Authentic artifacts on the internet have stiff competition from the hundreds of cheap reproductions available.  However, with a little common sense, a whole lot perseverance, and a good marketing strategy, these hurdles can be overcome, and a successful internet business can be established that will not only compete with the reproductions, but blow them out of the water when it comes to profits rendered sale by sale.

Attitude is everything: When establishing any business, the seller has to first make up their mind if they are going to be successful or not.  This is most important ingredient to any enterprise.  If you think you can you will.  If you think you can't you won't, and if you aren't sure, then don't get out of bed because you have already failed before you threw the blankets off.  You have to make the commitment, no matter what happens, and no matter how long it takes, YOU WILL SUCCEED!  You must focus on what you want to do, set a realistic timeline as to where you would like to be somewhere in the future, and be willing to work at it daily until you achieve it.  Success is never instantaneous, and to have a goal of being independently wealthy overnight or in six months is not realistic unless you already have a million dollars you can spare for such an adventure.  If you have this kind of money, then internet sales of artifacts on eBay is probably not for you, because you will be moving in other circles and not within the collecting community as a whole.  However, to expect a reasonable secondary income within a couple of years of hard work is more than reasonable and achievable. 

Your items ARE better than anyone elses: When approaching a sale, don't be afraid to speak it up!  You must have the attitude your item is better than anyone else has to offer.  This may seem arrogant and may not always be true, but it doesn't hurt to believe it, because you have first establish to yourself your items are better for no other reason than you did your very best to bring the very best you could to market.  For those already established finner quality artifacts will be a standard or given with them as a result of having grown past the start up stage, but for you it is a struggle, and something pride should be taken in.  When compared to the enormous sum of reproduction points on the internet, the worst grade of authentic artifacts is always far superior to the finest grade of an imitation.  At one time, those who sold this junk were ashamed to admit who they were.  Now they boast about their skill and knowingly flood the market with their copies, even though they may have fallen victim to a reproduction in the past.  If you do not believe in your product, how can you expect someone else to believe in it???

ESTABLISH A BUDGET:  There can not  be enough said about this one topic alone.  You need to sit down, and determine how much money a month you can afford to invest in your business.  It could be a few hundred dollars a month, to as much as a few thousand dollars a month, but regardless of the amount, DO NOT OVEREXTEND YOURSELF and jeopardize your living means on the assumption you will realize a theoretical amount from profits un-yet realized.  Hopefully, you will realize profits immediatly, but realistically you probably will not realize much of one at first, if at all.  You will make mistakes, and these mistakes will sometimes be costly, but you have to spend money in order to make money.  Nothing grows without a seed, and the money you initially invest has to be viewed as extra seeds not tied directly to the household budget.  This must always be discretionary money you can afford to spend and lose.  Once you have determined what you can spend, then dedicate that sum, and that sum only to the acquisition of authentic artifacts to offer on auction.  This sum should also cover your eBay listing fees, travel expenses to acquire the artifacts, and any other materials needed to protect, ship, and store the items to sell.  Travel will be one of the largest bites out of this budget, simply because artifacts rarely come to you.  You must always go to where they are. This may mean overnight hotel stays in order to acquire your stock. If you are an avid collector and tend to go to shows and auctions anyhow, the portion of travel expense may be viewed as a wash to you; however, for tax reasons it should not be easily dismissed as part of the cost.  Regardless for the reason of being there, it still cost money, and what you spend on everything else means you have less to invest in stock; therefore use the expense to your advantage by declaring it part of your business outlay, and help defray any income taxes you may later owe once your business begins to generate a reasonable income. 

Regulate your expansion:  Artifact selling is a business in which the business is capable of feeding upon itself once it begins to grow. In otherwords, the more you sell, the more it tends to consume, and the more the business grows as a result of it.  Its expansion will be based only on what you are willing to feed it.  If you take all the profits from the business for other things, then there will be static growth and your ability to continuously acquire newer and better grades of inventory will be hampered.  However, the investment of all your profits for some time will allow your inventory to grow and the quality of the items you have to offer will also increase.  The more artifacts you have to sell, the more auctions you can generate, the more sales you will make, and the greater profits you will realize.  At the point of equilibrium your influx of new cash will be minimal and your business can grow under its own steam.  Start small and do not overextend yourself at first.  Assuming you have no experience in selling artifacts at all, do not make the mistake of going whole hog and splatter the internet with a flood of mixed relics.  It is time consuming to scan or photograph your artifacts, crop them to size, list them on eBay, and record all the important information needed to sell the item.  Once sold it takes even more time to collect the money, package the artifacts, and get them to a shipping point.  At first you could find yourself spending far more time than you first thought and discover a great deal of free time will be consumed entirely by the internet business.  This can have personal negitive impact on yourself and your family.  This can prove frustrating and cause you to give up sooner than you should.  This period of transition is NORMAL and should be expected since it is something new.  It takes time to learn to streamline your growth, learn how to effectively list your items, and what is the most effective way for you to package and ship your items based upon the space you have available to you in which to run your business from. 

Establish a space: No matter how large or small your business is, it will take space to run it.  This could be as little as a corner in a room, an entire room, or a separate building of its own.  Each business will have its own need, and what will work for one will not work for another, but regardless it will take room.  Do not crowd yourself into a limited area if at all possible.  Ideally, a room would be best for any beginner, because artifacts, like anything else require a place to put them.  It is not wise to crowd artifacts into a few boxes, because artifacts are like fine glass and can easily be damaged.  Glass display frames are available commercially.  Some are simply "riker" or "butterfly" frames consisting of a cardboard container with a foam back insert and a piece of glass costing a few dollars, to professional wood frames with foam inserts costing between 20 and 30 dollars each for a basic 12 inch by 18 inch frame.  No matter which you choose, remember this is the least expensive protection you can buy.  One frame of arrowheads can cost thousands of dollars so the investment of good quality storage devices makes good economic sense.  Additionally, you will need storage shelves or boxes to keep the inventory in while waiting to either place them on auction or ship them to the buyer.  You will need a place to keep your shipping containers wether they be padded mailer envelopes or boxes.  You will also need some type of working area to house your computer, scanner, and or photographic equipment. 

 Shipping tips: One of the easiest and least expensive ways to identify and ready your auctions for storage or shipping is to use a good quality self-closing-zipper-style-sandwich bag and a permant marker to write the auction number on the bag with.  These keep the auctions separate and readily identify which point goes to which auction while providing a degree of protection.  An inexpensive plastic pull out storage box with various trays can be used to hold the auctions in progress from those completed.  It can become very tedious in attempting to identify one artifact from another once payment starts rolling in.  Without a simple system in place you may find yourself wasting valuable time going through each payment individually, looking up the auction number, logging onto the auction itself and then trying to identify which arrowhead it really was.  As hard as it my be to belive, they can look an awful lot alike when the pressure is on. 

PayPal and other internet shipping service are some of the simplest and best ways to ship your item.  It is much easier and saves not only time, but writing cramp as well.  The mailing labels are printed right on your computer, a record is retained for future reference, and it is slightly cheaper to mail something First Class Delivery Confirmation using these self printed labels than it is to manually fill one out.  Additionally, manually completed confirmations must be hand delivered to the post office.  Through on-line postage services you can arrange to have the packages picked up at your doorstep; saving the seller even more time, gasoline, and un-necessary expense. 

Choose the method of shipping is vital as well.  Time is money.  It is much less expensive to ship items First Class Delivery Confirmation  than  it is to ship it insured.  Insurance should always be reserved for items costing more than a hundred dollars, but for those costing under this sum, it is a moot point since the package can be tracked via postal identification numbers and establish verification of delivery.  Offer it as at buyer discretion at an additional cost for those who absolutely do not trust the mail service.  As a rule the US Postal Service is less expensive to use when mailing smaller items under a pound.  For larger deliveries, Fedex tends to be less expensive than UPS, and UPS, is often less expensive than DHL. This may vary according to size and weight of the item and which region you live in, but as a whole, I personally have found the US Postal Service to the most economical way to go when shipping artifacts.

Packaging:  Protecting your sale is a vital part of shipping.  The least expensive packaging for most arrowheads is the bubble mailer.  Most arrowheads with a little padding will arrive safely in these.  There is no reason to send a cube box for a two inch arrowhead, when the mailer will do the same job more effectively.  Additionally, it saves space and resources.  Keeping the shipping expenses down will help entice the buyer to consider more of  your auctions.  High shipping fees can be the breaking point on someone bidding on your auction.  Charge fairly, and you will find more people considering your auction over the guy who charges $5.00 to ship a $2.00 purchase.  Additionally, your shipping fees can be reduced further on your end, by recycling.  Do not hesitate to reuse padded envelopes you recieve either at the office or in the mail.  They will work just as well a second or third time as they did the first time they were used.  Make sure you tape the openings for security and remove or cover all other shipping barcode, old postage marks, and addresses.  Most can be simply covered with a new label.  Anything you can save yourself increases your profits, and helps save your customer money as well.  Many delivery services provide free mailing materials; the Post Office included.  Take advantage of these items as it will save you even more money and time.  Another good source for shipping containers is the local dollar-type stores who often have boxes of all sizes to discard and are more than glad to give them away.  Larger shopping centers tend to have so much cardboard, they cut the boxes up as they go and crush them.  Bubble wrap, styrofoam peanuts and other packing materials can be found in many nearby businesses for the asking.  Hair styling places and drug stores often get many of their items packaged in this manner, and will save them for you provided you stick to your word and pick them up on a steady basis. Anaother, often overlooked packing material is shredded office documents.  Many companies are happy to get rid of the bulky bags of shredded paper, but you should clear it with your supervisor first to prevent a conflict of some internal security measure your employer might have.  If you do not have access to shredded office documents, the purchase of a simple home office shredder can be used to create your own.  Old newspapers fed into one of these machines will provide you with all the packing material you need.  The cost is minimal, and the savings huge.  Shredded paper protects better, packs better, and has less weight than wadded up newspaper.

Combine shipping for multiple purchases is a great way to get repeat sales from the same buyer.  It saves them money, and the more the buyer has to spend, the more likely he is to spend it ... hopefully, with you.  For a standard arrowhead I recommend a minimal shipping fee of $2.50 for the first auction, and an additonal .50 cents to $1.00 for each additional auction won after the first.  There are two reasons for this.  The first reason is the padded envelope will cost you about .75 cents to $1.00 for it alone.  The postage for First Class Delivery  Confirmation will cost abut .80 cents to $1.00 to mail it.  In other words, you will already have nearly $2.00 invested in the first auction to get it into the mail.  Second, there will be secondary expenses such as extra bubble wrap to pad the points,  the weight of the actual items additionally bought, and the expenses of often un-considered auction elements such as printing paper, packing tape, printer ink, and a postage scale in which to weigh the items on.  This all has to be covered at some point in time, and the only fair way to do it, is to charge just a little more than the expense of shipping to take all this in.  You can not afford to give away profits, no matter how trivial or small this sum may seem.  Pennies add up to dollars over time.  Besides, you usually have to drive someplace to get these materials as well, and with fuel prices as they have recently been, this in itself is a serious expense. 

Please continue onto part 2