Steve – In the early 1990s, my sister and I drove across the country and stopped off in South Dakota for spelunking and Mt Rushmore. We were driving from CA towards PA. I recall the name Wall Drug, but I don’t remember stopping there. All I remember is that the AAA book said that the spelunking was very difficult, and we kind of poo poo’d it. However, it ended up being worse than it said. We dragged ourselves to the next hotel to take showers and eventually made it to Mt Rushmore, but we did miss the light show!
Anyway, a few interesting sales from the week:
In September 2019, I went to an auction of liquor advertising items including thousands of whiskey pitchers and bottles. Initially, everything was being sold at pretty high prices, so I stood back and waited. After a few hours and once all the collectors got their fill, the auctioneers were doing everything they could to just get rid of the stuff. I ended up buying about 150 pitchers and bottles for less than $30. Two of them ended up being antique from the late 1800s. This one sold for $91:
At that same auction house, but maybe a year or more earlier, I pulled a Bar Mitzvah box from 1960 out of the trash. It was meant to hold the slides from the event. Someone from Sweden bought it and a vintage Bar Mitzvah teddy bear (from my one commission) through the GSP. The box was free and sold for $32, and the teddy bear was $30 with the commission at 50% after fees.
I was wondering the same thing. Often, Bar Mitzvahs have themes, and maybe this one is vintage? Or, maybe it is for a company that offers Bar Mitzvah services, and they wanted this type of decor? Maybe props for a movie or play?
I wouldn’t ask a buyer unless they contacted me; it’s sort of personal and not my business. But, I do wonder!
@Steve, this was one of your best videos ever. I loved seeing the television antenna collection and the vintage TVs in your basement. I hope you will continue to give brief tours of Steve-world from time to time.
Things have picked up for me in the last week after a one-week hiccup where I had few sales. This 1980s era transformer toy is the sort of thing that sends me elbows deep into bins of toys at garage sales. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193613443305 I love finding vintage toys and selling them.
At a garage sale over the summer, I rolled up just as a neighbor was dropping off his knife collection to sell. We chatted briefly about knives and then I asked for a price on the whole collection of about 15 knives. He said $20 and I said “sold”. I priced each from $15 to $49.50 and this one sold for a best offer of $40. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193634407576
My sister-in-law turned me on to the low esteem and high value that silverware in which silverware is often held by sellers and buyers respectively. I picked up this mixed set of vintage Interpur, (almost canoe muffin) for $5 and sold for $44.50. I might have gotten more by selling individual pieces, but I’m a little tired of flatware TBH. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193690191550
I came across a homemade estate sale when out garage saleing. The house had been picked nearly clean, but I still found four various sizes of these NOS Coleman generators as well as some other items for $5. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193688839336 This one sold for full price of $24.50.
This lens calibrator for a camera was still new in the box. It has no electronics and only a hinge for moving parts, so I bought it with confidence for $2. It sold within a week for full asking price of $42.50 https://www.ebay.com/itm/193683440212
An older friend from my neighborhood had a garage sale and she had set aside this box of vintage postal keys for me. She swore her husband made money selling these keys on the internet and insisted that I buy them from her for $5. I was skeptical but dutifully purchased them. It took some trial & error, but I hit on a strategy of listing the keys in lots and listing the key codes in the description. This was my last of five lots and it sold for full price of $44.50 https://www.ebay.com/itm/193378746991 I still don’t really know why people buy these keys. Anyway, I think I owe my neighbor lunch.
I thought I posted this yesterday but it never showed up. So trying again.
Most of my sales right now are things I already had and just trying to scale down. I’ve also started buying for the purposes of reselling. So far I’ve bought a few things at a couple estate sales.
Sold this vintage Kissing Crane brand folding knife. I like that is says “Stiletto”. This was in a box of my dads stuff that I finally decided to let go. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193655781949
Sold this NFL collector cup from the 80’s. I’ve got about 10 of these, all from when I was a kid. You could pay a little extra when getting your ICEE at the convenience store and get an NFL cup, or an MLB cup depending on the time of year. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193681436440
Sold three of these comic book color guides. I bought these in the late 90’s when I had my comic shop. These are the original hand colored pages that are used when making the comic book. The link is to one of the three, I had one person buy all three together. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193668413435
And lastly sold this Spiderman and Mary Jane action figure set from the late 90’s. Something I bought as a collector and now selling. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193678368696
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