Search Results for 'bolo'

[Sharyn]

I posted about my big surprise a little over a year ago. When I bid in an online auction, I will sometimes bid on a lot if no one else does. I’ll take the risk for the $1 minimum bid. I bought a lot with CDs, cassettes, VHS tapes, etc., and was able to sell the cassette holder for $90. You can read about it here:

BOLO: Dynasound Cassette Holder

Similarly, I bought the contents of a linen closet for $1. It had several vintage tablecloths, which I was able to sell for decent money. The real surprise was two fur mink hats hidden in a plastic bag. I think each sold in the $35-$40 range. Not a huge amount, but between those and the linens, I made over $200 on that $1 purchase.

[Brian Treasures from Grandmas]

Was it one of the gold ones? If I remember correctly, normal games that had competition versions were shiny gold colored instead of the normal grey or black. Is that correct? (so i can make sure they’re on my BOLO list)

[Temudgin]

Nice stereo sale. I can’t wait until I’m not in a “gated community” so I can local-sale some big items myself.

I’ve learned not to throw away old key fobs and rings that I run across. Mostly not big money but they are reliable sellers for me and no hassle to ship. This Alfa Romeo key fob dates to pre-1971 based on the word “MILANO” present on the round logo. Found in a cheap box lot so virtually nothing in it, sold quickly for $15 plus shipping. I would have listed for more but it was a little rough.
https://imgur.com/dt0xAg5
This tie bar is a representation of the MK48 submarine torpedo. Taxpayers should take comfort in the fact that the MK48 was put in service in the early 1970s and is still in use to this day by the US Navy, albeit with updated electronics, etc, of course. A couple dollars at a flea market, it sold for $19 plus shipping in about a week.
https://imgur.com/mKOMnIH
This t-shirt was mine, purchased new from a local motorcycle dealer I patronized in the mid-‘80s while at Ft Carson CO for a short while in the Army. Wore it for years, passed it to my kids when I “outgrew” it, then recently got it back in the family donation box. I was going to grab it for a car washing rag until I figured I’d better research the dealer’s name on the back. I was thinking he may have been a notable race driver – the hot rod and bike crowd is heavily into early racing nostalgia. Turns out I was smart to research it, but off base as to why. “Buttery soft and paper thin” from age and use, old distressed authentic auto or motorcycle themed t-shirts like this are apparently quite the fashion statement. Listed at $95, sold for a best offer of $84 plus shipping in about a month, going to Spain.
https://imgur.com/WvrpkGO
For a long while, there was not broad interest in the Iraq War souvenirs that soldiers brought back. Sixteen years later the items sell quicker and for better money. This is an Iraqi Army rifle bayonet “frog,” an issued item to carry the bayonet in a scabbard on the belt. I have $4 in it and it sold within a month for $25 plus shipping.
https://imgur.com/BefHZZL
Many Iraqi items are unmarked but there is a distinctive property stamp sometimes present. The frog only had a partial stamp on the back, eligible unless you knew what you were looking for. If an item is stamped, it will look like some variation of this:
https://imgur.com/Id1xorC
This bolo tie was out of my dad’s estate, purchased new in New Mexico in the ‘60’s. Turquoise jewelry pricing is all over the map and I’ve got no eye to differentiate why some pieces are worth more than others but this one was signed and felt well-made so I just stuck a high price on it, listing it over a year ago at $336 to gauge interest. There was a lot of interest (even had someone beg me to unblock him so he could buy it – I did not recognize him so it must have been my auto-block for too many unpaid items) but I did feel the price was too high and I got impatient. So I have been lowering the price, received a few offers that I tried to unsuccessfully pull up with counteroffers, then finally accepted an offer of $175 plus shipping.
https://imgur.com/EUpOnKC

[SpartyQ]

My Store Week Feb 17-23, 2019
Total Items in Store: 554
Items Sold: 35
Gross Sales: $1,002.50
Cost of Items Sold: $80
Highest Price Sold: $125 (Genuine Birch Bark Lampshade)
Returns: 1
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: Approx $80
Number of items listed this week: Approx 60
Favorite Sale of the Week: I have a Goodwill near my work that has been stocking hockey equipment in near new condition.
I have found some gloves, pants, and skates that have sold well over the past couple of months. This week I sold a near new pair of kid’s skates for $45 that I paid $7 for. Crazy that things this new are given away.

Stories from the week: Weird week. I was all ready to report a bad week considering how things started, but a nice finish on the back-end made up for it all.
I made the mistake of swapping shipping labels on two orders. Had to pay for additional postage to get them to the right location and to top it off, one of the items did not work upon arrival – it was a motherboard to a PC that I bought for $30 – thought I had identified the issue as I have some expertise in computer building but I was wrong. Overall I sent the motherboard and a vintage firkin bucket and lost a few bucks. And then I had resolution on a set of glasses that never delivered (USPS) – I refunded…ugh.
So the week was ugly at the start but some good things happened. I went to my first live auction on Wednesday and spent $41 – Listed 40 things and have already profited $60 off two items – a mid century modern clock and a Panasonic VHS Recorder. Another item that has been selling quickly is the Barbie Jumbo Jet that I took apart for pieces. Bought for $3 and have already made three sales for $36 with plenty left to go. Possible BOLO item as it’s easy to part out.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by SpartyQ.

[Sigilini]

I have found that carved or turned wood table legs, chair legs and buns (sofa legs) sell well, not fast, but consistently.

I have gotten many for free (I rescued some from my neighbors firewood pile and sold them) and found them at estates sales. They are usually in the dusty garage and no one pays any attention to them at all. Often they cost about $1.00 per piece and they sell for about 15.00 to 35.00 plus shipping. They are easy to list and easy to ship.

Note: Also taking apart old chairs and parting them out is good but it takes more time. I took apart an antique chair that was broken and sold the springs, the seat cover, the legs and the back. Don’t know if I want to do that again, because it does take time but if the chair is free, I might not be able to resist.

[tam from Tam’s Vintage & More]

I was at an estate sale today ( third day of the sale) and in the garage was a box of vintage markers. Thanks to you guys talking about your vintage markers I grabbed them for 2 bucks. Going to try an auction and start it at 29. So thanks Jay & Ryanne!

[BigSally]

BOLO
I’ve been having luck with Vietnam era military items. Uniform wings, patches, Photos and any pilot related stuff.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/113576637807 sold in a day full price

https://www.ebay.com/itm/113591724144 offer pending from a collector who wants to do a deal for all 5 lots I have.

I’ve got some award plaques up also with some watchers but no sales yet.

Just FYI for you estate sale’rs Complete uniforms seem like they are going for a good price too, but i’ve not gone down that road yet.

best
big sally

[Steve List]

Numbers for January, 2019

Total Listings: 1000
Had 71 Sales for a total of $1500.46
Cost of Items Sold: $231.02
Highest Price Sold: $82.30 (7 lots of brass and copper small screws)
Average Price Sold: $21.13 – Average Cost: $3.25
Spent on new inventory: $0
Number of items listed: 108 (many were multiple quantity)
No returns, 2 GSP, England and Australia

I finally hit 1000 listings this month, actually I hit it about 4 times because of sales each time I got went over 1000.

A BOLO I always check for in the garages and sheds at estate sales are small brass and copper screws and nuts. I spent under $10 for a lot of them recently at a sale and already have had $137 in sales and still have 11 lots for sale.

My weirdest sale in January was 2 lots (different buyers) of 100 Diet Coke plastic bottle caps for $10 plus shipping. Not a big sale but since I drink a lot of the stuff and have been saving the caps for a few years it was basically free money. These were ones with unused redemption codes, (just sold another lot over the weekend.)

One last note, I had an $80 sale to the state of Washington. eBay put a small note on my order page stating that the purchaser was charged sales tax and that it will be remitted to the state by eBay. I hope eBay does this for all of the states that charge sales tax, it will make life easier for all of us online sellers.

[bcfol440]

T-Statt: In response to jeans & mens shirts being down 7.5% YOY, Yep. I have a bucket of mens jeans that move like molasses.. I rarely get mens shirts these days but bundles will do well for me when I can grab 4-5 XLs.
Here are my bolos for jeans right now that bring a $20 ring.
larger sizes waist, shorter inseam.
work pants and lined pants
Carhartt of course
Selling in bundles by size

[Mark S]

I have been on the fence about larger items. But, this summer I bought a large (30 X 20 X 15) Golf bag, and a very long Snowboard. I had room in the garage and took a chance on these larger items because I got them for very cheap.

Well, that paid off this last week. I sold the Golf bag for $180 and the Snowboard for $100.

So, I will BOLO these types of items. However, I will be very selective because no one wants a very large item like this that is very long tail.

What do you think about buying these larger types of items?

Mark

[Steve List]

Numbers for December, 2018

Total Listings: 956
Had 55 Sales for a total of $1138.20
Cost of Items Sold: $104.40
Highest Price Sold: $70 (Folio Society Book) – cost $2 – (Solds – High to Low)
Average Price Sold: $20.69 – Average Cost: $1.89
Spent on new inventory: $836
Number of items listed: 54
No returns, 4 GSP, Sweden, France, Netherlands and South Korea

Folio Society Books are a bolo I didn’t know about before, but are on my thriftdar now. Many of them go in the hundreds and a few of the sets are in the thousands.

My new inventory was very high this month, mainly due to a monthly warehouse estate sale on half off day. $144 of it was for Polaroid cameras and accessories that came with a large lot of different types of Polaroid film. Most of the rest was for a very large lot of vintage Marklin Train cars and accessories still in their original boxes.

[almasty]

Thanks everyone for your input. I feel much less bad side-eyeing these 2 boxes of “junk” (junk to me, good stuff to people that look out for this sort of stuff). I’m just going to shame myself by saying what they are, because they are GOOD items, just not “good” for me: North Face Jacket, NIB Carolina Boots, some rare hats, a few other items scattered about that were all incredibly cheap. Stuff that everyone makes a big deal about, but I’m just “meh.”

I agree it becomes a problem if all you have are items you aren’t interested in listing. I just purchased items during a few months of experimenting with items outside of my niche that I never got around to listing. When I thrift now, I only buy items outside of my niche that I KNOW I will list. It has to be interesting to me. I leave a lot of “good” stuff behind that I just know I will never ever deal with after I have bought it, no matter how much it is worth.

At the very least, I did get 40 new items listed today, photographed another 10 items to be listed, priced 20+ items from my backlog to get listed in the next week, and purchased 30 more items in my niche I’ll be happy to list. I LOVE LISTING.
Just.not.these.darn.bolo.items.that.are.boring.

[Mark S]

2018-25-18 – 2018-12-01

Total Items In Store: 2609
Items Sold: 23
Cost of Items Sold: $70
Total Sales: $ 712.68
Highest Price Sold: $ 49.99
Average Price Sold: $ 30.99
$ Listed $ 2549.95
# Items Listed: 59
Money Spent on New Inventory:

Gut Sales Report for the week: It doesn’t feel like the busy season at all. This was just a slightly higher than average week for me. Yes, there were some great spikes in sales, but then there were also stretches of nothing. Very eratic sales.

Challenge of the week: List as much as I can to get the sales up as much as I can.

Scavenge of the week: This was a couple of weeks ago: I bought some vintage wood working bar clamps because they looked cool. I have sold 2 sets within 2 days of listing them for good money. This will be a new bolo for me. However, I don’t think I have ever come across these before. I have seen a lot of clamps before, but not bar clamps.

Mark S

[almasty]

Whoa, the gofundme link on that page for people to START their MLM businesses with. With sob stories. Daaaaang. I knew they encouraged them to get credit cards to start their businesses with, but didn’t realize people were asking friends and family to also help through crowdsourcing. I don’t see any recent campaigns, so maybe that stopped a couple of years ago.

Of course, Ebay sellers posted BOLO videos of the Lularoe they sourced from Goodwill and on Craigslist, devaluing the brand even more. Circle of reseller life.

[MyCottage]

I know nothing about the brand, but suspect Almasty is right: Supply and demand—looks like right now demand might be outpacing supply. Of course, that could change if one of the YouTube clothing sellers declares the brand a BOLO…..so sell it fast LOL

And yes, J&R’s words to shop by: “I am not my target audience”….I remind myself of that pretty much every time I’m out sourcing. It really does pay off.