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A great scavenging summer (all without really leaving the house) continued this week. I have been thinking a lot lately about how scavenging has changed, especially in the trading cards and memorabilia world, over the last few years. Things were different before the pandemic! Certainly less expensive across the board. But I think it may be easier to find deals across the board now. There are so many consignment sellers, so many new sets, so many different ways of selling and reasons for price fluctuation. It’s a matter of knowing where to look and hunting for those deals.
On the low end, we have a small lot of “Chef” Steph Curry from Leaf’s Reimagined series which is print on demand. Unlicensed print on demand cards generally don’t hold any long-term value or collecting interest, with occasional exceptions for a noteworthy player or celebrity who has few other cards. But at less than $2 a card, it won’t take much to make my money back. One for the store inventory, one to send to consignment for a live auction, one for my curated team lots and two more for the kitchen if I feel like getting decorative with some of my inventory.
I was born and raised in New Jersey, so I can appreciate the significance of this baseball signed by three Yankees broadcasters which cost me $25. John Sterling just retired, and Michael Kay and Suzyn Waldman are up there in age too. The signatures are a little faded but they are authenticated, and I expect this should sell fairly quickly in the $75+ range once I figure out where I want to price it. Another Yankees memorabilia piece which cost me $20, this 2003 Playoff autographed glass plaque of retired player Alfonso Soriano, will probably be a slower mover but should net a nice profit. It’s a cool display piece from a very weird set that has never been replicated because wow, what a pain these must have been to manufacture.
The big purchase of the week was a bulk buy, almost 200 Leaf soccer printing plates at a net cost of less than $2 per plate. I can sell printing plates wholesale (in bulk to sellers larger than me) at $3 to $5 each, so with little to no effort I can make a quick $150ish profit. But I am going to sort through these carefully, do my research and squeeze out extra profit where I can. This seller had similar sized lots of hockey and football Leaf printing plates, as they do every year around this time, but sadly I lost those other auctions. This seller must have some deal with Leaf to buy all of their printing plates in bulk. It is strange how they sell them in one large auction though. So much profit left on the table compared to selling individually! Next year, I would like to have enough money in the bank to win all of the bulk printing plate auctions from this seller. Even at $2.50/each, there is a lot of profit potential in these plates. Collectors who chase all the cards of a certain player have no problem ponying up $10 for a printing plate, and certain popular players plates can go for $20 to $30.
What did you find this week?
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Scavenge of the week was from a yard sale in my neighborhood.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266893649770
Color Street Nail Polish Strips Sealed In Package Lot Of 315 Mixed Lot
I saw a plastic bin full of these nail kits sitting there with a $2 each price on the bin. I looked them up and saw that the STR was actually really good. I went up to pay for 2 pair of shoes and asked if they would want to sell the whole bin of nail kits. They said they would take $100 so I handed over the Benjamin and hit the road.
My initial plan was to create a listing selling random lots of 3 or 5, with a discount structure if the buyer buys more than 1 bundle. But then I noticed some sellers had luck selling large lots.
I decided to try and unload everything at once instead of creating a pipeline. I have offers turned on above $1200. I checked the listing and someone made an offer of $1000 that was auto declined. I figure I’ll get my minimum $1200 sometime this week. Shoot, I may just message that buyer and tell them my minimum is $1200.
Either way, this was one heck of a yard sale score!
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I’ve been checking this link every few days to see if it sold yet…often when you get a big early offer on something, it sells for full price or close to it a few days (or weeks) later. Some things are worth holding out for the right buyer and the right price. I’m hopeful that you’ll make an extra $1000 from these this week…
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I had a person make me a $1050 offer by message. I changed the BIN price to 1050 and told them I’d leave it there for 2 hours.
I guess they really didn’t want to buy since they didn’t buy or message me again. I had a feeling it may be someone just wanting to tie up my listing for 4 days with an unpaid offer.
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Picked up a first edition of Last Of The Mohicans at the flea market on Saturday for £1. Unfortunately it’s the British first edition! Also bought a large scrapbook of cuttings for £10, which must have been kept on a damp cellar- it had white mould on the cover. Lots of pictures of what Edward, Prince of Wales got up to in India in 1875, plus a complete set of Grierson’s Twelve Select Views of the Seat of War… (the 1824 Anglo-Burmese War) Drawn on Stone by E. Billon and Printed at the Asiatic Lithographic Press, Calcutta 1825. Apparently very rare- there were 211 subscribers to the set.
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