Lynn's eBay e-zine Volume II,
issue number 1

This e-zine is published twice a month.
January 18, 2006 Volume II, Issue 1

Screenshot of the email I received

I have had such great successes over the years with selling lamps that I wanted to share some tips and tricks with you in this e-zine. Often times we overlook lamps because they are like the white elephant sitting in the corner. They are big and bulky and we don't even give them a second glance. Well, that needs to change!

I found a tiny green lamp at my favorite thrift store in January of 2005 for 50 cents. I put it on eBay with the title "Art Deco Eames Era California Pottery Green Lamp-Bauer?" and it sold for $53.00. The entire story will be coming out this March in my new book: More 100 Best Things I've Sold on eBay-Money Making Madness.

Here is a photo of that lamp.

Last summer I was at a garage sale and saw two very interesting modern lamps. I thought they were modern because the paper shades were newer. Upon closer inspection I found out that they were antique vases that had been made into lamps. This was all the rage from the 1920s to the 1950s. People thought that they were being so smart and took beautiful vases, drilled them and made them into lamps. As I looked at these yellow lamps closer I discovered that they were Japanese cloisonné. Japanese cloisonné is the most expensive type. I quickly bought them for $5 each.

I took them home and immediately threw away the dirty paper shades. There was no reason to save these. Then I had my dad (who was visiting) undo them and we made them back into vases. I took pictures of both as lamps before taking them apart so that the buyer would have the option of requesting all the lamp parts and could have then built them back into lamps.

Of course, the vases still had a hole drilled into each base (and I showed this in a photo—see below), but I knew that I would get more for them as vases than as lamps. It turned out that they were not an exact matched pair so I decided to sell them individually. I sold one vase for $75.56 and the other for $83.00 for a total of $158.56. Quite a nice return on $10! By the way, neither buyer requested the parts to turn them back into lamps.

As a side note, if these had been in perfect condition (without the drilling) they would have sold in the $300 to $400 range. Japanese cloisonné is exquisite and very expensive. Do some research on eBay so that you know what to look for when out shopping for bargains.

Lamp, vase and hole in the base.

So, let's get to my great lamp find from last week. This is what prompted me to write this article on lamp selling. My mom and I went out on a Friday and got to a sale in a mobile home park after 10 am. It had started at 9 am and I typically don't find much in mobile home parks. Boy, could I kick myself for making a hasty generalization like that! Another lady was there and she had already bought almost everything. The place was filled with small, wonderful eBay items.

I said to the son running the estate sale, "Is there anything left in the back bedrooms?" He said, "Yes, we have a pair of Alabaster Lamps". I know that Alabaster lamps (a type of stone) can sell for big bucks. There is a story about a pair in my book Money Making Madness coming out in March! I asked "How much?" and he told me "Ten dollars." Sold! They were white and in pristine condition. Score!

The lamps had old cloth/paper big lamp shades on them that made them look dated and dirty. I always throw away these types of shades immediately and just sell the lamps on their own. I say in my listing, "These lamps will look wonderful with the perfect lamp shades". For one thing, I don't want to have to ship the bulky shades and for another, the lamps look sleeker without them.

I started my auction at $9.99 with a $149.00 reserve. I know from experience that they go for at least $150.00 I was pleasantly surprised when they sold this week for $381.00. Now that was fun!

The finished auction.

Tips for finding and selling lamps: