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On the Net: May/June 2003

By Greg Myroth

Over the last five years the Internet has steadily continued to increase its presence in the art pottery marketplace through distribution channels such as Internet auctions, Internet malls, and individual ecommerce sites. Most recently, as more and more buyers, including many higher-end collectors, have begun to embrace the Internet as a viable and logical vehicle for adding to their collections, many of the premier live auction houses have begun incorporating Internet bidding capabilities and in some cases real-time Internet bidding for their live auctions.

While we fully encourage these trends, it is important for the online buyer to recognize the inherent differences between purchasing an item online and the more traditional hands on approach. We routinely meet pottery collectors who have had negative experiences with their online purchases. While the vast majority of Internet pottery sales are completed without a problem, there are several simple steps the collector can take to greatly reduce the likelihood of being involved in an unsatisfactory transaction. The following briefly describes tips to ensuring a safe transaction when buying online:

1. When possible, buy from a member of the American Art Pottery Association. A directory of member websites is contained on the association’s website at www.amartpot.org. All members are required to abide by the association’s code of ethics, which requires sellers to offer a money back guarantee for any reason.
2. Ask specific questions about the item before committing to your purchase. A few questions to confirm the condition and history of an item will often provide important insight into the seller’s ability to accurately describe any condition issues such as professional restoration.
3. If buying off eBay be sure to check feedback and specifically review any negative comments. More than a couple of negative feedbacks for condition related issues should serve as a warning.
4. Prior to finalizing your purchase, or in the case of eBay, prior to bidding, make sure the seller offers a money back guarantee if you are unhappy with your purchase. Suffice it to say if a seller isn’t willing to allow a return for any condition or quality issue you are probably best off shopping elsewhere.
5. Use a credit card for payment of your purchase. By using a credit card for your purchase, even through eBay’s paypal, you have the ability to contest the charge in the event your item differs from the described condition and you are unable to satisfactorily resolve the issue directly with the seller.
6. If you receive an item that differs substantially from the described condition contact the seller. Remember, the vast majority of misrepresented items are not intentional. By politely explaining any error in the description and requesting to return the piece, you can typically satisfactorily handle the vast majority of problems.

As many of you that buy and sell through the Internet know, eBay dramatically increased its reserve price auction fee in early March. For items priced over $100, this fee has been increased to 1% of the reserve value you place on the item. The maximum reserve price fee is $100. This fee is in addition to the insertion fee and final value fees that did not change with this latest price increase. As an example of how the fee increase affects the art pottery seller, a Rookwood vase listed with a $1000 reserve used to cost $5.30 to list on eBay. That same Rookwood vase now costs $13.30 just to list. The reserve price fee is refundable if the item sells.

Other than to increase revenues for eBay, part of the thought process behind the fee increase was to encourage sellers to list items with no reserve and ensure reserves were kept reasonable. Initially, at least, it appears the fee increase has not had a significant impact on the number of pottery items listed on eBay. However, the fee increase has served to more rapidly increase the overall decline in the quality of pottery items listed on eBay. It appears that dealers with better quality items are continuing to more consistently choose other venues for marketing their items.

Fraud continues to be a concern with online pottery purchases through Internet auctions. It used to be buyers just needed to concern themselves with ensuring the piece they purchased was accurately described and as represented in the photos and description. In a recent twist occurring in Internet auction sales, unscrupulous sellers have blatantly copied photos and descriptions from ecommerce websites and offered these items as their own for sale on eBay. Within the last month alone, we have personally had two known instances where multiple items from our website have mysteriously ended up listed on eBay as fictitious auctions. In both cases, eBay acted quickly and ended the auctions and took appropriate measures with the sellers.

A sample of the latest numbers of ongoing auctions listed on eBay as of April 2003 is as follows:

• Roseville 1826 items
• Rookwood 243 items
• Van Briggle 264 items
• Weller 531 items

Prices realized from recent pottery sales on eBay and related ecommerce web sites. Items are in mint condition unless noted otherwise.

• Roseville Sunflower wall pocket $1995
• Roseville Ferella tan wall pocket $2495
• Roseville Blackberry 8” vase 576-8 $750
• Rookwood 1914 8 ¼” vellum vase with stylized flowers (Sarah Sax) $2,650
• Rookwood 1903 5 ¾” iris vase with clover (Fred Rothenbusch)
• Marblehead 8 5/8” tobacco brown vase (undecorated) $1,525
• Teco 7” vase 435A matte green (small base flake) $2,700
• Weller Stellar 5 ½” vase with blue stars $456
• Weller Etna 8 ½” vase with yellow and blue flowers $200

The intent of this column will be to address Internet news and market trends as it relates to the art pottery field. If you have suggestions or comments for upcoming issues please email me at gregmy@justartpottery.com.

Greg Myroth is a contributing writer for The Journal of the American Art Pottery Association. Greg’s On the Net column is a regular part of the Journal, which is published six times a year. The On the Net articles have been made available to the Just Art Pottery website with the permission of the American Art Pottery Association. For information on joining the American Art Pottery Association please email David Pearl at dspearl@bellsouth.net.

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