The auctions purchased during the eighth week of the 2008 Garage Sale Challenge ended Sunday evening with 26 items selling for a total of $701.34 and a sell-through rate of 79%. Amazon sales accounted for another $139.91.

The highest priced item for the week was Alice Starmore’s Pacific Coast Highway (280239098308) which brought $103.50. This was one of three knitting books I had on eBay this week. The other two also sold - “Knitting In The Nordic Tradition” (280239098502) selling for $40.20 and “…And A Time To Knit Stockings” (280239098700) selling for $16.49.

The surprise of the week was a book titled “American Bottles And Flasks & Their Ancestry” (280239098293) that sold for $63.56. This was between two and three times what other examples of the same book had brought on eBay over the last three months.

Here’s how things look after last week’s auctions ended.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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The auctions for the remainder of the items items purchased during the fifth week of the 2008 Garage Sale Challenged ended on Sunday evening.

I had just nine qualifying auctions running this last week. These were items I’d purchased before leaving for Canada but hadn’t had time to list before I left. Of the nine items, eight sold for a total of $215.92. The sell-through rate was 89%. Amazon accounted for another $241.08 in sales during the last week.

The highlight of the week was the Getzen trumpet that I paid $10 for that sold for $102.50.

Here’s how things look after last Sunday’s auctions ended:

Popularity: 18% [?]

The auctions for items purchased during the fifth week of the 2008 Garage Sale Challenged ended on Sunday evening after I returned from Canada.

I had a total of thirty-three qualifying auctions running while I was gone. Of the thirty-three, twenty two sold for a total of $518.38. The sell-through rate was 67%. Not the greatest, but still well above eBay’s average. My Amazon store was placed on “Vacation” status while I was gone, but before leaving, Amazon did account for an additional $57.34 in sales.

The highlights of the week were two Creative Memories sticker binders with protectors I paid $5 each for. They sold for $76.25 and $73.00 respectively.

Here’s how things look after the seventh week of the Challenge:

Popularity: 25% [?]

The auctions for items purchased during the fourth week of the 2008 Garage Sale Challenged ended on Sunday evening.

Of the eighteen qualifying items listed last week, fourteen sold for a total of $348.10 with a sell-through rate of 78%. Included in the $348.10 of the duplicate of History Of Olga ND & Sacred Heart Church which was sold to the under bidder via a second chance offer. In addition, seven books sold on Amazon for a total of $174.30.

The highlight of this weeks sales was a Twin City typewriter ribbon tin that I paid $13.50 for at a small antique mall that sold for $331.62. While it doesn’t qualify for the Challenge because I’m only using items purchased at garage sales, thrift shops, and auctions, it does show there is still a market for hard to find tins in nice condition.

Here’s how things look after the fifth week of the Challenge:

As the table shows, I don’t have any auctions running this week. I’m leaving on Saturday for a week of walleye fishing in Canada so won’t be home next weekend when they would normally end.

I did purchase several Challenge items last week. These items, along with anything I buy between now and Friday will be scheduled to launch on June 8 and end on June 15 after I get back from Canada.

Photograph by emdot.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Monday evening saw the end of the auctions for the items purchased during the third week of The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge.

This week saw eighteen items sell for a total of $589.03 with a rather disappointing sell-through rate of only 56%. However, eight of the thirty-two items listed last week were re-lists and if I subtract those the sell-through rate for the new items was 71% which is more in line with where I hope to be consistently. In addition, nine books sold on Amazon for a total of $298.12.

The most disappointing item this week was the Fisher Price Toy Wagon pull-toy which brought only $27.99. I’d felt that, as a minimum, this would have ended somewhere between $50 and $75.

Over the course of the week, I received several emails from interested buyers concerning the postage for this item along with one of the other listings that make me wonder if buyers are suddenly paying a lot more attention to what actual shipping costs are for things they are considering bidding on. I’ll be writing a post about this, and how it may affect sellers, tomorrow.

Here’s how things look after then end of the fourth week of the Challenge:

Popularity: 41% [?]

The auctions for the items purchased during the second week of The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge ended Sunday evening with much better results than the previous week.

Of the thirty items listed, 26 sold for $923.70 with a sell-through rate of 87%. In addition there were sales of $247.40 through Amazon for books purchased as part of the Challenge. The total qualifying sales came to $$1171.10.

Buy far the best sellers for the week were the three pieces of UND School Of Mines pottery and thirteen VHS tapes about the Iditarod sled dog race held each year in Alaska. The results from these VHS tapes were surprising to me. I’d originally bought them thinking they would all go into one lot. Then when I got home a did a little checking I decided it would likely be more profitable to list them individually, but my expectations were nowhere near what they ended up bringing.

After the second week of the Challenge, here’s how things stand.

Popularity: 45% [?]

The auctions for the items purchased during the first week of The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge ended Sunday evening with less than stellar results.

Of the 20 items listed on eBay, only 8 sold for a dismal sell-through rate of 40%. This represents the first time in many months that my weekly sell-through rate on eBay has been below 60%. There are still 4 of the 20 items still live because I made an error listing them on Tuesday for 7 days instead of just 5. One of these has an opening bid, but even when these close, the rate won’t increase by much.

One of my Challenge book purchases (The Second World War by Winston Churchill ) sold on Amazon for $59.99. Total sales from eBay amounted to $183.47.

After the first weeks sales, here’s what things look like. The final figures may change a little because it’s likely I will receive a few more PayPal payments before everything is paid for.

Popularity: 49% [?]

The first weekend of the Garage Sale Challenge is over. I visited a total of 45 garage sales and one Friends Of The Library book sale between Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Maybe it was just my imagination, but an awful lot of the sales seemed to be almost entirely infant and baby clothing.

While I bought a few things, none of them were spectacular finds. Mostly pretty humdrum stuff.

Here’s what my expenses look like for this first week.

The following items will go live on eBay starting Sunday evening and run for seven days:

• 31 Elizabeth Hiddleson crochet pattern booklets - I paid $.10 each for these
• A boxed set of 6 Transformers Find Your Fate Juniors books - I paid $1.00 for this
• A boxed set of Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty Novels - I paid $3.00 for these at the FOL sale. They are paperbacks which should have been $.50 each, but when I checked out the lady behind the table, who had to be at least 65, said, “I’m going to have to charge you $3.00 for these. They’re kind of nasty you know.” I asked if she had read them and she just got a big grin on her face.
• Faery Wicca books I & II - I paid $1.00 and probably should have walked away and left them on the table
• Boxed sets of the first and second season of The Sopranos TV series - I paid $6.00 thinking they had to be worth buying due to the popularity of the show. Was I ever mistaken. Being VHS doesn’t help either. I’ll be happy to get the opening bid for them
• Designing Tessellations quilting book - I paid $1.00 for this
• Uncommon Heroes & Behind The Scenes - two books about the 1997 flood here in Grand Forks. I paid $.50 each for them. Although I listed them in auction format, I’ll probably have to put them in my store and wait for someone to come along who is interested in them
• 4 Pyrex Nesting Cinderella bowls - I paid $1.00 for them. Definitely not the most popular colors or pattern, but I hadn’t bought much that day, so I succumbed
• The History Of Grand Forks County - I paid $.25 for this
• The first season of Brothers And Sisters TV series on DVD - I paid $5.00 for this
• 2 large talking Teletubbies - I paid $1.00 each for them
• 8 Haviland Pompadour floral dinner plates - I paid $3.00 for all 8 of them

In addition, the following books were purchased and put on Amazon:

• Introduction To Maternity & Pediatric Nursing textbook - paid $1.00
• The Second World War by Winston Churchill - a boxed set of soft covers - I paid $5.00
• Secrets Of A Jewish Baker cookbook - I paid $.50
• John Hopkins White Papers, 2006 Vol. I - I paid $1.00
• Effective Appellate Advocacy - I paid $.50
• The Ancient & Shining Ones - I paid $.50
• Gilbert Law Summaries - I paid $.50.

Popularity: 15% [?]

The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge began yesterday, May 1, with 17 new garage sales in Grand Forks, and there were another 21 additional sales today. Since it sounds as though all the snow for the weekend is going to stay well south of us, there should be another 15 to 20 new sales tomorrow to finish off the first weekend.

There are currently fifteen adventuresome readers who have completed the registration process to participate. If you’ve thought about taking part, I encourage you to join us. Current participants’ experience ranges from at least beginner to full-time sellers and their goals range from $1000 up to $15,000.

If you haven’t yet registered, and would like to join us, you have until May 10 to complete the registration process. If you need any help doing so, just let me know and I’ll be glad to help you through the process.

My efforts for the first two days haven’t exactly been earth shattering. I’m guessing my best purchase so far is a group of vintage crochet pattern booklets. Other than that, most of what I’ve bought has been books - a few for eBay, but mostly for Amazon.

Starting next Tuesday, I’ll begin posting a weekly update here as to how I’m doing both here and, along with the other participants, on The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge blog.

Popularity: 14% [?]

1. Get out of bed in the morning

2. When you don’t feel like getting out of bed in the morning - get out of bed

3. Get an early start

4. When you don’t feel like getting an early start - get in the car and get an early start

5. Go to every garage sale that opened that day

6. When you don’t feel like going to every sale - go to them anyway

7. Sit down at the computer and list what you bought

8. When you are sick and tired of listing - list some more

9. On days when you buy lots of good inventory - repeat steps 1 through 8 the next day

10. On days when you don’t find anything - repeat steps 1 through 8 the next day

Photograph by Tatiana Sapateiro.

Popularity: 18% [?]