Game Distribution Scenario

Paypal has free tools that you can use to sell stuff from your own website. It's pretty basic but gets the job done. It's what I use on my site.

I wouldn't think you'll be suddenly inundated with orders. Which means if you have any problems along the way, either with your product provider not drop shipping in a timely manner, you finding it not worthwhile for whatever reason, or some other issue, you can always bail on the endeavor. To me it actually sounds like there's little risk involved - simply a bunch of your time perhaps. If you don't have to put up any money for product, and only a little perhaps to begin promotions, I'd say go for it.

One other thought - I'd set-up a separate Paypal account specifically for this endeavor. And you might also try contacting Mary Couzins at Discovergames.com. Her situation isn't exactly like yours, but she does promote others' products for a fee. She might have some advice for you.

Good luck.

Chip

I would use paypal and then handle shipping yourself. It seems you have a good relationship with the maker so why not buy in units of 5-10 to start with? This way you have CYA (Cover your A**) and can always ship up to 10. If it takes off you can always ship massively later. If for some reason you get swamped with orders you send an email saying you are temporarily out of stock and ship when you get more. (Usually a good idea to comp shipping if any delays. Well thats my two cents.

Mitch

Mitch, I've set up a few e-commerce sites that are currently active. I used oscommerce, a open source program. It works really well and it's easy to set up. Check it out and if you have questions I'd be happy to help out.

oscommerce.com

JR

Thanks for the link. According to one of my colleagues, I made a boneheaded decision when I upgraded my hosting to an Microsoft package. My reasoning was that I could probably learn .NET and ASP faster than I could learn perl, PHP, etc. But, looking at oscommerce, I wonder if I made a mistake.
So, the questions I have are as follows:

Do I have to get the host admins to install oscommerce?

It is possible to install via F T P. You upload the files and use an install script (via a webpage) to install it. You will also need to setup (username, password) your database before installing.

Good question. There is an admin suite included that allows you to run the site. There are hundreds of add-on that others have written that can be install rather easily. So, if you can find what you need in the admin or add-ons then you probably could get by without much php knowlegde.

If you can find an add-on that someone else has written then it usually comes with instructions on how to install it. Usually, a lot of cutting and pasting.

You could look through the contriubtion section and see if you can find what your looking for.

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions

If your looking for something simple like an email, with the order info, sent to the game maker that would be very easy to write.

I haven't setup a site using Paypal (all my customers use their own credit card machines), but I know it's possible.

Ebay would be an easier setup, but I would assume they want a cut of the profits. On the other hand, you will propably get more inital traffic using Ebay.

JR

It's not over yet! '-)

Challenger, I think you're on JUST the right track.

I have seat time in merchanting through PayPal and letting others collect the money and orders.

The system works. And it's worth giving Paypal their 3.2% per order.

I sell a product line called KeyGuides™, for those needing a rapid keyboard shortcut reference for their popular software titles. I self-publish these, using JIT management ("just-in-time"-- hm, good game mechanism.)

I have been taking orders directly and through associates all over for five years now. They set up their own Paypal receptors on their website stores, and then transmit to me my take along with the order information. I ship for them.

It's a big win-win. I extend my brand and product, in exchange for a little less profit. Believe me, volume makes up for it. And you'll probably see that it comes and goes in waves, seasonally. Doesn't have to be a fulltime thing at all. if oyu advertise, your activity will rise. I've seen that.

I will likely extend the model to my first game self-publish, coming this fall, and it's just great for a startup!

As for the open source solution, I have never investigated it. I'd be a little leary of it because support is probably limited. I don't know if there's a decent "back- end" which includes account management and client database and seller protection possibilities either. PayPal nailed those early on. They even make authoring Buy Now buttons a breeze.

Go for it. Wonderful mechanism, very very low fraud risk. The only one I encountered was, in my eagerness to please, I shipped overseas to a purchaser funding from his bank account, which Paypal allows. They couldn't collect. PP always warns you to wait for funds to clear before shipping on an eCheck or bank-funded order, so I can't fault them.

Be aware, their popularity has attracted scum who phish and send phony and very convincing emails to you telling you your login is incorrect or there's been a security breach or some other crap. I trash these immediately and NEVER ever click the links provided. You can reveal these links and their real names by copying the link to your clipboard (should be able to do this in Windows too) and opening the clipboard to examine it. Even then a link may appear convincing! It should *always* say "https" as a prefix. if not, you have a phisher. Report it to PayPal on their website. They quietly go after 'em.

I cannot recount any other hazards to using PayPal. Steller mechanism.
They have changed very little since being acquired by eBay. They were the first big do-it-yourself solution (displacing Kagi and a few other worthy startups which still operate in niche markets like software sales).