How to get great prices when you sell on ebay

Today I wanted to pass on another top tip for achieving the best possible prices for your items that you sell on ebay auctions.

I often find when I’m looking at items to buy that the sellers give very vague and not very descriptive information about their antiques, and this is usually coupled with quite poor quality photos. Read more

Antiques Hunt Round 3 Update

Hi all,

heres a quick update for round 3.

The Bow tureen is listed, and the pearlware mug is also relisted.

I got a full refund for the firewood box (antique rosewood writing slope), so that will be added back into the kitty, and the walnut box will be added shortly.

Keep watching to see what happens.

The problem with buying off eBay

My antique porcelain tureen (the antique Derby tureen) and the antique rosewood writing slope have both arrived (I’ll be listing once the walnut box arrives), and whilst the tureen is wonderful and exactly what I’d expected, the rosewood writing slope is something altogether different, and really highlights the problems with buying from eBay, or online in general.

The problems (and there are a few!) are that the description really didn’t explain the damage enough, and amazingly (thats sarcasm) all of the photos omitted the true extent of the damage.

The listing on eBay said that it had “some losses” to the veneer – try huge swathes of it missing, a huge bubbled bit that needs ripping off, missing mother of pearl inlay, and the top of the lid has been walloped at some point with a steam hammer or similar meaning that it is about a 1/4 of an inch out of skew with the rest of the lid.

Obviously this can’t be easily repaired, since the veneer has also been seriously damaged at this point (as if the rest of the veneer damage wasn’t enough), which renders this box to be little more than firewood.

On top of that the lock wasn’t a Bramah lock either – so all in all it’s a disaster of a buy and I just don’t see how I’m going to get my money back from it.

I’ve contacted the seller to inform them of my dismay, we’ll see what happens on that front, but otherwise I’m not even going to bother listing it – I’d be ashamed to put my name to it – and I’ll just have to write off the expense as a loss if the seller won’t refund the money.

I’ll let you know what happens, but I could have done without this setback!

Round 3 is underway!

I’ve bought 3 items for round 3, and will also be relisting the pearlware “drinking mug” that didn’t sell in round 2.

For round 3 I have bought yet another piece of antique porcelain, an “antique Derby tureen” (which might actually be an antique Bow tureen), an antique rosewood writing slope, and an antique walnut box.

I’ve spent a total of £251.09p on these 3 items, hopefully they’ll help to get my profit to over £500 by the end of this round!

Call back to see how they do!

Exciting News!

Round 2′s antiques end in about 5 hours from now, and it’s getting exciting!

My pearlware cup still hasn’t got a bid on it, which is a bit disappointing, but the real star of the show – my Longton Hall teabowl – is flying!

It was on £56 when I got up this morning, it’s now at a very tasty £148 with plenty of time left and quite a few watchers too!

Hopefully this may do significantly better than I’d hoped for – you can watch it on eBay here

Round 3 sneak preview

I’ve been trying desperately to find some goodies for round 3 that aren’t porcelain, pottery, or other ceramics, and I’ve managed to find a few nice bits.

Unfortunately I’ve been outbid on all of them or I’ve forgotten about them and missed the chance to bid, since I do tend to wait until the last minute to try and win an item.

I found a really nice sewing box that was badly listed in the wrong section, a beautiful card case that I forgot was ending, and a super French clock that I was outbid on too.

I have a few more lined up that I’m watching, I’ll see how I can do, I want round 3 to be a good one, I need to make some serious money to get me into a good position for the final “show stopper” antique that I’m going to buy at the end.

Lessons Learned

I’m pleased that with the last 2 items to finish their auctions today, I am guaranteed to have made a profit overall from the first batch of antiques, but there have been some important lessons learned from this first stage.

The most important thing to note is the dramatic effect that final value fee auction charges and other costs have on the end profit, with the Caughley Tea Caddy providing a perfect illustration of this. Read more

Round 2 has Begun

I’ve now bought and added my round 2 antiques to eBay.

In the end I’ve had to move the pearlware coffee cup bought around 1 month ago into round 2 since it’s only just arrived and everything else from round 1 will be ending shortly.

The only additional purchase for round 2 is a Longton Hall teabowl that was misdescribed on eBay as an antique Japanese Saki cup, and it consequently only cost me £11.09 including the postage.

Hopefully this will make me a decent profit, I can see it making £100+ on a good day, and who knows how it might do on a really good day – let’s just hope it isn’t a bad day at the office for this one – I have very high hopes for it!

Keep watching – you can see them both in the “Current Auctions” section!

Round 1 update

Just a quick update on how things are going so far!

My Caughley Plate is currently on £18.18 with just over 2 days to go, so currently I’m looking at a bit (or rather a lot) of a loss on this one, unless it gets some bids nearer the end.

The Caughley Tea Caddy is on £79.77, so this one has almost got to where I started with it – it has a fair few watchers, so hopefully it might just sneak a profit or maybe get me my money back.

The Antique Chinese Ocatgonal Bowl still hasn’t got any bids, and with only 8 watchers it might make a loss – to quote Victor Meldrew – “I don’t believe it!”

The 18th Century Creamer and cups and saucers are fairing slightly better. The creamer is on £33.32 and the cups and saucers on £29.99, so these have made me a modest profit already – and with quite a few watchers they hopefully might do even better – but with eBay and auctions in general being totally unpredictable I’m not holding my breath!

Keep watching to see what happens!

Auction Update

Just a quick update on the latest auctions.

The 18th Century Creamer and the cups both have bids on them already and so I will at least double my money on those – my first profit!

I just wish I knew who’d made them, that could have pushed the price up!

The Caughley Tea Caddy and Caughley plate both have bids on them, so although they aren’t anywhere near what I’ve paid for them, they’re hopefully getting enough interest to get some more bids (please!)

No one has bid on the Antique Chinese Octagonal Bowl yet, although it does have a few watchers, so fingers crossed on that one – surely I can’t lose money on a £3.99 purchase – can I ???

Keep watching to see what happens!

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