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I love vacuum tubes! Great score. Look for bases with hand engraving–that’s a big indicator of rarity.
I sold this one for $370 about a year ago…super rare.
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vtg-original-deforest-audion-205-1893962397
Getting a big box of tubes for cheap is the best!
As I understand it, once USPS drops the package off, they mark it as “delivered.” As far as eBay and Paypal are concerned, at that point you are off the hook. It is the buyer’s responsibility once it hits the porch/mailbox, and if it comes up missing they have to contact their local USPS and/or police. So signature confirmation really only helps the buyer. I generally don’t use it but am happy to if someone asks.
Great jacket btw! Not everyone agrees with me, but if I can’t find a comparable, I always set my BIN price and then run it as an auction for one week. Then if it doesn’t sell I change it to a 30 day at the same price. Seems to work especially well with cool, one-of-a-kind things like your jacket. Congrats on that sale!
I wouldn’t say auctions should be a part of day-to-day listing, but I also would say that if you have a “I never use auctions” attitude, you may be making a mistake. I use auctions for four basic areas:
1–Items that are so rare, you cannot find anything comparable…like the denim jacket
2–Items that are subjectively valued due to condition–like ungraded baseball cards or comic books
3–Asian marked pottery–I once sold a vase in 5 mins for $500–turns out it was 17th century
4–Large groups of items where the time invested in research is too great–I just spent $5 at auction on a box of 80+ vintage trucker hats. I could research each and every hat, but it is too big a time commitment. Instead I rapid fire list them and do a 1 week auction, in case any are rare.All four cases, I would start the auction at the same price as I would have put it up as a BIN.
I think these are all valid times when NOT using an auction would be a mistake. The upside of the auction far outweighs the little bit of time you spend.
As I said, it has happened a lot for me. Here’s a sale I made in the last 90 days–a box of pencils that I would suggest not one of us would ever have had the foresight to put a $200 BIN on a box of pencils.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/222765290134
But I have another better story…in 2014, I bought a piece of folk art at an auction. I knew what it was and was prepared to empty my wallet, but no one else at the auction had any idea. I opened the bidding at $20, and won the item. It was a sand art bottle by Andrew Clemens of Iowa, dated 1880. His pieces are in museums and have been on Antiques Roadshow. This was a small piece, with boring flowers instead of eagles or trains…not his best work.
I got two professional appraisals–both said the piece was worth between $8,000-10,000. Only the eagles and trains and cool stuff sold over 5 figures I was told. I was offered $7000 cash and told I was foolish for not taking it. A BIN of $10,000 or even $15,000 would have been very reasonable.
Page thru the album for the result….
https://imgur.com/a/PoqsgThere was no way to know that was going to be the result. And I’m not convinced that I would have got that much had I put it up as BIN. I probably would have been persuaded by everyone, and accepted an offer under 10k.
Ok, so that’s what I’m saying Jay. So now you said set my BIN at $2000…where did you get that number? There is still a possibility that it is worth way more and that it will sell immediately at $2000.
Sometimes there is no way of knowing the correct upper limit to some items, especially when dealing with niche collecting groups like duck calls or denim jackets. (I was actually a person who called in during the denim jacket incident to try and explain this.) Because the collectors are aggressive and watch the eBay listing closely, you lose the chance to let the market determine the price.
Back to your $2000 BIN. If you truly think that is the price to set the piece at, then what harm is done by running it for one week as an auction, with a $2000 start. If you get only one bid, you get your $2000 still. But if you were wrong, then you haven’t missed the opportunity to get $3000 or $4000. And all you have to do after the week is click the “Relist as Fixed Price”.
I know this to be an effective tool. I do not use it often, maybe 5% of the stuff I buy falls into this category, and I buy old, weird stuff. If every item in your store has a label or UPC, this is not for you. But the number of times I have been pleasantly surprised and received multiple bids on an item that I thought was at maximum value is astonishing.
I believe Army manuals have to be classified “Obsolete” and then they can be sold. If it is currently in use it can not be sold. Otherwise it falls under section 120 of the ITAR which lists prohibited items. Prepare to be bored….
§120.10 Technical data.
(a) Technical data means, for purposes of this subchapter:(1) Information, other than software as defined in §120.10(a)(4), which is required for the design, development, production, manufacture, assembly, operation, repair, testing, maintenance or modification of defense articles. This includes information in the form of blueprints, drawings, photographs, plans, instructions or documentation.
(2) Classified information relating to defense articles and defense services on the U.S. Munitions List and 600-series items controlled by the Commerce Control List;
(3) Information covered by an invention secrecy order; or
(4) Software (see §120.45(f)) directly related to defense articles.
(b) The definition in paragraph (a) of this section does not include information concerning general scientific, mathematical, or engineering principles commonly taught in schools, colleges, and universities, or information in the public domain as defined in §120.11 of this subchapter or telemetry data as defined in note 3 to Category XV(f) of part 121 of this subchapter. It also does not include basic marketing information on function or purpose or general system descriptions of defense articles.
That is the military stuff that you can’t sell.
I happen to know from experience one of the target audiences for this market–Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. I cooked in a memory care unit for years. Sorting is an activity that many patients enjoy, so activity directors will buy box lots like this and let the patients sort thru them. Then they mix it back up the next day. You could even market towards this idea (all old stuff in the box) and put Alzheimer’s, sorting, activity and dementia in the title. I bet they would sell.
If I can add my two cents, I noticed that not one of your six options is actually negotiating. Americans in general don’t negotiate, but other cultures do. I would suggest to you that the voice in your head should be saying “How do we get the sale at my best price?” And the answer to that is probably counter offer at a price above your bottom dollar. Then proceed with negotiations.
I would suggest that blocking someone after a first offer, even if it is ridiculously low, is a bit much. Do not be insulted, you do not know where they are coming from. Just try to negotiate and then draw conclusions (or get angry) from there.
Wow! That is a great find!
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1935-society-medalists-mark-twain-1861384402
That is definitely the larger one. Sold for $767.50 in February of last year.
The other ones on Worthpoint are all smaller versions.
The ringer is the guy or girl who picks out what is up for sale and holds it up or directs peoples attention to it. There can be several working at one time, and they keep things moving at a fast pace. The clerk is the person sitting beside the auctioneer whose job it is to write everything down.
On auctions being scams, in my experience, it boils down to trust. Regular auction goers watch like hawks for any type of BS when they are at an auction, and getting caught can ruin your reputation in the community, so the established auction houses are not going to be risking their rep so they can run you up $5. And if they were using shill bidders, they inevitably would get stuck with stuff that they then would have to try and re-sell at a later date. The buyers loves to look for recycled merchandise, because this also looks bad on the auction houses. It is best to bid lightly until you know you can trust an auction house, but the vast majority are on the up and up.
There are two things that do appear like shill bidding that people may be observing and mis-interpreting. Call in bids are usually taken if someone wants to buy an item but can’t attend, and that can appear like an employee running up the price. The other thing is people who work at auctions like myself are often re-sellers as well. Some high end auctions (think Sotheby’s) do not allow employees to buy things, but your average mom and pop auction house can not afford to pay a livable salary to all the people working on auction day. So by necessity those people are part time, and many supplement their income by ebay or flea market selling or antique malls. In either of those circumstances it can look like an employee is running you up, but both are legit.
As far as storage lockers, they certainly can be looked through once the locks are cut by either the auctioneer or the storage locker manager. I would recommend only going to storage locker auctions where they cut the locks at the auction.
