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Sell Vintage
Advertising Tins on eBay
Advertising
is a popular collecting theme with probably more sub-categories than
most other collectable items. You’ll find collectors specialising in
advertising pamphlets and posters, advertising ashtrays and
advertising soda siphons, and they’ll buy whatever is promoted on
those items. Others collect by theme or product and choose brand
name over product type, and on eBay you’ll find the most
enthusiastic of this school snapping up bottles promoting Coca-Cola,
paper sick bags featuring specific airlines, items depicting popular
soaps like Pears and Camay, biscuits and tobacco from well known
producers.
One of the best niche areas, even for newcomers, is advertising tins
and these are things you need to know to get started selling these
usually high profit collectibles.
* The 1860s to 1930s is the widely accepted ‘Golden Age’ of tins
when some of the most beautiful, colourful and ornate tins were
designed to function as home decorations every bit as much as to
protect perishable commodities like tea, biscuits, coffee, tobacco.
Among the most collectable and highest priced tins are limited
edition created to commemorate special events like Royal Weddings
and Coronations, exhibitions and historical events.
* The Victorians created many novelty tins, especially for biscuits,
which sometimes represented well known ships or buildings and often
had moving parts. Really ornate tins with several moving parts which
are still in good condition represent a premium over plain tins.
* People rarely collect tins for their own sake, it’s what they once
or maybe still do contain that makes one tin worthless and another
fetch hundreds or thousands of pounds on eBay. On eBay UK and the
American site the most popular tins were made to hold motor oil,
drinks (Malted Milk powder for drinks are top favourites), tobacco
and cigars, and biscuits.
* Advertising categories vary considerably between eBay UK and
eBay.com. For example, eBay.com has a special section for eBay
memorabilia called ‘eBayana’, and there are also special sections
for ‘Pet Food and Supplies’ and ‘Government’. eBay USA has 22
advertising sub-categories against just nine in the UK, suggesting
that Americans have more high-spending collectors for advertising
tins than any other country. There’s the germ of a business idea:
buy advertising items which are largely ignored by UK dealers,
mainly sellers at flea markets and collectors’ fairs, and promote
them on eBay.com.
* More often than any other tin type it’s biscuits that regularly
break auction record finishing prices. Just recently a tin shaped
like a bus and marked ‘Crawfords Biscuits’ fetched £860.00; a
Huntley and Palmers biscuit tin shaped like a delivery van fetched
$572.07, a Ship shaped tin from Crawfords fetch $486.77.
* Of twenty-five biscuit tins on a recent front page of eBay’s
completed auctions, just one went unsold, more than half the others
fetched double bids. Prominent amongst them were tins for Huntley &
Palmers and Crawfords.
* Biscuit tins featuring children’s nursery characters or with well
loved designers like Mabel Lucie Attwell and George Studdy add
another dimension and appeal to hundreds of named artist collectors
on eBay. Tins of any description by Attwell or Studdy could add
hundreds of pounds to a tin otherwise worth just a few pounds.
* Tins of all description are prolific at sales of deceased estate
sales especially in rural areas and farming communities where homes
were usually passed from one generation to the next and contents
rarely disposed of. It’s common to find country auctioneers selling
entire household contents amassed over several hundred years when a
property finally makes it to market. Most such auctions provide
catalogues weeks ahead of the sale which you can use to check items
against anything similar sold recently on eBay and help determine
how much to bid on the day.
* As for other popular collectibles, the word ‘Tin’ must appear in
your eBay title or your listing may go unnoticed. But ‘tin’ on its
own in eBay’s search engines returns more than just listings for
advertising tins. Tin is a double meaning word, meaning container,
and also the metal, not forgetting doggy film star ‘Rin Tin Tin’,
Tin Pan Alley, Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. So people collecting
advertising tins either key ‘advertising tins’ or ‘brand name tins’
into eBay’s search engine which won’t return one of hundreds of
listings I’ve just found for advertising tins containing just the
word ‘tin’ in their title with no product or brand name description.
They are not attracting bids. So here’s a great business idea: every
so often, preferably daily, key ‘tin’ into eBay’s search engine,
view by ‘Ending Soonest’, pick out advertising tins from the mass of
unrelated entries, look in particular for tins with clear
advertising images, check against similar items already sold on
eBay, consider whether to bid and resell the item on eBay - properly
described this time.
* Avoid buying tins which are badly damaged or rusted or with pieces
missing. Tin collectors are picky, they don’t usually buy damaged
goods. But it is acceptable to repair tins, professionally, or make
one perfect tin from two damaged specimens.
* Many early tins had transfers applied containing the advertising
message. They often look part of the tin itself, and the truth only
becomes apparent when you wash the tin and the transfer parts
company, often irreparably. The best advice is: if it’s short of
filthy, leave it alone, collectors are usually more skilled at
cleaning than are inexperienced sellers.
* Keep tins away from sunlight which causes bleaching and colours to
fade. Keep away from water and dampness which lead to rust.
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