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So this has been an interesting learning experience. The painting seems to be considered authentic and because there are similar ones, I know that it’s acrylic. The estate did not get back to me. I got their number from a smaller gallery who shows this artist, mostly his totally different later works. I emailed a Swiss auction house, and they only estimated $1400 euro, so it seems like it could be worth more over here. It’s the NYC skyline, so I tried a NY gallery with no response. The big boys said to use a local estate liquidator and I read something online discouraging using Ebay to sell fine art. The value appears to be within $1500 and $3K. Soooo, I think I may hunt for a smaller gallery in New York due to the subject matter. Depending on the commission, I could be better off on Ebay. I’d kind of like to sell it within a month or two to fund my tile.
What say you, scavengers?
I was out of town some of this week helping my dad prepare to sell his house but managed to list 8 items. Hoping for a better week this week. Thanks Amatino for the DP support thread and hope you are feeling better. I’ll be taking photos soon. My appetite for picking up more stuff is already off, and looking at the photos helps keep it even more suppressed. Have a great week ladies.
01/28/2019 at 10:05 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 396: Guaranteed Delivery? How is that working? #55990Total Items in Store: 340 Ebay, 45 Mercari
Items Sold: 2 Ebay, 2 Mercari
Gross Sales: $20 Ebay, $29 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $2 + $6 free shipping + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: $19 Mercari (New Hallmark Dr. Seuss piggy bank (ours))
Average Price Sold: $10
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $4
Number of items listed this week: 6 Ebay, 2 MercariWeeeelll, worst week ever on Ebay. I was out of town and deactivated Mercari (there is not handling time adjustment available). No sales on Ebay while handling time adjusted Thursday – Sunday. Oh well, moving on. It’s a fresh week. ๐
I have a few searches out on both sites and I’ve seen some sweet deals come up on Mercari for home items. There are many amateur sellers cleaning out, so that’s ripe for picking. There are some better brand things on Mercari that go lightening fast, so I know there are other pickers working it plus it’s app based and you always have your phone. Glad Ryanne you found some Ikea on there.
When my mom died I got rid of two closets full of vintage fabric – European, midcentury, high quality. She was all about buying and not much on production. Vintage perfumes, all kinds of good stuff. But, I’m getting cool stuff from panning the stream, so that’s ok.
My sales have been less than stellar, but I wanted to share this one by Lynn Chase. The place mats I sold for $120 are unusual but keep an eye out for her stuff – especially china. It can go for really good money. Examples of solds The art work is very well done and it’s high end. I paid $6 for my place mats at the indy thrift.
Also this $40 ephemera sale is cool because I sold the day I put it in a Pinterest party with the Facebook Thifting Board. A bit hard to price so I have more but only listed this pair first to test the waters. It may be helpful to participate or pin your items this time of year to bring them attention. Also, most of the sales were lower than this on Ebay, so the buyer didn’t shop around.
Finally, I forgot I left this Easter decor up from last year. Paid $3. Beistle is a good vintage paper brand for holiday items and people like the honeycombs.
01/23/2019 at 10:39 am in reply to: eBay minority Shareholder posts a strategy letter – interesting read #55678True, but things are bound to change for the better after this kind of exposure. If the marketplace is acquired I could see us paying more fees eventually. But, it would be really nice to see a more efficient Ebay where things make sense. We are already paying more fees, but arguably not seeing the benefit of that money being spent.
01/23/2019 at 8:20 am in reply to: eBay minority Shareholder posts a strategy letter – interesting read #55660Oh wow, what an amazing read! I would LOVE to see this plan get implemented. It involves a huge amount of housekeeping from some board members all the way down to the overseas CS reps. I remember people here asking “why are they rolling out all of these new tech programs and changes when they can’t even run the existing functions of the site smoothly?” They should do it now while they still have good traffic. How much more would I love selling on Ebay if it became more reliably functional and streamlined?
01/21/2019 at 5:41 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 395: What Lifestyle Is eBay Supporting For You? #55541Jay you asked how much time people spend on Mercari to make the $50 a week. Barely any time at all. It takes me more time to ship a clothing item than to list one. When you use the Mercari app, you realize how the Ebay app should be working – it’s so straightforward and logical. And then you kind of wonder how Ebay listing ever got so cumbersome. Plus the “upgrades” and suggestions in the updated app version are making it even less like I want it to be, so I will do the whole thing except pictures on the desktop.
Mercari has an efficiency to be enjoyed, but I hear it’s not a list and forget it platform. Items are meant to move. On the other hand, there is less competition, better Google reception, arguably a different clientele to be reached, and it really doesn’t take much time at all. If you decide to give it a go, I’d try your hipster appeal items and pop culture items if you have any. Maybe hats you said weren’t moving well? If you decide it’s not for you, that’s certainly ok too. If Mercari is smart they will hire Marie Kondo to advertise.
@Amantino, let me know here when you start the dp thread. I still need to consolidate a bit and then take photos.
I listed 37 items this week. It was a better week for listing while my contract work is slow. Hope to list today on the holiday, then going to my Dad’s next weekend so that will be less productive. Have a good listing week ladies!
01/21/2019 at 11:34 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 395: What Lifestyle Is eBay Supporting For You? #55494Total Items in Store: 334 Ebay, About 55 Mercari
Items Sold: 6 Ebay, 2 Mercari
Gross Sales: $259 Ebay, $43 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $38 + $3 shipping included + a couple items ours
Highest Price Sold: $120 best offer (Set of 4 designer hard place mats, paid $6 indy thrift)
Average Price Sold: $43 Ebay, $22 Mercari
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $21
Number of items listed this week: 34Another quiet week but I was able to get some listing done thankfully. I’m full digging into the piles of coffee mugs and textiles. Checking comps on Ebay first, then putting some on Mercari instead if under $15-20. I also started cross posting my oldest Ebay vintage listings to Mercari as an experiment. Did sell similar to anything with the 18 month band on Ebay.
Ebay is helping us pay for our teenagers. Turns out that teens are more expensive than little kids. We’ve had a lot of extra expenses including college touring trips, theatre tickets and weekend trips, SAT prep course, lessons, two in braces. Ultimately, that’s where our “extra money” is going these days, though I don’t pay most of those things directly from my Ebay account. I’ve shifted from plowing $ into inventory with RA to draining my profits and using the $ to maintain. Not glamorous, but some fun with the occasional smaller scale trips in there. Ebay totally helps us offset the high cost of living here so I’m grateful for that. Unfortunately, I only seem to have enough listing time available to help grease the wheels a bit.
That’s cool Ryanne that you are inspired to clean out by the show. There was one girl on the show – the stewardess I think? – who really wrestled with letting go of potentially useful, practical items. It can be hard to weigh priorities when you are a scavenger. I’ve yet to get on this in earnest, but partially because I know that I’ll just be adding to my death piles by taking things out of the closets. I’m trying to get rid of the boxes, not add to my backlog of low dollar items!
Finishing the podcast while I clean stickers off coffee mugs. Have a great week!
I believe first class will hike like $1.50 in some cases. Definitely cause to pay attention if you’ve been offering free first class shipping.
Yeah, lots of changes with the latest app upgrades. I think they are trying to make it more streamlined and compete by adding suggested pre-filled choices (eg. auction it!) and text. Unfortunately, it doesn’t match my saved preferences and routine practices. Also if you click to agreed to promoted, they fill in a very high percentage even if you’ve already selected something else on the desktop. You can’t choose or retain your percentage in the app. Overall, not very seller friendly. Sure it’s faster, if you want to let Ebay choose everything for you.
I’m going to have to flip my process and start the draft with pictures in the app and continue to the desktop to launch. Not sure if I can still use sell similar if starting in the app. ๐
@Mike I found another foreign website where some of the artist’s other works are for sale and they do free evaluations. Also, the estate of this artist has a website but it just leads back to a gallery. I contacted the gallery – it’s nearby in LA.
My earlier research indicated that this was an early work of his done while he was living in New York. It’s very different than his later works which are more high profile. I only found one similar not so recent sale of $1500 before.
I’m sending very broad requests fishing for any information since I am really quite clueless having no art background. They have been getting back to me right away, but so far using mainly generic responses.
@Sally. They got right back to me. Neither auction house wants to sell but Southeby’s did provide a valuation of $3,000. That would certainly be tile worthy. I asked for more information and I’m playing phone tag with Bonham. Nice of her to return my call since it’s peanuts to them. I’m trying some other sites today with connections or works by this artist for sale. Pretty cool. My spouse and I are at odds over the tile so unfinished it sits. The tile guy says tile budget gets cut because at the end of the project expenses…
Reminds me that we once sold a ’56 Tbird we bought pre-kids from my father-in-law and used the money to remodel our master bathroom after buying our current house in crappy condition. Ah, the joys of being house poor in So Cal… Nothing of beauty will stick around long, but it’s an investment hopefully that will pay off when the kids are grown and we move or downsize.
@Mike and Jay Thank you again. I finally submitted this to Sotheby’s and Bonhams online today! I’m hoping it will pay for my kitchen tile that is a bit pricey.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by
ChristineR.
I watched a couple more episodes. The people are committed and spending a lot of time doing it, with off camera babysitters or empty nesters. Maybe it will take people a while to get it done, but I think it will be a good thing. I only made a couple of thrift stops this week and it’s lean so far.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by
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