In keeping with Gary’s $10,000 Garage Sale Challenge — I’d like to offer two (2) items I purchased recently at two estate sales within the 50-mile radius of our rural Upstate NY town that I scout for inventory.

These were found at a large well attended town wide sales day after 2pm and both were negotiated down to $1 & $5 respectively from the asking price of $10-$15, which I must say were fair prices for the items, but I try and keep every dollar I can in my pocket!!

eBay Item #1 — Waring Chrome Bee Hive Blendor …Near Mint condition!!

eBay Item #2 — Zenith Trans-Oceanic Royal 3000-1 MultiBand Radio with original paperwork including a very HTF Service and repair guide with schematics (tech drawings)

I was wondering to myself how was it that so many people had let these two items slip through the cracks, until from all appearances I was destine to rescue and offer to a collector somewhere for a nice profit too, I might add!!

Would any of you readers have been willing to invest in either of these items with the sole propose of simply reselling on eBay…even if they did cost just $1 & $5 bucks??

Pre Auction Estimate: $150 - $250 (total both items)

The auctions will close next week.

Happy Hunting Everybody & Good Luck!!

Popularity: 15% [?]

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Have you ever thought what it would like to be able to turn into your favorite animal? You probably haven’t, but the chances are good that your children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews have, and that leads to a garage sale tip - Animorphs books.

If you don’t already know, Animorphs is a series of science fiction books for children written by K.A. Applegate and published by Scholastic. The ongoing series, which now includes more than 50 books, has attracted a huge number of young readers along with a fair number of older collectors.

Because many of the children who read them become avid fans, you can often find complete, or near complete, series at garage sales for anywhere from $5 to $20.

Continue Reading

Popularity: 21% [?]

If you were ever a Star Trek fan then I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase “boldly going where no man has gone before” which was used in all the lead-ins to the original Star Trek series.

According to Wikipedia the phrase came into being when:

“The Star Trek character Zefram Cochrane supposedly originated the phrase in a speech which described what humans could do with this new warp technology.”

I’m guessing when Mr. Cochrane first used that phrase he was talking to a group of Star Fleet commanders, but it’s also great advice for people who shop at garage sales for eBay inventory because if you are willing to boldly go where no man has gone before I promise you, you’re going to buy a lot more good inventory and make a lot more money.

There are several ways you can apply the phrase boldly go where no man has gone before to your garage sale shopping.

Continue Reading

Popularity: 15% [?]

There’s a new twist appearing at several garage/estate sales in this area of the Midwest this year - early buyer’s privileges at garage sales and estate sales.

Several large church groups, non-profit organizations, and school groups have begun offering early buyer’s privileges at garage sales and opening one to two hours early for buyers who are willing to pay anywhere from $1 to $3 for the chance to shop before regular shoppers are allowed in.

Additionally, early buyer’s privileges have been offered for anywhere from $5 to $25 by a few local estate sales already this year.

Early buyer’s privileges have been common place with many large antique shows and flea markets around the country for many years. Long before eBay came into existence , I regularly paid anywhere from $25 to $200, or more, for the privilege of shopping at antique shows and flea markets before the regular buying public was allowed in the doors.

Continue Reading

Popularity: 15% [?]

Acquiring the knowledge/experience to consistently buy eBay inventory at garage sales takes some time and research. The good news is that the two best research tools are readily available at no cost. These two tools will also work just as well for researching antique/collectible items or non-antique/collectible items found at garage sales.

The first tool is the garage sales themselves.

When most people talk about buying eBay inventory at garage/yard sales they envision finding a rare piece of Roseville pottery, Tiffany glass, or some other high value antique they can buy for a few dollars and sell for several hundred or several thousand dollars on eBay. You hear stories about this happening and it does – but only on very rare occasions. That’s entirely the wrong way to go about it.

Rather than rushing in, taking a quick look around and then leaving for the next sale, if you slow down a little, a morning of garage sales can be a learning experience. Take some time at each sale to look around and see general kinds of items are being sold. Handle some of the items. If a sale has a lot of what look like quality used clothing, look at tags to check out the manufacturer. If there are a number of pieces of glass or pottery, turn them over and look at the back stamps to see who produced them. When you go back to your car, make some notes of the manufacturers so you’ll have them when you get home.

Continue Reading

Popularity: 23% [?]

A recent post on an eBay news group stated:

“Where can I find a list of items I can buy at yard sales that will definitely sell on eBay? I can’t afford to spend $.50 or $1 each on items that won’t sell.”

One of the realities of buying eBay inventory at yard sales, flea markets, thrift shops or book sales is that you must be willing to take a risk now and then. While you will buy some junk, your successes will more than make up for the items that don’t sell.

Terry Gibbs has an excellent article titled Learning About Antiques & Collectibles that applies not just to antiques and collectibles, but also to the kind of things you find at yard sales as well.

One thing he says is:

“Get some price guides and read through them. Don’t spend a lot of time on the prices, as they are not always correct. Look instead for the ranges of values.”

I’ll go a step further than that and say the prices in price guides are basically useless to the eBay seller 99% or more of the time. Use them only to compare relative value between different items within a group or category.

Popularity: 17% [?]