[ChristineR]

There is no question that we are fortunate in the US, but the wealth is getting more concentrated and timing is important. Basically the earlier the decade you settled here where I live, the better off you were. On the whole, I do believe that opportunities for higher education, home ownership, pensions, etc. were more easily attainable to earlier generations. More to the point of this original conversation is that the quality goods they bought are now getting released into the marketplace. I can appreciate how well made and interesting some of these items are, and hopefully potential buyers will continue to shop online and appreciate them too vs. today’s goods that are not built to last. I love to sell functional and artsy items with vintage flair.

[ChristineR]

I see evidence of what Jay is relating here. I think it is profoundly true here on the Coastline – housing prices are completely unaffordable to most of the younger people and working families here. Some of our clients with higher level blue collar or white collar jobs – teachers, engineers, accountants – in the 1960s and 1970s could even buy multiple houses as rentals and now their kids live in them because they can’t afford to buy their own. At estate sales there is often a lot of ephemera documenting extensive travels in Europe during the midcentury era (pre-retirement). Most working families are busy paying for housing cost, taxes, childcare, gas, insurance, and food – just practical stuff.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by ChristineR.

[ChristineR]

Thanks Steve. I bought that same Risk game with sealed bags for $10. The ladies at the thrift store put tape on the mint box and a note (taped down) reading as follows: “Ebay – 49.99, 29.99, 39.95 used, Bonanza $111.13” I wish they wouldn’t tape up the boxes! I think they are afraid of sticker switchers. Love the bookends and napkin rings up there.

Sold these Gurley candles I paid pennies for. They always do well though some sellers do big lots of them for cheap. I always do singles or doubles with a close up photo. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Vintage-Gurley-Easter-Holiday-Candles-Bunny-Basket-amp-Yellow-Bird-Birdhouse-/232273008479?rd=1

I have a little pipeline of craft kits. The small ones don’t seem to move very well, so I will probably lot those up. Paid $3 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cathy-Alexander-Crewel-Embroidery-Kit-Wintergreen-Mini-Bell-Pull-Panel-Wood-Bird-/332165513697?rd=1

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-CROCHET-AFGHAN-BLANKET-Twin-Bedspread-Lap-Handmade-Green-amp-Cream-Check-/331867118196?rd=1
Paid $3 for this afghan that went GSP to Canada. I hope its friends follow along soon.

Now back to the bookkeeping for taxes. My easy auction tracker didn’t pick up all of my sales so I’ll have to be more careful this year. I vow to do a better job keeping up my records in 2017.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by ChristineR.

[ChristineR]

I’m totally with you. This week has tanked and the latter part of last week was dead. I’m also working on my taxes this week – only held up by my ebay cogs bookkeeping, so not listing. I’m sure that is not helping matters at all. I might try a big sale memorial day weekend to clear out some old stuff, even though people are traveling in cars not on planes mostly.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by ChristineR.

[ChristineR]

Good for you Amatino and good advice. Before the challenge I had already sorted my items by type though many of them are unique vintage items. This helps me also because I can clean items together before listing. It definitely helps photographing and listing go faster, especially if you have some boxes with very similar items. I also use the template feature for certain items I sell regularly. Good luck with your piles. It feels really good to get organized.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by ChristineR.

[ChristineR]

Total Items in Store: 341
Items Sold: 12
Cost of Items Sold: $16 (used) + $49 (RA)
Total Sales: $344
Highest Price Sold: $56 (Hubley Duesenberg Car Model Kit, paid $4 Indy Thift)
Average Price Sold: $29
Returns: 0; Int’l Sales: 1 afghan to Canada GSP
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0 I was very good this week with the challenge.
Number of items listed this week: +/- 15

Facebook: Two sales $99 for an older model Kichenaid Stand Mixer (my mom’s) and $50 for NWT Pottery Barn Outdoor pillows (thifted for $6!)

This was a fun podcast to listen to. I don’t have time and freedom to go to auctions, but it sounds amazing except the nemesis part. Maybe you’ll hit one soon where no one present likes your favorite stuff. You have the gift of seeing value where others do not. I notice many of the older pickers around here pass over some Etsy style kitch & housewares, flatware (except knives), and vintage linens. At the thrifts it’s a lot of left over items but I think some elect to not have a house estate sale. I plan to hit estate sales after my hiatus and try to get closer to the source. This town grew up in the 50s and 60s. The rummage sales here are great if the sorters don’t get to shop it first.

A good week for me. Haopily I got rid of a couple of bulky items from my garage. I’ve washed some cartoon bedding and midcentury melmac from the piles that I hope to list this week. Thank you to those who provided plastic cleaning tips. I’ve got quite a way to go with the piles but I’m starting to get a bit of breathing room. 🙂

In other news, we got a new Grocery Outlet here! I went before the grand opening to the soft open. If you know your prices well, there were some great bargains. Other things like produce, not so great.

In really unrelated news, we are watching the old Wonder Years TV show with my tween and teen. I’m having fun checking out the stuff in the background, especially the episode with the backyard luau.

[ChristineR]

I belong to the following two just to participate in the morning pinterest parties. If anyone knows of others who do early morning Pinterest parties, please share.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/909662352497624/?fref=nf

https://www.facebook.com/groups/internationalleagueofthrifters/

You have to ask to join and it’s free. There are some friendly and shared experience posts, plus newbs asking for help. I just do the parties and get my coupon reminder, though sometimes I choose what I’m going to list based on their goal for the week post for inspiration. I think it would be helpful for fulltimers feeling a bit isolated.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by ChristineR.

[ChristineR]

I’ve got some annoying industrial strength sticker adhesive to remove from vintage melmac / melanmine / plastic. I’ve tried magic eraser and other basic methods. Is there a product that safe for plastic?

I also bought some vintage Studio Nova flatware with white plastic handles but some have yellowed. Has anyone successfully whitened with a product? Thanks!

I sold some Dark Dansk flatware with dark colored plastic handles having white dishwasher marks. My dad revived with steel wool. They sold very well.

[ChristineR]

I haven’t popped on the Smuggler’s Cove yet. My cheap self says I don’t need it, but then that’s what I said about Tiki Modern. I think I even passed it over when all of our Borders stores went out of business. Doh! Having kids is very distracting to one’s tiki fascination but I looking forward to patronizing the bar. Love your store branding so I’m sure it will be well done! I actually finally found a tiki mug last week before everyone else, but unfortunately it was only worth about $15-20.

[ChristineR]

I like to sell overlooked vintage cookie cutters and they are lightweight so ship first class. This was an oldie but a goodie. Paid a buck at a moving sale.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Wood-Springerle-Folk-Art-German-Biscuit-Cookie-Butter-Mold-Press-Birds-/232283245354?rd=1

I wasn’t sure about pricing these tiny Vintage Easter decorations. Paid pennies at an estate and found them in a box with Gurley candles. I’ve heard some people say they go to the basements first looking for holiday stuff. We don’t have many in Cali but this was in a guest room closet up high. Sold in 5 minutes. http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/332175705309?rd=1

Took a best offer of $50. I’m not into this kind of thing so priced to move. Paid $4 @ Indy thrift. I wish they wouldn’t put packing tape on paper boxes. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Hubley-Kit-Gabriel-Model-1930s-SJ-Duesenberg-Town-Car-Metal-4868-/232271070829?rd=1

Got most of our money back on these items used on our recent vacation. Love to recycle and sold quickly so maybe I could have gotten all of our $ back? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Disney-Tiki-Aulani-Travel-Mug-Refillable-Hot-Cold-Beverage-amp-Oaui-Revealed-Guide-/232283763498?rd=1

[ChristineR]

I would love to know specifically how Cassini treats stale items of different ages and whether or not this has changed in the last couple of years and how they plan to change it in the future. Along these lines I would like to know if items flagged with the yellow banner (no sales in 18 months) or identified as items shown in the growth tab as underperforming (with or without suggested change recommendations) get different search treatment. On the latter, I’ve noticed it doesn’t make sense which items have recommended changes and often it’s just free shipping that is recommended even if my item is priced lower than the average or last sale. So, that doesn’t seem very helpful if I don’t like to give free shipping.

[ChristineR]

Hey Paul. If you open a tiki bar, I’m coming down there. In the meantime I know of a couple of books you might be interested in for ideas.


I’ve been casually looking at thrifts for a copy of the Tiki Modern book since I was too cheap to pay the $45 price new a few years ago.

[ChristineR]

Thanks Linda. My thrifty self says just to go buy the pots at Costco or Ross, but for the front I’m excited about the talavera if I can sell enough to pay for that. In the back I have several from Craigslist and Costco. Most of the potted plants, especially orchids are from estate sales. It’s one of my favorite things to pick up and cymbidiums grow like weeds here. Well I’m quite the chatterbox this week. More importantly, I’ve been nibbling a wee bit, but I’ve really flipped my equation = from 95% sourcing / 5% listing to 5% sourcing or less. It will be a long haul at my rate, but I see some room starting to open up.

[ChristineR]

* Total Items in Store: 311
* Items Sold: 13
* Cost of Items Sold: $17 used + 45 RA Clearance items
* Total Sales: $310
* Highest Price Sold: $79 (Two new Anthropologie plates – paid $15 on sale over a year ago and reduced prices)
* Average Price Sold: $24
* Returns: 0;
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $10
* Number of items listed this week: +/- 10

A good week for me. COGS is down because I’ve got more used items listed now, and average price is down but still pretty good. I got that nice few days listing during a portion of spring break while my family was away. Sold a bulky afghan today and I’m thrilled to get that out of the garage. I also ran a 25% off sale this week, a bit deeper than I normally like to but I want to move product and tend to price high, so it’s a less painful way to increase volume knowing my tendency.

I went to pin an item for a theme Pinterest party and realized the GTC listing had dropped off ebay, so that’s unusual. My store subscription renewed and it occurred to me that I haven’t received any offers from ebay in a long, long time and they did not give me a break on my subscription even though I’m top rated plus / sometimes Powerseller. I used to get offers all the time and got a discount on my store subscription last year.

I’m not a big goal person and I’m a thinker but also busy with much responsibility. Most of my Ebay money during this learning period is going to inventory, after school care for my daughter and clothes and other practical items for my kids who are in preteen / early adolescent growth spurt period. Then there is summer camps – very expensive but I need to work. So, this is kind of boring practical stuff. I do have a short term goal of buying two very large talavera pots for my front entry.

Even if I didn’t have kids, investing in real estate here is out of reach completely. Basic houses are $1M. I expect in the future that I will be more efficient and I’m lucky to be in an amazing sourcing location with many older people and very wealthy people. I’m sure I will be doing this in my retirement from my day job. The day job is really flexible and allows me to be completely available to my kids and turn out quality work without a great deal of direct responsibility. I mainly work with a very kind and talented senior attorney – that’s right, one exists. I’ve been doing this for years though, I don’t really watch tv, so learning Ebay has been very stimulating. I also love to bargain hunt and find super interesting retro items. This all keeps me going. My family of cheapskates all think it’s awesome that my hobby can also make extra $ since it’s so expensive to live here. I gave my friend some folk art pottery for her birthday I sourced for $4. Lots of perks to this, but I just only have so much time to list and unfortunately it’s not always consistently.

[ChristineR]

Yes. I can get in on my phone though.

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