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Hi guys, I’m thinking about getting into selling mugs. I figure they can be sourced reasonably cheaply and a lot of people might be put off by the hassle of packing a potentially breakable item. What kind of mugs do you think tend to sell the best? Is it age or condition, or mugs that feature certain brands? Quirky mugs? What would make you scavenge a mug for your listings?
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Mugs aren’t really a money maker. We pick up any cool ones we see since they’re so cheap, and it’s fun to add them into your inventory . Just be aware that they are slow to sell.
Quirky mugs, vintage mugs, style all contribute to their desirability. They are like Trucker Hats: you really never know what will attract buyers.
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When hunting, keep an eye out for older Starbucks (retired) mugs. Really, any nice condition and not too boring Starbucks mug is an eventual seller most times.
The Holy Grail mugs are the one of a kind risqué ‘lady’ mugs, lots of times one shot pottery, basically a woman’s nude form in the shape of a mug. I was so excited by the sale of one, I dropped it while packing. A very unhappy buyer it was after I sent an email Photo of his now mosaic fodder nude mug.
Search FireKing mugs. Look at highest prices paid. FireKing and Federal (marked with an F on bottom) are mid century mugs that do well. Especially with FireKing, there were all kinds of designs, licensing, and ads. Be careful however and do a search for sold if you are tempted to pay up for what you think is a cool design. Once you start finding them, and especially selling them, your eye will know them amongst hundreds of generic mugs. I did really well with a couple of Zodiac Sign FireKing. Any vintage personalized name mug will eventually sell. It just needs to be older and in nice shape.
I have had a set of six hand fired 1980’s pottery mugs that were presented to a manufacturing company for winning a bid for a government contract for a helicopter engine. Quite a barn find! Cool blue and white, nice design, really interesting aviation engine logos. Reasonable price with sales, and impatient price reductions, 3 years, no sale! Even tried to sell by the piece and in pairs. Finally got a watcher. You never know with mugs!
I’m not A mug expert, it’s just an expanded niche area I am aware of with some success.
Take care,
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Totally agree Jay, I barely pay attention to Starbucks mugs anymore, unless they’re the “country/city” mugs from an exotic place (which I still haven’t found in the wild). These seem to be the only ones that still hold value.
I think a lot of people start out with mugs because they’re cheap, plentiful, and easy to list. The downside is that because of this prices are very depressed on common ones, but its still one of my favorite categories.
Don’t expect more than $15-20 for the less impressive ones.
Some of my highest mug sales include
1) a vintage “Big Hug Mug” when one appeared in the HBO show “True Detective”, causing prices to spike. I was one of the early sellers and got around $100 for it.
2) Vintage 3M Fire King mugs. Most of the collectors for these are in Japan. Found a group of 8 of these and sold them for around $80 each.
3) Some random discontinued fancy travel mug, without lid, from the early 2000s. It was a super generic brown color ceramic with nothing much to distinguished it besides the name printed on the bottom. Apparently its desirable, got like $60 for it.
4) modern “his and her” romantic English designer mug set from the 2010s. Sold the set for around $50.
As you can see, its very hard to crack the $50 mark, after 4 years of selling and thousands of sales, these were the only mug sales that came to mind that sold for over that level.
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Agree on the Starbucks to a point. If a newbie mugger is going to the thrift, a Starbucks is easy to identify and it beats a generic most times at the $10-$15 price point. Just like a Beanie is a Beanie among so much pure junk dollar store plush. Someone starting out in plush should not discount beanies, with the understanding there will be low $ sales at first. Once you cut your teeth you can up the game and get into the $20-$25 mugs which are slow baked bread and butter. Beanies as well. If I flagged Starbucks in a bolo style, my apologies, not intended.
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Salaryslave,
Yes, many in Japan love FireKing! My best FireKing sales have gone there, they pay full and don’t mind the shipping costs. I’ve been nervous shipping all that way at 1st Class International, but never a problem and also, never a feedback left for me. They will even grab the more common ones at random when you price beyond market. Not a science, it just comes in waves with these Japan sales. -
I’ve sold three or four between $75-$200. Maybe five total in that range. All were Starbucks. Crazy that someone will pay $200 for a coffee mug, but if I can buy for $2 and sell for $200, who am I to question their collection…
I pick up interesting ones, vintage ones, and Starbucks ones (when the stores haven’t priced them more than a dollar or two).
I never pay much for them, and likely have 30-50 listed currently. I probably sell one a week on average, most going in the $13-25 range.
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I just wanna give a funny story about Starbucks mugs. I was at a friends house during Thanksgiving and I was listing mugs I had already took photos of and had measured so they were easy to list without having them on hand. While I was doing this I was enjoying a cup of coffee out of a Starbucks mug. While doing some research for pricing I saw the mug I was drinking out of on the side bar for $299. I almost spit coffee on my laptop. Turns out it was a old mug that they had sold at their original Seattle store a while ago, my friend had gotten it as a gift from another friend who visited Seattle at the time. She kept the mug but it was a fun story to tell and she said “Well at least I know if I ever need $300 bucks I got it in my cubbard”.
Research is the best tool for mugs tho, Id say type in coffee mug in ebay do a sold listing search and move the min price up to where you want it to be and see what cool mugs are selling. I bought a box of mugs at a estate sale a while ago and got 2-3 $30+ mugs, most of the rest were only worth $5.
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Funny you mention a Seattle Starbucks mug, cebanak. That was my highest mug sale ever. I sold one back in October for $200 on best offer (had it listed at $299). Sold it to a lawyer in Los Angeles.
It’s insane that someone will pay that much for something so seemingly cheap, but again, I’ll never question their motives, so long as they pay…
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Thanks for all the tips and stories! I’m something of a Starbucks mug collector myself, so I can understand paying higher than retail for certain ones. In my case, I’ve spent the last 3+ years living and traveling in East Asia. I like to collect Starbucks mugs as a practical type souvenir since we entertain regularly enough (no need for special cup markers as each mug is different) and picking up a mug at each location visited also can be a conversation piece.
I regretted not buying a mug at one of the first locations we visited (before I decided to get into it) and recently paid ~$40 for a discontinued one from a hard to get location. I have a friend who ordered ~$200 worth of discontinued mugs through Amazon Japan as well.
Thanks for the tip on Firekings; I’ll start to familiarize myself with them!
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