eBay: Miehana by Kevin Kidney Tiki Farm

Hi everyone. I'm a recent frequent browser, and new member. I've been into tiki for about eight years, with my interest growing in the past year. I've built a tiki-themed deck in my backyard complete with a hand-made replica surfboard. I've also been collecting tiki mugs for about five years.

Living in southern Ontario, Canada, it can be difficult to get my hands on tiki mugs. I very rarely find them in store, and buying them online usually involves shipping from the US, which can get costly when I browse eBay or online stores such as Tikifarm.

A few years back I bought a Miehana mug from Tiki Farm. The mug is a little top-heavy, and I emailed TikiFarm asking if this was by design or if I had a flawed mug. They mailed me a second one, which is equally tippy, but looks great. I've learned the design of the mug itself causes it to feel a little unstable.

Long story short, I recently learned via Instagram that the mug has some resale value. Since I have two, I've put one up on ebay. The shipping price on the listing is now about as low as I can afford to go to ship from Canada to the US. If he sells, I've got my eye on a nice mug from a craftsman in Maui I follow on Instagram.

This is a really nice mug, and I've learned it is fairly desirable by collectors. I thought I'd post on here to increase visibility, as I'm not sure if too many tiki mug collectors browse eBay's Canadian listings. If you are interested, please check out my auction.

The auction ends on October 8th at 7:40 pm.

Thanks folks.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Miehana-by-Kevin-Kidney-Tiki-Farm-Tiki-Mug-2004-sold-out-and-retired-/261301375948?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item3cd6c693cc&_uhb=1

Ah so you're the guy who has had that listing for a few weeks. :wink:

Yeah, I keep reposting him (it's free). Hopefully someone will come along eventually.

Try posting it at a lower price range to start
then you may get some bids.

Your starting bid at $59.00 is very high for a starting bid
and is what the mug's average price is today, add your shipping cost
and it it very high for most collectors in the know.

On 2013-10-07 14:28, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
Try posting it at a lower price range to start
then you may get some bids.

Your starting bid at $59.00 is very high for a starting bid
and is what the mug's average price is today, add your shipping cost
and it it very high for most collectors in the know.

Great point. I'll change things up with the next re-list. Thanks!

Okay, changed it up. Much lower starting price, with a low-ish reserve($39.00). Since I already have one, there is no point keeping a second one around. $39 can still be put towards something new :) Thanks for the advice folks.

Good Luck...

The shipping price on the listing is now about as low as I can afford to go to ship from Canada to the US.

The fee charged for shipping should be an amount to cover the ACTUAL cost to get the item safely from you to the buyer. It should not be a way to make a few more dollars on a sale. Your original $25 shipping fee was gouging, and everyone who saw it knows that it was. Congratulations on revising the shipping down to something near reality. Cheers, and good luck.

Selling in eBay can be confusing at first, but you'll get the hang of it. I've been doing it for many years now, and even so I'm sometimes still surprised at how things end up going.

Good luck with your sale!

Thanks guys. I've sold plenty on eBay, and am familiar with shipping. There is zero intent on my part to profit off of shipping. The problem is the shipping calculation tools from eBay Canada to the US don't automate well. I have to state shipping ahead of time so that the buyer can include it in their final price. Anytime I ask the buyer to hold off on paying until I take the parcel to the post office for an actual shipping price, they invariably just automatically hit pay without the shipping included.

The market for the mug is almost certainly the US. Trust me, shipping from Canada to the US will be at least $22. I'm willing to bet the poster above who accused me if gouging hasn't shipped from Canada to the US. I have the same problem trying to buy US mugs - shipping to Canada makes a $15 mug suddenly becomes $35 mug, making the purchase hard to justify.

Tiki-Loki, I don't appreciate the accusation of price gouging. I read that this is a nice forum to post. I sign up, make sure I'm following the rules, post a little intro about myself, and try to keep all my posts polite, and this is how you greet me. Classy.

Thanks everyone else, though, for helpful feedback. It looks like the mug found a buyer at the $40 level.

Shipping cost from Canada are high, It keeps me from buying from there often.
I'll bet you lose money by the time you get done with ship costs I know I do EVERY time I ship stuff
and I add some to the ship costs to try to come close to even.
BUT if you add the cost of packing stuff box, peanuts, gas and tape I put ins on my stuff too but
eBay had to stop letting you charge for that because they were charging seller fees on ins too.
Anyway you will lose on shipping every time.

And heck it's not like eBay is a public service, the idea IS to make money.
(to make a few bucks on Shipping should not piss anyone off)

Let us know here what it costs you to ship this item.

Yeah, I'll check back in with the shipping price once it is sent.
Cheers.

And heck it's not like eBay is a public service, the idea IS to make money.

Indeed, and they do. I favorite seller fee of theirs is the "Final Value Fee on Shipping." Which is a surcharge assessed for the privilege of shipping something. To be fair, they started this because sellers were listing items Buy it Now for $0.01 and charging $10 shipping, which at the time a fee was not levied on shipping. So a few people ruined it for the rest of us.

Chad: I apologize for my initial choice of words, no offense intended. All aloha here!

Loki-tiki: no problem. I was being a little over-sensitive --tough day at work. Sorry.
Cheers.

We run into that shipping expense issue with the Art Swaps too. Last time I shipped a mug to England cost me $65 if I remember right, oddly shipping to Canada is not much less even though the distance is significantly less.

What about the shipping costs to and from here?

Sold and shipped! It sold for $56.51.

Shipping from Waterloo ON Canada to Mission Viejo CA USA:
No tracking, no insurance, long duration (10 days +): $16.50.

Tracking, insured, 4 business days: $21.67. (Went with that option)

Shipping from Canada internationally is expensive!