I was chuffed to get a message from eBay congratulating me on 100 successful sales. And, though I might be winding the eBay selling down a bit as I get busy with schools and socks, there are still lots of items up there.
The less good news is that those are things that
simply won’t sell and have been listed for a second, third or even 4th time.
The worst news is that I’m dealing with a customer who’s behaving suspiciously. He kept me waiting for payment as he bid for more and more items, ultimately bagging over 50 quids worth of comics, mostly the Captain Britain collection. Then he made an unusual request about how I should post them. Not getting this in time, I sent the comics by my usual method. Lo, a few days later, he’s demanding a refund and wants to send all 50 quids worth of comics back. Alarm bells are ringing, as Hev and I have heard of scams whereby buyers pretend to return goods but make deliberate errors to the address so it registers as returned but is never actually received by the original owner. I am trying to avoid being a victim of this scam by getting the suspect buyer to return the items in the three individual batches in which they were sent. If I receive the first intact, I’ll approve return of the second and so on. Let’s see how that progresses.
UPDATE: Reader, he returned every item, and they all looked the same as when they'd left me. I've re-photographed them and put them back on eBay.
Meantime, here’s my list of what’s actually sold this month. (Sold Feb 20 - March 10):
9 x Daredevils comic £32.00
Captain Britain 1 - 13 (85). £31.00
4 Annuals Dredd, Lion Smash. £21.00
Tamagotchi £21.00 (later got £10 refund)
Spawn 1. £20.00
Tantrum by Jules Feiffer. £15.00
Hulk 1 - 11. £14.08
2 x Radio Times Xmas 91, 98. £13.59
Revolver comic x 2. £13.00
12 x Planet Of The Apes. £10.50
2 x David Cassidy annuals. £10.00
5 x Warhammer comics. £10.00
15 x Rampage Defenders. £9.50
10 x Planet Of The Apes. £9.13
Radio Times Xmas 1987. £9.00
Monty Python Bok. £8.50
16 x Avengers & Conan £8.01
11 x Planet Of The Apes. £7.50
Phantom Stranger comic. £7.50
20 x Avengers & Conan. £6.50
Comic Relief comic + 3. £5.52
Robert Burns sheet music £5.50
Topper, Sparky, Hotspur annuals £5.00
5 x Quantum Leap comics. £5.00
8 x Power Man comics £5.00
Savage Sword 1 + 4 £4.71
Accolet Binoculars. £4.70
Bandmaster harmonica. £4.50
Comics Scene mag x2. £4.20
Esso football badges. £4.20
Spawn 9 & 11. £4.00
From Me To You sheet music. £3.70
14 x Planet Of The Apes. £3.53
Spec Spider Man 189. £3.50
All Star Superman 1. £3.50
Melody Maker 1978. £3.50
Heavy Metal comic x 2. £3.50
Titan no1 + 7 £3.50
Spawn 8. £3.50
Parrot harmonica. £2.50
Masonic sheet music. £2.50
6 x sheet music Carousel, Annie Get Gun £2.50
Fonz Poster mag £2.50
Valour, Future Tense + 2 £2.50
Mad mag fall special. £2.50
6 x sheet music Lonnie Donegan. £2.50
It’s Only Make Believe sheet music £2.50
9 x Heat magazines £2.50
4 Buster mini comics £2.50
11 comics inc Gladiators £2.50
Space Precinct comic + 3. £2.50
Beano Anniversary + 8 comics £2.50
Lion, Battle + 3 comics. £2.50
All Star Comics 1. £2.50
Beatles All My Loving sheet music. £2.50
Death graphic novel. £2.50
Roy Of Rovers + Tiger annuals. £2.50
Sinbad comic + 3 £2.50
Ronin x 3 £2.50
Philbert Desanex. £2.50
Plop comic x 4. £2.50
Sound Of Music sheet music x 3. £2.50
Superman 202 203. £2.50
TOTAL (ex postage). £437.87
So, comparing this list with the list of
unsellable items from the same period, we can conclude that batches of 10 or more comics from the 70s and 80s will sell, especially Crown Jewels like my Daredevils and Captain Britain collection, but individual US titles have a less than 50/50 chance of selling, as has sheet music (I’m pleasantly surprised to see sheet music standing at 7 items sold 8 items unsold though, I thought they'd done worse). Random old magazines like Mojo, Total Film, The Listener and Private Eye are currently unshiftable, so I’ll be trying them in larger batches when I try again.
