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I bought forty pairs of CK underwear for about $5.75 each at my local Costco last December. They had been marked down to make floor space and I just grabbed the whole display. They have not been moving very fast, but I get sales every now and then – which means I have the price about right I think. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192751006886
I bought this for a dollar at a garage sale and sold for $15.75. Unfortunately, I accidentally left the “free shipping” turned on so my ROI is not so great. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192948434876
I pay a dollar or less for remote controls. This one went out the door for $18.50.
If you are wondering how to test them, check out a youtube – anyone with a cell phone can do it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192954230059I listed 44 pairs of suspenders last weekend. I paid $50 for a box of 52 pairs. I had to trash some, but still should get a decent return on my investment. This one was my first sale https://www.ebay.com/itm/192959936459
When I find things unique to a place (like this paper weight), I often pick them up. People that lived in one place and moved to another are often nostalgic for that place. Similarly there are local collectors. The audience may be small, but they are usually willing to pay a premium for a unique object. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192856374976
Sunglasses in a thrift store display for $2 and sold for $84.50. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192954223315 One thing to know about Maui Jim is that the company will give lifetime nose guards and temple arms if yours are worn out. I replaced the nose guards on this pair.
I love finding patches. I can usually get them for $1 and sell them for $4 to $20. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192951052701
I put collectibles in my store on sale and accidentally sold this beer can holder a little low. (My aim was to mark down prices on vintage photographs). https://www.ebay.com/itm/192921715892
Hope everyone has a great week.
06/24/2019 at 4:13 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Shifter boot, Slot car track pieces, Camera case, Scrabble Turntable, Trav-L-Bar, Silver jewelry box #64038RTWV, you put a ton of work into photographing that suit. It is very impressive. Congratulations on closing the sale.
I found this RainBird sprinkler controller in my neighbors trash and brought it in to list. I had no way of testing it, so I sold it “as is for parts” and it sold in the first 24 hours. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192948433845
I did test this Autowinder and it appeared to work, but when the buyer got it in Zurich, it was not working, so sold it last week and refunded this morning. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192921933704
Whenever I find contemporary prescriptions glasses cheap, I buy them and list them. My experience is that people often are searching to replace a broken frame that they can insert their perfectly good lenses in. This pair was pretty beat up, but still sold right after listing them. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192948424540
Looking for Rx glasses means I also grab all the glasses cases I can find. This pair of mint Bushnell shooting glasses were $2 at an estate sale and had been ignored by dozens of buyers before me. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192949365320
I am a sucker for old belt buckles. I buy them when I find them. This one was another that sold within a week of listing. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192948427797
I rarely get gifts and this one was given to me as a joke at my retirement party last year. I tend to either give such stuff away, or in the case of this silly item, put it on eBay for someone that actually wants such a thing. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192917724511
I had a good week last week – mostly due to sales of some photos (I am almost completely out of the ones that sold best). I am enjoying the summer and don’t really mind the slow times. It gives me a chance to stock up my inventory and dream of a time when purchases come in full price on items I already set up as auto-accept for 20% off.
Hello all – just wanted to check in. I have continued to enjoy listening to the podcast, but have not posted in a few months. I was traveling for 5 of the last 8 weeks and not doing much eBaying. This past weekend, I dove in with both feet and finally sorted and listed 52 pairs of suspenders that I picked up at an estate sale. It took all weekend, but I got 44 pairs listed, trashed 6 pairs (lost their elastic) and donated 2 pairs (unacceptable condition – pulled threads etc.). This morning as I was finishing the last seven listings, I sold one pair of suspenders for $54 that paid for the entire lot (I paid $50). It feels good to be back on top of my store. Also I finally broke through to 500 items in my store!!!
Best wishes to all, Daniel.
Hello all – just wanted to check in. I have continued to enjoy listening to the podcast, but have not posted in a few months. I was traveling for 5 of the last 8 weeks and not doing much eBaying. This past weekend, I dove in with both feet and finally sorted and listed 52 pairs of suspenders that I picked up at an estate sale. It took all weekend, but I got 44 pairs listed, trashed 6 pairs (lost their elastic) and donated 2 pairs (unacceptable condition – pulled threads etc.). This morning as I was finishing the last seven listings, I sold one pair of suspenders for $54 that paid for the entire lot (I paid $50). It feels good to be back on top of my store. Also I finally broke through to 500 items in my store!!! Best wishes to all, Daniel.
I had a few interesting sales.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192878869679 I found a couple of these military camelbaks at my local thrift store for $5 and sold them within a week for $24.50 each.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192559528263 This is one of several hats I sold in the last wek. I think Spring means people are getting ready for outdoor activities.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192487277385 I have had this Jimmy Buffett Tervis tumbler for at least a year. I love when something I have had so long pops up as sold.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192569038537 I think I learned from someone here to keep an eye out for the Vera label on vintage linens. I think I got this one listed a few months ago and sold it last week for $49.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192838853535 At a garage sale, I found two racks of blades for an old Cuisinart food processor. I was going to pass on them, but the garage sale was letting everything go for a song (I paid $2 for both racks). I have had steady sales of the blades at around $12/each and now the racks both sold in one week to two different buyers. It is so strange when that happens.
Besides these, I had $800 in sales of vintage photo negatives. Sadly, I will be out of the negatives in the next few weeks. I am keeping my eyes out for the next big thing.
With regard to preparation for recession, I have the following strongly held opinions:
(1) NO ONE knows the future. The past does not predict the future. If four out of four past bond inversions predicted recession in the next 18 months, then the chances that this bond inversion predicts the same is 0. NO one knows the future.
(2) Ways to prepare for a downturn include (a) diversify your asset risks: it is increasingly hard to diversify assets such that you are hedged against a recession. Most do this by owning stocks, bonds AND real estate. Some will add precious metals to that holding. If all your eggs are in one basket, then it is important not to have to sell one of these assets when its value is in decline. This leads to (b) Plan for a short fall in cash flow. A great reason to have 3 to 6 months of living expenses in cash (I mean in the bank) is so that you can cover expenses during an economic down turn when your assets value has dropped. You do not want to sell your assets when they are discounted 25% to 50% compared to market peak – so keep cash on hand to cover expenses in the event of something that hinders cash flow. (For those of us selling on-line, this could just be a crash of eBay or PayPal that turns off buyers for a period of a few months OR a personal illness or a global recession). Of course you can make this goal more easily if you (c) Live frugally. Live frugally and be able to cut expenses further. J & R already mentioned this, but it is worth saying again – a dollar you don’t spend is worth twice as much – it is a reduction in future burn rate and it can be invested to make more dollars.
(3) The worst economic advisers are on the television. DO not listen to them. If the economy goes south, they will all be screaming about the doom and gloom and how this may be the start of a 20 year slow down. The wise investor will know that a fall in stock prices is just a FIRE SALE in the market. Selling only locks in losses.03/15/2019 at 1:39 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58698One alternative I considered was the possibility of making prints from these photos and selling those on eBay. A friend I made in researching this topic does this with his uncle’s work.
The problem with that is that I don’t have model releases which I believe would be required to truly have the right to sell reproductions of these images. Along those same lines, I considered putting together a DVD or CD of images and selling that for $50-$100/each. I have not done that again because without model releases, I am not sure I have the right to sell images.
Anyway, that is my brain dump about selling photos of people. If this was a cache of original train photos or airplanes or boats, I would probably investigate whether there is a market for a CD or DVD.
03/15/2019 at 1:09 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58696With regard to selling things in lots vs. singly, I think Terminal99 had a video about a large kknife collection that he bought for a few thousand dollars. He talked about the fact that the seller left a lot of money on the table because he wanted the quick $s and did not want the hassle of making each individual sale. There are things that make sense to lot up and sell in big chunks (I found a big box full of military surplus fire fuel for instance that I am selling in lots of 30 because that is how many fit in a priority padded envelope). I always want to sell things at the highest price the market will bear. For these photos, selling them singly gets me the highest possible price.
03/15/2019 at 12:52 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58695I just put up a new series of 20 photographic negatives. It has been really fascinating to research the models. Nine out of ten remain unknown or can be identified, but have no public life, but this guy was a professional wrestler in Denver and is famous for training another professional wrestler who moved to Minneapolis and became famous.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/19285775524403/15/2019 at 12:47 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58693Yes, I put up a new series of 10 – 20 negatives about once per week. I don’t want anyone to miss out because they don’t get paid until next week…. LOL
03/15/2019 at 12:09 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58688Sorry for the lapse. I got busy with something and neglected to check up on the forum.
I found the negatives at an estate sale. The house was so packed full of material that new items were being discovered as other things were pulled out. In this case, I found an old suitcase that was of stuff. I opened it and found various media sleeves and containers. After paying $10 for the suitcase – (fully disclosed contents to the overwhelmed seller) I took it home and there were approximately 700 negatives, 240 slides and ~100 photo prints as well as 4 canisters of 8 mm gay stag films. The negatives were all original material and the rest was mail order materials from the golden age of beefcake photography in the 50s and early 60s. My average price on the slides was $25, and the prints ~$45 and the negatives have been going for ~$100 each, )though I have been selecting the best material to put up, so I expect it will drop to $50/negative once I have only men wearing clothes).
This was a once in a lifetime find. I think if the family had found that suitcase, they would have thrown it in the trash. It was only because it remained hidden until I found it that I was able to scavenge it. At the time I picked it up, I was not certain of the value of the material inside. When I started selling some of the negatives and slides, I chose to use auctions to determine the highest prices I could expect. When one of the best negatives sold for $125 (may have been more) from an opening bid of $15, I decided to stick everything up around that price and that is where my six buyers appear to be comfortable.
Also near that suitcase was a box of vintage gay romance novels (pulp fiction). Someone that saw me with the “box of porn”, pointed it out to me. For $10, I picked up around 40 books that sold for $30 to $70 each. This was my version of Jay and Ryanne’s box of ICP hats.
03/13/2019 at 4:47 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 402: Can You Build An eBay Business On Repeat Buyers? #58604Listening to the podcast late this week and have to comment that I have a weird niche that is almost exclusively repeat customers. I am selling vintage negatives taken by a gay professional photographer in the 1940s and early 1950s. I have about 6 customers that buy 90% of my stock. I notify them when I put up new material and I answer questions from them in detail. I routinely put their purchases in special wrapping and upgrade shipping to priority when they spend >$100. Since I started selling these materials, these customers have been 70% of my sales.
I could easily take this part of my business off of eBay, but the value of being on the platform is greater then the extra 10% I might be able to get.
Dada Hawaiian Punk.
02/28/2019 at 10:20 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 400: Tax Season Advice for Newbies from Strangers On The Internet #57842Congrats on 400th episode!!!
If it’s OK, since your topic is taxes, I want to give a thumbs up to “Not Your Dad’s CPA”. He has an “Essential Tax Guide for Online Sellers” that I find to be very valuable. He walks through the 10,000 foot view and then walks through all the types of taxes and every deduction.
Best wishes to all, Daniel.
02/28/2019 at 9:35 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Clock radios, Red Wing boots, Fairytale book, Vintage City Cafe Menu #57837Steve, I really admire that you taught yourself enough electronics to repair those clock radios. You have really developed a very productive niche with electronics and components. Congratulations on all the great sales.
I was travelling for 3 1/2 weeks in January and February. I had about $3,500 in sales while I was away which paid for the planes, trains, hostels, AirBnBs and bus. Most of my high dollar sales were vintage slides and photos (as detailed in past What Sells forum comments). Bread and butter items from the past week include:
I found a mint 1954 Scrabble Deluxe but it was missing two tiles and the shipping on the complete game would have been over the top. Thus I took a page from Steve and parted out the game. This sale was for the four tile racks which sold for $14.50: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192774513326
This was the last of my Xerox solid ink cartridges that I found for $1 each. This one sold for $24.50: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192775080788 Interestingly, different colors sell for different amounts. I think it was the yellow that sold for north of $50.
I picked up these Ikea light fixtures new in the bag for $3 each and sold them for $14.50 each. The shipping ended up being messed up, so I still have to learn how to list multiples of something so that shipping is charged appropriately. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192765441094
Chicago Cutlery knives with the brass rivets always sell, but I have noticed prices coming down on them. I pick these up for $1 and this one sold for only $10. I will continue to get these I think, but I am trying to move away from small dollar items like this.
Here is one of my favorite posters from Berlin:
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