I've been buying and inheriting and coveting vintage items my whole life, but it's only over the past year that I've had to come up fair prices at which to sell them.It started with my Barbies on e-bay--finding websites online that specialize in Barbies so I could look at their little butts and hairstyles and figure out what the model was and what year they were made. Then doing searches on e-bay and elsewhere on the Internet to get some idea of what they were going for, and how much it mattered if someone had gnawed off their fingers or drawn on a bra with red pen.
[Side note: My teenage son was helping me list these, and one of my fondest memories is of him bending down to take a close-up photograph of a Barbie butt. If only he hadn't had the camera, it would have made a priceless picture!]
Now for the past three months I've been selling vintage items on Etsy (in addition to my jewelry), and this has proved to be even more of a challenge, since I'm not a specialist and for each new item I need to find new resources. One of the first items I listed was a beautiful green dish with hydrangeas, made by Hutschenreuther Selb, Bavaria. First I had to figure out that the signature on the back said Selb, not Gelb (amazing how many e-bay sellers get this wrong). Finally after several hours of searching, I actually found a website (in German) that showed the manufacturer's marks and dates so I could tell that it was made before 1920.Once I have a concept of the year and maker, then I need to do a search of e-bay, Etsy, and other online sellers to get an appropriate price. Seldom have I found the exact item, so a lot of it
is guesswork. Fortunately, there's a great vintage community at Etsy, and they are a wonderful resource for relative newbies like me.I can see why people end up specializing. Each new item--costume jewelry, a random leather purse, postcards, buttons--I've had to go through a similar process, and always I'm left wondering. Is this one of those Lisner necklaces that's worth $35 or $65 or $125?
You tell me.
9 comments:
i can tell you a little bit about the necklace, a whole set, earrings, bracelet and necklace should be worth about $300 max...depending on the rarity of blue. this type of necklace is lisner's signature style, and highly collectible!
Wow, that's a lot of work! I never thought about how you would have to take the time to figure all that out.
I don't much about vintage items but I sure do love the look and feel of them. My mom has these beautiful vintage dishes from 25 yrs ago that she just won't part with. :-)
Thanks, rachael for the tip (wish I had a whole set).
This is a lot of work for me, but not everyone goes through all this, or at least not for every item. Some of them really know their stuff!
oh this is so true...I just started listing a couple vintage pieces on etsy and I have no idea what I am doing....this was great to read.
I forgot to mention two good resources--Vintage Pulse social network (see my links) and on Thursday nights, a vintage gabfest in the Promos section of Etsy, hosted by Surrender Dorothy.
It's a bitch, isn't it? Researching the prices, typing separate descriptions for each piece, every item is a different weight requiring a different box....oy! Why do we do it, I wonder? Oh yeah...'cause vintage rocks!
Gosh, never think about all the research. Hope your keeping notes so that you can sell that book you can write about researching.
Lu :)
Yes, it really is a lot of work, isn't it?
That's why I mainly stick to fabric.
Of course, I have a whole room filled with other vintage items, that I don't know a lot about.
Am I pricing it so high people will just laugh...or am I giving away a priceless rare antique for pennies? OY!
Kimberly :)
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