Is finding on ebay a thing-o-the-past?

[luvtodig]

Hey all! My personal experience so far on Ebay, is nada, I have found nothing that I have wanted to bid on[&o]..most of the bottles I have seen are common..Bromo's, Milk of Magnesia, screw top medicines, ect...I have scanned the bottle section for days on end..still have not bought anything...maybe it is too hard for me to buy bottles...I have dug most of what I have seen on there and left it in the dump[&:]..I will keep trying tho..ya never know..I agree with you Ambly, the antique stores around this area also have bottles way over priced..again they too have mostly common bottles...but the hunt is half the fun[]

 

[Oldtimer]

I paid $5.00 for the Brewsters Medicated Electricity, $20.00 for the Essence Life, $19.00 for the labeled Woods Lung balsam, and $16.00 for the labeled Skoda's Sarsaparilla. All Antique store buys.

 

[Pontiled]

I was browsing and found this older post. It was posted while we were visiting our daughters.

I don't even bother to try to find good bottles on eBay because they are selling for more than I can retail them for. Shows aren't much better because almost everyone prices them according to eBay.

We had given a lot of thought to selling more (better pieces, including very high demand pieces). We decided to sell some of the early fairly common pieces, but ones that were previously good sellers. We listed about 55 items. Some of the lots, for example, were groups of 5 Victorian burst-top or shear top inks. The shipping was $5.50, insured if you won only one of the lots, but much less if the bidder won more than one lot. You figure it out, $9.99 + $5.50 = $15.49, or a little less than $3.00 per piece, total cost. We received no bids. We listed a few better ones and only got one or two bids. They started at cost plus fees. Even then, we had to pay PayPal their percentage in many cases. So, if that list was a loss, why should we list pieces that are rare? For example, one of our rarest pieces is a Virginia mineral water that only has 2 known (after more than 30 years of being very active in the hobby, we would know).

Sometimes I feel like just auctioning off mineral specimens and packing up the bottle collection.

Sorry to be so negative, but that's what we've seen here.

 

[amblypygi]

Hi Mike,

I do research and environmental consulting work in rivers, so I constantly find bottles. I used to sell them on ebay, but I found the same problem you describe. Low-end bottles seem to do poorly on ebay, and high-end bottles seem to do better than they should. My problem is that I can't bring myself to sell the good ones, so now I don't really list anything because it's not worth the trouble.

Regarding those English burst-top inks, they go for nothing on ebay or don't go at all. I don't know why that is, but I'll tell you this: I know an antique dealer who travels to England every year to buy furniture mainly, but he has literally hundreds, maybe thousands of those inks. They are apparently common as dirt across the pond, and so even though they turn up rarely in pits around here, they are not rare and thus don't sell. I have one I found in the Conn. River which I thought was the bee's knees for quite a while, till I met the guy with crates and crates of them []

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

Sean

 

[Matt in NH]

I'm with Maine digger......Ebay is a great place to unload common bottles. Many people buy them to decorate their home....As far as finding the deals is concerned....many more people frequent Ebay now than when they first started....that means more bidders and less great deals for us[&o]

Matty

 

[Gunsmoke47]

I believe you can find literally hundreds of "STEALS" on E-bay. Unfortunately, I don't believe any of the steals are in the antique bottle catagory.[&o] The reason is twofold: (1) Bottle collecting is Big and getting bigger every day. There are just too many knowledgeable sellers, diggers, collectors, and buyers. Everyone, (buyers and sellers alike) know the book values, what they have brought at auctions in the past, what's rare and what's common. It's like trying to get a steal on a collectible knife. It just ain't gonna happen anymore. (on E-Bay) Remember it only takes 2 knowledgeable people bidding on the same bottle to ruin a "STEAL", and we are talking world access on E-bay. (2) Shipping, sometimes handling, and insurance. Even if you did get a lower end $20.00 bottle for say... $10.00, if you have $10.00 worth of fees you are still paying for what the bottle is worth. Fair deals, yes. Great deals, no.

One possible exception I have witnessed lately: Awhile back I bookmarked an E.R. Sqibb on E-Bay simply because I have 3 of them and I wanted to see what it would bring. In a previous auction by "American Bottle Auction" they estimated the winning bid $300.00 - $600.00. The winning bid was $425.00 The one on E-Bay (same bottle and condition) went for $61.00 Did the E-Bayer get a STEAL? Or is American Bottle Auction full of it? They even stated it was not a super rare bottle, and it still went for $425.00. Go figure that one. Anyway, that's my thoughts on it. Happy Diggin[] Kelley

 

[BRIAN S.]

Kelley ,
The ebay buyer on the sqibb may have gotten a deal ! I have seen a trend here lately of bottles bringing more at the public auction houses than they would /or are bringing on ebay. And my thoughts on this are because a lot of buyers are afraid of ebay , because they are not dealing with one dealer on all the bottles that they are bidding on in the auctions , one that has a reputation backing him. But rather a bunch of dealers that he ( The buyer ) doesn't know from Adam.
And a lot of buyers just don't want any part of ebay ( believe it or not ) They like doing it the old fashioned way and not the new computerized way. And some have had a bad first experience with a seller on ebay ( such as bottle not accurately described , condition , color , ect. ) and won't return to try ebay again. This is one reason why you see what you described...... the same bottle selling for more at public auction than it does on ebay. Just my thought !
I personally have bought several bottles on ebay here recently that had undescribed damage. And it gets discouraging..... I guess the sellers take a chance that it will be accepted by the buyer.....I don't know !!! I personally describe all damage and add pics showing it in all my ebay auctions. I want my buyers to be happy and return to buy again. Brian

 

[John Sudul]

I dont believe you cant find deals on e-bay anymore. I recently purchased a bottle which I sold for double my money from e-bay. You just need to know what collectors (possibly new ) want for their collection. You can never go wrong purchasing bitters or embossed flasks , as these are prime for bottle collectors . The trick ( which I have gotten good at) is know how much to bid and yet be able to double your money on the resale. A lot of factors come into play, such as coloration of the bottle, condition, embossing, age and book value. I can say the deals are still there, but the search is becoming more difficult.

 

[baltbottles]

I can agree with Brian on this one because i have also noticed that the regular public bottle auction houses are realizing some insane prices for there bottles compared to what some of the same items are bringing on ebay. I have probably sold almost a 1000 bottles on ebay over the past 4 years and i am finding it much harder to sell the lower end stuff. It seems to me that anything under $20 bucks is just too common to list anymore and in my opinion things worth more then $200-$300 i can easily sell for what i want with a phone call its not hard to find buyers for better pieces. But i also think many of the ebay dealers are also realizing that and most of the better stuff is not even making it to ebay anymore. At one time i was always finding bottles on ebay to bid on it seems like now all i ever bid on is parts for my computer.

Chris