It’s Tuesday which means it’s time for ‘Weekly Winners.’
Once again, the idea is to provide readers a venue to do a little bragging by sharing their eBay triumphs from the previous week. Hopefully, at the same time, others will be able to pick up some ideas for new things to keep their eyes open for.
These don’t have to be three or four-figure, mega-buck, items. Did you sell something for $20 or $30 that you paid one or two dollars for? These are the week-to-week, bread and butter items, everyone needs. I encourage you to share them with other readers.
The guidelines are:
- Use the comment section of each week’s Weekly Winners post to tell everyone about your winners.
- Please limit yourself to four items a week.
- I encourage you to include a link to the completed auction (if you don’t know how to do this, see below).
- Share some information about the item with everyone - what it is, where you got it, what you paid for it, what it sold for, etc. Remember, links to closed auctions disappear after a few months, so the more you share regarding price, condition, item description, etc., the more useful your information will be to others once eBay deletes the item from their database.
To insert a hyperlink to your eBay auction simply insert the following code (with your auction URL and item name) where ever you want it in the comment box.
<a href=”CUT AND PASTE THE URL TO YOUR AUCTION HERE”>INSERT DESCRIPTION OF YOUR ITEM (i.e. 53 Dr. Suess Books)</a>
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August 21st, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Thanks to a Weekly Winners comment from “Stephen A.” a few weeks ago, I started paying attention to mugs at yard sales (I had never looked at them before). I picked up a Pyrex Mug for a quarter, with the thought that I would eventually sell it in a bigger lot. The mug is white with blue letters. The front says “PYREX Only from Corning”. The back says “at home in your lab”.
When I got home from yard-saling, I did some research and realized that the mug was somewhat rare. I put it on eBay and the auction ended on Sunday at $46!!
RARE Pyrex Advertising Mug Only from Corning Home Lab
It was bought by someone in Japan who paid $25 for shipping.
Thanks Gary & Stephen!
August 21st, 2007 at 8:10 pm
How about an empty cardboard box a dog chewed on for #153.11?
August 21st, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Colallison…CONGRATS!!
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Hey Terry,
How much did that “dog chewed box” set you back…5 cents?? LOL!!
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Coleen,
Congratulations on the mug! It’s surprising how many buyers from the Far-East spring for expedited shipping no matter what the cost.
Gary
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:13 pm
Terry,
Quite a few years ago, before eBay, I was in a basement as a result of an ad I’d placed in the paper here to buy pottery. Stacked on some shelves were the boxes for nine different Marx play sets in excellent condition.
After making a deal on the pottery, I asked about the play sets and was told the boxes were empty. When I inquired about the contents, the lady and I spent more than an hour looking through boxes for the figures and other pieces. Not one single piece was found.
I ended up buying the empty boxes for $1 each. At the time I was selling a lot of toys via ads in Toy Shop. I included them in the next ad I ran and all nine sold. Some, like the Fort Apache didn’t bring all that much, but several went for $75 or more.
As one of my granddaughters would say, “empty boxes can be the bomb!”
Gary
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Hey all,
My weekly winner is a Grateful Dead belt buckle I pulled out of an estate buy. As an auctioneer with years under my belt, I usually get all my eBay items when I purchase large estate lots, or dealer lots from friends who are pickers.
Well I got a call one day from a lady here in town who saw one of my handbill ads that I put out for buying. Her husband passed on about a year ago and she sold me his collection of old sports cards, tobacco cards and pop culture items. Now the tobacco cards I expected to do well, but it always amazes me when I pull something out of a lot that takes me by complete surprise such as this 1992 Grateful Dead belt buck, I’d have thought for sure it would end up at about $15.00 to $20.00 but look! By the way, I also offer free antiques appraisals on my blog. Thanks again for a great post Gary.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:23 am
Wally,
Congratulations on the find.
Often the things we expect the least from turn into some of the best sellers from a group of items.
I don’t know how many times when I buy several items, the one I hem and haw about whether I should buy it the longest turns out to be the one that sells for the most or sells the fastest.
That’s just part of what makes all this fun and makes me realize I’m not all that smart after all.
Gary
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:24 am
Where did the box come from? I found it in a box full of boxes in the garage at my dad’s. The contents of the box I sold are very rare. Over the years I had one of them, and my dad had another. 30 years of wheeling and dealing and only two.
I think based on the boxes packed with that one that I took it out of a garbage can back in the 1970s.
I used to go around halls after the shows and look in garbage cans for boxes and other items. Back then people would buy trains and throw out the boxes.
After I did that for a while people started giving me the boxes rather making me look in the garbage.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:58 am
I purchased a Lift and Level Kit for a Hummer H3 from a yard sale this past weekend, I wasn’t sure if it was a stock item or not but figured at 10 bucks why not take a chance plus the picture on the box looked the same as the parts. I did and it turned out pretty well.
I set it up on a normal auction for 7 days and then received several responses from people who wanted it faster, I then added a fair buy it now price, and sold it today. Pretty cool! This is probably the first thing that I’ve purchased at a yard sale that I’ve done really well at. Thanks for all the great information Gary.
Link to the auction
Lift and Level Kit