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Week of 10/1 – 10/7
Total items in Store: 406
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales: $146.88 (before eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $33.30 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $43 plus shipping (US Navy SPAWAR Systems Center Challenge Coin)
Average Sales Price: $24.48 (before eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 0 (but did 12 end and sell similar)A tough week, and this one just ending is about identical.
I’m just a part-timer but hanging in here and learning something every time I show up. I’ll add my thanks to Ryanne & Jay for keeping at it and to everyone else hanging in, and to those at least visiting now and again to this definitely “cool and calm place.”
Week of 9/17 – 9/23
Total items in Store: 422
Items Sold: 10
Gross Sales: $208.33 (before eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $41.06 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $40 plus shipping (Office of the Under Secretary of the Navy Challenge Coin)
Average Sales Price: $20.83 (before eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 17The type of hardware and style of construction says homemade or shop-made tool box to me, but it’s a strange configuration. Note that closed, the left door opening faces the back and the right door opening faces the side of the left door, so the large interior space is L-shaped and the right door with its two openings is closed off when it’s latched up. I’m not a real tool guy so I can’t imagine what would fit, but it could have been from a small factory or industrial shop for some kind of long specialized tool they wanted to carry upright. The wood is apparently reclaimed from something. I would have suggested some kind of homemade picnic box for wine or liquor but think it’s too tall to have been purposely made for that.
With your long history going to flea markets, what do you think of the scene now?
A mere shadow of its former self. So many good ones around the country are closed, having been zoned out of existence or the land redeveloped and the remaining ones are not as filled with sellers as they used to be, especially the outdoor vendors, and attendance is way down. At one near me part of the building of indoor vendors burned several years ago and though rebuilt, now they don’t have as many outdoor tables filled. Another one completely closed for a while (pre-COVID) while I believe they were trying to sell it or redo some of the buildings or something and it has never come back like it was, either. It’s at about ¼ of the outdoor tables that it used to have. You’d think with the ones in the area that closed completely that people would gravitate to the remaining ones but it doesn’t appear that way. It’s a shame.
The last two lines are something about addressing James (I think) as a comrade aboard the S/S COMANDANTE PESSOA, a 390’ steam turbine registered to Brazil, home port Rio de Janeiro. (The “O” in Pessoa has an accent mark.) So the uniform is presumably Brazilian merchant marine, though I don’t recognize the shoulder boards. It looks like there might be a lightning bolt on them, which would indicate he was a radio operator. A full officer would usually have straight stripes and no anchor so perhaps he was a cadet or assistant. The captain would have had four full stripes. I think the name on the photo is the photography studio.
COMANDANTE PESSOA made it through the war but sunk in 1954 while being towed to Brazil after being holed striking a rock. It is now a popular dive site near Natal, Brazil.
I’m not getting anything from the signature on the right side. Seeing “The”, I think perhaps it was a nickname? Radio operators are often known as “WOP” or “Sparks” but neither of those work.
Week of 9/3 – 9/9
Total items in Store: 404
Items Sold: 2
Gross Sales: $187.49 (before eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $82.59 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $125.00 plus shipping (The White House Press Secretary Challenge Coin)
Average Sales Price: $93.75 (before eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 23Congrats on good numbers for all, one way or the other. I broke 400 listings for the first time ever last week but only having two items sell helped that. I stopped at a Wednesday outdoor flea market while running errands and didn’t buy anything but I happened to be walking by a seller who didn’t want to load up his car and was giving everything away. The items were mostly junk but I grabbed a couple things that’ll go for $15-25 each and are easy to store and ship. They’re long tail, though, which is I guess what most of my store consists of at the moment. It’s a tiny flea market but I’ve always found something there.
Week of 8/27 – 9/02
Total items in Store: 383
Items Sold: 10
Gross Sales: $261.91 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $94.24 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $89.59 plus shipping (1969 US Army OD Green Jungle Fatigue Pants)
Average Sales Price: $26.19 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 12Fair to middling. At least I listed more than I sold.
Week of 8/20 – 8/26
Total items in Store: 381
Items Sold: 7
Gross Sales: $255.26 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $69.87 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $85 plus shipping (Australian Embassy 60 Years of Prayers Bottle Opener Challenge Coin)
Average Sales Price: $36.47 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 8The Australian challenge coin that was my highest sale was issued to commemorate 60 years of invitational happy hours at their embassy in DC for local military and politicos, which they call “prayers”. And it’s in the shape of a bottle opener, natch.
Week of 8/13 – 8/19
Total items in Store: 380
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales: $271.83 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $129.61 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $85 plus shipping (damaged USS America 1990 1991 Desert Shield/Desert Storm Deployment Cruise Book)
Average Sales Price: $45.31 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $9
Number of new items listed: 0
Not too bad for me for being on time away for the last 4 days of that week and no new listings. A funny thing about the book that was my highest price sold. I found it at an indy thrift for $5 and it had some major visible damage to the binding. When I went to research it, I found the exact same book on Worthpoint that had been sold on eBay a couple years ago with the same damage.I am enjoying your big haul blow-by-blow account. I had a good laugh at your description of library sale customers who “move faster than other unhealthy looking people”. I grew up in Philly but did not go to library sales when I lived there so did not witness the tri-state area grabby pushy shouty phenomena you describe.
Speaking of Philly, I was there this weekend visiting family and went to the Berlin NJ Flea Market which was always one of my favorites back in the ’70’s. I had some folks with me so could not seriously shop for inventory but did find a few things that’ll help pay for the trip. I was very happy to see they still had the raw bar / seafood place inside so I enjoyed a dozen raw clams, as I always used to do (though sometimes getting oysters, of course). I told a lady running the front who looked older than I am and who I thought maybe had been there a while that the last time I had eaten there was 40-something years ago and it was nice to be back, but she was unimpressed. “That wasn’t us” she said tersely, which kind of left me at a loss for words. Perhaps I brought up a sore subject.
Though the month was slow as molasses, I did actually sell some things in July:
This 1967 Queen Elizabeth II half penny charm is dark and ugly but sold for $19 plus shipping after about a year listed. Out of a junk drawer lot long since paid for. It has been a while since I’ve been able to successfully snipe any good JD lots. https://www.ebay.com/itm/275606305283
This reproduction Vietnam War party suit 100-mission patch for Swan Lake Hotel in Thailand sold for $19 plus shipping to a Vietnam vet who said he had stayed there many nights while at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base. US forces used the base to attack the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and for other missions as part of the US “Secret War” against the Viet Cong outside the boundaries of Vietnam. https://www.ebay.com/itm/275707709535
Sales of consignment challenge coins included this US Naval Support Activity Mechanicsburg Commanding Officer’s Coin at $38 on an offer out: https://www.ebay.com/itm/275528942705 ; a US Naval Ordnance Text Unit Cape Canaveral named Commanding Officer’s Coin at $59 full price: https://www.ebay.com/itm/275804030162 ; a City of Key West Conch Republic / Southernmost Point Coin at $25 full price: https://www.ebay.com/itm/275952387797 ; and a US Navy 2016 Birthday Ball at Washington DC Coin at $25 full price: https://www.ebay.com/itm/275595785959 (all prices are plus shipping).
Week of 8/06 – 8/12
Total items in Store: 386
Items Sold: 8
Gross Sales: $296.45 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $107.93 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $100 plus shipping (NOS 1969 US Army Jungle Fatigue Pants)
Average Sales Price: $49.41 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 16Starting to work my way out of the doldrums.
Retro, I am really enjoying reading about your successes this summer – you’re working your butt off and doing an incredible job!
Week of 7/30 – 8/05
Total items in Store: 379
Items Sold: 6
Gross Sales: $271.45 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $115.31 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: Tie at $87 plus shipping (each a challenge coin; one from the 2010 launching of a FDNY fireboat and the other from the Commanding Officer of the US Naval Nuclear Power Training Unit, Ballston Spa NY)
Average Sales Price: $45.24 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $23
Number of new items listed: 28Sales are improving as I’m listing. I only have two or three items promoted but I am sending offers and putting some older items on a 30%-off sale.
There was a period there that a couple items sent USPS Ground Advantage had no in-transit scans at all after the pick-up scan but did eventually show up at the buyer’s with a delivery scan so I assume USPS was working out some kinks in the new service. Things seem to be back to normal now but some items are still spending more time in transit than they used to with First Class Mail Package.
That house is amazing; the reno and furnishings! And the listing looks great. You are real pros at all of it.
Week of 7/23 – 7/29
Total items in Store: 355
Items Sold: 4
Gross Sales: $68.46 (w/o eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $0 (including consignment commissions but not the original cost of family castoffs)
Highest Price Sold: $25 plus shipping (Bosch Refrigerator FreshProtect Ethylene Absorber Starter Kit)
Average Sales Price: $17.12 (not incl eBay fees, shipping, or taxes)
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of new items listed: 13I have not posted here in a while, partially due to some travel and also because sales have been abysmal for June and July so not worth reporting; 4 items sold is the most I’ve sold in a week since May. At least I’ve been listing.
My best sale of the week – and my only sale of the week – was this challenge coin from the US Navy’s Naval Ordnance Test Unit, Cape Canaveral (does Trident sub and ballistic missile testing and support) for $59 plus shipping that was firmly in my favorite niche of obscure military items. https://www.ebay.com/itm/275804030162
