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Extreme scavenging – what a great topic! I spent a number of years trying to make a living as a musician before enlisting in the Army. (That’s what having to play “Feelings” just one too many times drove me to!) The 3 – 4 am period after gigs was great for curb shopping and dumpster diving to supplement my meager income. I lived in Philly at the time so could cover a lot of ground quickly. Everything was fair game, I wasn’t proud. In the late ‘70’s there was no ebay or CL (let alone internet) so I spent my daylight hours figuring out where to sell whatever I could not use or eat, usually taking it around in my car to various places or putting ads in shoppers. I had the use of a garage with my apartment so I had some storage. I would eventually end up with a garage-full of beat up and broken furniture that wasn’t worth trying to sell individually. The first time it happened I called a used furniture place that was willing to come by based on my representation of having like 20 pieces to get rid of. I did warn them it wasn’t in the greatest shape. The guy came, looked around in disappointment, and said “you know this is just stuff like I can pick up on the curb on trash day?” I just said “well, can you use it or not?” And after a bit of negotiation of course he bought it all. It never seemed to dawn on him that that’s exactly what I was doing.
Thanks for the great tip about turning one of the pieces 90 degrees in a cardboard sandwich! I tried it and it sure makes it about impossible to bend! I’ve always resisted sending things in a flat but I’ll rethink it next time.
Cool stuff, Steve. Weird hammers can be sleepers – I made some good money on a vintage rock climbing piton hammer a while back. A few recent interesting sales of mine: Auto parts – you just never know what’s worth some money. This is a set of ratty headlight buckets manufactured by Lucas, nicknamed the Prince of Darkness by those relying on their electrical systems in the 50’s and 60’s. These were leftover pieces from a project car of mine. An older foreign car part like this (even though it may fit many different cars) is usually long tail, with a very narrow interest band. Few views, no watchers forever. But when someone comes along who needs it, they’ll be willing to pay a decent price for it. These went to a hot rod shop in NY for $89.78 plus shipping. https://goo.gl/19p5eE
The value of military uniforms can vary tremendously depending on the type or pattern of camouflage and material, year manufactured, the patches (or lack thereof), size, and condition. For higher value items you’re likely to run across, look for Vietnam War period contract dates in the DSA number as Steve Schultz pointed out in his video. (There are other tells but that’s the easiest.) This 1970 cammie top though lightly used had a few pin holes and the patches were nothing special so I felt I couldn’t go too high on it. But it sold in only 2 days for $79.87 so I probably left some money on the table. With hundreds of views and 20 watchers in those 2 days this was probably safe to auction. Vietnam cammies are very hard to source for a reasonable price but they can sometimes be found mixed in with the much more plentiful Woodland pattern of later manufacture and valued as such by the seller. There are also solid OD green uniforms of the same age and cut – look for the slanted chest pockets – that can be worth more. https://goo.gl/NRps3x
I saw this beat up electronic device in an indy thrift for $50 and passed right over it. I had no idea what it was. As I continued to walk around I looked at ebay solds on my phone (very surreptitiously as this place will kick you out if they think you’re a reseller) and it looked to be an easy $100 even if not working and a hot item so I quickly snatched it up. I learned all about it from the manufacturer’s website that had all the documentation and software, even though it’s an obsolete model. Apparently there are lots of DirectTV and Dish subcontractor installers out there who need these and even RVers use them to find reception for their satellite dish when traveling. Got it charged up and did all the function tests to check it. It worked but the software was an old version. I didn’t want to take the time to mess with that so I priced it right at what I figured was market price, all things considered, and included a picture of a readout showing the old software version. It sold in a day for $247.78 plus shipping. https://goo.gl/5oazm5
The problem is that ebay listings are like three lines long if I do that. Is there a way to shorten them?
Thanks for sharing your sales, Steve! Very helpful as always. Years ago I had a similar starburst clock when I was selling at the Marin City flea market outside of San Francisco. That market was great for selling MCM so I thought it would be a quick sale at a high price but I was mistaken. No one even looked at it. It was starting to get beat up from packing and unpacking and sitting out on the table for several weekends. It did finally sell but not for much.
Home movies! Woo hoo! I will second that it was definitely fun to see what we’ve been hearing about all this time. Thanks! Have you guys been to Iceland before? I was never stationed in Iceland but I did prosecute a General Court Martial there that involved a week-long visit in the winter and one again in the summer. It was quite amazing to see the country at such different times and it is really beautiful.
For numbers I don’t have much to share as my lengthy inactivity has apparently put a curse on my sales. But that’s ok because life is still getting in the way lately for me too and limiting my eBay time. My sympathies to you, Christine. At our house, we’re still getting settled in after our move and last week was crazy. One kid started high school where he knew but one fellow student (whom he’d met only a couple weeks before) and I took the other kid off to start college a couple states away. Fortunately both kids are pretty independent and resilient, having traveled and been away from home a lot with and without parents, not to mention the periodic military uprootings they have experienced, but last week was still not an easy one for maintaining parental sanity.
Oh, not me anymore, I’m long retired from that. My wife is the one who is still the glutton for punishment.
Hey I’m back! I had a long hiatus from eBay and SL due to our transfer to DC and a multitude of things going on with the kids (all good) over the last 6 months but now I’m trying to get back into my favorite hobby of 40-some years (and about 20 of them without eBay! Can you imagine?). Regarding selling games, electronics, etc. that I cannot test, what I do is only pick up those types of items if they are free or pretty close to it and appear to be in excellent condition, will ship for first class package or small flat rate priority box, and will sell for a decent price to make it worth my while but below market for that item. In the listing I do not mention at all whether I have tested them or not but I do state in item condition that functionality is guaranteed. (I offer 30 day returns as well.) Then I just cross my fingers when the item sells but I’m ready for an immediate, apologetic, and cheerful 100% refund including shipping if it’s bad and I will tell the buyer to keep the item or toss it if they wish. Or perhaps offer partial refund if the situation warrants it. This has worked for me very well and has only cost me a couple bucks over the years and the loss of a few items that had been virtually free to me. Never a negative FB, knock on wood.
They’re commonly called Hitchcock chairs. The seat material is rush so you can search that also. About a million of them made and reproduced over the years and probably someone who still makes them today. Google it or do an eBay search and you can see that even so, some can be quite valuable based on age, design, and manufacturer as they were first made by the Hitchcock Chair Co. in the early 1800’s. I believe the early ones had the manufacturer’s name and city stenciled on the back of the seat.
Bless you Whiskey for doing a tough job that needs to be done. I spent a couple years as a Special Assistant US Attorney in the Criminal Division and also general/special court martial trial counsel at busy Norfolk Naval Station and that was plenty for me.
Michael d, the odds are good that anyone with a sales volume like yours would get some interesting addresses but that FoxFire buyer takes the cake. You’d think any survivalist worth their salt would already have the set but who knows, maybe they wore their copies out! I am part time, low volume but have many foreign sales. I always Google Map the addresses. Often the street address won’t register in a search but I can at least get the town or city. The most interesting lately have been the Israelis – I had 5 or 6 sales there in 2016. I had stuff go to Beersheba in the southern desert, a couple things to seacoast cities like Ashdod, and one item go to a communal settlement called Shimshit, north of Nazareth.
