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It was a busy week but I snuck out for an hour Saturday morning to hit a few yard sales. I didn’t make it very far as I ended up at a sale at a nice house near my own house that was basically an “open the garage and sell everything” sale. Lots of fun stuff to look at. I spent alot of time digging and looking up unique items. Nothing was priced and the lady running it was all over the place on pricing. It was her grandparents house and they were moving. I made my pile and did some negotiating. She didn’t want to budge on some of the speakers, and finally I said “I have $72 left in my wallet. Will that work?” And she said yes.
Notable items included a new samsung tv remote that sells for $60-70, two different bookshelf speaker sets that will sell for over $100 each, a vintage coke plastic stackable tray, a new in box mosquito trap that sells for $80-100, and a few other odds n ends.
There was some glitch several years ago. Don’t remember the details. I got about 1 sale a month there. It just wasn’t worth it anymore.
I pulled the plug on Bonanza a LOOOONNNNNGGGG time ago. Honestly I didn’t even know it was still a thing.
Now that is fascinating! I figured my buyers are folks who intend to restore these lenses. I’m hoping that at some point one of them messages me what they did. This one in particular is going overseas.
The level of precision in some of these lenses is just amazing. When I first found them, just holding them in my hand I could sense the quality (and dollars! LOL)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266676735485
Zenith Wired Remote Control Video Action Control Vintage
Just a cool old item that was in a box of vintage electronic misc stuff I got in a basement a couple years ago. I think I paid a dollar for the whole box.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266595327183
Men’s Wrangler Flame Resistant 42 Vintage Boot Jeans Size 34X36 #10FR42MWR NWT
Flame resistant clothing is worth keeping an eye out for. This pair sold for $38. It took over a year though!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266926820332
SCHNEIDER KREUZNACH XENAR 150mm F4.5 Lens Linhof Synchro Compur Mount
Man these vintage lenses I listed last summer continue to shock me. They aren’t even in good condition!!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266970220433
Nike Shox 317549-002 Black Metallic Silver Leather Sneakers Shoes Women Size 10
Nike Shox are a great shoe to pick up as long as they are in good shape. They have a dedicated fan base.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267001446013
Ping G2i Blade Style Putter Head Cover Black Blue White
Golf club head covers can be great sales. People will get very precious over their clubs and then practically give away head covers. There are lots of them that sell for $15-25.
Yard sales were lacking again due to a cold snap. Nobody wants to run a yard sale when it’s 40 degrees in April!
I do my route anyways, and at the very end of the route I came across a pretty big sale. Most of the stuff wasn’t extremely interesting, but they had several tables and large racks of shoes. They were mostly tagged and this clearly was some form or reseller. There were some nice shoes there. There was a sign that said “make offer” on shoes and the lady said ” the tag prices are not the real prices”. So I went through everything and pondered how I would tackle it. I knew at a minimum I wanted the in-box shoes on one table that were definite $50+ shoes and the lady said $10 for the boxed shoes. Finally I just went up to the lady and said “what kind of deal can you give me if I buy a bunch of shoes.?”. Her young son came up and said “$5 a pair for all of them”. The mom politely tried to tell him no, then a brief…conversation…was held in which the kid did not realize his life was in danger. LOL! I interjected and offered $5 for anything tagged $20 and under, and $10 for anything over $25 and she agreed. I started pulling and boxing as I had already assessed everything I wanted. I ended up getting 54 pair and paid an average of $6.30 a pair. I took between 30-50% of what was available. What was left either wasn’t good enough or had too much wear.
As we were working up the cost the lady struck up a conversation about reselling with me. Turns out she realized all she wants to sell is jewelry as she doesn’t like selling anything else. I said “what a coincidence – I like selling everything BUY jewelry!”. Her husband is an auctioneer and they get access to a bunch of stuff regularly. I shared my contact info and the main things I like to source. I suspect I’ll hear back from this new sourcing contact. Hopefully it works out well.
I’ll make my money back with the 5 best pair of shoes and the ASP will be over $50.
Here’s the first two pair of boxed shoes I listed from that haul.
Lucchese Charlie 1 Horse Boots
The worst example of worthless PL impressions is when I have to change from mobile to classic view in safari on my phone. It takes me FOREVER to get to the bottom of the page as more and more keep loading. I have to keep swiping down like 10 times before it stops loading more random items.
Well they aren’t actually ballet shoes – it’s just shoes that look like that are called ballet flats.
The most expensive ballet flats are a brand called Tieks. I’ve still never found a pair of them in the wild.The location of this pawn shop is in a high foot traffic location near some unpleasant parts of town. If they didn’t keep them in cars or behind the counter they’d be stolen like crazy.
With the addition of AI, I would REALLY hope eBay would come up with a method to encourage multiple sales to buyers.
for instance, a person buys a pair of women’s size 8.5 athletic shoes from me. A screen pops up saying “this seller has these other size 8.5 women’s athletic shoes as well. Why not buy another pair and get 10% off and combined shipping?That would be FAR more targeted and likely to get another sale than the ridiculous spray and pray approach to promoted listings that appear at the bottom of every screen.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267200406641
Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition (Sony PlayStation 3, 2010) PS3 Complete
I picked this up a couple weeks ago at a pawn shop I rarely can get to a town over from where I work for $4. They have alot of video game stuff and I can find some cheap gems there. It’s kind of a pain because everything is in glass cases or in bins behind the counter so I can’t just go through everything hands on. I scanned the case edges and picked out the items that looked unique or sounded like RPG’s. This was one of them and it turned out to be a homerun. I’d LOVE to be able to go though everything and do some barcode scanning. I bet there were more goodies in there other than what I got that day.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267200409202
Vortex Mark McGwire Air Pressure Power Baseball Bat Red MLB Plastic 1998 Vintage
Cool vintage bat sold for $40 on offer. I paid $1 for it I believe.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266433830815
Rock Band Wii Harmonix Guitar Controller Fender Stratocaster 19091 – NO DONGLE
sold for full price and I was NOT in the mood to ship this thing last Friday night. But…it sold. I have a large death pile of guitar hero/Rock Band gear I really, really need to get listed. It’s in my way. I hope to get to this death pile after I take care of the Nerf death pile.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267007334745
Marvin Richards Vintage Suede Coat Size M Animal Print Lining Women’s
Sold on offer for $50. It’s that time of year where I sell 50% off offers on coats. I was incredibly happy to get the sale.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267206386012
Canon SELPHY CP1500 Compact Photo Printer Black Color Ink Paper Bundle
Picked this up at Goodwill a couple weeks ago for $9. Sold within a few days on offer for $130. I had two competing offers and sent a counter of $130 to both people saying “I had multiple competing offers and this was my best price. First to accept gets it”. One was quicker on the draw than the other!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266899341425
Fitflop Varya Pink Glitter ballerina slip on wedge flats Women’s Size 11
Paid $6 at Goodwill. It took about 8 months to sell but sold for full price. Sometimes the best shoes are unassuming at first glance like these. I pick up every pair of Fitflop I see, but these are at the top range price wise. Fitflop is a great BOLO shoe brand.
Every year I say I’m gonna get all my tax paperwork done early and then I don’t. Then I keep putting off and putting off.
I still need to do mine. It’s not hard – just takes some time. I have it down pat at this point.
Absolutely true! I hadn’t been listing for multiple weeks and the piper came to be paid with slow sales. I started doing end/sell similar and I started listing again to get things moving again.
Items I list that have high STR still sell quickly, so selling in-demand items is the key to immediate success. I know when I list shoes that the sale could happen quickly, but most often will take months or YEARS for the right buyer at the right size/color to come along. Those items are a pure numbers game which is why I have around 1000 active shoe listings.
It’s alot of work and alot of inventory space, but last year I sold:
467 pair of shoes for $36904.
Now granted that dollar number is skewed up from the premium hoarder shoes. The total number on those was:
117 pair for $16306 – $140 a pair.
So non-hoarder shoes I sold 350 pair of shoes for $20598. $59 a pair.
That is why I do shoes. Sheer volume of listings (and focusing on higher ASP) leads to significant and high ASP sales, even in slow months. Everybody needs shoes year round!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267200389592
Cell2jack Cellphone to Home Phone Adapter Make and Receive Cell Phone Calls
I picked up a home cordless phone set at Goodwill for $7 a couple weeks ago. While I’m pretty sure this is a desirable phone set, I haven’t actually even researched the phone yet. The reason I bought it was because this little dongle was in there, and it sells for $30 pretty much instantly. I listed it, and instant sale as expected.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266966604290
Corduroy 3pc Vintage Mens Suit Set Beige 42″ Chest
Sold on offer for $100. Paid $7 at Goodwill a long time ago. This was one of the “death wardrobe” items my kids listed for me last year. This is not the first time I’ve sold a beige 3 piece corduroy suit for $100+. I hope I find another one! This one fit my son and I tried to convince him to wear it to Homecoming but he wouldn’t commit. Too bad – he would have been the coolest dude there!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266860042294
Crayola 1903 Stock Box with Original Wooden Stock Box + Bonus Sealed
Sold on offer for $45. I paid around $4 for this at a “name your price” “charity” yard sale. Those ‘nice’ old ladies turned rabid when I offered them $10 for a few items, which was more than I would have typically paid at a yard sale for what I had. I did really want the items so I offered $20 after their harassment. They were running a pretty good racket.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267145327321
G-Star Raw GS01 ARC 3D Slim fit Men’s Size 40 x 34 Twisted Denim Jeans NWT
I sold 3 pair of hoarder collection pants for $100+ each this week. Made my week! This pair was the most interesting. Even if you don’t know men’s clothing, just casually browsing the men’s section is MUCH easier to pick out unique/valuable items than a women’s section. These pants would have caught my eye in a thrift store for sure so keep an eye out for unique men’s pants or jeans.
Historically still good since my ASP is higher, but based on previous 18 months March has been really rough!
Sometimes investing in the proper tool or shipping box type can really level up your business. I remember hemming and hawing over buying dedicated record mailers or dedicated vcr/dvd player sized boxes. Both times I Finally bit the bullet and got them I almost immediately thought “I should have done this AGES ago!”
Having the right things on hand not only lets you deal with death pile items you are dreading, but saves you tons of time being already prepared in case a special haul comes your way. Then you don’t have to “dread” handling it – you look forward to it!
