How Would You Sell This Lot of Stainless Flatware? Fast Nickel or slow Dime?

[diggummup]

I recently bought 65 pieces of Towle stainless flatware in the beaded antique pattern w/ gold trim (vintage made in Germany, not the newer China or Korean made stuff).
towle beaded antique | eBay
I am still debating how to sell this lot. It's in average good used condition with light scratching but no gouges or anything like that. How would you list this flatware? One large lot. Two smaller lots or break it down even further and sell it by the place setting or utensil type? I'm leaning towards one lot, only because it will only take one buyer to get rid of all of it. Also as far as price, I'm thinking $350-$400 w/free shipping is fair for a fast nickel if I did sell in one lot. Opinions?

 

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[Beans]

I would go for the fast nickel. Probably not a lot of people looking for stainless steel flatware. Although nice looking I would say the only real thing going for it, is it was made in Germany. More than likely made after the wall came down. If not then if you could pin point East or West Germany would be a plus. Good luck.

Edit: Only seen the ebay link after posting. Guess there is a Market for stainless steel flatware made in Germany. Live and learn.

 

[trdhrdr007]

Look's like you have eight 5 piece place settings. I'd sell those as one lot. That should get you most (or all) of the $350-400 you are looking for. Sell the rest in small lots of like kind pieces. I didn't research prices but each of those should go $30+ with free shipping. Run them all as BIN. Make sure you take good pics showing the wear and describe it as having storage and use marks. I love to sell flatware. It doesn't take up much room, won't break during shipping, & you can fit a good sized set in a padded flat rate envelope.

 

[diggummup]

I would go for the fast nickel. Probably not a lot of people looking for stainless steel flatware. Although nice looking I would say the only real thing going for it, is it was made in Germany. More than likely made after the wall came down. If not then if you could pin point East or West Germany would be a plus. Good luck.

Edit: Only seen the ebay link after posting. Guess there is a Market for stainless steel flatware made in Germany. Live and learn.

Yes, there is definitely a market for vintage stainless flatware. With Towle Silversmiths, they started making stuff in China, so the older German made stuff is more desirable with this particular patterned flatware.

Look's like you have eight 5 piece place settings. I'd sell those as one lot. That should get you most (or all) of the $350-400 you are looking for. Sell the rest in small lots of like kind pieces. I didn't research prices but each of those should go $30+ with free shipping. Run them all as BIN. Make sure you take good pics showing the wear and describe it as having storage and use marks. I love to sell flatware. It doesn't take up much room, won't break during shipping, & you can fit a good sized set in a padded flat rate envelope.

That's good, sound advice. After sleeping on it though, I believe I'm just gonna list it all together in one lot. I just need to get rid of stuff as fast as possible without giving it away. I figure if a 40 piece set of 8 place settings w/o the gold trim can get 28 bids and sell for $355 at auction, then I should be able to get a pretty quick $400 obo for 65 pieces with the gold trim. Towle Beaded Antique 8 5 Piece Place Settings Stainless Steel Made in Germany | eBay
I like selling flatware sets too. I've sold a half dozen or so since the end of October.

 

[trdhrdr007]

That's good, sound advice. After sleeping on it though, I believe I'm just gonna list it all together in one lot. I just need to get rid of stuff as fast as possible without giving it away. I figure if a 40 piece set of 8 place settings w/o the gold trim can get 28 bids and sell for $355 at auction, then I should be able to get a pretty quick $400 obo for 65 pieces with the gold trim. Towle Beaded Antique 8 5 Piece Place Settings Stainless Steel Made in Germany | eBay
I like selling flatware sets too. I've sold a half dozen or so since the end of October.

If I remember correctly you have a regular gig & do eBay on the side. If I was in that situation I'd probably do the same. I don't see any reason you wouldn't get your target price. You need to double check pricing on the butter knives. I've had sets that came with ice tea spoons or butter knives that sold on their own for as much as the rest of the set but don't carry the same premium when sold as part of a set. The way I described is kind of a combination fast nickel slow dime. Make a decent profit quickly & let the other lots sell whenever.

 

[diggummup]

So I actually sold this lot twice already. The first whack job asked me to cancel the transaction the morning after she purchased it almost 24 hours later. Luckily I hadn't shipped it off yet,so I refunded her. She said she was buying it for her daughter as a wedding gift and thought better of it afterwards because they are used, whatever. Then about a week or so later I took a best offer on it for $50 less than the $400 BIN price. After receiving it, the buyer complained that they were all damaged and in fair condition at best and blah, blah, blah.

Now I examined them closely before listing it and found several pieces that did have some damage. I stated in the listing that there were 8 pieces that had some dings in the handles and showed photos of said "damages" in the listing. When I packaged them up for shipping, I had them separated by utensil and bagged up in sealed opaque non see thru bags that I taped shut, 6 of them in a medium flat rate box. Anyway, after I received the package back in the mail, I noticed they only opened one package of flatware, the pack of small spoons that contained 6 of the 8 damaged pieces. So they obviously did not read the description or look at the photos.

Long story short, I'm listing this tonight with a .99 starting bid. I'm over it.


PS- I forgot to add that the second buyer used the same story about a daughter and a wedding gift. Two buyers, same story, different parts of the country though, coincidence? Seemed strange.

 

[trdhrdr007]

Send me a PM with the listing. I'm interested to see what it goes for and may bid.

 

[diggummup]

Send me a PM with the listing. I'm interested to see what it goes for and may bid.

I'm a charter member, I can list links to my auctions. I don't have anything to hide. - Towle Beaded Antique Flatware 65 Piece Set Stainless Gold Accent Germany 18 8 | eBay

 

[jerseyben]

I'm a charter member, I can list links to my auctions. I don't have anything to hide. - Towle Beaded Antique Flatware 65 Piece Set Stainless Gold Accent Germany 18 8 | eBay

Great listings! Nice pics and well executed too.

 

[diggummup]

It sold for $167.50, way less than the BIN prices that it sold for previously, but I only paid $10 for it so I'm happy.