Tumi: The world gets smaller one purchase at a time for online businesses ...

Posted on March 7, 2013 by surveyoronline

John Arnolds logs onto his web-based store that sells vintage vacuum tubes around the globe. Jan Wilderom photo.

By Jan Wilderom
March 5 2013

Lots of people buy things online, and that?s fine with John Arnolds, who sells vacuum tubes on the Internet.
Arnolds? business happened almost by accident. He bought tubes so he could fix old radio?s he collected.
?I just collected them over the years thinking I would need them for repairs, but then I realized I had 1,500 to 2,000 tubes and if I live another 100 years I would go through them, but??
Arnolds sells a large number of his vacuum tubes to international locations.
?How else could I be selling to all these places other than online? I suppose once upon a time you could do it though a magazine, but the Internet has replaced that.?
Even with the convenience, Arnolds said it?s not all-smooth sailing.
?I found that I was spending hours and hours setting this whole thing up.?
Charlottetown?s Back Alley music store owner Pat Deighn said it really helps his business.
?It?s hard now a days to have A to Z stock, especially in a market like this.?
Deighn said he uses Ebay but he prefers to use purchase sites rather than bidding to get products.
?eBay is good. There are certain other sites that you can use where you don?t have to bid. Amazon?s great.?
Sometimes it costs a bit more to get certain albums, but people are okay with the cost, Deighn said.
?It definitely costs a little more, but the Internet allows us to get more limited products. Plus, people are willing to pay a little more to get them.?
Most of the fun is in the search, said Deighn.
?There?s nothing better than having a beer or two, putting on some vinyl and searching the Internet for vinyl?s.?
Arnolds wasn?t always a supporter of web-based sales.
?As a retailer, I was against it because I was always for local businesses. But then, I don?t think you could have a store that just sells tubes.?
Besides, its not a big business, he said.
?I am not making a fortune with them. In fact, I am offering them on the low side of their value. I am not planning on running the other stores out of business.?