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I knew they no longer made the shoes on site/sold the horse farms but do they still call the retail location “Hanover Shoes” in the square? Personally, I haven’t been back there in a good 20+ years (since graduating high school from Delone), but I know my dad still says “I’m going to Hanover Shoes”. Figured they kept the name but didn’t make the shoes on site/at the farms anymore. He must be calling thew Clarks store by the original name.
Amazing Hanover Shoes find! What part of PA are you from? I’m originally from Gettysburg, which is just about 10 miles from the original Hanover Shoes stables & farms. Their shoes aren’t as high quality as they used to be back when those beauties were made, but they do still have a retail location in the town square of Hanover.
Fun fact for all the history buffs & junkies out there… The Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War partially happened because of Hanover Shoe Farms. The Union forces limped back above the Mason Dixon line after hard fought battles throughout the South. They ended up in Gettysburg since it’s only 3 miles north of the MD line, had a Seminary & The Sisters of Mercy who also doubled as nurses, and the proximity to Hanover Shoe Farms to fix & repair the soldiers’ boots. The Southern forces also were in search of supplies & rest on their way to Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and eventually the goal was New York City. That all never happened and Gettysburg will forever be known as the turning point & high water mark for major battles in the Civil War.
#themoreyouknow
Happy birthday, Ryanne!!!
Week June 9-15, 2019
Total Items in Store: 1006
Items Sold: 30 (1 Amazon, 4 FB)
Cost of Items Sold: $246.49 (21.7% of sales)
Total Sales: $1,135.66
Highest Price Sold: $99.99 (1960s Sterling Silver Torah Pen)
Average Price Sold: $37.86
Returns: 2 (1 started & received, 1 not yet shipped by the buyer)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $370
Number of items listed this week: 19
Promoted listings test: 13 sales, 340.42 (30% of total sales), $16.55 fees (4.9% of sales)Really great week for me. $1000+ weeks are usually reserved for the holiday season for me, but this is an awesome shot in the arm for the summer! Volume was high (avg about 17-18 sales/wk), avg price was good (exactly half of my sales were above $30 and half below $30).
The high dollar sale was one of 2 of these pens that I bought at a high end estate sale about a month ago. Didn’t even know what they were when I picked them up, just noticed that they were very detailed, likely vintage, and both sterling silver. Paid $30 for 2, sold the first for $100 so I’m pretty pleased so far. Other good/interesting sales included some of my old bread & butter items: bottle of Guerlain Samsara (BOLO for everyone out there, Guerlain just changed the bottle & formula for Samsara, so even though this style bottle isn’t very vintage, it will become sought after), 1960s French Cruise playing cards, and a briefcase backgammon game (ALWAYS pick these up for under $5 at yard sales if they’re clean & complete).
On my way home to PA to see my dad for Fathers’ Day, swung by a records store that I had heard about but never went to in person. It’s in a very random & depressing area, inside of a run down & sad mall where even the Old Navy went out of business (you can see the outlines of their letters on the wall).
Ended up finding some very difficult to find original pressings including Beastie Boys License to Ill, Depeche Mode Violator, Foo Fighters Nothing Left to Lose, and Soundgarden Down on the Upside STILL SEALED! These are the types of albums that you usually have to settle on recent repressings. This place will likely now be on my must stop list anytime I’m out that way.Depending on the age of the item, the relative interest in the item (number of watchers, views, previous offers, etc) dictates my discounts. If it has a lot of watchers & activity and I’ve had it for only a few months, I might only discount 10%-15%. But if the item has been sitting around for 2 years with little to no activity, I may discount as much as 50% just to move it out. I’ve had success with both.
@Simon – agree with you on the personal message, even though I didn’t actually do it in the past. Moving forward I will include some short semi-personalized message.I’ve just been using the default statement so far. But I do like the idea of a message saying something around showing interest in the item and offering a special discount to take another look.
Sent out about 30 offers yesterday and had 3 sales – not groundbreaking, but those are 3 old items that are now out of storage!
@Mark_S – the answer is probably more than you think, so much more that record companies are actually pressing records again (brand new releases and reissues of old stuff). They wouldn’t be doing that if there was no money in it.
Of course just like any other collectible, condition, titles, artists still matter – like I’ve said on here before, you’ve gotta dig through thousands of polka, show tunes, classical music before finding something worthwhile.
Maybe ask her if she still has them and if she does, ask if she’d part with them – who knows, she might have them in her basement and looking to get rid of them. Even offer to buy them back (or give her my contact info lol)!
Yeah, 90s stuff is so tough to find because everyone had converted to CDs by then. By comparison, Dark Side of the Moon probably had a good 50 million records pressed whereas Nevermind or Pearl Jam Ten or Garth Brooks No Fences were all #1 albums that had only 50,000 copies pressed.
Been a few weeks since I posted because of the holiday weekend, a wedding weekend, etc… but I have been listening! Below are my numbers for the past 3 weeks.
Weeks May 19 – June 8, 2019 (3 weeks)
Total Items in Store: 1008
Items Sold: 45 (5 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $495.99 (24.2% of sales)
Highest Price Sold: $300 (1991 Nirvana Nevermind LP)
Average Price Sold: $45.59
Returns: 4 (plus 2 cancellations)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $730
Number of items listed this week: 42
Promoted listings test: 23 sales, $1,258.61 (61.4% of total sales), $54.69 fees (4.3% of sales)Pretty decent 3 weeks, especially after the slow week heading into Memorial Day – although I did see an uptick in returns & non-paying bidders; went months without one but had 6 total over this 3 weeks span.
My high dollar sale was that Nirvana album, which I really didn’t want to let go but priced high where I would let it go. Similar to you statement on the podcast, I too usually sell a $100+ item every week to every other week – and these three weeks produced not only the Nevermind sales, but also this Grateful Dead bootleg for $129.99, 1960 Miles Davis Sketches of Spain for $129.99, and another early Barbie for $100 from that big lot I bought (think I have 2 left).
While not a high dollar item, about 3 years ago I got a case of 50 of these WWII small biz window posters for like $20. After research, found that the drawing was done by a Corporal D. Parla in 1942. Poster showcases Uncle Sam with a zeppelin, a plane, a ship, and a tank in the background, with also factory smokestacks cranking hard. Uncle Sam is rolling up his sleeves to get down to business. The bottom of the poster has a blank spot so that local businesses could show their support or post messages to the troops. They’ve been a good pipeline maybe selling 1 or 2 a month, but recently I’ve been selling multiples each week – not sure if it’s the actual cause, but my theory has been it’s because of the upcoming elections and the growing divide between left & right leaning ideologies.
I don’t think I’m ready to take on complete collections or anything yet – but I do search CL, eBay, LetGo, and FB groups for collections and individual pieces that interest me, then pull the Steve S and ask “do you have anything else like this”.
Love the concept of scavenging/sourcing as therapy. I know if I had a rough week at the day/office job, nothing makes that wash away better than getting up a dawn on Saturday, driving & listening to the music I want to, standing in estate sale lines, haggling with flea market vendors, etc. To some, that prob feels like a nightmare, to many of us, it’s the dream.
Week May 12-18, 2019
Total Items in Store: 1032
Items Sold: 16 (2 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $118 (18.9% of sales)
Total Sales: $625.17
Highest Price Sold: $89.99 (1966 Beatles Revolver mono pressing)
Average Price Sold: $39.07
Returns: 0 (1 cancellation though)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $595
Number of items listed this week: 56
Promoted listings test: 4 sales, $179.97 (28.8% of total sales), $8.85 fees (4.9% of sales)Decent week, saved by a couple higher dollar items. Continue to do quite well on high end records, and just picked up another collection. Outside of records, this was a pretty neat sale… vintage 1950s Montreal & Toronto pennants all dirty & soiled that I got at a flea market in central Ohio last summer when visiting a friend – not crazy exciting except they’re headed back home to a buyer in Toronto.
This weekend got a lot of listing accomplished, things that were backed up and sitting around for a while. Also hit a couple estate sales and really tried to focus on NOT getting any more records (although I did end up with a handful, I couldn’t resist): a 1955 unused Marilyn Monroe calendar (NSFW), a 1950s French advertising souvenir carry on bag, an original 1960s wooden hanger from The Watergate Hotel, and a couple 1960s sterling silver Rolex Torah pens.
Welcome to NYC! Isn’t the weather lovely?!?! Think it’s supposed to be crappy all week until Saturday and then be gorgeous, just in time for you guys to head home 🙁
To the caller about estate sale prices – in my experience, it’s different for each one. I went to 3 this weekend and all were different; one had prices through the roof still even on the last day and they took 10% off of my “pile”; but then another was practically giving things away and I listed something yesterday for $225 that I paid $2 for at that sale. What another person above said, if you go consistently enough, you’ll get a sense of how each company runs their sales. I have 3 different “go to” companies that I’ll always go to cause I know the prices are fair, the quality is usually high, and they are organized.
Week May 5-11, 2019
Total Items in Store: 999
Items Sold: 14 (1 Amazon)
Cost of Items Sold: $105 (20.6% of sales)
Total Sales: $509.19
Highest Price Sold: $99.99 (1986 Beastie Boys License to Ill first press LP)
Average Price Sold: $36.37
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Promoted listings test: 11 sales, $405.71 (79.7% of total sales), $18.86 fees (4.6% of sales)On the slower side for me as well, about 30% below my weekly sales average. 7 of my 14 sales were under $20 and pulled down my average price sold pretty considerably.
Went to a few sales this weekend, but didn’t get to list anything because I was under the weather on Sunday. Plan on getting a few things listed and out the door before the week is out.
