notes to self 28 June 2015 at 9:52AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Ebay, Auctions, Car Boot & Jumble Sales 4 replies 754 views

soolin

Note to self:

When washing a box of assorted mini 'busts' and figurines- pay attention to the material. Plaster figures should NOT be washed under a warm tap- it washes away :eek:

Also, when buying a completely unknown product at auction, something I have no idea what it is- pay attention when sending the items. I bought a job lot of mixed widgets, several hundred widgets to a box, each box completely different widgets. I photographed each widget carefully, copied what it said on the box and listed the items in batches. Started selling immediately and started shipping. This week a buyer contacted me to say I had sent the wrong ones- and when I checked that listing had been selling consistently for a few months, but I had taken all the stock from the wrong box. So for about 14 weeks every buyer got the wrong item- yet everyone has left me positive feedback mentioning it is a bargain. Oh , and the buyer who says he has the wrong ones says he is happy to keep them and not have new ones sent as the ones I sent are better, so all is well there (I did give him a partial refund though and have had lovely feedback)

I really must pay more attention

RFW

Been there. I bought a load of identical sealed cases of an item, opened one, took pictures and listed it. It turned out the one I opened was the only one of that type out of over 100, it took me until well over half way through them that anyone pointed it out.

In my early days on Ebay I accidentally sold more incorrect items than correct ones, with barely a complaint. If I did that now I don't think I'd last a month on there.

TKPeters

That sounds like us 12yrs ago on eBay, bought a massive job lot of New items, listed them cheap on eBay to recoupe the investment & all sold like hot cakes, some within minutes of being listed.

One buyer whom collected his said these New items are extremely rare & worth 10 times the original retail price & we where selling them with 30% discount on the retail price.

Luckily a few larger items where put on top of the office roof & forgotten about till recently, which where listed on eBay last month for 3 times the original retail price & again all sold

soolin

In the past few weeks I have also listed things too quickly and undersold them. I listed something that I wasn't sure about and i got a message from someone telling me it was a very unusual vesta , by the time I managed to log in to change the price- it had already sold.

Last year I also soLd a match striker for 50p at a car boot thinking it was a modern ridged odd looking mini candlestick. Oh and an original oil painting for £1 (I am stuffed to the roof with art) where the dealer after buying it and taking it away to look at under a loupe came back and to,d me the artist was a recognised one and entitled to add RA to his name . He was very nice, showed me what to look for , told me to be more careful in future and reckoned he would sell it that week for around £80 as it was, and consoderably more if he paid to have it cleaned.

soolin

I should add though that the vesta was bought in a mixed lot of metalware at £8 for the whole box, and the oil came in a large lot of mixed painting for £5.

Only last month I found a very rare Chinese item , obviously overlooked by other dealers in a mixed lot for £3 which was sold for £22 , so it is all swings and roundabouts really.