A Common Problem Experienced by People Selling Prints on eBay

 

A few weeks back a really argumentative woman emailed me to say the word ‘print’ has nothing to do with book plates and pictures such as I sell on eBay and which I encourage others to sell via various of my own books and articles about making money on eBay.

 

I realise she was probably saying the same thing other people might be thinking, only others may not be quite so rude as this person.  So I decided to investigate, primarily to allow me to reply to this woman without retaliating and without resorting to rudeness myself.

 

Her ‘problem’ centred around the fact I use the word ‘print’ in my writing and in my eBay listings to mean book plates and picture pages from books and magazines, and most people agree with  my definition, and to date only three people have disagreed.

 

But only a few people get quite so nasty as this woman, and she is one of very few people who actually do think only rare loose low volume printed items can be sold under the umbrella of ‘print’ and these people also expect the reverse to be blank on the item being sold. 

 

I have sympathy sometimes in this latter respect and I always mention in my listing that because my item came from a rare and popular book there may be other illustrations or text on the reverse of the item which does not show through to the printed side. 

 

And naturally I make sure the reverse does not impinge on the front or else I simply don’t list the item!

 

But the word ‘print’ works well for me, and it will work for you to call these items ‘prints’ as do most eBay sellers of similar items.  ‘Book plate / print’ is another reliable description.

 

But I decided to check my definition just to be sure the word ‘print’ still means the same as it did when I began selling paper items almost forty years ago, at which time it described items from various sources including, books.

 

I checked web sites of some of the world’s biggest sellers of vintage and antiquarian prints and found all used the word ‘print’ to refer to illustrations taken from books and, like me and other eBayers selling these items, those sites invariably reveal the name of the book from which the items being sold actually came.

 

Sites I checked where you will also find lots of information about presenting and pricing vintage prints, and which also prove my own and other eBay sellers’ definition of the word ‘print’ as also being a picture page removed from a book, include the following (notice how their wording proves my point regarding definition):

 

http://www.wollmansclassicprints.com

Baseball - Boston Champions  -  From Harpers Weekly: June 27, 1874

 

http://www.collectorsprints.com

They tells us they sell ‘Antique Ski Prints from Punch Magazine’ !!!!

 

http://www.vintageprints.com/products.php?catid=1002

On one page they tell us they sell ‘Prints from King Albert’s Book’  !!

 

I’ve gone to a bit of trouble explaining this common misconception of what a print happens to be.  This is because I frequently encounter problems from people who really do think they know it all, and these are the people who make your life hell on eBay.  I suggest you keep this article handy and feel free to give it away to any of your own problem contacts who really do expect to get an original drawing, hand signed by Picasso, for a few quid on eBay.  Believe me those people do exist!

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Avril is the author of:

Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay.  Read about it HERE.