Fleetwood, Um, Thingies

I'm a bit embarrassed to post this, and perhaps there is a more appropriate forum elsewhere on SCF, but ...

There is postal history, which I study and collect, and there are FDCs, which I barely notice, and then there are ... Fleetwood and Franklin Mint THINGS. Commemorative covers, proof cards, etc.

Of which I have been given many hundreds, in the hope of securing their disposal.

Can anyone advise? Perhaps ebay, in lots of a hundred or more? At what price, if I expect them to actually move? (Short of just giving them away, of course.)

Thanks,

Stan

ebay has 15,000 buy listings of Fleetwood FDC. ebay has 4,300 listings of sold Fleetwood FDC listings to examine.

ebay. 16 Franklin fdc buy. 4 fdc sold.

ebay also has listings for collections buy and sold

Call me clueless, but I didn't know one could look at numbers of ebay "solds" so quickly and efficiently. Just what I needed, thanks!

There are filter criteria along the left hand side of the ebay search page. The 'sold' filter is critical since the listers can ask silly prices.
Don

'
Monetizing SMS (Serial Marketing Souvenirs) can be a slow & low(-yielding) endeavor.

http://www.qcstampclub.com/CancerAuction.htm ... the Quad City Stamp Club 44th annual Stamp-Out Cancer auction (benefits the American Cancer Society) is currently accepting donations

http://www.afdcs.org/auction.html ... the American First Day Cover Society (AFDCS) 90th regular Fund Raising Auction (benefits the AFDCS) is currently accepting donations

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

How much do you value the friendship of the person who gave you these? An honest assessment would be that they are essentially worthless, and that you are being asked to waste your time. Dare you tell this person that?

Probably the best thing to do would be to offer them in lots of 100, with a starting bid of $0.01, and the lowest reasonable shipping cost you can imagine. And even then, you shouldn't be surprised if there are no bids. I would tell your friend that is what you are going to do, and to be prepared at how little, if anything, the auctions yield

You must be careful though, ebay is being deceitful in closed sold listings. The price they show as sold for, it the asking price, even if it sold for less using best offer. Very misleading.

If you're willing to put a little bit of time into the endeavor, I would suggest the following:

- Create group lots organized by theme or year vs. a random assortment. You'll have a better chance of generating interest among specific collectors with more targeted groupings.

- Keep the groups to a reasonable number of covers: 5 to 10. I have come across a number of large lots that I did not bid on even though there were a few covers in the lot in which I had interest. I didn't want to have to buy 50 or 100 covers to get the two or three I wanted.

- I would spend a little time scanning the "Sold" listings on ebay to see if you can identify certain covers that regularly sell for a few dollars - they are out there! I would then list such covers separately - maybe start them at $2.00 or $3.00 each. I don't see the point in "giving away" covers that some collectors are willing to purchase at a reasonable price.

This may be more effort than you are willing to invest, but I think it could be a more fruitful exercise with a little bit of effort.

'
Or ... create deliberately mixed lots.

20x Kentucky postmarks, 20x Florida postmarks, and 60x mixed.

That way, the Kentucky collector or the Florida collector does your dirty work for you.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey (who sees a lot of odd 'combo' auction lots, and expects that it is because they 'work')