In October, I bought three lots at the minimum bid of $5. With premium, the total price came to $17.25. Each lot was several boxes and other assorted stuff. It was hard to see what exactly was in each box, but I found a thing or two I thought were interesting, so I bid based on that. I ended up having about 45-50 listings from those purchases, so each item comes to less than 50 cents. I sold something for $16 the previous week, and last week I sold this set of dinner plates for $28. So, I’ve made back my money on two sales: http://www.ebay.com/itm/183526032154
My family and I were in Boston in the Spring. We visited a used book store where I bought a vintage book for $2. Then we were in Manhattan during the summer, where I bought an antique book for $1. In my mind, I had a race of NY vs Boston, and NY won with this 1857 Book of Patents for $34: http://www.ebay.com/itm/183381592247
For our wedding in 1999, one of our gifts was a Waring blender. I think I put something in there that it couldn’t handle, and it never really worked well after that. More recently, I bought a Ninja blender in an online auction (love it!), and I needed to make room in my cabinets. Since the Waring didn’t work all that well, I sold the pitcher for $20: http://www.ebay.com/itm/183434503644
Before I bought my current lighting system, I tried out different set ups with lamps I already owned. They didn’t work very well, and the photos didn’t come out that great. I’ve been meaning to retake photos for these Bradford Christmas ornaments, but they sold first. I bought them in a box lot for $2.40, and sold for $24: http://www.ebay.com/itm/183492179597
This was a menorah that my grandma bought for me in the 80s that I don’t use any more. I tried listing it when I was still new to eBay selling. It didn’t sell and, for some reason, I de-listed it. I decided to retake photos and relist it, and it sold for $24 within hours. I must have learned something about selling on eBay in the last 3 or so years. http://www.ebay.com/itm/183536515827
This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by Sharyn.
Antique schoolhouse Seth Thomas clock that my mom decided to relinquish (she’s downsizing slowly through my eBay business :-)); it hung in the house when I was growing up, and just came off the walls a few months ago. I think she or my Dad (as a gift for her) paid $100 for it in the 80s? It sold for full asking price, after having it on a few sales, at $175 + shipping. Went to a historical society in Michigan! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-c1890s-Seth-Thomas-Oak-Schoolhouse-Regulator-Short-Drop-Wall-Clock-12/323436161786
@silverfoxfinds Thanks for continuing to share your sales. I finally checked out your store and I like to sell the same kinds of items but have fewer higher dollar ones. I can’t tell you how many wooden salt and pepper shakers I’ve turned over looking and have never found any Dansk. Where do you source mostly again? Thanks.
Vintage Doc Martens= “Bovver Boots”, weapon of choice for the 1970s skinheads and football hooligans. The rest of the uniform is a Crombie overcoat, jeans with their legs rolled up and braces. I think red Docs were the thing at one time. As far as I remember, they go up to 20 holes- ten each side.
@ChristineR – I source wherever my eyes perk up (my schedule is pretty flexible), but most often thrift stores, estate sales, with the occasional online auction.
I love yard saling (sailing? :-)), but have had too many misses than hits here locally, so have gotten out of the habit and tend to instead list on Saturdays while listening to NPR podcasts. When I lived in KY, I often hit up a weekly auction, which I really enjoyed going to and bought from fairly often; I wonder now though, as a more experienced seller, if I’d buy differently/attend less, etc.
My Mom tends to have several items of varying value set out for me to take back home when I visit her, and she doesn’t want anything from those sales (yay!).
Sometimes people ask me what types of things I sell on eBay, or whether I specialize in anything (never in my life)….I always just reply with something along the lines of “Whatever will sell!” without sounding too crass!
I had another nice bunch of sales last week. Here’s some notable ones…
I spotted this brand new with tags Harley Davidson denim shirt at a thrift store. They wanted $7 for it, but I had a good feeling that I could make at least 4x profit. I couldn’t really find much about it after some research, and there wasn’t really much like it being sold, so I listed it higher than I would have at $70. After a couple months, I took a best offer of $62. https://www.ebay.com/itm/302913898171
This was my sale of the week. I mentioned before that I scored an almost car full of ham radio equipment, including this equipment made by a brand called Drake. Overall I didn’t spend too much on all of it. This speaker/power supply combo cost me $18. It sold after a couple months for full price of $230. I’ll be keeping my eyes out for more of this stuff. https://www.ebay.com/itm/302925724454
I won a box lot of old Masters of the Universe action figures at an auction for $22.50 (9 sellable items at $2.50 each). I was going to lot them all together, but decided to sell them individually instead. I found that some characters are way more popular with collectors than others. I listed two He-Man figures and they both sold on the same day for $35 each. https://www.ebay.com/itm/302959580072
This was a great sale. I acquired some very old original film negatives at an estate sale. These two were pretty fun to research. They were photographs of a US Navy ship named SS Leviathan taken in the early 1920s. I had them listed individually, but a buyer bought them both for $120 total. https://www.ebay.com/itm/302951592918 https://www.ebay.com/itm/302951592914
The uss leviathan is actually a fascinating ship. The picture you showed is probably from when it was being re-fitted. It was originally a German luxury liner named vaterland that got stuck in New York City at the outbreak of the war and was confiscated by us government no we were not actually in the ward that time. It was re-fitted and was a ship transporter throughout the war. The ship actually has a very famous trip where almost half the crew and soldiers came down with the flu of 1919. There’s a very cool book on it called The Great Rescue if you are interested. The slide you have are actually pretty rare to find the ship in the harbor like that.
Thanks for the info! That’s really interesting. I came across a little information while researching the ship, but got some more info from a person on eBay whose grandfather actually worked aboard the vessel. I’m glad for the sale, but I’m even more glad that I could rescue such historic pictures.
Sales are starting to pick up for me. I had a good week last week (week before last week since I am writing late now. This is a pretty piece of glass that I picked up at an estate sale for two bucks: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192683533595. I am hesitant to buy glass because it moves slow, is risky to ship and is pretty heavy. Today, I might pass over this one. I am ambivalent.
I was at an Estate Sale that was closing down and the agent said I could “make a pile” for $10. There was a box of rail road stuff that I threw onto my pile and these cars were in the box. Essentially, they were close to free and they sold for $40: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192574223446
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