Thread: Advice for Selling Straights on Ebay?

Anytime I'm thinking of selling something on ebay, whatever it is, I go to 'completed items' in a search for that item. Just to get an idea of what the market may be for a particular item. What everyone else said, best pix possible, and a complete description. I always try to anticipate any question a potential buyer might ask, and include it in the description from jump street.

Spendur's ebay story is a mirror image of mine! The more details you give the more potential buyers expect you to be knowledgeable about what you sell. The more knowledgeable they think you are the more they expect you to tell everything of importance.
If OTOH you pretend you found it on your mother's uncle's attic and try to sell it as is, the less they expect you to tell them anything of importance.

On French ebay lots of NOS blades appear of less well known French razor makers. Often good blades that deserve more fame. 2 of them had scales that are a bit too short, not allowing the blade to sink between the scales easily and without pushing. The first time it happened I bought it of a guy who specified how he had honed the razor on an Escher and a Nakayama. In his case I complained and got a partial refund. 2nd time it happened it was of someone who did not appear very knowledgeable at all. I did bother to complain because such a person can easily say: "How do you expect me to know that is not how it should be?"

Whatever you sell: be honest about your item in description and photography.

I've heard similar stories on a knife forum. Attempting to detail all the corrosion/wear can be counterproductive with a finicky buyer (or one with buyer's remorse). These are the types of things I'm going to try and avoid.

I never searched through completed auctions on ebay. I'll try that.

Thanks for the advice so far gentleman. It's good to see everything in one place. Even if it was something you've heard before, it is good to have reminders in one place.

Got my Straight Razor listed today. Thanks guys.

Be honest, don't expect to get rich, expect to refund and lose $ at some point, put customer first, and track packages to protect yourself. do this and you will have fun.

Ebay takes 10% and PayPal takes another 3% (I think) = where else can you sell on a platform that will reach so many potential customers with so little over head?

We periodically go through house and donate to local places and sell rest on eBay.

Is it too late to say no distracting artsy-fartsy props or backgrounds? No decoys, knives, golf clubs, cigars - all like that.

Originally Posted by MisterMoo

Is it too late to say no distracting artsy-fartsy props or backgrounds? No decoys, knives, golf clubs, cigars - all like that.

I took the picture outside (while it was really sunny to show everything) on a gray gun cleaning mat.
Nothing else in the picture.

As an aside and without bearing on your post or plan I muddled through a couple of hundred ebay listings last night and... OMG - what a cesspool. It seems like anything rusted is automatically "vintage"; anything with half the blade chipped off is "rare"; and by and large except for the usual suspects most descriptions are woefully lacking, dimensions are pointless ("full length of blade and handle" seems popular) and photos are so often blurry, distant or "artfully" angled as to be useless. And initial bid prices or "buy it now" offers from the genre-uninformed are mostly too nuts to consider. I understand you have to mine a few tons of ore to get a gram of gold but, for crying out loud, my search string for straight razors, even with lots of limiters, brings up very little wheat in 6500-8000 pieces of chaff.

With bearing to your post, it's nice that someone wants to develop a listing that leaps away from absurdly wasted space.

I put vintage in my description, because I thought being 100+ years qualified it.
The pictures of my razor are VERY unflattering. I actually took closeups where the scales have some peeling/bubbling where the yellow horn has aged. I didn't put horn in the description though since I wasn't 100% sure. As I mentioned, I took the pictures outside on a sunny day so EVERYTHING is visible.
I probably could have cleaned it up some and increased its' sale value, but I'm trying to get some money to put into my other razors. I'm going to fix up a few to sell, and put the money into fixing up and honing my "keepers". That and I still need a good strop.

Sold my first razor on ebay. Didn't get as much as I hoped, but right now any money is better than nothing. I'm a new seller, so that may have made some bidders wary of bidding on it. Anyway, thanks again for the advice and hopefully the rest of the transaction goes smoothly.