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FYI – if anyone is coming to London from USA and is looking for merchandise that is popular in London and may be cheap in US, I have noted that all things Carhardt are popular here. I scanned some jackets at the vintage shops on Brick Lane, and they were listed at 50% higher than in the US. Beanie hats are the rage here, but I haven’t seen them for sale anywhere yet.
01/23/2019 at 8:03 am in reply to: eBay minority Shareholder posts a strategy letter – interesting read #55658Here is what Morning Brew had to say about the Elliot letter:
FOR SALE: Major eBay Business Units, Limited Time Offer Ending SOON!!
So they’re not added to cart yet, but count us among those “watching.”
With a more than 4% stake in eBay (+6.13%), activist investor Elliott Management yesterday sent a letter to the e-commerce company’s board urging it to sell/spin off both its StubHub ticketing platform and its Classifieds business—arguing both are worth more on their own.
Elliott argued eBay shares could be worth nearly double by the end of next year should the company take its advice.
And it’s got backup. Per the WSJ, fellow activist Starboard Value has also built up a sizeable stake in eBay and advocated for similar strategies.
So what’s at stake? StubHub (which eBay bought in 2007 for $310 million) accounted for 14% of eBay’s $2+ billion in Q3 revenue. The Classifieds biz brought in 12%.Bottom line: Change could be a good thing—eBay’s struggled to keep pace with the competition during the age of Amazon, and as Axios put it, “What Elliott wants, Elliott often gets. Particularly when its target is in the tech sector.”
01/20/2019 at 11:55 am in reply to: Post a photo of something that was awkward or embarrasing to buy! #55446When I bought these love positions coasters at an estate sale, the ladies at check out gave me a super hard time – just teasing, but it was in a full room.
I payed too much ($20) for these Minolta binoculars https://www.ebay.com/itm/192774509896 and was glad to see them go for a best offer of $44.
The idea of splitting up games and selling the parts has been a winner for me (thanks Steve). This monopoly token sold for $7.50 and came from a game I paid $2 for: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192780344224 These tiles came from the same game https://www.ebay.com/itm/192780339755 I have been listing these with free shipping and they have been doing OK – easy to photo, store and ship.
It was hard to believe that these gloves sold. I got them at Costco new for my boy a few years back and sold them on eBay for about what I paid for them: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192566346787 $10.50 plus shipping
I had no idea rusty old axe heads were collectible. I was at a garage sale and haggling over the price of something. To sweeten the pot, the owner handed me this axe head. I got home did research and then went back and bought the other axe head she had as well. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192688252866 I love that it fit in a small flat rate box.
When it rains, it pours – more monopoly tokens: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192687943224
I finally sold the camera that had constant unpaid solds: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192781270859
I think I saw someone describe these as Mid-Century Danish “Brutalist”. I had them long enough and was ready to see them go when I got a best offer of $100 https://www.ebay.com/itm/192574983725 I paid $10 on the last day of an estate sale and put an hour into cleaning wax off.
Took a best offer of $10 on this leather something holder – paid $1 https://www.ebay.com/itm/192657010516
01/14/2019 at 10:12 pm in reply to: Art experts, MDC Galleries or others, please advise me on Wyeth print #55162Hey Mike – loved your sharing knowledge and experience. I just recently posted a question about framed prints (keep or dump the frame?). The prints are some of the earliest examples of chromolithography in the US. Anyway, I produced these images for my listing and the second one shows enough detail to see what a stone lithograph looks like (dots, but different from the little dots you are talking about):
I have been slowly easing my toe into the water of book selling and have had some lucky scores. As I source books, I look for collections of books that were assembled by someone uniquely passionate about a pretty rare topic. My expectation is that someone will follow the same research strand and want these same books. Example: Today, I found a bunch of Air Force history and strategy books that likely came from an Academy faculty or graduate. Reasons I picked these up:
–Price – 8 books for $7
–Condition – 6 of the books were in excellent to new condition, 2 were acceptable, but had possible higher prices
–Rarity – these books were published by Air University Press and similar associated programs of the Air Force Academy so small batch (These were not text books that will have newer editions that would make them valueless)
–Comparable pricing – listing prices for these books (where there are any) listings were $30 to $90. Once I found 3 or 4 that had that this price range, I picked up all the books that I could find that looked like they came from the same collector.
–Synergy – these books might draw viewers to my other listings (I have lots of vintage photos of US Army Air Force servicemen from WW2)I also picked up a 1st edition of Harry Truman by Margaret Truman and a Page Smith – People’s History volume based solely on low source price and high comparable pricing. My expectation is that once listed, these books will be in my basement for the foreseeable future until someone rings my bell.
I decided to try it for a year and paid the subscription fee last fall. I think it has already paid for itself by helping me set and get higher prices than I would have otherwise.
You and I should make sourcing runs together, because I am pretty resolved to grab zero of this stuff.
I did not even pay for an eBay subscription at the start of 2018. I had been toying with eBay in 2016 and 2017, then decided an eBay experiment was in order for 2018 since I was retiring.
1/1/18 eBay listings: ~100 (not certain)
12/31/18 eBay listings: 410
Transactions – 613
ASP – $30.47
Product Sales (no shipping) – $18,680
COGS – I am still trying to marry two spreadsheets together but at least a couple $1000s
Fees – $4,036
Labor – nope
Gross Profit – $12,644I spent $1,705 on supplies: $650 on a camera lens + lights, $300 on a rack and bins system and another $290 on photographic archival materials as well as $120 on Adobe Lightroom. These are long term investments that have been super helpful to me. I know the camera and lens (Canon 6D and Canon 100mm L Macro) are way overkill for standard eBay listings, but it allows me to take high quality images of photographic negatives (sold 28 last year for $2,198) and slides (sold 92 last year for $1,511).
01/12/2019 at 8:06 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Models, Doc Martens, Books, Akai Tape Deck, Lane Black Panther TV Lamp #54968Thanks for the video Steve. I am really impressed that you take apart, and sometimes successfully repair vintage electronics. I have never made it past the sticker that says “Opening this will void your warranty”.
I go to the last day of estate sales if they are close to my home just to poke around and see what can be had for a low price. This estate sale had about 50 carousels of travel slides. I was able to buy them all for $1 each, but there were hours of labor later popping all the slides out. I have not ever sold travel slides like this before so I wasn’t sure how to display them. I settled on photographing 2 dozen at once on my light table then highlighting a few. I was pleased to see these sell to someone in Italy for best offer of $35. (It was an interesting experiment, but I will not be sourcing slides like this again).
Solid ink cartridge found at a thrift store for $1 and sold in less then a week for $65. I am not sure why the yellow sells so much higher than the black or magenta, but it gets 2x as much as the other colors.
After the holidays, I lowered the price of these eight turkey plates from $225 to $185. Last week they sold for full asking price.
This is the last cowboy hat I will ever sell. My opinion: these things are a pain in the ass and an albatross around my neck. Buyer messaged me a few days ago saying the sweat band was detaching. I gave him a partial refund that made this a break even sale.
If vintage pencils are collectible, then what about vintage erasers? Sold this box of vintage new erasers for $16.25 after ~6 months.
After picking this Unicorn Belt Buckle up at a garage sale for $2, I was shocked to see that this particular belt buckle was getting ~$50 from a belt buckle specialty dealer. I polished it up (because that is how that dealer sold it) and last week it sold for $45.
Thanks for the input. I briefly surveyed other antique prints for sale and noted that most (possibly all) were being sold without frames. I figured the things you mentioned were the rationale.
I decided to list them with the frames at 2x the price I would list them without the frames. When I get around to opening up the frames and taking them out, I will relist. Thanks for your experience, Daniel.
01/05/2019 at 11:23 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Empty tequila bottle, Turntable, Hat case, Cow Head Bell, Album holder, Magazine rack. #54576Thanks @catmom, I had no idea that my local library might have valuable books in their sale room. I guess I just overlooked it because I am only in and out to pick up what ever we have reserved. Cheers, Daniel.
01/03/2019 at 6:13 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Empty tequila bottle, Turntable, Hat case, Cow Head Bell, Album holder, Magazine rack. #54477I haven’t had a chance to watch the video yet, but look forward to it later. Thanks Steve. It was a pretty slow week for me. I was not listing in December, so I did not expect much.
I picked up around 25 EAGP goblets at an estate sale for $0.50 each (they were in the kitchen being sold as regular water glasses). These things seem to be very long tail on eBay. This one went for full price of $38. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192411822436 (I am now in the middle of photographing the rest of my glasses).
Just before Christmas, I turned down an offer of $150 for this early Peter Mook resin sculpture. My auto-accept kicked in last week and the sculpture went out the door for $300 plus shipping. This was a super lucky $10 find at my local thrift store. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192749659302
Stoneware mugs like this souvenir of Berlin fit under the heading “Stuff I Bought When I Was New to the Game, That I Will Never Buy Again”. So glad to see it sell… for any price. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192685682704
01/03/2019 at 12:09 pm in reply to: Listing items you are completely not interested in listing #54449almasty, I feel about my death piles exactly as you have described above. (I would add that some of my death-items are ones I have failed at research on. For instance, I have some early American Pressed Glass that I cannot place a pattern to – could be worth $10 or $100 – just don’t know).
I have sometimes managed to get through them by going into “robot mode”. In robot mode, the only programming I allow my brain is “LIST”. I act as if each item is valuable and equally worthy of a listing. I tell myself to “dummy up” anytime I start over-thinking a listing. Then I just work to see how many items I can get posted. This is good for a box full of stuff, but I find that later, when I encounter the same crap in my storage, I still feel like it is a drag. Only when it sells and puts $s in my pocket do I feel like it has been rewarding.
Day in and day out, I want to be passionate about the stuff I sell, even if it is not the biggest money maker, I love finding vintage NIB games, office supplies, household goods. I feel like they are a time capsule of another era. Selling a The North Face jacket or other clothing item is at best a C- experience for me. I think partly because there is so little profit left in some of these things.
Anyway – great thread. Thanks, Daniel.
Depending on what you have, an estate sale limited to a couple rooms may make sense. I was at an estate sale here in Denver where the collection was from one of our own. He sold everything himself with a friend (didn’t hire anyone) and virtually everything was gone in about 1 hour.
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