Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion WHERE TO LIST

Fellow in eastern Oregon contacted me about the contents of his antique store that has been closed since the 60's...Wants to know if I would help him sale this stuff on Ebay...I personally hate Ebay...Is there any other sites similar to Ebay that any of you would recommend???> Thanks Warren

Not any that has the exposure you will get from Ebay. We may not agree with everything Ebay has done, but they still have created the largest auction/store in the world. I've done as much as $150,000 in two years on Ebay.

Many have made a lot of money on Ebay, but most of them sell only one type of item, they just have to change the title and the picture to post them. If you were doing this you could hire a high school student to do your postings for you, but since you will be changing everything it will take you at least 20 minutes to post an auction/BIN on Ebay. Do you have that kind of time?

You might consider an auction, not as much money as you would get through Ebay, but everything sells, and it takes less time.

Jack Sim

Thanks Jack

20 minutes to post a auction/buy it now???? WOW!!! I can post a auction on eBay in about 3 minutes using my iPhone or ipad with the eBay app.

The question on any particular item is where to best sell it and what are the expectations of the owner. Locally oriented items will tend to sell best in local sales. Items with little local interest/value will find a wider audience online.

Also, have you considered the Tag Sale route? Holding a well advertised tag sale would allow quick reduction of the inventory. Items still relevant to todays marketplace could be tagged near average value. Things whose value is minimal could be cleared out wholesale.

Etsy is a site available similar to eBay, but it doesn't have the exposure a seller can get with eBay.

eBay has a downloadable app called Turbolister which helps a seller create and manage listings. If you don't have the time, hiring a trustworthy assistant to take pictures and create the listings would be the way to go. The advantage is also that you can essentially create a baseline template that takes care of the basics and then fill in the specifics for the item.


You really need to nail down the expectations of the store owner as far as timeframe, expected return, etc.

Some may disagree, but as a rule of thumb, I allow one hour per item as a non-professional seller. By the time you locate an item, photograph it sufficiently, add sufficient text, field emails, locate packaging materials (in this instance you will have an almost infinite variety and sized items), package and ship, you will be surprised how it can eat into a clock. In this scenario, add in communicating with the owner and keeping up with the bookkeeping-and convincing the owner that his "share" of the take is what it is.

I too have put things on Ebay in a few minutes, especially when the item need only one picture, but with the items you will be selling you will need multiple pictures, then every thing Jason said above has to be factored in.

There is hardly a week that goes by that I don't either attend a local auction or buy something from a local online auction. About 12 years ago, Cindy and I realized we had so much stuff that we couldn't sell in our lifetime we had a auction. Almost all small items, it took two days. Items were moved to a VFW hall by the auctioneer, we just kept the tables filled. My point is find the best auctioneer (one that has experience in selling the items you have), let them do all the work. When you figure out the time you will be spending to do what you proposed above (pricing, tag sale, bookkeeping, etc.) how much per hour will you be making, plus what do you do with the items that don't sell?

Jack Sim

Thanks for all the input...will pass to owner and see what he decides...Warren