- This topic has 28 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
I bought a few stinkers this year, but none so annoying as a lot of 300 first responder uniform pants for $321. I thought I would get $30 a pair for these things but they are a more unusual size (extra extra small) than I thought and they will. not. move. They take up SO much space in my storage too. I’m going to go drop the price on them again right now.
What are your top albatrosses of 2018?
-
Great thread. Several years ago I purchased 2000 pairs of new women’s work pants. But they were really unusual sizes. Sometimes unusual sizes are good to sell, but I guess work pants arent sought after.
We ended selling them for $1 each. We made money, but it took several years to sell them all.
-
Simplicio live and learn, I bet you hit a few grand slams this year too!
Maybe you could market them as kids school uniform or hiking pants? IDK…
I bet I have more stinkers or Zonks (ala Let’s make a Deal Gameshow) than anybody in the universe – if your misery loves company. In my dustbin it’s mostly condition issues that I missed, and all the other rookie moves. Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. It’s a journey.
-
My bad buy was a bunch of Rawlings Baseball / T-Ball Batting helmets. I bought 50 of them, all brand new (labeled, tagged, and bagged) for $2 each. 25 Blue, 25 Pink. I bought them in July, and haven’t sold one. I’ll keep them up through next spring/summer (since I may have missed the buying period for them) and see what happens. The price with shipping is cheaper than Walmart and other stores, so I hope they will start to move. They take up a lot of space, and I’ve been saving bigger boxes to ship them in.
If nothing moves, I’ll donate them to the local kids leagues…
-
Fun thread!
For me, vintage women’s Lucchese boots. I overpaid for them ($20) thinking I could get $80-$100ish. I think I’ll be lucky to sell them for $50. No offers all year, and they’ve never had more than a couple watchers. They’re a small size, and although they’re beautiful, I recognize now that they’re not that flashy or special.
-
A number of my bad buys over the past few years have been associated with a an auction that sells overstock, refused, or returned items. I had kept going back to them because I had some very good buys, but the bad ones stink so much that I’ve stopped going. I still check out their upcoming auction photos and, if I see an auction with some good stuff, maybe I’ll go again, but, for the most part, I’m done. They have these auctions right in my town, so I wished it was a better deal.
At the beginning of this year, I bought a large lot of new women’s pants, all the same style and brand in different sizes. I figured one listing using the variations functions, and I’m done. I decided to include shipping (there and return) to spur sales. Well, I’ve only sold about five or six and two or three have been returned for size.
They are really well made with a lining, and my price is good (I have them listed for $24, but I constantly have them on sale for about $18-20). My current sale just ended, so I’ve got to start one up again:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/183175765358-
Since there are other scavengers here who talk up those “returned merchandise” auctions, can you explain what makes some of the lots stinkers?
My guess is that often the lost of full of broken items?
-
I haven’t bought any returned merchandise.
My best buy was overstock books, which included 10 tarot card sets that went for really good money plus other books that did well. I did get a little sick and tired of selling the cheaper books, so I ended up donating a good number. I still have some listings left.
I bought some Asian style housewares, which are a pipeline and sell every once in a while.
I bought a huge amount of cute-ish clothing labels for less than $9, which would be great except that I haven’t sold any. That might be a story for another time. I have a few ideas of marketing them a bit differently before I give up and donate them all.
Then there these pants.
So, I’m at 50% success rate at this point.
-
-
-
I bought an amazing collection of tijuana bibles in the spring for around $200. There were 60 or so, with a cost of roughly $3.50 apiece.
I haven’t sold out of the darn things yet, or even made my money back from the buy. I’m probably going to move some to etsy, or just try to sell them directly through instagram. Ebay has not been my friend with these.
-
I had to google Tijuana Bibles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tijuana_bible
Maybe only the vintage ones are valuable?-
Yeah, these are the vintage ones. I even have several rare ones priced reasonably, but they’re not moving.
It might also be because I have them listed in adults only. When I first listed them, the number of ones active on ebay was split between normal ebay and adults only pretty evenly. I feel like mine have gone into a black hole on that portion of the site, though. Ugh.
-
-
-
-
Worst one for me this year was a Tiffany lamp I bought for $1,500 and sold for $800. The shades weren’t original and that’s where all the money is with Tiffany.
-
-
-
The first bad buy of the year that popped into my head: I bought four or five native-carved soapstone figurines at auction for $80. Each one is signed and has a certificate with it. I researched and listed them in the $80-100 range (each), and have had NO interest in them at all.
Last year, not such a bad buy, but I purchased a lot of used 5lb fire extinguisher wall brackets for $16. I think there were 80-90 of them in the lot. I’ve probably sold 40 over the last two years, but every time I look at the box, I curse it. I sell singles for $6-7/ea, or lots of five for $25ish. They sell, but are sooooooo slow.
Alternatively, best buy of the year for me was a paid of late 1960’s Levis jeans. Paid $8cdn, sold for $899.00usd (~1,123.75cdn), plus shipping.
-
-
I did the same thing with uniform shirts. They were size XXS, about a 33″ size chest. I had 50 of them, which thankfully only cost $25 since I paid 50 cents each. I sold 12 on ebay in Sept and October for Halloween security guard costumes for women, but that’s been it.
My worst 2018 buys were from online auctions where the auctioneers weren’t so honest; and I didn’t preview so it’s my fault too. I bought a vintage metal car toy that had a great box and topside. The auctioneer didn’t take photos of the bottom which was completely rusted out and green, and really gross. I paid $100, hoping to sell quick for $500 based on the seemingly great condition, and ended up selling for $100 because of the actual condition. The other bad buy was $413 for five rugs, two of which were 12′ x 8′. Vintage, wool, gorgeous in the photos. When I picked up, they were already rolled up and put in my truck in a few minutes. This was in FL when I was visiting family. When I got home to SC, the rugs were stained in corners, had tears in spots…all of which NO photos were shown on the website. They took strategic photos. I sold two small rugs for $150 and would love to unload the big ones. I might have to give away though because of their condition. It’s not even a “good” distressed, just plain stained. And they take up space in my 10×10 unit. Ugh.
-
For 2018, I spent $100 on a mens shirts and was convinced I would make $500. Nope. I made $50. Yes, $50. I ended up doing a bundle of same sizes.
Oh well, never again.LESSONS LEARNED ARE OFTEN BOUGHT
-
-
-
I agreed to try and sell a group of auto parts a friend got in a storage locker. I thought they would sell easily and make money for both of us. Turned out that it was SUPER hard to figure out what they were and how to describe them, and even when I did they didn’t sell well at all – I think most people want to buy car parts from a big company with warranties etc not a guy who sells antiques and clothes lol. It was a HUGE waste of time and disappointing to my friend.
Reinforces something I’ve been trying to tell myself recently – If it’s not interesting to you don’t waste your time. Way too many fun things to sell. I should have used that time time to work through my piles of interesting antiques … not selling dumb crap. Saw the $$$ in front of my eyes and got distracted.
-
-
I purchased items from two online auctions. In both cases, I ended up with a lot of junk that had been poorly described and badly photographed. Take home lesson was – don’t buy a pig in a poke and online auctions are 100% poke.
-
Yup. Old school brick and mortar auction houses are totally caveat emptor situations. The ones online have all kinds of warnings that bidders should come to view the items in person and I guess they feel that lets them off the hook for their shyster ways. I have been lucky with them and made money on the occasional purchases I have made despite no in-person viewing but I assume the worst and won’t bid any more than lunch money on things that will be profitable even if damaged. I don’t win many bids so I try not to waste too much time with them.
My bad buy of 2018 so far (it’s not over yet… still time to screw up again) has been a vintage underwater video camera housing I found at an indy thrift for $30 that was pricing out in the hundreds for eBay sold listings. Until I got it home and realized that they made many models that were precisely set up for different cameras and without knowing which video camera it was made for (not even a model number to be found on the housing) it’s a $20 item at best. The manufacturer’s website even has a notice not to bother contacting them about identification of older models because they can’t help.
-
-
-
Not exactly a bad buy, but amusing.
Went through the “art collection” of a charity warehouse on Saturday. The last picture I looked at was a lake-and-mountains scene. It looked like a print on canvas, but when I looked at the back there was a handwritten note signed and dated by the artist describing the location. Okay so it’s an oil, and looks good and it’s only £10, so I bought it and ‘phoned up a friend to check on the artist. He finds one painting and it sold for £3,300.
Get back home and check on the artist and find that he went to the Holy Land shortly before he painted the landscape and he is now the ‘Bob Ross’ of tacky religious paintings, available from his own website at prices from £150 upwards, along with T-shirts, tea trays and tchotchkes at very reasonable prices. For free you can upload a photo of yourself to his website and get it back with a transparent Jesus standing next to you.
That £3,300 was a real outlier.
-
-
I am stopping buying biederlacks, afghans all together. I have a tower of them, they take up so much room, and have then priced super low with discounted shipping and I cannot move any of them. I am thinking if they don’t sell by Feb I am going to post them locally as a bundle and be done with it. In fact, I may do that now.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.