Follow Up! Buying and Selling More through GOOD PRESENTATION
If you’re going to be buying and selling to make money on eBay or auction (or Craigslist), it is worth taking the time to make your stuff look good. A few weeks ago, we talked about the importance of having a nicely organized auction display. (If you missed that post, you can read it HERE – Importance of Good Presentation).
Yesterday, I received a check from the auction company for about $550. Not a bad chunk of change for hauling a bunch of stuff off to auction.
As we went through the list of what sold, and for what money, it occurred to me that the vintage kitchen utensils lot that we showed in the last post (see photo again here) sold for $20! Not bad for a couple of dollar items – or some free stuff – from a yard sale lot!
As we looked through the list of the box lots we sold, we were very pleased.
Here’s another example of how our presentation clearly helped in the buying and selling to make money category. Have you ever heard of “Bionicles?” Bionicles are a Lego toy – with LOTS of tiny pieces. The toy can be made into some kind of super-hero style figure. Here’s a picture of them how they sell on Amazon. This one in particular seems pretty expensive (to me… ). But people buy them for their kids all the time.
Anyway, I bought a big box of them at a yard sale. Some of the pieces were floating around in the box, some of the packages had been opened. It looked like a mess.
But, I went through them, packaged them up, made sure they were easy to handle and see, and put stray pieces in a bag. And guess what? They sold for $30! Sure, I could have just brought the box “as is” to the auction – but how much time does the potential buyer want to take pawing through the lot to see how many were actually in there, and if they were complete? I’m guessing that if I had left that lot in the same condition I initially found it, I’d have been lucky to get $10 for it. But, at a country auction, they went for $30.
I was pleased.
As another example, I had come across a lot of depression glass dishware. It was dusty, and grimy and greasy when I got it. We washed the dishes, and then looked up the pattern. We stacked the dishes up in a CLEAN box, and put a slip of paper in the box identifying the pattern. I paid a dollar for the dishes, but the lot brought $25.
Folks, presentation really DOES matter. My check for $550 proves it to me!
