How do you sell vintage jewelry off Ebay?

[mugsisme]

How do you even find out if it is truly vintage other than finding it? I got several books from the library, and the prices listed in these guides are crazy! Too high, IMHO.

I found this in a jar today:
Mimi di N Double Intertwined Gold Chain Necklace from vintageelixir on Ruby Lane

I looked on Ebay, and there is nothing there past or present anywhere near that price. Sell on RubyLane? Does traffic move there?

My biggest thing is finding out if these pieces are vintage or not.

 

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[jerseyben]

Sounds like you already have your answer. You can't force something to have value that just isn't there to begin with.

Good luck.

 

[diggummup]

I don't know Ben, that necklace shows it sold for $285.00. Ruby Lane is like a high priced Ebay without the auction feature. It's full of dealers who list their items at full retail plus. I use it more for research than anything else. As far as knowing whether something is vintage or not, usually the design or style of the piece will tell you a lot. Not to mention the makers mark. I will say that some costume jewelry doesn't necessarily have to be vintage to have value, even though the pieces with the highest value are usually vintage. It has more to do with the designer/style of the piece than anything. I've sold newer, signed costume jewelry for good money before. Never pay attention to the prices of something in a book (unless it's a recent auction catalog). They are highly inflated and always wrong. Here is a link that may help you in learning more about what marks to look for when it comes to costume jewelry. Researching Costume Jewelry History, Jewelry Marks, Fashion Jewelry, Vintage Jewelry research, Jewelry signatures Hands on experience is the best tool for learning. You can't learn everything from a book or the internet, unfortunately.

 

[randazzo1]

Pricing vintage jewelry is an odd exercise that ive struggled with for some time. Some items are echanged so frequently in the marketplace that they have an established value which remains fairly steady in the short term (e.g. certain Juliana pieces). For these types of pieces you can actually assign a fairly accurate value range (kind of like a blue book value). Less frequently exchanged pieces or unattributed/lessor known (and thus difficult to find a transaction history) pieces are a whole different story. The same piece (e.g. a Marcel Boucher sterling brooch) will sell in a west village shop for $300, an eBay auction for $30.00, another ebay auction for $142.88, on etsy for $75.00 and on ruby lane or trocadeto for $145.00. It's more like selling emerging artists' work. The price point agreed on is based more on personal preference, the gallery experience , and whim - rather than established value.

The most important variable with these pieces is your customer base. If you specialize in jewelry and offer generous return policies you can name your own price within reason. Your customers will pay more because they trust you.

Second, most consumers associate price with value/quality. Shoppers assume an item priced at $50.00 is more valuable and of higher quality than an item priced at $10.00. There is a great economics proverb about home perm kits. They were originally introduced at a low price and no one bought them because they were assumed to be junk. The manufacturer tripled the price and they flew off the shelves.

 

[jerseyben]

Did any of you look up "Mimi di N" on ebay and then look at completed sales?

The most expensive items to sell was a tiger belt buckle for $89 followed by an metal animal belt for the same. For jewelry I did see at least 1 pair of earrings sell for $65.

All Im saying is, I cant explain why the Ruby Lane sale went for so much. Perhaps that seller has a great reputation selling vintage jewelry. Perhaps they have captured the perfect impulse buyer?

I just dont see this kind of high value for this stuff. It is mass produced costume jewelry and it isn't really that old. This style is very outdated and the people who would wear this stuff are getting fairly old.

Just trying to point out that you must consider several factors when valuing items like this. If an item doesn't "catch my eye", when searching, I typically will disregard it and move on. If it had some sort of eye appeals, I might look it up to see what the value is. I would disregard the rubylane sale as an "outlier" and go off the ebay sales of similar styles. IMO, based on what I see on ebay, I would place a value on the OP's piece at no more than $45.

 

[insontis]

There is always someone willing to pay more. Being as there is not much consistency here, I'd assume you can get any of the mentioned prices. The only factor is time. There could be 100 people interested in buying that piece. 95 of them may only be interested in it for $30 or less. Of the remaining 5, 4 may be interested in a price relative to what has sold already on eBay and other outlets. To the remaining 1, price may not be a factor and they will pay your asking price of hundreds of dollars because they "have to have it".

The odds of finding a user that has no price limit, let alone one that is interested in your specific piece, is quite unlikely. Who knows how long it would take to sell at a high price - especially if there are competitive items priced lower. You may find that one user with no budget and you may make the sale, but it will take a long time.. if it ever happens.

 

[jerseyben]

There is always someone willing to pay more. Being as there is not much consistency here, I'd assume you can get any of the mentioned prices. The only factor is time. There could be 100 people interested in buying that piece. 95 of them may only be interested in it for $30 or less. Of the remaining 5, 4 may be interested in a price relative to what has sold already on eBay and other outlets. To the remaining 1, price may not be a factor and they will pay your asking price of hundreds of dollars because they "have to have it".

The odds of finding a user that has no price limit, let alone one that is interested in your specific piece, is quite unlikely. Who knows how long it would take to sell at a high price - especially if there are competitive items priced lower. You may find that one user with no budget and you may make the sale, but it will take a long time.. if it ever happens.

Very true.

It's the old "fast nickel, slow dime" adage...

Me, I'm a "fast nickel" kind of guy. Others might be the "slow dime". It is whatever works for you.

 

[diggummup]

Very true.

It's the old "fast nickel, slow dime" adage...

Me, I'm a "fast nickel" kind of guy. Others might be the "slow dime". It is whatever works for you.

I'm usually a fast nickel guy myself but I can be both, depending on the item and the amount I paid for it. It took well over a year to sell an item I had once. I couldn't (or wouldn't) lower it too much because I kind of overpaid for it. But, it did eventually sell for a profit. Most times though, i'll list items lower than other listed comparables (or recent sales) in order to get a quick sale, because I don't have much money in most items to begin with.

 

[Joe777Cool]

I'm usually a fast nickel guy myself but I can be both, depending on the item and the amount I paid for it. It took well over a year to sell an item I had once. I couldn't (or wouldn't) lower it too much because I kind of overpaid for it. But, it did eventually sell for a profit. Most times though, i'll list items lower than other listed comparables (or recent sales) in order to get a quick sale, because I don't have much money in most items to begin with.

I'm the same way. I held on to an item for over a year, an item that I got for cheap, because I knew eventually someone would come along that really wanted it. It was a signed/framed print of a local part of town that were hard to come by. Sure enough last week someone email me and said they had been looking for the exact one I had for quite awhile and found mine on Craigslist. He gave me almost asking price so we were both happy. I have also sold things on the cheap because I needed the $ or just wanted to get rid of something - always regret those transactions.

 

[mugsisme]

I am waiting to get the book she mentioned in that auction. I was thinking of listing on Etsy rather than Ebay. (Rubylane is insane! You have a one time joining fee of $100! Are they nuts? Who pays that? No wonder they charge so much over there.) Etsy listing fees are 20 cents, and the item stays up for 4 months. I was thinking of trying like $199, but I really want to see that book. This one I don't care to hold onto for a long time. (slow dime) I got it from a jar and something else in the jar already paid for the whole jar. This is just the icing on the cake.

I am trying to figure out all this costume jewelry cr@p. This stuff is ugly, and the collector books have crazy prices. Who buys this junk anyway? If you are going to drop almost $300 on a necklace, I would rather it be real gold, or at least pretty.

 

[randazzo1]

The ruby lane sale was a one off.

 

[diggummup]

The ruby lane sale was a one off.

I hear ya. Someone got real lucky with that sale. But then, that's all it takes is one.

 

[Atlanta Mi Dave]

I'm usually a fast nickel guy myself but I can be both, depending on the item and the amount I paid for it. It took well over a year to sell an item I had once. I couldn't (or wouldn't) lower it too much because I kind of overpaid for it. But, it did eventually sell for a profit. Most times though, i'll list items lower than other listed comparables (or recent sales) in order to get a quick sale, because I don't have much money in most items to begin with.

I am a slow dime guy and my wife is the fast nickel, I like to wait most things out, she just want to get rid of things. On Best Offers she will accept really low ball offers without even countering. On low ball Best Offers I usually flat out decline them. If they are close I will usually counter. She shakes her had at some of the prices I get and I try to tell her you need patience Grasshopper. Can't wait for some garage sales as we are getting very depleted in product to sell.