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05/17/2018 at 11:03 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Trucker hat, MCM Tri top corner table, Schwinn Twinn, Jeanie rub, Headphones, Marantz 4400 #40171
Cool sales again, Steven! That Marantz was an awesome sale! I have yet to find anything Marantz out in the wild, yet you seem to come across them regularly. I’m jealous. I made some fascinating sales last week too. Here we go…
For a while, I was buying these Cranium Cariboo board games because they were going for really high prices. That bubble burst a while ago, but I still sell the parts every now and then from the incomplete sets I’ve got. This treasure chest piece sold for $21 with free shipping. I’ve probably only got a few cents into each sellable part from these sets. That’s why I don’t hesitate to buy certain used board games even when they’re not complete. A lot of times you can make more money parting them out than you would if you sold the complete set.
Cranium Cariboo Game PieceHere’s my highest sale of the week. I acquired this really interesting brass fireplace tool set from an auction a couple summers ago. It was such a unique piece that I didn’t want to let it go for less than $200 (I paid $45 for it). I cleaned it up really nice, took photos and listed, and placed it in front of my fireplace until it finally sold. I knew it would be a long tail item, but when that $250 best offer came in, I jumped on it.
Brass Fireplace Tool Set featuring PixiesHere’s a neat little item that I found in the bottom of a box lot. It’s a little Jewish calendar booklet from 1925. There wasn’t much to it, but I thought it would garner some interest because it was made in Germany. I placed it on auction with a $20 starting price. I guess it wasn’t as interesting as I thought. It sold for the opening bid. But hey, $20 for a teeny tiny little piece of ephemera ain’t bad!
Little Jewish Calendar BookletSo started listing these n-scale trains that I got at an auction in January. I paid about $125 for the whole lot, so each sellable item comes to about $2. This was the first one to sell, and it sold very quickly. It was an Arnold Rapido B&O train set. I’m thinking I should have price it a bit higher, but at $90 I’ve made back nearly ¾ of what I bought everything for.
N-Scale B&O Train SetFinally, I’d like to show these vacuum tubes that I sold. Electrical tubes are weird to me. Sold prices are all over the map! So I acquired a box of them at an auction for really cheap and listed a few for auction. This particular set of 5 sold for $52, but what’s interesting is I immediately received a message when I listed them for a buy it now price. That’s happened to me before, and I know that means I’ve got something good. But this time the auction only ended at a couple bucks more than the starting price. Oh well. He got them for a good price I guess. If anyone has any experience or advise for these, I’d love to hear it.
Philips Electrical Vacuum Tubes05/16/2018 at 12:23 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #40082That is great advice! And it’s so true! I put on my charming personality face in all my business dealings. When people feel more comfortable with you, they’re more comfortable doing business with you.
05/16/2018 at 9:22 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #40067No inspection. Just “as is” mostly. There was a pest inspection done and was cleared. We checked out all the major points like foundation and mold and water leaks during the open house. The roof is kind of old, but is still in good condition. We predict we’ll need to replace it in around 5 or 7 years. There are some minor cosmetic issues like a broken step and the deck will need re-stained and sealed. But for the most part, the house has been kept up very well.
We’ll probably pay to have a full inspection done anyways just for peace of mind. I’d rather know something is wrong now than when we’re already settled in it.05/16/2018 at 8:50 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #40063Thanks! I’ve worked really hard (maybe too hard) to get those numbers. It’s like a second job at this point.
The auction was last Thursday. We got it for way below market value, surprisingly. I really thought we would be outbid. I think everyone else was just as shocked. My guess is, any other interested people didn’t bother coming because they thought it would go too high. And it being on a Thursday afternoon probably helped in our favor too.
There was also the thing where the ending bid had to be approved by the owner. It wasn’t a foreclosure or anything. She was just elderly and had a hard time getting around in that size of house. So we thought for sure she would decline. But we have a long conversation with her the week prior at the open house and she was happy to let it go to a nice young couple.05/15/2018 at 9:30 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #40041We’ve always fancied the idea of owning one day. After the flood incident last summer, we decided to start making the dream become a reality. But we were really dismayed when we began searching the market and seeing what we could afford without living on rice and beans. But we just kept saving our eBay money and waiting for the right opportunity to arise. One day about a month ago, I was looking on Auctionzip and one of the auctioneers I follow posted the house for auction, and I guess my gut instinct just said to give it a shot. It couldn’t hurt. The rest I described above.
eBay isn’t my full time job yet. I’m a full time technical coordinator for a science learning center at a university. eBay is just something I started doing to make some “fun money” and soon realized it’s real potential. The loan process (still pending btw) has been pretty easy so far. Though our loan officer admitted that he’s always a bit leery when dealing with an auctioned home. But I think he’s relaxed after reviewing all the paperwork and seeing both of our excellent backgrounds and credit reports. There’s just a couple pieces of info we’re still waiting on to give him, but overall it’s going very smoothly.05/15/2018 at 10:34 am in reply to: What Sells On eBay: 110 camera film, Car parts, Stereo stuff, US Marshal patch, new Brother laser printer, Akai reel to reel #39967Thanks for the info, Steve! There appears to be a couple listings for the salt and pepper shakers with really high prices, but none sold except mine. I’m satisfied with the price I got for it now.
I may have to invest in a pattern guide book or something one day. Some of this depression glass brings in pretty good money!05/15/2018 at 10:13 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #39962Thanks Steven! We’re so excited!
05/15/2018 at 10:12 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #39961Thanks Jay! We plan on using most of the basement for storage and a shipping station (it’s nowhere near a flood plain thankfully). There’s a nice office area upstairs that’ll be for photography and listing. And from there, who knows? There’s like four other bedrooms that we can utilize. LOL
05/14/2018 at 8:14 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #3992705/14/2018 at 7:59 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 360: Is Diversification a Myth or Reality? #39926May 6 – 12
Total Items in Store: 1609
Items Sold: 31
Total Sales : $1247
* above yearly average of $750
* WAY above 2017 total week sales of $372
Highest Price: $250 (Peerage England Brass Fireplace Tool Set)
Average Price: $40
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $92
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $17
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 42I had a very good week of sales! These 1K+ weeks are become more and more common, and I’m lovin it! Not much in the way of scavenging, but I did manage to sell a really neat set of fireplace tools for much more than I thought they would go for (and good thing too, because I spent $45 on them). But enough about eBay. I wanted to share the good news. We Bought the House!!
I’ll start from the beginning. Steph and I have been house searching for a few months now with disappointing results. The only houses within our price range were these 120 year old homes with who knows how many problems. Not something we wanted to deal with. Well I happened upon this gorgeous bed and breakfast house that would be sold at auction. So I suggested we go to the open house and talk with the owner. The house was way nicer than we expected. And we became good chums with the old lady who owned it who was just looking to downsize. So on the day of the auction, there was a low first bid of $100,000. We jumped in at 110K. There was one other bid but we got back in at 115. And we waited for what seemed like 5 minutes. The anticipation was killing me. Finally, he looked at the owner, she nodded her head and we won! And at 40 thousand below our max budget! I’m still in a state of shock.
The awesome thing too is, we just met with our loan officer and the monthly payments will be just about what we’re paying for rent, and now there’s so much room for my eBay business! It’s like a dream come true. And if it wasn’t for my eBay business, there would have been no way I could have made the 20% down payment. I’ll post some pictures sometime in the future.
05/10/2018 at 12:59 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: 110 camera film, Car parts, Stereo stuff, US Marshal patch, new Brother laser printer, Akai reel to reel #39581Awesome reel to reel sale, Steve! I’ve got an Otari MX-50II that I’m holding on to for now because I like it. But I’m glad to see that they can still sell well. I didn’t have a super great week of sales, but here are some interesting ones nonetheless…
I’ll start with this neat Kieninger Obergfell Kundo anniversary wall clock that sold. I came in a box lot and cost me about $3. This looked like it was in the process of being repaired. It was missing the pendulum and key, but I’ve never see this wall sconce style before. Kundos usually come as mantle or desk clocks. So I priced it kinda high at $50 and it sold within a week.
K&O Kundo Anniversary Wall clockHere’s a single pink depression glass salt shaker that came out of a box lot. It cost me .42 cents. Depression glass is tricky because there are soooo many patterns to look for and most of them are really common. I didn’t have a guide and couldn’t find a good one online, so I just winged it with what I thought was a reasonable price of $10. It sold within minutes. I’m hoping I didn’t price it too low, but really I’m happy for the sale.
Pink Depression Glass ShakerHere’s another interesting sale. I acquired a bunch of these paper promotional booklet items from an auction box lot for almost nothing. They were from the Paterson Parchment Paper Company, and I assume they were Christmas gifts mailed to their clients. This one was a booklet about Hawaii. I put just this one up as a sort of test to see if there was any interest, and it sold within hours for $15. So I’ll eventually list the rest for probably $40 each. Unless anyone has any information that should suggest I price them higher?
Paterson Parchment Paper Co EphemeraI acquired this Wheeling Corrugating twin pail at an auction for $6 along with some other odds and ends. It was one of the few items that I was able to clean up after the flood and relist. It finally sold for a best offer of $45, which I’m glad for because it was taking up a lot of space. So keep an eye out for these old metal buckets. There are collectors for them! They’re prevalent in my area because I live in Wheeling where they were made.
Wheeling Corrugating Twin Pail BucketWow, I can’t believe someone would have the gall to send back just the broken pots and keep the good ones and expect a full refund. I hope you can get it all resolved in your favor. Keep us updated!
April 29 – May 5
Total Items in Store: 1595
Items Sold: 29
Total Sales : $577
* below yearly average of $734
* above 2017 total week sales of $283
Highest Price: $50 (Large German Clear Sulphide Dog Shooter Marble)
Average Price: $20
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $50
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $42
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 62After a record setting week previously, it would make sense to follow it by a soft one. Though $577 isn’t so bad. That’s about on par with what I make at my day job, though that’s not accounting fees and COGS. I wonder about the coincidence of removing free returns on everything and my sales drying up? I’ll give it another week and then turn it back on and see what happens. I’m all for experimentation, especially since I don’t depend on the sales to get by.
Interesting and thought provoking topic this week. It’s encouraging to hear your thoughts on all the change that’s happening on eBay. I’m with you about free returns. I can’t see any way that it benefits the seller, unless in the long run it attracts more buyers to the eBay platform. That’s a great idea about charging a $1 handling fee. If and when I turn free returns back on, I’m totally doing that (unless ebay takes that feature away too).
We went to look at a house on Sunday. It’s a beautiful two story home with tons of space, just what we need. The only problem is the drive to work and back…45 minutes. And it’s selling as an auction. So there’s no telling how much it’ll go for. But we’re hoping we can get it for less than $150K.
05/03/2018 at 9:27 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Vintage ashtray stand, Leather jacket, Cabinet photos, US Marshal patch, $600 book #39022My first guess at those blades are that they’re carpentry chisels, but missing the surrounding handles. If someone were good at making wood handles (and if they’re buying carpentry tools, my guess is they would be well versed in woodworking) then that would be a nice set of tools.
05/03/2018 at 9:16 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Vintage ashtray stand, Leather jacket, Cabinet photos, US Marshal patch, $600 book #39021I’m a little skeptical of that price. I have a feeling it’s only that high because it’s the last one. One review from there said the $10 price was too steep. But I hope my buyer got a good deal.
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