공덕영 (Kong Duc young)

이 블러그의 저자 공덕영 (Kong Duc young) 은,

서울 출생

쌍문 초등학교 입학

대곡 초등학교 졸업

휘문중 졸업

휘문고 졸업

한림대 유전공학과 입학

육군 군수 사령부 휘하 탄약 사령부 휘하 제 3 탄약창 제 3 탄약 중대 탄약 검사병 병장 제대

뉴욕주립대 (State University of New York)-Buffalo Biology B.S. 졸업

Game Recycler CybKnight.com 설립 (2006년 5월)

현제까지 이베이 파워셀러 및 소유주로 일하는 중

한국과는 소식이 오래전 끊겻는데, 연락 하시기 바랍니다.

http://www.cybknight.com/contact_us

Online or Offline: Which Is Better?

Online or Offline: Which Is Better?


Nowadays a lot of people buy and sell items online. People open business online as much as they do in retail stores. In our case, Cybknight started Ebay business six years ago. Then, we started our retail store in Chicago suburb three years ago.

A lot of people may get a impression that online is way better than actual store or solution for everything. In some sense, that's true and online business does have certain advantages.

But, now I think online and offline are not exactly opposite, but more likely compatible with each other. You cannot say which is better, but those have its own advantages and disadvantages.

First disadvantage of online is time delay. People cannot wait for the item for few days of delivery all the time. When new games come out, lots of people just go to stores for direct purchase. Sometimes, game manias cannot even wait for the release date, so they demand the games earlier or ask for midnight sales. I think people usually buy games online for gifts. Actual players just want to have and play it ASAP.

Second disadvantage is reliability matter. In case of online, customers need to pay the item first to get it. For thousands of years, human have seen and checked the items first and then buy them if they like. Sometimes item conditions are much different from the original description even from those "good" sellers online. That's why CybKnight never buy anything online though we sell all the time with 99.8% eBay feedback.

Third disadvantage would be fraud. Credit card fraud does happen online and still a lot of people prefer not to use credit card and give out information online.

As a seller, online advertisement of your own site is much more difficult than you own store in plaza since it's not really visible. And, if you go to famous sites like Ebay, Amazon or half.com, competition would be very brutal. That's why we cannot sell brand new items on those sites.


But, still, I can say that online has critical advantages.

First of all, when you are short of funding, you can start online business way easier than offline one. You can start it as small as possible. You don't have to pay for huge store rent, huge warehouse rent or expensive modern interiors. You only need web hosting fee, camera and some equipments. You can also use Amazon or Half.com depending on items and they will charge you only after you make sales.

Second, you can reach really a lot of people though Internet. In store, I can barely reach Schaumburg, but I can reach everywhere in America by Internet. So, when you have some leftover games impossible to sell in store, online can be solution.

Third, online works for 24 hours automatically while you do something else. In CybKnight, store barely opens ten hours per day and online is especially important for those 14 hours while store is closed. It definitely compensates the store sales loss overnight.

I've seen a lot of business men, especially among the old, saying that location is everything. In some sense, that's right since there's some business not much you can do with online.

But, according to my experience, those store rent and interiors of good location can be way more expensive than you can ever imagine.

Being in a reasonable location and compensating it by online could be a great business model.

No Gameshop Is Around

By the time PS3 and Nintendo Wii released, I could see a lot of people waiting in line at Best buy and Toy'r us. Many people were waiting for several hours in cold winter night.

On the release date in 2007, people bought PS3 for $600-700 and sold it on eBay for up to $9,000. One pregnant woman said it's her major income. Two years have been passed, but even now people can buy Nintendo Wii at retails for $270 and sell it on eBay for $350-400.

And, this is not just story of consoles only. A lot of games are equally popular.

On the release date of WOW "Wrath of lich king" in 2008, countless people were waiting line for hours at Best buy. We sold out 60 copies on that day and few customers left with empty hand. On the release date of most of popular titles, Cyb Knight do midnight sales since many customers cannot wait till the next day.

Games are very popular items. It's hard to argue about it.

But, still, it is very difficult to see any independent game shop. A lot of customers at Cyb Knight says it's been a long time to see a shop like this. Only big companies are around. I myself can see game stop all the time. But, in some sense, the number of game stops are not a lot either.

People open independent restaurants all the time. But, simply, not a lot of people open any game shop including Gamestop that much although games are popular and profitable.

Then, why this thing happens? Here's my reasons.

• People do not like to change. In other words, only few people have vision and adaptate themselves quickly in new environment. Although Sony and MS are old company, the next generation consoles are totally new items. PS3 and Wii are only 1-2 years old by 2009. In case of eBay or Google AdSense, it's also new way of making money. But, if you actually ask around, only few people do those on daily basis. That's similar in small business world. New consoles are something most starters are not familiar with. A lot of people go for restaurants since it has long history and familiarity. But, it's saturated market and also the most closing business in U.S.



• Generation Mismatch When people open independent business, they usually choose some items they like or be familiar. In case of games, most of players are in their 10-30s. In case of business, a lot of starters are in their 30-50s after reasonable savings. So, simply young people play games and old people start business. In other words, young people do not have money and capability to start a business and old farts are not interested in next generation consoles.



• General Economic Downturn DS, PS3 and Wii were all released after 2006. Economy has been worse since then. Not a lot of people open new business now.

I wonder if there is any other reason.