Selling the Common Antique or Collectible

So you've gone to the garage sale, and taken a chance on a few nice looking things. Excitedly, thinking your widget must be RARE, you log on to see just how well you did - and with one quick scan of the completed ebay search - your hopes melt like ice cream on an equatorial beach. There are six others of the exact same thing on ebay, and none have sold - or have sold for very little. Now what do you do?

Well, some things are best left behind at garage sales, but there is something you can try. It is called 'creating a broader market'. What this means, especially on ebay where the title is your all-important 'grab', is to find that word, that niche, that has not been exploited yet,  for your humble item. What does this take? Imagination -- using the old noodle. Sometimes you need to think like a buyer, sometimes you need to think like an advertising executive - but either way, sometimes what you do with your title can work wonders in selling the common item.

Let me give you an example: You buy a nice pottery chicken- or hen-on-nest dish by a known manufacturer, let's call them "Acme Pottery Co". Checking ebay, you see there are multiple others just like yours, yet unsold. Many potential listers either give up at that point or dutifully type in the same old title everyone else uses -  "Vintage Acme Pottery Chicken or Hen on Nest", thinking "Hey, maybe someone will find it and make a bid". OR, you can broaden your market by using your head. To do this you need to think: What is it about this object that the buyer might like, and that no one else has exploited yet? Since it is obvious that hen-on-nests by Acme are not selling just for their collectibility, you need to market something else. This can be something such as their usefulness, like being ovenproof, or this can be their style. For my hen-on-nest example, I would choose to emphasize their style, because style has a broader appeal. But what style? I do a quick internet search on the words: "hens decorating style". And the term "French Country" pops up in quite a few of the early hits. So I do another ebay search to check to see if indeed others are using "French Country" as a style key phrase in titles. And they do. Adding this style to your title will broaden your market and might make your very common hen sell on ebay - and possibly for more than you could have normally hoped! So -- use your imagination when dealing with the common object -- you'll broaden your market, and hopefully become a happy seller!