To sell, or not to sell…

I posted this around on some boards, but I figured I’d ask opinions here as well.

In preparation for the upcoming term, in which I’ll be needing to scrounge money as best I can, and I humored the idea of perhaps selling some art online.

I checked around here and there. On ebay, glass art seems to go pretty well, but i’m still unsure about the whole thing. What do you guys think? Should I try an auction and see how it goes? Are there other auction sites I should look into? Any advice from people who already sell art online?

There is a student art show here, which I can probably make a bit of cash from, and I’m going to a convention this summer where my glass sold pretty well last year (but I’m going to be needing money before then).

Thoughts? Comments? Ideas?

10 thoughts on “To sell, or not to sell…”

  1. I say go for it!

    Putting up an auction isn’t very expensive. Just make sure your starting price isn’t too high, or too low. I’m not sure how well any kind of art sells on Ebay, so I can’t give you any real guidelines on it. Another place is Yahoo! Auctions (which is cheaper than Ebay, in fact.)

    The worse that could happen is noone buys, or some faker buys who won’t pay (I hate people like that…)

    I really want to go to the convention this year! I just wish there was some way for me to raise the money for it. I think I have to pay taxes this year (no taxes were taken out for the job I earned the most on!) and that’s going to really hurt any chance I have to go. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens when July rolls around…

    1. Re: I say go for it!

      Ooo, I hadn’t thought about Yahoo Auctions, I’ll give that a look.

      I hope you get to go to the Con, too! At least it’s cheaper compared to other conventions. How far away do you live? Are travel costs the main issue?

      1. Re: I say go for it!

        About 516 miles, or so Mapquest says. The biggest cost is going to be hotels. Travel expenses I only need about $200 for gas and food, I think. Hotel costs I figured at about $500 or so. Four days at the hotel in Louisville, and one day to and from the convention so I don’t tire myself out and give myself a chance to do some sightseeing!

        1. Re: I say go for it!

          Ahh, I see. Do you know if the discount rate for Con-goers at the hotel would apply for the extra days? That might be something to look into.

  2. I know absolutely nothing about selling art on Ebay, but:

    1) It’s really inexpensive to put something up for auction on eBay, so it’s worth a try. You can always use a reserve price to make sure your item doesn’t sell for an unreasonably low price.

    2) Some other auction sites might be cheaper to list things on, but I doubt any can come close to matching the number of potential buyers that eBay has (although if there are any art-specific auction sites, they might be worth investigating).

  3. How far away is the student show? If it was close, I would see what you could sell there first. More cut and dried than mucking about with listing and getting payment. Then I’d put the stuff that didn’t move up for auction. Not on eBay, though. eBay sucks.

    1. I’m not sure if the student show is early or late spring term this year. Either way, generally the student show is a way for students to rid themselves of excess art, so we usually price very low, and due to the small number of people on campus, sales are low (although, I did manage to sell a dinky frou-frou bowl last year for $20, yay for the lady in the communications office!)

      Crunch time for payments is going to be around March, though I could certainly do for money after that as well.

      Do you know of any other good auction sites?

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