Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Re-learning eBay


A few years ago, when my collections became unwieldy, I chose to sell off my less-than-favorite items on eBay.  I wasn’t in business like I am now, I was just a collector getting room and money to go shopping again.  As soon as I decided to go into business as Wisdom Lane, I immediately began listing antiques on eBay, as I did before.

And I was surprised at the result.

My antiques weren’t really getting the bids and the lookers as they did before.

So what happened?

As an experiment, I listed my original Nintendo console with eight games.  I also listed a separate lot of twenty-four Nintendo games.  I listed the two lots as auctions with the option to Buy It Now.  The two lots sold within five minutes.

Lesson learned?

eBay appears to have a different type of shopper than it did a few years ago.  The current shopper seems to be interested in collectibles rather than antiques—thirty- or forty-somethings looking to get back items from their youth.

As a result, my strategy will change as I continue to test this theory.  I’ll be selling collectibles on eBay, and I’ll look for different sites where I can sell my antiques.  First stop for some of my vintage items:  Etsy.

Anyone with great experience on any antiques selling sites (GoAntiques, Ruby Lane, etc.), weigh in by leaving a comment below!

2 comments:

  1. Yup, I totally agree. Vintage is what's hot now! I like anything from the 1920s-1970s. That's basically my grandparents, parents, and my generation. Have you sold on Etsy yet? Great place to open a store, especially for vintage. Lots of teams to join and getting to know others with similar interests.

    Jill

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  2. As a matter of fact, I'm in the process of setting up a store on Etsy. My goal is to get the store up and running by next week.

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