I've only become familiar with these jugs in the past year or so. I'd see a few at an auction here and there, and they would always go a lot higher than I thought they would. Then, I went to a specialty auction with my father in law that featured an entire collection of the jugs along with other Royal Doulton collectables. I researched a few of them on my smartphone as the auction was happening and tried to bid, but they all went higher than I felt comfortable paying. I don't like to buy an item if I don't have a reasonable profit margin for my time and effort unless I want it personally. Even though I did not win any in my first few attempts it did make me aware that the jugs had significant value and a wide range of collectors so I now know to watch for them.
I was thrilled this week when four came up at auction. I didn't expect to actually win any but I looked up the values with my husband on our phones, and had a general spending limit in my head, so I decided to try. I ended up winning all four!!!
1) Izaak Walton D 6404. I paid $35 for him. Online reference sites list his retail value at around
$250. I base what items are worth to me on current eBay values. To me an item is only worth what I can sell it for and when I list an item on eBay, I like to be one of the lowest priced sellers if not the lowest. I prefer "fast flips". I like to sell things as quickly as possible and move onto the next item. I listed him on
eBay using a fixed price listing with a price tag of $59. I made sure to include the cost of insurance in my shipping price. I like to add insurance on anything over $50 that is fragile to protect myself from paying out of pocket if an item breaks in shipment. I take a lot of pride in my packing and I'm proud to say that I've never had a glass item break in shipment. To be fair though, I don't generally sell many glass items on eBay. I prefer to sell glass in my antique shop rental stalls, unless they have a high value.
2) Royal Doulton Large Merlin Character Jug D6529. He's the coolest in the bunch in my opinion. I paid $30. This particular jug comes in three different sizes. This is the largest of the three. I'm noticing that when it comes to RD jugs, bigger really is better in most cases when it comes to value. Other sites list his retail value at $60-$200 (Yea this guys values were listed all over the spectrum). I listed him on eBay with a fixed price
listing of $79.75 making it $10 cheaper then any other "Buy it Now" on eBay at the time I list him.
3) Royal Doulton Large Pied Piper Character Jug D6403. I paid $35 for him. Retail is listed for
around $125. I listed him as a
buy it now for $64.75 making him about $5 cheaper then any other fixed price listing.
4) This is "Paddy". I only paid $10 for him. I couldn't understand how he went so cheap since I had plenty of competition on the other jugs. When I came home and had time to do a better search of eBay values I found a lot of listings for RD Paddys. This guy seems to come in several sizes from Mini to large, (mine is a large 6"), and he even has an astray version. I can only assume when people looked him up on their smartphones their screens were flooded with "Paddys" with low prices because they were seeing a lot of the small and mini versions in the mix. I found one for $29 but it was chipped. The cheapest I found buy it now was $79.99 so I
listed mine at $69.75 fixed price.
This is my first time attempting to sell these so I don't know what the outcome will be. I have no personal experience to gauge what the approximate sell time will be or the final sell price. If I have them for more then a few months I will lower my prices and try again. Whatever happens, I'm really excited to sell something I haven't in the past and add to my ever expanding list of what I buy and sell.
