US eBay Site

Last week we had a look at what was for sale under ‘Antiques’ on the UK eBay site. This week it’s the turn of eBay.com. A very different pattern emerges which obviously reflects the interests of collectors and sellers in the USA

Antiques listed this afternoon on eBay.com number, 162,799 (69,887 – I’ll leave the numbers alongside in brackets from last weeks UK eBay site for comparison). Within the overall listing for Antiques are the following.
Asian & Oriental – 29,141 (7,064)
Decorative Arts  – 26,880
Silver – 25,044 (11,564)
Antique furniture 11,621 (11,584)
Carpets & Rugs –  10,243 (2,119)
Fabric & Textiles – 8,630 (5,304)
Architectural Antiques – 8,348 (8,041)
Antiquities – 4,280 (3,956)
Antique clocks – 1,749 (2,650)

Type ‘Collectable’ into their search engine and up pop, 1,509,922  items on the US site compared to a paltry 23,247 on the UK eBay site. The item at the top of the listing, with a little while left on it, was a Batman comic’s lot of around 80 modern editions.  It had attracted 8 bids and was standing at almost $31. Under Antique at the top of the listings was a Koiwut Pottery Bowl from Papua New Guinea which sold for $255 as I was watching. It attracted 24 bids and interestingly was sitting at $162 with 20 bids with just thirty seconds to go. The utilization of late bid software remains an effective way of getting what you want – always providing you bid enough!