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Welcome Wendy. In the last few years I have twisted, then broken my ankle on two separate occasions with some near misses since then. Like you, these injuries have not stopped me, but definitely made me more cautious.
When I look at past solds on Worthpoint, I am always amazed at some of the prices items sold for back in the oldest listings compared to contemporary prices. I suspect that in the early days, there were not enough people listing items so when an item came up for sale, it could still appear to be rare and sought after and people would bid each other up to obtain it. Now, there are likely to be a few dozen examples and sellers are racing each other to be the lowest priced.
Great paintings. My thoughts: take one of the paintings out of its frame and look for a side edge that has paint on it (I mean a SIDE, not a front edge that was under the frame). Try to dissolve that side paint with a bit of turpentine on an edge of rag. If you get color on the rag, it is probably oil paint. If not, it is likely acrylic. Also, note that paintings may be on linen (typically finer, more tightly woven fabric on back with warm light brown color) or masonite hardboard.
If all you see on the sides is white paint, that is gesso which usually is acrylic. Acrylic gesso does not mean that the painting is acrylic. Most canvas are pre-gesso’d (if that’s a word) and are used by both acrylic and oil painters. Rarely, artists work in both acrylic followed by oil, but that is rare. Good luck, Daniel.
Hey Sean. Welcome. I drove from Quebec City to Acadia NP on a weekend in the summer of 2018. I couldn’t believe how many garage sales and rummage sales my daughter and I passed in Maine. We didn’t stop because we were on a tight schedule (and she would have screamed), but I would love to go back sometime. I envy your location.
@Amantino, thanks for the invitation to rejoin the listing challenge. I will have to take a look at it again. I read James Clavell’s Shogun when I was a teen and loved it. I started dreaming of going to Japan in my 20s (50s now). I took a Japan Art History class in college because it fit my schedule and then fell in love with the architecture, gardens and graphics. This trip made me aware of how scant my knowledge is and I am hoping to do a deeper dive before going back. When you go, I would encourage you to consider going to Kanazawa. I loved Kyoto and Nara and Hiroshima, but the gardens (and the overall vibe) at Kanazawa were spectacular.
I have two thoughts:
I use an app that grabs listings from Craigslist and put them on a map (Yardsale Treasure Map). Craigslist is free, so I would encourage you to put a listing there too. Be specific about your address and the hours you will be open. I suggest you start at 8 AM to get the reseller yard sale crowd and put up photos of items that will hook your target audience in your listing.
If this will be an estate sale, then do consider purchasing a listing on EstateSales.net. You can start at 9 AM or 10 AM. Most estate sales here (Colorado) are three days in duration (some are two and some are four). The first day everything is full price. The second day, everything is 25% off and the last day it is all 50% off. You should make it clear that people are expected to move their own purchases (after they pay for them). You do not want your people to get sucked into helping out as furniture movers.
Set up a single entrance/exit and have your cash register, small valuables, and a hold table in that room. If you will be CASH only – make it clear in your ads and with signs throughout the house. People will need to leave to go get cash – make it clear how long you will hold an item before you release it for sale.
If it is wet or muddy outside, you may want to purchase some disposable shoe covers and have people put them on their shoes as they come in the door. Ideally you should put someone you trust on the register and wander around answering questions & setting prices.
You can tape off rooms that do not have items for sale. Just use blue tape and a sign. Good luck.
Thanks for sharing that link Jay. It describes exactly my experience with the Koban that had my passport.
Hi Grace. I am glad you added your voice to the forum. When you started at shopgoodwill(dot)com, what kind of tasks did they have you do? Did they train you to pick items to sell, or did you just pick it up by watching & asking questions. I have two teenagers I would love to teach, but they both think it’s impossible to figure out what is valuable.
Again, welcome.
I pulled my rain jacket out of my daypack 2 days before flying from Tokyo to LAX. Unbeknownst to me, my passport wallet somehow snagged on my jacket came out with the jacket and fell on the street. Fortunately, I realized it was gone 10 minutes later. I retraced my steps for the next three hours before going to the nearest police station to file a report. The guy behind the desk lifted up an evidence bag, and there was my wallet! I love Japanese people.
Hi lbh. Great question. If I come across useful info in my research, I often cut and paste that into my description. (example would be a synopsis of the artist’s life & work or brief description of a character’s role for a figure). Otherwise, I am usually just expanding slightly on the title (if at all). I seldom mention condition in description – just keep that under the condition section above.
Here are images from flea markets:
@littlebluehouse, thanks for your interest. I had a terrific trip. I was in Japan for 4 weeks, and did sightseeing pretty much the whole time. I stayed in hostels and ate noodles instead of sushi to keep it affordable.
I went to two flea markets, one in Hiroshima, and one in Osaka. I had a few barriers at those. I had a 40L backpack and a 10L daypack which had very little room. Thus I was looking for small items or photos or ephemera. I did not find anything that was small and cheap at the flea markets and I wasn’t prepared to go all in on stuff I don’t know anything about (like Switch games, or figurines at Akihabara). Not knowing Japanese makes it hard to bargain over prices. I would hold up the calculator on my phone with a number to make an offer. These were declined so often, I think I may have been insultingly low on my offers.
At the Studio Ghibli Museum Store, I found enamel pins that were priced at $5 to $6 that might go for 2 to 3 times that on eBay, but that’s not a great turnover for me. (I grabbed a few just for fun, but when my daughter saw them, she claimed them all.) I got some Studio Ghibli Museum stickers for $1/ea and have listed them on eBay – no buyers yet. I also picked up some stuff at Daiso (Japanese dollar store) and listed them, but haven’t had any sales yet.
Bottom line: it was a really fun trip. To actually find stuff for resale, I would need a local to help navigate OR have deep knowledge of a specific set of items and get lucky. Many Japanese commodity items are already offered for sale on eBay (shipped from Japan), so I am not sure there is much opportunity there.
Thanks again, Daniel.
…look at the categories where we actually have these amazing enthusiast groups on the site and it’s everything from parts to comics, to collectibles, a lot of tropical plants on eBay. And then I don’t think anyone in the room sells lady bugs
I am so glad he is talking about FUNKY eBay. For me, there is no other eBay.
…why are we asking sellers to jump through these hoops that buyers actually don’t even want in that category?
Yes, more of this, please.
This past week, I sold some bread and butter items that I have mentioned here before – wooden trains, enamel pins, melanzana hoodie, 1940s photo negatives and some books.
My top sale last week was this lens that came off of an old 35mm film camera that I bought in a lot. The camera was not valuable and so it languished in my pile of unlisted items for a few months. When I finally got to examineing it, I realized the lens was much more valuable than the camera. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193033980817
Best to all.
As a retired person with >75% of my wealth in the US stock market, I worry more about the prices my local thrift stores are putting on items than I do about a 10% correction in the S&P 500.
There was a minor correction in the Fall of 2015 to Feb 2016. If you put your money into cash at that point and sat out the next three years, waiting for the big correction, you would have missed the opportunity of a 50% gain in the market. My brother did that. The market would need to shed 30% of current value to get back to 2015.
I don’t have an answer, just a rant:
I do not understand why Goodwill and other thrift stores routinely do things that devalue the materials that they handle. My local big box thrift store uses clear plastic tape and wraps it around and around any boxed game or puzzle that they are selling. It is so frustrating. Grrrr
