Out of Line Prices on Vintage Costume Jewelry

[thenandnowvintage]

I have noticed some outrageous prices on vintage costume jewelry and some shipping costs are also way out of line.  Furthermore...some descriptions are so brief and lacking in the most basic descriptions...like size!  Wow...have you seen some photos...what really makes me laugh are bad photos, scant descriptions and high prices 

[castlemagicmemories]

Exactly.  The item is worth whatever the buyer decides they want to pay.

To the OP, these are wildly over priced.

That does not mean that they are wildly over priced to everyone.

there's supply and demand.  They aren't making these anymore, not like you can just pop into any store and find them.  

So it is all relative.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

I think a lot of that is people look at other listings instead of completeds to see the going rate of things. It happens all the time at garage sales and even thrifts. They put high prices on things because that's what it's selling for on Ebay. I actually was at a sale when this was the response given by a home owner to a potential buyer - but the guy one upped her - pulled out his phone and said - you have to check solds - this is what the item is actually worth! Loved it - but she was adament it would sell. I went back the 3rd day of her sale to see if she reduced any prices - nope!

They don't understand that that is what it is LISTED for, that does not mean that is what it is SELLING FOR!!  That guy that checked solds is absolutely right...you can list it for whatever you want, it does not mean it will sell for that.

Many times people can't get the concept that because they pd $50 for it 10 yrs ago - it must still be worth at least $50 if not more.

OP asked a simple question folks - no different than myself and other clothing sellers wondering how clothing - 1/2 the quality is sold while our NWT higher end items that are priced at the exact cost of that which sold or $1 or $2 more are sitting.

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[jewelburrito]

To me, the worst thing about vintage costume jewelry nowadays is its scarcity. I've been on eBay since the late 90s, when someone could buy a whole lot of vintage costume earrings, for example, get them for a bargain cost becuase they were a "lot" and have them shipped cheaply. Now, there's fewer really good costume items selling at all, at ANY cost. Some of the commenters on this thread have noted that as well. Plus, it used to be that you could ship cheaply. Now the postage has gone up so much that a 5 ounce padded envelope is 3.75 to ship. With the cost of a padded envelope itself, you'd might as well use the postage service's 6.70 padded envelope and that drives the costs up, too. When I started on eBay, priority mail was 3.85 for a DVD-sized box. Since eBay encourages free shipping, that drives up the beginning bid since no seller wants to list something that will be a loss if there is only one bidder.

I think the biggest problem, though, is the free listings. Sellers have no incentive to set a reasonable price or beginning bid, because even someone without an eBay store gets 50 free listings a month. They can list it without suffering any consequenses if it doesn't sell. It used to be 25 cents or 35 cents to list something below 9.99, and people used to list everything up to 9.99 so they'd get the cheaper listing cost. Now I've seen some ridiculous prices on things that never sell. There's one seller who has been listing the same Les Bernard set for -- get this -- $1,199.00! What!? It's costume jewelry, and it's not even a nice-looking set. I wouldn't pay over $200.00 for it. I want to ask them if maybe they have the decimal point in the wrong spot, but I don't want to engage with someone. That seller's other items are priced very high, too, so like I said, that seller is simply sitting around and waiting for that one-in-a-lifetime buyer who will pay their asking price. 

My other issue is with scarcity. I haven't been selling regularly since 2008, and now that I'm retired, I want to get back into it. I've been looking at eBay, and I agree things are priced too high, but it's the scarcity and the listing issue I've already discussed above that's driving it. Vintage anything is a finite category, and the good jewelry is sitting in the hands of collectors, at least compared to the late 1990s. You can see it too with the brands that have become more valuable as time has gone on -- used to be names like Coro and Sara Coventry weren't all that collectible, but it's become more so because people can't afford Miriam Haskell or Boucher and more of the former is sold than the latter anymore. 

[ted_200]

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@tina06457wrote:

Sellers can set their prices for whatever they want. Same goes for shipping. They will just sit there  and sit there. Bad picures, high prices and shipping, I'll buy from someone else. Those sellers will be on here wondering why they have no sales. 

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If eBay would stop giving them Free Listings, they'd be wondering why their eBay bill was higher than their sales, and would actually do something about it (their prices, photos, or bad listig practices).  

[jewelburrito]

Yes, that's part of it. Harder to tap out descriptions on your phone.

[ted_200]

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@luckythewinnerwrote:

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@thenandnowvintage wrote:
Out of Line Prices on Vintage Costume Jewelry

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... are great advertising for sellers with reasonable prices.

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Maybe if it's 10% or 15% of listings.  But if 95%+ of the listings have out of line prices (or some other issue, like being a keyword-spammed mass-produced poor imitation of said vintage costume jewelry), that just drives away buyers who will never even see the items from the sellers with reasonable prices. 

[ted_200]

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@castlemagicmemorieswrote:

Seriously, if the seller has a minimal description, and the item comes with damage, a buyer is not going to just say, oh well, it wasn't in the description.

They will file SNAD because of the seller's lack of disclosure, that did NOT give them the item they ordered, and they will win.

Not saying a buyer won't file even with an accurate description, but the chances are greatly lessened than if you conceal info the buyer should know because you are afraid of a SNAD.  Concealing or not disclosing info will just greatly increase your chances of a SNAD.

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To be clear, I'm a big fan of detailed and accurate descriptions. 

But some sellers won't give one because they don't want to get caught on a SNAD based on something they said (and this happens).  Then eBay hides the seller's Description from users in various different ways (mobile, non-https content, Buy Box page, etc.) and keeps pushing product purchases using pictures only.

So I can understand why some sellers would be reluctant to provide a Description that will be used against them, and one that eBay won't show half the buyers (and half the buyers they do show it to won't read it anyhow). 

[castlemagicmemories]

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@ted_200wrote:

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@castlemagicmemorieswrote:

Seriously, if the seller has a minimal description, and the item comes with damage, a buyer is not going to just say, oh well, it wasn't in the description.

They will file SNAD because of the seller's lack of disclosure, that did NOT give them the item they ordered, and they will win.

Not saying a buyer won't file even with an accurate description, but the chances are greatly lessened than if you conceal info the buyer should know because you are afraid of a SNAD.  Concealing or not disclosing info will just greatly increase your chances of a SNAD.

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To be clear, I'm a big fan of detailed and accurate descriptions. 

But some sellers won't give one because they don't want to get caught on a SNAD based on something they said (and this happens).  Then eBay hides the seller's Description from users in various different ways (mobile, non-https content, Buy Box page, etc.) and keeps pushing product purchases using pictures only.

So I can understand why some sellers would be reluctant to provide a Description that will be used against them, and one that eBay won't show half the buyers (and half the buyers they do show it to won't read it anyhow). 

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@ted_200wrote:

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@castlemagicmemorieswrote:

Seriously, if the seller has a minimal description, and the item comes with damage, a buyer is not going to just say, oh well, it wasn't in the description.

They will file SNAD because of the seller's lack of disclosure, that did NOT give them the item they ordered, and they will win.

Not saying a buyer won't file even with an accurate description, but the chances are greatly lessened than if you conceal info the buyer should know because you are afraid of a SNAD.  Concealing or not disclosing info will just greatly increase your chances of a SNAD.

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To be clear, I'm a big fan of detailed and accurate descriptions. 

But some sellers won't give one because they don't want to get caught on a SNAD based on something they said (and this happens).  Then eBay hides the seller's Description from users in various different ways (mobile, non-https content, Buy Box page, etc.) and keeps pushing product purchases using pictures only.

So I can understand why some sellers would be reluctant to provide a Description that will be used against them, and one that eBay won't show half the buyers (and half the buyers they do show it to won't read it anyhow). 

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I understand where you are coming from, Ted, as I know that some sellers are reluctant to provide a description that may be used against them, but if they have none, they open themselves to far more issues than if they had simply been straight in the description.  thus they are more apt to have more problems without one than they may have if they accurately and completely describe it, and many sellers feel this way.  

While you say many won't read it, and that may be true, there are many buyers who just hit the back button when the seller doesn't have a proper description.

All the info the buyer needs to make an informed buying decision should be there.  I've asked questions, only to find that the seller didn't bother looking or checking the item to answer my question, so asking questions and getting an answer may be a waste of time and meaningless.

As you can see, this buyer is a fan of detailed and accurate descriptions~~been burned when the answer to the question is false.

[ted_200]

I understand where you are coming from, Ted, as I know that some sellers are reluctant to provide a description that may be used against them, but if they have none, they open themselves to far more issues than if they had simply been straight in the description.  thus they are more apt to have more problems without one than they may have if they accurately and completely describe it, and many sellers feel this way.  

While you say many won't read it, and that may be true, there are many buyers who just hit the back button when the seller doesn't have a proper description.

All the info the buyer needs to make an informed buying decision should be there.  I've asked questions, only to find that the seller didn't bother looking or checking the item to answer my question, so asking questions and getting an answer may be a waste of time and meaningless.

As you can see, this buyer is a fan of detailed and accurate descriptions~~been burned when the answer to the question is false.

I'm with you on all of that, just explaining why the perception about SNAD and Descriptions exists, and why it's at least got some basis in reality with some sellers. 

You and I as buyers want descriptions, and as a seller I provide them.  But eBay does indeed do some things that discourage sellers from providing them, and marginalizes them when the seller does provide them. 

I believe the part in red is definitely true for me, but I don't have a lot of buyers who are looking for reasons to claim SNAD... my buyers just want good information.  Buyers of other types of items sometimes operate on a different basis with different motivations.

[mistwomandancing]

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@luckythewinnerwrote:

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thenandnowvintage wrote:
Out of Line Prices on Vintage Costume Jewelry

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... are great advertising for sellers with reasonable prices.

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I totally agree!   I love the sellers who price their merchandise too high for today's market.   They make my *priced to sell* stuff way easier to move, and the better turnover I have for my merchandise, the higher I rate in the listings... and then the more sales I get, and it just keeps feeding itself!

Over the years that online retail has grown with more and more sites and sellers in competition with each other, that intense competition has driven down the prices of so much general run-of-the-mill merchandise, which is what competition always seems to do.   Since about 80% of what I deal in is in that mainstream, there is always a glut of most of it, most all the time.   Hard to uphold high prices when the market is flooded.   (But always hard to find those pieces that are of the hard-to-find desirable stuff too, so it's a struggle either way, I guess.) 

[vintagemoth12]

The less that is said within the description, the fewer SNAD CASES.

I think I know what you mean.  The more written about it the more there is they can refute. Or take in a way you didn't mean. It is so subjective. 

[castlemagicmemories]

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@emerald40wrote:

Vague descriptions are usually because sellers have no clue about the product they are listing.

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With all due respect, Emerald, I cannot agree with that.  They can look at the item and see if it has damage or not.  They can take a couple of minutes to type out what they see.   Some don't even look at it when the buyer asks them, they just say it is fine, when it is not.  And it could be that some sellers actually believe no returns means it's yours, sucker, so they don't have to describe accurately...or at all.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@femmefan1946wrote:

Very brief, sometimes incomplete item descriptions.

if a size is not provided , the size may disappoint.

Set a high dollar amount, you can always lower the price after several months. Why would the naive buyer

suspect some sellers would ask an outrageous price & still expect the

item to sell?

The less that is said within the description, the fewer SNAD CASES.

Gosh that's cynical.

Not wrong, but cynical.

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Sorry, with all due respect, the less that is said within the description, the GREATER likelihood of SNAD cases, because you did not accurately describe the item.  Thus you have left yourself open to far MORE SNAD cases.  Buyer will say, truthfully, listing did not tell me this.  You have no info to refute that.

[mg152]

I can’t find the post I wanted to reply to so...
I’ve sold many things I didn’t have a clue about. Not lately a long time ago.
I simply put in the listing I don’t know what this is or I don’t know what this does etc... My buyers got deals cause I was dumb. I know how to research better now or ask for help. Never (knock on wood) had a return or bad FB yet.

[ted_200]

I can’t find the post I wanted to reply to so...
I’ve sold many things I didn’t have a clue about. Not lately a long time ago.
I simply put in the listing I don’t know what this is or I don’t know what this does etc... My buyers got deals cause I was dumb. I know how to research better now or ask for help. Never (knock on wood) had a return or bad FB yet.

This happens in the Coins categories with some regularity.  Most non-coin people can't grade anything, many can't even figure out what it is... I've seen listings with as little as "Coins" for a title, and "See Pictures".  They aren't trying to scam or mislead anyone.  Even if they only get it into an approx. correct category, and run a 99¢ auction, they'll get reasonably good money for it.  But if they BIN list it at 10% of what it's worth... well, it's those low quality ignorant sellers who keep buyers looking at coins on eBay (not the out of line price listings).  The seller purges a few years ago cleared out a lot of those somewhat marginal sellers who wrote listings that represented great deals, and my buying here decreased due to it.