haoleboy
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posted on May 29, 2001 03:12:22 PM new
I've been a Bronze Powerseller for the past few years so I've had some success on ebay, but I'd say that BY FAR my biggest profit margins have come from one particular type of unique sports memorobelia (sp?) item that I stumbled upon a few months ago that has to do with Tiger Woods (not sports cards). Anyway I rolled the dice a bit and picked up about 100 of this particular item at an average cost of about $5 each, hoping to double - maybe even triple - my money. I've been selling them for the past several months, one at a time using 3 day auctions, as soon as one auction ends I immediately relist so I've selling about 10 a month. The best part is that the winning bids have ranged from a low of $30 to a high of $80 with the average selling price about $50 each meaning that my profit margin is roughly 900%. So far I've sold about 60 of them so even if I don't sell any more I've made a nice chunk of change. Any similar/comparable profit margin stories out there?
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ihula
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posted on May 29, 2001 03:18:47 PM new
WOW! Congratulations to you! I have yet to find that great item that people don't realize they need yet. I will keeping hunting for it though! Although I did find a German Bible once at Good Will that I bought for $15.00 and sold for $75.00, that's about the extent of it 
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CoolTom-07
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posted on May 29, 2001 03:19:09 PM new
I average %1600 on ebay (since Mar '99)
I do mostly paper and books. Very cheap to buy, can go into the stratosphere...
Today, bought a HC/DJ bio of a Romance novelist. Paid 50¢ and looked it up. A library copy is at $61 with 2 days left...
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lowprofile
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posted on May 29, 2001 03:43:19 PM new
Wow Tiger woods gold hats for 5 bucks...where did ya find em?
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bluroks
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posted on May 29, 2001 04:03:26 PM new
A few years back, we had purchased a box of 1986 fleer basketball from a local store. Paid $12.60 for the box. One day when we had a shop a guy walked in, put down $2100 and asked would that be enough for the box! Wish our auction sales were like that! Now it seems if we break even we are doing okay!
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upriver
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posted on May 29, 2001 04:17:41 PM new
Always nice to see success stories, you must be having fun with those!
This week for me is kind of nice, some big book sales. Have had a string of luck recently with some quite rare 19th century book finds for low dollar costs.
Sold one for $200, cost was $8.
Another for $202, cost was $20.
Others were sale of $76, cost $6; sale of $79, cost $23.
Also had some excellent "found" items, one of the suburbs around here had an entire week spring clean-up event, people put all kinds of great things out for garbage pick-up & we just drove around & picked them up, just had one of the items sell for $76 and another for $60.
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zymo
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posted on May 29, 2001 04:28:22 PM new
In 1988 I purchased 73 1982 Mark Mcgwire Pilots Baseball Cards for 25 Cents each. They mostly sat in a box until a few years ago when I started selling them at prices ranging from 5.00 to 700.00 each. I cureently have 17 left, 3 of them graded PSA 9 Mint. These are selling for approx 600-650 each. I am going to get the rest PSA graded. Hoping for 1-2 PSA 10 cards but that is tough to get.
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jrb3
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posted on May 29, 2001 05:04:59 PM new
Bought a bag of jewelry for $2 at a tag sale, when I was sorting through it I found a tiny strand (10" of pearl beads after further checking I realized they were real pearls. Took them to an appraiser and found out they were Victorian Baptismal pearl very high grade put them on consignment and sold them for $1200 with $100 consignment fee.
That's the best I ever did.
Joe B
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loosecannon
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posted on May 29, 2001 05:27:38 PM new
Best I ever did on a single purchase was about $2300 in sales off of a $31 investment. I've been waiting for it to happen again. And waiting and waiting and waiting...
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Zazzie
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posted on May 29, 2001 05:29:11 PM new
--gambler's high
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haoleboy
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posted on May 29, 2001 06:09:29 PM new
Thanks for your stories, I especially liked zymo's Mark McGwire card reply. Wow, $700 for MULTIPLE cards bought for a quarter each - talk about pennies from heaven! I realize my Tiger Woods stuff is probably a once in a lifetime find but I'm enjoying riding this wave as long as can...
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Microbes
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posted on May 29, 2001 06:15:48 PM new
Let's see...
Had a book I bought for 50 cent bring $131 thats over 20,000 %
A TV I paid $30 brought $467 over 1500 %
A Track Ball for a quarter brought $76 over 30,000 %
A Freebee (as in PLEASE haul it off my carport) Computer (and spare parts) that was bigger than a Washer and Dryer brought me $1400.00 (after I busted it down into peices small enough to ship UPS)
But they ain't all like this
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wallypog
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posted on May 29, 2001 06:16:54 PM new
Last Christmas season I found a bunch of sets of little tiny squirrel ornaments made by Enesco a few years back. I bought them for $1.00 each and sold nearly two dozen at between $7.00 and $12.00 per set. I had no idea squirrels were such hot little collectibles--nearly every one of the bidders had the word 'squirrel' in some form or another worked into their User ID, too!
--------------------
http://www.wallypogsbog.bizland.com
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carolann56
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posted on May 29, 2001 06:24:08 PM new
I've had a few items do quite well.
Went to one sale, they said, take it all, there's nothing left here and we move in a week. We sold the reel to reel for $160. Cost FREE
Went scavengering through am estate trailor sale ( scavenged, since they were SO trashed) found an old wire recorder, no power cord, and it sold for $125. Cost $20 for a whole trunk load of things.
My hubby went to an estate sale, Came home with 2 boxes of ham equipment. He told me she had more, well, we called, and got the rest of it the next day. Sold almost all of it ( he still has some) for around $800. Cost $32
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zeeesdreams
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posted on May 29, 2001 06:28:11 PM new
I auctioned a rare Superman belt box { empty } for $1125 last month that I picked up in an antique store for $10. Sure wish I could do that every month!
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skip555
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posted on May 29, 2001 06:34:04 PM new
bought a iron for $4.00 brought 212.00
bought 10 inflatable store dispays .50 sold low of 28.00 high 87.00 most 40-50 range
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pointy
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posted on May 29, 2001 06:44:35 PM new
Well, I bought a large and heavy ornate sterling silver piece years ago for $200 at a garage sale. Pre-ebay. I sold it a year later at a real life auction in NYC for $35000. These days, knowing Ebay, it probably wouldn't receive a single bid with a $2000 starting price, though it's still worth 35K+ at least and would bring that in a real life auction.
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pumpkinhead
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posted on May 29, 2001 06:59:07 PM new
Picked up a Blue Bell Wrangler shirt that was in the junk bin at the thrift store. Cost $2.50 Sold in on ebay for 491.00.
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cmsspu
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posted on May 29, 2001 06:59:28 PM new
Can I also say WOW! How about this for all you Star Wars buyers! One Year ago I purchase 22, 12" Snowtrooper with Blue front. I purchase these at $6.50 each with my closeout discount. They are selling on ebay for $85.00 - $125.00 Now that a profit!
For those of you with one item or even two, a one time profit of 100% - 900% is nothing. I have a wearhouse of suff like this. So lets start talking about real profit. You need to buy items by the 100's.
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ihula
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posted on May 29, 2001 07:02:04 PM new
I can't find anyplace in town where I can buy items by the hundreds...and I'm in a fairly large city! Where are you finding these bargains. I keep looking in the paper, but find nothing...I think I just don't know where to look except garage sales and the Good Will.
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cmsspu
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posted on May 29, 2001 07:29:00 PM new
Hi!lhula
It's takes a lot of money ($5,000 - $10,000) to buy wholesale or closeouts. You need to look up trade shows on the net (Just type in under search - "Trade shows" Where are you located by the way!
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MrsSantaClaus
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posted on May 29, 2001 07:31:44 PM new
ZEESDREAMS...
Did you have to mention Spiderman? sniff ..sniff ...
And the other side ...
My daughter got a state quarter as change from a vending machine that was stamped wrong .... approximate value $800 .... she accidentally put it in a bubble gum machine a few weeks later.
I had a ceramic commerative doll, mint in the box with signed doll and signed COA. Appx value, according to a collector was $400. My youngest got the doll off the shelf and decided she needed to go "potty".
And then there was that drawing table
SNIFF SNIFF ... anyone got a hanky?
BUT I did once buy a book for half a penny and sold it for $100 so I guess life is not all bad!
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ihula
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posted on May 29, 2001 07:36:47 PM new
I live in a suburb of Milwaukee...so you'd think I'd have tons at my fingertips!
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ihula
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posted on May 29, 2001 07:39:49 PM new
That's quite the twist on this topic...things you had that ended up lost, ruined, or destroyed by some act of nature. I have a cute Hawaiian doll that I bought on ebay for $150.00 - my cats were trying to eat her grass skirt so she found a new home under glass.
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gboy
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posted on May 29, 2001 07:55:55 PM new
haoleboy,
Who's the idiot who sold you those Tiger Woods golf ball tins  for $5?
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ws7411
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posted on May 29, 2001 08:16:28 PM new
Last year, I bought 4 cases full of antique baking powder tins, 48 tins to a case. Paid $20.00 for them all. They were unsold stock from 1899. I sold them at a regular antique auction. They were photographed and advertised in Antique Week, brought around $2000.00. Sound good? Not really. The buyers sold them one at a time on ebay for nearly $20,000. Some of the tins brought over $150.00 apiece. One a brighter note, I bought a daguerreotype of a deformed baby for $5.00, sold it at Swann's Galleries photograph auction for $11,000. That's my best hit to date, quite a thrill for my wife and I.
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haoleboy
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posted on May 29, 2001 08:23:04 PM new
gboy,
They aren't golf ball tins and they aren't gold golf hats like lowprofile mentioned. Please don't shed any tears for the seller as their line of busines is VERY lucrative, it's just that in my case they just thought they were getting $500 for items that they would otherwise throw away as they thought the items had become worthless. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good...
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paislydaisy
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posted on May 29, 2001 09:15:10 PM new
I sell alot of new items for a little profit. The rare finds are what makes it exciting.
I picked up a Gucci purse one week for a dollar and sold it on ebay for $102.50. The next week I found another one for $3.00 and sold it for $82.50.
I found a Louis V. purse for $8.00 that sold for $165.00 and a propane grill for $5.00 at a garage sale that sold for $65.00.
One local thrift store has a bag day on Monday. Another has theirs on Tuesday. The really good thrift store here has a bag day one weekend a month. I am picky on what I choose and still leave with at least 4 bags every time I go. One group of clothes that cost me maybe $2.00 closed at $56.00. I hope this never ends!!
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araindrop5
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posted on May 29, 2001 09:28:35 PM new
Purchased a lot of about 20 vintage magazines & found 1 on it with marilyn Monroe's picture on the cover when she was still Norma Jean modeliing. No credits were given as she was just a young unknown then.I researched the photographer's name on the net & found out that he had an affair with her at that time before she hit it big & became marilyn Monroe. Anyhow, sold the magazine for $350 on ebay.
Also had sold most of the magazines in this lot for about $10-25 each not including the old ads I pulled out which I had been selling for $5-8 each!
Just picked up a book for 5 cents & found out it costs $60 ( a rare romance novel).
Lots of books I've picked up for less than a dollar & sold it for about $25-50 each. Collectible cookbooks, & cartoon books.
Anyhow, if you know what to look for books are great.
I also tried selling bags but the vintage REAL bags are harder to come by but if you can find the real Gucci's (with the serial #s) then you can sell them for a tidy profit. BOught one for $1.69 & sold it for $195!
Buying 100s of the same thing for dirt cheap & making 900% profit is AWESOME!!!
Easier to relist , saves time on picture taking auction description etc.
Now if i can just find 100s of the same kind of "RARE" books!!
[ edited by araindrop5 on May 29, 2001 09:30 PM ]
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austbounty
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posted on May 30, 2001 03:21:17 AM new
I beat you all!!!!
160,000% profit margin.
I paid 5c for a 9ct gold kewpie doll charm,
and sold it for $80.00
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