Featured Question on Old Coral Necklace

I posted photos of this coral necklace a few months ago and received a lot of helpful information. I was planning to hang onto it for a while, but then got a special promotion from eBay that capped final value fees at $10 for 5 items that sold over $100. So I decided to list the necklace in a 10-day auction starting at $395.00 -- it had 14 watchers, but no bids. Today eBay sent me the same promotion so I’m considering relisting it, but I’m wondering if anyone who’s knowledgeable about coral and sells/buys on eBay has advice on the following questions:
1. Did I price it too high at $395?
2. Should I change from auction to Buy-it-Now?
3. Do I need to tweek the title ---- “Antique 54" 88 Grams Natural Salmon Coral Bead Necklace Sterling/12k Gold Clasp.”

I’m in the USA and don’t ship internationally, so maybe that’s why it didn’t sell at $395 even though 14 people were watching. A similar necklace that weighed 126 grams (located in Ukraine), sold for $850-$900 in a BIN listing. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Why not ship internationally?

 

The big coral market is overseas. I can think of a certain Dutch lady who'd be after something like that.(LOL) Right, @Any Jewelry ?

 

Absolutely!

I'm a cheapskate. But there could be other Dutch ladies and gents after this, it is gorgeous. Other Europeans too, especially from Ukraine, that is another coral mad country.
Many Asians love coral too.
I never sold to the Republic of China btw. Buyers from the Republic tend to be extremely nervous, send you 10 frantic texts an hour with do's and dont's. Too much hassle, and they can be very patronizing and insulting, so I struck the PRoC from my shipping list. Taiwan Chinese are very different, no hassles so far.

 

Was it a traditional Ukrainian necklace, to go with the national costume? Those are very expensive, just like traditional Dutch ones.

 

I appreciate everyone's comments. I'm staying with my granddaughter and dont have much time right now to write, but will try to respond to a couple questions.

I don't ship internationally mainly because I like the peace of mind of knowing something will be delivered in 2-3 days. And if I would have to refund international postage it could be quite a lot. And I had a buyer who (after paying) asked me to state on the customs form that it was a gift (or whatever it was that would reduce the fees for him). I said I couldn't do that and offered to refund his money, but he said to ship anyway and then left nasty feedback, which I finally convinced Ebay to remove.

Regarding the type of necklace I saw on ebay. It looked exactly like mine, but the beads were a little larger.

I'd like to try listing this necklace to international buyers .... can anyone tell me which countries have the best postal service and buyers least likely to hassle sellers?

 

I sell internationally and in each and every listing I state that it is a federal offense to falsify the customs form. Since I started that no one has asked

 

Ugh I got that offer from eBay. Then I had an offer for $650 on an item I was selling. I was excited naturally. Then I went to accept the offer and it had expired by the time I got to it. Then by the time the buyer re-made his offer the the eBay offer to cap fees had expired. I need to stop procrastinating!

 

Good advice -- thank you.

 

BTW - something got me hunting through an online Skinner auction and ... at this price someone ought to go get these!

https://skinnerlive.auctionserver.n...alog/id/514/?page=1&key=amber&cat=&xclosed=no

 

I can relate to that. The new eBay promotion ends midnight Monday and I'm out of town until Sunday night, so right now I'm limited to relisting the coral necklace and vintage Ray-Ban sunglasses. Monday I'll be busy trying to list a few other things.

 

I've been researching countries to include/exclude if I decide to ship internationally. I didn't find much consistency among other U.S. sellers of antique coral jewelry as far as which countries they include or exclude (some ship worldwide). Then I checked into how I could just list a few countries that I will ship to, and it seems eBay only allows you to exclude countries so I'm wondering if they've removed the ability to specify countries you want to include. It also seems I can't use a small flat rate box -- maybe because it's too small for both the address and customs label?? It's all so confusing I'm getting a headache.

 

The Priority labels are half sheet and use those plastic envelopes; I don't think they fit on the box.

 

You can't use the Small Flat Rate box because you're declaring a value that exceeds the limit for that or First Class. I'd send it First Class and put $10 value on the customs form. If you're still queezy you could insure with a third party for a few dollars.

 

I print my labels on plain paper through eBay, scale them down to fit first class packages as small as 6" x 4" and just tape them on. It's been several years since I shipped internationally, but I think eBay's label printing function prints both the address label and the customs form and neither requires any type of plastic pouch.

 

I couldn't find a value limit on the Priority Mail small flat rate box for international shipping -- just a weight limit of 4 lbs. And as I recall, eBay automatically fills in the value amount on the customs form using the amount the item sold for -- no way to get around that. Maybe a lot of sellers do that by filling out the customs form manually -- do international buyers expect sellers to do that? When I buy insurance, I use ShipCover (which is an option in eBay's label printing function) and when I check that option, the value is automatically filled in -- no way to get around that either.

 

I was wrong about eBay not allowing you to put in a lower value for insurance -- but I don't think you can do that for the customs form.

 

It's illegal, so... no.

 

It really is a federal offense, I wouldn’t do it!

 

I couldn't find any information online that said the value of a small flat rate box can't exceed $400, so I drove to the Post Office and asked the clerk, who said it's $2,400 (at first she thought I was referring to insurance, so I had to clarify my question a couple of times and am still not sure if her answer is correct).

And as Marie Forjan and Evelyb30 pointed out, it's illegal to state a lower value on the customs form. Anyway, I think I'll give International shipping another try, but I'll limit the countries to just the 14 that USPS provides tracking. If the necklace sells, I'll use ShipCover for insurance, although they only insure up to $1000 (I doubt the necklace would go that high). So thank you to antidiem for getting me to rethink shipping internationally. I may even try it for a few of my other listings now that I know more about the process.