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How to Sell My Baskets
Session 2: Is my basket worth anything? Last month, we started to discuss what you need to know if your are planning to sell your baskets in the Longaberger Secondary Market. It is important to first understand the state of the market and how the economy has affected collectibles, overall. To review that topic, click here.
After understanding the market more, specifically the concept of supply and demand, the next question is often “Is my basket worth anything?”
The better question to perhaps ask yourself is “Why is your basket worth anything?” This question changes the focus to your actual item and encourages you to consider your individual items and what sets them aside from other ones out there? Step 1 is putting the focus back on your item.
Step 2 involves identifying the unique features of your item, as well as accepting the not-so-unique features. When defining value of an item, you can’t go far without bringing supply and demand back into the conversation. If your item is very similar to other items in the market (high in supply), the demand for the item is not going to be very high (low in demand), which means that the price/value in the market is going to be lower since you can go right down the street to find the same item, somewhere else. However, in contrast, if you have a unique feature that is hard to find (low in supply), then the demand and price for the item should increase.
Now, the question is “Do you really have a unique item, or is your basket available everywhere?”
When Longaberger collectibility first took off in the early 90s, almost everything with the Longaberger name on it was in high demand. This is very normal for a young collectible as everyone enters the scene to take advantage of a possible opportunity. But as the collectible matures, the hype often leaves the arena, along with the short-term opportunist. What is left is a huge supply of items, fewer participating individuals, and the true collector. This is where we are right now in the Longaberger Collectibles Market. There are many, many items in the market and the reality is that many are in great condition and identical in features. Higher supply of a particular basket leads to lower demand, and lower price.
Step 3 and your next goal is to identify the unique features that your item has and be prepared to promote those features to explain WHY your item is worth it. HOWEVER, the other part of this step is being honest with yourself when you have an item that is not unique and/or just like all the other baskets out there. It still has value, as all Longaberger items are made to be handed down for generations, but is it really worth MORE than the identical basket out there?
An example of this is the Traditions Collection. This collection was first introduced right in the height of the Longaberger Collectible boom. It was a very popular collection, replacing the heavily sought after J.W.Collection, and there were only a few items in the collection, making it very attainable for almost everyone. The result is that many people bought these baskets, bought multiples of these baskets, and then stored them away in their original boxes, in their closets. Now, as people are clearing out their closets, many of these Traditions Baskets are in the market and most of them are in MINT condition. So even if you have a Traditions Generosity Basket in its original kraft paper and box, with all of its original paperwork, the reality is that MOST of the Traditions Generosity Baskets are in the same condition. That means your MINT basket is now AVERAGE and to compete with the high supply, you need to either identify other unique features, or accept that it’s an average basket, worth an average price.
As you process this information, next time we’ll move to the issue of WHEN to sell and specifically looking at trends in the market that tell us when and where to go when selling your Longaberger items.
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