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Hi, I spent an uncomfortable $70 on these bookends today and there are quite a few on Worthpoint. Would someone with a subscription mind checking the prices for me? Mine are in very good condition. Thank you! https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-1920s-original-weidlich-29892319
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Hey Christine: We keep Worthpoint open almost all the time. As soon as I clicked on your link it opened directly to that Worthpoint listing. They sold for $129 0n 8/29/2012. Here is what the listing description says.
“YOU ARE BIDDING ON A BEAUTIFUL PAIR OF ANTIQUE 1920’S BRONZE CLAD WEIDLICH BROTHERS BOOKENDS. THEY MEASURE APPROXIMATELY 5.75 INCHES BY4 INCHES WIDE BY 3.5 INCHES DEEP. ORIGINAL AND FULLY HALLMARKED WITH THE WEIDLICH BROTHERS WB FOUNDRY MARK ON THE REAR AND NUMBERED ” 641. ” EXCELLENT CONDITION AND NEAR PERFECT. BEAUTIFUL COLLECTOR BOOKENDS. I SHIP WORLDWIDE. PROFESSIONAL PACKAGING GUARANTEES SAFE DELIVERY. EMAIL ME WITH QUESTIONS AND FOR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING FEES. GOOD LUCK.
About Weidlich Brothers: Weidlich Brothers Manufacturing Company operated in Bridgeport, Connecticut from 1901 until the 1950’s. W.B. Mfg Co (Weidlich Bros) of Connecticut has been well documented in the Silversmith journals of well known artisans of the Art Nouveau period. The company made some of the finest heavy (quadruple) silver plated and electro-plated items in the early 1900’s.”Good luck with your listing. Nice find.
Mike & Susan at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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Thanks Mike! I’ll probably go higher with best offer but this is good to know for sure.
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Your welcome. I always go higher. I had asked Jay and Ryanne last week about “How was High” and they seemed to sort of circle around a definitive answer, but this is what we always do.
The primise we work off of is that we wish to sell at a higher price than anyone else has ever sold at. If they got a certain amount then we should be able to do that also, given the “Buy & Hold = List and Forget It” business model.
So with that said and the “target” This is how we usually go about it in most cases. First we research several sites, Ebay solds, Worthpoint, RubyLane, Kovels, Google [of course which will include private web sites & Shopify] and special other sites if artwork and the such and Etsy.
We sort of course for “highest amount” and that gives us several top of the mark numbers that an item has sold for. Then we take the highest number and multiply times 1.45 to 1.50. That gives us an even higher number [Remember our question to Jay about how high is high, which he always says]. Then that allows us to be able to place a few sales of 10% to 20% off, and on top of that take offers and allow another 10% to 20% off, of which we won’t go below unless we are really ready to dump the item. Then that sets the stage.
So here is what we would do with your item if we had bought it at auction for $70. What you buy it for is where the meat of your profit is, which I’ll get to i a minute. But we would take the Worthpoint price if that was the absolute highest “SOLD” amount we could find at $129 and multiply by 1.50. In this case we are going to assume that the Worthpoint was the highest at $129 sold so that would now be a listing price for us at $193.50. We run Sales every three or four days, so we would say run a 15% off Sale and with the “cross off feature” Ebay would show the item now at $164.48 and we would have “Make an Offer” active. Then from there it is gut feel. We would say yes if someone offered a lower amount by any amount that would represent from 1% to 20% more off. So about $125 would be lowest we would go and in most cases we usually don’t go as much as 40% off so it is usually more.Now this is a rough guide… but of course what the item is, current conditions, experience and who the buyer is plays some part in all of this also. And if you want to always sell at much higher then what your research shows, then just use a larger multiplier like 1.55 or 1.60 or 1.65 arrive at the listing amount and then work backwards from there. Place a Sale of a higher amount, accept a lower offer or just stick to a higher number all the way around.
Now what I meant by the profit is in how you buy. Take your item. You paid $70 for it. What if you got it for free or only paid a couple of bucks. We would still use the above approach. Only now instead of $70 getting you say maybe $150, $5.00 will get you $150. A big difference on the return [ROI]. This is what I meant by the profit is in the buying. It is the Old buy low-sell high. To make a huge amount of money sometimes you can’t take an item that you research and found out that many have sold for about $150 and list it at $75,000, that would just never work. But an item for free or a $1.00 sold at $150 isn’t too bad in my book.
What other business can claim they can take $10,000 of stock or invest $10,000 and turn it into $100k to $200k in a few years.Oh well just another way of thinking about finding unusual items like we all do here at SL and approaching a fairly quick way to get a price on it and get it listed.
BTW Jay is not a fan of using base numbers that are much older than the Ebay 90 days… But I have found some prices that were much higher 3 to 4 years ago, we use those and apply the formula above and things sell.
So, good luck with those.
Mike at MDC Galleries & Fine Art in Atlanta
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Just to be clear: I’m not a fan of paying a subscription service for sold data older than 90 days. I believe eBay should give sellers access to their entire sold database when we pay for in our store subscription.
I think its cheap of eBay to sell that data to third party companies who then sell it on to eBay sellers.
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I agree. But you said “our items”. In SixBit, WonderLister and others you do have access to everything [that is yours], from the day you start using those services, but not earlier than that. But not everything that has ever been sold by every seller that has ever been on Ebay. Even now closed down sellers data is available.
I guess Ebay considers other sellers information theirs to do with what they want. Even if Ebay gave me everything we have ever sold history information, that wouldn’t help us research items we have never sold before. As an example, I am just guessing here, but think that everything you guys have ever sold in your complete history is available to be searched by TerraPeak and or Worthpoint. That is a nice priviledge to have to see all items sold on Ebay and also several other auction sites at your finger tips for just $14 a month is what we pay.
In the case of the metal bookends we have been discussing. Having 8 years worth of your own data would not help, but I found a nice description and a price, even though lower than Ryanne suggested, that sold couple years ago on WorthPoint to help out. We just sold an old Barbie case with several old dolls and many clothes included. If it were not for WorthPoint we would have had no idea what it was all worth. We looked up all the clothing separately, created a long laundry list, then added it all up and came up with atleast something to list it at.
Also too, there is a saying, which sometimes justifies my extra spending on a few things.. “Penny Wise-Pound Foolish”.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
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Thank you both. Mike I kind of factor in what you describe but there is way more gut involved in my process and I’m too small time to buy subscriptions. Normally I do not pay more than $15-20 for used items, but it was half price day and these really feel and look like quality and just spoke to me. Since I have limited time for Ebay sometimes I splurge a bit on items that have been priced by people who know what it is. The most fun is finding the overlooked items though. So, my COGS is overall higher than many trash elves, but I seldom lose $ and my duds I’m thinning cost only $1-3 (mostly handmade items and relatively uninspiring pottery). I’ve found these bookends priced at $295 and $395 online without best offer, but Ryanne your pricing is inspiring!
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Hey Christine… Now that you have said you found them at $395 and that is the highest you have found then our formula of taking that and going up by 1.50 would put them at $592.50. As I was saying to try to determine “How High is High”, we take the “highest price we can find that they ever sold for” and do the x 1.50 to set a list at number.
Now with regards to “guessing” at a number because something is just cool, that is pricing by using the throwing ice water and hand grenades, and brings us back to the question how high is high.
At $500 as a “hand grenade” price then why not $550, $575, $600, $675, $867.12, 911.11, etc., etc. At some point just throwing numbers at something from “gut” doesn’t seem to make sense. from experience, yes. If research shows a pattern or the highest ever sold or something you have sold before, yep. Go with it.
But to just plain guess, then why not $6,000??? A guess is a guess? But see what I mean? I am more of a detailed person, and if I can find a formula that speeds up the listing process based upon detailed research that is fast and easy then go for it. If you see them “LISTED” at something and you want to be the highest as we all strive for here at SL, then we are satified with taking that number up 1.5 and get it listed. Guess we are not afraid to leave hypotetical money on the table.
We just sold and shipped today a Barbie Doll case with figures and clothes. We listed at $275 and took offer of $175. We paid $17.46. The buyer has over 8,000 feedbacks and been a buyer since 1999. He will probably resell or part the case out. Good for him. But we walked away with $157.54. Based on our research that was suitable for what we had found and was what we considered a high return. With the gut method guess we should have listed at $750 even though we saw none had ever sold for more than around $200.
But that is the neat thing about all of this, one man’s selling price may just very well be another man’s great find. So just “ABL” and keep on “Truckin”.
We love our job!! 🙂
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta.
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I tend to price based on the following rules:
-if others in the same condition are for sale, be the cheapest available, especially if dozens are available at any given time. Being the highest price for a commodity item never works out.
-if there are others internationally, but not in the country, you can ask for more – I usually ask for 20-25% higher if I am the only one in the country selling an item. People will spend more to avoid customs and long shipping periods, but too high they will go foreign.
-if it is the only one available on eBay anywhere, and others sold recently, always ask for more then the average sale price – about 50% higher is my rule.
-completely unique? The sky is the limit. I’ve priced stuff that I couldn’t find anything on for what I thought was crazy money, and I have gotten good pricing – if it doesn’t sell for a few months, you can then lower the price or relist to attract buyers.
I like a high turnover rate – I like to sell my items within a month. I have about 600 items up at a time, and sell about 200 a month and replenish my listing with 200 items a month. I know I leave some $$$ on the table, but I’m not sitting on inventory for long periods of time. My strategies may not be for everyone, but I like the constant in/out of items.
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Thank you everyone for your thoughts. There is a lot that goes into pricing, but original art or rarer items can be harder to price for me as a adolescent part-time seller. This is especially true since we only have access to 3 months of sales data on Ebay. It’s tricky when you don’t have enough data available (there were a number of Worthpoint hits on Google but I don’t have a subscription.) So, that’s when the gut comes in and a though to other seller’s current prices. I’m always using my gut to make purchases but often I stop to research the solds too, so it’s a mix. The market will tell me if I’m too high and I can adjust within the year. In most common cases I’m on the high side of the solds or maybe a 50% or less above, then I do the perennial 10-20% off sales. I had a tapestry sale not long ago that was pretty rare but I matched a price on Etsy and the quick buyer essentially told me she was thrilled to find it so cheap – oops. It’s all a fun learning experience. Interestingly, someone just put up a new listing today on these for $199 so I’ll be watching that pair.
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