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Jay, I paid $350 and then I rented it for the month. It got even better for me because I overheard the storage manager say that the owner of the facility had a whole unit full of even more fabric from this same person. I was allowed to make a charitable contribution to buy this locker at the same price. I have to say it was a lot of sorting and as any scavenger knows, 90% of what we come across at any given location is not Ebay worthy or should be donated. But I have gained so much knowledge about collectible dresses and fabrics. I actually had not considered fabrics when I started scavenging, but I remember Ryanne’s mom did an interview awhile back about identifying fabrics, and Ryanne talked about wool and denim remnants. I took nothing for granted when sorting and looking for value. Before I bought these lockers, I had no idea that little girl’s pageant dresses from the 80s could bring over $100 consistently. My eye for what is the right fit for Ebay is constantly evolving, and this Podcast has helped with this. Thanks to both of you!
Jay mentioned getting a creepy doll head. I had the ultimate experience with creepy doll heads at the end of last year. I went out in a blizzard to a storage auction, and won a locker with my dream inventory, countless vintage dresses hanging from the rafters. Unfortunately, with all the wonderful dresses, I could not see to the back of the 240 square foot locker, where I discovered shelves built from the sides to the back and up to the ceiling filled with DOLLS. The dresses blocked the light and when you walked into the darkness of the back of the locker, it looked like a doll graveyard. There were easily more than a thousand dolls, some warped from the heat and all with moldy eyes. There must have been over 200 boxes. The owner had been a 90 year old woman who passed away leaving behind no less than 8 storage units she had kept for two decades, half of which were full of dolls. Luckily for me, the girl who bought the locker next to me was obsessed with dolls. We made a trade that landed me more vintage dresses and fabric, and I rented her my locker full of dolls. I could have sold creepy doll heads for years with what I had. As you can see by my numbers below, I have been selling the fabric and dresses and couldn’t be happier with how it all worked out.
Total Items In Store: 94
Items Sold: 30
Sales: $1391
Highest Sold Price: $150 (vintage flocked dress)
Average Sold Price: $46I come from a military family, and I have to say living in base housing was my introduction to the secondhand market. Families moving overseas were often going someplace with a completely different climate, much smaller living quarters, or their furniture and heavier items put them past the weight limit designated for moving expense allowances. Downsizing was a way of life, which meant constant moving and garage sales. All of our furniture and most of our toys and clothing were used. By the time I got to college, shopping secondhand was already a way of life and I was able to live on less than many of my friends.
In response to the question about money management problems by military members, it is not always a lower salary that creates problems, but larger re-enlistment bonuses and hazardous duty or deployment pay that gives service members increased salaries only temporarily. Also, just as Jay and Ryanne discussed the need for eBay sellers to adjust budgets to match their slowest sales months, military members have to adjust their budget to accommodate drastically different standards of living both within the U.S. or overseas. Families sometimes are unable to sell houses in the short amount of time they are given to move, and paying two mortgages or maintaining separate households is sometimes a reality. Military life has many benefits, but can be tough as indicated by the many pawn shops and advance check cashing storefronts located around military bases. That being said, the VA home loan and GI Bills are invaluable benefits and my husband and I would not be where we are today without these resources.
Hats off to Flavio and other service members who are willing to mentor and provide guidance to the younger people who perhaps may be more willing to listen to peers and coworkers than parents.
Week of 5/28-6/03
Total Items in Store: 143
Items Sold: 14
Number of Items Listed This Week: 5
Total Sales: $832
Cost of Items Sold: $127
Highest Item Sold: $500 (stamp collection I found hidden in an autograph collection)
My Cost of Shipping: $105.46
New Inventory Purchased: $14Right now Ebay is my way of paying healthcare premiums and bills for myself and my three children, which often is almost as much as our monthly mortgage. The sky high deductibles of Obamacare make it currently very difficult to budget for unplanned healthcare expenses, so I am realizing that I do in fact need a back up plan. I have it in my mind that I will return to work at PayPal if completely necessary, but I honestly feel pretty overwhelmed with the demands of parenting three strong willed children while my spouse runs a marketing business he co-founded. On my worst days I feel like I am being irresponsible with my future, as I am educated and could be putting the kids in daycare and earning additional income. But in broadening my perspective, I take into consideration how physically active I get to be with sourcing, shipping, dressing my mannequin, and organizing my inventory, and how this all makes me feel very good. At least until my kids get older, I am going to ride this train as far as it will take me.
I like this idea that Ebay takes imagination. This is something I find to be true as I’ve ventured into shopping estate sales the past year or so. At thrift stores, it is of course a random mix of objects from all households. But with estate sales, you have a very specific family with their own interests. I love viewing the estate sale listing pictures online so I can create a sort of profile in my mind of what I might expect to find that might be overlooked by the people who run the sale. Often there are sales that are too high end for me, or even might have less attractive items, but I see potential. For example, I saw an estate sale listing for a humble little house and the contents looked like nothing special. But I noticed Kellogg’s employee pins, so I went looking for something interesting that only Kellogg’s employees might have. In that house for $10 I found a standing file with cereal boxes that had never been assembled that were 40 years old. The sale had been going on for hours. I made several hundred dollars. I saw a house with very nice high end vintage clothing I knew would be too expensive for me, but I also saw there was a sewing room, and knew there was bound to be quality items in that area. I went directly to the sewing room in the basement and found a box of rare unused vintage designer Vogue patterns for only $2 each. I have many stories of finding large groups of items in one place, only because I used my imagination and did a little research. I love that Ebay allows me to use both my logic and imagination to find the overlooked items and pass them on to someone who will appreciate them.
I enjoy the conversations about what types of items to scavenge and how the market changes. I have been a fairly consistent yet lower volume seller for more than 10 years, and in the last year or so I shifted from my primary focus on clothing. Geography had a lot to do with my decision. As a suburban Omahan, the time I was spending sourcing quality clothing was probably triple that of sellers in more densely populated and higher income areas of the country. After having three kids I decided my time was just too valuable. I’ve been surprised to find how much I enjoy the challenge of finding different items, and after I took some calculated risks that paid off, my confidence as a seller has definitely grown. I won’t abandon clothing because I still feel the profit margin is high enough. I am just happy that in a world as complicated as the one we live in, I am able to make some money doing something that is relatively low key and allows me to spend time listening to podcasts.
