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Thanks for sharing. Steve that looks mighty cold! We are starting to look at colleges for my son now, and after watching the national weather lately, I’m kinda reconsidering U Michigan and U Minnesota. He’s sick of wearing sunscreen everyday, but…that Polar Freeze sounded scary. We are finally! out of drought here into severely dry 🙂 Hoping our water rates go down.
A few interesting sales. This midcentury art pottery dish sold for best offer of $40. I’m a sucker for the crackle finish. Took a while and went to Palm Springs. Pretty cheap shipping since so close, though I am starting to notice the price hikes. I paid $3 I think for this at a thrift store.
These 80s Just Ask children’s books are really awesome for science-compromised parents and sell well. These I read to my kids and picked up used. At my favorite thrift store, I narrowly missed buying another set. Some ladies are plowing through the kids books lately and taking virtually all of them. Overall, I really like selling used kids books in sets. Another set of my daughter’s sold recently for $35. I paid a fair amount for these when she was on a tear. Sometimes I step up and pay full price for my kids when it comes to books they are really into.
Sold this vintage breadbox and very happy to get it out of the garage. Sold super quickly at $35 and I paid I think less than $10.
Finally, I still pick up paper goods if cheap. The vintage hallmark cards have been hit and miss (Christmas didn’t move well), but some does ok. These 80s Garfield book plates I got for .50 each at the indy thrift. I put these stickers I stole from my daughter because the old ladies tape down their price tags and I can’t peel them off without ripping the plastic. If someone has a better solution, please let me know.
Yeah! I sold a craft kit for $135 with make offer to watchers beta on Ebay. Sweet.
@Ebay mom: You’re welcome! If I had a helper, I would probably have them pick up a tote and take it home to photo and start drafts. But, takes time to find someone of course.
I have the lighting issue you have. I have shadows on my items, poor lighting as I am often taking photos early morning before everyone wakes and don’t want to set up a lighting kit in our main living area (no basements out here). I think my photos are good otherwise and stuff does sell. My current motto is “great items, great prices”. I used to have aspirations of some perfectly curated Esty store.
Sourcing-wise, you could try rummage sales to buy in bulk. Garage sales are time consuming but estate sales could potentially pay off better with quantity buying.
On Mercari, I started with liquidating my own kids’ better brand stuff and books. I suspect that there are a lot of young moms on Mercari shopping. The Farmhouse stuff, Rae Dunn promoted by Youtube young moms is selling on Mercari. It’s way faster to list, but the prices are not quite as strong as Ebay generally speaking. Still, I’ve moved some super stale items crossposted from Ebay on Mercari and Mercari is gaining traffic I think. Maybe it would be good for the smaller items your daughter likes to list.
Hang in there Ebay mom, I hear you and that’s quite a spread in ages you have with all different needs. I think online sourcing could be a time suck unless you are talking quantity. The best way to step up if you really want to I think is to hire someone flexible for listing. My older one is way too busy and neither kid is interested, but I’ve thought about finding someone since the sourcing is plentiful here. But for now, I’m content to let reselling go to the back burner as needed, knowing that I will probably step this up later when life is less demanding. I also really enjoy listing on Mercari since it’s super fast and easy. You can promote with your phone anywhere during downtime – like waiting in the car to pick up. Good luck!
Total Items in Store: 309 Ebay, about 50 Mercari
Items Sold: 9 Ebay, 0 Mercari
Gross Sales: $306 Ebay
Cost of Items Sold: $27 + $14 shipping included + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: $94 (Christmas! stocking needlepoint kit, paid $4 goodwill)
Average Price Sold: $34
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 6Busy outside Ebay but enjoyed the podcast. I like this kind of analysis, though I’m not sourcing much these days. Sold the expensive craft kit after participating in a group Pinterest FB share. February is usually the worst month of sales for me, so I’ll have to try to goose along sales as much as possible. I sent offers to watchers on Ebay – no results yet. Thanks to those who were sharing about that beta. Chatter on FB that Mercari is pretty dead this month. Have a great week.
Thanks Simon! I use easy auction tracker but there always seems to be some glitch where I don’t get all of the sales updated. Our computer guy erased it from the temp file this year so I have to go to paypal for Jan and Feb.
I’d add shipping cost / whether it fits in a USPS flat rate or is eligible for cubic rates.
Congrats ladies. I have a lot going on outside of Ebay at this time. I managed to list 6 items. Hope to squeeze in more this week. Have a nice week.
Comedian’s stand up on garage sale people
You know who you are.
Thanks Big Sally, I don’t really have time to fall down a rabbit hole. I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who has dealt with either an online outlet or local type of art liquidator. Maybe that person in Seattle would be interested…doesn’t hurt to check.
I might just go ahead on Ebay if it’s a dead end. This painting is only 11″ square so easy to ship. I’ve never sold something this expensive, so I wonder about how much insurance would cost and how good it would be. :O
So this has been an interesting learning experience. The painting seems to be considered authentic and because there are similar ones, I know that it’s acrylic. The estate did not get back to me. I got their number from a smaller gallery who shows this artist, mostly his totally different later works. I emailed a Swiss auction house, and they only estimated $1400 euro, so it seems like it could be worth more over here. It’s the NYC skyline, so I tried a NY gallery with no response. The big boys said to use a local estate liquidator and I read something online discouraging using Ebay to sell fine art. The value appears to be within $1500 and $3K. Soooo, I think I may hunt for a smaller gallery in New York due to the subject matter. Depending on the commission, I could be better off on Ebay. I’d kind of like to sell it within a month or two to fund my tile.
What say you, scavengers?
I was out of town some of this week helping my dad prepare to sell his house but managed to list 8 items. Hoping for a better week this week. Thanks Amatino for the DP support thread and hope you are feeling better. I’ll be taking photos soon. My appetite for picking up more stuff is already off, and looking at the photos helps keep it even more suppressed. Have a great week ladies.
Total Items in Store: 340 Ebay, 45 Mercari
Items Sold: 2 Ebay, 2 Mercari
Gross Sales: $20 Ebay, $29 Mercari
Cost of Items Sold: $2 + $6 free shipping + some items ours
Highest Price Sold: $19 Mercari (New Hallmark Dr. Seuss piggy bank (ours))
Average Price Sold: $10
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $4
Number of items listed this week: 6 Ebay, 2 MercariWeeeelll, worst week ever on Ebay. I was out of town and deactivated Mercari (there is not handling time adjustment available). No sales on Ebay while handling time adjusted Thursday – Sunday. Oh well, moving on. It’s a fresh week. 🙂
I have a few searches out on both sites and I’ve seen some sweet deals come up on Mercari for home items. There are many amateur sellers cleaning out, so that’s ripe for picking. There are some better brand things on Mercari that go lightening fast, so I know there are other pickers working it plus it’s app based and you always have your phone. Glad Ryanne you found some Ikea on there.
When my mom died I got rid of two closets full of vintage fabric – European, midcentury, high quality. She was all about buying and not much on production. Vintage perfumes, all kinds of good stuff. But, I’m getting cool stuff from panning the stream, so that’s ok.
My sales have been less than stellar, but I wanted to share this one by Lynn Chase. The place mats I sold for $120 are unusual but keep an eye out for her stuff – especially china. It can go for really good money. Examples of solds The art work is very well done and it’s high end. I paid $6 for my place mats at the indy thrift.
Also this $40 ephemera sale is cool because I sold the day I put it in a Pinterest party with the Facebook Thifting Board. A bit hard to price so I have more but only listed this pair first to test the waters. It may be helpful to participate or pin your items this time of year to bring them attention. Also, most of the sales were lower than this on Ebay, so the buyer didn’t shop around.
Finally, I forgot I left this Easter decor up from last year. Paid $3. Beistle is a good vintage paper brand for holiday items and people like the honeycombs.
True, but things are bound to change for the better after this kind of exposure. If the marketplace is acquired I could see us paying more fees eventually. But, it would be really nice to see a more efficient Ebay where things make sense. We are already paying more fees, but arguably not seeing the benefit of that money being spent.
