The article "Sell Corkscrews on eBay" is about auctions, it has been created by Avril Harper.
I knew I'd found something special when a colelague who normally sells vintage postcards turned to listing corkscrews instead.
She's someone I check out often, use as a role model, she rgeularly achieves high prices for her postcards, I've learned a lot from her. But I stood to laern - and earn - a great deal more from that new-found interest of hers: vintage corkscrews.The really first of her offerings, a corkscrew with handle shaped like a mermaid, made over £1,000. Others, also with novelty and ornate handles, have fetched double figures and, from my experience, they're commonly found at offline auctions and flea markets where price tags of two or three pounds are common.Marvel at these recent eBay finishing prices: a rare 'flip out' (misspelled, should have been flip out) made from brass and resembling a flick knife made £2,051.61; an Italian stirrup shaped corkscrew went for £2750.00; a ratchet corkscrew from 1869 fetched $1812.77, not one of which were well described or blatantly unusual.Tips to Help You Buy and Sell Corkscrews for Profit* Corkscrews have been around since the mid-1600s but it's those from 1850 onwards that fetch the highest prices at auction.
Before this, most household objects were made to be used, not looked at, so they were plain, functional, not ornate and grandiose such as some appearing in the late 1800s which right now fetch fabulous prices on eBay. So, generally speaking, the more ornate and elaborate the corkscrew the higher its price is likely to be.* That said, I've seen really plain corkscrews priced about £1 a time at flea market fetching a fiver or more on eBay so it's worth buynig anything that's genuinely old and really cheap. 'Dirty' usually indicates old and cause few plain corkscrews become auction hottest sellers you'll rarely find them faekd or made to look older than they really are.
They're always worth buying!* The earliest designs comprised a steel spiral fixed to a wooden handle. Subsequently handles became precious works of art, made from silver or gold, encrusted with diamonds or inlaid with ivory or mother of pearl. In time the simple spiral was replaced by mechanical devices to make opening bottles easier still, some even had a small brush attached for cleaning dust from bottles removed after years of maturing in dusty cellars.
More desirable and consequently more valuable are specimens with unusual attachments such as brush or bell cap (a metal piece to fit over the bottle neck), containing precious jewels or painstaking artwork.* The Victorians' love of all things new-fangled, somewhat risqué, and heavily ornate, spawned some of the most beauitful and highly prized items. They include a multitude of corkscrews just sold on eBay, with 'Victorian' in the title, that fetched forty to eighty pounds each, and all lokoing rather ordinary, with simple wooden handles and commonplace screw.
Similar vitnage items not labelled 'Victorian' reached lower prices. That word 'Victorian' could double your corkscrew's value, as long as it's true! * My research revealed antique French creations fetching two to three times their corresponding English manufactures.* Add something a little unusual or with separate use and corkscrew prices rise, such as a folding antique corkscrew that fetched £158.00, a French creation depicting a champagne bottle with pocket knife in the handle that made £159.99, and a UK corkscrew shaped like ladies' legs that went for £185.00.* The screw is sometimes called a 'worm' or 'helix' and was made from twisted wire or cast into shape.
Becasue corkscrews were constantly used and in regular contact with water and alcohol, the worm on older corkscrews is frequently found broken, damaged or heavily rusted.
Rust can be cleared or reduced with oil which also keeps moving parts in working order.
Serious damage or sloppy repairs to screw or handle can render a common corkscrew amlost worthless and will seriously reduce value of most highly prized specimens.* The most collectible corkscrews are those with ornate handles, unusual mechanisms, popular maker's name.
Precious metals add significantly to resale value.
Popular makers include Merritt, Gaskell and Chambers, Lund Lever, Samuel Pemberton.* A past famous owner increases value significantly, and three are collectors specializing solely in items once owned by the likes of Al Capone and other gangsters alongside more respected citizens such as U.S.
Presidents, well knwon entertainers, writers, and so on.
Study the long list of corkscrews with past famous owners at the Virtual Cokrscrew Museum: http://www.Bullworks.Net/virtual/signat.Htm* As for virtually any collectible, the addition of a popular theme or subject, for instance a dog or frog depiction, a sport or hobby, leads to multiple bidders from several eBay categories and can fetch unexpectedly high prices.
By far the hottest corkscrew-related web Internet site I studied values a corkscrew with rare Sweidsh penknife attached at £150 and a second with a boy's head made from a golf ball at £170. (http://www.Corkscrewcentre.Com - based in Brackley, Northants, UK).USEFUL SITEShttp://www.Corkscrew.Com
http://www.Corkscrewcentre.Com
http://www.Bullworks.Net/virtual/signat.Htm (Virtual Corkscrew Museum)Avril Harper offers Internet Marketing Articles to help new and experienced marketers and also offers a range of downloadable free rpeorts including 103 EBAY POWERSELLER TIPS at http://www.Toppco.Com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.Com/? Expert=Avril_Harper
|
