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Let’s say you happened to purchase an item just like this one as part of a larger lot:
And your research shows over 20 identical ones for sale ranging in price from $10 to $32 (including shipping), and only 2 sold in the last 3 months.
1) Would you sell or donate?
2) If sell, how would you price it?
3) What do you think the seller who has priced at $32 is thinking? If we could assume that no more of these creamers were to ever come on the market, then they could probably get their price within 2-3 years, but this seems like the type of thing people find all the time, so it may never sell at that price.So yes, I have this item and have already decided to donate it (even though I have 500 free listings to spare in my premium store), so this is just for fun to see the range of approaches.
Note: search results show 33 items, but some are of a slightly different pattern.
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I often take photos before I do research. Since I’ve already done a good part of the work, I will list it anyway. I’d list it at the lower end because so few have sold compared to the number available, and I don’t want to sit on it for years.
However, if I happen to do the research first, there is a good chance it will go in the donation pile. I’m willing to sell something for $10; however, if it is fragile and requires extra time to package, like a ceramic item, then it isn’t worth it. I am more careful with researching fragile items because of the packing, so I might catch it before I add it to the photograph pile.
The person who has it for $32 might not have done the research, might have priced it when not that many were for sale, or believes some people associate a higher price with better customer service.
On a similar topic, my daughter and I were at a museum’s book store recently, and we were both interested in a book. I decided I’d buy it from eBay if the price was reasonable, and I would have been happy with a used book. However, all the books were new and listed at about $75 and higher (a few international at $45), and one at $29.99 with make offer available and 100% positive feedback. I didn’t see any sold.
I offered $15 for the $29.99, which was accepted this morning. Shipping was $9.99 (a bit high for media, but I took that into consideration in my offer.
Here are the ones available:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=9781851497720&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&rt=ncThe solds show nothing, even the one I bought isn’t showing up for some reason:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=9781851497720&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1Here is the one I bought (although, eBay may show you something else and you’ll have to click on “listing” to see it):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192603284914I’m not sure why the one I bought isn’t showing up. That is unusual. I did use the ISBN to find it in the first place, so that should have brought it up.
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1) Would you sell or donate?
Donate all day long – ceramics are a pain, especially to ship – and with minor defects ceramics may have, buyers complain often about the condition – even at $10.
2) If sell, how would you price it?
$8 – get it out as soon as possible. No use competing with the others.
3) What do you think the seller who has priced at $32 is thinking?
I’m not sure in the seller’s circumstance, however, being a seller in Canada, if I am the only seller of an item in Canada, I usually charge more then a seller in the U.S. as I can grab the $ on the table that a Canadian buyer would pay in duties/taxes/extra shipping for myself. I would just need to make sure the total price is cheaper in Canada then a foreign competitor selling the same item. That’s the only time I price things “high” – I generally go low to sell before someone else.
There are also a lot of amateurs who think their junk is worth a lot more then the market is willing to pay. I get it all the time from relatives/friends who want me to sell there “priceless” heirlooms or collector items that are worthless. Some of these people figure out how to list an item, and probably wonder why it never sells.
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I would and have donated unsold Heartstone pottery before. There are currently a few for 10 or 15 dollars with free shipping. I don’t have a problem with breakables though and that wouldn’t factor in much if I already owned it. Fun to see what people say on this issue of pricing I’ve been thinking about. Incidentally, I’ve not done very well with single sugar, creamer, or honey servers generally speaking even if it’s a recognizable name.
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I share a cabinet in an antique shop with a friend. Doesn’t make much money, but it does have the advantage that pottery can be displayed without having to describe its faults (just an “AF” or “as found” on the label plus warning the shop owner about any issues) and there’s no packing and posting involved. There’s no selling fees either, just a flat rent of 55 GBP per month.
On the other hand, as Inglewood mentioned, we get given other people’s junk to sell! Like a chipped Torquay Mottoware jug at £20 when the true market value is 20 pence. I’d donate that creamer- it’s too bland.
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I also go ahead and list things that have issues or don’t sell well if I’ve already started to invest time in researching or measuring. Once I’m at that point it is literally 2-3 more minutes of time to just finish the job.
I do the same thing with clothing that I discover a spot or defect at the time I’m measuring or photographing. I just lower the price because something is better than nothing.
And you know what – those defective clothes always sell! $10-15 in my pocket every time for something I could have thrown away.
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I will take the “sell it” side of this debate. Something like this would take me less than 5 minutes to photograph and likely another 5 to list it. For 10 minutes work to list it and forget it, I think it’s worth it for $10, especially if it came in a box lot or equivalent. To me, less desirable stuff in box lots is just free money that may take a while to find its way into your wallet. I see there are 5 sold (6 total, but one included a set of 2) and 33 for sale. That is a 15% sell through rate. That’s not terrible and shows that they do sell over time. When I come across things like this and I already own it, my thought process is as follows: Would I pick up $10 laying on the ground? The answer is almost always yes.
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Kinda late to this thread, but lately I have a $20 rule on most items, meaning that if I pay $2 for something, I better be listing it for $22 or more, if I buy it for $10, at least sell it for $30. There are exceptions, like new items that are a breeze to list and will sell fast or if I buy a lot of smalls (like patches or ephemera) that list quickly. But if it is pottery or something I have to describe a lot of details and take a lot of photos, I’ll pass.
That said, I get stuff in the $5-15 range all the time as extras in box lots at the auction. So my strategy is I’ve got a cool vintage consignment shop in town that lets you bring a box of items in daily. They give you 40-50% of their sale price to you when it sells. So I keep a box downstairs near my inventory and I put these lower value things in there until the box fills. I take it in and they usually take 75% of what I bring. What they don’t take, I donate.
They price competitively and sell a ton of stuff (I shop there and flip items on ebay that they didn’t research/price well) so I don’t get a lot of $ but it offsets my original cost from the auction. So in the case of the pottery you used as an example, they’d probably price it at $10-12 and I’d make $4-5. Which doesn’t sound like much but I did almost zero work for that money.
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The creamer isn’t something I would list online, because I have such a backlog of items to list and I have other outlets to sell things. I would be more likely to bring it to one of my booth shows or sell it at my big Brookhaven show in the kitchen vignette, priced at $8. $8 tends to be a good move-it-out price point for me…it’s under $10 and a good impulse purchase number.
It looks very farmhouse and farmhouse is a hot look. If I listed it, I would be sure to put Farmhouse Kitchen in the title.
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