Ink bottle question

CoachJade · Dec 1, 2012

Hello!
I posted on the buy and sell page last week and found some great support from you! I am seeking information...
I am helping a family friend sell her ink bottle treasures on Ebay (it's going okay but not that great). I've posted some here as well and received some helpful information. But I guess I am going to continue on ebay as I'm unaware of another "safe" avenue.

One of my question to you folks is how should I value the inks when I put them up? I have found some value via Kovel's but not of her inks are listed in there. I have also used completed auctions on ebay to judge as well. Some of the inks aren't coming up in my search there. How should I fairly value them to make a sale and allow her to earn back her money and maybe a profit (I do get a cut as well)?

Next how do I know what is common and wouldn't be of interest? The whole idea of an item costing more to ship then the actual item really makes no sense to me (most of them cost around $5.00 to ship)

Lastly - any tips or help you can provide me would be great! I'm doing this along with being super mommy, assistant den leader, PE teacher, diving coach and loving wife (to name a few things). So I really don't have time to weed through sites to find which ones can legitimately help me.

Thanks all of you!!!!

epackage · Dec 1, 2012

You can put the Kovel's book back on the shelf if trying to use it for values, it's only worth is in helping identify bottles. Once you have them identified you need to make sure you write them up correctly on Ebay, getting good 'Keywords' in your title and as many as you can into your description will get them all views you need to sell them at their 'going rate'. It's the poorly written titles & descriptions that end up selling a great bottle for little money, trust me I scour Ebay for exactly that. You can start them out at 99Â¢ and let what they are and what you have written sell them for you from there, making sure to add as many quality pictures to your Ebay ad as possible, I can't stress that enough!

Don't worry about the shipping costs being more than what they may sell for, many Ebayers today know that's part of the cost of doing business if they are looking to add something to their collections, plus they may be interested in others you have listed and combined shipping may make it worthwhile when bidding. If you have any questions about what you have you can always post them here and we can help...

Good luck....Jim[

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CoachJade · Dec 1, 2012

Thank you!
What part of the problem may be however is I struggle with the description part as I do not know much about the inks. I do post many pictures of the items and make sure I get every angle.
Thank you!

epackage · Dec 1, 2012

You'll find some help on these sites when looking to identify them...

http://www.sha.org/bottle/household.htm#Ink Bottles

http://www.antiquebottles.com/ink/

http://www.peachridgeglass.com/2012/08/looking-at-labeled-carters-cone-inks/

saratogadriver · Dec 2, 2012

If you can't identify an ink, post a pic of it on here first. There are a number of us on here who own the Covill book and the more recent Faulkner 2nd edition book as well (the two bibles for ink bottles). We can also give you a general value. Broadly speaking, most late 1800s inks that aren't a bright color and are unembossed are not going to produce more than $10 on the bay, unless they are some unique shape. I'd say color, shape and then embossing in that order are the factors affecting value (In the past I would have put shape first, but, with the run on prices on colored cone inks lately I've switched them in my mind).

Pontil and color help increase value, in the case of color often exponentially.

Jim G

CoachJade · Dec 2, 2012

awesome thanks! If I get 10.00 for some of the more uncommon ones that's fine. Which board is appropriate to post on with questions?

saratogadriver · Dec 3, 2012

"what is it, before 1900" is probably the best place. We don't have an Ink sub-forum on here.

Jim G

Ink bottle question

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