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I’m a newbie to selling rugs. This one was on the curb with a bunch of other stuff that dated mostly from the 50’s through early 80’s. It’s vintage, but I have no idea how old. The tag attached to the backing says it’s made in Iran and it’s wool.
My questions are 1) how do I know for sure it’s hand-knotted? It looks like there are various irregularities on the back that make me think it is, but it’s so low-pile that I don’t see how it could be unless it’s cut after it’s knotted. 2) is this “veggie” dyed? The colors are fairly pastel, and this seems to line up with what other veggie-dyed rugs on Ebay look like. 3) Pricing recommendations? It’s 10 feet 9 inches by 7 feet 5 inches. The prices on what I think are comparable rugs are all over the place! 4) Keywords for listing this rug? It seems like some people list rugs as showing wear because this is desirable? I know I’ve heard Ryanne and Jay talk about this phenomenon before. Thanks!
https://imgur.com/a/kbgwD64
https://imgur.com/a/eF51UwW
https://imgur.com/a/BhFStbY
https://imgur.com/a/S7qwbGE
https://imgur.com/a/ShNWZ6Y -
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Here are fake “distressed” wool rugs sold new at West Elm: https://www.westelm.com/shop/rugs-windows/distressed-rugs/
Its a style people like.
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Ah OK…mine doesn’t look distressed then. It just has normal wear as if it were in a dining room or formal living room.
Do you even add “hand knotted” or do you leave that out if you don’t know for sure? The back of this rug has so many irregularities that I don’t see know it could have been made by a machine, but it doesn’t say “hand knotted” so I don’t know for 100% sure. It seems like a selling point/keyword in a lot of listings though.
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Most people are just looking for cool wool rugs to put in their house. They’ll search by size and color, then scroll until they see what they want.
If you feel you can back up that description, then go for it. We’ve just learned that buyers only get angry when we oversell something.
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Good point! I just watched a youtube video on hand knotted rugs, and I’d say that this one is for sure. The lines on the back aren’t straight like they should be if the rug were made by machine. I think I’d feel OK putting this in, but I’ll leave off “veggie dyed” and any guess as to the age as I have no clue on either of those.
It could stand to be cleaned. I really don’t want to have it cleaned…but as I’m sure it sat in a house for decades I’m going to just put that in the description. Hopefully that will be OK.
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If you would like to read a detailed description of how to ship rugs, Mike from Atlanta was nice enough to answer the same question for me almost two years ago:
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One more thing to note – eBay prohibits the sale of “embargoed items” from Iran, including older things that might predate the embargo. (See “Embargoed goods and prohibited countries policy”.) Even though the actual import laws on Iranian carpets are a bit more complicated (embargoed for a while, then ok to import for a while, but as of August 6, 2018, not ok anymore) if eBay catches you, they follow their prohibition strictly. So you risk your listing being taken down without notice and with no refund of any listing fees; end of discussion.
Since it is believed that the ‘bots that search for prohibited listings only scan for words, some might say that you’re safe to list it so long as you don’t use the words “Iran” or “Iranian” anywhere in the listing.
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Would “Tabriz” be picked up by the eBay bot? The “desirable wear” thing is when the carpet is walked over by people in bare feet or socks, not shoes- it “polishes” the wool. I remember a dealer in the Edgware Road in London putting one of his out on the pavement- maybe he was trying to generate a hundred years of wear in an afternoon!
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I saw Persian, Tabriz, and Serapi regularly used to describe this kind of rug on Ebay so I’m guessing that the bot doesn’t pick those up. One thing that I did notice is that very big sellers of Persian rugs on Ebay put “made in Iran” in the description, but there are never any clear pictures of the tag on back. I’m so glad that someone mentioned the embargo, because I would absolutely have put “made in Iran” in my title otherwise!!
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