Solid Perfume › Forums › Re: New Collector
I agree. Buy what you like. Avoid buying a solid you don’t care about just because it’s cheap. It’s best to narrow your choices so you won’t get overwelmed such as—new or vintage—theme and/or type—price range. I originally started collecting because I wanted the fruit and food related solids. I’m still looking for more fruit, but at the same time, I collect animals and other types–usually buying the new ones. I recently started buying the older ones at the lowest possible price (if possible).
Buy Gerson’s book: “The Estee Lauder Solid Perfume Compact Collection 1967-2001”, so you can see the solids and their value. This is a great resource tool.
Once you decide what solids to buy, check out the solid values page on this website. Type in a solid name such as “affectionate fish” and see how much bidders on ebay paid. You can see how much or little someone paid. I always avoid paying the max, although I sometimes overpay by $25-40.
If you spend time searching though ebay, you’ll see that certain sellers have endless supplies of the same solid. One particular seller bought several Matadors, Igloos, Flamingo Dancers, etc, from Neimas, but they have trouble selling them. First, I saw them listing it at $100 more than retail. Nobody bought them. They relist and relist without time off since October….listing fees accumulate which ends up costing the seller more $$. They gradually reduce the price over time. Ocasionally, they get lucky and sell one out of the 10 listed. Now they’re asking for retail price. In my opinion, they’re lucky to sell for that! Sorry about the rambling, but the main point is that it’s a waste of time to buy new solids that are still sold at the stores and resell for a profit. Sure, it may work; however, if you can’t afford to loose money and/or don’t want to be stuck with 8 igloos, then it’s not worth the effort.