If you combine all the recent changes eBay has made and the direction it now seems to be steering along with the negativity proliferating so many discussion boards, forums, and blogs, it’s easy to get frustrated or discouraged.

However, while most people aren’t talking about it, one fact remains. eBay is still the best place on the net to sell antiques and collectibles - bar none.

For the average seller of antiques and collectibles, all the talk about other venues is just that - talk. For anyone disagreeing, consider this.

On October 4th I had the opportunity to look at the estate of a former college professor who recently passed away. As a result, I purchased forty-one quality books. Thirty-seven of them were published by the Folio Society, three were from Easton Press, and one was a popular guide to birds. I paid a total of $183.00 for them all.

All forty-one were put on eBay as seven-day auctions beginning on October 11th. When the auctions ended on October 19th all forty-one had sold for a 100% sell-through rate bringing a total of $1674,60.

My listing fees were $10.25. Final value fees were $108.60. By the time everything is paid for my PayPal fees will be somewhere between $50 and $55. That will leave me with a net profit of a little more than $1300 which equates to approximately a 700% profit on my original investment of $183.

No matter what any of the naysayers tell you, there is nowhere on the net, other than eBay, I could have done that. Not Amazon, not my own website, not any of the myriad of eBay wannabe sites that have sprung up over the last year to two.

Because these were all books, Amazon would have been an option. But, if I’d listed these on Amazon it would take several months if not longer to sell them all. With eBay I bought them, sold them all, and had my original money back plus a nice profit within two weeks.

By listing them at fixed prices on Amazon I may have gotten more for them than I did on eBay. However, even if I’d averaged $20 more a book, it would have taken me months or longer to sell them all.

However, I now have $1500 more than I did three weeks ago. That money can be invested in more antiques and collectibles to sell on eBay. By the time all forty-one books had sold on Amazon, even at $20 more a book, I’ll have turned that $1500 into a lot more than the $2320 they would eventually bring on Amazon.

I’ll be the first to agree that if eBay continues on it’s current course, there will likely come a time when it is no longer a viable option for selling antiques and collectibles. But that time isn’t here yet and won’t be for three to five years.

In the meantime, if you sell antiques and collectibles and are serious about your business, don’t get caught up in all the eBay negativity that is rampart on the web right now. Instead concentrate on finding quality inventory, turning it on eBay, and building your business.

Photograph by Southbank Steve.

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