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My scavenging was mostly focused on my card business last week. The consignment company I use is holding a spring cleaning sale this week, with buyer incentives like 5% back and free shipping over a certain level. Take note, eBay! I run a 35% discount, which pales in comparison to some sellers who — and I really don’t understand this — put crazy prices on everything in their port and then run 70% (or higher!) discounts. I guess the idea is to catch people who sort by discount percentage. But then you’re selling almost nothing in normal times. I focus on not necessarily getting the highest price for everything, selling as much as I can every month, and it has been working well for me with three straight years of growth and on track for the same so far this year.
I shipped a 20 pound box of only graded cards to consignment last week for processing at their fastest (4 week) level, and I’ll send a similar size box (in terms of dimensions, not weight) of ungraded at the end of this week. Those shipments, along with my normal buying and selling, should sustain me into the fall. But I should be able to put together a couple more shipments through the summer, including a 20+ pound box of ungraded cards at the cheaper (16 week) processing level. That will be full of cards like this 1954 Kane Products racing set, which has the few key drivers in there (Juan Manuel Fangio, who I had to look up for this post, and Stirling Moss who I didn’t because I’ve sold his cards many times before) and went for a comically low price of $15 with shipping. These cards are in very nice condition, but most will only sell for a buck or less despite their edge, and very long tail. But the few key drivers will net $50+.
In the same order, I picked up a handful of these Washington Nationals signed 16×20 World Series photos for a few bucks bid and a few more bucks in combined shipping than I really was hoping this consignment seller would charge me. So it goes. These should sell for $20 to $30 all summer and into the fall. I’ve sold autographs of this combo (Daniel Hudson & Yan Gomes, pitcher and catcher for the last out of the World Series win) before, and I think there’s a solid floor in the $20 range unless they do a dual signing somewhere and flood the market. Whenever a sports team wins a championship, especially if the team is not a dynasty, there are a lot of long-suffering fans who are really happy to spend a few bucks on some memorabilia to commemorate the win.
I hadn’t picked up any signed full-size jerseys in quite a while, but couldn’t pass up this Andrew Van Ginkel Wisconsin jersey at $17.50 with combined shipping. Like a lot of the players I like to focus on, Van Ginkel was a low draft pick (fifth round) who has been an unexpected success and despite that, still does not have many cards printed, let alone autographs. I think this will sell in the $50 range once the NFL season starts, but it’s funny how these things work — if I just take the photos and get it listed, it might sell in a week.
What did you find this week?
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It was a busy week but I snuck out for an hour Saturday morning to hit a few yard sales. I didn’t make it very far as I ended up at a sale at a nice house near my own house that was basically an “open the garage and sell everything” sale. Lots of fun stuff to look at. I spent alot of time digging and looking up unique items. Nothing was priced and the lady running it was all over the place on pricing. It was her grandparents house and they were moving. I made my pile and did some negotiating. She didn’t want to budge on some of the speakers, and finally I said “I have $72 left in my wallet. Will that work?” And she said yes.
Notable items included a new samsung tv remote that sells for $60-70, two different bookshelf speaker sets that will sell for over $100 each, a vintage coke plastic stackable tray, a new in box mosquito trap that sells for $80-100, and a few other odds n ends.
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I pulled out a wooden “Heinz Tomato Ketchup” crate from a friend’s carriage house- it’s got a “H J Heinz Pittsburgh USA” address stenciled on it. May have been brought back from the Congo in the 1960s, with Snap-On tools in it.
I imagine a scene like the dinner party in “Apocalypse Now”, but with tomato sauce being slathered all over the buffalo steaks.
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