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Yard sales April-September and thrifts the rest of the year. My coolest stuff typically comes from yard sales. Thrifts are where I get most of my shoes, but there are still some occasional cool items they miss.
I just checked and of the 34 items I sold this week only 4 were from a thrift store. Whoah! Didn’t think it was that low.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266424601592
Sony Handycam HDR-CX160 High Definition Camcorder TESTED WORKS Lots Of Extras
Sony handycams are BOLO. Sold on offer for $100 to a repeat buyer who also bought a $250 drone from me. I shipped them together.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266932891548
TDK SA-X 90 High Position IEC II / TYPE II Blank Audio Cassette Tape NEW Sealed
Any time you see vintage sealed tapes, give them a look-see. These types of tapes even in used shape have value. Sold for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266464305568
Philips Pocket Memo Handheld Digital Voice Recorder DPM LFH 9600 1 GB Complete
Sold for full price. I bought two of these for $5 each.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266416477211
2010 NERF N-Force VANTAGE Sword 32 inches
I bought two of these swords at a yard sale for $5 total. This was the second one to sell. I had to eat $7 on shipping to use a priority tube mailer. Those oversize charges are absurd ($18 oversize length charge on a 1lb package.)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266885032190
WW2 US Army Ike Jacket Size 38 2nd Army Staff Sergeant Overseas Rare Original
Picked this up at a yard sale for $7. Sold for full price.
The rest of my highlighted items are hoarder items:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266885617430
Gucci Mens Jeans Relaxed Straight Leg Size 60 IT ( 42×33 Actual)
Sold for $200 on offer. These are going through the authenticity program.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267091010464
Polo Ralph Lauren baseball hat suede leather strapback vintage new with tags
Sold on offer for $140.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266448939975
Sears USA Leather Harness Pull On Biker Boots Size 10 D Black Vintage NEW IN BOX
This person kept badgering me to sell for $250. They finally hit me on the right day where I wanted a sale. Sold for $250.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266887134163
Robert Graham Orbit Full Print Button Down Linen Silk Shirt Long Sleeve Mens 3XL
Sold on offer for $200. I have a handful of these Robert Graham shirts. They are AMAZING shirts. It’s nice to finally sell one of them!
Oh yeah, the first pair of shoes:
$150 for a pair of fold over Doc Martens. The buyer was extremely excited to get these for her husband as a Christmas. She left glowing feedback and wrote me a personal message about how amazing they were.
It is still exciting, but just not the same ‘virgin-like’ way. I still remember the first $100 pair of shoes I sold on ebay (Thanks Jay – it’s all because of you!). It was a pair of shoes I got for $4 at Goodwill. I was so nervously excited and the whole thing felt wrong like I was basically stealing. I was in disbelief that the buyer didn’t return it and report me to the authorities for scamming them.
I mean selling a cool item like a video game, fancy electronic, or sports collectible for $100 makes sense. But a pair of slightly dusty, USED shoes? Incredulous!
The hoarder collection also dimmed my lantern quite a bit as well. That’s an experience few get to have and makes all other scores pale in comparison – it’s just the way it is. I hope to get another similar score some day, even though this one STILL isn’t 100% complete. More to come this spring with at least a few more surprises in there. That’s why I’m always scavenging even if I’m not buying much.
So while the excitement and disbelief isn’t where it once was, it has been replaced with hunger. I WANT those $100 sales and I will have them. I earned them and I know how to get them and what to do with them. I will enjoy and savor every one of them.
Jeez…. this got way too erotic. LOL!
Week of 1/6-1/12
Items in Store: 2981
Items Sold: 25
Total Sales: $1,368.00
COGS: $216.00
Total Profit: $1,152.00
Average profit: $46.08
Average sales price: $54.72
New Listings: 17
Items scavenged: 7
2025 weekly new listings Avg: 18
2025 avg gross weekly sales $1,808.50
2025 Avg weekly Items Sold 31
2025 ASP $58.34
2025 projected total sales $94,042.00Twas a snowy week. I worked from home 2 days and didn’t do a whole bunch of ebay work. Then it snowed again over the weekend. The bad weather made it difficult to get stuff moved out to the inventory shed, take stuff to Goodwill, or even deal with trash. We haven’t had trash service since the 2nd and it is a mess! Needless to say my workspace in the garage is messy again. My kids love the snow. I loved the snow as a kid and wished for a blizzard every year. As an adult – not so much! I did clean up some more space in my listing area by listing a bunch of beer cans and a random bin of junk. I’ve already sold one of the beer cans to get into the profit on the whole lot. As part of my new “don’t list cheap long tail junk” kick, I didn’t even list about half the cans. If a can sold for less than $20, already had 20-50 active listings and 0-5 solds I was better off just donating it to goodwill or throwing it away. These aren’t little cans – they are 5 liter party cans.
Hopefully we get a break in the weather this coming weekend and I can get my photo area cleaned up. I’m backed up with listed inventory so I can’t really photograph stuff right now. I have 110 drafts awaiting photos and that number will grow this week. Once I’m all cleaned up and efficient again I can blow through the backlog fairly quickly.
I had no intentions to do any sourcing this week but my scavenger sense went off Saturday. I had to get out to the post office anyways and my rule is I ALWAYS listen to the scavenger sense. If I tell my wife my scavenger sense went off even she’ll tell me to drop what I’m doing and go. LOL! It’s a bit like spidey sense – I’ll get an overwhelming urge to go to a specific thrift store out of the blue. Any time it has went off I always find a really good ($100+) item.
I didn’t find any earth shattering items this time but I did find some real nice items. At this point in the game I don’t get too excited over $100 items. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I assume good, but I do miss getting nervous shaky hands when I found awesome items like these.
A vintage metal toy truck like this one that sells for around $50. The one I got is real nice. Paid $2. https://www.ebay.com/itm/296807892011
A pair of Irish Setter steel toe boots that will sell for $100. Paid $4.
This is the item that I think set off my scavenger sense. A Mokuyobi Threads backpack similar to this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/226366267237
It was on an end cap that I normally don’t pay attention to – but it caught my eye for some reason. It’s not every day you find a $100 backpack! Paid $4.
A pair of Adidas soccer cleats that will sell for $100+. Paid $8. Same as these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/326271163633
I bought 2 other pair of shoes that will pull in $50-60 each – a pair of Stephan Janofski Nike Skate shoes and a pair of Tatami sandals.
So 6 items that will be listed for $450 and I paid less than $30. That is a highly out of the norm thrift store score and a scavenger sense win!
Goodwill Bins. They bring out huge bins of unprocessed stuff and charge by the pound.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266969418818
Polo Ralph Lauren Silk Cashmere Blend Beanie Hat Men’s Black Knit Ribbed
Hoarder item. Sold for full price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266479931770
Prada Men’s Black Nylon Sandals 4X2210 Size 9.5 UK
Hoarder shoes – sold on offer for $300. Prada is an overhyped brand. Interesting styles but quality stinks.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267119961741
Worthington Special Bitter Bumper flat top Beer Can Vintage 70’s 2.22 Liter
The first beer can I sold from the lot I listed this week. Sold same day and I was kinda shocked. Some cans I thought were super cool looking ended up being worthless and then a can like this ended up being an awesome one.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266932893109
RENWAL THE VISIBLE MAN MODEL KIT 800-498 COMPLETE NEW VINTAGE 1959
Sold for full price. I had next to nothing in this as it was a throw in item when I bought a van load of stuff at a former vintage toy store/card shop owner.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267119245686
Jim Henson’s Bear In The Big Blue House What Will You Find Pop Up Game 1999 NEW
I recently ended/relisted this item at a lower price. Sold on offer for $40. I had $4 in it from Goodwill. I keep having a false memory associated with this show that pops up every time I’ve seen this item in offers or in my inventory building. I fondly remember when my oldest was little and watched (what I thought was) this show and would walk up to the TV to put her hand on bear’s hand during the end song. Beautiful song. For years I’ve thought of this, done a search, and this dang song wasn’t in the show and the bears voice was wrong. I figured I had fallen into the mandella effect again. Then while writing this up I took a timeout to use all my google-fu skills to get to the bottom of things…and I did! The show we watched was called “It’s a Big Big World”. AWESOME show! Man, what a weight off my mind to resolve this false memory!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266630502582
Columbia Outfitter Camo Gallatin Range Wool Blend Jacket Pant Set Sz M / 32
Paid $8 at goodwill. NOICE full price sale! I’ve sent offers as low as $100 with no bites.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267000996604
Bwine F7GB2 Drone with 4K Wi-Fi Camera 3840 X 2160P New
Sold on offer for $250. Paid $100 at a yard sale. This buyer also bought a Sony camcorder the next day for $100.
Week of 12/30-1/5
Items in Store: 2989
Items Sold: 37
Total Sales: $2,249.00
COGS: $214.00
Total Profit: $2,035.00
Average profit: $55.00
Average sales price: $60.78
New Listings: 19
Items scavenged: 8
2025 weekly new listings Avg: 19
2025 avg gross weekly sales $2,249.00
2025 Avg weekly Items Sold 37
2025 ASP $60.78
2025 projected total sales $116,948.00Well the new year is off to a great start, though I had an $800 sale that skewed my numbers a bit. It was a short week since I was traveling Monday through Wednesday. My shipping station is shaping up. I have all my envelopes and smaller boxes in their forever homes for easy access. This covers around 90% of my shipping needs. Up next I need to figure out a better way to store my common larger size boxes. It’s not critical that they are stored in the immediate area, but it still needs to be organized. I also would like to get one of those ceiling hangers for bubble wrap so I don’t have to keep throwing rolls of bubble wrap around the room when they are in the way.
I didn’t do much listing this week and I didn’t make too much headway organizing either. I did do some inventory management, but not enough! This week will also be a bit of a mess as I’ll have to get all the Christmas decorations put back up in the attic.
I’m typing this Monday morning from my dining table instead of at my day job since we’re snowed/iced in. I’m technically working from home but there is only so much I can do since the actual plant is shut down for the day due to weather. I figure today I’ll get a jump on my tax prep and maybe do some listing in my down time.
I’ve never been to the bins. One of these days I want to check it out just for fun when I’m in Columbus but so far it never works out. For now I’m fine leisurely cherry picking obscure items that everyone else misses.
I’ve tried lotting up low STR records. This last batch though – I’m just going to donate them back to goodwill.
I’ve begged and pleaded with ebay for them to add a couple more custom SKU entries. Why just one? If they added 2-3 more I could integrate my COGS directly to my listings. Book keeping would be INCREDIBLY easy at that point!
I don’t think they ever will unfortunately.
I somewhat punted on the monitor setup I was going for. I’ve decided to wait until Novemeber/December to replace my ebay computer ( new pc required to run 2 monitors). In the meantime I bought a 27″ monitor at a yard sale this summer for a few bucks without a power supply. I have a bunch of HP power supplies that had the same voltage/amps requirements but sadly the plug was wrong once I got it home to test (Why HP???WHY??? – just use the same dang plug!). It’s just been sitting collecting dust waiting for me to find a power supply. I looked but was too cheap to pay $40+ for one. Kinda defeats the purpose of a cheap monitor.
So since I’m home from work today due to weather I cracked out my multimeter and solder station and went to work hacking. I found the correct plug from my universal 12v power supply tester kit. Then I hacked up one of my 4 amp HP power supplies to figure out the wiring. Tested it all out with alligator clips – monitor works great. Soldered and sealed the new plug on and now I have a big ol 27″ monitor that I can run two windows on in split screen -effectively a 2 monitor solution. Not bad for $5.
So scratch one action item off the list.
I’ve almost sold enough coats to condense the wardrobes. I’m thinking if I can sell 4-5 more I can make the change. I really want that shelf space!
That is an excellent goal! It is a necessary upgrade somewhere between 100-500 items depending on what you sell. I use a letter and a number system. Each shelf unit has a letter, then each individual shelf has a number, then each bin has a number.
So for example if I sell something in bin B23 I know it is shelf unit B, row 2 (from bottom), third bin over. If I bring online a new shelf unit I just move on to the next letter.
If say I’m coming back from vacation and have alot of items to sell I will sort my shipping list by custom SKU so I can pull everything in the most efficient manner as it will go in shelf, then row, then bin order. That may not work as well if you just number in order
Your life will become MUCH easier and scaling will be a breeze however you do it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266888227064
Thorogood 814-4203 Men 6″ Leather Moc-Toe NonSlip Safe Work Boot Brown Size 9 D
Man these boots were DIRTY! I’ve gotten incredibly picky with shoes – have to be in excellent condition unless the value/str is there to justify cleaning. Since these sold for $100 even in this condition, they were worth it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266957248857
Tahari ASL Womens Pant Suit Brown and White Pinstripe 10P
Another suit sold from the ‘death wardrobe’ that my kids listed a few months ago. The suits have sold so well that it has kind of made me want to buy more suits. I have looked, but since I’m still applying my high STR and ASP rules I haven’t bought any. If I find a $100 suit I’m definitely going to get it… but I’ll pass for now on the $30-50 ones.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266681806505
Wrangler Retro Jeans Mens 36×32 Blue Medium Wash Slim Straight Western Cowboy
These Wrangler Retro jeans are not home runs, but they sell very quickly. in the $20-35 range. I sold multiple pair this week. These were part of a big yard sale Men’s clothes haul this summer so my buy price was like $2. Much easier to buy bread n butter clothes at $2 each instead of the near $10 thrift price for jeans nowadays.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266467574689
Louis Vuitton Stadium Sneakers Fashion Black Leather Men’s Size 9.5 N UK Calf
Sold on offer for $300 – hoarder item so I paid $25 for these shoes.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266826362133
Lazer Tag Phoenix LTX Blaster 2 Blue Guns 1 Shotgun Attachment Tested
I love picking up these lazer tag guns. They have recoil and are pretty fun. Paid $3 for this lot at Goodwill. They had another gun but it didn’t have a price tag so they wouldn’t sell it to me. Even though i had two other that did have the price tags.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267054792672
Louis Vuitton Evidence Z03050W Sunglasses Black Gold Trim New in Box
Sold for full price! Going to a seaman on a navy aircraft carrier. He’s gonna look goooooood up on that deck! My purchase price is…complicated. The negotiated price on this item was $200, but if I spread out my COGS across all items I bought that day from the hoarder collection I got an average COGS of $12.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267113273855
Pink Floyd The Dark Side Of The Moon SMAS-11163 Harvest Vinyl Record LP 1973 VG+
I listed last week while cleaning up a shelf for my shipping supplies. I’ve had a stack of records that I never listed up there for about 2 years. I blew through them and only listed the good ones (no more listing poor STR $5 items!). This one sold within 3 days.
