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One of my goals over the next few weeks is to get a lot of death pile items listed. In taking some preparation steps towards doing that this week, I found myself getting excited about stuff that I know will sell once I get it listed. Listing is the easy part. Setting yourself up with the right process to make those listings, now that’s the challenge.
What did you sell this week?
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I took some paintings and prints in to an auction house on Monday; I put them in as three lots.
is a curiosity. I found it in an ill-lit thrift shop back in November for 2 pounds (about 2.5 dollars). I assumed it was two separate paintings, but it turned out he’d used both sides of the board. Humphrey was a Coventry artist, a founder member of the Avant Garde Coventry Art Circle in the 1930s; he died in 2001.
Lot 274 was two acrylics and an oil by modern artists. The fruit still life is from the college period of an artist who’s now knocking out abstracts. The Italian bridge is by an artist who paints anodyne landscapes, and the ship is by a “ship and train” painter. So 45 quid was a good result; purchase cost was about 12 pounds.
Lot 275 was a load of junk. I don’t actually like Hall Thorpe, but somehow I ended up buying three 1930s photogravures of his woodblocks. The kind of flowers-in-a-vase-on-a-black-background kind of thing. I didn’t mention the Hall Thorpes to the auction house; I suppose they pushed them forward because his originals fetch some money.
Gross sales £215. Commission £42, internet lotting fee £6. Net £167.
It used to be that I could go in on a Monday and pick up the result in cash. Now they do it by bank transfer- takes three weeks. The advantage of selling this way is that you just turn up with the stuff on a Monday; they do the rest, including p&p to overseas clients.
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Humphrey was a Coventry artist, a founder member of the Avant Garde Coventry Art Circle in the 1930
Love the Humphrey, as you might have guessed from my past posts. I like when my art is vibrant and reminds me I’m alive. By contrast, lot 275 was clearly all the leftovers thrown together into one lot with barely a few seconds thought to it. They might have done better with the hammer price if the first photo was the words “art stuff” scrawled on a napkin.
Not a bad net for all of it, though, and that lotting price is a steal.
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@Antique Frog interesting art sales. I love finding art and it’s especially nice to be able to identify the artist, though many I pick up turn out here in California turn out not to be well known.
I rarely go to garage sales but after delivering my daughter somewhere saw a sign for one where it was family run but the woman had done her online research on everything and priced a bit higher than I like to pay. I did do a bundle with her on a few items and sold this pair of mini watercolor paintings for $88 (paid $8) https://www.ebay.com/itm/334649780579.
The cool part was a family member of the late artist bought them for his son and wrote to me.
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Not alot of sales to choose from this week unfortunately.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265379056481
Sold these for an offer of $40. Listed for $79.99. This is somehow in the authenticity guarantee program. They’re getting a bit carried away with that program if these shoes are falling into it!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266043891641
I’ve found a local surplus source that I’ve been able to get a bunch of toner cartridges from. They charge $10 each. I’m able to go through and cherry pick the valuable ones that have a decent sell rate. I’ve been able to get some that sell for $100+ each.
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Sold these for an offer of $40. Listed for $79.99. This is somehow in the authenticity guarantee program. They’re getting a bit carried away with that program if these shoes are falling into it!
I get this with trading cards sometimes but they are pretty good about identifying which items belong and which don’t and a consistent pricing threshold of $250. I bet with shoes it is certain styles that get triggered regardless of price.
I love the authenticity program so much, it makes those $250 and up sales so much less stressful. I know there are horror stories but I’ve great experiences so far.
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@christiner That’s great!
I had the reverse once, family member throws out art. My father’s partner’s father dabbled as an artist in his youth. She had three small oils on board by him- one was a scene of rowers on the Thames in a kind of LS Lowry style. Anyway, when my dad died and we cleared the house she threw out the paintings (they were unframed) and I pulled them out of the bin and stashed them away.
A while later I put them into auction. They fetched over a hundred pounds. Turns out he had the same name as a more well-known artist- can’t remember the name- and at least two bidders must have jumped to the wrong conclusion.
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I had the reverse once, family member throws out art.
This is practically a criminal offense to anyone who’s a creative type, though I have a particular retired family member who takes intro to art classes and “gifts” amateurish paintings to far too many victims. The frames are cheap and tacky looking too. I hesitate to call that art.
A while later I put them into auction. They fetched over a hundred pounds. Turns out he had the same name as a more well-known artist- can’t remember the name- and at least two bidders must have jumped to the wrong conclusion.
I always get Monet and Manet confused! I like to think that these buyers are happily celebrating the creative genius of a previously unknown artist rather than discarding the unwanted painting of some well-named schlub. But I suppose once I sell an item, I’m fine with the new owner using it for a ritual sacrifice if that’s what they choose to do. Just as long as they keep their voodoo to themselves…
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So hypothetically, let’s say that some of us who are posting and/or reading this thread have some framed art and memorabilia items in their to-be-listed piles, and may or may not be intimidated by the prospect of packaging such bulky items on the off chance that someone out there in eBay land actually buys the darned things, especially when it’s a lot easier to package and sell very small items that can fit in a #000 or #00 envelope or, at worst, a USPS box or envelope.
But also hypothetically, it would be nice to learn some packaging tips from the art experts. You know, just in case anyone else reading this thread thinks about selling art…
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You can’t go wrong with foam board from the hardware store. Sandwich the frame in foam board. If the front frame has a deep edge, put a smaller piece of foam board only on the glass. Bubble wrap over that. Plenty of dunnage to ensure 2-4” of padding on every side.
for breakable memorabilia, plenty of bubble wrap is your friend. If it has any breakable pointy pieces, use styrofoam to protect them. Wrap in small bubble wrap – 2 layers. Wrap in big bubble wrap 1/2” or 5/8” bubble – 2 layers. Put in box and fill remaining space with dunnage of choice- minimum 2” on every side.
I’ve never had to double box anything using this method.
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@craig-rex If the artwork’s glazed then the glass has to be protected against impact on the face or the edges, and twisting. Whenever I’ve seen video of museum artwork being transported, they use wooden crates. There might be more up-to-date alternatives, like a fibreglass case with foam inserts.
Otherwise it’s a matter of keeping any packaging away from the art surface, unless the frame itself has value, in which case things get complicated.
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Great info, thank you both! I will need to reorganize my packaging material shelves to make room for some of the stuff you described before I get into listing my most fragile framed items. I only have small bubble wrap since that’s all I’ve ever really needed. But the packaging you’ve both described isn’t nearly as complicated as what I built it up to in my mind.
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I pretty much do what @Retro explained and have used foam board mainly with art. I never double box and sell a lot of breakables. I buy and use rolls of cushion foam (like for packing dishes) and the price at Uhaul is not too bad actually. I hardly ever use small bubble wrap and buy large bubble in quantity. Sometimes it makes me us a bigger box but it’s very protective. I haven’t sold a lot of art bigger than 14″ on one side – I intentionally look for smaller original art. Large art I plan to remove from the frame but sometimes the metal frames are kind of hard to get off imho. The very high end painting I sold I had professionally packed and put in plastic first.
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