Trash to Cash. A podcast about making a living on eBay.
What Sells On eBay: Magnavox stereo, Vintage Time N Date Wall Clock, Leather bound Bible, Table lamps, 8-Track decks, Train Book, Hat, Cosco serving cart
Steve, thanks for the continued posts about your solds. I chuckled at your Estes Park hat – I pass on so many Colorado themed hats just because I see them all the time in our thrift stores. I’m glad for your reminder that what is common locally is not common in other parts of the country.
@ChristineR, I am halfway through your video and love it. Thanks for posting about Pinterest and pinning groups on FB. This is an angle I’ve never heard of.
At the tourist office, I picked up a really great travel guide in Kamakura for free. I wished I had read it before I got there because I had little time there and it was so full of info. Anyway, I listed it on eBay with the acknowledgement that it is available for free in Japan, and it sold for $9.50 & free media mail shipping. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193409122691
I do still buy hats. I only get hats that are likely to be a keyword search or that are vintage made in the USA. I like to sell them for at least $12.50. This Star Wars hat went for full asking price of $18.50 & free shipping. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193265441947
These Studio Ghibli stickers were $1/each at the museum outside Tokyo. I bought 10 of them and listed them on eBay for $11.50 + shipping. Last week, I sold three for $34.50 https://www.ebay.com/itm/193354736812
At an estate sale, the homeowner had a big box with every receipt, hang tag, catalogue and manual that came with her purchases for decades. I bought the box for $2. This collection of camping hangtags and small manuals sold for $24.50 (free shipping) and was my third or fourth sale from that box. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193412991635
It’s been a while since I plugged my only venture into retail arbitrage. I got about fifty 3-packs of Calvin Klein size large underwear at Costco when they went on sale for $5.50 each. I have been selling them in ones and twos every two weeks or so for $18.50 + shipping. Sold three sets last week. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192751006886
Steve, I find it fascinating that in your part of the country a $10 stereo can just sit unsold on FB, even if it was broken.
You gave me some major blasts from the past this week. My dad would film home movies of the family using those MovELites with his Super 8mm on Christmas mornings in the early ‘60s. It was funny to watch the movies with all of us squinting and holding our hands up over our eyes because those lights were so bright.
And I remember putting an 8-track player just like that one in my car. They were such junk I still find it amazing that people want them now.
I bought this earthenware English caviar jar in a London flea market about 30 years ago for a couple pounds. This was pulled off a shelf as we’re going through our dust-catchers to downsize for the move. It’s going back to England, selling for $25 on a best offer, plus the buyer is paying $23 in shipping (direct; no GSP). https://imgur.com/QlpIbXo
I started this consignment challenge coin from the Polish Army GROM Special Forces aggressively priced at about $150 which garnered watchers and low ball offers. I did start to drop the price a bit after a while. One guy from Poland was very persistent. He started at $20, then a month later offered $30, and so on, finally getting up to $50 (plus shipping) so I gave it to him for that. The consignor is still amazed that I can actually sell these and is happy with whatever I get. https://imgur.com/QMp8FO5
This brass belt buckle was in a carload of free junk that was given to me by a frustrated flea market dealer one day last year (I think I talked about it here before). It’s an example of a “fantasy” antique, something manufactured in quantity (usually China, or India, with metal items) to look like an antique but not based on anything that actually existed in the past. The face has a relief faux-advertisement for “Indian Head” Virginia tobacco and the back is stamped “Tiffany New York International Exhibition”. These and similar buckles were a staple of flea market and street vendors in the ‘60s and ‘70s in the heyday of big leather belts on blue jeans. It sold for $20 plus shipping with full disclosure. https://imgur.com/TQ50zfG
For those of you not into the scavenger life yet (or even alive 🙂 ) in the old pre-eBay days, collectors of all types commonly bought from dealer lists. Typically hard-core collectors themselves, niche dealers would advertise in the back of magazines, newspapers, and collector newsletters. The ads wouldn’t necessarily be for any specific items, but simply to sell a typewritten list of their offerings. So you’d mail your 50 cents or $1 or sometimes all they wanted was an SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope) in order to receive something like this list from Howard Rogofsky. He was a legendary dealer in comic books and ephemera in the ‘70s and ‘80s. This 64-page list of his dates from 1987. I had high hopes for it at $40 but finally let it go on an offer for $18 plus shipping. https://imgur.com/G5wEWsI https://imgur.com/d2TDwi2 https://imgur.com/Rw1rVbQ
This item represents one of the only types of clothing that I will buy for resale: hip hop fashion. This Crooks and Castles tee was $1 at a yard sale and sold for $25 plus shipping. https://imgur.com/GAhRhcc
Unable to really source like I used to, I’m looking around my house at the gobs of unnecessary stuff and wondering whether I can part things out.
I had some old luggage sitting around. Good brand, but otherwise not special. So big and bulky – and probably would have sold for about $35 or so and been expensive to ship. Garment bags have a lot of zippers, buckles, hanger clips and so on. So I pulled all of that off and have listed them. I realize this destroyed the bag, but decided to go for it for space and mailing reasons. So far in the past week I’ve sold a handle and four screws and a plastic buckle clip for about $30. Still have more than $100 in inventory to go and it all sits in a plastic zipper bag. First class mailing is cheap, too.
I have done this before with moldy higher-end Hartmann luggage. Those leather handles, tags and straps are not cheap. But the tweed and leather bags can get fairly gross if kept in someone’s dank basement.
Saw a Dyson vacuum in a neighbor’s curbside trash the other day. Figured I’d go back to get it, leave it in the car for a few days to decontaminate, and part that out, too, but someone got there first.
Huh, someone gave me two vintage Hartman suitcases. They have wood structures covered with fabric, and the guy kept it in his attic for years. Gross. I was thinking to list them on Facebook, but you’ve given me some great ideas here. Thanks!
My big sale of last week was a gold ring with a Tahitian pearl and small diamond accents for $150. It is a commission, but still very good. https://www.ebay.com/itm/184238795947
My local library has a book sale once a year inside the town’s mall. It is a fundraiser, so I don’t mind spending a bit more than usual. This sealed CD from an Israeli rock singer took about a year to sell. I paid $2 and it sold for $19. It is all in Hebrew. https://www.ebay.com/itm/183769153352
I’ve had this huge typewriter in inventory for a few years. I was storing it on top of a counter, and I kept bumping into it. I had it priced pretty high, but I took the $40 offer without countering it because I just wanted it gone. It was a bear to pack, but I just got great feedback saying what a good job I did. https://www.ebay.com/itm/184203826569
From my whiskey pitcher purchase last year, I sold two to someone in Malta through GSP. The nice thing is that the buyer was able to put both in their cart and pay for them together with combined shipping. I don’t know when eBay fixed that issue, but it is nice that the GSP now lets you do that. I paid less than 25 cents per pitcher, and they paid $45 total for the two. https://www.ebay.com/itm/183982419989 https://www.ebay.com/itm/183982421109
Talking about those whiskey pitchers, I had someone on Etsy want to buy all my pitchers that were from Crawford’s. I had four listed on Etsy, four that were sitting around not listed, and one listed on eBay. I put all nine for her in one listing for $154, which included shipping of about $46 from NJ to TX. Her last name is Crawford, so I don’t know if she is related to the founder of the distillery in Scotland, or if she just collects stuff with her last name. https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1871937758
Steve,
Thanks for all your videos. This one is great.
You should have sold some old LPs or 8-tracks bundled with that Pokalolo Hawaii salad shirt. Artists like Willie Nelson and Cheech & Chong come to mind.
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