Can your attitude about money create lengthy detours, or even road blocks, on your road to success on eBay?
Two separate conversations I had with friends over the weekend got me thinking about how peoples attitudes toward money and financial events can dramatically affect how successful their eBay. and other Internet endeavors, will be.
The first was a phone call Friday evening from someone I became friends with shortly after I began dealing in antiques more than twenty-five years ago. He’s a long-time collector of just about anything from the Arts & Crafts era, and he called just to check if I’d found anything really good lately.
During the course of our conversation we started talking about several flea markets and antique shows in Minnesota that have always proved fruitful for each of us - for him to add to his collection and for me to buy items for resale. One of these is Gold Rush Days held in Rochester/Oronoco which is roughly an eight-hundred mile round trip from Grand Forks.
He hasn’t missed this show in all the years I’ve known him, but he told me he had decided he wasn’t going to go this year. When I asked why, his response was, “With gas at $3.20 a gallon, I just don’t see it being worthwhile.”
As we talked more it became clear that our views on the cost of the trip differed considerably. He saw the trip costing him about $130 for gas. I saw it as costing me about $40 more than it did last year.
Two weeks ago I sold a Lego Unitron Monorail Transport Base Space Set on eBay. The set sold for a respectable price, but almost surely would have brought more if I had been able to state with certainty that all the original pieces were present.
This can be a problem with many of the Lego sets that show up at garage sales and in thrift shops. It’s impossible to know if everything is present when you buy it, and just as difficult to know when you list it.
Thanks to Coleen, that is no longer a problem. In a recent post titled freshvintage eBay Challenge: Lego Mania she provides a link to a site for Lego junkies called Peeron.com from which you can print inventory sheets for hundreds of different Lego sets.
While it may be time consuming, being able to state in your description that all original pieces are present in a set, can dramatically increase the final selling price for many sets.
By the way, the auctions for the six sets of Legos Coleen bought for $12 at the thrift shop ended earlier today. They brought a total of $568.88. Congratulations, Coleen!
This kind of stuff is out there folks. All you need to do is put yourself in places where it can find you.
You may already be aware of what many Starbucks coffee mugs are selling for on eBay, but these are something that I just became aware of a short time ago.
There is a growing collector base for a wide range of Starbucks memorabilia, but overall the coffee mugs appear to be leading the way as far as collector interest goes. The examples that seem to bring the most money are those that are part of the Starbucks’ City Series collector mugs offered in 1994.
After the city series, there are several different individual mugs that collectors are eagerly looking for on eBay. While individual mugs very seldom reach three figures, there are enough examples frequently bringing between $30 and $50 each to make it worth your while watching for them at garage sales, thrift shops, and flea markets. Here’s some examples of prices different Starbucks coffee mugs have brought on eBay in the last few weeks.
If you live in an area where Starbucks doesn’t have a presence, these may be somewhat difficult to fine. But, if Starbucks has been in your areas for several years, you probably have a good chance of picking these up every now and then. When found, they would probably be priced at a dollar or less, offering the chance to make a decent profit.
The ninth week of The $10,000 Garage Sale eBay Challenge has come and gone with the auctions that ended on Sunday and Monday evenings. There were fifty-one Challenge items listed and thirty-six of them sold for a total of $773.23. The sell-through rate was 71%.
With the completion of my current auctions next Sunday evening, the Challenge will be roughly half over. I’m guessing at that point my net profit will be approximately $3500 to $3600 to date. That will put me roughly $1500 short of the $5000 profit I should have half way through the Challenge.
One of the factors I took into consideration when arriving at the $10,000 figure for the Challenge was that most summers I will find two or three really good items at garage sales that will each bring between $700 and $1000 profit. So far this summer, I haven’t found one of those items yet. Experience tells me they are out there however, so I’m still confident my goal of $10,000 net profit for the five month period of time is attainable.
Here is how things look after the ninth week of the Challenge.
I never leave a garage sale without asking about something that I haven’t seen at that particular sale. The question may be about old magazines, books, pottery, record albums, old 45 records, old toys, etc. Whatever I ask about, I always tack on “or any old papers or pamphlets” at the end of the question.
Last Saturday, in response to my question “Do you have any old dolls or any old papers or pamphlets you are thinking of getting rid of?”, a woman responded that she had thrown some old catalogs and magazines that had belonged to her mother in the garbage the night before.
I got a rather strange look when I asked if she minded if I went back in the alley and dug through her garbage, but she told me to go right ahead.
Tourism wise, North Dakota doesn’t rank right up there with the Grand Canyon or Disney World. But, let me assure you that we know how to have fun in North Dakota and there are plenty of exciting attractions for you family to see.
A case in point, is the Pembina County Fair starting in Hamilton, ND this week. As part of the celebration, on Friday July 13th, at 4 PM they will be playing Bessie Bingo. For those city-folk who don’t know what Bessie Bingo is, let me explain.
If you’ve ever bought a square in a Super Bowl board you already know the general idea. We just do it with a twist in North Dakota.
Once all the numbers have been sold, a large grid with all the numbers on it is drawn in the dirt in a large penned in area. When the board is ready, a large cow is let into the pen and the excitement begins. Everyone sits in the grandstands and watches as the very large cow moves around the board until it finally decides to do what bears do in the woods.
The person holding the number that the deposit lands on is declared the winner. Similar to regular bingo, sometimes someone bingos quickly, while at other times the game can become a little drawn-out.
Now, if you are wondering what all this has to do with eBay, consider this.
If last year’s lucky Bessie Bingo winner had kept the winning deposit, what do you think it would sell for today on eBay? With good pictures and a well written description, my guess is it might well have a chance of reaching five figures.
Since The $10,000 Garage Sale eBay Challenge began more than two months ago, readership of The Auction Rebel has increased significantly. Along with that increase have come some questions regarding what the Challenge is all about, why I’m doing it, and what I’m trying to accomplish with it.
I have been active on eBay since 1998. I began by selling mostly antiques and collectibles and, with the exception of three “how-to” DVDs that I sell, those are still the things I sell today, concentrating on art pottery, antique and vintage toys, advertising, and ephemera.
Sometime in 2002 I started becoming active in several seller news groups and forums. I began noticing that, no matter what they recommended people sell, nearly everyone who dispensed advice about selling on eBay told people they could never be successful selling “used” items and that looking for inventory at garage sales was a total waste of time. If someone wanted to build a successful part-time or full time eBay business, selling new, or overstock items that they got from wholesalers, drop shippers, or retail outlets was the only way to go.
This update for The $10,000 Garage Sale eBay Challenge is a day later than usual because I decided to spend the 4th of July pretty much a “nothing to do with eBay” mode. I surrounded myself with family and we went to a vintage car show, took the grandchildren to a kids street fair, watched the parade, took in a free concert by several local bands, and ended the evening by watching the fireworks display.
No stress and very enjoyable. I hope enjoyed the Holiday as much as we did.
The auctions for the eighth week of The $10,000 Garage Sale eBay Challenge ended last Sunday evening. There were twenty-nine Challenge items listed and twenty-three of them sold for a total of $684.67. The sell-through rate was 79%.
Here is how things look after the eighth week of the Challenge.
Today is the most important Holiday we celebrate in the US.
However you and yours celebrate it, The Auction Rebel wishes you a wonderful 4th.
Enjoy yourself, but remember the true meaning of what we celebrate today and, keep our young men and women who are in harms way in your hearts and prayers. Today, as it has been in they past, they are the people who preserve the many freedoms we enjoy in this Great Country.
June was a good month for The Auction Rebel. It saw a steady increase in overall traffic along with a steady increase in the number of readers signing up for both the RSS feed and the Email Notification of new posts.
To give new visitors, as well as long-time readers, an idea of what other people are reading, I thought I would begin a new feature the ten most read pages from the blog for the previous month.
So without further ado, here are the ten most read posts from the Auction Rebel for the month of June.
