Well I bought a Meiji-period Japanese bronze vase last week, for £3 from a local hospice shop; it had a tide mark 2 inches high from where it had been stood in water for many years. Sold it for £35 including postage to a Japanese buyer at a UK address; net profit £20 because I had to buy a posting box. I priced it to sell because I accidentally managed to put a small scratch on the lip of the vase, which annoyed me somewhat.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Felicitous Various Social and Religious Festivals to all, and may all your weird old stuff find new homes.
I don’t have much interesting from last week to show.
I did have someone send me pretty low offers (about half price) on several costume jewelry pieces I had listed, but then purchased (but didn’t pay) for one sterling chain/necklace at full price. I assume that was a strategy because I fell for it and decided to accept the offers based on the one full price item.
The other thing was that several months ago, there was a challenge (over in Amatino’s posts) to list your own items. I sold two items that I’ve had for decades, but really don’t need, a rain stick and two matching Asian style pillow covers. Both sold with some profit over what I originally paid, but not huge money makers. I really should clear out some closets that way, but it is too much fun to buy inventory.
Anyway, happy holidays everyone! Ditto what @antique-frog said. We may celebrate different holidays, but we all have much in common.
@sharyn Roast potatoes for the Christmas dinner this year gifted by a Hindu neighbour, whose son bought a bag of frozen ones not realising that they were coated in beef dripping. She laughed when I told her we were having roast beef.
Merry Christmas Day to all! @Steven I wanted to mention last week that I get such FOMO when I see your stereo equipment sell but I have to remind myself of the expertise you’ve developed over the years and the work and care you put into it to get where you are. We really appreciate you sharing it with us.
So let’s see what I had go out the door a while back that I haven’t mentioned yet. Here’s a good BOLO for anyone taking a closer look at any challenge coins they run across in the wild: A US Navy coin with a 4 star flag indicating full admiral rank, and with the admiral’s full name as manufactured. A consignment, it sold for $49 plus shipping.
We’ve lamented how it’s gotten harder to buy inventory at a viable price point. I try to look for items that are not well-known to be desirable, such as college-themed items from obscure institutions. Long tail, but consistent sellers for me. This exceedingly uninteresting 1973 book on Hollins College (now Hollins University in Roanoke VA) was .50 at an estate sale and sold for $26 plus shipping.
I love the postcards but they are almost always long tail for me. I’m probably pushing it with my asking prices. Another Great White Fleet ship Waterman card, this one the USS South Carolina, circa 1914, the lead ship in her class of short-lived dreadnought battleships. (Yes, Antique Frog, the US Navy class named after the Royal Navy’s 1906 HMS Dreadnought.) It sold for $13 plus shipping at eBay’s Standard Envelope for cards rate.
Here’s another mid-90’s ship’s plaque off the I-love-me wall, this from the USS Vella Gulf, a guided missile cruiser. It sold for $66 plus shipping on an offer out.
This Korium knife in broken, dug-up condition is an example of cheap knives sold mail order from ads in the back of Popular Mechanics etc. during the ‘50’s and ’60’s. Part of a large free lot, it was a quick and easy sale at $10 plus shipping.
My wife tended to a bit of kleptomania on her travels for work when she was younger, coming back with bar-hopping souvenirs including logo glasses, mugs, and paper coasters. Lots of them. Here’s one lot of 30 German, Polish, Swiss, and Czech beer coasters that sold for $19 plus shipping. A while back a prospective buyer messaged me something to the effect of “I’m interested, but those photos aren’t taken on a floor, are they?” I replied yes, but that floor was a lot cleaner than the bars where the coasters originally came from. Of course I never heard back from them, but the lot did sell to someone else soon enough.
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