Archive for eBay
Buy antiques and vintage – eBay basics
Posted by: | CommentsPart one of my beginners guide to buying antiques,vintage and collectables on eBay. Buying on eBay can be enjoyable and a great source of that special antique or elusive collectable. But where to start? Part one covers some essential skills and knowledge I recommend before you even start.
1. Absolute essentials:
e.mail, Internet access and a Paypal account.
Hopefully as you are reading this you already have e.mail and internet access and so I shall say no more about those here. Please do set up a paypal account before you start bidding. Whilst this is not strictly essential it really is the best insurance for your safety. It is now a requirement of selling on eBay that all sellers accept paypal. The biggest tip I can offer with using paypal is to fund it from your credit card rather than your bank account. There are two reasons for this:
February Freebie – eBay Goodies pens and keyrings
Posted by: | CommentsA bit of a change for February’s give away. As I am writing a series on buying antiques, vintage and collectibles via eBay I though I would give away a bit of eBay related stuff. There are two pens and two key rings for the winner who leaves ( in my opinion) the best comment on this post by the end of February.
I will update here with the winner on March 1st. You will need to check back to see if you have won as the winner needs to get in touch with me by March 10 .
eBay freebies
eBay for buying antiques, vintage and collectables
Posted by: | CommentsFollowing from my series of articles on how to buy antiques, vintage and collectables at real life auction, throughout February I will be talking about how to buy antiques, vintage and collectables on eBay. My ten part guide will help you to get the most out of what can still be a good source of rare and sought after items and also where antiques, vintage and collectables can sometimes be bought at a bargain price.
Personally I have had an account with eBay for 9 years, am a fully registered business powerseller and have been involved in over 15,000 transactions buying and selling antiques, vintage and collectables- hopefully I can pass on a few tips and tricks I have learnt along the way.
The guide will cover:
- - Basics, what you need to buy successfully and to keep safe on eBay
- - How to find what you want on eBay
- - Checking out the seller ( is this person going to be good to deal with?)
- - How much and when should I bid?
- - Payment and communicating with the seller
- - Receiving and checking your purchases, leaving positive feedback
- - When things go wrong and negative feedback
- - Buying from overseas
- - How to be a good buyer ( yes the buyer has obligations as well as the seller)
- - Bargain Hunting on eBay
Fake Troika on eBay
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Genuine Troika Vase
Beware buyers of Troika pottery – it looks like there are fakes being sold on eBay – this means that they will soon make their way into the sale rooms and fairs. Apparently someone has the original Troika molds and is painting them himself!
I first read about these fakes on the Antiques Trade Gazette website which says :
Seasoned buyers told ATG that discrepancies exist between these recently decorated wares and those made by the factory prior to closure. In particular, the colour palette is wrong for the early 1980s period and, when placed side-by-side, the painters’ marks and painted factory signatures differ greatly from originals. The repainted wares also lack the white/cream gloss glaze that one would expect to the interior of a factory-finished piece.
Tobacciana – collecting smoking accessories
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omega lighter
Many such as the Vesta Case have dissapeared from everyday life today but there remains a large collectors market for antique and vintage smoking related items. Read More→
AntiquesAvenue sale on eBay
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I am having a bit of a clear out of stock again – this time I am auctioning off a few bits of pottery and porcelain on eBay with a £4.99 start so there is a chance to grab yourself a great bargain. There are pots by Wedgwood , Masons, Hontion, Royal Doulton, Crown Devon and more so please do take a look and I hope you find something you like.
Here are a pair of antique Wedgwood candlesticks up for offer ( a little damage but still beautiful).
eBay – Selling your Antiques and Collectables 3
Posted by: | CommentsPart 3 of AntiquesAvenue’s guide to selling you antiques and collectibles covers eBay. This is not going to cover the mechanics of how to sell on eBay but more when eBay is suitable for selling them and what to look out for . Incase you are wondering how qualified I am to discuss this please do take a look at my eBay selling account AntiquesAvenue.
What is ebay good for:
- Selling just a few items ( selling a lot is time consuming but quite possible)
- Selling very rare collectable item ( if you get it right the price can still go very high)
- Selling smaller items ( you can post worldwide)
- Named brand items eg Antique Wedgwood or Limited edition collectables
Can you value my antique for me?
Posted by: | CommentsEvery day I receive a few requests for valuations of peoples precious antiques and collectables. As I have mentioned before this is not a service you can expect to have carried out for free. A proper valuation takes time and research, it is like asking any tradesman to offer their services for free:
- People wanting a valuation are normally convinced they have a real treasure and they get upset and argue with me over my opinion on the value of their antique or collectable
- A valuation done properly is quite time consuming and the help I offer here free of charge. Valuations and selling of antiques are two different areas of the antiques and I choose to concentrate on selling them and writing about them.
So how can you get your pieces valued?
- If you have a lot of items I would suggest that you contact your local auction house, they normally offer verbal valuations free of charge
- If you just have a small number of items you can research prices similar items have fetched on the internet. eBay is a brilliant source of prices items have fetched over the past couple of weeks and should give a good indication of the value of your antique
How to value an item using eBay:
Use the eBay search facility. Down the left hand side is a check box for completed items. Enter a description of your antique into the search box and ensure you tick the completed items box. Once ebay has returned results of the sale prices of similar items you can sort these results in price order by clicking on priceallong the top row.
For example: A lady wanted to know the price of some 1960s tiles she had. I entered the word “Tile” into the search box and checked the complete items box. This returned hundereds of results and so I narrowed the search by selection only tiles from the antiques category ( this excludes all new carpet tiles, wall and floor tiles). Now I scrolled down through the pictures until I found some similar to the ones the lady wanted to know more about.
Practice this a few times with items you have around you and you will soon get the hang of being your own antiques valuer.