I’ve received a lot of email from readers that in one manner or another basically say the same thing.

“I go to garage sales, flea markets, and antique malls but I don’t know what items have a good chance of reselling on eBay and what ones don’t.”

Beginning next week I’m going to start posting “Special Reports” that will provide detailed information about lucrative eBay niches/categories along with information about what to buy and how much to pay for items that will sell well within that niche.

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There were only about a dozen new garages sales beginning today and I didn’t find a single thing worth listing on eBay. Apparently it was just a bad day for garage sales all around because I talked to several other regulars and no one was finding anything.

This is a sure sign that the season for finding eBay inventory at garages sales is quickly coming to an end in Grand Forks.

Beginning next week or the week after most of what you read here will probably be written from motel rooms as I begin to concentrate more and more buying trips to find eBay inventory at antique malls and antique shops.

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Arlene and I went to all nineteen garages sales that started today and I made one purchase. A Masonic temple cap, membership pinback button, and 32nd Degree certificate for $10.

Oh, Arlene bought a grater for the kitchen for .25. In her words, “it the neatest one I’ve ever seen.”

Maybe tomorrow will bring better fortunes.

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There were nine garage sales that started in Grand Forks today and I bought a mixed bag of inventory to sell on eBay next week. Here’s what I bought for eBay.

1. A book chronicling the history of Masonry and Masonic lodges in North Dakota. I paid .25 for it and it will probably find one bidder and sell for the opening bid of $9.99.

2. At the same sale I paid .75 for another book titled “Making Faces” by Kevyn Aucoin. The author is a famous markup artist and this book is what might be called a “bread and butter” book. It will never make you rich, but a nice copy will usually sell for between $10 and $15 on eBay.

3. Three old panoramic photographs of the faculty and students of Concordia College, which is in Moorhead, Mn. from the years 1927, 1930 and 1931. I paid .50 each for them.

4. One of those real estate courses you can buy through late night TV infomercials. This one is from the 1980s and is called “No Money Down.” It consists of 15 cassette tapes and a workbook all packaged in a nice looking holder/binder. I don’t expect it will get anywhere close to the real estate cassette set I sold two or three weeks ago, but for .50 it’s worth the money to see if I can get $10 to $20 for it.

All in all, most people would probably describe this stuff as junk, and they might be right. But this type of junk usually finds eBay buyers who will spend money for it.

It represents a good example of the various type of things most people would never pay any attention to that you can buy at garage sales and resell on eBay for profit.

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I started 68 auctions on eBay last night that will run for five days and end next Sunday evening.

With the exception of the book “The Amish In America” and the items I picked up in Fargo last Thursday, everything listed this week was purchased on Saturday at garage sales.

Each year many of the small towns along US Hwy 75 that runs north and south along Minnesota’s western edge have one day when they hold city farmers markets, picnics, etc. Included in all this are hundreds of garage sales along the highway.

I started Saturday at Hallock, Mn. at 7 AM and ended up in Georgetown, Mn. around 5 that evening. Along the way I stopped at more garage sales than I care to count and bought hundreds of items.

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I had 42 eBay auctions end last night with only 19 of them resulting in sales. That equates to a disappointing sell-through rate of 45% but considering the large number of records I had listed it was somewhat expected.

The nineteen items that did sell brought a total of $547.13. My cost of the items that sold was $61.50. The total cost of all 42 items was $81.45. After all eBay and PayPal fees, even with the low sell-through, there is still approximately a 400% profit when everything is paid for.

The unsold magazines, and other paper items, will be moved into my store at TIAS. Most of the books will go onto Amazon with a few being added to the AAUW donation box and I’ll be running all new items next week.

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Only five garages sales started here today and I didn’t find anything worth buying for eBay at any of them.

This afternoon I drove the elderly gentlemen who lives next door to us to the VA Hospital in Fargo, ND where he had a doctor’s appointment. Since he was going to be there for a few hours, I poked around two antique malls to kill some time.

They weren’t much more productive than today’s garage sales were. A dealer in one of the malls was having a 50% off sale on all magazines in their booth and I did buy four Association Men magazines (from the YMCA) from 1915 and 1917 and a 1931 issue of The American Scandinavian Review magazine for $1 each.

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Last week’s eBay auctions ended last night and the Hamm’s Beer ashtray was the high point of the auction. It attracted eleven bids and sold for $357.25.

Other high spots from last week’s eBay auctions included the pink graniteware cannister set which sold for $112.45; the Time-Life American Country series selling for $109.50; the Warren Harding real estate course which brought $80 (I questioned whether it would even get a bid); and the Hopolong Cassidy pocket knife that sold for $62.00 which was twice as much as I thought it would bring.

The Dodge Viper GTS dealer package sold for a disappointing $36.68. I had really thought it would at least nudge the $100 mark if it didn’t go over it.

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No new purchases today. I will have 42 eBay auctions starting tonight and running for seven days. Everything being sold was purchased during the last week at garage sales, thrift shops and antique shops.

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Today’s eBay inventory buying trip could best be described as wet. I left home at 4:45 AM and was treated to a beautiful light show from lightening for the first hour of the trip. Beautiful to watch, but not a good sign for the flea market I intended to start at.

The rain held off until I stepped into the first tent at Shady Hollow flea market. It poured for a good 20 minutes and I got to know, and had coffee with, the young couple who’s tent I was under. They had just started setting up at flea markets after having been selling on eBay for about four months.

As it turned out, it rained for the next 7 to 8 hours and that was the end of the flea market for me. I didn’t buy anything for eBay there.

After breakfast at Perkins, I spent the day visiting nine antique shops/malls and bought the following inventory for eBay.

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