Dig This Treasure!

Ok, so last week I had some crazy bad ebay luck.  I’m going to blame this on bad karma I racked up by telling this guy on my street that he “looks more pregnant than me.”  (I’m huge.)  I know, I know, so awful.  In my defense, his dog chased George and I across the street and this is the second time it has happened.  This guy refuses to leash or fence his dog.  And he told me to “Get a Life,” when I asked why he can’t restrain his animal.  Before you all give up hope on me, I am remorseful and did cry about it.  ANYWAY, that still didn’t stop the bad ebay karma.

The good news is that my bad ebay luck has some good lessons for all of us.  So hold on to your butts, here are my takeaways:

The first item that was a huge bust for me was this Captain Hook marionette.  You may remember him from this sale.  I paid $10 for him and he sold for $8.  While only $2, a loss is a loss, and losses add up.  The lesson here is that condition matters…a lot.  When I saw this guy at the sale, I thought he had the right amount of age and wear to make him look extra vintage-y cute.  

Except that I didn’t notice he is completely missing his left hand…you know, the one with the hook…the one that makes him CAPTAIN HOOK.  Oy.  Seriously people, take the extra 30 seconds and look things over closely.

Last week, I also bought this cool porcelain bathing beauty lady.  She had this mark on the bottom which I figured I could just google and find the maker.  No such luck.  This mark proved impossible to locate.  I spent $20 on her and she sold for $26.  Not a loss, but I really thought this lady would end up as one of our “money makers.”

The lesson here is that if you don’t know what you have, no one else will.  I couldn’t properly advertise this item on ebay because I didn’t know the maker.  To top it off, I didn’t even realize that this was actually The Little Mermaid, which one of our readers pointed out to me in our comments section.  A double whammy.  I could have taken this to a porcelain store, or asked about it on a message board before I listed it, but I got too hasty.

Ok, so seriously, know what something is before you buy it.  Or try REALLY HARD to figure out what something is before you list it.  I bought the metal sign (?) above for $10 and it sold for $9.99.  Again, I didn’t know what I had.  This thing is obviously Stag Tobacco related, but is it a sign?  Or is is an uncut sheet of metal used to make tins?  Is it a mold of some sort?  Who the hell knows.  I sure as heck didn’t, and I paid the price for that.  

Are you feeling bad for me yet?  This is a lot of ebay failure for one week.  Hang in there, I’ve got more.  I bought these Ohio State glasses for $3 each and the pair sold for $6.99.  The lesson here is to know your buyer.  I bought these because Ohio State stuff is usually mega collectible.  What I didn’t realize though, is that it is specific Ohio State stuff.  

You see, mostly men collect sports stuff.  And I’m sorry to generalize, but it seems to me that men like old ticket stubs, programs, pennants, etc.  Not drinking glasses apparently.  So my cups just didn’t appeal to collectors like other memorabilia would have.

So to top it off, I also sold a pair of candlesticks for $9.99.  I paid $10 for them.  This was particularly frustrating to me because the same pair had sold the week prior on ebay for $40.  I blame this on my bad karma.  I also blame my karma for the fact that one of the candlesticks broke during shipping, and I had to refund the buyer.

Seriously, some bad buys (and bad luck) here!  I hope all of you are having much better ebay successes.  And to save my ego, be sure to take a look here, here, and here for some of my greatest ebay sales.  Trust me, I used to be the ebay master.

-Erin