Where do you sell online?

[Vinca]

I'd like to start selling the mountain of stuff I've acquired over the years. The group shop I sold in became unprofitable during the pandemic and I'm reluctant to rent space again given the ongoing pandemic spurts. Years ago I did ebay, but from what I can gather it seems to be kind of a pain in the rear now. RubyLane looks pretty good to me. The Internet Antique Shop seems confusing. Etsy is more for crafty stuff than antiques from what I can gather. Thoughts?

[atreides1]

1. Etsy does have an antiques section

https://www.etsy.com/search?q=antiques

[Vinca]

14. I looked at all the categories on the site map and it appears you have to search specifically for

an antique whatever for it to come up. If, for example, you listed an 18th century wooden bowl, it would turn up among wooden bowls that might have been made last week. I was also trying to figure out how you might tell how much is selling on the site. There doesn't appear to be anyone to check "solds," but I could be wrong. The whole site has a more contemporary vibe to me.

[hlthe2b]

2. I have that question as well. Ebay now feels like a place you give away all chance at profit.

[samplegirl]

3. Can't sell over 600.00

on EBay or you will be sent tax forms.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Applys to all sites, just not Ebay.

[brer cat]

4. Unless you have something really scarce

you have to practically give it away to get it gone. Rarely worth the time and effort.

[brer cat]

5. I haven't sold on RubyLane

but I do think it gets good traffic. I started to sign up on etsy but found it unnecessarily complicated and not user friendly. I am old and have trouble figuring out new things.

[dameatball]

9. Cool. I had never heard of Ruby Lane until I read your post. I am looking at relish trays, so TY.

[Vinca]

11. I'm old, too. LOL. They don't seem to make this very easy to use these days.

20 years ago I sold tons of stuff on ebay, but as each year passed they "made improvements" which have generally made it less user friendly. I'm also looking for an easy-to-use photo editing program. All I want to do is crop a little or lighten and darken a little, but what I've looked at so far would confuse Albert Einstein.

[wackadoo wabbit]

16. I've been selling on eBay for more than 20 years, too, and my favorite photo editing program is

FastPhoto. It appears to have been discontinued, and a newer model (which I've never tried) is available that's called PhotoPrep. Here's a link: https://www.pixby.com/

FastPhoto and, apparently, PhotoPrep are specifically designed for fast, easy photo editing for online sales. FastPhoto (since I've never tried PhotoPrep, I can't really address it) is incredibly easy to use.

It looks as if you can get a free trial of PhotoPrep, so if it doesn't work out for you, no worries. If you do ever have any questions when using it, assuming it's similar enough to FastPhoto, I'll be happy to help you.

FWIW, I've been using FastPhoto since it first came out, and I can't imagine selling online without it.

[Vinca]

17. Thanks! I'll definitely check it out. It's been many, many years since I've sold on ebay.

I guess it won't look quite so overwhelming once I manage to get a listing on and have a template to work with. Do you find your sales are lost among the mega sellers? That's another thing that bothers me, although the stuff I would sell are one-of-a-kind, scarce and usually older than I am. LOL.

[wackadoo wabbit]

18. You should be fine if your items are unique, scarce, and/or one-of-a-kind

After all, you won't have much competition!

I mostly sell higher-end women's lingerie, and my sales aren't anything compared to what they were a decade ago. In my niche, I do believe I'm lost in the crowd of mega-sellers. To be fair, though, a decade ago I (and my husband, who was alive then and was my partner in the business) had many more (like 8 times as many!) items up.

I don't think that the mega-sellers are the only reason why sales are down, though. I think that there are two other important reasons:

1) As eBay management has been tightening the screws on sellers — with higher and new fees, removing support for TurboLister, bringing in and giving special privileges to mega-sellers, etc. — many sellers have flat-out left the platform. And since most sellers are also buyers, this has meant that a lot of buyers have left, too. So there's just fewer buyers. And:

2) eBay management has destroyed the mystique that eBay once had. A couple of decades ago eBay was thought of as a wondrous, fun place where you could find just the thing you wanted, be it a one-of-a-kind tchotchke or a high-end bra at half the retail price, from another person just like you (the buyer). Now, thanks to bad management decisions, the eBay brand is destroyed. Management didn't understand what eBay was and tried to turn it into another Amazon. And I guess it sort of is now. But it generally has a much worse reputation than Amazon, so for non-unique items, sales are lagging.

You're lucky that your items are unique and scarce. You should be fine on eBay; and if, for some reason, you find that sales aren't what you'd like, there are a couple of other sites you can go to. (Alas, with lingerie, there really is no place else for me to go; eBay isn't just the 800-pound gorilla, it's the only gorilla!)

Since it's been a while since you were listing on eBay, feel free to let me know if you any questions about new listing procedures, etc. I'd honestly be happy to help.

[Vinca]

19. Thanks for the info. I agree especially with your second remark. There was a mystique about buying

on ebay and - before bidding software came along - people used to sit at their computers and watch the clock as something they wanted very badly was about to close, throwing in a giant last bid at the end. I remember I sold an extremely rare bit of Hollywood memorabilia from the 1930's and in the last 30 seconds it went up $500. It was really fun back then.

[Vinca]

15. Uh oh, I googled reviews of RubyLane and now I'm back at square one. Not good.

I might have to throw in the towel and rent another booth in a brick and mortar group shop again.

[multigraincracker]

6. I've been lucky.

The mall where my booth is has just had its best year in its 20 year history.
I've had luck on graiglist and it's free. Also FBmarket place. There are several consignment online auction houses where one can drop off item to be sold too.

Other than that, it has been a great time to buy and not so good to sell. I buy cheap and sell cheap and have developed a following at the mall. Last time I took in items, I sold 3 items before I put them on the shelf. My profit margins are not as high as others, but I do a great volume. More that 50% of my sales are to other dealers. I can tell because they use their tax numbers when they buy.
I keep a list of collectors that I know that are looking, so I can give them a call.

You can rent a spot at a flea market for a day or two. I don't like sitting around all day and playing the offer counter offer game.

I use eBay all of the time to figure out my prices. I always go to "sold' items and price under what they are selling on line for. You have to remember there are thousands of buyers on that site.

Good luck and have fun.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. After 2 "living estate" sales, where my things were practically

given away, I brought what was left to Illinois. I listed a position with the local university for someone to list and handle the sales of my items. Found a young woman who posted my items on both Ebay and Mercari.
Over the past year, we've sold about 40% of the stuff.

[Sneederbunk]

10. Where should you sell books from a a Civil War book collection?

[brer cat]

12. I sell good books on Amazon.

No cost to list. I keep my prices reasonable based on other sellers and I have done very well there.

[Sneederbunk]

13. Thanks. I wondered how Amazon worked out for individuals.

[Grasswire2]

20. check out abebooks.com

I always go there first to look for the value of books that I might be thinking of buying.

What kind of stuff do you have in terms of Civil War books? And are you thinking of selling the whole collection as one sale?

[Marthe48]

21. Places I've used or learned about

We used eBay and Facebook Marketplace. My husband passed and I don't sell online now.

Some of the up and coming sites I've come across are Mercari, and 1st Dibs. I haven't bought or sold from them, so I'm not familar with the guidelines. Heritage House is an auction site, but they seem picky about what they accept.

I am a member of a Facebook group called Talking Antiques. You can offer things for sale in the group, but I haven't bought or sold from any members.

You could look at Collector's Weekly and Maine Antique Digest for articles about online selling. MAD might be subscription only. It was a great resource when it was free.

Good luck!