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Vintage lights are getting very good money lately – I decorate my entire house with them (and my electricity bill is horrible for December!) but they have a look that new LED bulbs can’t replicate.
I use to be able to get them for free from family and cheap (strands for 50 cents or less, bulbs by the bag for $1) at thrift stores – but now they are hard to find.
I have a lifetime supply of bulbs (1000s of them and only a few burn out a year) – I have been debating selling some but may wait a few more years as they get scarcer. Last year I saw that the unusual colors were getting about $5 to $7 a bulb, and the common colors (red, green, blue, etc) were about $10 for a 4 pack.
I personally in the last two weeks have bought a pair of insulated size 17 winter boots for just over $200 and a pair of running shoes for $175.
The Ugg shoes will sell well – had a few pairs myself over the last few years that I have sold quickly.
I wear size 17 men’s shoes. The only place I have any selection is on eBay.
I find the odd pair of shoes my size at Marshalls, TJ Maxx for $5 (usually buy them even though I don’t like the color or something else just because I won’t find another), or I spend $150-$200 for them on eBay for a style I like.
Lots of tall guys like me will pay good money for large shoes if you have them. They are impossible to find locally!
I’ve also sold a few when I find them cheap – usually 15+ that don’t fit me since I know how much I pay for ones my size.
I’ve seen guys on TV that make custom Lego items and sell them – just saw a documentary on a guy that builds Football stadium replicas and sells them for good money. Guess if you are creative, you can turn a bulk bag of Lego into more cash.
I sell Lego and other building toys in bulk by weight – what I do though is that I figure out enough weight before the next shipping weight increase with the post office.
I’ve never sorted Lego – but other items like Construx or KNex I sort by series type/color.
A few hours later I got a call back, and my funds were returned. They apologized and said they made a mistake in closing the case in the buyer’s favor instead of mine after the call.
Something is going on – I had a buyer open a return a few weeks ago, I provided a shipping label for the return, and never got the item (the label was never used and tracking shows no shipment). I called to ask about when they were going to close the case so I could cancel the shipping label, and 5 minutes later they decided to give the buyer all their money back without returning the item.
What’s going on???
Spent 30 minutes this morning bouncing from CS rep to manager to senior manager that are “looking into it”…
I sell holiday items year round – the best time to buy items is when they are on super-clearance (75-90% off). I usually buy high-end branded holiday items or gift packs that you can re-sell.
It amazes me how people will buy things like Christmas decorations all year long, or cosmetic gift packs with a holiday theme anytime of the year.
@skydog – I found September to be pretty good – August and late July were really slow for me. September my sales were about 50% above average (I average about $2000 a month, September was just under $3000 for me).
Just over 14 years (I’m counting down…sadly) and I’ll be “semi-retired” and plan on doing this as a larger hobby. Very difficult some weeks when I work overtime to source and list items and looking forward to having the free time when retired to scavenge more often.
I have it happen often where I get the PayPal notification on the phone several minutes or an hour before the eBay cha-ching comes up.
I always just wait until everything is aligned between PayPal and eBay.
The system is amazing compared to how bad it was 10+ years ago when things were not so integrated between eBay and PayPal and you had to match up everything between systems yourself with buyers who didn’t put any explanation for what they bought or used different names/addresses between eBay and PayPal. Even then I thought it was amazing compared to the 90’s when you had to sort out mailed in cash, checks, money orders, etc and waiting for them to clear before shipping an item.
HS Codes are just a 6 digit code that internationally categorizes the item for customs purposes. If you ship anything internationally, you need the code.
Lots of websites offer look-up tools for the codes.
The one I use is:
https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/wtz/business/findHsCode?execution=e1s1I can’t believe you sold a console, let alone for $700! Congrats! I see these on the side of the road constantly and drive by them – didn’t know they had any value.
I’ve tried to find decent Coleman Vintage Coolers but they always have a odor to them that turns me off and scares me to send them to someone because of the size and potential INAD cost for the smell.
This week I sold 5 Sony Playstation 2, and 2 Sony Playstation 1 consoles that I’ve had up for a few weeks. Just really odd to sell that many in a week.
My favorite source is free stuff from friends and family, or junk found on the side of the road. I’ll get a couple items a week for free just because people know I sell stuff on eBay, or know I fix electronics on the side.
However, my main source is thrift stores or clearance racks at places like TJ Maxx/Marshalls where you can get brand name, NWT items cheap.
