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This is my prime time of the year for my consignment sales, so with the knowledge that I’m going to sell a good chunk of my 9,000 card port over the next eight to twelve weeks, I’ve been scouring for cheap cards so I can restock. I won about thirty auctions from the seller mostly in the $1 to $2 range all different types of 2024 Pieces of the Past document relics. The James Monroe I linked is probably the most unique document piece, but my favorite is this Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes triple which I had to shell out the big bucks — $8.
One of my favorite types of cards to sell through consignment are complete sets of obscure cards. They can take a few months or even a year to sell, but then all of a sudden five or ten will sell to the same buyer who is obviously engaged in that time-honored card tradition of set building which is kind of a lost art these days. Cards are mostly about the flip. After consignment fees, I’ll be at about a buck each on these 2006 St. Louis Cardinals World Series 22K gold cards. Aesthetically, I really don’t like cards like this, but they’ll sell. All the stars are in there plus a few obscure subjects like some random coaches. Those are the exact types of cards that sell for $5 each to the right buyer.
I went big on one card this week, $85 for this LeBron James Upper Deck Inspirations rookie redemption card which has been expired for almost two decades (!) now. Terapeak shows a sale of $325 from last December and one from this year for $131 that was graded (?) a PSA 6. Not sure why anyone would grade an expired redemption card, by the definition of grading it’s not going to get a good grade because the surface shows damage from scratching off the code. My target price is $250 but I’m going to price very high and wait. I’ve done well with obscure early LeBron items, so I’m confident this one will net me a nice profit. Probably sometime this spring during the playoffs or if LeBron retires.
What did you find this week?
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My wife wanted to go to goodwill so I made my rounds. I only go 2-3 times a month now to goodwill.
This time was worth it though!I got a couple nice pairs of shoes, a pair of Ralph Lauren selvedge denim jeans, a pair of vintage Lee Riveted corduroy pants.
the home run though was a set of Jeep tail lights. They were in an aftermarket box and I have no idea why someone would swap these out as the OEM ones are awesome. I paid $50 for the pair and these are like new off a 2023 model. They sell for $300-400 EACH!!!
here’s a comp:
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You might have made more off this one Goodwill trip than I’ve made on every Goodwill purchase in my life combined. It’s so interesting how the quality of Goodwills varies between different areas of the USA. You had to pay up for those tail lights a little bit, but what a steal! How much did all those clothes cost you? I haven’t made a serious browsing trip to the local Goodwills here in a few years, but from what I remember, any nice clothes were $25+ each at least.
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We haven’t got there yet on prices at the local stores, but prices have been climbing and inventory has been getting crappier every year.
Currently regular pants are $4.29, jeans are $8.69, regular shirts/t-shirts are $4.29. Coats & jackets are an ABSURD $13.69. Shoes prices used to be a set price of $4.99 for adult shoes but now they price individually but still generally vary from $3.99 to $7.99. They try to price up the ones they think are higher end – they’re wrong alot and it keeps me entertained.
At Goodwill I don’t even consider clothing now unless the STR is good and the sales price is $25+.
Thrift stores are still good sourcing opportunities, but you’ll have to find the decent stores and be willing/able to source in any department (you aren’t going to find sports cards or memorabilia there). For instance I go to Columbus multiple times every year for fun and sourcing. There are ALOT of thrift stores there. Some of them have the crazy prices you see and I can’t believe people shop there. Believe it or not, the Goodwills are the most reasonable stores – some more than others. Most of them still have generic pricing on clothing & shoes and reasonable pricing on everything else.
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Thrift stores are still good sourcing opportunities, but you’ll have to find the decent stores and be willing/able to source in any department (you aren’t going to find sports cards or memorabilia there).
A couple years ago when I was still hitting thrifts somewhat regularly (once or twice a week), most trips I could find a few things in the media section of most every Goodwill/chain thrift that would sell for $15 and up. Books, music, media. I guess it was a learned skill from hitting library sales for many years. I would always try to branch out into other departments, but best I could usually do was find some things for myself: clothes, art and sometimes kitchen stuff because I love to cook. Never found anything real valuable in random departments, but I bet that was more due to my own lack of knowledge than a lack of quality items.
For instance I go to Columbus multiple times every year for fun and sourcing. There are ALOT of thrift stores there. Some of them have the crazy prices you see and I can’t believe people shop there. Believe it or not, the Goodwills are the most reasonable stores – some more than others.
I might just have to do this kind of trip next summer. The National card show is back in Chicago in 2025 and I’m definitely going to make the trek because the last time I went was such a great experience. Not so much the show, but I loved the city and made a nice profit on the whole trip thanks to the Newberry Library book sale (RIP). I talked to another reseller at the book sale for most of the last day and he told me that thrifting in the area was really good. Seems like a great way to learn.
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@craig-rex That Lindbergh relic has a Mastercard logo on it!
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https://www.ebay.com/itm/335693270041 Really cool sculpture, only 2″. Hard to price these used, probably will go for less. This artist makes really cool stuff. https://www.jonstuartanderson.com/ Paid $3 at indy thrift.
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$3 at an indy thrift, now that’s old school thrifting right there. What a cool piece!
How do you set your offer minimums on artwork when you have such a cheap buy in? I could see this sitting for a few months and then you get $100 offer on it out of nowhere. It seems like all the active listings of Jon Stuart Anderson’s sculptures have a nice amount of watchers on them.
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Picked up a couple of 400-year-old county maps, framed, from a thrift shop on Monday for £20 the pair. These old county maps were all the rage in the 1980s when they were only 350 years old.
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Think it was about ten years ago that I bought one of Cheshire for £5 and sold it to a dealer in an auction-room car park for £100. That was one of the large Saxton maps- this one seems to be a small version. Also nobody knows where Huntingdonshire is- I live 50 miles away and I’ve never been there! 🙂
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@Antiquefrog that’s an amazing map.
@craig lately in general I’m pricing at 1 year similar solds, running a 15% discount sale and then making offers at an additional 10-30% off. I would probably do only 10% on this piece. I think I did only find one similar sold and the artist is selling a different small cat now for a bit less than I’m asking. God bless the old ladies at this thrift store. They are pricing higher on some things but miss a lot. Unfortunately a lot of people have caught on to that honey hole since Covid.-
There is an independent thrift near me that puts 100% of proceeds to animal shelters and fostering. Ran by some older women, 100% volunteer ran, and is cash/check only. It used to be a great place to shop but a few years ago they went all in on ebay pricing. They even put the “Goes for $X on ebay” on all their price tags. Ugh…
I only stop by there once or twice at most a year now. Independent and little old ladies doesn’t always add up to deals.
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I’ve posted about this before, but there are three thrift stores in my small town which has like a three block downtown. Two of them are open so few hours and full of such overpriced junk that I’m convinced they must exist for taxes/money laundering reasons. The third is a church thrift stores open Fridays and Saturdays run by the little old lady crew. I used to check out this thrift weekly and sometimes I’d find some cool stuff. Usually clothes for myself, once in a while stuff to resell. Sometime last year they got into the sells on eBay pricing. Between that and overhearing one too many conversations about how “kids don’t want to work these days” I have also dropped off to once or twice a year visits.
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Just a lot of bread and butter Christmas listed. In the case of weird sells, hopefully this old pick up will go https://www.ebay.com/itm/335688181242
oops – this was for the week of 11/24-30
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