Eames, Panton, Kartell, Space Age, Herman Miller, Parker, Retro, Vintage...

Whether you're looking for cool vintage items to decorate your modernist home or auctioning treasures from nanna's old house, a bit of a browse around this category will give you some hints to get the result you're after:

• RESEARCH: Search using any of the keywords at the top of this post to find listing similar to what you're looking for or what you want to sell. Click "Watch this item' to monitor how the auction goes (or get in there and bid!). By Watching auctions you'll get an idea of the market value of items similar to those you want to buy or sell.
  
• KEYWORDS: This category is quite sensitive to keywords. One of the most popular is 'EAMES'. Don't expect to find many original Eames items, (though there are a few), 'Eames' as a keyword has become synonymous for mid-century modern (I wonder if Charles and Ray would be happy about this!) - it's basically a keyword for anything that is from the 1950s through 70s with a 'modernist' style. The same goes for 'Kartell', 'Panton' and 'Space Age'.  
  
• WHAT IS MODERNIST? Hmmm, this is a huge question and one you should ask your local art historian... if you don't know any art historians, just consider 'modernist' style to be pretty much 'kind of  cutting edge for it's time'... the 'time' being anywhere from the 1930s through 1970s (ish).
  
• WHAT IS RETRO? Good question. On eBay, retro is anything from the 1950s through to 1970s and 80s.There is also a sense that the word 'retro' belongs to mid century modernist and 1970s modern styling, but on eBay it's pretty wide open. 'Retro' could also be used to describe an item that is actually contemporary with 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s styling, so read/ write descriptions carefully.
• WHAT IS VINTAGE? You'd think that the 'Vintage' tag in item titles and descriptions generally means that the item is old... of-the-era, possibly cool and collectable and getting close to antique status... not neccessarily so.... 'Vintage' can mean all those things, but it has also been hijacked in recent years to mean 'Shabby Chic' which is a home decor style involving chandeliers, distressed finishes and 1950s-style floral fabrics. If you're searching using 'Vintage' as a keyword you'll see a lot of 'Shabby Chic' as well as the kind of stuff you're interested in. If you're wanting to list an item that is old and cool, use 'Vintage' anyway as it's a huge category and your item is actually vintage... isn't it.
• LISTING TIPS - The one thing that strikes me as an eBay user in this category is the number of listings I see with spelling mistakes and short titles. If you're listing, please, please check your spelling and do use the whole 55 character title allowance to communciate with your potential customers.

All the best with your listings and searches.

cheers
Little_Ming