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Good question. We don’t have a planned destination yet. We’re going down to Savannah in the fall to visit some friends and we’ll scope it out while we’re there. Seattle was another option where we have some friends currently living. I’m not looking forward to the move, but I know we’ve got to get away from where we’re at now. The heroin epidemic is hitting this area pretty hard and I’m afraid its just going to get worse.

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May 28 – June 3
Total Items in Store: 862
Items Sold: 18
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $504
Highest Price: $60 (NOS Vintage Wondercale by Springmaid Percale Cotton Blend 4-Piece Full Size Bed Set)
Average Price: $28
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $94
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $294

Another pretty average week in sales. So far I’m doing as well as I was in Jan and Feb according to GoDaddy.

Last week I was off from work for vacation. I used my time to photograph and list over 130 vehicle and heavy equipment service and operator manuals. My goal was to have it all done from start to finish in 2 days. It took 3 days, but oh well. I’m really glad it’s done. And I’ve been selling them already. I foresee this as a nice steady source of sales in the next few months.

On Saturday, I went to an amazing auction out in the middle of nowhere. An estate auction of a fellow who spent his life collecting whisky decanters. I didn’t have a whole lot of interest in those, but it just blew my mind, especially since they were all full and unopened. I filled my car up nevertheless with all sorts of goodies that I got for a bargain.

Right now, eBay is sort of my backup plan. I’m pretty cozy at my full time job, but I know one day I’m going to move on, and I hope eBay will prove to be reliable as a good source of income. I’ve found that I have a real knack for finding items to sell, and I’m having fun doing it. All I need to do is to get my inventory up and get my average income higher than what I’m making now at my main job. My goal is to move out of the Ohio Valley by next summer.

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The scent of subduction with a hint of flame broiled meat. 🙂 It actually doesn’t smell too bad. No meat smell like it was advertised. I’m not a cologne guy so I don’t have the words to describe it.

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May 21-27

Another fine video, Steve! I had a better week last week than the previous one. Here are my highlights…

I picked this cast iron lion still bank up in a box lot with a bunch of other cast iron things. I paid a bit much for the lot ($30), but it has some other good stuff in it. These lion still banks have a number of different versions. Some are worth more than others. After some researching, I found out that mine, while still quite old, wasn’t the original. I listed it as such and took a best offer of $26.50.
Cast Iron Lion Still Bank

Back in 2008, Burger King ran a promo for their own line of cologne. It was called Burger King Flame. You may remember it. Well I bought four of them for I think $14 each. They sat in a drawer all this time forgotten. I found them about a month ago. Two have somehow dried up completely. One was half full and the other was completely full. Funny how that happens. Well I listed them on a whim (none others were even listed or sold, at least in the last 90 days) and set the price somewhat high. Took about a month but they both sold on the same day. There must have been a blog post about it or something. The half full one sold for $25 and the full one sold for best offer of $33. I probably could have gotten more, but oh well.
Burger King Flame Cologne

Last summer, I was at a great auction with about 80% box lots. I was buying all kinds of stuff for dirt cheap. This wood box came with an armload of other unrelated things. I honestly don’t know what I paid for it, but probably less than a couple bucks. Brought it home and it sat for a while because I couldn’t figure out what it was. Finally, I posted pictures of it to Reddit and found out it was a speaker box for an old home projector. I listed it as such and it sold after a couple months to someone in South Korea for $50.
Vintage Projector Speaker Box

Here’s my big sale of the week. I picked these brand new neoprene industrial work gloves up at an warehouse liquidation auction. If I knew then what I know now, I would have focused on buying more of these gloves and less tools that were going for too high, but oh well. I payed about $10 for all 3 packs of 12. Someone bought all 3 for $105.
Neoprene Rubber Work Gloves

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Do you hit up any other thrift stores in and around Columbus? I’ve always wondered if it was worth the drive there. We usually thrift shop in Pittsburgh, but Columbus is about equal distance from where I live.

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May 21-27
Total Items in Store: 754
Items Sold: 17
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $465
Net Profit: $388
Highest Price: $105 (32 Pairs of Large Memphis Neomax Industrial Neoprene Work Gloves)
Average Price: $23
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $40
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $23

Looking a lot better last week than the week before. Not quite as depressing. I had a bunch of bread and butter sales so my average was kind of low, but I can’t complain. I think I really started to make some sales after I went through and updated some of my old listings. I set a hell of alot of stuff for “best offer” and that must of triggered something because I was selling things that I’ve had in my store from the very beginning. For full price too!

We held a garage sale on Saturday. We have a spare portion of our garage where I stack up boxes and boxes of stuff and junk that I obtain from auction box lots. Once or twice a year we take all of that and garage sale it off. It’s all stuff I would otherwise have thrown away or donated. Ended up making over $100. Pretty good for just a few hours. Donated or threw away the rest to make room for the next garage sale’s items.

I’m on vacation all this week so my goal is to list all those city garage service manuals I recently acquired. There’s about 140 of these things. I spent all day Monday taking pictures, so at least that portion is done. I really hope these things sell well. If it’s anything like the last group of service manuals, there’ll be a huge spurt of sales and then it’ll trickle off until I’m selling one every few weeks. But no biggie there. I got them for what I consider a bargain.

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Holy crap, I just noticed that I totally mislabeled that c-clamp. It was a Wilton brand and I listed it as a Hargrave. Whoops. Well the buyer never mentioned it so I guess they didn’t care. Haha!

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May 14-20

Another fine video! That last bit with your cat made me chuckle. My sales last week were abysmal at a total of six. Here are some of those…

My highest sale of the week goes to this new Hargrave brand forged steel 10-inch c-clamp. I picked this up, along with a lot of other brand new tool items, at a liquidation auction of a hardware store. Everything was going for sky high, so my profit could have been a little better on this. I paid $10, and I sold it for $60. No best offer, they just bought it straight out. That always makes me happy.
New Hargrave C-Clamp

Here’s something I’ve learned that sells. Vintage spray paint cans. Some brands are worth more than others. Do some research and you’ll immediately know what to look out for. They don’t even necessarily have to be full. I picked this up, along with a whole box full of others, for $7 at an auction. For items that I don’t have a lot of knowledge of, I may start out with an auction style listing. Out of all of the cans I listed, this is the only one that got a bid. Sold it for my opening bid of $15.
Illinois Bronze Spray Paint Can

This is one of the older items in my store. It’s an old Rodale desk Lamp. I didn’t think I would ever sell it. It was kind of loose at the hood and it had some marks and wear, but it still worked. I priced it at what I thought was a good price, but after a while I decided to take whatever offer was given. Someone offered $30 and I gladly accepted it. I think I only paid $1.50 so it was a good deal.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Rodale-Desk-Lamp-Model-987-/302217600815?rd=1

The last item I sold last week was a wheel axle for a Johnny West Covered Wagon toy. I bought the whole set for $55, but realized upon bringing it home that it was all beat up and unsellable as a whole. So I parted it out. So far, I’ve made $83 from the parts. I’ll come out with more than what I expected the toy as a whole would sell for, but the pieces are moving very slowly. This wheel axle sold for $10.
Johnny West Covered Wagon Wheel Axle

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May 14 – 20
Total Items in Store: 725
Items Sold: 6
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $150
Net Profit: $96 (oh voy!)
Highest Price: $60 (New Hargrave 10″ Forged Steel C-Clamp)
Average Price: $25
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $23
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $60

Yikes! This is starting to get depressing. But is some minor relief to know that others are feeling the summer slump too (though I wish everyone could have $2-3K weeks all year round!) I’ve been in kind of a slump personally too. I just can’t find the time or the energy to list. There just always seems to be house work or job work or other matters that need my attention, so I’m just left with a few hours a week for doing the eBay thang. My hope is as soon as my busy season at work is done (about mid June), I’ll have way more time to dedicate to this second income of mine.
I did just finish another round of photographing things to list. I’ve got some higher dollar items coming up that I think will help with my weekly profits.

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May 7-13

Another great video, Steve! I just had a few sales last week. It’s really slowing down on my end. Here are some highlights…

I’ll start off with my high sale of the week. I got this old oyster tin in a box lot that I paid a whooping $60 for. I recognized some good pieces in the lot so I went high. So after dividing it up, this tin cost me a little more than $4. Old oyster tins are highly collectable for some reason. I listed this higher than average and took a best offer of $65. So that paid for the lot, and I’ve still got a bunch of good stuff to sell out of it.
Wentworth’s Oyster Tin

Here are a pair of new in box vintage Speco speakers with plastic molded housings. I got these at an auction of an audio store that finally closed it’s doors after being in business for many years. Nobody wanted these, so I picked them up for a total of $4. I listed them quantity 2 for $35 each and someone bought them both for $70 total.
NOS Speco Speakers

I bought a whole tray lot of these really awesome large hand-tinted glass slides of Egypt for $25. I thought they would sell really well. I think I’ve had them listed since last summer and this was only the third one to sell. Oh well. This one sold for $15. If anyone has any suggestions on a better way to list these, let me know.
Magic Lantern Glass Slide of Egypt

This was a nice little sale. I see these old cutting boards all the time, but never really thought much of them. I got this pair along with an old schoolhouse paper cutter for $30 total. After doing some research, it seems that people love these. And the more used they look, the better. I sold this pair for a best offer of $38.
Vintage Cutting Boards

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I can’t help but feel like I’ve seen that book cover before. Maybe in a thrift shop or yard sale. That’s a great price you got for it!

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I’ll look forward to reading about your lighting set up. I’m having issues with my lighting but I just don’t have the room for a proper set up. Right now I’m operating out of my basement with only 6 ft high clearance. I’ve got a light box with a couple cheap studio lamps, but I simply can’t get my photos to be bright enough without editing. And the rest of my house is a lighting nightmare too.

And congrats on 700 listings. It looks like you and I are about tied for store size.

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I’ve never seen nor even heard of a dragon steamer before…but now I want one! 🙂

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May 7 – 13
Total Items in Store: 737
Items Sold: 8
Total Sales (Gross Profit): $293
Net Profit: $167
Highest Price: $65 (Wentworth’s Triangle Brand Oysters 1-Pint Tin Can)
Average Price: $37
Returns: 0
Cost of Items Sold: $32
Costs of Items Purchased this Week: $33

Another blah week. It’s getting harder and harder to find time to list on my end. We’re in our busy season at work and I’m putting in a lot of extra hours and it’s getting difficult to find the motivation to work on my eBay thing after I get home. That and the warmer weather is bringing on lots more chores and housework. But I’ve got some vacation that I have to use up before our fiscal year ends in July so I’m looking forward to devoting a few days to nothing but listing.

It’s nice to see my store hit another milestone. Over 700 listings now! Woot! My goal is it make it to 1000 by the end of summer. That might be pretty easy with the little amount I’ve been selling lately. It’s like someone turned off the faucet over here. But I remember it being like this last summer so I’m not concerned. It’s just a fact that summer generally dries up sales.

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Apr. 30 – May 6
Steve, I totally do the same thing with my printing labels. It’s so convenient! Here’s some of my sales from last week. Not a great week, but I’ll take it.

This sale really surprised me. I got these Christmas tree ornaments with a whole lot of other old Christmas stuff, along with a WHOLE LOT of other junk for $7 total. I’ve had watchers on them since before Christmas when I thought they would surely sell, but the holidays came and went with no sale. Then to my surprise, someone bought them last Sunday. It goes to show that you shouldn’t take your seasonal stuff down. They sold for $20.
Shiny Brite Christmas Ornaments

Here’s my highest sale of the week. This Kodak Darkroom Kit came to .22 cents from a box lot that I only paid $2 for. The outer box was pretty messed up, but the contents were pristine, unused and complete. Some previously sold for around $40 or 50 but incomplete. I priced mine high and took a best offer of $70.
1943 Kodak Darkroom Kit

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been experimenting with hardware here lately. I bought a large lot of the stuff not too long ago at an auction for kind of a high price of $50. But inside were a bunch of these beautiful ebony and brass teardrop drawer pulls. I cleaned them up, polished the brass a little and listed them individually (except a matching set of 6 that sold almost overnight for $55). This individual draw pull sold for $15. The same guy who bought it bought another one earlier this week too for the same price. I’ll be looking out for these for now on.
Ebony and Brass Drawer Pull

Here’s a sale that I was really happy for. I thought I overpaid for this Jadeite Fire King tea cup set for $30. I had lots of watchers for months but no bites. Finally, I got a reasonable BO of $65, so I almost doubled my money after fees. They really are quite pretty, but I’ve since learned to mostly be on the look out for the heavier restaurant-ware jadeite. That stuff sells very well!
Fire King Jadeite Tea Cup Set

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