Selling my mother's vintage tea cup and saucer collection
Just starting on eBay.
I'd greatly appreciate any tips how to best to market vintage tea cups and saucers.
Thanks for any suggestions!
15 comments
Just starting on eBay.
I'd greatly appreciate any tips how to best to market vintage tea cups and saucers.
Thanks for any suggestions!
tobaccocardyahoo
·4 months agoYour listings, photos and descriptions are adequate.
Whether demand will be adequate to justify the effort required is something you will need to decide after you see what results you get. You need not spend any more time on your listings than you have.
Good luck
studiodeflores
·4 months agoCups and saucers do sell but most take a while before a buyer comes along who is looking for that exact pattern. As others have said, check the sold prices, not just the active listing prices and if you really want them to sell quickly, have a low selling price in comparison to the competition. You have some beautiful ones listed!
genv
·4 months agoResearch the highest SOLD Makers & Patterns. The $9.99 ones, list them in lots.
chapeau-noir
·4 months agoI've seen the sort machinery in action - it's pretty diabolical.
adamcartwright
·4 months ago@antiqueprintsmaps
Your two photos are not enough.
I would photograph them as if I were the buyer. What areas would I want to see?
And I would probably double box those for shipping, extra protection.
44012
·4 months agoCongratulations on your new ebay experience!
I only recommend spending some time learning how to change up your photos a bit with the ebay photo tools.
Some of the things (not all, and it is just my opinion) you have listed would look great with a nice clean white background. It takes awhile to figure out what all the buttons mean in the photo editing section but once you can use the photo enhancement tools it will be really easy moving forward.
I have sold a few teacup and saucers in the past. It is important to have packing materials like paper and peanuts and sturdy boxes in order to do your best to avoid breakage while in transport, sometimes I have even had to double box. While many sellers don't I always use fragile stickers on the boxes. Some say that is the easiest way to have the box drop kicked by the carrier but I have never had anything break.
Good Luck to YOU!
gb58
·4 months agoI never mark fragile on my boxes and 99% of my stuff is breakable. I've been shipping stuff long before ebay even came into existence, mid-1970's.
The reason I don't mark them fragile, is because of the "drop kick" factor you mentioned, but also because I was told long ago by both UPS workers, and USPS workers that the box should be packed so it isn't fragile.
I forget the height distance the manager at my local PO told me years ago that a box should be able to withstand a drop from, but it was quite a distance.
reallynicestamps
·4 months agoCanada Post told us two feet, but to plan for a 50 lb box to drop on top from the same distance.
The process is almost entirely automated, but those are the distances from one belt to another plus the maximum weight for a parcel.
gb58
·4 months agoOn the delft cup and saucer I would have rotated the photo of the back (you can do this easily on the listing form), so the marking would be easier to read.
chapeau-noir
·4 months agoThe listings look good to me (though more photos would be good) - the descriptions are fine, though I'd lose the bolding, little square boxes, etc. The market for those items will be fine with a more thorough description and some provenance.
pickapaper
·4 months ago@antiqueprintsmaps
Looks like you have already started listing them. I don't know if your prices are comparable to others on eBay, I didn't check any of those.
I did notice that your Ginori demitasse set has a floral pattern, but in the listing it refers to it as Italian Fruit and says it has a fruit theme.
I can't really tell if you have identified the patterns with Google Lens. If not, that would be one thing you could do, to identify the pattern to include the pattern name in the listing.
klhmdg
·4 months agoMore photos -
A few suggestions -
2 Photos of vintage cups and saucers is not enough.
You get 20 for free - use them!
You should have photos of all sides and the bottom and handles and the inside.
Take photos as if you have no descriptions -
Also show it with a ruler or something to show the size of the cup and the saucer.
Loose the AI wordiness - Sometimes less is more.
Put all issues in the description area and the condition box.
Most buyers are using phones to buy. All that text and important stuff gets "lost"
nyr134
·4 months agoBe prepared in advance with packing materials and the knowledge of how to safely and efficiently pack those items. If one item breaks or chips in transit, you’ll likely have to refund the entire sale.
And correctly figure and assign your shipping cost before the sale. Remember that the price for shipping is calculated by a combination of dimension, weight and distance.
tobaccocardyahoo
·4 months agoInterest is not what it once was, like all sorts of things. Listing on Ebay is probably as good a way to sell these as any.
Hopefully, you know how to pack well enough for safe arrival,
When I type Collectible Cups and Saucers into the Ebay search, I get 180,000 results, when Iook at sales for the past 90 days, I see 3,500+ results.
I would assume that if you have the right maker's cups and saucers, you might see some sales. There are under $15 sales in the majority, and 1400+ sales between $15 and $35. Whether it is worth you time is a question only you can answer.
This the kind of Q&A which is depressing.
soh.maryl
·4 months agoHave you considered searching for similar items that are already listed, as well as those that have sold, and checking out how they did it?