comment would be imo....just have photos of the actual items and don't clutter the images with dice or minis.

I'm no expert either, just a long time ebayer as buyer and seller. A collector who buys and then sells so I can buy more

I 2nd what MARS said, prices are everything. Especially if you are a frugal collector such as myself and many others i'm sure.

I'll pay premium for something rare or something I really really want. But even then I'm still looking for a bargain. Hell aren't we all??

$120 for a Star Trek RPG Boxed set is high! Ouch.

but that's just my .02 worth. Good luck with your new business, I'm going now to check out your site

Good luck with the store.

I don't post here as much as a lot of the others, but this thread reminded me of why I don't shop at NK anymore, unless I absolutely have no alternative.

Stock photos on stuff that I am putting out a hefty sum for simply don't cut it. I want to see actual pictures of the actual item you are actually selling.

Their grading standards are horrid - I am used to Gencon auctions, where every high dollar item is looked at, verified, scrutinized, and held to a high degree of specifics in order to properly grade it.

I won't even go into specifics as how baffled I was that "THIS was marked as FINE????"

Be honest with your customers, be fair with your prices, and you will go far. I have learned over the past few months just how much money we gamers can come up if we want something badly enough....and at the same time, how patient we will be (to a point) if there is active communication.

Off to go check out your store.

One more thing to consider.  I have often shook my head at the ridiculous prices offered by Noble Knight, and some other sellers, especially on most of their super-rare items.  However, I now wonder whether their approach is not only not insane, but may, if fact, be purposeful and helpful overall to their bottom line.  Here's what might be going on.

I wonder if the price their highly rare items at ridiculous prices serve as bait or window dressing.  Many buyers hear about Orange B3's, woodgrain box sets, or other rarities and search for sellers on the internet with those items.  And since sellers like Noble Knight have these kinds of items in stock, potential buyers visit their web-site.  It can become a win-win situation.  If the buyer actually buys the item, the seller made a killer profit.  If the buyer doesn't buy the item, I suspect many buyers look for something else they can afford and when common items appear at more reasonable prices, then the contrast could lead them to buy one or more cheaper/common selections.  I realize that approach would probably not work well with this more discriminating crowd, but for many buyers, it could serve as an effective business model.  And it's not the kind of thing they'd ever confess.  They just laugh at all the criticism as the money rolls in.

What you have to figure out as a seller is whether you are going after the mass market crowd or the discriminating crowd.  Going after everyone sometimes leads to extermination.   That may not be true in this market, but in many markets you have to determine your niche and your territory.  For me, I get an item at a price less than I think it will sell for and then sell it at a profitable price within a short time frame.  My volume is so low, I have very few loyal buyers.  It's all about the quick buck.  That philosophy works great for me.  That approach is simple but simplistic.  For a large volume seller, I would think a more sophisticated marketing and pricing policy is in order.

It's something to think about.   You do what you want.  

No, we don't really have anything that I'd call a rarity as far as D&D is concerned. (I have a Silver Anniversary boxed set that I haven't got around to putting up. That's about it.) We have more Travelle rarities than D&D, although we had rather more of those before the author of 'The Traveller Bibliography' discovered the site...