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In the last podcast there was a caller that said he collects his lower cost items and then sells them at once in one lot called “junk drawer.” That sounded very interesting to me since it often happens that I end up with stuff that is cool but too small to bother with in a single listing. However, my items are random items, they are not of the same type like all silverplate or all xmas stuff. They are definitely a random mix of stuff.
I noticed in the sold “junk drawer” listings that they tend to be similar items. So I was wondering, have you ever tried do sell a “junk drawer” lot? Did it work for you? How did you do it?
Thank you in advance for your feedback.
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I haven’t sold one yet but I’m on the verge of trying this. We are planning to sell our house, so for the next couple of weeks, my focus is going to be on purging stuff from our house and packing up stuff we want to keep. I’m planning to try to lot up the stuff we are purging and trying to sell it in these junk drawer type of lots on ebay for the smaller stuff and on Craig’s List for the bigger stuff.
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I was also intrigued by that. What a great way to sell the smalls that are sitting around. Anybody every try this? Is it better to do auction or fixed price? Free shipping or not? Price high or low?
So many questions.
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If something sounds too easy, I get skeptical.
Dump a bunch of junk in a box, photograph, and sell for $50?
I hope folks do experiments and report back.Only way that makes sense is that the “junk” is actually pretty valuable.
Stuff we would sell individually.-
If something sounds too easy, I get skeptical.
Grab a pair of dirty shoes, don’t even clean off all the dirt, photograph, and sell for $50?See what I did there? 😉
I absolutely believe you can do the box lots. Why would you be skeptical after the literal thousands of pieces of junk you’ve sold?
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It’s about putting things in context.
For example: these aren’t just dirty boots. These are authentic distressed Red Wing lace up boots.
So for box lots, what’s so special about the box lot? Is it really just a bunch of worthless junk? Or is it “Box lot of vintage costume jewelry” or “HUGE lot of antique broken watches and watch parts” or “Lot of US Made Steel + Iron Carpenter Woodworker Tools”
Hey, I’m skeptical when people make it sound easy. I’m happy to be proven wrong. Someone put up a junk lot, sell it for $50, and tell us about it.
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The sell through rate is phenomenal! 5,643 active and 14,578 sold. I’d be curious to drill it down and see what category of items sells best.
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I just listened to the latest podcast and that fellow called in again. Keith from Boston.
He said, if I got it right: he fills up a large flat rate priority box, when it is full he dumps the contents and take pix, lists with the weight of the package and “Junk Drawer Box Lot Estate Find” and then fills in with content items in the room the is left (buttons, pins, stickers, etc.)
He did not say if he auctions or just prices it…
It would be great to see a link to one of his sold items.But I am going to give it a try anyway and see what happens… who knows, might be a great way to get rid of our misc items.
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Right now when I click on subcategory Collectibles / Collectibles Wholesale Lots / Other Collectibles Wholesale Lots (selected for “US only” to keep out the new China junk) there are 13,193 active and 13,016 sold listings (assuming eBay is showing me all of the listings, which they may not be). On sold listings, it’s about 75/25 BIN/Auction. You can refine the search in Other Collectibles for Coins, Knives, Silver, Watches, “Junk”, etc.
But Figurines, Flags, Knives, Lighters, Pins & Buttons, Postcards and Paper all have their own subcategories also at the same level as Other Collectibles.
It’s the Wild Wild West in there, a very interesting place. Many of the lots with “junk drawer” in the title aren’t so junky and go for hundreds of dollars.
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Yeah, i would limit the enthusiasm if people are excited about selling actual junk.
To me, it looks like people are selling boxes of actually cool items. These sellers seem too lazy (aka time efficient) to list items individually.
We would sell many of these items for $20-$30 each. So $50 for a whole box of stuff is low. This might be a good way to source.
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This is a very interesting topic, I think. Great input from everyone.
I am working 7 days a week so I am not sure if I fall into the lazy category but I do have a bunch of stuff that is not worth listing at $1-5.00 — that was the idea I got from what Keith from Boston was saying.
I have taken a bunch of stuff to the thrift store in the last few weeks just to ease up the load so I can focus on the more profitable items. But if it’s true, and I can put it all in one lot, that would be interesting to me. The time it would take to list each one is not worth it but all together for a lower price, sure! Why not?
Up to now I thought it should be all similar items in a “lot” but maybe that’s not true. I guess the only thing to do is try….
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Always worth a try. Be curious to see your results.
My point is:
–if items are actually junk, I wonder how much you’ll get for a box full of it.
–the “junk lots” that sell for big money look like they actually have valuable items in them. I think you could get more selling those items individually. Making $100 for 30 items that are worth $20/each doesn’t sound like a good sale to me. Unless you’re simply trying to save time.But this is why we need someone to do testing!
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It wasn’t much of a test, but I tried a couple of times to auction a junk drawer lot of miscellaneous items with no connection to each other. None of the items was actually junk. They were sellable individually but they were things that would definitely be long tail. I had a extremely low starting price and asked for no more in shipping than my actual cost would have been. I did not receive any bids and concluded that listing a junk lot was not useful to me. Of course, your experience may be different.
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I’m seeing junk drawer lots with “unsearched, untested” in the title. I don’t buy it. I don’t trust people that far.
That said, selling a “junk drawer” listing is something I’d be willing to try with some of the broken costume jewelry I have from my friends’ mother’s estate, or by slowly amassing smaller items from the dump, or some other low or no cost method.
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I’ve sold a couple lots over the last few years that I have called “Junk Piles” where I have bought a box of vintage toys, and random parts for Transformers, He-Man, Hot Wheels, and other 1980’s toys were in the box with nothing to go with. I’ve put them all together in one auction lot, and they sell – but not for $50 – usually for $10 to $20.
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Just posted a lot of smalls as a “junk drawer” – so many random items. they are all quality small value items that can be resold in the 10 dollar per piece range 9 total pieces in the box. The box weighs in at 19lbs. which is 15-25 via fed ex. I placed a starting bid of 9.99 and buy it now of 39.99
This is my “zonk” box (anyone remember Monty Hall?!) – I will keep ya’ll updated.
sally -
here is the link…duh.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/112872828524 -
BigSally,
It seems that you may have several pieces that can bring in money by being sold individually. While I haven’t researched the items you included, I am just curious what made you choose to group all of the items instead of selling them separately?BigSally,
I just did a quick search on ebay by taking your item titles and plugging then into ebay. Unless the lot pulls in at least $100 dollars or more, I think you may be leaving money on the table by selling these items in a lot instead of individually even if they become longtail items. You may want to look around bit on ebay.
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Thanks Ad’E
thats the rub- longtail, shipping and storage. I don’t have a lot of time and money in these, so off they go- to someone who can make a few bucks – I hope. Maybe if they do not sell I can re-think this. My perspective is from the hobby side- not the income side. I think I am earning about 2.50 per hour in my ebay venture….lol
I also just listed another “zonk” box of watches. to be honest, maybe i want to get them out because they remind me of some of my dummy moves/questionable picks…. -
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Hi Everyone-
just a quick update, my ZONK box sold at auction for 16.50- These were all parts of estate sale left over bundles so how can I put a price on that? Haha, IDK. Its out of the house and next time I will take better photos and do a buy it now listing of over 20.00
I already have some items set aside – I am using a milk crate as a size guide and will keep it under 20 lbs-
I still can’t bring myself to list all the smalls separately and wait it out… -
PS Jay
yep I’m so lazy- seriously I am. I don’t want to strain my retirement!And if I can be a “source” for those who do rely on ebay to make a living, and cool stuff gets to whomever its destined for; I am more than happy to help out. Everybody wins, it’s possible for sure.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love that benji at the end of the rainbow for the junk box but, there comes a point in life- when more sand is suddenly on the wrong side of that hourglass… I’d rather be out on the junk hunt than at home on the laptop. -
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