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Above is a picture of a small part of a Portmeiron Pomona dishes collection that I bought a couple of months ago at a garage sale. It’s significant because, this was at a garage sale with mostly what I consider “old lady stuff” that I would have never ever even considered good stuff a couple of years ago. Awww… the power of BROADENING ONE’S HORIZONS. Seriously, though, many people talk about finding a niche and becoming an expert in one area. I say, in today’s market, you are paying for it if you aren’t willing to looking at different things. The internet, smartphones, mobile apps, are all GREAT THINGS – so take advantage.
Enough, I will get off my soap box. Another reason why this was significant was because I distinctly remember this garage sale. It was getting towards the end of the morning and it was at a house across the street from the school my mom use to teach at. I looked at the plates and some other things, walked off towards my car, and actually came back to purchase them – which I’ve only ever done a handful of times.
Coming back definitely paid off as I paid only $15 for the collection, along with an empty bottle of Chambord liquor. I’ve broken up the collection into mostly individual pieces and actually still have a couple pieces left to sell.
With all of us this said, I will send a caution when looking at dishes, especially fine China. I was visiting with a lady that owns a successful resale consignment shop in the area and she gave me her take on the current market. There is an aging population that all considered their China sacred possessions only to be used for very special occasions. Middle aged children of these older people are coming into the store hoping to sell the family China….
The problem, she says, is that so many younger women no longer feel the need for China. What use to be tradition and a “necessity”, no longer applies and probably will not for the forseeable future. This will likely cause a great supply of people wanting to sell family China, yet the demand will keep relatively low.
All I’m saying is, don’t overpay, and that as always: you need to know what you’re looking at. If you don’t, that’s why you have an iPhone, Android, or whatever looker-upper thing-a-ma-jig.
For now:
Dish Collection Original Cost: $15.00
Sales to Date: $312.21
Net Profit to Date (after Fees): $261.15
Hmm.. glad I walked back to the sale.
For the first couple years of listing things on eBay it was always a game for me. I’d list something for sale starting at a low price and have an idea of how much it’d sell for, but no true picture of where it was really going to get bid up to – it was always a guessing game. Sometimes I’d get way more than I what I considered to be market value for an item; other days I’d get burned and sell something for way less than I expected. Ultimately, I think these different outcomes had much less to do with auction timing (I.E. – ending all auctions on a Sunday night) and more to do with something called – the volatility of the market.
So what’s the point – what I am trying to get at? Let’s look at a quick example: Last weekend I had what I would call a mildly successful trip to a couple of thrift stores (damn you rain!). I got a bunch of stuff – but for the point of this story I am going to focus on one pair of Italian men’s dress shoes that I paid around $6.25 for after tax. Shoes of this nature on eBay are selling for around $10-$35. Because of the small size of the eBay market for these shoes this big window presents a bunch of volatility for me & my shoes. If I list these shoes on weekly auction starting at $6.99, I risk them getting only one bid and selling for $6.99 - Awesome, now I lost money after fees. Then again, there is the opportunity that the shoes get bid up to $40, especially if two bidders really want my shoes.
What's that Mr. Shoe - what are you trying to tell me?
What if there was a way to eliminate this risk (and yes, opportunity, too). There is. Study the market and create a buy it now auction. Throughout my years on eBay I’ve learned that this can be especially effective on items with small to medium sized markets on eBay. After studying the market, A $20-$25 buy it now on these previously mentioned shoes would fit perfectly, still below what other eBay sellers are asking. Different sellers have differing opinions on the best offer option. I personally think it’s a good idea as it gives buyers the idea that, “Hey, this seller is willing to negotiate a little on their price.”
In my opinion, I think if you want to become a serious eBay seller you need to at least weigh the options of using buy it now auctions as a complement. Patience is a virtue, however, as it may take multiple weeks for your item to sell. For regular eBay sellers, at only fifty cents for a 30 day listing this is definitely worth it – you are eliminating the downside of a potential bargain for bidders. If you list more than 50 fixed price items each month, you need to open up an eBay store to save money. As an eBay seller, you have to realize everyone has their own motivations for buying things on eBay. Some are looking for nice stuff at a good price that is cheaper than retail in a timely manner (these are the folks that will click that buy it now button). Others are willing to wait for the true bargains – that’s great for them, but not so much for you – the seller. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my auction at the top of that list when someone is sorting the completed listings from price:low to high.
Don’t think buy it now auctions are the end all answer for everything, but they are an alternative way to control pricing risk on certain types of niche auctions. And do realize I will never use these types of buy it now listings for ALL of my items. I love seeing my regular auctions jump $20 in the last 30 seconds too. Just remember, when those shoes sell for $6.99, I will tell you I told you so.
Precious Moments. And No I don’t mean those tender moments in life that you wish you could pause time or hang onto forever. Babies, marriage, kittens – Nope. I’m talking about these little things…
Care for a dance my lady?
If you’ve never heard of Precious Moments they are made by Enesco and have been around for decades. Enesco basically is a giftware company that makes porecelain hand-held sized figurines. The most popular line of these would be – you guessed it, PRECIOUS MOMENTS! There is a little hole in the bottom of these figurines that I’ve never figured out why it’s there until I remembered that drug traffickers need good hiding spots (#justsayin’).
In all seriousness, I was actually introduced to Precious Moments in a unique way. A couple years ago I sold nearly $1000 worth of them for a lady that had a VERY large collection. What did I learn? These things can get you some money, and that’s why I look for them – if cheap. What else did I learn, she spent a lot of her money on those things.
Precious Moments much like anything else are damn expensive retail and I think that’s why collectors flock to eBay to bid on these things. Be careful not to overpay, but for a lot of 20 of them you can easily get $5-$10 each on auction. There are also some rare Precious Moments sets that will obviously fetch more for the owner: For the collection lady I sold a set of four “Four Seasons Precious Moments” for over $80. Another popular find is the clown birthday train collection. I was lucky enough to come across an incomplete set that I sold for ~$45. How much did I pay? $2. You want the boxes if you can find them. This train set had no boxes and one of the pieces had a broken trunk (the elephant of course!).
If you are familiar with Enesco you know that there are tons of other series, if you want to call them that, of little figurines. I have fallen into the trap of buying numerous of these, but nothing has yielded success like the Precious Moments have. PM has a nice sized following and though there are many sellers who don’t know the market and want way too much for their little figurine of kids holding hands, there is some money to be made!
Stay tuned for my next article this weekend – I’m going to talk about how I price my things for eBay auction and why my viewpoint has recently changed from what I believed for so many years.
So I’m sitting in my mom’s kindergarten classroom a couple summers ago when my phone rings. Who is it? It’s the guy with the teenage mutant ninja turtle collection; he wants to deal.
Earlier in the day I was perusing through Craigslist (it’s kinda my thing). One of the most interesting finds of the day was the post about someone’s collection of MOC (mint on card also known as eBay slang for new) TMNT Action Figures from the late 1980′s and early 1990′s. What did I know about this stuff before I saw this post? Nothing. What did I know after selling this extensive collection? Way too much!
After a little research I found that these things could actually make me some money. But not for $900.
Back at the school & the phone is ringing in the kindergarten hallway and I’m jumping with anticipation. I have an offer in mind: $600, but there’s no way he’ll go that low for this big of a collection. I offer and he doesn’t even stutter before saying yes. I’m the type of person that can’t just enjoy the moment of the win; All I can think about in this moment is how I should have offered less and could’ve still gotten these darn things.
I follow my own advice (from the previous Craigslist post) and roll up to the Wal-Mart parking lot. Don’t lie and tell me that you don’t have a name for every Wal-Mart where you live. We’ll just go the politically correct route and call this the affluent and culturally diverse one in town. I pay the guy his six Benjamins and out of his trunk comes 4 massive Home Depot boxes as tall as your toddler FULL of sealed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures…
Damn I just spent $600 on TMNT Turtles in a Wal-Mart parking lot.
If you want to see what 165 turtles look like sprawled out in a living room go look at the first post on this blog. In the end, I made plenty of money easily doubling my money and then some after fees. It took months to clear out the collection, so was it worth it – HELL YES! They are ninja. frekin. turtles.
Scratch is one of the rarest TMNT figures - this guy can easily get you hundreds of dollars. Good luck finding him!
What a great bar story – tell me a great joke and I will politely laugh. Then I will follow up with the story of that one time I spent $600 on TMNT turtles on Craigslist. Surely this has to be the weirdest story of my eBay dealings, right? hahaha – you really have no idea do you??? Just wait.
WINTER. In most places of the country that winter brings upon a dark time. Cold, snow, wind and most importantly a LACK of garage sales! How should you combat this? Craigslist is one choice. If you don’t know what Craigslist is… 1) pick up the rock that you live underneath and 2) it’s basically an “informal eBay” with no fees where people can barter goods (or services —> eww… ). Everyone knows of the famous story of the guy that turned a paperclip into a house on Craiglist. While this may be a little extreme, there are many good ideas to be had with all different types of stuff. A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Figure Collection, iPods, a trumpet, Fisher Price toys, Nerf guns. Got ‘em all on the Craig, but they are stories for another day.
Here are a couple tips if you are looking to buy and resell using Craigslist:
Hopefully you can find something better than this to buy on Craigslist
In summary, Craigslist is a very viable option to buy and resell items just like garage sales. It gives you an added luxury of being able to research and take fewer chances than at garage sales. At the same time, buyers on Craigslist are usually more knowledgable about the value of things they have when comparing to some garage sales. Keeping that in mind – you gotta be careful to NOT OVERPAY!
