FRANC is right on. As a seller on eBay for almost 10 years I have found no certain format (auction, fixed price, or a combo) works all time. One way to protect yourself is to start the item at a slightly lower price than you think would be a low price with a buy it now price a bit higher than what you feel would be a top price. This often kick starts the auction because once there is a bid the buy it now goes away. Every now and then someone who really wants the item that is a real collector that can afford the slightly higher price will buy it now. This can work in the summer months if you are concerned and don't want to pay the high reserve fees ebay charges. In the fall the standard 99 cent start and let her rip with no reserve is probably the best. If it is a rare classic title I don't think the format matters.
This has worked for me most of the time, but if everybody did the exact same it probably wouldn't work. As FRANC said you can't generalize. I would also still consider Rich, emovieposter, or Heritage as another option. Brek ----- Original Message ----- From: "Franc" <fdav...@verizon.net> To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 5:45:35 AM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain Subject: Re: [MOPO] ebay poster prices My advice is not to put stuff on Ebay in the summer months, since sales really drop off in July and August. The auction format is not doing as well as it did in the days when mmultiple bidders drove up the price of posters and lobbies. The fixed price format is probably the way to go, unless you want to take a huge risk. Classic titles do best. Mediocre stuff from the 50s and 60s doesn't do too well but you can't generalize. FRANC -----Original Message----- From: MoPo List [mailto:mop...@listserv.american.edu] On Behalf Of joel katte Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 11:17 PM To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: [MOPO] ebay poster prices MOPOers, I have not sold many posters on ebay over the last year, but I am considering doing so again soon. Therefore, I found these recent discussions fascinating. Over the last ten years or so, any time I listed an ebay auction I started it under $10 with NO RESERVE. I estimate that 95% of the time I was satisfied with the prices they fetched. Am I hearing that if I was to do this again in the next few months, that my satisfaction with the prices realized would be drastically different than my past experiences? Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. My wife and I walked into a pet store last night with the intention of just looking at puppies with our daughtsers. Close to a thousand dollars later, we walked out with a cocker spaniel and some fancy toys and food. I might need to sell a few posters to cover the credit card damage. What posters or genres of posters are still steady? Anything really sought after at this time? Thanks again. Sincerely, Joel Katte ebay ID: joelkatte --- On Sun, 6/28/09, Richard Halegua Comic Art <sa...@comic-art.com> wrote: From: Richard Halegua Comic Art <sa...@comic-art.com> Subject: Re: [MOPO] ebay poster prices To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Date: Sunday, June 28, 2009, 2:07 PM Dave you have made a mistake in this post. Heritage does indeed sell items that they own. They have a whole warehouse of stuff from which they sell and at the Profiles auction they spent a stack of jack for posters to sell. In addition they get contacted by people who wish to sell and not wait for auction also, you didn't mention my own 99 cents auctions. while I do sell on consignment from only a couple of sources, most of what I sell I own. I spend my own money on collections with the intent of selling virtually all of it in my auctions. so everyone who sells at auction is not a consignment house Bruce also sells some stuff he owns, or he used to at least. However in Bruce's case, his consignments are likely in the 90%+ area Sean also sells what he owns now to Claude's basic statement.. He is correct to a great degree that there are many sellers who have "pie-in-the-sky" expectations. here are some of those http://cgi.ebay.com/Robin-Hood-1922-Original-Movie-Poster-Half-Sheet-RARE_W0QQitemZ320355952361QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4a96b3e6e9&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A3%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50 http://cgi.ebay.com/This-Gun-For-Hire-1942-Orig-Movie-Poster-Arg-1SH-RARE_W0QQitemZ320357604362QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4a96cd1c0a&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A3%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50 http://cgi.ebay.com/FUNNY-FACE-MOVIE-POSTER-AUDREY-HEPBURN-FRENCH-BRINI-ART_W0QQitemZ130314624035QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1e575b5c23&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A3%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50 hilarious price here http://cgi.ebay.com/Bullitt-Original-Movie-Poster-Steve-McQueen_W0QQitemZ190317756833QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2c4fd281a1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A3%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50 this one is hilarious http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-ELVIS-WILD-IN-THE-COUNTRY-MOVIE-LOBBY-POSTER_W0QQitemZ320389285856QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4a98b087e0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A3%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A2%7C294%3A50 every one of these is priced with nothing to do with reality, especially the last 2 then you have the guys like Stuey Holstein whose obvious intent is to find people that he can literally sting at levels that generations from now will still not get to his prices (he is mostly in comics). The obvious keyword here is "intent". While Brek is correct that people can ask whatever they want, if you want to remain in business for a long time, you have to have some contact with reality. I do not like the feeling that I have cheated someone and that after they find out what has been done to them, they want to shoot me.. There are people who revel in cheating others and fleaBay is an obvious showcase of such people there was a guy selling a Falcon Takes Over 1sh in nice condition. He had it at $395 which is like top retail for the title (I need it as a Raymond Chandler piece). It sat on fleaBay for 8 months. I finally offered him $250. I never heard from him and the following day it was removed from fleaBay. He didn't even askif I would pay $300. (I wouldn';t anyway, but an email would have been nice) the guy was a comic book dealer who bought a load of posters from someone and used Jon Warren's price book. So he had all kinds of whacked prices. he wasn't looking for pie in teh sky, but the prices were all at the top except for those items that had outstripped Warren's price guide which was done years earlier. Jon is a dear friend, but his PG was non-reality. There are the innocent fools, and there are those who take everyone for fools. Who they are is always obvious to those in the know. Rich At 06:42 AM 6/28/2009, Dave Rosen wrote: I'm not going to defend sellers who ask, as you say, "ridiculous" prices. But I will say that comparing them to Bruce or Heritage may be a bit apples-and-oranges. The sellers you refer to (though I don't know specifically who you're talking about) are retailers who purchase inventory, then offer it for sale. Thus their return has to cover the cost of the item plus overhead before they see one penny of profit. Bruce and Heritage are consignment sellers. They have overhead, certainly, but do not have cash invested directly in the items they sell. Thus, when they auction stuff off starting at 99-cents or a dollar (really $15 in Heritage's case) they are, in a sense, gambling with someone else's money, the people who consign their posters to them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, that's the nature of the business. That's just the way consignment works. It means they can start their auctions lower and take the risk that the lower starting price will attract more bidders. It works most of the time, but occasionally items do slip under the radar and sell at prices that are much lower than the average market price. Bruce and Heritage can afford to take that chance, particularly because they sell thousands of posters and are popular online "destinations" and have a client base in the thousands. Most other sellers are much smaller and can't affordto take that chance. The other comment I have to make is, if the prices truly are "ridiculous" then the items will not sell and the prices will come down. That's market economics, I don't have to explain that to you. So your choice is to buy somewhere else (if you can find what you want there) and/or wait till the price comes down. It's that simple. Dave ----- Original Message ----- From: Claude Litton To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 8:55 AM Subject: [MOPO] ebay poster prices I have been searching ebay almost daily since 1997. My areas of search are US originals Pre-1940 through 1960. I collect mainly posters in the upper price brackets. In the last few years the amount of listings by too many sellers with ridiculous prices has proliferated to the point where the only thing certain is that not only don't they sell but more and more are joining the pack. The prices are so high that you can't even make a serious offer because it will be so low that they will either ignore you or send you a snide retort. My reaction has been to totally ignore these sellers but it has become a nuisance due to the number joining them. There are some on mopo who do this but I am not referring to Todd who uses his million dollar posters to get people to look at his other posters for sale. I am talking about those who price all their posters at ridiculous prices. I don't even look at ebay daily any longer but wait for Bruce and Heritage to offer what I want. (This is a good opening for Bruce to comment.) I am still trying to understand their motives. Just look at a one sheet of "Three Sons", a poster sold by Bruce for $56 recently and priced at 10 times that on ebay. Let's face reality - People who are going to spend $500 and up on a piece of paper will know their item, will research it and will be careful about their money. $20 is an impulse purchase. $500 is not. Can anyone explain these ridiculous sellers' motives? CJL Make your summer sizzle with fast and easy recipes for the grill. 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