17Sep
We've found big sales for Wesley Willis original drawings! This Chicago artist is a hit!
At Auction Bay, we frequently encounter artwork of all types, from original oil paintings to fine art prints signed and numbered by the artist. On eBay, there’s tons of artwork for sale, so it all comes down to the artist’s name to determine a value. Identifying the artist can mean the difference between a $50 sale and a $500 sale (or more). If an artist isn’t listed (noted as a sought-after name), then their works could be lost amidst the glut of art on eBay. Well, here we’ve got a highly-sought-after name: Wesley Willis; and his drawings are real winners!
Chicago native Wesley Lawrence Willis was a self-trained artist, and is considered by many to be the premier intuitive city artist, east of the Mississippi River. His art has been exhibited in multiple galleries, and his life has been documented in film. Willis was just 40 years of age when he passed away in 2003, his life cut short by Leukemia. We’re pleased to have had several of his original drawings at Auction Bay, and they’ve brought some impressive sales as well as some great attention!
One of his artworks, drawn at the age of 21 and depicting the world’s most well-known restaurant franchise, sold for $750.00! Yet another, showing the Sears Tower looming over the town with a Union Pacific freight train passing in the foreground, sold for $650.00. Still others have brought similar figures, and it was still is a thrill to list them.
Update June 4, 2012: We’ve still got MORE Wesley Willis art for sale right now, so check HERE to see them!
Another Wesley Willis Artwork sold at Auction Bay
Auction Bay can help you sell your art collection, so feel free to contact us for more information!
Tags: art, artist, artwork, chicago, city, drawing, lawrence, outsider, wesley, wesley willis, willis
17Sep
These Hanna-Barbera Tinykins figures sold for $179.50!
A lot has gone on at Auction Bay Online since our last post! Let’s share some success stories and get you caught up!
Here’s an auction lot which brought a pleasant surprise! Here we have a lot of TinyKins figures made by Marx Toys, each depicting a classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon character! These plastic figurines range in height up to 2″ tall, and were sold as a set of 34! All your favorite characters are here, including cartoon cast members from The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Top Cat, Quick-Draw McGraw, and Huckleberry Hound!
We started this lot out at our standard start price of $24.99, and it brought 11 bids to a handsome closing price of $179.50! Pretty impressive for a bunch of tiny toys from decades past!
Tags: barbera, barney, bear, betty, boo-boo, cartoon, character, draw, figures, flinstones, flintstones, fred, hanna, hanna-barbera, hound, huckleberry, marx, mcgraw, quick, ranger, rare, rubble, tinykins, top cat, toys, wilma, yogi
06Aug
This Antique Pocketwatch by WALTHAM sold for $282.00!
Anyone who appreciates a high-quality timepiece can appreciate these items! At Auction Bay, we find great success with items like this one: an antique pocketwatch, boasting a 14K Gold watch case. This watch was in good physical shape, but didn’t keep time, and it still brought $282.00 at auction!
Antique watches can sell well, as long as they have quality clockwork, or a desirable maker’s name like WALTHAM, Illinois, ELGIN, Hamilton, or others. The key to selling antique watches is to show off the clockwork! The face and the watch case are the obvious things to show off, and can have markings to help identify the piece, but at Auction Bay, we make sure to open the back of the case, if it’s possible, to show the clock movement inside! The movement is usually marked with the maker’s name and additional serial numbers, and shows how many jewels the clockwork contains. Sometimes, they are even decorated with highly detailed engravings inside, and all of this can lend toward a fantastic sale.
If you’re fond of antique pocketwatches or new wristwatches, keep an eye on our upcoming auctions! We’ve got some big-ticket watches to sell soon, including modern stylish pieces from Invictus and some real beauties from Breitling and Rolex!!
Tags: 14K, antique, Elgin, gold, Hamilton, Illinois, pocket, pocketwatch, vintage, waltham, watch, wristwatch
13Jul
This Omnibot 2000 sold for $295.00 at Auction Bay!
Here’s another great old toy robot sold at Auction Bay! This one brought quite a bidding war!
This Omnibot 2000 was one of the best robotic toys of the 1980s, made by TOMY. Still in its original box, this piece had been well kept by our consignor for over 20 years, and just sold on eBay for an impressive $295.00!
There are many toy robots out there, and you never know which one might be a great collectible like this one. Bring yours into Auction Bay and get your free item assessment, and you might be pleasantly surprised!
Tags: 1980s, 2000, bot, omni, omnibot, rare, robot, TOMY, Toy
23Jun
This and many more Hummel Figures are currently listed for auction at Auction Bay!
Once again, we find our shelves full of fantastic figurines from Goebel in West Germany, fashioned by the legendary M. I. Hummel.
The many figurines we’re currently listing are each in exceptional shape, and some have the sought-after V-Bee mark on their undersides. It’s a great lot, ideal for collectors. We’re listing numerous individual pieces, and multiple lots as well, and all are expected to bring in the bids. So if you’re a fan of hummels, make sure to check out our auctions and see this collection!
There are sought-after pieces in this lot like Goose Girl # 47, Going to Grandma’s # 52, and also some Goebel Collector’s Club Exclusive pieces like Valentine Gift # 387 and Valentine Joy # 399! And all look fantastic!
Whether you’re in the market to buy more Hummels or sell your own pieces, Auction Bay is the place to go! Check here to see each of the Hummels we’re currently listing!
Tags: 387, 399, 47, 52, bee, figures, Figurines, germany, gift, Goebel, going, goose girl, grandma, Hummel, joy, m.i., porcelain, v, valentine
06Jun
This rare saxophone mouthpiece sold for over $1,300 at Auction Bay!
We have a story to share that illustrates what makes selling through Auction Bay worth your while. This particular item would have been missed, or lost in the shuffle, but for the diligence of our staff.
Our consignor brought in an old Saxophone to sell, suspecting it might be a valuable model. It was not easy to identify, as the usual identifying marks on the bell were hard to read, having been re-finished at some point in the instrument’s long lifespan. Our staff is up for a good challenge, and with some painstaking research and scrutiny, we identified the saxophone… and sure enough it was a hot model: an old CONN Tenor from 1928 . But the $710.00 sale of that old Sax isn’t the story! The mouthpiece was the real surprise.
Three mouthpieces were held in a compartment in that saxophone’s case, and our lister pursued a hunch and gave them all some research. The first two were nothing special, but the final one was positively identified as the rare Super TONE MASTER Saxophone Mouthpiece, made by Otto Link. The resource we used to identify it described this “Double-Ring” model as “The Holy Grail of large chamber mouthpieces”, and further aided in determining its approximate age range and gave Florida as its point of origin (made after the Otto Link company moved from New York). Needless to say, we separated the mouthpiece for an individual sale, gave it a full set of high-quality photographs, and then listed it and watched with baited breath. It accumulated over 80 watchers during its week run, and we were delighted to watch the bidding skyrocket, well past our expected sale price, and all the way up to $1,325.00!
Our consignor was thrilled, and thanked us for finding the hidden treasure in his item. It’s sales like this that show you the real value of an Auction Bay professional eBay listing over a private listing. We have research tools at our disposal that others don’t, and we have a dedicated and passionate staff who relish the hunt for items like this. We care about your items, and we take the extra time to make sure they sell for the highest prices the market will bear. We only make money if you make money, so we make sure each item has the chance to make your fortune. Want to know more? Stop into our store, or give us a call at (219) 926-6416, and we’ll help you sell your items on eBay’s worldwide marketplace!
Tags: 1928, brass, chamber, conn, double, double-ring, florida, large, link, master, mouthpiece, Musical Instruments, otto, otto link, rare, ring, sax, saxophone, super, tenor, tone, tone master
01Jun
This Coalby the Cat cookie jar from McCoy brought $180.00 at auction!
Art pottery can bring great sales on eBay! Collectors browse the listings for those rare pieces or odd color variations, and will bid against one another with brutal competition to complete their collections. Here we have a recent example of a good art pottery sale from Auction Bay.
Here is a vintage Cookie Jar made by McCoy. This particular design is called Coalby the Cat, and this piece was in excellent condition, for certain. Bearing an easily identifiable maker’s mark on the underside and an unmistakable design, it was a snap to get this item the attention it deserved. As a standard auction, it started with a $9.99 initial price, and was bid on 18 times for a total sale of $180.00!
The key with pottery and with most items on eBay is identifying the maker and the design of an item. Pieces with maker’s marks on their undersides, or a distinctive pattern or shape can be highly sought-after. Unmarked pieces will be lost in the thousands of eBay listings, but any piece of pottery with the name McCoy, or Hall, or Hull, or Roseville maker’s marks can be big sellers. At Auction Bay, we’ll take the time to research each item you bring in and accurately identify it, thus giving it the greatest chance to garner attention and be bid upon. When we list an item, we make sure that all the bidders can find it, and when they do, our descriptions and photos let them bid with confidence.
Tags: cat, coalby, cookie jar, hall, hull, jar, mccoy, pottery, rare, roseville, rrp, rrpco
24May
We sold this set of US Airmail Graf Zeppelin Stamps for over $1400 on eBay!
At Auction Bay, we occasionally see stamp collections come into the store, but this is the first time we have encountered some truly rare stamps. Our consignor brought in a set of the Graf Zeppelin US Air Mail stamps - some of the most famous stamps in history, worth hundreds apiece.
We took all the necessary steps to help these stamps sell for as high as the market would bear for them. Plenty of stamp collectors peruse eBay to find the pieces they want most in their collection, but when it comes to a set as popular as this one, the bidders really gather around and get competitive! 15 different bidders and dozens of watchers hounded this set of stamps, and in the last few moments of the auction, a $1,486.00 bid took it home! Our consignors said that high bid was twice the value estimated by a stamp specialist over 10 years ago, so they are quite pleased with the sale.
If you’ve got a large lot of stamps or a few valuable ones to sell, Auction Bay can take care of the task, but here are some eBay tips for those listing individual pieces at home. Make sure to use the macro setting on your camera and get up-close photographs of the front as well as the back (collectors are concerned with the condition of the glue as well as the ink). Take a moment to learn some philatelic terms, because if a stamp is Mint-Never-Hinged or MNH, you’ll want your bidders to know. Showing the stamps in comparison with a tape measure can let them judge the edges of the stamp, or you can give your own measurements from the edge of the printing to the perforations (there are grading terms for the centering of the stamp image, and they can make a big difference in your sale). Many collectors search for their stamps by the Scott’s Catalog Number, so if you can identify the stamp with that catalog and include the number in the auction title and description, that is another major key to a strong sale.
Tags: air, airmail, c13, c14, c15, graf, graf zeppelin, mail, mnh, og, philatelic, philately, post, postage, rare, scott, stamps, us, zeppelin
11May
This Fenton bowl brought $207.50 at auction!
At Auction Bay, we see Carnival Glass and antique glass items frequently. While there is no shortage of Carnival Glass on eBay, certain patterns from collectible makers like Fenton, Dugan, Fostoria, Imperial, and more can bring high sales. We always put in the effort to research glass patterns so we know (and our bidders know) what to expect.
One example is this piece: a Ruffled Bowl made in the Plaid pattern by Fenton. It was unlike any other design we’ve encountered, so we knew it would be fun to research. We discovered some information on the Plaid pattern, and also found a good history of sale for similar items. With such a hard-to-find pattern and in such great condition, this bowl had everything it needed to sell well. It brought an impressive sale at $207.50!
The key with selling glass items is to identify the maker and the pattern, so that collectors searching for those key factors can find the item. On pieces that have no maker’s mark, it can be quite difficult and time-consuming. Bring your carnival glass in to Auction Bay, and we’ll assess your items and can get them sold!
Tags: bowl, carnival, carnival glass, Dugan, fenton, Fostoria, glass, Imperial, pattern, plaid, rare
04May
This US Silver Dollar from 1872 brought $255.00 at Auction Bay!
Many of us have some old coins tucked away in a box in a drawer, waiting for the day when we’ll put in the time to research them, or take them to a professional for assessment. At Auction Bay, we can help you turn those old coins into cash, and you can rest assured they’ll sell for as much as the market will bear!
Here, for example, is a handsome coin we recently listed on eBay. This Seated Liberty Silver Dollar from 1872 was one of a lot of coins brought in by our consignor, as we frequently encounter. Our listers check each date in a coin lot in search of key dates and limited minting runs, and this one was singled out from its fellows for an individual listing. Our photos and scans are detailed and crisp, intended to show every angle and every detail, right down to the finest lines. This way, every coin collector who encounters the listing will be able to see just how good a condition your coin can boast. Our efforts give bidders the highest confidence in your item, and it works well enough that this coin sold for $255.00 on eBay (that’s almost $100 higher than it was estimated to bring)!
Whether you have silver dollars like this one or a jar full of wheat pennies, our coin enthusiasts will give your item our best. There are many numismatic collectors on eBay, and they will pay top dollar for a coin they want in their collection, so don’t hesitate to bring in those coins!
Tags: 1872, coin, dollar, liberty, numismatic, rare, seated, silver
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