During the month of July one-hundred-nine Garage Sale Challenge items sold on eBay. Here’s a list of the top ten items along with some thoughts on each.

1. A lot of 13 Rich Dad Poor Dad books - I paid $20 for these and they sold for $172.50. I’ve already commented on this series of books in Rich Dad Poor Dad On eBay. Even smaller lots of six or seven books from this series often will bring $50 to $70 on eBay. The fanatical interest in them isn’t really surprising given America’s thirst for almost anything in the “make money” and “self-improvement” genre.

Following The Trail Of Bread Crumbs from this auction can alert you to many other items you may run across at garage sales that are worthwhile picking up. For starters, there are many real estate investment courses and self-improvement audio books/courses in the DVD or CD format that will do very well.

2. Lighted Smoking Stand - I paid $25 for this and it sold for $130.50. These don’t normally appear at garage sales, but if you should run across one for $25 or less that is complete and in good condition they are worth picking up. If you should run across one with either an airplane or a boat/ship on the top, grab it and run.

3. SS Rotterdam World Cruise Plate - I paid $1 for this and it sold for $106.00. I was a little surprised by how much this plate brought. When I bought it, I was thinking $50 to $75 if I was lucky. Cruise lines have been selling souvenir plates similar to this one for at least fifty years, probably longer. As a general rule, the best ones have both an image of the specific cruise liner and a map showing the route of the cruise on them. Any of these are worth picking up if you find them for $5 or $10 if they show both. If one just shows the ship, it normally won’t bring as much. If it just shows a map of the route, I would recommend you pass on it unless it’s from the 1950s or earlier.

4. Lego Unitron Monorail Transport Base Space Set 3991 - I paid $5 for this and it sold for $102.50. Legos have been a hot item on eBay for a long time. The large sets were expensive when they were new and will always do well, as will early smaller sets. Even loose pieces are worth buying if you find a good-sized bag of them for a few dollars. Just hang on to them until you have a good sized bunch and you can sell them by the pound on eBay. When you pick up a set being able to either say that it is complete, or how many pieces are missing, will add to it’s value. You can determine this with the parts lists found at peeron.com.

5. Tin Orange Crush Outdoor Thermometer - I paid $3 for this and it sold for $85.00. Vintage advertising items will always sell on eBay. Like the smoking stand above, you won’t very often run across one of these at a garage sale, but if you do they are almost always worth picking up for $10 or less. Soda pop, beer, tobacco, food, and automobile related subjects are some of the more popular ones.

6. Lot of A Beka Kindergarten Material - I paid $5 for these and they sold for $70.25. Nearly anything related to home schooling will sell on eBay, and when you talk about home schooling one of the premiere names for texts and curriculum material is A Beka. Usually when you come across this stuff, there is a lot of it and you can normally buy it pretty cheap. You will find material fore each grade level from kindergarten through twelfth grade, often broke down by specific classes (English, science, math) for the high school levels. If you find six or more items for one specific grade, you can assume it’s either complete or nearly complete and it should do well on eBay.

7. Vintage Folmer Grafix Speed Graphic Camera - I paid $5 for this and it sold for $70.00. Vintage cameras, particularly those that used larger format film, will almost always do well on eBay. Often, they don’t even have to be in working order to bring good money. Collectors and repair companies will buy non-working cameras either for parts or to repair to working order. If it’s big, and from a manufacturer you’ve probably never heard of, it’s probably worth taking a chance on if you can get if for $10 or $15.

8. Yashica Model D Camera - I paid $5 for this and it sold for $66.00. There are a lot of photographers who would never think of using a digital camera. For these people, a high quality 35mm SLR or range finder camera or 2×2 SLR or TLR camera is still the only way to go. That means quality film cameras that are in good working condition will always sell on eBay. Popular brands are Yashica, Nikon, Leica, Hasselblad, Pentax, Olympus, and Canon. If a camera has additional lenses and/or a motor drive with it, all the better.

Lenses for this type cameras also will do well. As long as you only buy well known camera brand names or Tamron, Sigma, and Vivatar and stay away from any others you should do well with them.

9. Christ In The Bible Commentary (6 vol. set) - I paid $3 for this and it sold for $65.54. There are a ton of non-fiction religious books offered at garage sales and most people pay absolutely no attention to them. A lot of them have little, or no, value, but if you find either a book or a set of books that appears to be even semi-scholarly, grab it for $1 or less. You will end up with a few losers, but the majority of them will have you doing the happy dance to next week’s garage sales.

10. Roseville Iris Jardinière/Planter - I paid $10 for this and it sold for $60.99. Almost any pattern of Roseville pottery will sell on eBay, but you need to be careful because some patterns have been reproduced. Fortunately, the reproductions are such poor quality, they stick out like a sore thumb once you’ve seen one. If you live anywhere near a good sized antique mall, I’d recommend you stop there some time and ask one of the people behind the counter if there is a Roseville reproduction in any of the booths. There probably is, and as long as it’s not them selling it, most will be happy to show you.

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