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I sent basically my whole store to auction on Wednesday and Thursday, mostly to use up the rest of my free collectibles auction listings for the month, also because I have plenty of death piles full of weird stuff which needs listing. So time to get after it this week! I’ll be happy if I can create 50 new listings this week since I will be pretty busy with shipping sold auctions, a trip to the Philly Cards and Memorabilia Show next week. But next week hopefully I can get 75 items up. Or more.
I sold one of the weirdest items I’ve ever found, this obscure 90s Kuwait themed board game, for $33 + $14.99 shipping. Thrift store find ages ago. I should have charged more for shipping. My net profit was just $5, but the satisfaction of building a nearly perfect box from two too-small boxes was priceless. I have probably 15-20 weird odd-sized death pile items, like framed paintings and bulky collectible figurines, which I’ve avoided listing (in part) because why would I list this big stuff when I can sell small trading cards and media items and ship in a minute using a small bubble envelope or, at worst, a USPS flat rate box. But I learned from this board game that I can ship the big weird stuff too. While I wouldn’t build a business on those kinds of items, I can definitely chip away at these death piles with some confidence that I’ll figure out the shipping if/when the listings sell.
Boring week otherwise, unless you’re into sales of Stephen Curry golf cards ($11 net) or Vegas Golden Knights hockey card lots ($41 net) like I am. Really not a bad week considering that my inventory has less than 300 items and 200 of them were at auction since Wednesday/Thursday! One more $100+ sale (I only had 1) would have pushed me close to the $1000 mark. But I’ll take $600 net on a slow week at the end of February. Let’s hope the next few weeks are a little busier. I think if I list enough, they will be just through sheer volume.
What did you sell this week?
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https://www.ebay.com/itm/266340081015
Mont Blanc Vintage Fountain Pen With Case Paperwork extras
This is a pen I got at the premium hoarder sale. Just a random throw in item for $1. I tried unsuccessfully to get the BIG BUCKS Mont Blanc sale at auction and then a slightly less big bucks sale BIN but alas, no takers. Took an offer of $75. Still an amazing sale.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266388629238
Nike Air Max 270 Extreme Girls Shoes Size 3.5 Youth Purple Lava Glow CI1108-010
What a great shoe sale. Took an offer of $50 – listed for 6 months. Don’t sleep on kids shoes. There are some great ones in there.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266608176336
Puma Ring women’s 7.5 boxing weightlifting shoes black green
There were no comps for these, but they are AWESOME and I knew someone would agree. Took an offer of $65 and listed for just under 2 months. Paid $7 at Goodwill.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266414774829
Tomb Raider Lara Croft Legendary Yeti Figure Playmates Vintage 1999
I paid $1 each at a yard sale for this and several other sets. It was a memorable interaction. The whole family was out there – kids, parents, grandparents. Right before I checked the price the dad had told his daughter that she could price anything any way she wanted. She said $1 each and the dad was frantically trying to intervene but also trying not to go back on his word. His wife quickly reminded him to let her do what she wanted while the grandparents laughed hysterically. I’m thinking his wife was VERY happy his Lara Croft collection was hitting the road. LOL! Note: I bought alot of stuff at this sale – not just the girl’s stuff. After it was all done I gave the girl an extra $10.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266694528500
Apple Pencil (2nd Generation) for iPad Pro (3rd Generation) – White
Sold for full price same day I listed it. I got this at a yard sale in October. I don’t really know why I’ve sat on it so long. It was so easy to list and ship. I paid $20 at a yard sale.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266547700388
Nike Speedsweep VII Wrestling Shoes Black 366683-004 Mens Sz 9.5
If there was one shoe type I would recommend to buy every time you see it, it would be wrestling shoes. I’ve sold every pair I’ve ever listed and they sell quick. I wish they showed up more often! Adult or kids, any brand – it doesn’t matter. By default every wrestling shoe is high quality and they rarely if ever show signs of wear.
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https://www.ebay.com/itm/235432235527
Sold this find of the week from a few weeks ago.
Sold a Quimper SL throwback https://www.ebay.com/itm/235051397109
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235098601954 Sold two sets of lowballs. I guess dry January is over.
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You find so many amazing hard goods like the quimper bowl. Is the trash to treasure just better there in SoCal? Do you have to pay up to get the cooler things? How much do you go scavenging to find all these unique and cool things?
The hard goods sections in my redneck area are all dollar tree or target junk. The big special glassware around here is Blenko Glass and that stuff never hits the Goodwill. Collectors around here are RABID for it so it’s not a market I’ve ever considered getting into.
They’re still open too. https://blenko.com/
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Hi Retro. It is exceptionally good here I think. It’s a decent size city with a lot of older people, with more old transplants moving in and young professionals moving out. We also have some 1 percenters (Harry and Meghan’s neighborhood +1 more). We have no Walmart and didn’t have Target or Home Goods, etc. until just a few years ago so the made in China stuff is not as prevalent. The older guys picking a few years ahead of me really, really had it good for a while until Youtube came along. Would have been like shooting fish in a barrel. There are also three colleges in our area, and they are now showing up regularly.
I’m grateful for the free education on SL, Youtube. Google Lens also has been a huge help more recently. Always learning… Currently, I am thrifting more often after I drop my kid off on weekdays but remind myself to “hit it and move on”. I have a bad habit of getting into browser mode. I don’t go out on the weekends too often when I’m spending time with the fam. Most of the time I am paying between $3-6 for things like that bowl. At the flea market it varies wildly from a $1 to $10. It’s rare that I will pay over $10 for anything unless it’s very special or a Patagonia jacket or something we will use.
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PS. One of the big three annual charity rummage pre-sales is this Friday. They are testing a $30 entry fee which I hope most people won’t pay. I can’t wait. We get 3 hours Friday night.
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If you know that you will make bank being able to get in there early on this stuff then it really is a no-brainer. I would have a really hard time on principle paying it. I also don’t fault the organizers one bit for doing it if the demand is that high.
What a different world than what I’m used to!
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https://www.ebay.com/itm/266479930068
Prada Americas Cup Shoes Sneakers Size 10.5 New In Box Red Gray
TL;DR – sold for $425 on offer. Now it gets long winded. Buckle up.
So I had a buyer low ball me. I countered and it went nowhere. Then a day or two later they gave a mild sob story and asked if I could meet them halfway at $350. I agreed…and then they never sent the offer.
Then like 5 days later they message me another story apologizing for the delay and about purchase priorities, budget, etc and tell me these are on the MUST HAVE list so they will buy them. They proceed to send me an offer of…$290. First things first, I check their feedback left for others. Everything looks great. I think “surely they are confused and mixed up items/offers”. So I countered at $350 with a note that says “the agreed upon price was $350”. They counter back at $310. Now I’m pissed! I add them to my blocked bidders list and then decline the offer. A couple hours later I get a $320 offer from another user conveniently in the same town. What a coincidence!! I decline. Then I get the $350 offer – another coincidence! I decline that as well. All the while I am hoping they admit in messages that it is the same person so I can report them to ebay. No dice. They’ve never admitted it and I haven’t asked.
Anyways, they go up to $370 and send me a message: “Please accept. This is all the money I have”. DECLINE. They messaged another offer I declined then asked what the lowest I would take. Still I didn’t bring up I know this is the same person and just say “I’m not much interested in offers at this time on this item.”
A little while later they send me an offer of $425. Ebay had the little message on there that says they will charge the buyer immediately. Now I’m starting to doubt myself thinking this may not be the same person. The feedback left is also great but the wording structure is completely different. I think “It’s getting late in the week, I really could use this sale. They’ve screwed themselves out of $75 so they’ve learned their lesson”. I accept the offer and wait. Usually it takes up to 5 minutes for an auto pay offer payment to go through. 30 minutes goes by. Then an hour. Now I’m PISSED all over again! I chat with ebay to figure out what is going on. They’re about as helpful as much as you’d expect, but the basic ghist is that if there isn’t money in the account the auto pay won’t go through. The only act on ebay’s part is to send the buyer a message and tell them they have 4 days. It’s a clever way for buyers to get around the auto pay and default back to the 4 day window. I expect this to increase once people figure it out. GRRRRR EBAY!!!!
So I message the buyer and let them know I’m pretty pissed off that the payment didn’t go through. Basically said if I don’t either have a payment or some communication of exactly when the payment would be made that I would cancel the sale after 24 hours. I wasn’t gonna do the 4 day thing where I get no communication. I did get the payment finally yesterday. Hopefully the story ends here and I live happily ever after with my money.
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@christiner Is that a carved-wood frame? Sometimes the frame is worth more than the art it contains.
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Ah that stinks. Pay a premium…to pay a premium. At the end of the day the numbers either work or they don’t. Eventually they’ll price themselves out of a huge crowd and regret the greed….or they won’t and they’ll make more and more.
I also don’t get the strategy of trying to get global prices over a single weekend with a very local crowd of 50-100 people. I bought some mobility scooter tires at an estate sale last week. I paid $5 a tire. The lady asked me what they were – I told her. Then she asked if I would tell her what they are worth. I said “every part for those things is worth a lot. It’s finding the buyer that will pay that price is the problem. I’m probably the only person who would come through here this weekend and buy them – much less know what they are”.
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https://imgur.com/gallery/D55Lc4t
whoops i just lost my post. Rummage sale was 80-85% clothing, and much smaller. About 75 people paid the entry fee and they had a higher price list at the pre-sale to boot. I got a whole trash bag of pottery barn curtains for $15 and made it to the art first. Bought two paintings. The above is quite large with a heavy frame. Not sure what I was thinking but I just go with my gut on art.
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Sorry the sale was mostly (?) a weird bust. Cool painting at least. I see those pre-sales where they prices things higher sometimes with the library sales I go to. I don’t really understand the rationale of one price the first day, a different price the next day. Especially when most of these sales are amateur hour. And a lot of them have a half-price day on the last day of their sales. Just price the stuff to sell quickly and raise funds for your organization. Stop putting papers with printouts of eBay listings on stuff or coming up with all these weird price schemes. /rant
On the bright side, you should do really well with those curtains if Terapeak has anything to say about it!
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