Hello everybody. I hope you have had a Happy Christmas and I wish you all an exciting New Ebay Year. I don’t know about you, but eBay masterspy had a very good Christmas. It is fair to say that he had enough alcohol to stun a fully grown bull elephant and enough food to fatten up a prize pig for market.
Anyway, enough of my over indulgency. What happened on eBay during December?
In my last report I discussed the over optimistic (or stubbornly inappropriate?) starting prices some dealers were looking for. One of the pieces I mentioned was an 8″ temple jar in PERSIAN 2884 with a chipped lid being offered for £399 by a Scottish dealer. It was offered again in December at a more realistic and appropriate £99.99 starting price. It was viewed by 91 eBayers and attracted just one bid, selling therefore at the opening price.
Also offered for sale again at lower prices were the Carp 2437 trumpet vase (was £499, now £399) and one of the Crested Bird & Waterlily vases (was £350, now £295). Neither of these has sold as yet. Obviously, they still have too high starting prices.
As for some of the top pots of the month, these interested me………
A rare Metropolis 3420 tea caddy complete with lid was sold by catstealer a seller from Yorkshire for £311.00 (starting price £0.99).
A small but very pretty Iceland Poppy 3507 covered vase in the unusual matt green colourway was offered by delnjane from West Sussex (starting price £19.99) which sold for a creditable £312.00 having been watched almost coincidentally by 311 ebayers.
A stunning and almost mint Rainbow Fan 3700 complete lidded inkwell was auctioned by dealsanmore a UK seller (starting price £9.99). This was obviously going to be hard fought over and ended up at £700.00. The Glenmorangie of CW (had a dram or two of that this week readers) – Deco period CW at its very best.
A bargain buy was made by an English bidder when winning a part coffee set in Egyptian Fan 3696 against little opposition. Were we all asleep, readers? The seller was the oddly named mepgssp (did the digit accidentally twitch on the keypad perhaps readers?) a dealer from Reading in the UK for the very cheap price of £430.21 (starting price £399).
Sad tale of the month was undoubtedly the double listing of a beautiful 10″ bowl in CHINALAND 2948 on the orange ground. Originally it sold for a massive £1047.00 after a five way international fight (starting price £295). The buyer found a very slight hairline crack and returned the purchase. The seller, miller9222 from Huddersfield in Yorkshire, relisted the bowl disclosing the newly found hairline crack. After another 5 way international punch up it was sold to an Australian buyer for £298.99 (starting price £99). What a pity, readers.
The main trouble with December on eBay is that understandably it drops off towards Christmas and doesn’t really get going again till mid January. I feel like a Junkie on cold turkey (had a fair bit of that too by the way, I might add) at this time of year without my full strength eBay fix. Come on sellers, get it going again!
Don’t forget you can leave feedback on this or any previous post.
Best wishes for 2011 to you all.
eBay masterspy.
Like you, we two have felt the lack of GOOD items on eBay over Christmas. But we are ever hopful of more interesting and unusual things turning up now that we are into the New Year.
On a slightly different note, we collect the occasional heraldic piece – which, for our collection, must be Carlton Ware with a particular crest. During our searches, we have found a seller who, at present, has 5 items on at BUY IT NOW prices of £49.99 (postage free). We feel that the decimal point is in the wrong place and the items would be over-priced at £4.99, since these are usually listed at starting prices of between 99p and £2.99.
John and Sara
Hi John and Sara,
Sorry for the tardiness of my reply, I was working hard (honest). Regrettably the early signs are that sellers have taken little notice of my post last month regarding over the top starting prices. Perhaps buyers will. They appear to be already taking notice of my posts, indeed (cryptic ebay masterspy comment the meaning of which I intend to keep to myself, at least for now).
ebay masterspy
Hello-
To see another damaged CW piece, with an outragious price that has been on ebayUK for some time, click here
…at least it now has an offer.
As I am sure you are well aware, the carltonware.com folks are selling off some of their collection. If you look at some of the prices they are asking for their pieces,
(800GBP for a large orange Rabbits at Dusk platter as an example) or use the prices listed in some of CW books, I can understand why trying to put a fair price on a piece can be very confusing.
Regardless the Masterspy is a great addition to CW world.
Keep up the good work.
Charlie in California
Hi Charlie,
Good to hear from you and thanks for your kind words. You are the new official current holder of the furthest away (from Carlton Ware’s home in Stoke-on -Trent) known ebay masterspy reader title!
Thanks for your comment. I agree that it might be difficult to judge sometimes where to pitch a price, especially with possibly misleading or out of date “guidance” information being available. I do think that some sellers might possibly price to sell to a fool (there must be some out there), but what gets my goat the most is repeatedly re-listing pieces which are clearly a long way above a realistic price, rather than saying, ok, it didn’t go, now I will re-list at a price which will at least get some bids.
Feel free to respond again or to a future post.
Best wishes,
ebay masterspy
I would love to know what the offer was on the piece from Charlie’s link. I bet it was much more realistic to the value that the asking price.
Hi Masterspy
I am still at the bottom end of the market financially and love the novelty items. I would love to see an edition of the designers. I am collecting the Royal Family Sheep by Malcolm Gooding but not sure who was in the series other than Her Maj, Phillip, Charles and Diana or even why CW produced this.
Hi Janette,
Nothing wrong with being at “the bottom end of the market”. I can’t afford the top patterns either. Nothing wrong with novelty items either. I have asked various luminaries of Carlton Ware World if they can answer your question about the different pieces in the sheep range. Early indications are that there a more than the four you already have. I won’t be able to access my emails until Friday, but have a look then at this page and I will pass on any information I have received.
Best wishes,
ebay masterspy
Hi Janette,
I have exchanged emails with Harvey Pettit (the CWW webmaster) who says he will put an article on the website about the sheep some time after 6th February, so you should have some information then. Keep your eyes on the website!!!
Best wishes,
ebay masterspy
Wonderful, thank you. I really look forward to your monthly updates, so thank you.
Hello again Janette,
I have sent my monthly offering for January to Harvey, so that too will be available soon.
Regards,
Ebay Masterspy
Hi Janette,
As promised, I will write an article on the Gooding Sheep, although at the moment I don’t have pictures of all of them. Do you have any images that you could send me for the article. Some are difficult to identify, but I think I can come up with a complete list.
If anyone else has pictures of any of this unusual range do send them to us using harvey@carltonwareworld.com
Harvey – webmaster and moderator
Hi Harvey & Janette
I bought the Charles and Diana sheep at a local ‘general’ auction a year or more ago, because I thought they were fun and no-one else bid, and have been trying to find out about them, on and off, ever since. As the backstamp says 1984 and I vaguely remembered Diana’s pink outfit, I’ve been trawling through photos online. Are they perhaps dressed to commemorate the tour of Australia in 1983?
Dear Jacqui and Janette,
I will do an article on the Gooding Sheep to coincide with the Royal wedding at the end of next month. This will give me time to find some more pictures of them, which I am lacking. So if anyone has pictures to send do email them to me. harvey@carltonwareworld.com
Harvey
Hi Jackie – I think you’ve cracked the source of Princess Diana’s hat. It looks like one she wore on The 1983 Royal tour of Australia. I will post a picture on Monday 1 May.