Gently Used Marketplace Now Open!!!

March 7th, 2010

Phase 1 of MySkatingMall.com has just come online!  Our customized marketplace for the purchase and sale of gently used items is now complete. You can access it at http://www.myskatingmall.com/store!

What we really need is for hundreds of people to list their items for sale before our Grand Opening in two weeks.  Remember, there is no cost to list items for the next year.  Right now, our Mall is empty…. just like if a new mall was built in your town and no stores have moved in yet.  We need your help! Please list your items and tells your skating friends about it as well.

In the next two weeks, we will be linking in our Partner Stores and getting their items listed on MySkatingMall.com. We will also be setting up our donation system that will allow funds to be raised for skating clubs and teams.  If you find something on MySkatingMall.com that you want to purchase in the next two weeks, go right ahead. The transaction will work.  Just know that no commission will be taken out by the site so no funds can be transferred to your club or team.

Thank you for all the support and being so patient while MySkatingMall.com is being finished. The ending is in sight! (Or should I say the beginning:-)

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in MySkatingMall.com News | No Comments »

U.S. Figure Skating features MySkatingMall.com

February 23rd, 2010
Ryan Jahnke picture

Ryan Jahnke picture

This month’s Club Zone on usfigureskating.org featured an article on MySkatingMall.com. 

“Coming Soon: MySkatingMall.com
The seed for MySkatingMall.com was planted when Ryan Jahnke’s father looked into his son’s cluttered closet.”

You can link to the full article on U.S. Figure Skating’s Club Spotlight page.  For the next few weeks the article can also be found if you scroll down on the homepage of usfigureskating.org.

The article was published because MySkatingMall.com will potentially raise thousands of dollars for skating clubs. Many clubs who hear about this site have been very skeptical. Maybe it is the question of ”Is it too good to be true?”  I hope this vote of confidence from U.S. Figure Skating will provide MySkatingMall.com some deserved credibility.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

More money for clubs and teams!

February 12th, 2010

dollarsignMySkatingMall.com has always been committed to 5% of every purchase raising funds for skating clubs and teams. That has been a foundational principle since the inception of MySkatingMall.com.

But what if 5% is not enough? What if the group really needs to raise more money and its members are committed to that goal? What else can we do? Drum roll please………….

With each item that an individual lists on MySkatingMall.com, that person will be able to choose the percentage of the sale that will be given to his or her club/team.  Let me explain: The standard percentage that is received by the group for the purchase or sale of an item listed by one of its members is 2.5%. (2.5% also goes to the club/team of the other person involved in the transaction.) We will have a drop down menu so that 2.5% through 90% can be automatically forwarded to the PayPal account of the seller’s club or team upon the sale of the item.

For example, a Synchro team gets five of its members to each list a $50 skating dress and choose 90% of the proceeds to go to the team.  If all 5 of those dresses sell, the team will have $225 in its PayPal account!

The group can access the proceeds as soon as they want after the sale since the transfers are instantaneous. If an item is returned, any return of funds will be handled under PayPals terms for purchases between a seller and buyer. Since the club/team received the proceeds, it will also be subject to Paypal’s refund process.

Please help us get this great news out to the skating community!!!

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in MySkatingMall.com News | No Comments »

Club and Team Registration now available!

February 6th, 2010

tab-skating-clubsRegistration is now available at http://www.myskatingmall.com/clubs for all skating clubs, synchro teams, and theatre on ice teams who want to raise funds through MySkatingMall.com. Any group from around the world is eligible as long as they can be verified. It does not cost even one cent for groups to register! All groups will need to register before they can receive the 5% funding from the purchases of their members. More details of how this site will work are available at MySkatingMall.com.

Partner Stores

25 skating businesses have already decided to become Partner Stores on MySkatingMall.com! Think about them like the different stores you can walk into while strolling through your local mall. More will surely be added before our launch in March. To see the up-to-date list of Partner Stores, visit the “Supporters of MySkatingMall.com” Fan Page on Facebook.

With all these stores in addition to the thousands of used items that will soon be available for purchase, MySkatingMall.com will truly have everything a skater needs. It is our sincerest hope that MySkatingMall.com will aid “grassroots” clubs and teams to get the resources they need to support their skaters.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in MySkatingMall.com News | No Comments »

Partner Store FAQ’s

January 26th, 2010
 faq1

Would I still be able to remain an independent company, while being partnered with MySkatingMall.com?

    Yes, you would be completely independent. We would simply create a link from MySkatingMall to your site (explained below) and you would only pay commission on the sales that are generated from our traffic. Your site is yours and will remain unchanged. 

What are the logistics of how it would work?

If you already have a website, you wouldn’t need to make another storefront on MySkatingMall. Viewers on MySkatingMall will see the description for your store or search for your store and then click through to your website. When you register your business to join MySkatingMall, we’ll send you a piece of code that you put on your site so that the purchases that are made from shoppers sent by MySkatingMall can be tracked.  Either at the end of the month or instantly (depending on how we can get it set up), we will debit your Paypal account for the 10% commission on those sales. Half of what we debit will be given to the skating club or team of the purchaser. 

What if someone returns an item to me and MySkatingMall has already billed the 10% from my PayPal account?

You will have 30 days from the point of sale to notify us of any returns and provide proof of the return if possible. You will be refunded the 10% minus any applicable PayPal fees that we have incurred. It is our policy to trust your integrity as a long term partner in these matters until it appears to be abused.

Why should I be willing to give up 10% of my revenue to join as a MySkatingMall partner store?

     There are several reasons: Most importantly, joining as a MySkatingMall partner store should ultimately increase your bottom line. Without asking any money up front, we will be directing additional traffic to your website. MySkatingMall.com will give your site additional worldwide exposure. You will only be paying the 10% on sales from traffic that we send you. Here’s another way to look at this: you would not have made that particular sale if the customer had not been directed to your site. The 10% simply comes out of you additional profits. Secondly, think of the 10% as a marketing expense to attract customers. It is clearly the best type of marketing expense since you only pay if a sale is made. Where else can you spend your marketing dollars like that? A third reason to join MySkatingmall is that you are building goodwill with those in the skating community. You are setting your business apart through your commitment to raise money for grassroots skating through each sale you make at MySkatingMall. That goodwill can only benefit your business long term. Lastly, due to the fund raising features of MySkatingMall.com, it may become the primary place a large portion of skaters go to to purchase their skating items. If you are not visible on MySkatingmall, you may ultimately lose business. In short, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

What will be the different costs to be a MySkatingMall partner store?

If you have an existing website, the only cost to be a MySkatingMall partner store will be the 10% commission you pay on each sale. Businesses who don’t have an existing website and are creating a storefront directly on MySkatingMall.com will be assessed a $10 per month hosting fee. Banner advertising space and front page exposure for listings will also be available.  Those fees have not been determined yet. All of the preceding costs will remain unchanged until at least March 2011.

 Will my company have to send in a check every month for the 10% commission to MySkatingMall?

No. We will handle all financial transactions through PayPal. No checks will be going back and forth in the mail. If we can get it so that everything happens instantaneously and automatically, we will. We want MySkatingMall to make your life easier, not more difficult.

I am not comfortable turning over any of my profit directly to the club when I get no say in how my money is spent. Why doesn’t the money just go back to individual families?

The way individual skaters will benefit is by receiving 90% of the sales price for their items. It is true that partner stores don’t have any control over how the clubs’ 5% is spent.  You can think of the 5% as a marketing expense for your business and not as handing over 5% of your profits.  It can be assumed that any of the sales sent your way from MySkatingMall you may not have received otherwise.

 Will the items on my current website show up when shoppers are using the MySkatingMall search feature and looking for specific items that I have?

 Not automatically, but it will be possible. All partner stores will be able to create an unlimited number of item listing on MySkatingMall that will show up in our search results. These listings will be similar to the ones individuals will create to sell the items they have for sale. This will take some time on your end but it is not required. If you don’t create the individual listings, shoppers can find you by browsing through our list of partner stores and reading the description of your site that you send us.

How will shoppers find my store on MySkatingMall?

 There are several ways: First, we will have an area of the front page that will cycle through the logos (with hyperlinks) of our different partner stores. Secondly, we will have a page that lists the partner stores with descriptions written by you. Thirdly, you will be able to create listings of items you have for sale on MySkatingMall that will show up when shoppers use our search function to find specific items.  Lastly, banner advertising space will be available for purchase.

 How are the shipping and return policies determined for purchases?

 Your business will determine all shipping charges and your refund policy.

Who cuts the check to the figure skating club or team?

MySkatingMall.com will handle all the transactions with the skating clubs and teams.

 Does my store choose a skating club or team to benefit from every purchase?

 No. The entire 5% from the purchase will go to the beneficiary of the buyer. The percentage is only split when a transaction is between to individuals, not between a partner store and an individual.

              If you have any additional questions, please leave a comment below!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in MySkatingMall.com News | 1 Comment »

MySkatingMall Parents’ Blog

January 20th, 2010

confused_parent-300x225

Facilitated by: Laura E. Riley (Caroline’s Mom)

 Welcome to the parents’ corner of MySkatingMall.com! As the parent of a figure skater, you play a key role in your child’s chosen sport – of course, so does your pocketbook. If you are like me, you might find it difficult in today’s economy to finance “must have” fashion pieces, movie nights and slumber parties. Add in a sport that has a reputation of being “extremely expensive,” and you find yourself scouring the want-ads for a part-time job to offset the costs and keep your child(ren) skating. But if you are working two jobs to support the “habit” who is going to chauffeur your budding star to practices five, six or more times a week?

 

Being a figure skating parent is a challenge, a juggling act, and not without its sacrifices. For me, it’s a little easier because I LOVE SKATING! My daughter at age 5 is living my childhood dream – a dream that was cut short for me by the high cost of skating. I grew up and still live in the South, so I was a quad roller skater. Ice rinks were in short supply in the South in the 70’s and 80’s. Even today, only the larger metropolitan areas have ice rinks.

 

Fortunately, we live in Atlanta, which will soon be adding its seventh sheet of ice in a northern suburb. But outside Atlanta, skating clubs in Georgia are scarce. One of the families in the Atlanta Figure Skating Club had been making a 200-mile roundtrip between Macon, Georgia, and Atlanta five to six times a week for their daughter to ice skate! With the high gas prices, that is a rather hefty extra expense.

The “high cost” of skating to a family’s budget and time is inevitably a popular topic at my daughter’s home rink, the Marietta Ice Center (http://www.themicice.com). Through this blog on MySkatingMall, I would like for us to share our thoughts and advice on figure skating financing and other topics of interest to parents and all members of your figure skating family, including grandparents. (My mother-in-law is covering most of the costs of my daughter, Caroline’s next out-of-state competition, so I can’t leave them out as a valuable resourceJ).

I envision this blog as a virtual meeting place for ice skating parents outside the rink. As I said before, I love skating. The best part of my week is spent perched above the ice watching my daughter skate. The parents, coaches and families at the MIC have become some of my closest friends. We all share a common interest that entails helping our young skaters get the most out of their sport! Like any endeavor, it doesn’t come without a price.

What bothers me is when I hear parents sharing “horror” stories they have heard (or overheard) about the high price of skating without being properly informed. I often tell parents, “Breathe. Relax. You don’t have to pay up-front or sign a contract to pay thousands of dollars over a decade.” As a parent, I try to face it one expense at a time.

I recently was helping my best friend to make purchasing decisions on basic skating items for her daughter and granddaughter (yes, she has both a four-year-old daughter and granddaughter, and they both want to skate!). I realized just how much information is needed to make good, educated choices and thus avoid overspending.

In the Southern U.S., ice skating equipment and apparel stores are not on every corner. In fact, the one decent store we had in metro Atlanta recently closed. The Internet, of course, offers access to everything a skater needs. However, it can be a daunting undertaking for the beginning skater or parent to shop for supplies on the Web. Otherwise, we are at the mercy of the rink pro-shops, which are primarily focused on hockey and are very expensive.

This is why I am “almost” as big of a fan of MySkatingMall as I am of ice skating! Ryan has given us a tremendous opportunity to educate ourselves about the sport, save money, make money for our teams, and otherwise collectively join forces to keep our youngsters skating!

As skating families, we need to condition our pocketbooks, just like the little skater’s muscles — slow and steady, a little bit at a time. I try to encourage others to save as much money as possible on skating equipment and apparel, so they can put the money where it really counts — coaching and ice time!

Of course, this is just my opinion. I am very interested to hear yours and any advice or other tricks of the trade you may have for creative figure skating financing. Other skating parent topics are open for discussion and will be regularly introduced. As I told Ryan, certain topics seem to “resurface” amongst the sideline chatter during practice. So here is your opportunity to join in while staying warm (unless you’re logging in from the rink).

Happy Skating,

Laura, a.k.a. Caroline’s Mom

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Parents' Corner | 1 Comment »

FAQ’s

January 14th, 2010

questionmark

This is the first of several blog posts of Frequently Asked Questions. These questions refer to individual usage of MySkatingMall:

Will items be listed in an auction or will I be able to set the selling price?

When MySkatingMall goes live in March, all prices will be set by the seller and there will be no auctions. That way sellers can receive what they want for each item listed. Buyers and sellers will be able to communicate via the site so that they can negotiate an agreeable purchase price. We will have the ability to do auctions if users would like that at a later date.

Will you have to pay in order to use the site?

There will be no cost to purchase items from the site besides the purchase price (including shipping). When you sell an item, there will be a 10% commission which is less than eBay. For the first year, there will be no listing fee at all. Starting in March 2011, there will be a $1 per item per year listing fee. An important feature is that listings will not expire until they are sold or the seller removes them from MySkatingMall. That way you never have to deal with mulitiple listing fees in one year like other popular listing/auction sites.

What is the difference between an individual web store and a partner store?

Individual stores are meant for skaters, clubs, or teams who are primarily listing gently used items.  They will also be allowed to list new items if they so choose.  For the first year, there will be no listing fee for items. Starting March 2011, there will be a $1 per item annual listing fee.

Partner stores are intended for commercial skating businesses. Most will be selling primarily new items. Businesses that already have a website will be able to link it to MySkatingMall without any upfront fees.  Those businesses without websites will be able to create one on MySkatingMall just like individuals can.  A $10 per month hosting fee will be paid by partner stores who are creating their stores directly on MySkatingMall (and not linking to it through their own websites.) The advantage of partner stores is that they will be more visible on the site and there is no per item listing fee.

If I have multiple copies of the same item to sell, am I charged the $1 listing fee for each one?

Until March 2011, there will be no listing fee for any item being sold on MySkatingMall.com. Individuals and partner stores will be able to list items that have multiple copies to sell. For individuals, only $1 will be charged up front for the listing. Once the first copy of the item gets sold, then another dollar will be charged, et cetera, until all your copies are sold. This way you are not out the $1 for each item if they do not sell. This seems like the fairest way to do it.

How does my skating club/ team receive the 5% funding?

Clubs and teams will be able to register with MySkatingMall.com before we go live in March. The skating group will need to set up a Paypal account so that the transfers can be automatic. The plan is that every three months, payments will be made to the skating groups.

Please leave a comment to this blog with your questions and we’ll get them answered!

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Your input needed! | No Comments »

MySkatingMall featured on Figure Skaters Online

January 8th, 2010

logo[1]

ryanjahnke01MySkatingMall.com was featured in an in depth news article on Figure Skaters Online. If you haven’t been there FSO is a great site that hosts official websites for many top elite skaters. I had my website with them for many years while I was competing. They are a great group of people who provide a great service.

The article was written in an easy to read Question and Answer format. Great questions were asked like,”When the site fully launches in March 2010, what can we expect from it? Are there going to be any “goodies” besides being able to buy and sell gently used items?”

Here are the first two paragraphs from the article followed by a link to the whole story:

“On December 18, two-time national medalist Ryan Jahnke added another accolade to his resume. The former member of the U.S. World Championship team graduated from the University of Colorado, where he majored in finance and a minored in information systems.

Now Jahnke is focused on putting his college degree to good use, launching his new Web site MySkatingMall.com, which gives skaters an outlet for buying and selling gently used skating related items, with a portion of sales going to skating clubs. The site is expected to be online in March.”

–Read full story at Figure Skaters Online

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in MySkatingMall.com News | No Comments »

MySkatingMall videos page has been added!

December 15th, 2009

images-1

We are pleased to announce the addition of the MySkatingMall videos page to the MySkatingMall site.  Our first video release is “Ryan Jahnke’s Greatest Falls: Encouragement for competitive skaters”. It can be seen on our videos page or on the MySkatingMall channel on YouTube.  If you haven’t seen this video yet, you NEED to. In just six days, the video has had nearly 1,100 views. We had a great time putting it together and it is guaranteed to make you laugh!

Our next video release will most likely be at the beginning of January so stay tuned.  In that video, Ryan Jahnke will be sharing the details of how MySkatingMall will work and how it will support the figure skating community.

If you liked the first video, please leave a comment below.  We are considering putting together a series of short videos on topics such as “confidence” or “perseverance” that will be helpful to up-and-coming skaters. Ryan will share from his personal experiences during his 21 year competitive career. Let us know if you think this is worth the effort!

Tags: , ,
Posted in MySkatingMall.com News, Your input needed! | No Comments »

Partner stores are coming on board

December 7th, 2009

hand-shake-4[2]Like a good bricks-and-mortar mall, Myskatingmall.com will have a great selection of stores from which to shop.  Everything a parent or skaters would want to buy will soon be available for purchase and every purchase supports grassroots skating!

Our plan is one of partnership and not of competition. Myskatingmall.com will just be the marketplace for skaters and vendors to meet. The products for sale will be those of individual skater and existing skating businesses. Any skating related company that wants to support skating clubs and teams is welcom to join us. As of this writing, 13 stores have already expressed interest in joining Myskatingmall.com!

This post will highlight our first three, Cherryloop, Sk8strong, and Style & Confidence.

At Cherryloop, you’ll be able to find namebrand skating dresses, practice attire, boots, accessories, and more. Cherryloop is a fairly new family business that strives for unmatched customer service in all of their transactions. They are offering free shipping on everything in the store forever!  

When asked why Cherryloop has joined Myskatingmall, Travis Phipps, owner of Cherryloop, said,”Myskatingmall is providing a service that we don’t; giving skaters the ability to find high quality used items.  We want to be able to send our customers to a trustworthy place when they are in need of used items.”

Sk8strong founder Lauren Downes has produced a series of off-ice strength and conditioning DVDs and a training manual specifically for figure skaters of all levels and ages. The trainings are endorsed by the Professional Skaters Association and the DVDs will give a skater an off-ice training program to prevent injury, increase functional and plyometric strength, improve alignment and posture, increase core strength and balance, and improve the overall performance of any skater.  All that in one place, WOW!

Style & Confidence is owned by championship level ice dancer Jennifer Wester. Besides making custom skating outifits, Jennifer also offers crystalled accessories along with motivational skating art.  You can get inspired and get your BLING on all in one place!

More partner stores will be added each week. Check out the Myskatingmall Partner Store page on a regular basis to see if your favorite stores have joined!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in MySkatingMall.com News | No Comments »

« Older Entries