Amazingly, during a period when everyone was locked down indoors, we actually managed to sell seven pairs of size 4½ never-been-worn shoes and four 35mm film cameras and lenses. I have absolutely no idea why these things have sold just now. I know they say “know your market”, but hey-ho, these times are different!
We made a rookie eBay mistake
In the past, we’ve sold a few things on eBay under a personal account and not as part of Rainbows and Brown String as the items didn’t fit our trading brand. Modern shoes and assorted cameras were a bit off-brand, I thought – oh, how I laugh now. Of course, we didn’t actually have very much of an eBay brand, so if we were going to sell a wider range, we could have just put them all up on eBay with a Rainbows and Brown String tag and there wouldn’t have been a problem – but now we have to start again.
We had actually already opened a Rainbows eBay business account (see our eBay items), but weren’t ready to list Rainbows items and didn’t want to mix things up with modern shoes (for example). However, now that we’re ready to push forward online, we’ve found that we can only list 10 items up to a value of £650 as we have no selling history as Rainbows and Brown String!
This is a bit of a shock for us, and it can only be improved as items sell, one by one (we hope!) We will be chasing eBay to up our limits but it could have been different if we’d built up our Rainbows seller reputation using all available opportunities rather than worrying about off-brand items! We and our clients will now have to wait for the pennies to roll in…
Adore Dior
We have a huge box of unused vintage and contemporary Dior products – from Dior make-up to original Diorella talcum powder, all from my Mum’s estate. To price these correctly I have immersed myself in the world of Dior and, oh boy, is it complicated! Not only are there different periods of packaging, but different countries of origin or sale, and even different formulas – original, pre-2008 International Fragrance Association (IFRA) regulations, versus subsequent reformulation/reissue. I tried hard to work out vintages based on box design, colour, barcode and reference numbers, head office address, and use of brand name and logo.
Original formula. 
Not available in stores.
In the end, we had to go with pre- or post-barcode as this was the only marker that could be applied to everything. Some items were bought on travels around the world and across a 40-year period. I have also taken lots of pictures to show condition and authenticity. I cannot even decide on the rare/vintage tags as people use these tags in a wide range of situations. How can something be rare if I have three bottles? Fortunately this perfume is known to last well but what is the definition of vintage?
This was all much more work than I had expected and has resulted in an incorrect estimate of cost of sales.
Pricing your service
When someone asks you how much you think something will sell for, don’t make the mistake I did and offer a ‘list price’ – say the price less the eBay, PayPal, postage and admin costs – or the owner will expect far more money than they will end up with! It will be you that they try to beat down on margins in the end, not eBay.
Next steps
While we wait for eBay to allow us to offer more things for sale, we are also looking at selling on Facebook. At this point, we need to take on our own promotion because eBay won’t be doing it for us!