Auction Information

Finding Antiques And Collectibles To Sell On eBay


Many people who decide to make a living selling collectibles on eBay soon fail. I meet them in the line at the post office. They tell me they just quit their job in order to sell things full time on eBay.

I ask them, "What are you doing to find more items to sell?"

Only the people who can answer this question last more than a few weeks. The others soon run out of things to sell and just give up.

I got started buying trains and toys when I was in grade school.

My dad and I collected toy trains and we built up quite a collection over the years. We didn't have a lot of money so we ran ads, put signs up, handed out cards, networked and tried all kinds of methods to get people to sell us their trains to us.

We bought lots of trains and kept what we wanted then sold the rest in order to keep the cash moving.

Over the past 23 years we have refined a system that constantly generates calls. Here's a short list of ways to find and buy antiques and collectibles. These 10 strategies will get you thinking about ways to get sellers to call you.

Remember, you are always better off making someone call you rather than competing with everyone else to call a seller. My system is all about getting your phone to ring with sellers on the line.

When you go to yard sales, auctions and antique malls, you are in a race against all the other collectors and dealers. When people call you it is because you have made them think about converting their unwanted items into cash by selling them to you. You are in control.

Sure, you can go to yard sales and rely on luck. But if you are serious about selling on eBay you need to have a steady stream of collectibles coming in. You can't rely on blind luck or getting there before the other dealers.

You need a system to get a constant stream of new items coming to you to sell.

Here are 10 quick ways to get people to sell you their antiques and collectibles. These will get you thinking about ways to make your phone ring. I buy and sell toy trains, but so you can better focus on what you specialize in, I have substituted the word widget for toy trains.

1. Develop a marketing plan outlining exactly how you are going to make your phone ring.

2. Have a strategy that will make the seller want to take your offer. This is the psychology of buying and creating a win-win situations. Nobody wants to lose. Make every seller feel like they are getting a good deal and they'll bring you more business.

3. Ask the person in line behind you at the post office, bank, and supermarket if they have any widgets for sale. Being shy doesn't make you money!

4. Show off the widgets you have. There are MANY ways to do this. Let people enjoy the widgets you have and your phone will ring with others wanting to sell widgets to you.

5. Run ads that say "Top Dollar Paid For Widgets."

6. Send a letter to local real estate agents telling them you pay cash for unwanted widgets. They often encounter people anxious to sell.

7. Tell other widget dealers you will buy any widgets they don't want.

8. Pay others to find widgets for you by offering a finders fee to anyone that helps you buy widgets.

9. Send Thank You letters to everyone you've bought widgets from in the past, and remind them you pay cash when they get their friends and neighbors to sell you widgets.

10. Network, network, network. It's not as hard as you might think it is to spread the word in a community that you are the person to call when someone has a widget to sell.

Terry Gibbs is a collector/dealer of old toys and trains, and teaches others how to buy and sell antiques and collectibles. Gibbs is the author of two best selling eBay books "The Auction Revolution," and "The Complete Guide To eBay Consignment Sales." He has also written numerous other books about buying and selling antiques and collectibles. Learn more at his website: http://www.news.iwantcollectibles.com

Copyright 2005 IWantCollectibles LLC used with permission.


MORE RESOURCES:

Treasury Auctions Set for This Week
New York Times, United States - 6 hours ago
By THE NEW YORK TIMES The Treasury’s schedule of financing this week included Monday’s regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills, an auction ...


Auctions support education
Concord Monitor, NH - 22 hours ago
This is the fourth annual auction with a July 28 deadline to get in your written bid for a permit. As an auction winner, you will get to choose to hunt in ...


Lost art treasures are the focus of old masters auctions series
China Post, Taiwan - Jul 5, 2008
According to the auction house, it disappeared after 1963 before being recently re-discovered and re-instated as a genuine Hals. It is expected to make 3-5 ...
Bumper auctions fetch half-billion dollars at Sotheby's AFP
Dead Artists Breathe Life Into Auctions Wall Street Journal
Oil profits help art market defy gravity CNNMoney.com
New York Times - Business Report
all 276 news articles


TradeMe sued for counterfeits
TVNZ, New Zealand - 4 hours ago
Brand Developers director Paul Meier claims TradeMe auctions sold thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit machhines made from cut-rate steel and imported ...
TradeMe in court for "black market" Stuff.co.nz
Trade Me sued over fake ab machines New Zealand Herald
TradeMe responsibility limited NZ City
all 33 news articles


Do charity art auctions help or harm local artists?
Duluth News Tribune, MN - Jul 5, 2008
An artist donates a painting to an auction held by a worthy cause — say, a group that rescues stray dogs, or a little school that struggles to provide a ...
Information about local charity art auctions Duluth News Tribune
all 2 news articles


AP tobacco auctions fetch record Rs 1401 cr
Hindu Business Line, India - Jul 5, 2008
Virginia Tobacco auctions that concluded this week fetched a record Rs 1401 crore for farmers in Andhra Pradesh and for the first time in the history of the ...
AGRI-BIZ & COMMODITIES Hindu Business Line
all 3 news articles


Baywatch babe auctions car to save India’s snakes
The Times, South Africa - Jul 5, 2008
FORMER Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson has auctioned her 2000 Dodge Viper sports car for 65000 as a donation to a campaign against the slaughter of snakes. ...


Punjab to generate billions through billboard auctions
The News - International, Pakistan - 5 hours ago
By Tariq Butt ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif expects to fetch billions of rupees through the auction of publicity boards in and around the ...


VIP Breakdown

Britney auctions clothes for charity
The Post, Pakistan - Jul 5, 2008
Britney Spears is planning to auction seven items of clothing for charity. Outfits including a T-shirt she wore on the New Mickey Mouse Club, ...
Spears auctions clothes for charity Digital Spy
all 41 news articles


40 properties up for auction
The Republican - MassLive.com, MA - 23 hours ago
By MIKE PLAISANCE SPRINGFIELD - Another 40 properties the city seized for nonpayment of taxes will be auctioned off on July 15. "We're turning over more ...

Auctions - Google News

home | site map
© 2006