Twenty-seven auctions ended last night on eBay with sixteen selling for a total of $975.29 and a sell-through rate of 59%.
All twenty-seven items that ended last night were purchased in Milwaukee while I was there for the NCAA Frozen Four hockey tournament. There were hockey games on Thursday and Saturday, so I visited a few antiques malls on Friday and these items were what I’d purchased. My total investment in the twenty-seven items was $155.50.
The obvious high-point of the night was the book “Sigma Alpha Epsilon In The World War” that ended up bringing a high bid of $705.00. I paid $27 for this book. Inside I found the “Knights Of Columbus Theater Program” so my $27 investment actually brought a $714.99 return.
In a way, the items in this auction paint a representative picture of what I hope to accomplish whenever I spend a week in Grand Forks going to garage sales, go to a flea market or auction sale, spend a day at thrift shops, or go on an extended buying trip.
Whenever I do one of those things, I have two goals.
The first is to buy enough things that will bring in enough money to recover my total inventory cost, pay for the expenses of the trip, and have enough over to provide a profit of 100% to 200%.
The second is to be able to buy a few things similar to the fraternity book in this auction. Obviously that doesn’t happen every day. But within a weeks period of time, no matter what inventory source I’m using that week, I’m able to find a few items that perform like the book did.
It requires some time and energy to gain the knowledge to know what you’re looking at when something like this book stares you in the face. But no matter what the level of your knowledge, you don’t find items similar to this unless you actually go out and look. You have to put yourself in enough different places, whether that be garage sales, flea markets, mall, or thrift shops, to provide the opportunity to find them.
Sometimes a weeks worth of searching may provide no great items. Other weeks you may find one or two items that bring huge returns like this book did. Other weeks, it may be a case of several items that bring profits of $50 to $150 or more each, but that add up to several hundred or more dollars.
Every week is different and that’s what, for me, makes the search so enjoyable. Items like this are out there waiting for someone to find them.
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April 17th, 2006 at 11:56 am
Great stuff Gary!!
I recently purchased a box lot of paper items dealing with the Rail Roads, I had identified 30-35 items in the box that I estimated would sell between $10-$50 each and gladly paid $70.
I listed 20 of the items in the last week-10 days, 13 of them sold for $445.87 gross sales, which is an average of $34.29 per item. That’s $445.87 from a $70 investment and I still have 10-15 items left to offer for future sales.
Like Gary said, you’ve gotta put yourself in a position to find the good stuff, get out there and look…you’ll find it if you’re commited and consistant.
For example this weekend during my scouting (Saturday Only) I found all of the following at 4 Garage sales …
– A box lot of children’s books, Cross Stitch pattern books, Needle work magazines, a bunch of the plastic pattern’s Gary spoke of before, a WHOLE Box — $1.00
– A 1850’s-1870’s Whites Utica Blue Slip “Flower & Leaf” Decorated Stoneware 2 gallon “moonshine” jug — $20
– A box of old comic books (appox. 30-50) — $5
– 20 vintage 1940’s Delta Tools Project books — $0.50
– 20 vintage 1940’s magazines called, “CIN-O-GRAMS” they’re for Amature Film Makers Assn. members. — $0.50
– A 1898 Illustrated book, “Our Navy” with it’s orignal illustrated sales letter folded inside the book — $5.00
– A 1941 Stanley Tool Guide — $5.00 (currently listed on eBay, with a $9.99 bid in the first 12 hrs.)
– A Mid-Century Widdicomb Furniture Co. “Modern Originals” catalog/brochure — $5.00
– A 1941 Deluxe Tinker Toy Instruction Book — $5.00
– A box of assorted vintage 1940’s catalogs, magazines, sheet music, a 1st edition Edward L. Allen’s Jiu-Jitsu manual (currently in my eBay store for $79), a whole bunch of stuff I still need to sort — $10.00
– A Like New (still wrapped in it’s onion skin paper wrap), 1772-1972 Bicentennial Town History HB 1st Ed book of Sidney NY by the director of the Sidney NY Historical Society — $0.50 cents
(Note: The last one of these I sold made $80!!)
– A copy of Football star Jim Brown’s memoirs DJHB 1st Ed titled, OFF MY CHEST, Great condition!! — $0.50 cents
But best of all, I connected with a guy that is a HUD contractor, who in his work comes across all kinds of ebay inventory…books, antiques, collectibles, tools, furniture and he’s been looking for sombody willing to sell stuff on Ebay and split the profits with him, because he’s too busy to do it himself…guess who’s his NEW BEST FRIEND?!
My eBay username is: a-deal-4-u-2 and if anybody is intersted in following my auctions, here’s a link for my current listings >>> http://tinyurl.com/3pl6e
April 17th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Congratulations on the finds.
There are some interesting things there. It’s things like the “CIN-O-GRAMS” magazines that I really enjoy finding. While you have several things there that will bring more money than these, it’s things like them that I find the most interesting.
Good luck with it all and I’ll be watching to see how they do.
Gary