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I’ve placed my time capsule in a cavity between floor joists in the ceiling above some drywall.
It includes:
-an older cell phone with the charger and a bunch of pictures of the house and surrounding area/parks/beach. I also took some videos of the house.
-printed off photos of when we were looking at the house (with the previous owner’s stuff in it) and photos of it last week
-a copy of the local weekly paper and retail flyers
-gossip magazines / pop-culture magazinesI also decided to toss in some oddball things that I thought would be of interest:
-a penny from every year since the Canadian Mint made pennies from the mid 1800’s to a few years ago when we stopped using pennies in Canada. The old ones are only worth a couple dollars, so I thought it would be something neat for someone in the future to find.
-a bag of 12 concert T-shirts I couldn’t sell from one hit wonders the last 5 or so years. Not sure how they will hold up over time thoughI decided against the alcohol – glass may break and leak, and plastic will break down eventually.
Still need to come up with another capsule for my new place…
I sell old software (non-games) all the time – it’s one of my bread and butter items.
The software you have doesn’t sound that old, and may have come free with a computer. You can sell them bundled (untested/no license key) and someone will buy the lot if they are from post 2000. Based on your descriptions, you probably won’t get much (maybe $20 or $30 altogether unless there is something good in the bundle).
For newer purchased software (post 1995) if it has the original box, license keys, and manuals, always sell well. Especially office/graphics software that was several hundred dollars when released. Games are very tricky (most worthless, some very profitable but rare), and free/bundled software that came with a system is not that valuable (such as AOL disks).
There is a huge market for original vintage software disks. Disks alone are good, but if you have the original box/manuals, it is a great find. The more obscure it is, the more it will sell for. The odder the O/S, the higher the price will be. If it has a 1980’s date on it, take a risk. I sold an educational software disk from a local school board from the mid-80’s for the Mac II for over $100 once.
Collectors for this stuff tend to be those looking for nostalgia; or young Silicon Valley types that like to have items from the old days. They tend to be the nerd version of vinyl record/cassette tape collectors.
I’m fine with going into a store and finding nothing – I rather not waste my time on items that are not worth my time then force myself to find something.
Everything tends to average out with me – if I go to a city and hit 5-10 locations, I will find 0-3 items at one location, then the next may be 20 great things. The next time I go to the same stores, it may be the opposite and I find more great items at the store I struck out at the last visit.
For 2019, my wife and I are updating our metrics to track how much profit we make at each store we hit – to see if there are any locations that are worth going to more often, and if any locations are a waste of time.
Part of the reasoning for this tracking is that we will be moving from our current area to an area about 4 hours drive away – we want to see if it is worth coming back to this area when we move. Also, if we see certain areas/cities are consistently better than others, we can then decide where to go if we are limited on time.
I’m also trying to figure out a rating system for “whales” when we sell them. I have one local Goodwill where I find 1-3 $100+ profit items a month. Just need to add some functionality to my spreadsheets to get a scoring system by higher $ profits.
I’m a little weird with statistics and analytics, but I like to find patterns/consistencies in data for fun.
In the corporate office work environment I’ve worked in for 20 years, I always loved the latest sucker in the office that would fall for a MLM and try to sell it to co-workers.
My favorites are the people who sell scented candles/air fresheners – the MLM company must be convincing in the “why buy Glade or Airwick for a couple dollars at any retailer when you can buy them for twice as much from someone’s garage then resell them to your friends for five times as much?”
The last couple years there were a lot of fresh food MLMs that I couldn’t understand – weekly random vegetable/fruit boxes for $40/week, fresh meat (what is the supply chain for this?), and one guy was selling canned water for something ridiculous like $10 for 12 12oz cans.
Lately, I seem to be get hit up everywhere for “subscription boxes” where you commit to a year for weekly or monthly deliveries of random stuff. The sad thing is that if I’m in a room where someone is selling these “subscription boxes”, there are several people who hand over credit card numbers immediately…
Those who try and sell you MLM junk are annoying, but my least favorite are the suckers with random time shares trying to unload their time on people at ridiculous prices. Why pay $1500 for an all inclusive vacation to Cancun in January when you can pay $4000 for someone’s time share in August and plan the flight, transportation, food, drinks, etc your self at an additional charge!
I don’t insure anything either – my personal experience is if the post office is grossly negligent, they will cover anyways.
For me, the way I look at it is that I get a standard $100 coverage on my account with the post office – I never pay over $100 for an item anyways, so I’m covered for my original costs + shipping on almost all items anyways. Most items are less than a $5 investment, so the occasional potential hit would be a drop in the bucket over the long run, and be much less than I would have paid in extra insurance over that time.
Aren’t all M&S customers dead? I remember my UK born grandparents dragging me to M&S in Canada. I like the Wikipedia entry on the M&S Canadian stores (RIP):
The company expanded into Canada in 1973, and at one point had forty-seven stores across Canada. Despite various efforts to improve its image, the chain was never able to move beyond its reputation there as a stodgy retailer, one that catered primarily to senior citizens and expatriate Britons. The shops in Canada were smaller than British outlets, and did not carry the same selection. In the late 1990s, further efforts were made to modernise them and also expand the customer base. Unprofitable locations were closed. Nonetheless, the Canadian operations continued to lose money, and the last 38 shops in Canada were closed in 1999.
I find it strange when I watch various British TV “programmes” that have M&S, Boots, and other stores that failed in North America a long time ago in the background on the high street. Ocada is next in line – they are coming to Canada in a big way now – I think they will be challenged as well.
@Amatino – Yes, I’m wired differently! It’s fun though to think of something fun to leave behind for a future stranger…
@pythonesk – I’ll update the group after the weekend. I actually want to come up with two time capsules – one for the current home we’re going to be selling (we are just tidying up the place/staging it) and one for the home we are moving into (we are gutting the place – and intend to make it our final home before we’re either locked in a senior’s residence or dead).For the current home, we’ve so far put together some physical photos, newspapers, and will put together a bunch of interior photos (old and new) of the home on the cell phone I’m going to leave behind. Debating about leaving some local discontinued alcoholic beverages (full/new) from where I currently work that may stay good for a long period of time – just need to put them in something that the glass won’t get busted if someone drills/nails something through a wall/ceiling. I also have a bunch of NWT band/concert shirts that aren’t selling from the last few years that are wrapped up in bags – thought that would be cool for someone in the future and may be worth something by the time someone finds them.
For the new home we’ve yet to work on, I have an old laptop we’re going to load up with some videos and pictures, and try and figure out some other fun stuff to leave on it. We have more time on this one. I’ve worked with some local historical groups in the past where they interview seniors and collect stories of everyday people and some photos – would like to maybe do something substantial like this while I’m still at full mental capacity…something that I would think would be cool to find about someone else.
That’s exactly what I’m doing – I have a bunch of items in my watch list waiting for the next % off sale to pull the trigger. Assuming one or two more “discount days” before the holidays. I’ve been trained to wait if there is multiple items available…unique items I want I still buy immediately if I don’t want to lose out on it.
Forgot to add, Apple had some legal issues here with slowing down old phones when the batteries were getting old – they came up with some deal with the Canadian government to install new batteries “at cost” and that is the price we paid – I believe this is applicable in other countries, but not 100% sure.
Maybe an Apple expert on the forum may be able to explain more…
For our 6, before we switched the battery it was sluggish, and slow to respond. It would also lock-up for a couple seconds before doing anything. We read the battery was the solution, and it worked for our situation. It seems like it is a new phone since.
As for the GPS, we don’t use the GPS feature, so I’m not sure if it was functioning funny before the battery change.
The $35 I paid was in Canadian $ as well – probably about US$27.
If you live near an Apple repair place, it may be worthwhile just to call them to see what they recommend in your situation (as the GPS problem may be something bigger) – and if you can get it fixed cheap as we did. Looking at the prices of the new phones scares me! Especially after paying about $800 for the 6 several years ago.
I’m thinking it’s just stolen photos – this was actually really common on eBay for years when digital cameras were expensive. I even still find the odd listing on eBay today that use my photos.
However, there are many sites that use eBay’s data for some reason – pick any unique item you have or have sold (something a month old) and look it up in Google Image Search – you’ll be surprised where your photos/listings turn up.
11/07/2018 at 10:08 am in reply to: Ed Welch Journal of Antiques Article – Selling Higher Priced Items #51344Authentication is only as good as the authenticator’s reputation. It’s something you don’t want to cheap out on and you want to get the proper authentication.
If you ever watch the BBC show “Fake or Fortune” on PBS, you’ll see how crazy art authentication is. One person will say it is real, another will say elements are real but parts are fake, and others will say they are complete fakes.
I also enjoy the lengths that forgers go to – not only do they create a fake painting, they have to get period frames, materials, gallery labels, and even create fake provenance. I’ve seen stories where forgers will plant fake documents in archives (replace real gallery catalogues with forgeries showing their fake piece) to create a provenance trail.
I personally collect art – but I buy what I like instead of for an investment. I find it crazy the price of some pieces (especially lithos or other copies that aren’t originals just because they have a famous name attached) and I find that there are some great artists that do great work that are very cheap and comparable to some of the past masters. It’s a strange world once you dip your toe into it.
If you are looking to resell art, the best advice I can give is buy pieces you like, and you should be able to resell them to someone with a similar taste. When you go after famous names, you’ll get burned.
Have you replaced the battery on your 6? We just did that and it works like it is brand new again…just a thought. For us it was only $35 to get it done with OEM battery at an Apple store – more of a scavenger fix 🙂
We also have a 7 – no noticeable difference with the eBay app between the phones. My parents have one of the original X’s – the camera is supposed to be better, but we can’t tell the difference when looking at photos on our phone.
We’re also shopping for a tablet for a Xmas gift for ourselves – we’re going to stick with Apple just because of the familiarity of the App as the Android App is a little different. We had other considerations (both our families use FaceTime and have Apple devices) so moving to Android would have limited the use of the tablet.
Not sure if that is helpful, but I would keep using the 6 until it is useless to save some money.
I’ve been using kraft paper for years for this purpose – not only is it great filler/padding, it’s great to wrap boxes that were previously used, covered with labels, or combined for a cleaner presentation.
I have a roll of kraft paper hanging from the ceiling above my shipping station – I bought two eye hooks and put them in the ceiling, and put a metal rod through them to hold the roll – it’s very convenient to cut a piece for fill, or to wrap a box.
I usually stock up on kraft paper when it I get promo coupons that I can stack at Staples – I bought 4 900′ rolls for under $100 in September when I stacked a couple back to school coupons and other discounts. There are a few different “weights” of the paper – I find the thinner paper works just fine. The thicker paper is a little too hard to wrap a box with as it is too stiff.
Bread and butter items are a great learning tool as well – I think everyone should use them, especially when starting off, to build there own systems, learn how to list, learn the nuances of shipping, and dealing with customers.
They are great to make mistakes with (either items that don’t sell, or are a pain to ship) as the lessons learned will prevent you from making mistakes as your business grows and you go after items with a higher initial investment.
I love a couple of my bread and butter items – I’ve found a few niches where I can find them easily (every thrift store seems to have a few), they are only a few dollars to buy, they are very easy to list and ship.
I also hate a few items that use to be bread and butter items – I use to sell a lot of T-Shirts and Coffee Mugs – however, now I avoid them. T-Shirts were slow sellers, and hard to photograph/measure/list, and coffee mugs take up too much space and are painful to ship (always need a box, protection, may break in storage/shipping, etc).
It’s about finding the right mix, and stumbling upon some easy to source items others ignore that have an easy process from listing through shipping.
My sales have been weird lately as well – no sales from Monday to Thursday, 1 sale Friday, 11 sales Saturday (I only have 200 listings – crazy!), and no sales since…
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