No market for these?? Wow!
How unfortunate that there does not seem to be a market for Lions Club banners. Very strange considering how famous the organization is! 7,400 listings & only 33 sales. No ads on Marketplace. I'll have to try my luck there since there is no competition & see if I luck out finding a collector. 1 of many things where I need to find a collector! lol Best of luck in your selling, inventory searches & collecting. 🙂
26 comments
44012
·2 years agoI sold this back in December to a really nice person in Alaska!
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoHere I was, going nuts with only 600 items in my store and some back stock when I was full time. 😕
sakic92710
OP2 years agoHeey! I posted this banner & already have a view AND watcher. That won't even get me a single gum. lol
solidguitar1961
·2 years agoI have a bunch of Lions Club pinbacks that I gave up on .Going to try to blow them out at a flea market this summer.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoI have sold fraternal collectibles over the years.
Many fraternal organizations are dying. Some are selling off their real estate.
I still sell some fraternal collectibles on Ebay, but sales are no where near what they once were.
This banner is CANADIAN even when sales were more active, most US collectors has no interest in Canadian collectibles.
On the plus side, many sellers who sell fraternal collectibles have given up on Ebay, so sometimes one gets a quick sale on a new listing because there are fewer offers than there once were.
yuzuha
·2 years agoFamous once upon a time, maybe, but I bet if you went out on the street and asked people under the age of 60 what a Lion's Club is, 99% of them wouldn't have a clue.
jameshen1
·2 years agoI would think the only people that would be interested in something like that is someone who a( has ties to the area mentioned on the banner, and b( has ties to a Lions Club. Who else would want that and what would you do with it?
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoMan, what I'd do for a succulent lobster tail with a bit of drawn butter.
It's a nice banner, I can see a homey fish house having stuff like that, but in the main that kind of thing piles up all over local antique malls and collects dust.
When you have generation after generation piling up objects, something's got to give.
atlasesattic
·2 years agoI started out 4 years ago selling vintage and antiques, I still have most of it under collectibles...I finally realized that it's not as popular as I thought it would be so I now sell pretty much everything including new items now, there is an ebay seller that is pretty popular on YouTube that only sells vintage stuff and according to him he makes money hand over fist, so IDK...but once this vintage stuff is gone, that's it I won't be selling in the category anymore, now when I do sourcing I bypass all the vintage.
pls-consignments
·2 years agoI sell primarily in vintage collectibles, which continues to be strong for me. I happen to own my inventory outright, so I'm able to play with the margins a bit.
However, once the Baby Boomer generation ages out, I do think it will be a bit tougher. Not only are they the largest generation (me included), but they also own the title of "having the most stuff". Their parents lived during the depression where they were taught to KEEP EVERYTHING because they couldn't afford to replace it. That is why there is a plethora of storage units FILLED with stuff, most of which is not worth the storage rent paid over the 15-20 yrs they have it. I do expect to see a huge influx of vintage collectibles to hit the market all at once in the next 5-yrs or so, which is bad news for the category.
pls-consignments
·2 years agoNot sure if this adds anything, but I have a huge collection of Wisconsin Lion's Club pins from the 80's/90's, including New London, WI. However, not great sellers at well below the $10 threshold. Of those I've sold, most have gone to Wisconsin buyers, probably in their 70's and 80's. 🙂
simba6
·2 years agoCollectables are always a turkey shoot as to what will sell and for how much. What does not sell today may in a few months. Just have to rotate through such items.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·2 years agoI wonder if this fact might skew things in some way?
You say about 7400 active listings. I haven't looked real closely, but over 6700 of them seem to be from ONE seller?
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dkr=1&iconV2Request=true&_blrs=recall_filtering&_ssn=mrbuysalot&store_cat=0&store_name=mrbuysalot&_oac=1&_nkw=lions%20club%20banner
onefootflipper
·2 years agoIf all the eyes of ebay won't sell something then the much lower eyes on facebook marketplace won't sell it either.
Thanks for bringing to attention another category of items with horrible sell through rates, those videos always do well for me on youtube.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoSo rather than a vid touting what's a good thing to buy to resell, you do the opposite? Things to avoid buying to resell? Good idea, and probably more helpful.
onefootflipper
·2 years agoI do all sorts of instructional ebay videos, however the more negative ones are more successful. That lion's club banner looks exactly like the sort of thing I would blindly spend $1 without even checking comps.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·2 years ago@onefootflipper Well, the lobster one I would definitely have paid $1.00 at a yard sale or wherever, and wouldn't have checked comps. Not necessarily a quick sale, but a solid long tail item.
Now, looking at the seller who has about 6700 banners listed? A quick look suggests he's asking $25 for most (depending on size, I think) , so if he paid $1.00 each or less, and even if he sells most at $15 or $20, he's probably going to do fine---pretty easy to photo and list, little real research involved, easy to store and easy to ship. I'd guess he's looking at the long game.....list them and take the sales as they come. Depending on what he paid for them, he may already be in profit mode.
So, I don't know...is this really something to avoid buying for resale? If I saw a bunch of these at a yard sale, say I could buy 20 or 30 for five bucks total, would I buy them? Yes. And if they have good graphics---like the lobster banner---a very big yes at that LOL
This is a case where the stats --- 7400 listings, 33 sales ---would not convince me to stay away from them, IF I could buy low enough. But then, I've always been a long tail seller.
onefootflipper
·2 years agoThe seller is Mr Buys a Lot. He has an every increasing in size ebay store that has a 65 year sell through rate. He operates on just listing everything he can get his hands on for at least $20 and counting on enough of them to sell to make a profit. His 100,000 item store only does $3000 in sales a month.
If you count him in the mix then these banners have a 56 year sell through rate. If you take him out of the mix then they have a 27 year sell through rate.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·2 years ago@onefootflipper While I think sell through rate is important, I also think it is easy to place too much emphasis on it. I've been here long enough to know that ebay sellers have different goals, different situations, etc.
onefootflipper
·2 years agoOh, I agree. I buy singular bad sell through rate items all the time. If I see 200 listed and 3 sold on an item that tells me that if I price mine lowest it probably still sells in a month. However buying a large amount of a bad sell through category or any unique item in a bad sell through category is another story altogether. I think those banners are like yearbooks, lowering the prices will not make them sell because they are waiting for the specific customer.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·2 years ago@onefootflipper I also wonder whether his dominant market position---with most at $25.00---skews this----what would overall sell through look like if he were asking $10.00 each instead? Maybe not very different---price might not be as important as the fact that there is limited demand, period. But at $10.00, there might be more interest, including from people who would use them as decor rather than as "Lions Club Collectibles" In short, sell through MIGHT be a lot better if just this one seller cut his price a good bit. (Of course, without knowing what he paid, and what his other costs are, I don't know if that would be a good business decision or not.
farmalljr
·2 years agoYou also need to consider what he actually pays for stuff. The odds are he actually paid PENNIES for each of them. But on all other accounts, you are correct. Truth be told though, he sits on more stuff then he moves. He is the epitome of what most eBay seller become, which are hoarders. They buy more and more stuff, but are not selling out of anything, and items just languish for years in their stores. People like him sell enough out of a buy to pay for it and put some profit in their pockets, but end up sitting on more then they actually sell. His old warehouses had stuff that sat for years, and was water damaged because he just had PILES of junk that he was not actively trying to sell. It was just all in messy piles.
onefootflipper
·2 years agoIt doesn't matter how much he paid for the stuff, he could have been paid to haul it off. All I see is someone paying $3000 a month for an Enterprise store and only selling $3000 a month. He did have a once in a lifetime sale of something for over $10,000 last month, but his usually volume is around $3000 a month. He is losing money on ebay fees alone.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoHow unfortunate that there does not seem to be a market for Lions Club banners+
Seems like an item that would only have local interest, and even that would be pretty narrow. Maybe something a local bar or restaurant might decorate with.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·2 years agoI agree with @farmalljr : all things considered, I don't find it strange. There may be a market of some sort, but it is probably a rather narrow one if you are aiming for "Lions Club memorabilia" collectors.
I just glanced at a few of these, and, just looking at a glance at photos and titles, I have NO idea how large these banners usually are, because most ebay sellers , if they provide that info, do so in the IS or description box. That is not very helpful.
It looks like most are probably about 10" long? I think they'd sell better if they were larger.
If I had a bunch of these, I think I would try to figure out how best to position them in the marketplace. If you are correct, the market for Lions Club stuff , in particular banners, is not very vibrant, perhaps focus instead on the local aspect. A collector of items from his home town might be interested in the banner from that town's Lions Club, but not Lions Club stuff generally.
And, in the case of the one you've shown us, I would emphasize the Lobster graphics and the Lobster Suppers. The market here would be less about the Lions Club or even the town, and more about adding this to , say, a kitchen or beach house where the owner has decorated with lobsters and related stuff.
farmalljr
·2 years agoAt least where I live, the Lions are a fading organization. Most of the people are getting pretty long in the tooth (aka pretty old) and most people do not even know what the Lions do. Here, they have chicken BBQ's a few times a year, and rent tents. tables, and chairs.
Like the things my grandmother liked or collected, it's desirability fades as time goes on. Perhaps that can be seen as sad, but times change and the people change. At times, things will become worthless. Younger generations do not place value on things like Lion's banners. The older generations already have too much collectable stuff, they have collected over their lifetimes. Kids do not want to deal with their parent's "junk" when they die.