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Nothing crazy to report this week so far, but this weekend was our anniversary, so we decided to do an all day scavenging day, hitting up a number of yard sales, thrift stores, the Goodwill outlet, and a few dumpsters here and there. Then we stopped in at an out-of-the-way Chinese buffet on a whim. $12.99 per person was exactly the kind of cheap meal we were after, and it was pretty dang tasty, to boot!
One of the estate sales we went to was on their second day, toward the end of their hours, and they had a table expired food “Free to A Good Home.” We were picking out a few things here and there, when one of the ladies running the sale begged us to take as much as we could carry, else it was all going to be thrown away. Most of it was dry or canned goods that only expired within the last year, so it’s all still perfectly fine for eating. We figure it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $75-$125 of groceries. Not a bad haul!
Aside from the restaurant find and free food, we got three German & West Germany Cuckoo clocks for $10 a piece, a couple of unbuilt Revell models, a submarine and a fighter jet? (it’s some kind of aircraft, lol), for $5 a piece, and a few totes of bric-a-brac/store filler for a few bucks here and there at various sales. All in all, I’m quite happy with the weekend, and it was a great day out with my wife after keeping our noses to the grindstone for such a long stretch. It felt so good to get out of the routine.
Nice score! Scrimshaw is a little nebulous with legality, isn’t it? If it’s genuine ivory, you have to be able to prove it pre-dates the ivory ban laws, I believe. You might want to get a little creative with how you market it, just to be safe, if you’re selling it on eBay.
Hopefully I’m not talking out my rear on this one, but I used to run an antiques shop a while back and got my hands on some scrimshaw pieces that got removed from eBay (and got me a couple dings on my account for a while).
What a beautiful piece! Definitely one worth holding out for the big dollars on. Whenever I get super low ball offers like that I either just ignore it (the healthy response) or reply with a buck off (the petty response), lol.
Thanks for reposting this for me! Sorry I went AWOL for a couple of days, lol.
Oh, man, Martin from Garbage Finds brings me back! I used to follow his blog religiously probably 6-7 years ago. He always got the coolest stuff, too. Really helped open my eyes to the incredible waste that these “developed” countries produce.
I’ll start taking photos of my finds, and put together a little gallery on imgur or something each week, since there seems to be some interest. This week so far has been pretty slow, but I did grab a couple of pairs of Nikes yesterday that should sell well. Anything free is worth saving up for, right? Haha
It was pretty slow over here, quantity wise, but what I did sell was decently high dollar (at least for me, lol). Had a huge dumpster diving score a few days ago where I found a number of handheld video game systems (Nintendo 3DS, DSi, DS Lite, etc) and around 60-70 games. Kept some for myself, and am selling the rest. I try not to speculate too much on what I’ll get out of something, but it might be upwards of $750-$1,000 when all is said and done.
Pair of Motorcycle pants for $57.80 (best offer, bought for $6ish at a thrift store. The photos are a little rough on these, but I’ll blame my fiancee, she’s new, haha. They were clearly good enough to sell the piece!)
A Nintendo 3DS for $115 (dumpster find referenced above)
A 25th Anniversary Nintendo DSi for $90 (same dumpster find)
An incredible 1970s Mod vinyl handbag w/ umbrella for $45 (dumpster find from a few months ago)
I fill out the condition description as if it were my regular description, and put in any flaws, relevant measurements or historical notes (for things like vintage photographs I know the origins of). Then I copy the condition description and paste it into the full description.
In the full description I’ll often note my shipping options for larger items, because not everyone thinks to look at all the choices you offer. They just see the first estimated cost (ie: USPS Priority) and that turns them away if you don’t remind them that, hey, I also do FedEx/UPS.
Oh, and for things that I offer free combined shipping on (trading cards, video games, stuff like that), I make sure to include a brief snippet explaining how to use the Add to Cart function, lol.
I probably overdo it with the descriptions, but I’ve been on eBay for years and years, so I still live by the mantra “Describe it like there’s no photographs, and photograph like there’s no description.”
Wow, I’m amazed that only one of those dishes broke. With my luck, I would have received back a box of finely ground sand, haha.
Craig,
Sports is such an intimidating category to get into, to me! That’s cool that you’ve gone so deep with it. I’m not much of a sports guy myself, so I won’t be your competition any time soon, haha. I haven’t heard of COMC before, I’ll have to look into it!
I do it all, really. Rummage / estate sales, estate auctions, even storage unit sales! I haven’t done much of the auctions since moving to Pittsburgh, because I’m always so well stocked on inventory that I haven’t felt the need to, but I’ve been thinking about getting back into the circuit just to spice things up a bit. I love rummage and estate sales. Definitely great deals to be had. I’m a big bundler, and love haggling. My mother likes to tell stories of me as a small child haggling with adults at sales, talking them down from a quarter to a dime, lmao. It’s in my blood, what can I say?
Also, thanks, Jay! I do love the thrill of the hunt, and getting something for nothing. I’m especially excited to be bringing my fiancee into the business. She’s also big into finding deals, and doesn’t mind hopping in a dumpster herself from time to time. We’re always checking Craigslist/Facebook for free stuff. You’ve just got to make scavenging a part of your every day life. I don’t think I could ever quit the lifestyle completely. It’s too deeply ingrained at this point.
Thanks, Jay! I’m proud to say I’ve never held a “real job” to this day, haha. I may not be rich, and some stretches of those twelve years have been very tight, but I’ve always managed to get by. Plus, as you always say, I own my time. That’s huge.
As for dumpster diving, I’ve made it a part of my day-to-day life! There’s an apartment complex near me that I check pretty much every day, sometimes twice a day, while walking my dog. It’s about 12 dumpsters that produce something just about every day. When the weather is nice, I have a walking route that covers about a square mile radius from my apartment that usually gets me some stuff to sell, some stuff to save / donate (I get a lot of household goods that I donate to free stores and shelters), and some food.
When I need certain things, like dog food or shampoo or what have you, we’ll take a drive to the suburbs and do some commercial diving at the big box stores.
I haven’t stepped foot in a thrift store or auction for, gosh, four or five months and I’ve had no shortage of inventory to work through and list. It’s insane how much waste there is on an individual level in this country, let alone on a corporate one.
One last thought, last year I kept track of every pound of clothing I saved from the dumpsters and either resold or rehomed and it came out to around 2,200 pounds. A literal TON of clothing, all from residential dumpsters. Most of those clothes were in perfectly good used condition, often having been freshly laundered and thrown away. One bag that stuck with me was filled with sweaters, coats, and other wintery garments still on their clothes hangers. It was like they opened their closet and just dumped it directly into a bag.
Hi, Sharyn! I’m pretty close to Squirrel Hill, just over in Wilkinsburg!
Well, there’s the Goodwill Outlets if that’s your thing (it is my thing, haha), the Red White and Blue stores are usually pretty cheap, but they’re heavily shopped so there’s a ton of turnover. It’s a numbers game going shopping there. The regular Goodwills are all pretty terrible. Within the last year we’ve lost two of my favorite thrift stores (Thrift King and Swissvale’s St. Vincent DePaul’s), which has been a huge bummer for me. They were both nice and junky, and VERY cheap.
Overall, I’d say there’s a good thrifting “scene” here, but you’ve gotta know where to look. There are a few hole in the wall shops as well, but they don’t get as many donations as some of the bigger stores, so you can’t frequent them. Not enough turnover, you know?
As for the trading cards, for Pokemon I’ve been a collector on and off since 1999, having gotten back into it quite heavily in 2017. I played the game for a year or so at a league, but have since stuck to collecting and selling. I’d like to get back into playing, again, though! It just keeps being one of those “someday” things that gets pushed to the side. Then with Yu-Gi-Oh I exclusively buy and sell it. I like the art work on a lot of the cards, so it’s fun to handle, but I have no drive to collect it or play the game, which makes it easy to sell. You know, no temptation to keep that $75 card for myself, haha.
Total Items in Store: 2388
Items Sold: 39
Gross Sales: $675.95 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $434.42 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $60-70
Highest Price Sold: $123 (vintage Tandy reel to reel audio tapes, lot of 19)
Average Price Sold: $17.33
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number of items listed this week: 35+I’m not really sure how many items I listed, but I kept track one day because I was on a an absolute tear, and I hit around 30 in one day. I’ve worked every day this last week, so it’s probably closer to 40-50, but I’ll be conservative to be safe.
I don’t have my numbers for TCGPlayer as easily broken down as the eBay ones, so we’ll just stick with this side of the business for a bit. Sold a few PSA graded Pokemon cards, a bunch of found-in-a-dumpster items (copper chef skillet NIB, pair of Converse shoes, a pocket watch, some lotions), but my favorite sale of the week was 11 pounds of pre-1982 copper pennies.
I’ve been saving my pocket change for a year or two, and setting all the copper pennies aside. For $16.50 in face value of pennies, I got $40.76 after shipping. By the time you factor in fees and shipping, I pocketed $26 and some change, meaning I made $10 just by taking a few seconds every time I had money in my pocket to sift out the copper. Not too shabby, if you ask me!
Thanks, Sharyn! I don’t think I’ve been out that way yet. I only moved here in May of 2017 from the U.P. of MI. You’re right, I’m on the outskirts of The East End in Wilkinsburg. I love it here, everyone in the neighborhood made me feel so welcome right from day one, which was something I’d never experienced before. Pittsburgh is such a great city. All the benefits of a big city, but close-knit and personal like a small town. 🙂
I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 (16MP camera; it’s just fantastic) and I couple that with the free “Open Camera” app. I like that app because it’s highly customizable, and has no ads or constant requests to go “premium.” The basic, built in camera works well, but I like being able to adjust my iso levels or white balance, or whatever needs doing.
