ProSellers

As eBay sellers, over the past year we have sold many brand name handbags and received excellent value for them. The key to selling handbags on eBay is quality and condition. Women are looking for good deals on popular, high quality brands like Prada, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, and Coach. They are also looking for bags in like new or excellent condition. That’s when we’ll get the best price because many bidders will try to win that perfect looking bag. Classic styles like many Chanel bags do well for eBay sellers too. So if you have an expensive bag sitting in the closet in a dust bag, why not sell it on eBay. It’s like getting a great discount on your next new handbag.

Recently we agreed to sell a fair amount of artwork and china for a motivated seller. We picked up the items and began to prepare the auctions. To our surprise and dismay, we discovered that every item was a fake including one item that was already up for auction (it was a very good fake). Of course, we took the auction down and returned all the items to the seller. He insisted that some of the items were real, but we found no evidence to that effect and held our ground. Bottom line, if we can’t convince ourselves that an item is real, we are not going to sell it. So if you have fake stuff, please don’t call us. We charged him to return his belongings and we’ll charge anyone else that tries to fool us as well. That’s one way we protect our buyers and one good reason we have 100% positive feedback.

Sometimes we are pleasantly surprised at what an item is worth. We recently received a call from a customer interested in selling a pair of JBL Century L100 speakers made in the 1970’s. Most old stereo equipment is not worth much, but that was not the case with these. It turns out that some audiophiles are impressed with the components JBL used back then and are willing to pay a good price for them. While it may not be a fortune, the speakers sold for $427, which was certainly a nice surprise for the seller. We love stories like this.

Even in a recession, eBay can be a good place to sell valuable items like high-end artwork, electronics, collectibles, and jewelry. There really is no where else that you can get exposure to so many buyers looking for a good deal on brand name merchandise. Plus eBay has been making a substantial effort to reduce the amount of bad selling practices, so buyers can purchase with more confidence. It may be necessary to better protect your items in a recession, and we do that by starting auctions at higher values, or by implementing Reserve auctions, or Buy It Now Or Best Offer auctions. Each of these strategies will prevent the item from selling too low, and provide us with valuable information about the demand for your item if it does not sell. We can still get you a good value…we just have to be smart about how we do it.

Perhaps you are wondering what sells well on ebay. Bearing in mind that we are looking for items of value, this has been our experience: 1. People are looking to purchase brand names at a good value.  People trust brand names, therefore they are comfortable buying them on eBay. 2. Condition and working order are equally important. When buying items of value, people want the item to look new and function properly. In the case of coins, collectibles and artwork, they may need to be graded or appraised in order to get full value. 3. Examples of successful auctions include consumer and professional electronics, fitness and sports equipment, high end collectibles, all forms of recognized artwork, designer accessories, watches, and brand name jewelry. 4. Clothing and furniture items are a very large but weak market on ebay and will result in a poor return relative to retail price.

Our fee policy states, “If you require that your auction be started at a minimum price or reserve price, ProSellers will require a non-refundable $50 listing fee/item. If the item sells, the $50 fee is waived. If it does not sell, at your option, we’ll re-list the item at a mutually agreeable starting bid.” We have this policy to protect our interests, as we can not work for free. However, there are instances where WE will recommend that an item be listed with a minimum or reserve price because we don’t expect many bids and we want to protect the seller’s interests. But what if it doesn’t sell? We might recommend re-listing it at the same price or a considerably lower one, depending on what we learn during the course of the auction. Understand that we will research the possible value of the item in advance of the auction and advise the seller as best we can, but we are not always right or able to give an accurate estimate. Bottom line, the possibility exists that the seller will not be happy with the price we can get, and will end up owing us $50. Therefore, our best advise to a seller is to not give us an item unless you really want it sold or we sound very confident in what we can get for it. Of course, there is always the possibility that the seller is willing to risk $50 to see what the market will bear, but we don’t condone this approach.

We sold a Sachtler Video 20 Tripod for $3500 to a production company in Florida. Upon receipt the buyer told us that it was not working properly and he thought it had bad fluid modules. We asked him to return it to us right away, which he did. After contacting a Sachtler service facility, we discovered the buyer was correct and it would cost $1700 to repair, but the tripod would then be as good as new. The seller was brought up to speed and given the option to pay to repair the unit or have it returned to him. He chose to have it repaired. Meanwhile we gave the buyer the option of refunding his money or accepting the repaired unit. He wanted a refund and we quickly complied. So the tripod was re-listed with documentation of its valuable repair and it sold for $4500 this time, yielding a net sale price of $2800. We turned an unfortunate circumstance into an acceptable solution for all the parties involved and maintained our excellent reputation as an eBay seller.

We recently sold over $30,000 of valuable Nippon porcelain figurines. We knew there was a stronger market in Japan for them, and knew the buyers were extremely concerned with their exact condition. So we prepared detailed descriptions of each item along with many macro photos to show every characteristic, like the detailed moriage decorative painting exhibited on most of the figurines. Then we presented the auctions to our client for approval, as she had much experience selling these pieces through other channels. Next we scheduled the auctions to finish during daytime hours in Tokyo and timed them 15 minutes apart. Putting the auctions up together made us look like a significant dealer, while the 15 minute spacing gave buyers time to bid on more than one item. The strategy worked perfectly as every piece sold for more than the seller expected. Each item was meticulously packaged and shipped. All the buyers were happy and no returns were requested. Overall, this was a well planned, successful auction.

ProSellers operates in the NY Metro area. You can easily find us by searching for “ebay sellers” or “ebay sales” on Google. Our sponsorship ad comes right up, which you can click on. It will take you to our website where you’ll find contact information and a quick read on how to use our services. You can also find us through local searches on Google and Yahoo. Also, we just hired Rob Dean as a new Sales Associate, and Matt Graham will be helping us with NY networking opportunities. They will be doing their best to spread the word about ProSellers.

Okay, you have something valuable you may wish to sell on eBay. Now what. First you give us a call and we talk about it. We need as much information as you can provide so we can figure out its approximate eBay value. Depending on the item in question, we’ll ask for its brand name, how old it is, what you paid for it, and physical properties like size, weight, color, and condition. Or when it comes to art, we need the artists name, provenance, canvas and frame size, and date of creation. What if it’s jewelry or a watch, no problem, but we’ll have specific questions about carats, clarity, crystals and such. Some people even email us photos to help us with the evaluation. The next step is the research…we look on eBay and various other websites to estimate the value of each one of your items. Then we get back to you with what we’ve learned. Providing you are satisfied with our evaluation, we will come to your home and pick up your property and give you a completed Auction Form. Keep in mind we are looking for items worth over $150 and total value of the auctions of at least $2000.