Featured Clever marketing ploys to sell antiques

Was at an antique mall over the weekend and several of the vendors well selling old photographs as "instant ancestors". I've heard this used often at antique shops and auctions but I've always thought it was clever marketing.

Do you have any innovative ways to increase interest in otherwise common/hard to sell items?

 

I've seen that.

 

For common hand tools, I sometimes call them 'cordless.'

A hand brace is a 'Cordless Drill.' A hand sickle is a 'Cordless Weed-Eater.' etc...

They usually sell. I think they're buying the chuckle.

 

Do you have any innovative ways to increase interest in otherwise common/hard to sell items?

Yup.....I lower my price...& complain bitterly about it !!!

 

I'll be attending a show of writing equipment at the end of the year.

I shall have to sell my writing-slopes as analogue, Victorian-era laptops with infinite battery-life.

 

Hi,
I remember years ago a guy was arrested for selling solar powered clothes dryers for 100 dollars. What you got was a 50 ft clothesline and 20 clothes pins.
greg

 

Of course he bloody well got arrested! That's false advertising!

...they're wind-powered, too.

 

good one!

 

VERY cool thread! dead funny!

 

There is always an attention grabbing product title !!
You know...the one that really tells you the products strength....!!!

 

What I hear a lot from dealers when looking at very tired and very worn looking Victorian items is that "Of course it looks like that, It's over a hundred years old"
That doesn't wash with me because there is a lot of Victorian and earlier stuff out there that is still in nice condition.

 

When I complained to the dealer that my new car had a lot of vibration in the steering wheel on the highway...he told me that it was a sports car..with a big engine...and that I should expect the wheel to vibrate at high speeds...
( I should have decked him then & there !!! ..)
PS....GM authorized lifting out the engine and realigning the drive shaft...costing them $1600..!! ....no more vibration...!!

 

I remember about 20yrs ago .. I was at a flea market and spotted a ratty old box on one of the tables with OLD DOLL hand written on it. I asked the woman if I could look inside and she VERY carefully opened the box, all the while saying "this belonged to my grandmother, and my great-grandmother before that, I wasn't even allowed to play with it, just look" .. and then the precious "antique" doll made it's appearance !! I told her that the doll was made in the 1970's. made in Japan, and mass produced .. She grabbed it from my hands and said loudly F-OFF !! and roughly jammed the doll back in the box, I smiled and walked away. The lies that flow from some peoples mouths so easily never fails to amaze me .. Joy.

 

Lol....
Love that

 

my solar/wind powered clothes dryer broke about 15 years ago and the landlord won't replace it , so i use the electric one . but on the bright side i use the pole for my red baron weather vane lol

 

reminds me of the idea i had for, home/shop, maintenance free, security system . comes with 2 beware of dog signs and 5 huge fake dog poops to place strategically around the yard . lol

 

my strategy on kijiji used to be was to offer a free collectable gift with every purchase . A pokemon/baseball/hockey card or a coin or something . and i did for awhile , but sales slipped sooooo took it off .

 

I thought that was The Red Woodsman?
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What is that Fokker doing up there!!!

 

Then say to them; 'Well you look like shit and you're only 40.'
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Or whatever age is approps.