Lynn’s eBay ezine Volume V, issue number 4

Happy Valentines Day in two days!!

Here is that email I got from DivaDawnLV and why I signed up for the contest on StartupNation. Many of you have voted. Thank you! We are up to about 500 votes and would love to see it go higher. Thank you to everyone who wrote in to tell us that you can vote once a day. So, if any of you have time, please vote everyday!

Hi Lynn,

I’m sure you’ve received this email. I’m just forwarding it to encourage you to sign up for the Top Mom-Run Businesses competition. I think you do a marvelous job of both running your business and being a mom — not to mention being a friend, daughter, sister and all around terrific person. No one can sign you up, you have to do it yourself, so please do! And then let everyone know that you are participating. I can think of “one or two” folks who might vote for you!

DivaDawnLV

Please go here and place your vote. I would really appreciate it! It has been a lot of fun so far.

Thanks!

Lynn

‘What to Do When You Really Don’t Want to List Something’

by Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auctions

It happens to all of us. We get home from an estate sale, garage sale or thrift store and we immediately list those items that we think are the scores. Or we list the dinnerware or flatware set that is going to be quick and easy. Then we make a pile of those other things.

Those “other things” that end up staring us in the face for weeks if not years. By the way, don’t feel badly, I have a garage and storage unit full of these items!

In fact two of those “other things” were Batchelder tiles that had been in my grandmother’s antiques store for years. I had them priced at $9.50 each in the antique store. When they didn’t sell, the lady helping us run my grandmothers estate sale marked them down to $1.00 in a big red price tag.

Check out that price tag on my I Sell sheet.

Why on earth would I ever get around to listing these tiles when I had so many more other items that would certainly sell? No one had even wanted these for $1 each.

They wound up in a box of really random items. Haley was here over her college winter break and I asked her to start writing up boxes of these items on my I Sell sheets.

Tip #1: Hire someone else to do your write-ups.

I had been without extra help since the summer. Since I didn’t have anyone to write up my descriptions for me, I was going for the easy to list sets and expensive items. With Haley here for three weeks, it was so much easier to get those random items written up, photographed and ready to go.

Here is a box of some of those random items.

Tip #2: Try and find something interesting about the items to get you motivated for listing.

Can you believe that I had the gall to list these two tiles separately?

Flat edge tile auction here.

Round edge tile auction here.

Well, it wasn’t really my idea, but it was the way Haley had them written up, so I went with her instinct. They were signed Batchelder and that name rang a bell. I did a little Google research and found out some fascinating facts about Ernest A. Batchelder.

Here is one of his quotes: “The fireplace is a permanent built-in feature of a room. Rugs, wall coverings, draperies and furniture may be changed…but the fireplace remains a source of perennial satisfaction.”

Ernest was born in 1875 on the East coast but eventually relocated to Southern California. He was an art teacher first and then became an artist.  He opened his tile company behind his Pasadena bungalow in 1909. He soon outgrew his makeshift factory and at his Batchelder-Wilson Tile Co. near downtown Los Angeles, Batchelder and his 175 workers created amazing colored tiles, and many others that had animals, medieval motifs and landscapes. The style was Arts & Crafts.

From what I can tell, the ones with animals sell for the most money. I saw a few listed on a web site in the $400 range. One that caught my eye was a 3″ tile with a dog on it for $420.

Here is a link to a website that shows the range of his artistic talent.

Batchelder tile was used most prevalently in Pasadena, but it can be seen in homes throughout Southern California. It can also be found nationwide including in the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, a New York Swimming pool and in Union Station in Chicago.

A home with a Batchelder fireplace can help to raise its value and make it more desirable to potential buyers. Unfortunately, Batchelder went out of business in 1930s during the Great Depression. Ernest sill continued to create art pieces, but the great tile business was kaput. He died in 1957.

These tiles were pretty easy to get motivated to list. And yes they did sell. In fact, the lady that won them wanted them so badly that she bid twice on each one.

If you don’t have a famous maker name like I did on these items, try and look at your items in a new and unique way. Think about how maybe someone has been looking for that item for years and that you are doing them a great service by making it available to them.

Tip #3: Always list it on eBay FIRST before donating it to charity or having a garage sale.

Check out this email that I just got from Bobbie Quandt, who is returning to Live Boot Camp this year also.

Hi Lynn, Mo and Carmen,

I had this picture for quite a while, got in a box of “Stuff” at the auction and was going to put in our garage sale this spring but decided to list it last week for $9.99 (see Lynn, I did learn something at the camp!), anyway am totally shocked at what it has gone to so far. The whole box of stuff was probably $10.00.  Do you have any clue as to what is so special about this item?

See the auction here.

Had a good January, sold over $800, my best so far. Finally got 500 items listed (but now down to 485, sold some in Feb. How are things going out there? Everyone I talk to says things are slower but I am pleased with what I have done so far. Each month gets a little better.

Can hardly wait for August to come back to Boot Camp again!

Bobbie (eBay ID bquandt2)

What a great lesson we can learn from Bobbie. ALWAYS List it first on eBay before donating or selling at a garage sale. Congrats! And, by the way, silhouettes typically do quite well on eBay.

Tip #4: Once a month go through your I Sell sheets and list those ones that you have purposely passed by.

I don’t know why I keep buying clothing. It isn’t my area of expertise, but I keep doing it! I have a pile sitting on my dining room table right now that has got to be moved for my company that is coming this week.

I was carrying around about 150 I Sell sheets all written up and ready to go. Six of them were for men’s shirts from about six months ago. I was procrastinating because they were going to take more time to list.

I have decided that once a month I am going to take 30 of the sheets that I have passed by and make myself list them. The men’s shirts were part of that process.

Well, I am happy to report that one has sold and the rest will be making their way into my eBay store

See the auction here.

You can’t sell it if it isn’t listed!

I hope this article gets you motivated to list some of those “other things” and that you see the untapped potential in everything you have bought. Otherwise, why would we have bought it?

Happy eBaying!

Lynn