Story of a Listing: Memorabilia From 1971 Hawaiian Trip

Not too long ago I had to say goodbye to a friend. Not a forever goodbye but still a hard one. She was moving out of country to retire in green land of Ecuador. Of course we still communicate by email Facebook even skype sometimes however it will never be the same as if she would be close by.

But I am getting a case of melancholia.

And the point of this story is that in a process of her moving she had to decide what to take with her and what to leave behind. My friends and I (more my friends then I to be honest) helped her go through the process. I actually only came in when she was going through her storage. She let me look through her stuff and keep anything I thought I might sell on eBay. So I did.

One of the things I discovered was a whole folder with postcards  and memorabilia from a trip to Hawaii her parents took in 1971. While  looking through this folder I remembered that I have read on ebug group about vintage post cards selling good on eBay. So I decided to take the whole stash home with me and see if I can do anything with it.

I brought it home, put it in my ever growing collection of things to list on eBay (yes, I am bad that way, I admit to it) and forgot it for while. It was some months later after I listed and sold some of the other things that I got from my friend did I uncover this forgotten folder and decided to take a look at it.

I looked through what was in a folder. There were many postcards – state flowers and Hawaiian scenery, quite a few advertisements, maps etc, couple newspaper cut outs and a book of phrases. I checked completed-es on eBay, checked Google Shopping and few other online sources for similar things. Meanwhile I was aware of time that I had before my kids would storm in back from the park and take over the house not leaving any spot in it unturned. So I took it in consideration and feared that if I try to split everything I have in front of me into several different listings I will never get around to actually listing contents of this folder. So I decided to throw everything in one huge lot taking bunch of pictures and making one listing. I was glad I finished taking all pictures before my boys stormed into the house. Hardest part was done, I wrote description in the middle of the night, researched listings for best option on pricing my Hawaiian lot and decided what the heck, $99 with the best offer. I usually employ Tina’s method of pricing with best offer but in order to find what I am talking about why don’t you go check ebug forum and Tina’s own very entertaining blog My Secret Ebay Diary.

I had this lot up in my store for about two months. I had many hits on the listing and even couple watchers. One watcher I blocked after she offered me one stinking dollar for this lot which by the way had a free shipping. Of course shipping is never free as I have to spend money for it. But shipping was included in the price. To think that this offer came from fellow seller was an insult so I waited until her offer expired not bothering declining it and then I blocked her. I knew that I was asking a high price for this lot but it was not so high that insult of $1 was warranted. If other people could get same price for similar lots why couldn’t I? (again learning Tina’s principals!)

However it had been couple months. I checked completed-es again recently and noticed that similar lots go best on auction versus buy it now store listings because of unique nature of it.

So when the next promotion for free insertion on auctions was offered I noticed that this particular listing is close to the renewal date. I send this lot to an auction. I admit I did not follow through on what I learned about starting price for auctions on ebug because I had several unsuccessful attempts with auctions in last few months and I just wanted to have bids this time. Plus it’s not like I have any monetary investment in this. So I started at $15 to cover the shipping, being ok with $10 for the lot and just testing if auctions actually worth doing on something I had no money invested.

Well, I am  happy to report that I got 3 bids by 3 different bidders and even though I was hoping to get more money for this collection this auction ended at $28.77. Not bad for something that I got for free.

I have not decided yet though if I want to do auctions in the future even if they are free. I am not too sure that if I started this auction at price I really wanted to get would I have been sending it on it’s way to my buyer right now. I had two other auctions going at the same time but they ended without any bidders.

Meanwhile I do want to say thank you to my friend for thinking of me and letting me have some memorabilia of her life. Remember I mentioned that I sold some other things my friend gave me before getting around to this Hawaiian post card lot?

Well, she let me have reels of film with recording of her childhood. I was actually debating on taking it since I was not sure who would buy reels with recordings of someone else’s life. But my friend did not mind and I thought it could not hurt to try to list them. I split them in 4 lots and believe it or not I sold them for $100 to $120 each. One lot had empty reels without film and it went last. My point here is if you ever see old reels with possible footage on it don’t pass on them, people looking for them and paying good money to have them!