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Those are some neat sales, Christine. I liked seeing those old old listings of yours. Your photography and listings have changed a lot over the years! It is wild to think about how important descriptions used to be for a listing…
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and end of year holiday festivities. It’s great sharing info and stories with all of you throughout the year and looking forward to more in 2025.
My mom went to Moscow when she was a teenager and had a set of matryoshka dolls that I didn’t realize until this moment that I don’t know what ever happened to them. So this egg really brings back so good memories. I wonder how much longer this kind of stuff will hold value. I don’t think Americans in their 30s and younger will want Russian anything when they’re older.
Wow, what an amazing find! Does Hermes always go through eBay’s authentication program? I know that purses do.
I would love to know the story of how those scarves got to that thrift and priced so low…what a journey they’ve had already!
I don’t think there is a ton of profit in flipping modern programs beyond the cover price since so much stuff has been digitized and so many stats, etc are freely available online. But vintage programs definitely have some value. More frequently it’s stuff from the 60’s and earlier. I am actually working my way through a pile of yearbooks and programs now and so far, the stuff from the 70’s and 80’s mostly has solds under $10, often under $5.
I think these Super Bowl and championship game pamphlets have retained some value because they were given to the media, so they were not available for purchase by fans (as far as I can tell). I had another one sell this week, so these are starting to pay off. I have a couple with the word DUPE or DUPLICATE scribbled on the cover and I’m curious to see if they’ll sell.
Where there is some value in modern super duper limited edition collectibles is with stadium giveaway items, or SGAs, given away to the first 1,000 (or whatever number) fans. Usually these are bobbleheads or other little trinkets and it’s often a race to the bottom — peak sales right after the game and then down, down, down until a couple months later when sales are in the $20 range. That’s best case for popular items and players since, like with most sports-related items, there have been 25+ years of the same types of items produced with slight variations. I like fast flips with a good sell-through rate, or unique items where I can use my knowledge, so SGAs aren’t the type of flipping game I like to play. But if the opportunity ever comes up to buy a big collection of these types of items, or you find an SGA out in the wild, it’s at least worth looking up.
Sharyn those antique book sets were always a great find when I was a regular at library sales. Full sets are usually priced surprisingly low with a handwritten little old lady created sign. No barcodes so the scanner dorks will skip them entirely. It is fun to see some of these books dating back to the 19th century and the topics they cover. And as you’ve found, some sets are still worth a surprising amount of money to collectors. Only downsides are that book sets tend to be very longtail and some of them would occasionally trigger my allergies, I guess from dust or mold.
I saw a few sold for $130 – $150 (with a $200 outlier), but they all were in good condition and still had liquid in the vials. The others were listed at $90-$100. Mine did not have any liquid left, so I listed it at $98, and it sold in just a few minutes! I guess I left money on the table, but I’m not sure.
This is always such an interesting question to me. I think when something sells immediately, it’s often a sign that the listing is underpriced or not listed correctly. A few months back I sold this Wimbledon tennis ticket for my full price of $50 within a few minutes. About a week later, some knob (not the buyer) messaged me “just to let you know” that my ticket was worth $200+ easily. But there were plenty of solds under $100 too. I paid less than $10 for the ticket, so I was happy with the sale before the message and decided I would continue to be happy about it even if I theoretically left money on the table.
I realize I am not one to throw stones, with a business centered around sports cards and memorabilia, but…$250 for a Starbucks mug?! Collectors are so weird.
Outstanding sale. Finding inventory that’s been hiding is the best kind of sourcing.
You ever think about those mugs you sold last year for $35 and think…why didn’t I just hide them all and sell at $250? But it’s so hard to know what’s going to be the hot collector’s item next month, let alone next year. Most things level off or go down in value.
I might need to educate myself a little bit on these different Starbucks mugs…
LOL at Jets fans. Poor Jets fans! That sale almost makes me wish I would become a Sports Spuds guy! Then I look at a stack of bobbleheads I’ve been avoiding listing and think…nah. Imagine how much silly memorabilia Jets fans would buy if they ever get a decent quarterback…
Your wheelchair module sale and the story behind it really says so much about you and how you built your business. Really impressive, so inspiring. How do you look up all the parts to figure out what’s worth listing and what the names of each part and part number are? Manufacturer’s website? ebay solds?
Love those Jordans. I guess the price for shoe authentication is much lower than for cards (I believe its $250+) or maybe its just that all Jordans go through the authenticator? Occasionally I will read a horror story about the authentication process, but I’ve had a great experience with it every time probably 10+ times by now…
The turntable recorder sale is also really interesting to me…a less experienced reseller might have spent the $150 for not much more of an overall profit, or given up on the item and donated it when it wasn’t working. Take your $20 profit from that and move on to something else…or buy yourself a nice lunch on your next sourcing trip!
I’ve posted about this before, but there are three thrift stores in my small town which has like a three block downtown. Two of them are open so few hours and full of such overpriced junk that I’m convinced they must exist for taxes/money laundering reasons. The third is a church thrift stores open Fridays and Saturdays run by the little old lady crew. I used to check out this thrift weekly and sometimes I’d find some cool stuff. Usually clothes for myself, once in a while stuff to resell. Sometime last year they got into the sells on eBay pricing. Between that and overhearing one too many conversations about how “kids don’t want to work these days” I have also dropped off to once or twice a year visits.
Thrift stores are still good sourcing opportunities, but you’ll have to find the decent stores and be willing/able to source in any department (you aren’t going to find sports cards or memorabilia there).
A couple years ago when I was still hitting thrifts somewhat regularly (once or twice a week), most trips I could find a few things in the media section of most every Goodwill/chain thrift that would sell for $15 and up. Books, music, media. I guess it was a learned skill from hitting library sales for many years. I would always try to branch out into other departments, but best I could usually do was find some things for myself: clothes, art and sometimes kitchen stuff because I love to cook. Never found anything real valuable in random departments, but I bet that was more due to my own lack of knowledge than a lack of quality items.
For instance I go to Columbus multiple times every year for fun and sourcing. There are ALOT of thrift stores there. Some of them have the crazy prices you see and I can’t believe people shop there. Believe it or not, the Goodwills are the most reasonable stores – some more than others.
I might just have to do this kind of trip next summer. The National card show is back in Chicago in 2025 and I’m definitely going to make the trek because the last time I went was such a great experience. Not so much the show, but I loved the city and made a nice profit on the whole trip thanks to the Newberry Library book sale (RIP). I talked to another reseller at the book sale for most of the last day and he told me that thrifting in the area was really good. Seems like a great way to learn.
You paid about the going rate for a 200 year old map of Huntingdonshire, at least going by Terapeak solds. Seems like the antique cartography resale market has its peaks and valleys!
$3 at an indy thrift, now that’s old school thrifting right there. What a cool piece!
How do you set your offer minimums on artwork when you have such a cheap buy in? I could see this sitting for a few months and then you get $100 offer on it out of nowhere. It seems like all the active listings of Jon Stuart Anderson’s sculptures have a nice amount of watchers on them.
There are some things money can’t buy. And for everything else…there’s Lindbergh cards?
You might have made more off this one Goodwill trip than I’ve made on every Goodwill purchase in my life combined. It’s so interesting how the quality of Goodwills varies between different areas of the USA. You had to pay up for those tail lights a little bit, but what a steal! How much did all those clothes cost you? I haven’t made a serious browsing trip to the local Goodwills here in a few years, but from what I remember, any nice clothes were $25+ each at least.
