posted on September 23, 2005 06:14:29 AM new
OK - I'll turn the table on Jack's thread - what item have you bought at a yard sale or swap meet that made you the MOST money or profit margin.
My husband bought an Old Miss yearbook 6 years ago at a yard sale for $1. I told him to list it at $25 after going through it and not finding anyone of note pictured in there. Surprise! It went for $917 to a book dealer. What I had not checked, was the yearbook editor for that edition - it was William Faulkner.
He made the best profit margin, but I had the highest profit. I bought an old Rosewood Chinese opium bed for $200 we hauled that thing around for a year - it was god-awful heavy. I finally put on Ebay and it sold for $3,500!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on September 23, 2005 08:39:23 AM new
I bought five pieces of W. J. Gordy pottery at a yard sale for $3, sold one piece for $200. The other four pieces sold for $300.
posted on September 23, 2005 08:41:28 AM new
I guess my biggest find was an Appleman cookie jar - a yellow taxi. Bot is for $30 and it sold for $606. Been looking for them ever since.
posted on September 23, 2005 08:51:37 AM new
My best purchase was a leather-bound book that I paid $1 for. Sold it on eBay for $650.00! But that was about 5 years ago when everything sold well. Nowadays if I tried to sell that same book, it would probably fetch only a fraction of that amount. Glad I sold it in the good old days. Only wish I'd sold the other leather-bound books I'd gotten at the same time. Sold a few others and got around $300 or so. Not bad for a whopping $1 investment for each.
posted on September 23, 2005 11:02:14 AM new "What I had not checked, was the yearbook editor for that edition - it was William Faulkner."
Caroline, Several University of Mississippi or "Ole Miss" yearbook editions contain art by William Faulkner. He also made contributions to the school newspaper, The Mississipian.
But, your 'revelation' that William Faulkner was an Ole Miss yearbook editor is a very big surprise to me! Was his name actually printed in your edition as editor?
posted on September 23, 2005 11:08:30 AM new
I purchased an old tackle box full of antique lures at a sale for $100.00 I sold 1 lure on eBay for $1,237.00 and 1 for $86.00 I still have more to sell out of it but those were the 2 best ones.
[ edited by toolhound on Sep 23, 2005 11:36 AM ]
posted on September 23, 2005 11:57:51 AM new
I bought a WWII medal for 20 cents at a yard sale (2.00 box deal late in the day) and it sold for 380.00...it had the paper work underneath the medal and three stars. Didn't know what I had and was shocked. I started it out at 9.99. Also a Skookum Indian doll for 3.00 that sold for over 300.00. I typed in wooden Indian doll in the eBay search and skookum came up ...didn't even know the name of it. I bought my first mavica camera with that money.
posted on September 23, 2005 11:59:09 AM new
I pulled a stack of 4 yellow ware custard cups out of a free box a few weeks ago and sold them for $285.00... turns out they were a rare pattern by Watt! I'm now in love with the pattern (surprise surprise) and on the hunt!
posted on September 23, 2005 12:12:59 PM new
well, lets see...
I had a nice gibson Electic base. Paid $250, sold for $625
I bought a couple of 1936 Olympic pins from a dealer for about $4 each, sold them for $50 to $75 each. I only got 3 of them, but He had 30. By the time I called back, he had sold out.
posted on September 23, 2005 01:06:26 PM new
A few years ago I found an old fishing lure box (Heddon's Dowagiac) in a $1 box lot at an auction. I listed it starting at 9.95. It sold for $186! For a little box!
Recently I paid $2 for a box lot and sold one Vernon Kilns plate for $94.95. I've also sold other things out of the boxes as well.
Almost makes up for the things I paid too much for....
posted on September 23, 2005 01:22:54 PM new
dacreson, LOL, no, that's the "other" thread Caroline mentioned.
----
Caroline, thank you for bringing up an "upper" ...
Some of my best buy/resells were,
A box of Terri Lee doll clothes and
a logo'ed "rack" to hang them on. Paid $7 and got $1,500.
3 children figurines paid $7 each and got about $600 total from the three.
those were in my early eBay days... and most recent good finds were:
A Porsgrund teeny tiny lidded pot at an estate sale for $10, sold on ebay for $215
and a Limoges hen on nest, purchased for $10 at local auction and it sold for 385 ebay bucks.
an Mary and Jesus statue bought for $5 at local estate auction, sold for $375
and right now, I have an old Bordens Milk milkman's "extra order" flag on ebay that I bought this summer at estate sale. It was in with a whole bunch of old paper advertising goods that I paid $10 for the boxful ... I just listed it last nite and it is up to $40!? ... It's cute as a button, but I don't expect it to go any higher.
[ edited by estatesalestuff on Sep 23, 2005 01:26 PM ]
posted on September 23, 2005 01:40:50 PM new
Helen - I believe he was listed as the editor in this particular edition - but don't quote me on that. My husband and I were dating at the time and I was soooo jealous - we ended up taking a trip to Disneyworld with the money.
Sounds like there have been some great buys out there! Those are the ones that keep me going!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on September 23, 2005 08:16:27 PM new
I once paid $1.50 for a Luray bud vase. Sold it for $153.00. Another time I paid $5.00 for a Vidtronic video mixer. It went for $550.00. One of the most exciting was an ultrasonic metal thickness measuring device made by Caterpillar. Got it for $20.00 at a yard sale out in the country with no signs or advertising. I took a short cut and stumbled on it by accident. It sold for just a few bucks under a grand.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on September 24, 2005 06:27:35 AM new
Nearthesea - You may be the winner with that one! Nice buy!
Helen - Why would you doubt the truth of that statement? Why do I feel like I'm being called a liar? Or am I just reading in to that? The book dealer who bought the item told us why it was rare, I thought he said it was due to it being either the only, or one of the few years that Faulkner was editor and I recall checking through the book and sure enough there he was listed.
No need for nastiness here, Helen - I wasn't discussing politics! Save it for the Round Table.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on September 24, 2005 06:43:44 AM new
The way I got STARTED was selling the crap my husband, a junk hauler, brought home. I helped him clear out a horrible basement and found a doll, still NIP and mint, though box had damage. He said, in the trash. I said, in the car. Was very first thing I listed and hadn't a clue as to what to say. Boy did I learn fast. It was a Marie Osmond collectible. Can't remember what I made, but sure was a learning experience. Then, at garage sale, bought four small plates. Didn't know the first thing about pottery but liked the plates. And at a quarter each, couldn't get hurt. They brought $186.00. Now our local library system has asked me to teach a class on getting started selling on ebay, so guess I have learned something. Incidently, much by reading this board. Want to thank everyone who regularly contributes.
posted on September 24, 2005 06:53:40 AM new
Ruthie - I had thought about going in to the junk hauling business - a great way to get stuff and get paid for it!
This board has been great for me as well - first place I turn for advice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on September 24, 2005 07:52:29 AM new
What a great thread!!!
I bought a doll at a yard sale for a quarter and sold it to someone in Japan for 800.00. I was speechless!!
posted on September 24, 2005 07:55:28 AM new
I don't sell much, but my last sale was a Monterey Buckaroo chair from about 1929. I bought it with a matching sofa for 300 dollars from a ranch estate sale nearby. The chair went for over $4,300.00. I haven't sold the sofa yet, but the chair's buyer is pestering me like crazy.
____________________________________________
Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
posted on September 24, 2005 08:21:30 AM new
Nothing in hundreds or thouusands of dollars, but I've had a few good eBay success stories from dirt cheap used or free items. About five years ago, when I was just starting out on eBay, I was at a flea market and there was a guy selling 1970s car stickers. Back in they day they sold for about $10 each, but he had them for $2 each. S I bought one for my car and five others "just for the heck of it" to try on eBay.
Well, to my surprise, one of the decals fetched me $39, and the lowest price I got on another one was $15. Since I knew where his store was, I went back and bought 20 assorted stickers for $1 each. Sold them all. Went back and bought about 250 (about 10 or 20 of each kind he had). Not wanting to flood the market, I put a few of them on every few months or years and never fail to make a few hundred dollars! Still got about 50 of them left!
Oh, and my FIRST eBay success story was a Richard Scarry children's book. Bought it at a used book store for $1 and sold it for $65.
Another good one, in my first year of selling I had an original sales brochure from the 1980s for a Mazda RX-7 (which I got for free from Mazda back in the 1980s). I thought I might get $5 or $10, but to my delight, I got nearly $60 for it!
posted on September 24, 2005 08:28:32 AM new
caroline, I believe you That was the early days of ebay. At the time, I think I would have been a power seller, if they had that status then. I was netting a little over $3000 a month, and supporting my 2 kids then with ebay alone.
Great success stories here! Profe, that chair sounds interesting!
posted on September 24, 2005 08:43:17 AM new
Bought from a customer at my store a woodblock print for $50, sold it for $7500. Bought a bag of prints at a yard sale in Rhode Island for $5 sold it for $600 same week and that was to a Dealer, I can only imagine what he got for it.
Found a toy in the trash told the person to let me sell it, got $2800 for it.
posted on September 24, 2005 06:50:52 PM new
laferriere - I want your luck.
I find $1.00 items all the time and sell them for $50 to $100 but the best I've done is $35 for a chair - sold for $1200, $1.00 for a record - sold for almost $600, $35 for a lamp - sold for $650. Those aren't my best deals - I have not found that YET!!!
posted on September 25, 2005 05:17:12 AM new
mcjane, the 1970's car stickers I got were the ones that you put on the inside of your windshield and it has the name of your car on it. They had that authentic 70s look that just can't be recreated with modern technology. Even the packaging looked like it was from the 70s, because it was.
People with these 70s (and 80s) cars are often very passionate about their vehicles. Aftermarket accessories were often hard to get even back in the day, but especially now, and particularily (but not always) for the more oddball cars. I've made some of my best money on accessories for the Ford Pinto, AMC Gremlin and AMC Pacer, Ford Courier, Chevrolet Chevette, Dodge Aspen, Plymouth Volare, Volkswagen Rabbit, Triumph TR6, Fiat X/19, Alfa Romeo, etc.
Caroline 