If you’ve been following along with Tindie’s blog, you may have noticed a Tokyo-based seller who goes by “Microwavemont.” In fact, it was pointed out to me recently that I’ve written about this industrious rodent three times! Naturally, with well over 200 orders under his belt, after selling here less than a year, it was time to get his thoughts on selling on Tindie.
Though he accurately describes the theme of his store as, “Something new and fun,” if you wanted to get more specific, products there consist of interesting breadboard-based builds. These vary in form, from audio amplifiers to tiny OLED displays, and other interesting bits. Definitely worth checking out.
Microwavemont’s background is in academics, dealing with microwave engineering, and he says that he loves to make “something interesting.” If he means only his items on Tindie, that’s an impressive 26 products in less than a year. Considering his other submissions to YouTube and Hackaday, he stays very busy.
When asked, he offered a few tips for other sellers, including:
- Don’t take back orders, which can make things rushed and take the fun out of things.
- Listen to reviews and use them to help improve your item’s quality.
- Don’t build up too much stock. He says that ” I still have more than 50 units of Ultra Zero [ A tiny Arduino Zero-compatible board with an HMI and Micro SD slot], which had a sales rush but after petit-mass production is finished, almost no sales at all.
- If things don’t sell, usually the price isn’t the problem.
- Sales seem to come in waves, for reasons he hasn’t figured out.
A collection of Ultra Zeroes
One question I have as an American, is, are there any issues getting things halfway across the world? According to him, with the exception of one shipment to Canada because of an e-packet tracking issue, he has experienced “no trouble for all over the world including South Asian and Eastern Europe.” He still ships to Canada, but uses a different shipping method.
So be sure to check out Microwavemont’s various endeavors. I’m certain you’ll at least find something interesting, and likely even new and fun!
