I haven’t posted about eBay for a bit, mostly because there hasn’t been anything of note for a while. At last, though, there is something worth a look. Even if it’s not, in rather too many cases, worth the amount of money they’re asking for it.
First out of the blocks is this, which is both wonderful and cheap (as least for now).
I don’t really need to say any more than that, do I?
I mentioned this very David Klein just the other day, because it’s coming up in the next Christies auction.
Christies are expecting between £700 and £900 for it, which means that this eBay version is currently stupidly cheap at only £140. I do not, however, believe that this is going to last.
Also a bit of a bargain (no, quite a lot of a bargain as they are currently just at 99p) are these two 1950s London Transport posters by Lobban.
While they may not be my favourite posters ever, they are for sale and for a mere 99p starting price, which can only be applauded these days.
Rather less of a steal is another London Transport poster from the 1950s, in this case by Denys Nichols and from 1954.
It’s a wonderful, wonderful poster that I would seriously consider buying it in a normal auction. But £499 is more than I think it would fetch at any kind of auction, never mind on eBay. Am I right though? We will have to wait and see.
If that annoys you, all is not lost as there is also the chance to buy your London Transport posters in bulk. Fourteen of the little fellows for just £100.
Now we have one of each of these Harry Stevens designs and so probably don’t need any more (for some reason these two particular posters have kept appearing everywhere over the last year). But if you fancy going into poster dealing, Sotherans had copies of each of those in their most recent catalogue, at £85 a piece, so there is some scope for a mark-up. (Sotherans never sent me an email when their new catalogue came out, probably because they knew I was going to mock the prices. Now that I have found it, I will duly do this in a post next week.)
In further bulk buying opportunities, this seller has a comprehensive selection of greetings telegrams for sale, of which this 1939 design by Alan Sorrell is my favourite.
I like the design, which is probably even nicer in focus, but am even more pleased by the fact that someone thought fit to commission and produce a telegram of this kind of landcape. If you do want any of them, though, you’ll need to be quick, as the auctions all end this evening.
Finally, a warning. The most unnecessary piece of poster memorabilia ever is back, back, back on eBay.
But this time they want not £50 for it, but £150. When it looks like a slug. Consider me speechless.
ebay is a funny animal. I buy a lot of books there because they consistently go for far less, even including the postage, than they would in a bookshop, I have had a lot of great bargains. On the other hand there are books there that are seriously over-priced, you have to be selective.
The other fascinating aspect of ebay is the number of bidders who don’t seem to do any research. I bid on two items recently and lost out because the eventual winners went over the cost that you could by them from the original manufacturers …… what’s that all about?
It’s a great site though and I thoroughly enjoy searching out bargains!
I agree, there is no rhyme or reason to it at all. We do sometimes buy books on eBay, but always check what they’re going for on Abebooks first; sometimes you are getting a bargain, somethings Abebooks will have the same thing for half the price, there’s no way of telling.
One day I will do some proper research on what goes for good money and what doesn’t, to see if there is any pattern at all. As a start, I keep meaning to go back through some posts and find out what the items I’ve picked out on here actually go for. Perhaps I’ll have a go at that next week.
funny you should say that! I’ve been picking up some of the Picture Puffins that you mentioned a few weeks ago and I have started doing just that ……. initially I was trying to get a handle on what the ones I kept missing out on went for (I’ve imposed a top limit on what I’m prepared to pay excluding postage or I’d end up spending a fortune)
But now I’ve got interested, and I’ve started recording the costs that more readily available ones go for too ……. it’s a bit of a worry, it might get obsessive!
One thing I noticed a few weeks ago was one of the Penguin Collector’s Society books still available for £10 by getting it from the society going for £46 which I thought was a bit extreme.
I too always try to check comparative costs – usually bookfinder.com. I find going straight to Amazon quite informative too, though their search engine is a bit of a pain, you can pick up some good bargs for 1p plus postage
The Picture Puffins are quite addictive, aren’t they? The ones I posted come from Mr Crownfolio’s really quite extensive collections! But there are a few that he never managed to get – watch out for the Emmett Railway….
Well, thanks a lot for that – one more competitor…
Sorry about that, but you’re not going to find me too annoying as the ones I haven’t got are really quite elusive and almost always go for more than I’m going to pay unless I make a bit on the side and decide to treat myself.
Frustratingly I picked up five from somebody the other day all well under the limit but they came out of the envelope they’d been posted in and never made it here. I got the tattered envelope in the post the other day with an apologetic note from the post office.
If you have a spare copy of A Child’s Alphabet or The Arabs sculling about that you’d like to sell me for a fiver let me know!
Bah, that is annoying. We’ve been sent a few poster tubes which couldn’t stand up to Royal Mail, so you have my sympathy.
And we do have a copy of the Arabs, but I am afraid that it sits tidily in a box and isn’t for sale! Sorry about that…