Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Family and eBay

I have a question for all you veterans out there.  I'm sure you all have sold things for your family or friends.  My parents are very excited I am selling on eBay, and have given me a bunch of stuff to offload for them.  I don't mind, they are my parents and do so much for me, listing for them is the least I can do.  However...

How do you break the news to them that their "priceless" collectible isn't really worth anything?!?

My parents are the type that are easily lured by the words "limited edition", and it breaks my heart to tell them that what they paid $50 for 20 years ago was pretty mass produced and there are so many on eBay already that it's only worth $15 today.  I really don't want them to be disappointed!

I hope you all are having a great selling month, even though it's July :)

Lindsey

3 comments:

  1. Thankfully my parents are good natured about it. Everything I sell for them was headed to goodwill anyway. My parents aren't collectors. My father always wants things sold (and I always give the disclaimer that he may not get what he wants only sell if your happy with what you get) and my mom never wants to sell she feels guilty I am already too busy (but I agree with you they do soo much for us that I really don't mind)

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  2. When I tell people I sell on ebay. they start to rattle off their inventory of collectibles they think are valuable and ask me what I would charge to sell them. I tell them I don't do consignments anymore, but I will teach them how to sell. Then I explain the process and fees and what they can expect to get. They look very disappointed after that. I always offer to look up values for them and I'll print up a sheet of completed listings so they can see what their item actually sold for. I sold a whole collection on Franklin Mint diecast cars for my dad. It took a whole summer and was a lot of work, but he ended up with a nice check when it as all over and I got a commission too. But only a few cars sold for about what he paid originally.

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    1. I just threw them up as GTC and hoping for the best. I don't know what they are expecting, but they'll get what they get I suppose.

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