Sell a set of china as one item, or sell component pieces?

[fbusoni]

I'd be interested to hear other seller perspectives please.

I recently obtained a large set of French porcelain.   Plates, bowls, cups and saucers, etc.  About 65 pieces in all.   The set is antique and in excellent shape.

eBay has a few categories for me.  One is "dinnerware sets."  The others are "plates," "bowls," "cups and saucers," etc.

Would you sell all 65 pieces as a set?  Sell the pieces by category? 

Or perhaps create a listing with a drop down menu allowing buyers to pick and choose the type and number of pieces they were interested in?

Thanks for any replies.

[thecollectionbuyer]

You should consider your ability to pack and ship the set. Selling a large set like this results in a very heavy (and large) package. Some pieces could be damaged in transit. For this reason, I usually offer the components individually. Easier to ship and protect as well as more economical shipping costs. I usually do well selling the more desirable pieces like serving bowls, platters, and gravy boats. Then selling plates and tea cups, etc in quantities to suit customers trying to replace a piece or expanding an existing set. Just my 2 cents.

[chevymontecarlo88]

Sell them individually instead of all of them shipped together. Much easier to ship one item that is packed (packed properly and safe) than trying to ship them all. List them separately instead of the drop down menu. Buyers will search for the item they want and the drop down menus are annoying. IMHO

Or save yourself the headache and flip them locally.

[fbusoni]

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@thecollectionbuyer wrote:

You should consider your ability to pack and ship the set. Selling a large set like this results in a very heavy (and large) package. Some pieces could be damaged in transit. For this reason, I usually offer the components individually. Easier to ship and protect as well as more economical shipping costs. I usually do well selling the more desirable pieces like serving bowls, platters, and gravy boats. Then selling plates and tea cups, etc in quantities to suit customers trying to replace a piece or expanding an existing set. Just my 2 cents.

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Thanks.  In the past I have shipped sets like this in up to six or seven cardboard boxes.   The buyers were happy to pay the rather high shipping costs, and as I am retired, there was plenty of time for me to get the sets prepared and shipped within 24 hours (as I am bound to do by eBay requirements to maintain my seller status).

I guess what I am curious about is the balance between buyer demands / preferences and the need (which is not great on my part) to move the merchandise to a new home.

Is your experience that there are today fewer buyers for large, complete sets than there are buyers for the individual pieces as you describe above?   

I have spoken with others who sell in this category and their opinion is that times and tastes have changed.    Yet I have sold complete sets in the recent past.   regards

[fbusoni]

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

Sell them individually instead of all of them shipped together. Much easier to ship one item that is packed (packed properly and safe) than trying to ship them all. List them separately instead of the drop down menu. Buyers will search for the item they want and the drop down menus are annoying. IMHO

Or save yourself the headache and flip them locally.

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All good ideas which I have employed in the past.  

What motivated me to write this morning was an experience yesterday with a buyer who noticed that I had listed individual components of another set of china (these are from Japan) and asked if I could bundle them altogether and give her a discount.  

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@fbusoni wrote: ... an experience yesterday with a buyer who noticed that I had listed individual components of another set of china (these are from Japan) and asked if I could bundle them altogether and give her a discount.  

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IMHO you've answered our own question: Offer the pieces separately, then in each listing mention that you have other pieces from this pattern and will provide a discount for multiple purchases.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@fbusoni wrote: ... there was plenty of time for me to get the sets prepared and shipped within 24 hours (as I am bound to do by eBay requirements to maintain my seller status)....

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 1-day handling is required if you want to show the TR-Plus badge on a listing, but Top Rated Seller status itself does not require 1-day handling.   If you want to allow yourself extra handling time on any listing, just set whatever handling time you want or need.  That specific listing won't show TR-Plus, but you will not endanger your seller status.

[kath.layn]

I sell a lot of dishes and I agree with most here who recommend listing individually or in small sets.   I find listing pieces in lots of 2 or 4 works well.  I’ve only sold full sets once or twice.  And I agree, the drop-down menus are annoying, in my opinion

[dhbookds]

In general, I would separate.........If I were comfortable mailing all together (which I'm not).......I might try a listing with everything at least for a few wks to see if someone would purchase the whole thing.......

[frodobagginskennedy]

Funny you should ask this as I was thinking of posting the same question.  I sell a lot of sets(or I used to) this year has been brutal.  I have the shipping down pretty well and rarely have breakage issues.

I have been listing more individual smaller lots to see how they would work.  Been thinking of branching out to other areas as well.  

Sales have been really harsh here.  Better in Etsy.

[mantle1951]

What a nightmare to pack and ship!!!!! Glad I sell baseball cards LOL

[squinkercat59]

I have found personally that most people that buy china are looking for individual pieces to complete a set they already have. When I had a complete set listed (locally, on CL or in the antique mall) most of the inquiries were if they could just buy the teapot, or two cups, or the vegetable bowl. We moved since then, and the entire set (139 pieces!) is still boxed up in storage, and I dread having to deal with it again!! Might just keep it and use it myself!

[duffy4444 · Accepted solution]

   I list and successfully sell on eBay a LOT of China - hundreds of listings, all categorized into individual pieces and multiples of each piece up to 4x. Each listing has a clickable link to all the other matching items of the same design available in my eBay store. To answer your question, I see a lot more interest in buyers getting replacement pieces instead of large complete sets.

   I've been researching and toying with the idea of listing place settings of 5. But I will not sell entire sets because it is asking for a nightmare of very possible in-transit damage of at least a few pieces and the expensive return/refund hassles, or the likelihood of any insurance claims being rejected. Then I would have to list the remainders individually anyway.

   I would never sell an intact set of 65 pieces, no matter how well they are packaged. But the risk is up to you... good luck.

Cheers, Duffy

[trip98]

I agree sell in parts. Serving pieces as stand-alones. I don't sell much pottery & china anymore for a bunch of reasons, but when I did, I would first separate out the serving pieces to sell individually. And  if there are other sellers with the same pattern, I would list my items around the other sellers offerings. ie. other seller -4 plates lot, I would sell one plate with multiple option.  One more suggestion, if  I had an odd number of plates, teacups etc, I would not list the total number just in case something broke in transition, so I could replace. Never happened luckily.

[simba6]

The serving pieces are what will sell.   The rest of it unless a very rare pattern will take forever to sell.