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I kept looking at that WVU jersey thinking “what in tarnation Temu crap is that?”. Clearly not a real jersey. Then it dawned on me, some autograph company probably had 100 or so jerseys of every player they had for a signing made up without any branding and somewhat similar colors/fonts. So it IS basically a Temu jersey. Pretty clever.
Leather quality, sole quality (All leather sole with stacked leather heel is a good indicator), exotic materials ( snakeskin, ostrich, calf leather), more complicated details and/or just better craftsmanship (hand cut leather, special fabric treatments, nikeair “bubbles”, Goodyear welt soles, heavy duty stitching).
Some brands sell because of the name on the label. Some brands sell because their items are incredible quality. I love selling Ralph Lauren because they are both – name value and very high quality goods.
When it comes to clothes, pretty much the same rules. If you handle enough clothes you can literally run your hand across a rack of clothes and know when you touch a premium quality item. High quality leather, cotton, wool, etc just has a distinct feel. Have you ever felt Pima Cotton, calf leather, or cashmere? It just tickles a part of your brain that you develop a sensory memory for it.
Or with denim – once you handle some Japanese Selvedge or White Oak Cone denim, the walmart denim just feels…lame.
With vintage single stitch t shirts I don’t even need to see the single stitching – I can tell them by feel – the cotton was much higher quality back then – very similar to Pima cotton. it had to be higher quality to hold up to being just single stitched. I also have a personal attachment to this feel because of a Hard Rock Cafe shirt I bought in the 90’s. Man that shirt was awesome – so comfortable and so much more durable than any other shirt I owned.
But aside from quality, clothing sells based on style, cut, and look. I’m drawn to the wild cuts and colors I associate with neon 80’s craziness. They stand out like sore thumbs in racks.
Started off the week with two pair of cowboy/girl boots first thing Monday Morning.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266992303678
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266992307593
Tony Lama Hyer Cowboy Boots Ostrich Green Men’s Size 11 D
Code West American Flag Western Cowboy Boots Womens Size 7 M Patriotic USA
I took $140 for the Tony Lama Boots and $150 for the Code West Boots.
I had a couple neat sales from the Hoarder clothing collection:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266448937595
Tommy Bahama Island Crafted Linen Shirt Indigo Down Under Floral Size 3XL
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266987323544
Polo Ralph Lauren RLPC Cardigan Sweater Linen Blend Size 2XLT Rowing Black Cowl
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266416473232
Ermenegildo Zegna Swim Trunks Men’s Size Small Blue Striped
Why would someone pay $100 for those swim trunks? No idea. There is literally NOTHING special about them. At least the high end Ralph Lauren stuff has cool fabrics, designs, features, etc.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266992247272
Nikon Coolpix L310 Black Digital Camera 21x Zoom 14.1 Megapixels TESTED WORKS
I bought this camera for $10 at a yard sale for my kids to use for ebay photography. It just didn’t really work very well for my setup. No worries though – it’s a highly desirable camera and sold within a day for $130 on offer.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266894148955
Disney HANDY MANNY Talking Singing Dancing TOOL BOX 5 Tools 2007
Sold for full price even though it is badly sun damaged and missing pieces. People really want their Handy Manny merch. The fact alot of these old kids shows are available on streaming now really helps old merch values. I’ve been there – my kids have fallen in love with old shows and finding merch is HARD! Paid $4 at Goodwill
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266530410743
Cushe W Slipper II Canvas Slip On Shoes Women’s Size 7 Red Tropic
An interesting uncommon shoe brand. A pair of shoes like this will always catch my eye due to the uniqueness and high quality. A well made shoe just stands out in a pile of junk shoes. Sold for full price. I paid $5.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266288032897
Nike Kobe Bryant LA Lakers Retirement Trophy shirt rare 5X Champion GOAT sz XXL
This one caught my eye at Goodwill. Paid $4. Sold on best offer for $75 as I was hungry for a sale.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266899357803
Conair Body Benefits Water Jet Bath Spa Model BTS1SE New
Vintage bath spa systems have always been good to me. Paid $7 and sold for $80 on offer. Don’t pass these bath tub systems by! I’ve sold some for $150+!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266960907795
Hugo Boss Black Pinstripe Suit Men’s 40R USA Made
One of the suits my kids listed 100% on their own. Sold on offer for $62, so I paid my kids $8.20 to list this item.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266977839220
Burberry Coat Men’s 60 Reg Khaki Check Trench Classic Lined Jacket 44.5″ Long
This one is authentic. Some of the Burberry coats I got were not sadly. The fakes are still really nice coats! Sold on offer for $120.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266504195737
Babolat Team Tennis Racket Racquet Duffel Bag Backpack Large Black Red Insulated
Sold for full price. I paid $5 for this at goodwill a long time ago.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266982949837
Intermatic T104M Mechanical Time Switch Mechanism Only
Picked this up at Goodwill for $3. Man I wish I could find a whole pile of things like this!
I pretty much struck out at normal yard sales. The only thing I picked up is a wireless dog fence. I’ve sold these in the past and they sell very well for good money – paid $25.
The hoarder collection lady invited me over to show me some stuff I haven’t seen before. I bought a couple pieces of clothes that I passed on previously, a couple odds n ends, then went through the man’s sunglasses collection. I think what I picked out is real – there were some fakes mixed in. I had a suspicion that was confirmed with talking to the folks that have the stuff – the man who had the collection kept the REAL, high end stuff at home and he would tend to wear fakes when going out. For instance, he had an insane Rolex collection but he also had some fakes he would wear in public. I saw the same scenario in sunglasses. There were some awesome ones that as far as I can tell were very real, and plenty of fakes as well.
The highlight was a pair of Louis Vuitton Evidence Sunglasses. If they aren’t real then they are the absolute best fake I’ve ever seen.
Also this week my wife wanted to go to Goodwill so I went ahead and looked. I haven’t been to a Goodwill in 7 weeks and I really didn’t want to go anytime soon. I ONLY wanted $50+ good STR items. Dang it, Goodwill provides! Some lady emptied her closet of really nice shoes to Goodwill- most brand new. They are getting listed for $50-100 each. Also found a pair of Nikes that have a 100%+ STR at $60-80. I paid $5-6 a pair for the shoes.
Parting out games really depends on the game. And now with high quality 3D printers alot of these parts can be made on demand, or made even better than the original! Heroquest and mall madness are great games to part out. I’ve made $300+ on a single incomplete Heroquest in the past. Very high demand and alot of good parts. One of my best part outs outside of those was a lord of the Rings Risk. The game was only worth like $35 but I think I made close to $100 in parts.
I probably won’t do it much more though as at this point I’d rather just sell the incomplete game and move on.
Oh boy, I had a real good interaction with a nutso eBay buyer today. I got a message from a buyer for an item I haven’t shipped yet saying that they suspected my item was fake and wanted me to justify it. But they messaged me directly without any item title or number so I asked him what item it was. I was promptly told I was being rude and mouthy by asking which item they were talking about. I guess I’m expected to be psychic.
The threats of me selling counterfeit items and demands for refunds increased in frequency, while the buyers still never told me which item it was no matter how I explained why I didn’t know what the item was and that I couldn’t help them unless I did know what it was.finally, I got to a computer and I looked through my sold unshipped items and found this buyers item. It was a pair of Cabelas duck boots… Yep, there’s definitely a hot market for counterfeit Cabelas merchandise. LOL!
I checked This person’s feedback left and they’ve left a bunch of weird nonsensical negative feedback to other sellers. I couldn’t refund and block this person fast enough and thankfully, I haven’t heard from them since.
Highlighted sales in no particular order (well, technically in the order they sold during the week)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266945984968
BMW 3 Series 328i 340i Right Passenger Side Halogen Headlight 2016-2018 OEM 16
Paid $5 at a yard sale. Sold for full price. Cha-CHING!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266958495749
Blaze And The Monster Machines Diecast Ferris Yellow Truck 2014 Mattel
Another one of the nicer Blazer cars sold for full price $20. Paid $5 for a whole box of these. BOLO!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266982953551
GILMORE GIRLS: THE COMPLETE SERIES SEASONS 1-7 DVD BOX SET + Year In The Life
The dialogue on this show irritated my Southern WV brain. SLOW DOWN ladies! Anyways, Paid $7 at a yard sale and sold very quick for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266696027566
Fisher Price 2009 Elmo Live Encore Robotic Talking Plush Mattel N4673 Works
Paid $3, sold for full price $50. electronic Elmos are always worth checking out. The name is on the tag so easy to research. Some of them are worth good coin.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266982955649
PlayStation 2 Multitap Adapter OEM Sony Videogame Accessory Multiplayer
Paid $2 at a yard sale last week. Sold quickly for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266888718946
Levi’s Neon Slime Green Rare Denim Trucker Jacket 100% Cotton Size XXL NWT
I sold the Pink one of these a few weeks ago, and now sold this one for $275 as well. I suppose I need to dig through my messages and tell that one person who said my price was too high to SUCK IT!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266832891892
Mr. Christmas Mickeys Holiday Skaters Skating Rink Village Tested 1996
Sold on offer for $70. I think I paid $10? Maybe just $5? I bought multiple of these Mickey Christmas items at the same sale. Hopefully more of them start selling now. I got lucky to have the right box on hand as this thing is alot bigger than it appears. Took a 24×20 box.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266885032664
Adidas ADI Firebird Tracksuit Vintage Red White Size XL Men’s
Paid $2 at a yard sale. Sold on offer for $150. NOICE!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266438110381
Starbucks Silver Troy Hammered Skinny Stainless Steel Coffee Tumbler 16 OZ
This is a hoarder item I grabbed out of a box while I was waiting on my items to be added up. Paid $2. Sold on offer for $50.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266991713511
Polo Sport Black Lanyard Key Ring with Wallet ID Case Vintage Ralph Lauren
Antoher hoarder item that was just a throw-in item. Sold for $75 to a buyer in Japan.
I put most of my finds this week in the main thread. aside from that though, I got a few classic “retro treasures”
I got my original start with vintage toys. I picked up a 1990 GI Joe Retaliator for $1.
its incomplete so I drafted the listing to sell for $30
I didn’t have many GI Joes as a kid. I sure did enjoy making them so the splits though.
I also picked up a vintage Sesame Street playset with figures for $4. It’s worth $35-40.
at the same church sale where I got the full bin of book & tapes, I got a Sony camcorder that will more than cover the entire purchase.
and another purchase I didn’t really want but the STR AND ASP got me to buy was a set of three crock pot “hookup” units. These sell for $50-60 each used. Pretty neat little setup for a party but not much else. I paid $20 for all 3.
A really fun Pokémon trading card themed YouTube series I’ve been watching this week. It’s called “Should I open it or should I keep it sealed?”
Spoiler alert: should’ve kept it sealed
Seal packs of these cards are crazy stupid in price
Items in Store: 3203
Items Sold: 50
Total Sales: $2,122.00
COGS: $249.00
Total Profit: $1,873.00
Average profit: $37.46
Average sales price: $42.44
New Listings: 85
Items scavenged: 200
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 41
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,607.73
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 35
2024 ASP $46.22
2024 projected total sales $83,601.95It was a strange week. Wednesday was BONKERS! I sold 14 items for almost $1000. Then Thursday I had zero sales. Then the rest of the week I had spotty low dollar sales and low ball offers. It still evened out to be a great week and kept my 50+ item trend going so I’ll take it.
To make Thursday even worse, the $1000 Ralph Lauren Jacket buyer returned the jacket. Ouch! I got it back Saturday and all was good – no scams.
Yard sales were good this week. I bought….WAY too much!
At a church yard sale I broke my “don’t buy low dollar low STR items rule” by going all-in on a big lot of Scholastic Book & tapes. I asked if they would take 25 cents each if I took all of them. There ended up being 98. I plan to do lots for these as I have no interest in maximizing and selling individually – too low STR. They are all nicely stored in gallon zip lock baggies to keep them together – I’ll fill some 15x10x6 boxes with about 20 of them each to make 4 $100 lots.
At another sale I broke my “don’t buy big items right now” rule and bought a golf club set and a Casio Keyboard complete in box. When you see a set of Taylormade clubs in a Taylormade bag for $50, you buy them! I’ve had great luck selling keyboards in the past – this is one of the desirable light up keys models that will sell for good money.
And the piece de resistance of my rule breaking weekend – I broke my “don’t buy commodity clothing right now you have enough!” rule by buying…233 items from a giant yard sale. It started when they had a table full of very nice vintage Men’s Ralph Lauren T shirts in 2XL. I’m talking one of every color in the same style. This is the same kind of stuff I was getting at the hoarder sale. I made a pile of the shirts I wanted ($1 each) and then went to the table full of mens pants/shorts. Same thing here – Ralph Lauren and one of every color in the same style – again $1 each. My intent was to lot this stuff up and sell stuff fast and keep ASP high. These items sell great in lots!
Then I went inside the garage – as the lady said – she hadn’t cleared her closets in 20 years! Sooo much stuff – all higher end mall or shopping center brands like Ralph Lauren, WhiteHouse BlackMarket, Talbots, lilly Pulitzer, etc. My wife also wanted to look as this was all in her size. Their prices were reasonable so I just started grabbing and chucking clothes on my pile. There were entire racks full of brand new clothes (they wanted $5 for the new stuff). Once I got it all home I let my wife pick out everything she wanted to try on. She ended up keeping 48 items and upgraded her whole wardrobe.
There was A LOT more than I bought, and there was even more that they hadn’t brought out yet. I have their contact info and they’ve said I can come do another private pick if I want to. I’m conflicted. The ASP on this stuff will end up in my normal wheelhouse of $25-35 as the resale of women’s fashion is just so bloated. This stuff would do REALLY good in high end lots though, so I honestly could just buy it all and sell in lots even to other resellers. BUT…I’m not going back. I’m going to deal with what I have and move on. This stuff just isn’t good enough like the premium hoarder stuff was even if my COGS is much lower.
My average purchase cost came out to $2.12 so I could afford to sell everything in lots of 10 items for $100 and be very profitable if I just want to get rid of it all quickly.
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 8 items for $648.
I hit it hard this week getting the last clothing haul listed. I’m hoping to wrap up all the clothes this week and get them out of my van. Once they are listed….um….yeah… I’ll put them somewhere… eventually. So many high dollar sweaters! Hopefully they start selling.
$59k. Never in my life did I imagine I would have ever bought a vehicle that costs this much, much less afford it as a third vehicle.
Some people buy boats, sports cars, and ATV’s. I buy a fancy bus. LOL!
Items in Store: 3168
Items Sold: 54
Total Sales: $2,165.00
COGS: $292.00
Total Profit: $1,873.00
Average profit: $34.69
Average sales price: $40.09
New Listings: 41
Items scavenged: 14
2024 weekly new listings Avg: 40
2024 avg gross weekly sales $1,620.67
2024 Avg weekly Items Sold 34
2024 ASP $47.13
2024 projected total sales $84,274.67Another week with a bunch of sales! I’ve had to start shipping in the mornings to get myself caught up which takes away time from photographing. On Monday morning I had almost 40 items in my shipping queue! I wanted to get some done on the weekend, but I got busy….I also took an extended nap both days.
My daughter is getting very good at creating draft listings, but her speed is still low. Things are falling apart when it comes to them getting the photos taken and uploaded. I’ve given them some tips/tools to speed things up and stay more organized, but I think I’m losing them. I even created some measurement papers they can tape to items so they can bulk measure items before creating the listings.
This all is quite easy and fun for me, and it is even MORE fun to get better/faster with increased efficiency. I don’t even consider most I do with ebay to be work. It is becoming quite obvious now that I’m teaching someone else that what I do is really NOT that easy. I timed myself on some shoe photography last week to show my kids what is possible. I can do shoes in about 90 seconds a pair, which included tying laces and putting in inserts if needed. They’re at 5 minutes+ just for photos. I bet this is what a gymnast would feel like if they tried to teach me to do a basic cartwheel. LOL!
We’ll see how this week goes. If they can’t get to the finish line on the first bin then I’ll just have my daughter create listings and I’ll do the photos and uploading. Clothing is much less photos than shoes (3-4 vs 9), so knocking out 10 clothing items a day for photos is nothing. It’s the listing that is a pain. I’ve been timing myself at lunch time listing this week and I average 3 minutes to research, list, and measure clothing items. So photos and all I can do about 12-15 clothing items an hour all in.
The coat wardrobe they listed is doing great. 9 items have sold so far for $280. I keep a running log of these sales as I’m paying them an extra 10% of sales since they got it all listed in the time frame I wanted. So already another $28 on top of the $2 per item I paid up front – they are being well compensated for that work!
This weekend our new Ford Transit passenger van was delivered. I really need ebay to keep accelerating with sales as ebay will be footing the bill for this giant beast! It is surprisingly EASY to drive though, so I’m hoping with some experience my wife will embrace it so I can get rid of one of our minivans. That will be a HUGE chunk of cash I get back if it works out. No pressure on her – I’m prepared to keep paying to maintain 3 vehicles. My van is paid off. I can sell it for $38k currently, which is more than I paid for it brand new! The retained value on used cars right now is BONKERS! That’s actually why I ended up buying a new Transit, as many dealers are charging ABOVE original MSRP for USED vans several years old. We got really lucky with the one we got – brand new with almost all the bells/whistles I wanted. I didn’t get adaptive cruise, but it does have the eagle eye camera setup which makes parking/maneuvering a breeze.
So where am I at on expected sales goals this year? There are 16 weeks left in the year. I need to average $2000 in sales a week to hit $90k in gross sales, or $2600 per week to hit $100k sales. I REALLY want that $100k goal. To get there I have to get sell 60+ items a week and I’d need a couple BIG home run sales to push up my ASP. We’ll see where I stand at the end of this month. I’m getting some lookers on that crazy $6k Versace leather vest. If that one sold I’d cut the $100k goal in half!
Premium Hoarder update:
Sold 5 items for $805.
One big pair of shoes for $480 I talked about last week. Sold a pair of camo ralph lauren pants for $140. Then some other sub $100 items. I have a bunch of hoarder clothing items drafted and will get photos done this week.
This week I just sold a BUNCH of bread n butter items. Here are some highlights in no particular order.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266969413941
Disney Pixar Planes Piston Peak Fire Rescue Windlifter Helicopter N312CH
Pixar Planes can be worth great money. I got a box of them at a yard sale a few weeks ago for $2. Sold for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266462391064
Louis Vuitton Silverstone Moccasin Driving Loafers Men’s Size 9.5 UK Shoes
Sold on offer for $480. This is a pair of the hoarder shoes that had the original receipt. This pair was very helpful to verify the authenticity of other pairs of LV shoes.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266932876414
Mcdonalds happy Meal Toys HUGE LOT of 142 most sealed 80’s 90’s
So I had 5 boxes of happy meal toys from the vintage toy yard sale haul earlier this summer. I sorted it all out and then did my research. Some stuff was listed individually, some was lotted up, and everything in this listing is the stuff that just wasn’t even worth listing. So into one GIANT lot it went. Sold on offer for $30. This is my favorite sale of this week.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266891006686
Tusa Imprex Regulator SCUBA Untested
I actually sold 2 of these this week. One for full price, the other on offer for $50. They came from a big box of scuba stuff I got a yard sale for $10. I’ve already made over $200 from that buy. I think I have 2 items left.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266925628655
Tecmo Super Bowl SNES Cart Only Cleaned New Battery Tested
One of the SNES games I got on an ask at a yard sale this summer. AN NES and a stack of games for $20. I thoroughly cleaned all the games and replaced the batteries if needed. That extra work was worth it as I got full price $30 for this game. The loose cart ebay average is only $15, so I definitely got the premium price!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266975406279
DeMarini CF Zen Drop -8 2 3/4″ Barrel USSSA Baseball Bat 31″ – 23 Oz C8ZL-21
I picked up 2 bats at a yard sale this summer and finally got around to cleaning/photographing them last week. This one sold on offer for $60. Paid $5.
I always like to imagine what kind of autograph policy I would have if I was a celebrity. First off, the resellers who show up at airports with giant boards of stuff for autos – they can pound sand. That’s disgusting and very intrusive.
If I was a big enough star, I’d want to have an aid pull in 2-3 kids and their families every game/event to come back stage to have an interaction and give some personalized signed merch.
Autographs, I’d want to stick to kids and at least get their name so the auto is personalized. No generic autos unless I’m doing a bulk signing…which I wouldn’t do!
If I’m out n about with family no autographs or selfies, but a quick hello and handshake would be fine as long as I’m not busy with family.
