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Tagged: beige
- This topic has 17 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 2 months ago by mickdog.
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02/13/2019 at 2:50 pm #56924
I’m posting this for advice but also to vent a bit.
I have had good luck with IKEA Susan Pryke designed bowls, plates and mugs, and I find them often in good condition in thrift stores in my area.
The most desirable are the blue ones, see here from one of my current auctions: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192755443056
I have sold white before also. In the fall, I came across 4 bowls in an interesting grey/beige color. I’d not seen that color before. So I put them up a few months ago, noting that they were this unusual color. A woman bought them from me, received them, and then opened a return stating that she bought them by mistake and thought they were white. I accepted the return and she returned them. Of course she re-packed it poorly and one broke. I decided to refund her for the original shipping and price, and not the return shipping obviously. And I absorbed the breakage as I now self insure.
I relisted the 3 bowls, took new pictures and added that they weren’t white to the listing title and description. I only dropped the price a few bucks even though I was short a bowl since this seems to be a rarer color. See the auction link here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192744432389
Someone last week bought them, yay! Then I get a auto acceptance return from eBay today, boo! With the following message:
Reason
Ordered by mistakeComments
“Honestly I didn’t read the description well enough. Judging by the pictures I thought the bowls were blue. Sorry for the inconvenience.”Do these really look blue?!? So again I will get these, hopefully intact, and I will refund the original shipping and price but not the return shipping.
So should I:
1) Relist them once again and add that these are NOT BLUE or NOT WHITE in the title and description?
2) Retake pictures again trying as hard as possible to capture this color?
3) Take them to my local consignment shop, be done with them, and sell them for a tiny profit?
4) Smash them in my backyard and never deal with them again? 🙂
Suggestions, comments, similar stories?
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02/13/2019 at 2:57 pm #56925
Replying to own post. I also notice I made an error in re-listing these and still stated 4 bowls in the description (which is weird because I recall changing everything). So I guess I’m lucky that the person didn’t open a item not as described return since the title has quantity of 3 and the description says 4. His not paying attention may have helped me in this case. LOL.
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02/13/2019 at 3:49 pm #56928
I would put BEIGE! as the first word in the listing. I think that’s your best bet for making it stand out. Or else right the words THESE ARE BEIGE on a piece of paper and include a picture of it in the listing.
As I’m typing that, I wonder if this is a good way to get people to read descriptions – to include a screenshot of them as a picture. It’s a thought…
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02/13/2019 at 6:25 pm #56940
I don’t like to use all caps but you are right putting the color first in caps might be a good idea.
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02/13/2019 at 4:46 pm #56937
My thought is to message the buyer as soon as they buy to confirm that they want beige, not blue or white. I would also email them.
How frustrating!
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02/13/2019 at 6:26 pm #56941
I think this will be what I must do if I relist. grrr…..
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02/14/2019 at 12:42 am #56952
Maybe write BEIGE on a piece of card and place it behind the bowls in a photo. And in another photo have a piece of card with “BEIGE IS A KIND OF BROWN”.
I didn’t know IKEA stuff was (re)saleable. The stores in the UK seem to have two kinds of stuff; cheapo and made in China, and expensive, also made in China.
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02/14/2019 at 9:50 am #56963
I’m surprised as well…IKEA is in every city in Canada, and the thrift stores are filled with IKEA stuff…I’ll have to take a closer look next time I’m out. I’ve gotten rid of IKEA items over the years without thinking that someone would want them – they were very cheap to begin with and didn’t think they would gain in value after being well used.
I think it must be an American thing – I know the local IKEA near me is just across the border from a major U.S. city (Buffalo, NY) and they don’t have an IKEA near them, but New York licence plates fill up the parking lot at the Canadian IKEA. I think IKEA must be harder to get in the U.S. or they have a lot fewer locations in the U.S. compared to other countries.
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02/14/2019 at 9:54 am #56964
Replying to my own comment, but I think I may be right – I looked at IKEA USA’s website, and I think there are more locations just in Toronto then all of the U.S.
Surprised how few locations they have in the U.S. – the nearest one to me is in Pittsburgh, about a 6 hour drive away – no wonder all the “local Americans” hop over to our IKEA stores.
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02/14/2019 at 10:16 am #56967
Yep in our state of Virginia, we have only one IKEA, and strangely, IKEA sells only a fraction of their items online direct to your home.
There are eBay sellers who live near IKEA and list thousands of IKEA items. I assume when someone purchases from them, they hop over to buy and ship.
Also, IKEA retires patterns every year. We sell a lot of discontinued patterns on eBay for people trying to replace a broken item.
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02/14/2019 at 8:42 am #56953
You didn’t do anything wrong. These are just the breaks (sorry the pun).
As others suggested, if this is a problematic item, then message the next buyer to confirm they know what they’ll be getting. -
02/15/2019 at 3:05 am #57013
So… (something I never considered till now) the number of people with incomplete sets of IKEA Prykeware vastly outnumbers the people with incomplete sets of dishes from the 1970s/1980s. That’s why I’ve ended up eating gruel out of hand=painted Denby Greenwheat bowls.
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02/17/2019 at 9:55 am #57108
I recently sold some Ikea Promenad plates for about $90, but for some reason haven’t looked up other Ikea items when I’ve found them (in fact, I usually put them back in irritation.) I’m going to have to brush up on my Ikea patterns. Thanks for the information & for helping me realize flaws in my own thinking.
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02/17/2019 at 7:13 pm #57141
UPDATE: So I received the bowls back yesterday… and one was broken yet again! Sigh. So now I’m down to two of these cursed bowls but I’m not giving up yet! I took all of your suggestions and put them in my new listing ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/192829650591 ), AND I will contact the future buyer and make sure they know what color they are getting. This must be a rare color (and there are two less of them in the world!) so I’m only lowering the price a few bucks on now only a set of 2 bowls. But I am putting make offer on them :). Will they sell, will they be returned broken yet again? Stay tuned….
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02/17/2019 at 7:46 pm #57143
Were they shipped priority or anything else with insurance? Can you at least claim that?
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02/18/2019 at 2:21 am #57151
Re the colour: they look blue in some of the photos. I think it’s light reflecting off the glaze- the only shot where the bowl is clearly beige is in the overhead shot looking straight down.
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02/18/2019 at 10:47 am #57170
Mickdog:
Couple of suggestion for you.
#1 is to correct the spelling of Biege to BEIGE
#2 is to take a look at the dictionary def. of beige and you will see it is a yellowish, tan, brown. So make absolutely sure these are even beige in the first place
#3 search this forum for my longer explanations on how males and females “see color” and “color blindness and “color deficiency”. Males see color defirrently then females, many males are red green deficient and can be 1 in a thousand or so while females may be yellow blue and is not dominant so only one in about 10,000
#4 go to this web site https://enchroma.com/pages/color-blindness-test and test your own color ability and get the test result. It’s free and only takes about 5 minutes. Actually everybody here should do it. If you are deficient in certain colors, shades or ranges you may have to have someone double check your color categories.
#5 I have laid down a good argument in the past about monitor variance. I use two monitors and can see the different on both monitor’s when side by side. So your buyer may have a monitor calibration issue combined with their inability to see color correctly.
#6 Test your “white balance” on your camera or camera phone. Use a 20% gray card to balance for grays coming through from the camera. Many whites shift toward Gray which can be either warm or cool gray. Warm will show some reddish in the white hue and cool will show some blue. Add to the “cool gray” scenario any flourescent lights and that will throw your photo even more toward the blue side. Daylight from windows outside will shift your photos toward the red spectrum. No flourescent, overheads, LED [which flicker by the way only you can’t see it] will distort any true color.
to test this… shoot a plain white piece of paper, then print out your solid white square and then hold it up to your refrigerator white appliance and look at the difference. Hold your phone photo up to the refrig and see the difference.
#8 do test shots on every setting until you can shoot and maintain a good, clean white
#9 make sure you do the color test at enchroma and see how you eyes and brain are seeing and interpreting color.
#10 Go to this link and check for your Ike bowls. https://www.worthpoint.com/inventory/search?query=ikea+365+bowls . Tell me which ones are white or [variations of white], is it lighting, cameras, monitors, human eyes, males or females looking at them??? Look at the other colors and the dark lighting. How many have their white balance set correctly or evevn know what white balance is.You wont be able to see the prices without a subscription but you can read the titles and definitions. If you want some prices, post back here and ask for any of us who has a subscription to Worthpoint to give you the prices.
By the way as a tie in to last weeks comments on studio lighting. We use the Cowboy studio lighting. We have multiple tri-pods with two and four bulb heads for a total of 12 110 watt [equal to 500 wats] for a total of over 1500 watts of light. We use 4 bulbs to light up the the background behind our object [not on the object itself]. Then we sit the object about 6 to 10 inches in front of that and then we hit the object from the front, sides and top with the remaining tri-pods at a 45 degree angle. try to light up enough so you don’t cast any shadows at all. If so bring the lights closer.
Lastly we have a MSWord document among our many SOP about color and we cut and paste in a reply to any customer who brings up color. Lastly we do not accept any returns for color. Do you think any buyer has ever tested their color vision? They may see pink as white, gray as white, tan as white, light brown and light green as white. A beige with light brown in it, the male will see it more as an off white or light gray.
BTW, all of these facts are certifiable with some research. We learned all this is art school both undergraduate and graduate.
Good luck and have fun experimenting…
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
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02/18/2019 at 11:39 am #57176
Thanks for the comments Mike especially the mispelling. I spelled it correct in two places and incorrect in two places! I will retake that first photo and check my white balance.
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