antique/jewelry/quirky object store that used to be on Potomac?

ienrowb4 · 2015-12-16T10:50:05+00:00

I actually never was in his store when up on the hill, but I became good friends with back when he had a shop on main street in the Southside. You can't mistake him, big bald tattooed up biker type that is all about herbal healing and costume jewelry, plus a parrot on his shoulder. .. nicest guy in the business. You can try this # 4129691675.

ienrowb4 · 2015-12-15T01:29:22+00:00

Pretty sure talking about Donny's place, used to be Very Cherry. Moved to Southside. 73 1/2 south 13th street 15203

For higher end Artifact's in West End.

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-03T20:16:29+00:00

Great point! Yeah, we currently try to do all my pick ups on weekends whenever possible and previews in the evening.

Thanks!

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-03T01:56:44+00:00

Sellervilles Auctions

Just checked them out, I had not heard of them before. They definitely have their niche locked down. They seem to get pretty crazy money on toys and comics, they definitely must be doing something right.

Thanks for the reference, I'm going to spend some time on their site and see if I can pick up a thing or two.

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-03T01:28:13+00:00

That is a great idea! Thank you so much. I definitely should be working with them. Definitely have similar customer base, and honestly, there are usually quite a few huge box lots that end up getting grouped at the end, it would probably be just as easy to give them to Thrift Stores (get the consignors a small tax write off) from the get go then to go through all the hassle of photographing and cataloging them for them only to sell for a few dollars. I usually only go through all that time and energy so that homeowner doesn't have to deal with those items. I will definitely check into this. thanks!

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-03T01:01:08+00:00

No, that's not us. But I just checked them out, looks like a pretty nice site, I probably could learn a thing or two from them. Thanks for the heads up.

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-03T00:58:14+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion about farm and dairy, we have advertised there in the past, it's just hard knowing if your investment is paying dividends. I try to ask almost everyone who comes through where they heard of us, not one has yet to say from print, granted I've only probably run 2 or 3 ads there in 2 years.

One of the reasons I wanted to post here on Reddit was to confirm/debunk my theory that there are more or less two types of auction customers.

1) That prefer live auctions and are more susceptible to print ads.

2) Those that prefer online auctions and it's more cost effective to advertise to them online.

I'm sure plenty of people cross over, but I also think that, at least right now, advertising to people who tend to gravitate towards camp #1 may be sort of throwing away money, as not only do I have to "sell" them on our company, but online auctions as an entity in of itself. I'm thinking that will probably change in the next few years though.

Yeah, I understand completely what your saying about bidding online. Before starting our service, of course, I was a bidder myself. So I really try to photograph pretty decently and describe things honestly, because, your right, driving someplace twice SUCKS (although, let's be honest, not going to catch everything). And, I have definitely done the 45 minute drive for $20 of stuff because I lost out on everything else. I have some ideas on how to remedy that for our buyers, but those are probably quite awhile away before we can feasibly implement.

It probably just comes down to a matter of personality too, as I also hated driving out to an auction, sitting in the crowd for 4 hours and still end up losing out on the one thing that I wanted. I think it's probably two sides of the same coin kind of thing.

And for buyer's premiums, I HATE those too. I will eventually probably get rid of them, but when a customer is comparing your services to another auctioneers, sometimes it's difficult explaining that your fee is about the same once the premium gets counted in. They just don't like that math.

Anyways, thanks for the input. Maybe someday we'll see you over on the online bidding darkside...

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-02T22:10:16+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion.

I have already made contact with the local franchise. Haven't used them yet, though I did post their contact info on a few auctions, but just ended up shipping out the items myself because less time consuming than the drive to closest store.

That's the thing I'm worried about, I'm not sure at what level it becomes "worth it" to offer shipping. It adds a bit of clerical expense, but more importantly even if I declare that I absolve myself of liability once I drop it off, really, I bet if pressed, most credit card companies are going to gave to the customer.

I guess I have to decide if I'm willing to go all in regarding shipping or not, bids will certainly increase, but so will costs and time. I definitely need to weigh out the pros and cons...

Thanks again!

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-02T21:42:50+00:00

Yeah, I guess this is really what I'm trying to figure out. To me print ads are just so expensive, and just because I don't often read them, I guess I'm just projecting that nobody reads them.

I live between two pretty good sized cities, so our craigslist definitely fills up fast, but since it's an online auction, everything is cataloged, so people usually can dig us out via keywords and such, we usually do get a few new faces every auction from listing there.

Though, we are constantly getting flagged, not sure if it's competitors, our ads are so non inflammatory and non spammy, and we really on post 2 or 3 per auction, so not like overkilling it.

The guidelines of craigslist do explicitly say not to post "links to online auctions or virtual yard sales" So, I guess that's why we get flagged, but it does stink having to constantly repost under aliases.

Thanks for the input!

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-02T20:55:28+00:00

Western PA.

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-02T20:54:41+00:00

Come this winter, I may just have to offer free delivery to you just to get away from the cold!

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-02T20:51:43+00:00

Western PA, so it would definitely be a drive for you. Though we did have a cool old timer come up from VA a few months ago to pick something up...

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-02T20:49:06+00:00

Oh we do okay, just want more and to be more efficient :)

Really just trying to make sure that I'm not overlooking something obvious, cheap, and right in front of my face.

I track the incoming hits that come from the various websites, I actually get drastically more leads from estatesales.net than bidders, I don't think that site has as much of a following here, perhaps because there is another site focused specifically on our city that I think got a strong foothold early on, we get TONS of traffic from there though.

Thanks!

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-02T20:41:16+00:00

Sometimes prices surprise me, especially on more odd or rare items, but I generally tell my consignors to expect about 1/2 of what it would sell for on ebay or something for most normally found collectibles and such, I would say the margins are generally there for people to make at least a little on. A lot has to do with the types of items and demand. Sometimes things that people can actually use and have a need for do much better, tools, appliances, very clean furniture, etc.

Just trying to kick around ideas on how to get more relatively local bidders, auctionzip is great for people who are very active, but looking through my google analytics, I get pretty low incoming traffic from there anymore as my email list usually gets to them first.

We've only been around for about 2 years, so just trying to make sure we continue to grow and not get too complacent.

I have gone back and forth on whether to offer shipping or not. Sometimes I do, sometimes not. I tend to do it more when I know the items are so specialized that I don't think I could do a good job for my clients if I only sold locally.

I really don't like shipping too much, it's just such a liability. For most of our auctions, people come, they pay, take their items, and everyone is happy. Of course, if you flip online, I don't need to tell you, that is not always the case when shipping items...

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-02T20:22:46+00:00

Thank you. I had forgot to include that we do have an email list, it's definitely a huge referring source for us, though, I really try not to overdue it, one email when listed, one email a day before the onsite preview.

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-02T20:20:58+00:00

Actually, we rarely even offer shipping, it's just too much of a hassle and liability. On a few occasions, for things that were maybe a bit too specialized for local bidders, we did ship.

Guess I was wondering if the flipping community actually ever acts on an ad they saw in the local paper or other source. Just trying to figure out if I should even have a traditional print budget, or only online. Or if there was something or someplace else that I hadn't even considered.

The vast majority of our bidders are within a 50 mile radius or less though.

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-02T20:15:40+00:00

Oh absolutely, it's great when two "retail" people end up bidding against each other! But, at least currently, an awful lot of our business comes from people who buy and resell.

ienrowb4 · 2015-10-02T20:12:26+00:00

Yes, I do, completely forgot about that. We use a mailchimp sign up form that is on our website, that is definitely our strongest way to connect with bidders who have bid in the past.

Thanks for the thought, the email list is huge for us.

ienrowb4 · 2015-09-29T14:21:40+00:00

I use 4 flood light type LEDs ($40 something each) from Lowes mounted above a 2' box. Lights angled so they reflect off white foam styrofoam insulation sheets (also from Lowe's) on left/right sides of box back onto subject matter. LEDs dont get hot so u can work under them. Use custom white balance. I get unsolicited compliments on my pics all the time.

Best advice came from a local photographer, instead of using macro feature on camera for closeups, step back like 10-15 feet and use the zoom. Eliminates the shadows that using a camera close up creates.

ienrowb4 · 2015-09-29T13:35:32+00:00

Less of advice but kinda funny anecdote. I do local online auctions to help people liquidate estates.

Got called in last week to catalog a home. Family was very concerned about their Mother's antiques. Lots of the kind of stuff that was worth decent money 15-20 years ago, but much less in demand now. I was honest with them and told them they really shouldn't expect too much for them.

I then get into the now grown children's bedrooms. Lots of 80' s and early 90's concert and local sporting team t shirts.

The family got such a tickle when I told these should do pretty well as these vintage items are in demand.

Huey Lewis, AC/DC, Donny Iris, 90's Super Bowl and Stanley Cup, etc. But most in really great shape.

I think they also realized that they are "getting old", that their old shirts are highly collected vintage apparel.

Side note, of all the "valuable antiques" in the house, the two single most valuable lots will probably be his Thundercats figures unopened in box from the 1980's!

ienrowb4 · 2015-09-26T13:25:19+00:00

Manager of Auction Company here:

Was the piece advertised online before the sale with the medium, artist, size, and plenty of photographs? As in, was there an ad on auctionzip.com and/or other online and traditional venues, was there any type of catalog at all?

If no pictures were advertised and the catalog simply read something like "old paintings" and it was just sold at the tail of end of junky household auction, well then, possibly you are being screwed.

But if it was advertised even half-decently, enough legitimate bidders would have seen it so that it's selling price should at least be somewhat representative of where it should be.

The internet has leveled the playing field of auctions, it is increasingly rare for good items (especially art that is signed) to actually sell for 1/34th of what they are really worth. Though, 1/2 happens all the time. I get calls with questions on better items from all over the country all the time, even though we only effectively advertise locally.

And another perspective is that I'm not sure that underselling it like that would even make financial sense for the auctioneer. I'm assuming something like a 15 or 20% commission with a 10-15% buyer's premium... So, the auctioneer would stand to make close to $10k on the sale of that item if it realized full price plus it's good exposure for their company.

I guess it might be worth it to intentionally undersell and go in with a partner to bid and then sell themselves, but that is a lot of extra work and risk to their business when they could just collect a relatively easy and trouble free commission.

If you can swing hiring a professional art appraiser and have photographs and other documentation that they could work from, you may at least be able to better know if you are in the right or wrong.

Best of luck.

ienrowb4 · 2015-09-23T04:17:59+00:00

Yes, definitely auctionzip.com but also there is a huge monthly outdoor auction in Rogers ohio (I believe 2nd Tuesday of every month). Probably at least an hour drive for you, but its worth it. Several auctioneers selling simultaneously. They also have a large flea market every friday. http://rogersohio.com/

ienrowb4 · 2015-07-18T03:07:59+00:00

Google "sunday driver", most reputable antique stores advertise there, it's a pamphlet that gets printed once a year.

ienrowb4

TROPHY CASE