Old ornaments - Germany or Poland? Vintage or antique?

I'm sure a lot less Christmas sold in October, but hardly anyone has Christmas up at that point, so if someone is looking... Again, speaking about Ebay here, not a B&M store.

2013 is what got me thinking early might be better. That fall I purchased four drop dead gorgeous vintage Murano Italian glass Christmas trees at a consignment store. A wealthy consigner was moving and they brought all of this Christmas in early, I even remember the consignment store making excuses for why they had Christmas out so early. I'm sure it was before Nov 1st.

Well, got busy and sold all four for a huge profit that week, but had a non-paying bidder on one. Well, that single tree sold for about $75 less by the time I relisted it in the 3rd week in November. Either there were more Murano glass trees out there, or everyone had purchased theirs already, not sure.

Realize this is anecdotal, but I do think there might be something to it. I might not list a high priced Xmas auction in early Oct., but fixed price or reserve, yes.

Of course getting the stuff ready to go, remembering to do it so early that is another matter all together.

 

I just had a Radko ornament fail to sell tonight that I researched pretty thoroughly. I listed it at $24.99 with free shipping since I found that others sold for $20.00 or more + shipping regularly (higher than mine). In the meantime, one sold for just over 1/2 that but it was a different color. In digging a little deeper, I find none like mine listed by name but did find 3 others listed with more generic descriptions. I have lowered the price to 19.99 and still think it should sell. However, who knows with 11,700 Radko ornaments currently listed. It might take a dirt cheap price to get any interest.

 

Nice ornaments Book, Best prices for ornaments is definitely here on ebay. The window spoken of is correct, I made the mistake of not getting Christmas Auctions set up in turbo, so I am having to scramble to post auctions but some of the highest prices realized are sold Sept-Oct.! Right now there is a lot of competition to sell and so not the best prices realized Next year I will start my Christmas auctions first of October... Last year was my first year selling Christmas stuff but I did really well, this year not as good.... but it's not over yet crazy what people collect and buy for Christmas!! and WHENEVER you come across them BUY THEM!! even if it is after Christmas!
OK I know this may create a small firestorm but... here goes, The ornaments you are showing Book are "Vintage" BUT.. after listing mine as vintage and not selling anything I did my research and found people are searching for and buying "Vintage Antique" Ornaments, WHAT???? (2,500 listings up right now with just about the same amount sold) but when I re-listed mine as such, wham, sales and views went way up. Now I know that they are not real antique and so do the buyers, but you can see it is kind of a niche search that includes mostly "vintage mercury glass ornaments" but with the "Vintage Antique" keywords they are finding, buying and selling ornaments from the same era as yours. Oh also "Vtg" saves letters in your titles and it pulls up "Vintage" in a search. "Mercury" is also a keyword people search with for ornaments like yours. Bumpy, Indent, Mica, Poland, German, are also sought after ornaments and good keywords.
Brad, yes list those Radko Ornaments now!!
Also if they are small ornaments try to get "Feather" in your title or Feather Tree. And stick to SMALL lots of 2 to 6. Large lots sell but for much less than if sold separately or in small similar lots.

 

Lucille I was writing same time as you posted! and I agree best prices realized are in Oct, ornaments that sold then for $50 are now selling for $20... as I said market is flooded right now. I am not trying to sell any of my oldest or best ornaments now and will hold on to them them untill next season, starting in OCT !!!

 

Good to know I'm not the only one who has experienced this. Will help me remember for next year if I can manage to get my Christmas together that early, lol!

 

All great information. I didn't even buy any ornaments until Oct. It was just kind of an afterthought when I bought a lot at auction. The thrifts here hold Christmas stuff til after Oct. and are still putting out new stuff. I bought great ornaments just last week. I will have to get started much earlier for next year (starting now!).

 

@verybrad what kind of ornaments did you buy? The older figural ones will sell well anytime.
@Tauriel lol, lots of people put antique in the title so don't feel bad. You are right, keywords are important as it helps to weed out the stuff I'm not looking for. I do take the time to look at the mixed lots (as do lots of other people), sometimes there are real winners in those. I think it was April or May there was a mixed lot, mostly junk but had 10 Matchless stars mixed in, 3 were double row - it ended up costing me around $300.00 which was a bargain, but shows that collectors are always looking.

 

Here are a couple shots of my Christmas displays at the store this year. There is more throughout the space but this is all I have pics of. Pics were taken before I had all the ornaments out. Since space is limited, I did not set up a big tree. The small tree displays small ornaments nicely and I stretched a long pine garland at the back of the space that I hung some ornaments on. Others I grouped in bowls and on platters throughout the space. The best ones were all kept up front. I really hope this pays off this year. It would be a good boost to my bottom line when other things are not selling as well.

 

You have some nice ornaments! 2nd shelf in the centre - are those pine cone ornaments? Boxes are always good with ornaments, prices go up if you have the original box.

 

cxgirl said;
"@@verybrad what kind of ornaments did you buy?"

Most of what I bought in the auction lot were post-80s collectible ornaments. There were a bunch of Hallmark ornaments, other made to be collectible ornaments, some Dept. 56, and 5 Radko and several Radko Shiny Brite ornaments. There were a few old ornaments from the 50s and 60s mixed in. I think I got about 100 ornaments for $8.00.

Since then I bought a bunch of modern figural blown ornaments and any older ones I could buy at the thrift stores. For example, I bought a box of tweleve 60s Shiny Brite ornaments for $4.00 last week. I bought quite a few vintage 60s-70s ornaments that are marked Germany and West Germany as well.

I also bought this lot of 27 ornaments on ebay. There were two Radko ornaments in there, a Waterford, and several other nice ones making it well worth the money.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-27-Glass-Christmas-Bulbs-Radko-Radko-Like-Poland-Germany-Etc-/261644563602?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=GZl%2BZOnXguFhF49nYE13iZu%2BGYE%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Of all these, just a handful are pre-war. I was really looking for lower price points and quantity over quality.

 

cxgirl said:
"You have some nice ornaments! 2nd shelf in the centre - are those pine cone ornaments?"

Thanks! The pine cone ornaments are older and marked either Germany or West Germany. I am not sure which right now.

 

I love old ornaments too! But can not find any...I have been to at least a dozen sales where the person in front of me snagged them up and gave me ornament envy lol seen some nice ones, boxes full...wahhh ir with boxes. So their out there....guess I need to get going a few minutes earlier

 

As far as I know there is no market whatsoever for old Christmas ornaments in the UK.

Well, not entirely true it seems but specifying UK sellers only eliminates 90% of listings for this stuff.

Comparable searches, ebay.com, 52,800 sold items

UK, 800 sold items

 

Yes, AF. Ornaments are big business in the U.S.

Brad, nice display!

Cx, you mentioned "Matchless Stars". This is the kind of thing knowing nothing about them I would have intuitively picked up at an estate sale or whatnot, but can't say I've ever run into any. However, now I am going to actively look! Do they have value if they are not in working order?

In case anyone else was curious...

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Holiday-Seasonal-/907/i.html?_from=R40&LH_Complete=1&_sop=3&_nkw=matchless star

 

I feel a little sick. I passed up two large moving boxes of matchless stars and old German ornaments because I had no idea what they were worth and I thought it would be to time consuming for a small return. The matchless stars were in the original boxes. At least three or 4 looked like those in the auction that ended at $2600! After looking at all the links here, I'm guessing I passed up between $10K to $15K for only $20 bucks.

Thank you for the education. I will never do that again.

 

Book,

Get crackin' ..... that is sleeping money there!

 

Mill Cove,

Sorry to hear about that . I don't think I have ever passed any matchless stars by but don't really know. I have never really looked that closely at old Christmas decorations. I have really learned a lot about the category this year and will add that to my book of knowledge. Interesting how a passing comment in a thread can lead to some great information for the future. I know I'll be looking from here on out.