Lynn’s eBay ezine Volume IV, issue number 44

Dear eBayers,

Many of you have called or emailed to find out when our ONLY Live Boot Camp of 2009 is going to be. We have confirmed our dates and it is going to be Friday, August 28th, Saturday August 29th and Sunday August 30th at the world famous La Quinta Resort! If you can believe it, there are only 15 seats left! And five of the nine who are coming are return students. Too much fun!

By holding it the last weekend in August, we were able to negotiate super great room rates for all you future students and the resort will not be very crowded. We will also be able to get the meeting rooms that we want.

‘My Five Top Tips for Flatware’

by Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auctions

I don’t typically spend more than $10 for items to sell on eBay. Well, I will go up to $100 for a good flatware or dinnerware set but never to $1,000. However, I did spend $3,000 on an Alfa Romeo car once and that is an experience that I do NOT want to repeat. (By the way, that Alfa Romeo car will show up in my fourth 100 Best book that I am working on.)

But I digress, back to my $1,000 flatware set and why I bought it. Here are my five top tips for flatware.

1. Always buy sterling silver flatware when you can get it at a reasonable price.

Now many of you may be saying, “Lynn, you are crazy, $1,000 is not a reasonable price.” But please take a look at the paperwork that listed the price.

There were 94 pieces of sterling silver and 15 of those were serving pieces. As I pawed through the box I saw some really unusual serving pieces. Serving pieces from the early 1900s that I had never seen before.  I quickly did the math and knew that $10 per piece for sterling WITHOUT monograms is a fair price.

I knew that I wouldn’t be losing any money and most likely double my money and pretty quickly. I have only ever had two sterling sets that I’ve sold on eBay. One was a stardust mid century modern pattern that my grandmother had given me and one was a set I bought at an estate sale for $500. Both sets sold very quickly. Some pieces sold at auction and then the rest sold out of my eBay store within three months.

I bought the set but didn’t notice until today (when I was writing it up on my I Sell sheets) that about 35 pieces did have a monogrammed FR. Bummer! Oh well, I would just have to adjust and take that into consideration. No letters are best, one letter would have been OK but two and three letters are a harder sale.

2. Identify your flatware pattern

Luckily, I asked the person who I bought my set from the name of the pattern and he knew. It was Marie Antoinette. Boy did that save me some time. I walked around the sale typing in the pattern on my phone to see what it was worth but I didn’t have Internet access. Oh well, I had already decided to buy it based on the average price per piece being about $10.

The maker of the Marie Antoinette pattern turned out to be Dominick and Haff. I had never heard of them but there is a category for their sterling on eBay and I read somewhere while doing my research that they later became known as Reed & Barton. Strangely enough, that ties right into the Rebacraft (Reed & Barton flatware) from last week.

After my Thanksgiving email with the Rebacraft flatware picture, my dad called me within 15 minutes and he had identified it for me as La Femme. I have that listed now and bids on four of the auctions. It is already paid for and making me money.

Here is one of those auctions with a bid.

I have two flatware sets on my eBay table now that I can’t identify. Here is a picture of the stainless Rogers set that I am going to email to my dad for an identification along with the silverplated Sheffield set I can’t ID. I’m not wasting anymore of my time if my retired father wants to help!

Just remember, identify your pattern before selling it.

3. Identify the type of pieces

This was really fun for me last night as I worked on this set. There were some amazing pieces that I had never seen before.

Visit the auction here. I think that it is a jelly spoon.

I think that this is a tomato server. Replacements

calls the tomato server one of the

most beautiful pieces of flatware ever!

I think this is a cake fork.

I love the fact that this pattern was originally made in 1917 and that back then they had utensils for almost anything imaginable. It makes the research and the selling and so much fun!

4. Never sell flatware as a set–sell it individually

Always break your flatware out into individual auctions or into sets of two to four pieces. Most customers on eBay are not looking for entire sets but are looking to add to their wedding set or a set that they inherited. Or maybe they just lost too many teaspoons down the disposal!

I broke my sterling set out into 94 separate auctions and I did it all in one day. Now that is a fun way to get to my magical 100 number of auctions.

5. Price it at about 1/3 to 1/2 of published prices

I try and price my flatware at about 1/3 to 1/2 of published selling prices. As an example, my 94 auctions starting prices ranged anywhere from $9.99 to $99.00. The total starting auction prices for my Marie Antoinette pieces add up to $2,550.00. Now let’s hope they all sell!

Here is one of the auctions with a starting bid price of $24.99. It had a published price of $45.99. I thought that this was a salad fork but it turned out to be a dessert fork because of that extra bar. (You don’t want to drop any of your dessert, do you?) I learned a lot of new things when listing this sterling set!

See the auction here.

Finally, if you want to learn more about research and pricing–my two classes at eBay Live were filmed and available on “The Road to eBay Live” DVD. It is being offered this week at a special low price if you don’t already own it. Click here to learn more.

Check out this nice email I got from Jean Doyle (whose question we answered in the DVD set):

Hey Lynn, Carmen and Mo,

I just finished watching the DVDs of “On the Road to eBay Live.” I am so impressed with all the work each and everyone did to make that all happen. And to you Lynn for taking the time to get all those questions that were sent to you answered had to be quite an undertaking. And time consuming. My question was one of them.

I loved the way you handled my question, and you gave me the stamina to move on and not worry about the competition that I felt was on eBay.

Once I get back on my feet, I am going to go back out there and hit all the garage sales, estate sales, and thrift stores that are out here near my home in Florida. Having fun while doing it. I plan on joining the Queen’s Court with my proceeds. LOL.

Thanks to you all for all you do for us fellow eBayers. Especially to you Lynn, the time and effort you put into your career, you are certainly motivating and inspiring. I know your grandmother was an inspiration, but you are just as inspiring to all.

Regards, Jean Doyle