Ebay Prices - Climbing?

[WayTooManyHobbies]

Greetings, all, and welcome back!

 

It's been a long week with FPN up and down, and probably like many I've been missing my on-line fountain pen fix. As a result, I've been browsing on Ebay a bit more than usual of late. One thing seems to stand out - I think Ebay pricing has increased significantly in the past 2 weeks or so. Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just me?

[VillersCotterets]

Not for the last two weeks, but for the all the last year. Prices are going up a lot for some vintage pens.

[JLS1]

I concur - I've been involved in a lot of eBay auctions for vintage German pens (mostly MBs, some Soenneckens and Gehas) and have consistently come up short as I'm not willing to remortgage my house for the prices that some of these went for.

[Joker4Eva]

I think it's just part of a short-term, upward swing. Prices usually go up a lot before the holiday seasons, then cool down a little during those holidays. After that, it slowly picks up again.

That said, I think it's now a great time to be a seller, and try to clean up those pens that hardly make it into your rotation!

[OldGriz]

It is a case of market demand .... happens in all industries and hobbies...

Remember that vintage pens are a limited item and they are getting more uncommon as the demand continues

[nicholasyeo]

At some point, the prices become inflated as people start to speculate and attempt to earn money off rare things...

Just like tulips right? Trick is to buy when the items are cheap.

[dspeers58]

I would agree. Pens seems to be going significantly higher on ebay than there were last fall or summer.Seems that since the beginning of the year, prices have been high.

[ThomasB]

I would agree. I have kept extensive records over the years on my ebay sales. So I decided to do a comparison of average sale price in CY2010 to CY2012. I did so for the following models of which I sold at least 15 items during the year and I factored out special items like stubs and mint conditions (there were more comparisons but I stopped at the ones below). Pretty good increases in price...

 

Parker Vac 51 GF Cap, Black--2010: $99.34; 2012: $157.10

Parker Vac Major Blue Striped--2010: $80.03; 2012: $136.57

Parker Duofold Big Red--2010: $219.6; 2012: $263.71

 

Sheaffer PFM III, Black--2010: $174.24; 2012: $262.93

Sheaffer Oversise Lifetime Black--$2010: 128.60; 2012: $201.05

Sheaffer Snorkel Sentinel (all REGULAR colors)--2010: $73.48; 2012: $133.35 (this one just seems way out of whack)

[OcalaFlGuy]

Thomas you've indicated to me I think that you are seeing less vintage pens found.

 

Your avatar pic is something else. Very nice.

 

I've got a few Imperial CI's that Wish they were that pen.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[heymatthew]

I might be wrong, but as a long-time eBay user (buyer and seller), it seems it might be due to the seller fees going up. PayPal fees are higher, final value added fees and eBay seller fees are higher and shipping prices are significantly higher. A lot of sellers will offer "free shipping" but in reality they're bumping up the cost of the item to offset the increase in shipping.

 

For the last 2 years, I've been shipping some stuff to a friend in Australia. He buys stuff from eBay, sends it to me and I repackage it in flat rate boxes. The Large Priority Flat Rate Box was around $65. This week, I tried to print some postage for him and the price is up to $78 per box. That's almost a 25% increase. If I were selling him stuff and having to ship the items out of pocket (rather than him paying for all the shipping), I'd pass the cost on to the buyer.

 

Also, pens made 50, 60 or 70 years ago are older and older. Parts are rarer. As they break and are beyond repair, those that are left in good, working condition are increasingly more expensive because they're rare. Add the rarity to the rising cost of doing business in general, and we buyers are absorbing the added cost.

Edited May 7, 2013 by heymatthew

[inkstainedruth]

I can't say from past years, but some prices have gone up and I think others not so much (or may have even come down). I got a Plum 51 Aerometric about a month ago and for under *my* maximum bid (even with shipping it was less) -- and quite a bid less than the last one I saw auctioned off (and Farmersmum did even better than me on (by a whole lot) on one that was mis-identified by the seller as being black); OTOH, I was completely blown away by some of the final bids on Esterbrooks the last few days, whereas just a few weeks ago I could (and did) get fairly decent (although unrestored) ones for roughly $10 -- and in a few cases I was the *only* bidder.

I've seen prices that seemed completely out of whack and I've seen pens go for a LOT more than I paid for what was, IMO, a better pen. I still haven't figured out what makes X pen go for more than Y pen, and I have feeling that I might never figure it out. YMMV

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[kkshadow]

Prices way up from a few years ago. $50 bump or more is not unusual for a 1st tier pen, and that's a lot more than ebay fee increase.Glad I overbought when I did! As Joker4Eva said, time for me to gather up the lesser used children and offer them up to new homes.

[aschup]

I would agree. I have kept extensive records over the years on my ebay sales. So I decided to do a comparison of average sale price in CY2010 to CY2012. I did so for the following models of which I sold at least 15 items during the year and I factored out special items like stubs and mint conditions (there were more comparisons but I stopped at the ones below). Pretty good increases in price...

 

Parker Vac 51 GF Cap, Black--2010: $99.34; 2012: $157.10

Parker Vac Major Blue Striped--2010: $80.03; 2012: $136.57

Parker Duofold Big Red--2010: $219.6; 2012: $263.71

 

Sheaffer PFM III, Black--2010: $174.24; 2012: $262.93

Sheaffer Oversise Lifetime Black--$2010: 128.60; 2012: $201.05

Sheaffer Snorkel Sentinel (all REGULAR colors)--2010: $73.48; 2012: $133.35 (this one just seems way out of whack)

 

Thanks for this. It's nice to see some actual data to back up the speculation.

[georges zaslavsky]

Rare items get rarer and more expensive through the years that is life.

[Simius]

Rare items get rarer and more expensive through the years that is life.

 

I can understand the price spiral for rare items. But the climb seems to be occurring for modern pens as well. Or, to put it more precisely, it's getting increasingly difficult to get good prices from auctions held by reliable sellers.

 

I had been trying for a while this year to snag a Pilot 845. After several failed attempts, I bought one from Rakuten. I don't know how things stack up now, but around March-April you could get better prices from Rakuten (or even from Amazon.co.jp) than from, say, engeika's auctions. I just looked up Engeika and found that an 845 auction ended at USD 400 on Sunday. You can get better "buy it now" prices at Rakuten. Some sort of Irrational exuberance?

Edited May 8, 2013 by Simius