Crickets

[gardanni]

I am trying to sell a variety of silver items. I get zero views for most of them.
 
I take a lot of care in producing listings with good Titles, Descriptions, and Photos - I would think that I would at least attract viewers who wanted to see better photos or get more detail, even if they weren't looking to buy anything. But no!

I wonder if someone has some insight on how to get more visibility. And, for what it’s worth, eBay has tagged all my items as “not eligible to promote”, so it seems that paying for visibility would not be an option.

Thanks.

[gardanni · Accepted solution]

Well, since posting to this forum, my VIEWS are through the roof! Problem resolved! Just kidding, of course, it's just all of you inspecting my listings. Thank you all for your feedback.

My takeaways are:

• converted Auctions to Buy-It-Now; perhaps this will bring more visibility, but in any case, it will facilitate transactions of my single-bid sales.
• despite some outliers, the consensus is that the resale of silver tableware - flatware sets in particular - is pegged to the spot price of silver. Most such items will take a long time - if ever - to sell at a premium.
• individual desirable pieces are more likely to sell than mixed groupings (I have a random groupings of tableware and another of spoons); if there is nothing outstanding in the grouping, I'll should consider scrapping it.
• i will consider polishing the hell out of items and learning to take better pictures (taking photos of highly reflective silver is awfully difficult).
• I still see dealers here successfully selling rather ordinary sterling sets for astronomical prices, so my research is not done. Perhaps I'll be able to find such a seller who is willing to talk!

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts.

Dan S

[toysaver]

Plenty of stainless flatware sells for above scrape silver prices.  

[wes-4507]

I still see dealers here successfully selling rather ordinary sterling sets for astronomical prices,

I’d love to see examples of actual sold lots. Can you post a few?

[gardanni]

I know I've seen ordinary silver achieving extraordinary prices. I will post back to this thread when I encounter extreme examples. In the meantime, below are a couple of items that sold for far more than their intrinsic value.

• https://www.ebay.com/itm/225599265246
  Tiny sugar tongs, 11g melt value approx $8.50), sold for $38
• https://www.ebay.com/itm/256096193095
  6 forks, quite nice. In any case, I estimate the melt-value is $120; it was sold for $203

And at the same time, maybe I am conflating things - I see what seem to be successful sellers - with massive inventory and tons of good feedback - pricing their items at very high prices. I figure these sellers know what they are doing - they must be seeing some action - otherwise, why would they waste their time?

[tractorgrrl23]

You have some lovely pieces. The sterling straws are tempting me...... 😀

[gardanni]

Everything is for sale! 😀

I appreciate the feedback I've received in this forum. I've been working in isolation, and having feedback has been valuable.

[gardanni]

Some examples of silver being sold for more than scrap value:

• https://www.ebay.com/itm/185882362531
  sterling scrap sold for $26.77 per ozT - with shipping and tax, buyer probably paid ~$29 per ozT
• https://www.ebay.com/itm/266239167323
  sterling scrap sold for $26.07 per ozT, with shipping and tax, buyer probably paid ~$29 per ozT

However, in both cases, after eBay fees are factored in, the seller probably realized approximately $22.50 per ozT - approximately the same as what one can realize by scrapping the objects. That supports the idea that, in general, one can't profit selling silver on eBay.

However, here is a seller, https://www.ebay.com/str/silverperfect, who has 350 items presently listed; s/he's sold 2500 items and has perfect feedback...and the prices are, in many cases, exorbitant. My favorite is this set, assembled from multiple sets, each with different monograms. The set has 126 pieces, and is listed for $12,500! That's nearly $100 per utensil! https://www.ebay.com/itm/255636008064 . I am sure the set is old and rare, but with such a high price, I would think that there would be room in this market for other nice sets to command decent prices.

I don't expect a response... just pondering.