Trash to Cash. A podcast about making a living on eBay.
What Sells On eBay: Headboard reading lamps, JC Penney radio, Old World Globe, Ice cream venders cooler, Walkmans, Train case, Twemco Clock, Sony Trinitron
Hey Steve – I have a cousin in Pittsburgh (which is where I grew up) who is an artist, mostly cartoon type drawings. A few years ago, he did one for a retired Steelers player who was inducted into the hall of fame. The drawing went on a cereal box for a fund raiser and was sold locally. I had my sister buy me two boxes, and my son ate the cereal. I’ve been saving the boxes. I’ve thought of selling them, but it’s a family thing. Just a note that the family relationship is through marriage, and I have little to no artistic ability.
Anyway, I agree, the past two weeks have been a bit slow. Here are a few.
My neighbor held a MaxSold auction about two years ago, and I bought this antique lamp from her for about $3. It sold for best offer of $70.
I bought this antique sterling nail buffer in a MaxSold auction about five years ago. The seller described it as something else (I forgot what), but a fellow eBayer corrected my description. I must have had it initially listed too high, because it still sat there for years. Finally sold for $19. I think I paid a few dollars.
I bought this at an auction for around $16 knowing that cast iron and signs are good sellers, but it was just a reproduction. It sold for $47, which took maybe 2 years.
A friend of my parents sold a house in MA and gave me lots of china a few years ago including a full set of fancy dishes. I didn’t see much of this style listed, so I decided to sell it as a set with local pickup. Seems like no one in NJ was all that interested, so I have a buyer from GA that bought it for $150, and I’m waiting until they find a shipper for it. I have a feeling that, in the end, I’m going to have to ship it myself to be able to keep the sale.
I purchased a large number of whiskey pitchers at an auction in September 2019. I initially listed over half of them right away, and they have been a nice pipeline. I finally listed the rest last week, and here is my first sale for $52 to someone in the UK through the GSP. All 150ish pitchers cost me about $28, and I’ve already used up the COGS.
Good stuff Steven and Sharyn. Sorry to hear it’s been slow for you. I’ve been busy lately, but low volume compared to you two, of course. My sales are always good in the first several months of the year, consistently.
Sharyn I’m still jealous of your whisky pitcher score 🙂 – it’s great to see them sell so well.
I’m slowly but surely making my way to the present with my what sold posts, with the following sales from late last fall.
I had a burst of activity with my postcards. Here’s an example of a good solid military type that sells well, a real photo postcard from about 1914 of the USS New Jersey BB-16. (It’s not the WWII battleship USS New Jersey BB-62 that that is a museum in Camden.) This is one of a series of the heavily armored so-called Great White Fleet ships (due to the white paint overall including the hull) that circumnavigated the globe in 1909, demonstrating American military power, despite the fact that the major ships were already technologically obsolete at the time. The commissioning of these ships at the turn of the century marked the US Navy’s long overdue transition from wooden-hulled sailing ships, quite a few years after early commercial steamships began revolutionizing world trade in the 1850s and the ironclad warships appeared during the Civil War. It’s a fascinating era – the US was being dragged kicking and screaming into being a world power. (OK, yes I’m a history nerd.) This card sold for $8.89 plus .55 for shipping and I had a dollar in it.
Here’s an example of the color “linen” postcards that came into broad usage in the 1930s, so named for the textured cross-hatching on the front. Linen cards are not as popular today as the black and white real photo postcards from the 1890-1915 period. This card dates from WWII and depicts a US bomber and transport aircraft (somewhat generically – possibly due to security considerations) and sold for $5.95 plus .55. It was pennies in a large lot.
I’ve also dabbled in stereoviews. I’m finding it to be a very slow category overall, but there are occasional gems that turn up such as this fascinating 1882 street view of downtown Des Moines, Iowa, by Charles Bierstadt. Though the card is undated, there were few enough major photographers of the day traveling the country creating stereoviews that the fact that Bierstadt was in Des Moines taking pictures in 1882 was a matter of interest in the local newspaper and so is known to this day. (No Hy-Vee in sight, Steven.) It sold quickly for $64 plus First Class Package shipping and was about a dollar in a lot of cards, the rest of which have not sold although listed at much lower prices. (Apparently there is little interest in the Russo Japanese War. Long tail!)
When the $1 Sacagawea coins came out in 2000, they were heavily marketed and hyped. There was a great deal of highly publicized drama involved in the design and production not to mention a handful of infamous error coins that made it out of the mint. But most people did not use them at all. Anyone who was interested went down the bank, got a couple rolls, and promptly put them away in a dresser drawer. That’s what my wife and I did and we still had them. They appeared to be worth more in a sealed roll so that’s the way I’ve been selling ours. This roll sold for $55 with free shipping.
I’m not sure where this plastic toy soldier tank came from but I’ve had it for a while and was probably out of a large auction lot or something. Due to my discovery of the value of the Airfix tanks and vehicles that I’ve previously discussed here, I put a lot of effort into identifying it. It turned out to be a K-R Payton tank that was used by Lionel trains in a military flat car set. It sold for $29 plus shipping.
This would be a somewhat typical Middle Eastern copper repousse tray except that the Crucifixion of Jesus is the subject matter. Of course there are Christians in the Middle East, but not many and they typically keep a low profile, depending on the country, in the interests of their personal safety and economic survival. It was $2 at a Goodwill and sold for $50 plus shipping.
Cool sales everyone! Thanks for sharing pics and info. I’ve learned so much from these postings.
I mentioned recently that my area of older homes is going through a new round of Fed-fueled housing bubble flip-mania. Contents of older homes are just dumped on the curb! I can’t help but stop and take a look at the junk. In the last couple of years i’ve amassed a ton of smalls that i throw in plastic totes. I finally put some lots together. 2 sold this week. They didn’t sell for a lot but most of it was saved from the landfill and was free anyway! $30 and $40
At an estate sale in my neighborhood there was a huge collection of postcards that the person’s mother had collected. I didn’t want them ALL but the seller offered them to me for $40. There were about 30 binders. I pulled the cards, sold the ones I didn’t want and have been selling the empty binders. 4 empty vintage binders $45/free ship https://www.ebay.com/itm/363275985238
Still selling bike parts from my husband’s endless supply! BOLO for vintage anodized aluminum bike parts from the 80s and 90s. We picked up this Ringle Water Bottle Cage at a sale last week and it sold overnight to a buyer in Germany. Paid $1 sold $50
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