Secrets to Listing Found Nowhere Else

Having received over 11,000 positive feedbacks and as an experienced seller of vintage photographs I thought it might be useful to others if I share some observations regarding listing. While I apply these to the selling of vintage photographs it should also apply elsewhere. In practice, I have always attempted to supply the prospective buyer with as much information as possible. For instance, in listing a vintage CDV photo album I usually scan every image. I recently listed a nice New Hampshire album with 50 images including a Civil War officer. Another kindly okayer suppled not only the identification of the officer but suggested that a fellow officer was also in the album. The album sold for less than what I could have received just by listing the identified Civil War officer. What have I learned? Too much information may not be all for the good. I have noticed that other sellers do better, first by giving few scans of the images for sale. And also they do better by suggesting more. As an example, say that there may possibly be several Civil War soldiers. If, in fact, there proves to be none, you have not claimed there was, only possible. Possibilities are not provable. Also be vague as to the number of images in an album, say there are many, or "tons" (my favorite expression when you consider the possible postage one could charge for a ton of images). The best is to suggest that possibly one of the images is Jesse James, or John Wilkes Booth. And it helps if "someone" has written on the verso an appropriate name. What more proof could one want? Just today I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on okay in a tintype - and the proof was that there names were written on the verso. Or just speculate, as with another I saw today in which the seller stated that it was possibly General George Crook when he was young, since the CDV turned up in the Pacific Northwest where Crook ended his military career. And he already had a bidder for $49.95. Just overlook the fact that the CDV was taken in the 1870s when Crook would have been over fifty years of age - and when he was a youth, as pictured in the CDV, CDV images did not even exist. Rather, pity the poor bidder on that one. But, then, the seller did not SAY it was Crook and then after all, "George Crook" was written on the verso (the back). Think of the listing possibilities, the names which could magically appear on the back of old photographs. Just remember, always say "possibly" or that the name appears on the back. And then wait for the bids to roll in.