EBAY SELLERS!!!! Please read. Thankies (sooo off topic.. no sex stuff lol)

[TashaSW]

How can I get my items to sell better?
I used to have no problems in the late 90s and early 2000s. I sold a lot and made a lot too.

Today I have done things no differently... I still provide clear pictures of the item including any stamp marks, details and damages (if any).
The description is as detailed as I know how to be on the item.

But no one ever bids on my items now it seems. And when they do, sometimes I feel like I wasted more money on the ebay fees, packaging and shipping than what I made off the item.

I want to sell some of my collections and a lot were NOT cheap when I got them lol so I currently don't want to waste money on ebay selling them. I'll like to get what I paid for them or maybe more. :)

All my auctions are 7 days long auction style, sometimes with a "Buy it Now!" tag.

Any ideas ?

I really have TONS of things to sell lol would appericate all the help thanks :)
If you want to PM me rather than post your "secrets" thats fine to :)

Thanks all :)
Tasha

[biwords]

Is it possible that the market has simply changed for the class of collectibles you're selling? Collectibles are notoriously a boom-and-bust area.

Have you studied the listings of other vendors offering the same kind of goods? Are they getting bids? (As you probably know, you can also search the 'completed' listings to see what people actually got). If they're selling and you're not, you could do well to compare their listings with yours (price, reserve if any, approach to copywriting, graphics, anything else you can think of). Copy what has worked for others, without of course sacrificing accuracy and truthfulness. I know that this may all be very obvious, but those are my first thoughts.

[TashaSW]

The collectibles Im selling (or wanting to)

-- Angel Figurines. The pretty kind that are expensive!
-- SnowGlobes (not the cheap plastic ones.. these are heavy and breakable but I may sell them at a garage sale... feel safer that way lol)
-- Home Decor pieces to fill the shelfs... all very nice and collectables.

I also have books and movies but I never had issues with selling those so they dont count in this thread.

[arana]

Maybe you could look up collectibles online and get an idea of what their worth in the market is now a days. Like Biwords said, some things just lose their appeal and aren't "to die for" after awhile. Look at beanie babies. One of the biggest reasons you should never collect anything you don't like yourself...you may be stuck with them. But I understand where you're coming from. I have a lot of things I've collected and now I need more space so I would like to get rid of some of it but I'm also attached to them and don't want to just toss them out but I know I wouldn't get much money out of them and I want them to go to people who'd appreciate them.

[TashaSW]

Maybe you could look up collectibles online and get an idea of what their worth in the market is now a days. Like Biwords said, some things just lose their appeal and aren't "to die for" after awhile. Look at beanie babies. One of the biggest reasons you should never collect anything you don't like yourself...you may be stuck with them. But I understand where you're coming from. I have a lot of things I've collected and now I need more space so I would like to get rid of some of it but I'm also attached to them and don't want to just toss them out but I know I wouldn't get much money out of them and I want them to go to people who'd appreciate them.

I thought Beanie Babies were gonna be worth a lot of money as they get older?? especially 1st editons and so on? But I have heard they are worth nothing. How so?
I own a couple beanie babies but just the ones I really liked (2 were gifts.) I thought of collecting them all when someone told me I should cause they'll be worth hundreds someday lol But I didn't know. They are nice and cute but I just never got into the beanie crazyness lol
Beanies are however one of the few items that can be put into a box/bin and stored away. They don't take up much space either (unless you got the super big ones)

My collectiables Im getting rid of is hard to just pack up and put away since they are big pieces AND packing them wrong and should the box accidently get knocked over, I'll have tons of broken things! lol

No one else I know is interested in Angel Figurines. So I can't just give them to someone that'll appericate them. I may just sell them cheap at the garage sale even tho they all cost me well over 50.00 USA funds.

Oh well :) Considering I have not really added anything to any of my collection for 4 years (the addions were gifts) I think its safe to say I no longer buy things I don't need lol If I don't know, I just forget about it.... Just buy if I know I'll want it and its not "just cause" lol

Tasha

[arana]

I feel sorry for people who spent hundreds and thousands on one beanie. That was a little rediculous because you know right now those same beanies are at yard sales for a buck. lol collectables are crazy, they're only worth what someone will pay for them.

I collect(ed) fairies (only certain ones now) and a friend decided angels should be included in that so I have some of them also. I have a hutch full of dragons and some wizards, etc. Another hutch full of Japanese/Asian/Buddah trinkets, toys and antiques. I use to collect teddy bears but decided I didn't want to anymore so only kept a few that I liked most and got rid of the rest. Wouldn't you know I have a wall full of stuffed toys again? My teddy bear fucking the sheep is a favorite. lol
I bought this cute bat and ghost salt and pepper shakers set which went along with my Vampire/bat collection so thus started the salt/pepper shaker collection once I found others I liked and "thought" I needed. lol Although that and the Nightmare before Christmas shakers are still must keeps. I have records and tapes I don't even know what to do with but it's such a big part of my memories I can't bare to just discard. Plus I have a lot of first pressings, promo copies, coloured / picture discs, flexi-pops discs (when UK and US still had that magazine out). .... and the list goes on. It's not easy being a packrat... lol

[biwords]

I thought Beanie Babies were gonna be worth a lot of money as they get older?? especially 1st editons and so on? But I have heard they are worth nothing. How so? Tasha

Probably because everyone heard that "they were going to be worth money" and hoarded them accordingly. Now the supply outstrips the demand. Compare this with comic books of the 1930's through early 1960's; no one thought of them as anything but junk, so few people saved them and now they're scarce and the prices reflect that. That's how a first issue of Action Comics (1938 newsstand price: ten cents) got to be worth over a quarter of a million dollars. Of course, if no one wants the item, it doesn't matter how rare it is.