les So Important? The Market Place is Huge; the Retail Shop Draw, Not So Much!
Ebay Is Our Choice To Sell Antiques and Collectables That Have International Appeal
We are only two of thousands of antique and collectable dealers, who dabble with ebay and other online auction sites, as a way of funding their excesses. Well, not all of them are excessive. Just the ones I know. Ebay is very much a safety net for those of us in store-fronts, who have to deal with the dreaded shoulder season economic down-turns. We can make up the income shortfall, of the slower off-season, by turning to ebay and spending four to six months selling items that didn't get snapped-up in our shops, during the better months of the rolling year. Often times, we turn to ebay to give certain collectable and heritage relics international exposure, because it's the only way to garner the best sale price. I would say, that half of what we purchase, on our regular antique hunt and gather adventures, has a better than average chance of selling in an online auction, versus selling from the showcase ofour Muskoka area shop. There are problems associated with presenting ephemera and small antique items in showcases, without compromising the floor space of your retail outlet. Showcases are fine, but in order to exhibit paper, gosh, you wind-up compromising way too much retail area for the gains made selling the material. If you've got a massive space at your beck and call, well, this is as different story. Most of us don't have this luxury, so we have to be careful how we allocate space, and efficient used of the expensive square feet we rent and pay taxes on. Ebay has always worked well for us, in this regard, and we can still maintain shop customer access to the auctions, without anyone feeling hard done by, or neglected. We always allow customers access to what we have listed on our auction site, and they are welcome to browse, on their phones, even while they shop with us. This is a practical and sensible use of technological innovation. In short, bazinga, it's good for commerce, and, well, that's what it's all about. Other than the fact we enjoy our line of work, very much. Ebay is the perfect mate for a retail shop, if a balance can be achieved. It takes some tweaking that for sure. Here's sort of how it works, on a good day! If you haven't tried ebay, or have given up prematurely, maybe this will inspire a re-think.
Back in the early years of 2000, Suzanne and I decided that the antique sale circuit was going to kill us; either the result of a car accident, driving the long distances to and from antique show venues, usually exhausted, or injure ourselves hauling our booth inventory into and out of shows; and then shipping them back home as a taxing load, three days later. Every summer we would have a booth at the Antique Boat Show here in Gravenhurst, on Muskoka Bay, and although a big money event for us, laid us up for two weeks after, with all kinds of physical maladies. If you're a dealer who attends shows around the region, or province, you know how physically demanding it can get, on those old knobby knees, and wonky hips like mine. Sunburn was inevitable, no matter how much gunk we had on our exposed skin. It just became so much physical exertion, even with the help of sons Andrew and Robert, two strapping lads, we began looking at alternatives to attending sales, open air shows, and flea markets all over God's half acre, and yes, the local, and very nice, Antique Boat Show. Add on to this, by the way, the realities of inclement weather, for open air markets, and an inventory that could be seriously de-valued by getting wet. You can imagine the chagrin of seeing a band of black clouds rising over the far pine horizon, and having to push customers out of the booth, in order to pack up our old books and heritage paper.
It was great as long as it was calm, sunny, and even hot. Wind and rain, meant an unfolding horror; and of course the reality, that if it happened early in the day, we would be out the rental fee, which for some events was quite high, and difficult to make back in only a few hours. Sometimes at these events, the storm would end, and the rest of the vendors would set up for a second time, while we simply couldn't expose the books especially, to a moist environs. We often had china, crockery and small antique furnishings, but not enough to carry a booth to any kind of acceptable profit. It's not like we didn't listen for weather reports for the day(s) of the sale but day-time heating over the lakeland, can set off a sudden and unexpected rain and thunder event, without too much warning. I got tired of the scrambling about, and always feeling a little unsettled about the next turn of events over yon horizon. It could be as simple as a shift of wind, that would lift away our canopy, like a flowered kite, even when it was spiked into the ground. So we started coming up with best case scenarios, and it's when we opted initially, to try our luck with online shoppers.
The choice of venue, that we agreed to check out, on a trial basis, was of course "ebay," and almost immediately, we started to fire-up in a big way. The profits were fair to good, for our old books, and historic documents, and the longer we pursued the auction format, the more we realized, "oh crap, why didn't we try this sooner!"
It was son Robert who really got us going on ebay, and it was his encouragement, that pulled us fully into the computer age; because to the turn of the century, gosh, I was still hand-writing my editorial copy for the local media. I was using a pen to compose weekly columns, for The Muskoka Advance, because I'd killed the five manual typewriters in the house, and the only way I got ribbons then, was by begging in my columns for readers' assistance. Robert thought I was crazy for this pioneering way of writing, and thanks to him, the past fifteen years have been incredible, as far as ease of operation, and even producing this daily blog. Most of all, it opened the door to buy and sell on ebay, and within a year, we were full-time sellers and although not getting rich, had found a way to bypass the rigors of those summer-time sales. It saved our bodies let me tell you. What we had to learn by immersion, was that ebay veterans, whether buying or selling, have high standards of operation, and site management. We learned about the importance of having a high, call it "perfect", one hundred percent feedback approval. Even though we didn't have nearly a quarter of the feedback that many of our customers had, which was sometimes in the hundreds of thousands, we developed a real sense of pride, at having served our customers fairly and efficiently, from answering questions before the auctions ended, to the communications leading up to payment, and final shipping of parcels to their destinations, literally around the globe. We felt tremendous pride, when a buyer, upon receiving their parcel, would email us back, that it had arrived safely, and the item they had purchased, was even better than they thought (based on the companion photograph posted on the auction listing). We did have items arrive damaged, and we always took responsibility immediately, and did everything possible, including the offer of refunds, to guarantee our customers were pleased with our due diligence; and would buy from us again. If you want to be a successful ebayer, there is no short-cut in these matters, and if you start getting negative feedback, you become disadvantaged as both a seller and buyer. Ebay shoppers do pay attention to feedback. A high ranking is the key indicator, how well you follow through on making payments, corresponding, shipping and all related goodwill. We might not have to lift boxes, and hammer down canopied shelters, but be successful ebay vendors and buyers, means you have to be organized to a fine point, or you won't achieve the best results, over the long term of business association.
For a decade plus, I stopped buying shop-type antique and collectable pieces. By this I mean, everything I was purchasing on our typical antique adventures, was suitable for an ebay audience. I didn't buy cupboards, chairs, dressers, tables, crocks and side-boards, as I didn't feel comfortable selling them on line, because of shipping responsibilities. Plus, we were working from our home. Large, even huge and expensive items, are sold regularly on ebay, but for us, wanting a convenient outlet, for what we enjoyed collecting, and then selling, it was well within our means to offer art work, rare and antique books, ephemera, and anything else of a small size we could easily ship.
Now I did throw Suzanne, a few curves in those years, as she was in charge of securing, packaging, wrapping, and shipping. I was responsible for hauling parcels to the post office for processing. Once I sold a heavy table-top cream separator on ebay, that had to be shipped by snail mail, to Oklahoma I think it was. Oh boy, was I in trouble. She knew I had the small but heavy iron piece, because she was with me, when we made the purchase from a Gravenhurst farm. When I hit her on the shoulder and said, "My dear, we did well on that farm item on ebay," she seemed pleased, because at the same time, we had a couple of farm equipment catalogues up for auction.
When I had to break the news, that it was an eighty pound cream separator, I got out of her range just in time, to avoid getting clobbered when she threw the book she was reading. There were other cases, just as bad, including the weird "welded horseshoe cane stand," I sold to a buyer in the western United States. It took two hours to wrap the damn thing up, and a year to restore our marriage. It had the size and shape that defied easy packing, and Suzanne actually had to make her own shipping box, by knife, measuring device, and lots and lots of packing tape. All the while she was doing it, I got reprimanded with under-the-breath mumbling, for selling such a crazy looking piece online in the first place. Funny thing though, she always liked it when we got paid handsomely for whatever we were selling. It did soften the chagrin a little bit. Not much, but a somewhat.
Once we sent a valuable print to a collector, in France at great expense to the buyer. On the day it arrived in France, the postal clerk was either suffering from a hangover, getting turfed out of the house by a partner, the night before, or had a throbbing headache, because the parcel was turned back overseas, because he didn't like the way the address was printed on the package.The clerk was in the wrong, but we had to go through a lengthy process, to get a refund for the post office, and sort it out with our buyer, who was enormously patient with the misadventure. It took three weeks to fix up the problem, and a huge amount of squabbling with the post office, but eventually they had to admit they were wrong, to send it back over the ocean, and assumed all costs related to the mishandling. Ironically, it was a picture of a sail boat on the ocean. The most precarious shipment ever, was a large, late 1800's pottery jardiniere, with a Roman theme, with gladiators and chariots, and a hell of a lot of surface area to box and wrap. It was purchased by a collector in Norway, and it sold for a large amount. The wrapping took half a day, because of the way we had to basically shrink-wrap the piece, after having been covered by layers of paper and bubble-wrap. It was insured but you do take quite a risk transporting fragile pieces anywhere; to the next town or across the pond, the carting around can be injurious to the contents. It arrived safely, and we both gave a huge sigh of relief. This happened a lot, when we shipped bigger pieces than usual, or ones that for whatever reason, were either fragile, or in any way vulnerable to serious mishandling. We've had metal lamps returned in hundreds of pieces, that had been opened, searched, and likely reduced to crumbs by customs inspectors. On the whole, during that decade plus, of shipping around the world, we suffered only a half dozen serious package losses, and damage, and all were recoverable as insurance claims.
The reason we have decided to return to ebay, to sell a portion of our collection, is due primarily, to this same ease of operation, we enjoyed in the early part of this century. We can still run our main street shop, here in Gravenhurst, and carry on an ebay auction site, without compromise to either. In fact, it is a pretty fair compliment, because we have many local buyers, who like the idea of picking up their auction items, without having to pay extra for shipping. The items we list on our ebay auction site are those that absolutely require a bigger audience to sell, to even come close to attaining its market value; which depends entirely on the number of bidders to determine, on the final day, and final seconds of the auction. It is most definitely the case, that our earnings online, are higher on ninety percent of the items we list, versus what we would have asked, if the same item was being sold in our shop. The fact that we can connect with dozens of collectors immediately, (or close to immediate) means that we don't have to wait for them to arrive in our shop to see the subject article. This is the typical hit and miss that most dealers have to cope with, but it is inefficient in relationship to what we can accomplish in seconds, by listing it on ebay, and exposing it to the keenest buyers without delay. There are many items we acquire that are almost impossible to sell in the shop, because, well, collectors are fewer and far between. These are pieces that have international significance, and need much better exposure to a "tuned" and receptive audience, than it would ever get in a shop showcase, where hundreds would potentially see it, over a month, versus thousands in a matter of hours, in the right category of an auction listing.
Unlike some of our more aggressive and bigger ebay associates, we won't list thousands of items a day, a month, or probably even through the entire year. We do have a shop, because we like the in-person contact, you don't get often with ebay. It does happen, especially with local buyers who come to our shop to pick up their purchases; which by the way, they often prefer to cover through Paypal, of which we are subscribers. The reason we delayed almost three years, was to make sure the shop was up and running properly, with its specialities, before dividing our attention with the rigors of ebay; if you have any shortfall of organization, you will find yourself disadvantaged. It's something that required intense focus and attention to detail, well beyond the protocols of day to day operation of the antique shop. This may seem hard to believe, but fulfilling ebay obligations, whether buying or selling (we do both) requires full attention and patience. We didn't want to juggle it with the responsibilities of the storefront, because we're not that good at multi-tasking any more. Once, yes. The online portion of the business is my baby, and it's what I'll be doing every day from here on, so it may cut into my blog time down the road. A friend asked me the other day, why we decided now was the perfect time to revive the ebay side of our enterprise. In October, we decided that 2015 would be the year to get back into online sales, because we had built up quite an inventory of pieces set aside for our eventual return to ebay. The fact that the winter season here on the main street of Gravenhurst has been so quiet, and customers few and far between, sorry to say this, we decided a couple of weeks ago to start-up with full listings, on March 15th, after a slow entry into the marketplace which began at the end of February. So far we're pleased with the response and we hope we can live up to our reputation online, achieved several years ago, when we sold a major estate through ebay with amazing results. That exercise was exhausting but it proved to be the most efficient and beneficial way of selling off a mountain of ephemera, that would have taken years to sell in a shop setting. We sold early large quantities of early 1900's letters from a missionary serving in China, and hundreds of First and Second World War correspondence, penned by soldiers, from Europe sent to Canada. We sold dozens of paintings and lots of antiquarian books, plus dolls and jewelry brought back from China by the same missionary who had written the letters mentioned above. It was a task we were unsure of, when we began, but because we had considerable experience, by this point, selling via ebay, what could have become a back-breaker, was handled with considerable efficiency, pleasing the executors of the estate. I would do it again the same way. If Suzanne read this, she would toss another book my way.
From The Archives
THE TRADITION OF THE ANTIQUE SHOP STILL BRINGS US HOME TO OUR PAST
WE'RE HAPPY TO BE FRONT LINE ANTIQUE FOLKS ONCE AGAIN
AS A WRITER, I AM HABITUALLY RECLUSIVE. IT HAS ALWAYS BOTHERED MY DEAR WIFE, THAT I CAN STAY HOLED-UP HERE FOR DAYS ON END, WORKING AT THIS KEYBOARD. WHEN WE WERE ACTIVELY PURSUING ONLINE AUCTIONS, AS A WAY OF CONDUCTING OUR ANTIQUE AND COLLECTABLE BUSINESS, MY OFFICE WAS OCCUPIED MOST OF THE TIME…..EITHER FOR COLUMN WRITING, OR DOING EBAY BUSINESS. LISTING ITEMS BECAME A HUGE WRITING CHORE, BECAUSE A LOT OF WHAT WE WERE AUCTIONING OFF, ESPECIALLY AS MUSKOKA REGIONAL NOSTALGIA, DEMANDED MORE THAN A SIMPLE ONE SENTENCE EXPLANATION. THE POINT IS, SUZANNE DID HAVE REASON TO BE CONCERNED, AS OUR LIVES SEEMED FAR MORE RESTRICTED AND HOME-BASED THAN THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN. I EVEN HAD TO CURTAIL OUR TYPICAL HUNTING AND GATHERING ADVENTURES, DURING OUR PEAK EBAY TIME, BECAUSE THERE WAS TOO MUCH ADMINISTRATIVE WORK CATCHING UP WITH SALES TRANSACTIONS. AS SOON AS THAT WAS DONE, I'D HAVE TO JUMP BACK ON THE COMPUTER, TO MEET ANOTHER DEADLINE FOR EDITORIAL COPY. THIS DID START CRAMPING MY EDITORIAL PROTOCOLS, AND MADE EVERYTHING SEEM TOO MUCH LIKE A CAPITALIST GRIND……THAN THE KIND OF WORK WE HAVE ALWAYS INSISTED WOULD BE AT LEAST FIFTY PERCENT RECREATIONAL…..AS WE HAVE ALWAYS FOUND ANTIQUES A SOCIAL, CULTURAL, RECREATIONAL EXCEPTION TO HARD WORK. THIS IS WORK WE LOOK FORWARD TO, AND NEVER SEEM TO WEARY OF THE SAME OLD, SAME OLD. EXCEPT OF COURSE, DURING THE FINAL YEARS OF OUR EBAY RELATIONSHIP, WHILE HANDLING A MAJOR ESTATE……AND IN PART, IT DID LEAD US TO RE-CONSIDER OPENING A SHOP WE CLOSED UP IN THE MID-1990'S, DUE TO OTHER MORE PRESSING OPPORTUNITIES. I WAS SIMPLY SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME INDOORS, AND WHEN I CLOSED MY EYES, ALL I COULD SEE WAS A WAVERING COMPUTER LIGHT AS AN ALMOST PERMANENT IMPRINT. I WAS DOING LISTINGS IN MY DREAMS FOR GOSH SAKES.
OVER THE LAST FEW BLOGS, I'VE TRIED TO PRESENT A FAIR OVERALL PROFILE OF THE ADVANTAGES WE EXPERIENCED AS ACTIVE, DAILY EBAY SELLERS (AND BUYERS). I HAVE ALSO TRIED TO PROVIDE SOME COMPARISONS TO OUR OWN RELATIONSHIP WITH STOREFRONT ANTIQUES, AND ALSO, THE ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES OF BEING PART OF THE SHOW CIRCUIT IN THIS PROVINCE AS AN ALTERNATIVE SALES OPPORTUNITY. I CAN HONESTLY SAY NOW, THAT WITH OUR LATEST VENTURE, IN STOREFRONT SELLING, AS ATTACHED TO OUR SON'S VINTAGE MUSIC BUSINESS, IT HAS PROVEN TO BE THE PREFERRED WAY TO CONDUCT BUSINESS IN THE FUTURE. WE DIDN'T PLAN TO BE STORE CLERKS, AFTER MY WIFE'S RETIREMENT FROM TEACHING, THIS COMING JUNE, BUT HAPPENSTANCE AND COINCIDENCE PROVIDED A STRANGE ALLURE THIS TIME. I THINK WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT THIS TIME AROUND, IS OUR FAMILY ATTITUDE ABOUT MAINSTREET BUSINESS. WE'RE ALL EXPERIENCED IN THE TOURISM SECTOR, AND WITH THE BOYS NOW WRAPPING UP THEIR EIGHTH YEAR IN THE SAME LOCATION, OBVIOUSLY, THEY'VE MANAGED TO FIND SUCCESS IN BOTH A TOUGH ECONOMY, A RE-BUILDING MAIN STREET, AND IN A DEMANDING INDUSTRY NEEDING A REGULAR CLIENTELE. THE FACT WE HAVE ADDED AN ANTIQUE COMPONENT ON THE BACK OF THEIR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS, HAS MADE THE WHOLE AFFAIR A SORT OF DESTINATION EXPERIENCE, WHICH OUR CUSTOMERS TELL US IS A REAL BONUS TO THEM, WHEN VISITING GRAVENHURST.
STILL A FACT OF BUSINESS IN A TOURIST REGION
After a slow winter, which for us began in late October, we're still delighted as front-line antique sellers, to have so many out of the area travelers and visitors to Muskoka, drop in for a look around…….through all kinds of weather, and consistently over months we expected would be void of tourism altogether. Our businesses are not only different in terms of the inventory we sell, but the attraction it offers. The boys, Andrew and Robert, have a far bigger following in their hometown, and Muskoka generally, because of their music connections in the region……as both performers and suppliers of what is called "back line" provisions. They can rent out performance related equipment or entertainment venues, which generates extra money, when at times business is slow in retail. Both lads have been teaching guitar and drum lessons for almost a decade, eight years in this Muskoka Road building. In addition, they supplement their store income, by offering recording services for musicians wishing to make a CD of their work, as well as working off-site as sound technicians for a number of regional entertainment venues. It's demanding work, through day and often late into the night, but they have in less than a decade, built themselves a future in their hometown……without ever once seeking assistance from a lending institution to fund their business plan.
The point of this, is not to bestow honors upon my own kids, for their accomplishments……and by the way, they wouldn't accept them anyway, because they don't believe they are as successful as mom and pop think they are. They are modest when it comes to accepting congratulations for their achievements this far……almost as if to do so, would inspire bad karma, generating misfortune instead of success. When we joined them as antique pickers, we planned to spend most of our semi retirement time, on the road, hunting and gathering interesting pieces in this part of Ontario. I wanted to get out of the house more, and away from my office…..where this keyboard beckons me constantly. But opportunity got in the way, and honestly, we're glad it did. I've enjoyed being an antique shop clerk again, even though I dreaded the idea of being left alone, to tend customers, as Suzanne finished up the balance of her teaching days. I was a pretty fair front-liner back in the old days of our antique shop in Bracebridge, but over time, I've become more contented to be obscure…….and yes reclusive. Suzanne knew the signs of a writer in residence over-doing the creative thing, and it was with great enthusiasm that she took hold of the boys' offer to join them, in the rooms behind their music shop. I was a little reluctant, until Suzanne told me we could buy a laptop, and a desk, to be placed in a convenient location in the shop……such that I could write and then wait on customers, with only a swivel of a stool. It was the right thing to do; I know that now. I feel better about the business prospects and it seems more exciting here in the front-line of the profession, than it was hiding behind a keyboard and computer screen, prowling for business in cyber-space.
I'm glad we did the show and market circuit as antique and collectable dealers. It was a sort of antique dealer boot camp. It was a hard life on the body and on the many vehicles we wore out this way. The EBAY online auction experiences were invaluable, and I'm glad we decided to pursue it for as many years as we did. I do believe we were meant to go back to main street selling again, by all the circumstances that occurred in the past two years……to make us revise a business plan, and join forces with our sons, who have a tad more moxie than mom and pop. Suzanne is looking forward to her final days at school, and the immediate start-up of our busy season here in cottage country…..starting with the Canada Day holiday. But as I've mentioned before, we take our antique pursuits much more casual these days, and actually take time to enjoy our business exposure…..rather than the way we used to endure it…..which always bothered me. I started my involvement in antiques before I graduated university, and have been involved in the profession, in one way or another, since 1977……as a buyer, seller, and author of many columns on the antique profession, dating back to 1978, and my first published column in the fledgling Bracebridge Examiner. Now I write antique related columns for two significant publications, "Curious; The Tourist Guide," and "The Great North Arrow." I love both these publications….and this blog, that also outreaches deeply into the antique collecting community.
So, as it is today, Suzanne and I are the "mom and pop" antique dealers, in Gravenhurst, side by side their sons, having their own take on the antique and collectable trade …….vintage instruments and vinyl instead of quilts and pine cupboards. We love going to work, and after all, isn't that what it's all about.
Thanks for visiting today. I have just been called out to pick up some family members, and by the sound of it outside, there's a major rain event in progress. So be careful if you have to venture out. See you again soon.
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