Hard lessons learned on ebay

As I said before, I occasionally sell off some of my existing Brighton collection to pay for new acquisitions. This week I had 10 listings on ebay. The auctions are over and the final totals are in: I made $290, which would have more than covered the new Brighton items I just bought. Would have, if I had not decided to forgo self-discipline in favor of a new purse. Now I am in the red for about $100.
I suspect I would be closer to breaking even if I already knew the hard ebay lesson I learned this weekend: If you have multiple pieces from a collection, sell them separately and not as a set. I sold two sets (necklace, earrings, bracelet) and neither brought what I had hoped. One set went for $53 and the other for $62. Monitoring other auctions, I noticed that the individual pieces in each of these sets were commanding $30 to $40 on average, which means each of my sets might have brought $100 if sold separately. That's closer to what I was hoping for.
I'm guessing higher demand must exist for individual pieces because the majority of bidders are not looking to buy full sets, but to fill out incomplete retired sets.
That said, if you happen to buying, you will probably get a better deal bidding on a set than buying several pieces separately.
Live and learn, Brightonistas. Live and learn.