I see this question constantly in the Bonanzle forums and every other forum, board, network, etc. I visit/participate in concerning on-line sales of antiques, vintage, collectibles on the web. And since this is my blog and I get to say what I want - I'm going to tell you what this old broad really thinks the answer is.
Again, this post has to do with selling in the Antique, Vintage and Collectible categories.
Ninety percent of the time when this question or one similar is the lead post, I bite my tongue - or should I say my fingers? - and leave the thread without posting. Why? Well, mainly cause I always go to the poster of the question's store or booth and guess what - there's not much there and what is there isn't presented very well either visually or verbally. Sorry but it's often the truth. Just because stuff is old - just because you saw one sell on ebay 3 years ago for a lot of money - just because your friend after his 4th beer said he'ld pay a bunch of money, if he had any money, for one like that - just because you saw one in an antique store "just like this one" for a 3 figure price tag - DOES NOT MEAN THE ONE YOU HAVE IS WORTH ANY MONEY!!!!! And if it is worth money - no one is going to give you that money until you have shown them a picture of every surface, plus the interior if possible and close-ups of any marks. Good clear photos not one fuzzy shot taken from across the room. There needs to be a description that includes colors, materials, measurements, condition, condition, condition!! And close-up photos of any flaws!
The other ten percent of the time the people have wonderful items for sale. Once again, often there is only one photo (which always makes me wonder why you don't want me to see the rest of it), no measurements, a one or two sentence description that says nothing, and no photos or details of any marks, lettering, etc., none of which makes me feel secure in buying something from you. Then there are those that do have great photos and descriptions but the titles and set up aren't search engine friendly or optimized for search. Beautiful Vintage McCoy Vase With Flowers Like Grandma's as a title isn't going to get you too many hits because your only good keywords are mccoy vase and even using advanced search (which many people still don't), there are 194,000 results! But, using advanced search, blue handles iris "mccoy vase" turns up only 140 results. Chances are a buyer is going to have a much better chance of finding your vase among 140 compared to 194,000.
Serious collectors and dealers are getting very savvy about using search. Give them what they are looking for and they will find you! And read google's policies, help pages, tutorials and all the help available on Bonanzle's forums. Titles entirely or with words in all caps will not do well, symbols like !?*"':; will not do well - and yes that means you actually have to type the word inches instead of just adding " to the number. Putting Free Shipping in your title or the first part of your description will not get you noticed, it will get you spit out of the search engine!
So where are the buyers? My personal opinion again - They are where they have always been - out looking for things to buy. If you've got the same thing everybody else has, yours had better look better and seem better than the rest. If you've got unique higher end pieces, they should be standing out of the crowd not lost in it. If you want to sell your stuff, you'll do what every salesperson has done since retail started, you'll figure out where your market goes to shop, you'll make sure they can see your stuff when they get there, you'll present your merchandise in the best possible light, you'll know your merchandise in order to present all the points being sought after, and you'll work to make the shopper feel safe and valued.
As sellers we need to learn how to best optimize our merchandise for feeds to search engines. We need to read more tech and business articles about how on-line shopping is changing. We need to listen to the people we know who do shop on-line. We need to keep the selling venues of our "old stuff" up to date. Basically, we need to do what we've always done: figure out where the serious, good buyers are going to shop, make sure we're noticed positively when they get there, present our wares attractively, and be knowledgeable dealers who value their reputations. Fifty years ago a shopper might look under Antiques in the yellow pages, then call around to see which shops carried items of interest to them. Back then, you spent time and money to make sure your shop was listed and stood out in those listings. Now shoppers go to the internet and immediately shop for a specific item. The good news is that unless you pay someone to do it for you, getting your inventory into the searchable listings is free. The bad news is that those listings are also open to everyone else in the world and their inventory. You have to spend the time to learn and the time to actually do what is needed to come out in front of the pack.
