Hi everyone! My name is Marcea, happy to join you all here. I am an Italian/American living in Florence, Italy, hailing from the beautiful San Francisco, California. I studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and am now taking a dip into the life of antiques. Recently I have made a friend/contact here in Florence who owns a very successful, local Antique business in Florence. He is looking to expand to the United States and I am attempting to help him do this. Since I am new to the antique world, I am doing a lot of research on my own to understand the best ways to make contacts to people in the United States who might be interested in buying fine antiques. Any advice is appreciated and I am looking forward to learning a lot.
Hi, The biggest problem you will be facing is the postal system in Italy. Most people have horror stories about stuff disappearing or having it show up weeks later. I am glad to report that the nine parcels I sent to Italy showed up on time. Others have so many problems they do not ship to Italy at all. greg
Hi Marcea....& welcome. 1st off ..if he's very successful, why incur all the problems of shipping to the US. 2nd... never mind the contacts until you've done a complete investigation of what's involved in shipping abroad from Italy....a lot of folks won't ship TO Italy because of the unreliable postal system. 3rd..... being new to the antiques world......I suggest you figure out if HIS antiques even have a market in the new world.......maybe selling on eBay for a while would lead up to bigger things !
Hi Marcea, do post photos of antiques, especially those on which you'd like more opinions. We are very opinionated here!
Thanks Greg! We are shipping from Italy to the United States. I agree, the shipping here is a whole other story, however we will contract out the shipping to a major company that specializes in shipping items internationally. I am more concerned about how customers will pay for the items (before or after shipping?) The items we are selling are in the range of 2,000 - 10,000 euros... So obviously making sure the items are really on their way, are traceable and secure is very important. If the customer was to pay for the antiques prior to shipping, will they be nervous they won't show up? How can we make this a smooth transition? I am also not really sure how things like customs and fees work in this situation, anyone have any advice here?
Thanks for the advice! I also thought about doing a trial run on eBay but my Italian friend thinks our products are "too high end" for eBay... what do you think? They are several thousand euro in price, so we are aiming for clients who are quite well off and are interested in furnishing their homes with unique, valuables, that are obviously very Italian. Very soon I will have a website to show you all along with some pictures of the furniture and items! They are very beautiful, I am quite excited about it! Thanks again for all the input!
I don't know what's available in other postal systems, but the U.S. has a mail class called "Registered Mail." Packages with this classification are handled in a way that they're kept safe, tracked carefully, and have to be signed for. I used it for a shipment from the U.S. to Australia and it was tracked all the way to the destination, but I don't know which other countries cooperate in this.
You have to factor in your business model the cost of advertising . Using eBay in a limited fashion , & not even expecting sales.....can be very effective in showing your product to a large audience. What means are you considering to attract these high end clients......do you have an effective target marketing strategy ?? Well off American buyers already have established connections with antique dealers and auction houses ....in the USA ....where shipping from Italy is not a concern.......what's so special about your items that they would risk a long distance purchase ? Oh...& being a one time Gallery owner.....the mantra is......" nothing leaves the store without first being paid for ! "
As for an effective target marketing strategy, not yet. I need to research more into this, originally our goal was to find a middle man (Real estate agents, interior designers, antique sellers) who would be interested in promoting us in return of a % of the sales that they help commission. About eBay, I haven't seen any high end furniture on there and my Italian contact is afraid our items will "appear cheap" if we advertise in this way. You disagree? We want to offer something different than an auction. A more personal, collaborative relationship where we can help clients find the kind of items they are looking for, where prices are negotiable between the buyer and seller and where certificates of authenticity and history are clear and professional.
