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What items have you picked up and sold for a surprising price in the past year?
It’s always fun to pick something up having a feeling that it could be great only to find out it was better than expected?
For me the surprise was a nice vintage Eisenberg rhinestone brooch, I had a feeling it would be good, checked sold for prices and decided to price it high, and took and offer of $300 plus shipping. -
Back in December I came across a Lynyrd Skynyrd commemorative medallion in a junk drawer at an estate sale. Something the record label had given out to radio DJs. I bought it for $2 and sold it for $200 within 24 hours. I figured I had something special, but thought I’d have to sit on it a while to get my asking price since I shot high.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/-/132902206617?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true
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I found an open box of 5 Kohler ceramic wall tiles with some gold metallic design on them – they were about 1.5″ x 5″. Paid $1.99 for them.
Did a quick lookup at the store, and saw they were going for $400-$600 – the gold on the tiles was real gold, and these were specialty tiles to match high-end decorated toilets, basins, etc. that Kohler makes.
Sold them for $450 almost immediately.
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It is indeed fun to be pleasantly surprised; it’s probably one of the primary reasons I have not tired of digging through other people’s stuff for all these years. I’ve been doing it long enough though that I am rarely truly surprised. I found this beat up Jack Daniels trucker wallet at a flea market last year for $3 that did. It was an afterthought; I had asked about something else on a junk table for which the seller gave me a very good price, so I started a little pile and threw this in. I even balked at the $3 but I figured I’d make an easy $20 on it so just kept it in the pile and paid up. I almost listed it for that without further research. Fortunately I thought I’d better dig a little deeper just in case and found out that there is some gold in distressed leather. It took a little while but went for $100 to Germany.
https://imgur.com/IrH7rwc -
I was on a quick in/out thrift store trip last August, and walked past the men’s jeans racks. I didn’t have time to look at each pair, but just took a quick look for anything that had “the look”.
I spotted a pair of Levi’s with said look, and they were made in USA. I had never heard of the cut before, and didn’t have time to look them up, but they looked and felt interesting. I paid $10 Canadian.
Got them home and researched, but could find zero comps. I very rarely run auctions, but started these at $49.99 on a ten day. They went crazy with bids and offer messages right away.
They ended up selling for $899.00usd.
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@Winchester38 What style of Levi’s were they? That is a great sale!
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I also found a pair of Levis jeans at a local charity shop. They were priced at $6, but clothes were half off that day so I got them for $3. They were the “Big E” variety, but something just seemed off to me. They were in far too good condition, and some of the details didn’t exactly match a vintage style…the number specifically. 201xx? 555? I almost didn’t pick them up thinking they were fake, but I took the risk because…well…$3.
Researching more, I discovered that Levis did a “vintage collection” reproduction run in the 90’s. These were a pair of those. Not the multi-hundred dollar variety, but I sold it in a day for $85. That’s a big one for me. I usually don’t do jeans, but from now on I’ll definitely take the time to look through the racks real quick! -
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A program for a reception in honor of Charles Lindbergh, from a bag of random ephemera I found in an antique mall. I knew it would have some value to aviation/ Lindbergh collectors but had no idea how to price it – partly because of a lack of comps, and partly because it was in terrible condition: stained, musty, creased, half of back cover torn off. I said, what the hell, and ran an auction. Sold for $120. There were a few other interesting things in that ephemera lot, but that was the big win.
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I posted about my big surprise a little over a year ago. When I bid in an online auction, I will sometimes bid on a lot if no one else does. I’ll take the risk for the $1 minimum bid. I bought a lot with CDs, cassettes, VHS tapes, etc., and was able to sell the cassette holder for $90. You can read about it here:
Similarly, I bought the contents of a linen closet for $1. It had several vintage tablecloths, which I was able to sell for decent money. The real surprise was two fur mink hats hidden in a plastic bag. I think each sold in the $35-$40 range. Not a huge amount, but between those and the linens, I made over $200 on that $1 purchase.
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I bought a box full of cool looking glass beads for about $30. I thought maybe I’d get $150 or so for the box on resale to crafters. After doing some research, I realized I had a box full of old African trade beads, and each bead would sell for $15 on average. I’ve sold only a small portion of my supply and already sold almost $400 in beads. I will probably make about $1000 over time.
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They really are beautiful. There was a bag full of old blue faience donkey beads in the box, too. I sold most of them but kept a few back for myself. No idea what I’ll do with them! I am usually too klutzy to wear stuff like this in jewelry!
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