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After a quiet, discplined scavenging first week of March, I had a lot less self-control last week. But the deals were there. Part of building a consistent pipeline is buying when the deals are there and not talking yourself or buying junk into overpaying when they’re not.
In terms of net profit on individual items, I will probably do the best with a pair of expensive hockey autographed cards: this Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury went for $61 and this autographed dual jersey of Martin Brodeur and Ryan Miller ended at $76. Not sure if I will sell these in my eBay store or through consignment, but I will look to get at least $200 for each card. The titles of the original auction were very poor and I only found the listings because I look through every daily auction (well as many as I can) from this particular seller.
I got very lucky with the shipping from one of the other big sellers I buy from every week, but it’s not just luck when you’re putting in the work. While this listing stated a $39.95 (!!!) shipping charge (which is why I won it for a $0.99 bid), after winning a pile of like items, I messaged the seller (really a company, not one person) with some flattery about how much I love their auctions. The CSR, who I assume was just happy not to deal with someone complaining, sent me an invoice for my whole box (which also included a Sandlot autographed photo and an old-school signed Red Sox yearbook) for just $14.95 shipping. Should add up to an easy $100 profit without much work.
Outside of eBay, every week I look to the Panini Rewards site for their new drops. You pay with points (which are regularly bought and sold on the secondary market) and about $10 for shipping. The trouble is that the best cards sell out immediately — as in, within seconds — because there are just one or two copies and people use bots. Welcome to the world of limited edition collectibles. Instead of fighting with the bots, I mostly stick with underpriced cards and buy multiple copies of them. This week I loaded up on autographed jerseys of the great Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes. I spent about $32 on shipping and the equivalent of about $300-400 in points on 18 cards. I’ll double my money if my average sale price is $50, but I think I’ll do a bit better than that.
What did you find this week?
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Last week we went on vacation to the beach, so not much scavenging. I wouldn’t have done much anyways. I did stop by Goodwill yesterday to give it the once every 1-2 weeks run through.
I bought a couple pair of shoes – the best being a pair of Asolo hiking boots with Gore-tex lining. Pretty much any shoe/boot with gore-tex lining is a good pickup and a sign of high quality.
I picked up a couple clothing items – the best being an Orvis high pile fleece jacket. Comps put it at $70-80.
One other item of note is one I did NOT buy. It was a farberware 455 Rotisserie. I gave it a good once-over and it appeared be functionally complete buy missing a minor accessory or two. The sales prices can get up to $150. They were asking $15 so the profit was there. The box is really big though and the STR was not great. I passed based on the size of the item and the STR. I am more focused on clearing space right now and don’t want something like this taking up space for a while.
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https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18031765384907541/ The highlight shows my favorite church sale finds. I bought about 33 items for $97. New in package Pottery Barn, modern stuff, several pieces of original art besides the horse in the link, vintage items, etc. I made it first to the art work and linens again. I was junkin’ so hard I scraped my leg and didn’t even notice until afterward. This church sale is my favorite of all. It rained a lot for here, so it seems like they are all cropping up at once. I’m getting overwhelmed with stuff.
The prices were super reasonable, but on my second check out they woman said the blanket (in photo) was Navajo and she wanted $15 apiece for the two she noticed. I bought 5 of them. I thought they are unusually soft for Mexican or South American blankets, but I don’t think I can call them Native American. If anyone has any knowledge about this, please reach out.
I stopped at an estate sale on my way home and bought a full box of bubble wrap and packing paper. Also a few vintage planters and floral supplies for a dollar each. Whew.
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