Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I did look into listing on the French and German eBay sites some time back, but they appeared to be subject to a number of government regulations regarding selling. Which scared me off!
There’s regulations on the UK eBay site concerning consumer protection- basically (I think) cooling-off periods for new products. That appears to be it. Other than that, knives (apart from cutlery) and guns are forbidden. The words ‘knife’ and ‘gun’ in a listing (as far as I remember) bring up a warning.
Not sure about Iranian stuff; I think when I listed a Qajar era brass plate there was a warning, but the situation as regards the EU and sanctions has changed.
Hi divintage! Like Jay I’ve never heard of kokeshi dolls, so I did a search and thought “Blimey! I’ve seen those around for a quid or two”. Turns out, as far as I can see, there’s the authentic ones and the junk, with the former seemly distinguished by their concave shape, like yours. According to Wikipedia (but there’s no citation for the statement) since the 1950s many dolls are signed on the base or the “backside” by the maker.
The hat worn by the “man” is interesting. I feel I’ve seen that style of elongated bowler somewhere but I can’t remember. I did think it may be Korean (a Japanese colony till 1945).
The flowers look lithographed- drawn with litho chalk on stone. The border looks like it’s been assembled from bits of printing plate, the corners don’t quite match up with the lengths of engine-turned circles; probably typographed.
Hi Joe
When I send mail to the US from the UK it usually arrives in about 4 to 6 days. So your buyer should get the package in the same time frame, if it was sent by airmail. If your buyer sends the item back and decides to be a cheapskate and send it by surface mail it could take up to 50 days (I don’t think I’ve ever sent anything by surface mail).
However if the item attracts customs duties, and the duty is not paid upfront then the package is held at a post sorting office until the buyer goes and pays the duty plus 8 GBP handling fee. I suspect if the buyer doesn’t do this, then the item will be sent back to you without charge. Of course, if the item is sent by GSP the customs is already paid.
This 500 dollar grinder is dual-voltage right? Otherwise it’s going to blow when he plugs it in. Or take off and hit the ceiling.
Just checked, and modern appliances should be dual voltage (110 and 220). Your customer should be able to buy an adaptor quite cheaply for whatever socket they have, or have a new plug fitted.
Umm… European mains is 220 volts, so you’re lucky it had the wrong plug! Might have roasted the beans to pure charcoal.
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!
Well, good luck with the book! I’ve never had problems with shipping to China, apart from one odd instance where a camera lens went missing. It was returned to me after 6 months with a message which seemed to indicate that something had gone wrong with the postal carriers in China (not “undeliverable” but a “system failure” of some sort). Some Chinese buyers provide scans of their addresses in characters.
If anyone’s posting to the UK, two-thirds of (my) eBay UK buyers don’t know their correct postal address, or how to capitalise it (or their names) properly, or even how to spell their names. The Royal Mail website’s pretty useful for checking.
Once an offer is made the p&p terms can’t be altered (I tried!) If the offer is accepted and the item is to be sent via GSP the buyer gets automatically invoiced by eBay, and you get an error page if you try to invoice them yourself. The buyer then has to pay the full amount, or gets a “non-payer” strike. If you cancel the accepted offer it goes down as a defect on your account- it’s better to let things ride until the buyer cancels.
That “antique English” pitcher looks to be glazed stoneware (I’m not well up on the glazes, but perhaps not salt-glazed as that tends to be brownish). Think it’s American and not English.
For stiffening, find a picture framer. They often have bags of offcuts from mounting board- the inside bits from the mounts.
I use A4-size plastic pockets trimmed to just over size and heat-sealed to hold the item and card together. Maybe it’s sales volume, but here the A4 pockets are a lot cheaper than the A3 pockets (sorry, don’t know the equivalent US sizes) so I often have to stick two together.
