I know
exactly when I signed up for EBay; 1997.
Mom died in March and we had all her treasures to deal with. The family glass! Cut, leaded, crystal… We had boxes of it.
By summer we
made all the grandchildren look it over and not one of them wanted it. A mighty elegant house would be required to
flaunt it, not to mention the responsibility.
We had it appraised, we donated it to a public mansion, we all breathed
a sigh of relief.
So easily
done. What about that row of Grandma
Rolf’s Roseville pottery, lined up atop a kitchen cupboard. This was less
easily done. I had two resources to
learn value. The fledgling dial up internet
search engines, Dogpile, WebCrawler,
HotBot. And Nina, the mistress of an antique barn. Not a shop, a barn. She was my go to when I was
stumped.
The
Roseville sold for a fair price, and arrived at its destinations intact, in
spite of my ignorance of proper packaging. I received four fine feedbacks. Heady stuff. Nina asked me to move some
Roseville that had gathered dust too long at The Barn. We came to some agreement and I sold it for a
decent price.
My lack of
shipping skill caught up with me; a piece broke in shipping. I formulated my
returns policy: Full refund; simply tell
me what happened. I didn’t need
pictures, don’t return it. My brother
would like that one (if it breaks in half, you get to keep both pieces). More
positive feedback, and a quantum leap in shipping carefully, still with
recycled boxes from the dumpsters of the shops in town.
My friend
Carol asked me to sell some of her antiques and collectables she was tired
of. We made a deal, I think fifteen
percent of the sales price. Another eye
opener. A small return for researching,
photos, listing fees, packing, schlepping to the post office. It was a favor, not a money maker.
By the end
of the second year EBay and I were close buddies, especially in the two or
three months each year I did no shows.
Thrift store finds kept me supplied, on the whole, and I had my
turquoise star for over a hundred positive feedbacks. All positive!
Probably about
2000 we painted some walls in the house and I had to take down the Indian “tray”
that had been nailed up for years. Oh,
what about all this stuff from our grandparent’s great trip west in 1936. I
started with that “tray” and some pottery.
What a week. Consecutive emails
from bidders who would be “out of town” or otherwise unable to attend the end
of the auction, could they make an offer now?
Our turn of
the other century Apache winnowing basket sold for a lot of money. The buyers were so excited, we included the
tape we’d made of the movies of “The great trip west.” I stopped short, trying to make a large enough
carton from recycled boxes. These folks
paid a lot of money for this, Joanne.
Have some class, buy a decent carton.
I
methodically sold off the rest of the rugs, baskets, pottery. I can still see one email that came for the
listing of a big basket we’d used all through my girls childhoods for wet
mittens and caps. It was used more carelessly
here, the rim was disintegrating, the rows separating. “I can’t believe your family used an Olla
water basket for family junk for more than a century!” Ah, well.
I figured it was all travelling to homes that would understand and
appreciate it.
Very similar Olla basket |
I retired
weaving in 2003 and took up township business in 2004. I still dabbled in EBay a bit, but had
nothing significant to sell, except for Bob’s train. Bob was a dealer at Nina’s barn, and had a
train he’d picked up at a garage sale. I think it was the Lionel Western
Pacific. Played with, then put away in
it boxes. He thought he had something,
could we try EBay. A new lesson. Learn more than you ever want to know about
some things, like scarce trains.
All those train
guys were livid at my inadequate description and knowledge. I did my best. I revised my description to cover every
square inch. I overlooked one missing
step, for which the buyer forgave me, after another tongue lashing. He paid more than three thousand dollars, of
which I got one third, less expense, which included a hundred dollar refund for
the damn step. I played the dumb grandma
card a lot to get through that one.
Then Nina
decided to retire and close down the barn.
Would I help? I’d see what I could do. We turned out to be one helluva
team. Nina knew her merchandise and knew
how to give out crash antique knowledge.
She also staged beautifully.
About every ten days I’d go by the barn and load up my van with some
category, learn enough to write thorough descriptions. Like clockwork, she staged, I listed, answered
questions, banked the money, packed and shipped. And, kept immaculate records, because Nina
still had to settle with folks who let her close down their space in the barn.
It probably
took us four months to clear that barn down to cobwebs. We just kept on keeping on. I think once her husband asked her when we
would settle up and Nina said let her alone, she was busy. “What if Joanne dies?” “I know her sister.” This deal was fifty fifty after all expenses,
which did not include refunds I made for my stupidity, and never told Nina
about. I paid my taxes for the next year
from my half.
I pretty
much quit EBay after that. The fees
always escalated and the rules changed weekly.
EBay instituted a secondary rating system; the buyer could rank the
seller one to five stars for various performance areas, including speed of
delivery. That one did it for me. I’m not in charge of the postal system. I personally earned a red star for over 1,000
positive feedbacks (and no negatives!); I printed it out, hung it on the wall
and said The End.
Oh wow, you are an EBay pro. I've always looked but never listed or purchased - yet.
ReplyDeleteP.s. I would have loved some of those Indian artifacts though probably could never afford the price.
ReplyDeleteYour posts are always so interesting, Joanne.
ReplyDeleteI never got into eBay as it seemed like a lot of trouble and who the heck would want my junk anyway. My son, though, has sold quite a bit and done well. He now uses Craig's List which is more convenient, but I think somewhat sketchy.
My maternal grandmother was from Roseville... Pottery, coal mines and glassware. Nothing left but memories now. Never been on e-bay... the stuff Grandma had probably went in the trash. It's funny what is now quite valuable, isn't it?
ReplyDeletewow! native artifacts, Roseville pottery. too bad the younger generations weren't interested.
ReplyDeleteOne missing step from the train?
ReplyDeleteI tried the ebay selling but not as early in the game as you did. I sold less than a tenth of what you did. Not everything sells even for low prices. I don't trust Craigslist.
The oddest thing I put up there was a small rock my nephew found that had the shape of Wisconsin. No takers.
I caught and described the rest of the missing parts; I missed the missing step.
DeleteEBay changed even in the ten years I was involved. People quit helping newbies; EBay squeezed everyone. Nothing stays the same.
You almost ran with that missing step, didn't you. Missing step to Clarksville...
DeleteWow, you did great with EBay! Good for you too with the run you had and the success with all those red stars!! WTG with that! I sold a lot on EBay when we moved from Montana back to California 7 years ago, but in going through hubby's parents' estate, although I knew there were "valuable" things here, I had heard that EBay had changed a lot of policies and I was a bit shy to reenter the market again, so I'm sure a lot of stuff we sold at garage sales ended up on EBay with people that knew what they were doing.
ReplyDeleteWhat I did have great success with and would do it again if I had the time was sell books on Amazon.com. Would go to garage sales, buy books cheap, list them on Amazon and sold quite a bit that way.
betty
Two or three years ago one daughter asked me to try eBay again; she wanted to stop storing all the western jewelry (boleros and turquoise) she inherited from my mother-in-law. It all was late fifties, early sixties stuff. My mother-in-law had impeccable taste, but it all sold for minimal amounts of money and the buyers just weren't nice.
DeleteA shame.
We sold my daughters piano and violin on ebay she put the add on and they picked them up at my place so no packing involved, we tried a few other things but no one wanted them so they are still sitting in the shed.
ReplyDeleteMerle..........
You are a true dynamo - and I am not surprised you got all that positive feedback. You don't do anything by halves do you?
ReplyDeleteFabulous ! I am amazed at your skills Joanne.
ReplyDeleteHusband buys bits for boats on Ebay for terrific value.
I bought a Sari once for a Bollywood evening. I wore the Sari with a T Shirt under & a friend had the tiny cropped top as it was way too small for me !
I have sold a few things on e-Bay -- but quite some time ago -- trains for my husband. He was happy with the price he got and that the postage to New Zealand was not included in the price! It was very tempting to go further, but having read about your adventures, glad I decided not to do it! Like everything else on the Internet, time has turned it all into a big hassle. Thank goodness for the 'Grandma' excuse, eh? ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've used Kijiji...it's free unless you want to upgrade your ad but it is basically a garage sale on line...not intended for priceless objects.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of e-bay, I signed up there when searching for a hard to find movie which I eventually found through a different site that my daughter found for me. I still get emails from e-bay asking me to buy or sell, but I've seen the system and am not happy with it. There seems to be a lot of bidding pushing the prices up, usually to much higher than I could afford. I probably should unsubscribe.
ReplyDeleteI think you did very well with them, especially with helping Nina close the barn. You certainly earned that red star.
You were getting to be an expert! You have a lot of different skills!
ReplyDeleteoh what a great story, never knew there was that much trouble with ebay, always meant to try it but never have. Now wondering if my Gary's train is worth anything.
ReplyDeleteI have never used ebay...I'm a dinosaur.
ReplyDeleteJane x
Gutsy ol' gal, you are! Reminds me of a calendar we saved for years just for the laugh. Hill Billies--Grandma out fist fighting a bear. The caption read, "She don't want no bullet holes in him." For me to do eBay would be like duking it out with a bear.
ReplyDeleteWow, you were an Ebay expert. I have never gone that route. If we want a tax deduction, I always donate to charity. And that's it. As good as cash.
ReplyDeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteI know folk who have used it but can honestly say I have not been near ebay - a native distrust which I cannot quite place. Perhaps like that of the lamb when the wolves are near...
YAM xx
What a wonderful summary of what had to be countless hours spent. And you have re-affirmed and solidified my vow never to get tangled up with eBay :)
ReplyDeleteThat was exhausting to imagine, Joanne! I will not use eBay to hawk my wares. I have so much I need to sell, and you have saved me some hard experiences.
ReplyDeleteDear Joanne, as "Susan Kane" says, all you described doing in your posting seems exhausting to me. So much patience and research and packing, etc., etc., etc. So much to learn over the years. I'm glad that you were such a success at this and who knows when you will need all this experience and information again. Your venture into selling is truly amazing to me. Inspiring. Peace.
ReplyDeleteI used to like ebaying, but these days you get almost no money and it seems a huge hassle for what you get. I am talking of the British site. Many of the people on the British site (at least)seem to be companies selling on ebay - as opposed, I suppose, to selling from regular shops.
ReplyDelete