Caveat Emptor - Let the Buyer Beware
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Online Auctions

The use of Internet auctions for the buying and selling of Fenton has grown tremendously over the last year or so. Right now, as of this writing, there are 5360 pieces of Fenton on Ebay, 1372 items on Yahoo!, and 109 on Amazon. Each auction typically runs an average of 7 days, so for the next year the approximate number of potential sells using Internet auctions could be 350,000 pieces or more. Even if only 60% of the transactions resulted in a sale, then that would still be 210,000. Internet auctions can be a great place to find deals on a piece of Fenton, but you can get burned badly as well. Here are some tips to keep you from being a statistic in the latter category:

1. EDUCATION If it seems that I'm harping on this quite a bit, there is a good reason. You can't make a wise purchasing decision if you don't know Burmese from Mulberry :) If you are interested in buying a piece of Fenton using an online auction, take the time to do the research. If you can't find the piece in one of the Fenton books or catalogs, then ask about the piece by Emailing the seller. They might be able to provide more information than was posted on their auction, like whether or not the piece was a factory second, a Fenton gift shop item, or a special piece for some other occasion. If you can't get your answers you want from the seller, then ask questions about the piece on the Fenton Chatboard on eGroups or the Glass Chatboard on Ebay. You will find some very knowledgeable people on the chatboards that know quite a bit about Fenton glass.