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What we are building, and what we are learning
Notes from the people making Metzee, and from the sellers on it.
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How to sell records on Metzee
The disc matters more than the sleeve, the pressing matters more than the title, and both are camera questions.
Buying trading cards in a live auction
Ask for the tilt, the corners and the back. Three requests that tell you most of what a grade would.
Describing the condition of books and films
In the book trade, "good" means worn. Using it to mean good is the most common honest mistake there is.
How to sell trading cards on Metzee
Centring, edges, surface and corners. Live is where a raw card can actually be judged.
Packing and posting books and films
Books are damaged at the spine and the corners, and ruined by damp. All three are packing problems.
How sneaker condition is described
Deadstock, VNDS, and the honest middle. What each term commits you to.
Pricing books and films for a live auction
Start low on the common ones, protect the scarce one with a reserve, and never price the title when you mean the copy.
Packing and posting sneakers
The shoe box is not the shipping box. That one mistake accounts for most sneaker damage in transit.
Buying books and films in a live auction
Ask for the copyright page. Everything else about a book can be argued; that page cannot.
Pricing sneakers for a live auction
Start low, let the size run find the buyer, and use a reserve rather than a high opening price.
Condition words across every category
Deadstock, mint, NM, VG, uncirculated, restored, married. What each means, and in which trade.
How to sell books and films on Metzee
Which copy you have matters more than which book it is. The camera is how you prove it.
Buying sneakers in a live auction
What to ask the seller to show you, and what a refusal to show it means.
Every Metzee term, explained
Show, host, store, balance, payout, credits, boost, strike, collect-by. The words this site uses and what each means.
How to sell sneakers on Metzee
Size, condition and completeness decide the price. The camera is how you prove all three.
Auction words, explained
Increment, reserve, pre-bid, maximum, sudden death, second chance, under-bidder. Every term you will meet in a show.
Is live selling just a fad?
A fair question. Here is where it has lasted, where it has not, and what it is actually good at.
Auction or fixed price — which earns more
The trade-off is specific, and the answer changes per item rather than per seller.
Metzee vs selling on Instagram
Instagram has the audience and none of the structure. Here is what each actually does, including what Instagram does better.
Provenance — what it is and why it changes the price
The history of an object. What counts as evidence, what does not, and how to ask without being rude.
Starting a collection without much money
Where to spend the first little, the expensive mistake everybody makes, and why the cheap end teaches you more.
Collecting, as a habit rather than an investment
An argument against treating a collection as an asset class, and for the version that makes people happy.
Selling live is a performance, and it is learnable
For anybody who thinks they are not a performer. The skill is not charisma, and it is not the one you are afraid of.
The last ten seconds of an auction
A close reading of the most interesting moment in the product — and what the clock is actually protecting.
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