Three weeks ago I would have walked right by the six cups and saucers shown in the photo to the left. Then two weeks ago, Lynn Dralle showed a picture in her newsletter of a cup and saucer from the set that she had just sold on ebay for $37.00

So, yesterday, it didn’t take me long to decide to buy these six cups and saucers for $24 in a small antique mall I’d stopped at on the way home from an auction sale that was a real disappointment.

A little research and I discovered:

• Illy, an Italian coffee maker, has been making special designer sets of espresso, cappuccino, and coffee cups & saucers since 1992
• There is an active group of collectors eager to buy these beauties

I’ll be listing each set individually on eBay beginning this evening. All six should sell and I’m hoping to get an average $35 per set. That would be a total of $210 which, after all fees, would easily give me a 700% to 800% net profit on my investment.

I’m guessing most shop owners, mall dealers, and flea market dealers have no idea what Illy cups sell for. While it’s not likely you will run across these that often, when you do, they are well worth picking up. If you’d like to learn more about them, here are a couple places to start:

• Ann & Andy’s Illy Collection Site
• Illy Cup Collections
• An Espresso Cup A Day
• The Illy Gallery

If you aren’t already subscribed to Lynn’s newsletter, I recommend you do. Each issue does contain a fair amount of advertising, but Lynn buys and sells a lot of different things you might never think of buying to sell on eBay. You can subscribe here.

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