Scavenge of the week January 14-20, 2024

[craig rex]

I had a particularly exciting order from my favorite big consignment seller last week which contained a few choice cards and a lot of the weird oddball items that I like to accumulate for a few months until I have a big photography day and get all this stuff listed over about a week.

The highlights:

6 NBA All-Star Game locker room nameplates with COAs with my winning bids ranging from $15.50 (journeyman Taurean Prince) to $39 (the linked listing, Bulls star DeMar DeRozan). I saw the listings as I was browsing the usual sellers I check almost every evening and figured I’d take a chance as Terapeak didn’t give me much info either way. Surprisingly won all 6 of them. Even though these are fundamentally just a piece of paper that was above the player’s locker, it is a unique item for someone with a PC (personal collection) of a specific player and the COA gives it some base level of value. If I can sell just one of these in the $100+ range, I should make a decent profit. The NBA has a global fanbase as much as any sport, so I could see a collector in Japan or China spending up on one of these. I need to get appropriately sized holders for them, as the seller sent each nameplate and COA in an 8×10 toploader which makes them look comically small.

I’m in about $5 on Lukas Reichel and Andreas Athanasiou autographed hockey stick blades, surely brought by someone for autographs at a show in the Chicago area (both play for the Chicago Blackhawks) and then authenticated (see the stickers in the pics) at the same show and then sold on consignment for a loss of at least $50. Probably more, really. But their loss is my gain. These will make me at least $50 profit fairly quickly. I’m hoping that the seller lists more of these this week. I find items like this to be very satisfying to photograph. They fit nicely in a postal bin (which is where I keep all my weird to-be-photographed stuff until it’s picture day) and they make satisfying thunks when I pick them up and put them down.

Finally, I won this certified autograph of Erford Gage for about $13 all-in. Did not know the name before finding the listing, but research taught me that Gage was a 1940s actor who died in World War 2. I did really well last year with World War 2 related signatures once I got the hang of how to list them in order to find collectors with a specific niche. I suspect this will sell for a nice price once I get around to listing it.

What did you find this week?

[ChristineR]

From the death piles is this fun item https://www.ebay.com/itm/335221227555  There are no solds on Terapeak and only one other listed on Ebay.  I’m hoping a costume designer will pick it up for a show maybe.  The fabric is gross.  Paid $4

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235397035340 This was hiding out in the small appliance section.  The leather is beautiful quality and I was easily able to remove a mark on the front.  I was going to buy an insert for it but they cost $45 from this high end company.  Paid $4.99

Another unusual item I picked up on half price day was a bunch of bags of these wax bars. Scentsy does well.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/235388575907  I think I paid about $12-15 for all.

[Retro Treasures WV]

I just made one trip to Goodwill this week. I only wanted $50+ items and didn’t expect to buy much. I mainly just want to brag on my wife. She shops the women’s section for me (and of course herself!) while I do the rest of the store. She brought me multiple women’s dresses (Some NWT) that sell for over $50- a couple are $100+!

She doesn’t want anything to do with listing/photographing or pretty much any other aspect of the business, and she has no desire to develop her “search-fu” researching items. She provides an invaluable resource developing her eye for good items in the women’s section and hard goods.

Now if I can just get her to watch Hairy Tornado on youtube so she can see how much fun that couple have working together I think I could get her more involved. If you don’t watch them, Josh started the business out of his garage. His wife slowly started doing more, quit her job to help full time and now they have a massively successful business where they have an amazing partnership with her being his equal in the business.

 

I don’t think I’ll ever convince her that spreadsheets are fun though. I think that one will always stick with me.

[Antique Frog]

I’ve started doing the screen grab->cleanup in Gimp->Google Lens thing on online listings. That’s fun. You can then email Sotheby’s the local auction house and tell them where they’ve gone wrong in their listings. They love that sort of thing. 🙂

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