Selling old Video & 35mm cameras on eBay

This Memorial Day version of "Item of the Day" is brought to you LIVE from Gardendale, AL. We are now on the last leg of my 5 day 1,400 mile Memorial Weekend journey.  This will be the final work related activity for the rest of the day.

I have told you about a lot of different items that we have bought over the last few months. One that I have (surprisingly) failed to mention is 'old' cameras and camcorders. In the ever expanding digital camera world there still exist a niche of old school photographers and cheap video-ographers that love the old stuff. 35mm SLR Cameras and Hi8 and Super VHS Camcorders are still all the rage in some circles.

This is stuff you can pickup for dirt cheap at most yardsales and thrift stores. Most people have had these old relics laying around the house for so many years that just want to be rid of them (think old cell phone). Any money they can get for them is just a bonus. So, be on the look out for Pentax, Minolta, Canon & Vivitar 35mm SLR cameras. The more lenses that come with the the better. Many times a really nice zoom lens can be worth 5x what the camera body is worth.

Also, in the world of video cameras keep your eye out for brand names (Sony, Sharp etc) that are operational. Be sure you test it before you buy it. If it has a case, charger and a good battery that is a bonus.

That is it for today. Here are some recent cameras we have picked up: 

We Paid $10

We Paid: $15

BHAG: $10,000 - It is Finished!

I have been traveling all over the southeast the past few days. After trips to both Indianapolis and Cincinnati, Stacy and I headed off to Athens, AL for a graduation. Then I dropped Stacy off in Birmingham for wedding activities and now I am writing this live from Montgomery, while sitting on the couch of my cousins house. Amidst all of the traveling I haven't found much time to do any updating. Here is a quick status update on the BHAG progress over the last 7 days:

You know what that means? A full 21 days before the deadline we have surpassed the $10,000 mark! God has definitely made it possible for us to be able to pull this off. I have been contemplating a few new projects that those of you who read this could participate in. I'll be rolling that out in the next week or so, along with some major cosmetic changes to the BLOG. Thank you to everyone who keeps up with the BLOG. I'll be back to regular posting tomorrow.

How to Make it Stick. A Goodwill Story

Andy Andrews talks about the Butterfly Effect. The premise behind the Butterfly Effect is that everything you do effects everyone else in the world in a large way...usually larger than you can imagine and it does so forever. In other words, be careful what you do and don't do. Your actions matter. 

So I have been reading a good bit about that concept lately and really have fallen in love with the idea. So, for me the next logical question was, "How do I use that for Good instead of Bad?" In other words, how do I let my actions, ideas, thoughts and deeds affect everyone around me positively?

I still dont know the answer to that question, but I am working on it. I just picked up a book (got it for my birthday), it is entitled "Made to Stick." It falls along the same lines as the questions that I have been asking. Here is a quick video interview about the book.

I said all that to introduce the "Item of the Day" today. It isn't something I bought or found. It is something a friend of mind picked up. He heard of people that had bought and sold stuff on eBay before. Obviously, being a good friends of mine he knew that I did that. So, he ventured out on his own and started buying stuff himself. 

He liked the idea, he knew it could work....so he did it. 

Very simple and very cool at the same time. So many times I hear people with ideas and stories, but very rarely do I see somebody ACTUALLY DOING something about it. So, I really get excited when I see somebody doing something. The fact that something H did had a small role in helping them take that step is even cooler. 

So without further adue...finish reading this and go make your idea happen. Small or big, it makes a difference.

Here is the item our friend picked up recently at the Goodwill.

He paid: $3

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Weekend Auction Roundup: Spring Creek Auctions

This weekend we took a road trip down to Florence, Al. We went to a live collectors auction. Our good friends Mike and Angie instigated the trip and it wound up being a really productive trip. We spent around $400 in total. The auction had a variety of some really cool items. They had everything from a Nazi Dagger to Political Buttons and Shotguns. 

I came away from the auction very intersted in getting into buying and selling used vintage firearms. There is a little more liability and precautions that have to be taken in the industry, so it might be alittle while before I venture into it. There is profit to be made though.

For instance, several shotguns that I knew, from my past hunting expereience, a little about sold for awesome prices. A emmington 870 Express sold for $80 and a Remmington 1100 Semi-Automatic sold for $120. But guns go for well over $200 new. Great deals on both.

Here is a run down of a few items that we bought.....and of course, what we paid for them.

We Paid: $110
Projected Sales Price: $25

We Paid: $20

Projected Sales Price: $50

We Paid: $28

Projected Sales Price: $65

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How to get started on eBay with as little as $1?

This weekend was really good. We were busy, got a lot accomplished and had some good recreating time as well. After quick trip to Alabama, a visit with the in-laws, kiddy carnivals and motion sickness we ventured back to Tennessee and got 40 items listed to eBay. We then kicked back for the 4-1/2 hour lost Finale...and it didn't disappoint. Many pontificators will nit-pick little things about the show, but I just like to hear a good story and you cant argue that LOST as a whole was not a good story, great even. I loved it and am looking forward to re-watching the entire 120 episodes over the next few months.

On to eBay....

I get a lot of questions about what I do. How I do it. But most of the questions are "How can I do what your doing?" types of questions. Most people see the larger ticket items that are sold in my store or on this BLOG and think you have to have lots of money to get into this type of thing. The whole "Gotta have money to make money" adage is usually recited. 

That couldn't be farther from the truth.

So from time to time I like to show you some really inexpensive items that we buy and what they sold for. The purpose of doing this is to show you that you can start with as little as $1. You can literally pickup free stuff off of Craigslist and make a profit. Anyone in this country has the opportunity to do this and make money at it. It is not terribly difficult. Its a fairly simple concept. 

Here is the model:

Pay $1...sell it for $10. 

Pay $10...sell it for $25. 

Pay $25...sell it for $65. 

Pay $65...sell it for $125.

Pay $125...sell it for $200

Pay $200...sell it for $325

Pat $325...sell it for $575

Pay $575...sell it for $900

Pay $900...sell it for $1700

Pay $1700...sell it for $2800

Pay $2800...sell it for $4300

Pay $4300...sell it for $7500

Pay $7500...sell it for $10,000

(And Repeat until satisfied)

See yesterday's BHAG Update for a real life example of how this works and what it looks like.

What most people want to do though is look at the guy that is at the $1700 step and say, "Well I don't have that much money to get started." The thing is though, you don't need that much. In fact most people, if they tried to start with that much money, would screw it up! 

When you start slow and with next to no money, you learn all your lessons a lot easier. After all, if you lose one dollar, its not that big of a deal. If your are at the $120 stage and you loose $20, its not that big of a deal. In fact, it was all profit anyway.

I'll write more about this start up process at a later time. Here are some recent items we have bought for as little as $1 that did not turn huge profits, but they slowly compound on one-another to build something greater:

We Paid: $1

We Paid: $1

We Paid: $1

We Paid: $2

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BHAG: $10,000 Goal Update

I wasn't planning on updating again until tomorrow, but while I was pursuing around eBay this morning I took a glance over at our total sales for the last few weeks. If you recall, several weeks ago I told you about our goal of turning our $1,150 we sold our broken down car for, into $10,000 in less than 60 days. 

I knew that we had been doing pretty well and that we were at least in the 'ballpark' of reaching our goal. When I glanced at our total sales today I saw that we are a lot closer than I thought!

Here are the sales figures straight from eBay:

Keep in mind that that does NOT include our shipping cost and any money that we made off of shipping. Which honestly, we make around $5-10 on each item. This usually covers our eBay fees that we pay on each item.

If you have ever wondered if it is possible to make money or even make a living on eBay, hopefully this shows you it is very possible. I am in the process of posting around $3,000 of merchandise we've bought over the last 3 days right now, so hitting our goal shoudln't be a problem.

I hope to update in a few weeks and show you where we have not only hit our $10,000 goal, but well surpassed it!

BTW: We had a very productive trip down to Alabama this weekend. We visited Spring Creek Auction house in Florence, AL. We picked up some great deals. Check back tomorow for a full update on that.

Until then....

Dinnerware Number Roundup

If you are a regular reader you know that I have started dabbling in selling dinnerware on eBay. I have written a few post on it (here and here). The first round of auctions finished up last week. Here is the summary of the 'first set ever bought'. I bought it at a Dogwood Estate Sale. Check out the numbers on how it turned out.

        We Paid: $25

        43 Total Pieces

        Dinner Plates: 6pcs

        Cereal Bowls: 6pcs

        Cup/Saucer Sets: 6pcs

        Fruit Bowls: 2pcs

        Bread/Butter Plates: 8pcs

        Salad Plate: 6pcs

        Creamer Dish: 1pcs
        Grand Mug: 4pcs

        Gravy Boat: 1pc

        Pepper Grinder: 1pc

        Oval Roaster Platter: 1pc

        Open Caserole Dish: 1pc

        Sugar Bowl: 1pc

(A few pieces where chipped or cracked and they counted cup/saucers as separate pieces)

We listed each piece in a seperate auciton. The cup/saucer sets and bread/butter places where listed in pairs. We put them all on 7 day auctions and started them at $9.99. We slowly got traffic on the items over the 7 day period. We got a few early bids but the majority of the bidding occured within the last hour of the auctions.

A total of 19 items sold the first time through. These auctions grossed $205.34

That is a net profit (after fees) of $159.80.

This number doesn't take into consideration profit made off of shipping cost either. This should bring another $20 of profit. 

We have another 21 auctions left outstanding. These auctions that did not sell the first time through, we will put them in our eBay store and list them as a Buy It Now or Best Offer. The total of these items listed price is $252.

Here is the final rundown:

43 Items Purchased

29 Auctions Posted

19 Auctions Sold @ $205.34

21 Auctions Remain @ $252

Total Projected Sales: $457.34


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eBay Business Model: High Margin or High Dollar?

Strap on your thinking cap.....

I had a few thoughts after my post this morning. Normally the items that I put on this blog are bought very cheaply, usually less than $15, and they usually sale for 20, 50 or even $100+. With the posting of the golf clubs that I have posted the last few days you have seen a different method buying.

What is the difference?

In the Yardsale/ Estate Sale / Auction world you normally pay rock botton prices that return 100-200% margins. That is easy to do...on a small scale. Anyone, and I mean, anyone can make $1000-2000 a month working 15 hours or less a week doing this. Simply going to yardsales on the weekend and listing the things they buy can produce several thousand dollar a a month.

They key to this method is to start with a SMALL amount of money (no more than $50) and slowly buy and sell and learn about what you are buying. Working at it and investigating EVERYTHING you buy BEFORE you buy it. You then use the profit you make from your sales and turn it over and slowly build that original $50 into a larger sum of money.


Now if you do this for two months and you are dilligent you can easily have $2000-4000 at the end of that time. So the question you have to ask yourself at that point is, "What do I do now?" Here are your options:


1) Keep doing what you doing
2) Keep doing what your doing AND Add some larger ticket items to the product mix
3) Cash out and start over
4) Quit buying small items and start buying wholesale low margin items

In the 6 months I have been doing this I have goine through all 4 options. You'll have to personally evaluate what you want to do once you reach this point, but lately we have been doing step #2.


So what we have started to do is, continue buying the unique one of a kind items from yard sales but also we have been buying more expensive items from other sources (i.e. Craigslist). Now, what you have to keep in mind is that you wont make the crazy high margins with these items, but you will make more money PER ITEM.

For instance, with the below golf club. I paid $150, it sold for $219. That is a profit of $69 (before fees). That is a profit margin of 32%. That is nowhere near the profit margin I made on the 35mm splicer I bought a few weeks ago. I paid $9 for a Floral Stemming Machine at Goodwill and it sold for $29. That is a profit margin of 69%, significantly higher. However, the total profit was only $20. It would take selling more than 3 of these to equal the same amount of actual money that the one, lower margin, golf club sold for.

Clear as mud?  Good!

As we go forward you'll keep seeing a mix of HIGH margin items as well as HIGH dollar items as well. 

Now you know why!

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What to buy on Craigslist? Golf Clubs

I don't have time for a lengthy post this morning but I have been promising an update on the Golf Clubs buy last week. Here is my second pickup I had. I found it, met the guy, paid for it and was back home within 2 hours. I also managed to pickup a few other items off craigslist while I was en-route to him, multi-tasking got to love it!

Remember in the previous posting (check it here), we made $80.

Here is the auction:

We Paid: $150

It Sold for $210

Net Profit (after fees): $50 

That brings the total golf clubs craigslist haul for last week up to $130

Check back later on for another golf clubs/craigslist update.

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What to buy at an Estate Sale? Vintage Tin Toys

I'll start with a story:

I was at an estate sale a few months back. It was the estate of a man that used to be in the business of decorating restaurants. He had ALL kinds of old stuff. Hundreds of Golf Clubs, bags, tennis rackets, helmet and much much more (Think. Ruby Tuesday or TGI Friday). One thing that caught my eye when I was there was the collection of football helmets. There where at least 50 of them. Some where old, some newer, some where actual helmets and some were decorative.

I walked over to the guy managing the sell and we started negotiating a price. Unfortunately, we weren't able to come to an agreement. I offered as high as $3 a helmet but they wouldn't come down below $5. So I decided to pass.

Last week while searching the estate sale listings I come across the very same house again. I was excited. I was fairly certain no one had paid what they were asking for these helmets, so I was on a mission to go get them!

I was one of the first ones there, but the helmets were no where in site. So, I browsed around the sale. Most everything I had seen and looked over a few months prior, but one thing did catch my eye. It was stowed away under a table in a box with a bunch of other stuff. It was an Old Tin WWII Airplane Toy. It was really cool and I knew after watching Pawn Stars that some tin toys where worth money. So, I decided to get it. I offered them $5 and they took it.

After researching it once I got home here is what I found:











 
click the picture for a clearer view)

So, it wasn't a home run buy, but it was a solid money maker. Looks like I should make around $30 on it. So what happened with the helmet? There is an interesting story behind that as well. Check back tomorow for the scoop on that.

Check on the auction for the WWII Toy Airplane below:

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Selling Dinnerware on eBay: Lenox Merriment

UPDATE: The bulk of the Lenox 'Merriment' dinnerware set ended today. If you read the below post, you now know that this was my first crack at buying dinnerware and selling it on eBay. I piad $25 for it and the first round of auctions produced a total of nearly $200 of revenue!

****************************************************************

Yesterday, I said I would tell you about the other Craigslist deals I made last week. You will have to wait another day for that. Today is all about Dinnerware. Yes...plates, cups, dishes and pretty much anything you would use on your table or near your table while eating.

A few months ago I went to an eBay OnLocation event in Atlanta, Ga. One of the speakers there was a Lynn Dralle. She spoke as a part of the Top Rated Sellers panel and had some pretty interesting insight into her business. At the time I was not focused on similar items so what she said did not resonate with me all that much. As the last few months have gone by though our business has gradually shifted to more "one of a kind" items.

We've spend more time at yard sales, estate sales and local auctions than anywhere else. Although, the time spent on these items is much more than our normal wholesale sources, the markup is exponentially higher than on those same wholesale items. On a good day I can make 20-30% on many of our wholesale items. However, on a good day with these one of a kind items we can easily Triple or Quadruple or money.

The challenge with 'One of a Kind' items is, FINDING THEM. More directly, the challenge is finding enough of them to keep your money turning over. We have 5-10 different types of items that we look for, but as our money started compounding we were having a harder and harder time spending all of it.

I'm sure hat sounds very odd to most of you, but in business if your money is just sitting there that means you aren't making anything off of it. See Compound Interest.

The #1 thing that you DO NOT want, if your wanting to build wealth, is to have a significant portion of your capitals (i.e. Moeny) sitting in the bank. If you do that means the money is not making you anything. I like to have a reserve, don't get me wrong, but not too large.

As a fix to this delima we are constantly looking for new types and categories of items to buy. We like to find a category, learn all we can about it and test it out. We've done this with numerous types of items. Here are a few examples (Vintage Electronics, Golf bags, Helmets, Golf Clubs etc..)

It can be scary jumping into a product for the first time. Case in point DINNERWARE. As a guy, I knew absolutely nothing about plates, cups or gravy boats. I didn't know any of the brands to look for and I sure didn't know the difference between a Cup and a Grand Mug or a Dinner Plate and Salad Plate.

I immediately thought of the lady at the eBay OnLocation event. I went back and read over her website and went to the library and read a few of her books. Then I finally sucked it up and bought her newest book entitled "Dinnerware Success".

It was expensive, very expensive, but well worth it. She charges $150 or so for it. However, it can literally teach anyone how to buy dinnerware and sell it on eBay. It took me, a guy who new NOTHING, and in less than 24 hours I bought my first set of China and a really cool platter.

I said all of that to lead you into the ITEM OF THE DAY...Dinnerware.

These are my first buys. I spent $25 on a 55 piece set of 'Lenox Merriment' and $4 on a ugly Lenox platter. There are a ton of auctions up with all of these pieces so I wont bother to link them all here but I will keep you updated with the totals.

Check out a few of them below:

We paid: $4

We paid: $25 (for entire 55pc set)

You can see everything at our store HERE

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Item of the Day: Sourcing on Craigslist

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Stacy was out of town all weekend and half of last week so my normal routine was thrown off a bit. I spent most of the weekend reading a few books that I have been anticipating for quite some time. I re-read part of Good to Great, anyone that knows me knows that this is my favorite book. I highly recommend it to anyone, whether or not you like business. It applies to business life, family & church life and can really make a difference in how you look at things and how you interact with people.

Moving on...

I set a new goal last week for myself, kind of a mini-goal to help me hit the BHAG of turning the $1150 seed money (from our broken down car) into $10,000 in under 60 days. A small update on that front, we are just over 30 days into that challenge and we are already over half way, right around the $7000 mark currently!

The new mini-goal is to make one deal a day on Craigslist that will bring a net profit of $100. In other words I want to buy something locally on Craigslist and then bring it home, catalog it and resale it one eBay and make $100 on it. AND I want to do this everyday for the rest of this challenge.

I got started last week and several of my items ended this weekend. I'll start with the first deal I completed.

I found this listing emailed him and met him within less than 2 hours.

The item was a really nice TaylorMade R9 460cc FCT 10* Driver. I actually bought it last Thursday and it sold yesterday.

I paid $100 for it and it sold for $189. This was a little short of my goal but I also bought 2 other items that day too. All together I was well over my $100 goal.

Check out the listing for the driver:

Check back tomorrow for an update on the other items I bought on the same trip.

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UPDATED: Know what you have!

UPDATE: The auction ends in less than 6 hours. When I got up this morning I saw where the price had jumped up over night to over $100! Remember I paid $4.

**********************************************************


Last week I wrote about a odd item that I picked up at an estate sale. As I watched the near immediate reponse to the item after it was posted I knew I had a good buy. At the time I bought the item I wasn't really sure it was a good buy. In fact, I questioned why I even bought it as soon as I got home (this is part of that Lizard Brain that Seth Godin talks about).

The piece had no model number or manufacturer name. Actually, it had no identifying mark on it at all. But, it looked cool was heavy and honestly, it just caught my eye. So I picked it up. I got home, listed it, and BAMM! In no time it got traffic and bids.

If you check out the item here, you will notice that it is listed as a 8mm/16mm Film Splicer. When I research the item and started my listing this was a bit of a guess. It looked like some splicers that I saw on eBay but since it had no identifying marks on it I couldn't be sure. I made sure that I put this uncertainty in the listing (see the auction).

I started getting a lot of questions about it. One guy in particular asked me to make some measurements of the item. I did and I sent them back to him. I didn't hear from him again until about 11 hours left in the auction. He sent me a note that said:

"Since you told me that the size of the white film is 1-7/16''
(36,5mm) , I think it doesn't correspond to a 8mm or 16mm, but
maybe 35mm film. Unfortunately I'm not interested in it (I'm
looking for a 16mm splicer), but you should have a look at the
price of the 35mm splicer...it is usually way more expensive than
your price..."

So I did "have a look" at the price of the 35mm splicers. Here is a completed listings page of some of the 35mm splicers that have closed in the last 15 days:











(not sure whats gong on with the quality here)

So I immediately tried to cancel the auction only to learn that you can not cancel and auction that has bids on it AND is under12 hours to go before it ends. So, I waited it out. I had a few unethical thoughts cross my mind. But I decided to let the auction run it course. It wound up bidding up to over $70 before it ended.

After it completed I sent a note to the high bidder and told him the delima. He was very understanding and agreed to have me refund his money. (I did tell him that he could have it if he wanted, but he responded that he was not looking for a 35mm). In fact here is a copy of the note he sent back to me:

"no i have 2 35 neumade splicers,i really need a
16mm splicer,well i have to find another one thank
you and yes please refund the money.
thanks again Ron"

Very nice and polite guy. So, I refunded the money and re-listed the item!

Here is to hoping that it gets close to what some similar items did!

Here is the new auction, notice its already bid up close to what the 8/16mm finished at:

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Goodwill Finds (5/13/10)

A few months ago one of my friends turned me onto the Goodwill Outlet store in Nashville. I posted some pictures of the madness and how it worked. (BRIEF RECAP: You pay by the pound; the more you get the cheaper the poundage rate.) We have found some awesome deals there lately. Most of which fall into the (luggage/business/sports bag) category. I thought I would share a few of our latest finds there.

Total Cost of 9 items: $33

Current Bid Total: $281.31


Check them out below:


WE PAYED: $3



WE PAYED: $3




WE PAYED: $3



WE PAYED: $3




WE PAYED: $3



WE PAYED: $9



WE PAYED: $3



WE PAYED: $3




WE PAYED: $3




You can see everything at our store HERE

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Luggage is all the rage.

Middle of last week I stopped by an estate sale right by our house. I picked up a few monumental items. One of which was my first piece of Hartmann luggage. That one purchase was the beginning of an entirely new line of items that we now buy. It turns out that Vintage (or just plain old) luggage is quite the hot item on eBay and beyond.

I guess there is a niche of young folks, like myself, that like to travel in style and need a suitcase or garment bag to look cool. OR maybe the baby boom generation is reaching back to their traveling roots to reminisce of old time. Either way, opportunity has showed its self.

The first piece of luggage I bought was a Giant Hartmann Suit case. I paid $7 for it and it sold for $29.99 plus shipping. Since that day we have loaded up on similar items. Everything from Ralph Lauren Duffel Bags to briefcases and portfolio bags. Anything halfway nice looking and made out of leather is sitting on our shelves in my office now.

Some of it sold very well and very quickly. A few of the items will be a little slower moving. All in all we have made over $300 in luggage in the past 10 days. Not to shabby, especially on a brand new item.

Then we went yard selling this past weekend. The very first stop we landed at was a home that was about 5 miles out of the way. Normally that would be a big deal but Stacy's parents were coming into town and we had dinner with them at 11am. Kinda right in the middle of prime time yard selling activity. So we had to be sure to maximize our time. The farther we drove to ge to this place the more and more impatient I was getting...until we arrived.

The first thing I noticed was a giant pile of Hartmann luggage.

Each piece was individually marked. The smaller pieces were marked $20 a piece and the larger items (suitcases & garment bags) were not marked at all. I assumed they were asking $40-50 for the bigger pieces. This wasn't much of a deal at all and honestly they would have never sold it at that price at a yard sale anyway.

I browsed around, picking up a few small items. Before we left I came back to the luggage and started talking to the lady who was selling it. I asked her a little about it and then asked her what she would take for all of it together.

Now keep in mind there were 10 pieces, the smallest of which was marked $20. I have learned to NEVER throw out a price first. Always let them name the price. I would have guess this lady would have wanted $200-300 for the whole set. I was wrong...

She said "How does $100 sound?" Of course it sounded great to me. But Negotiating 101 says that someones first offer is ALWAYS higher than what they actually want. This is mostly because they expect you to want to pay less, so they in turn jack their price up in expectation that you will offer less.

So, naturally I came back with "Well....$100 is a little high but I would pay $75."

And...she agreed.

She was excited to be rid of it. It was her parents old luggage, she had no use for it and it was just in their way. To get $75 for some old luggage that was just in her way was a great deal for her.

And for me, it was a great deal because there was plenty of money to be made off of it by marketing it to a group of people (via eBay) that were looking for this type of item.

Here is a list of everything we got:
3x Hartmann Garment Bags
3x Hartmann Suitcases Large
1x Hartmann Suitcase Medium
2x Hartmann Train Carry-on Box
2x Hartmann Duffel Bags

Total Paid = $75

After doing some quick "Completed Listings" research via eBay I estimate that this entire lot will bring a gross total of right at $400.

Here are the listings: (not all of them are online yet)

You can see everything at our store HERE

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The Finds: Estates Sale, Yard Sale & Goodwill

UPDATE: Auction Links are included below. I have yet to post the dishware yet. I hope to get them up today. I will make a separate post for them. BTW - We had an awesome weekend of yard selling, I'll fill you in soon.

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Yesterday I headed out around 7:30 to visit a few of the Friday Yardsales and to check out the few estate sales that were going on. I bought a book this past week that basically teaches you all about Dinnerware (chine etc). I met the lady who wrote it back in March when I went to the eBay onLocation event in Atlanta. I have been considering buying it for some time but the price of the book ($150) really deterred me, until recently.

It seems that recently I have been having a problem buying ENOUGH items to keep our money turning at a good rate. In an attempt to step up our spending and as a result, step up our gross margin, I figured I would start buying some different items that I normally do.

Dinnerware seemed like as good a place as any to start. After all, you see it at EVERY estate or yard sale you go to. Stacks of plates, bowls & chins. Me being the typical guy though, I have no clue what to buy or what to pay. It has always seemed like a decent opportunity though, give the great supply.

Anyways, I finally broke down and bought the book, read it in a day (all 350+ pages) and bought my first few items yesterday.

That wasn't all though, I loaded up on some pretty good items.

I spent a total of $123.50.

Here is the take:



Vintage Eicro Reel to Reel: $10
New Vista 5pc Luggage: $3
Wilson "Wicked Stick" Golf Bag: $5
Adams Tight Lies 2 Club: $1
Briefcase: $1
Mikasa Bone Chins (5pcs): $5
Pentax ZX50 Camera: $10
Big Bertha Hawkeye Club: $2
Lenox "Merriment" Dinnerware (55pcs): $25
Kitchen Aid Mixer: $40
Goodwill Luggage (5x): $14
Northwester Iron Set: $8
Polaroid Camera: $1

Here they are:




The dishes still haven't made it online yet. I hope to get them up today.

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Item of the Day: Splicer

Last Friday I decided on a whim to hit an estate sale that was right aroundt he corner from our house. The forecast for the weekend was for it to be a washout. Turns our they were correct. I decided to take advantage of the awesome weather on Friday.

The company that hosted this estate sale (Patterson Estate Sale) is one of our favorite companies. They are nice folks and usually have the genre of items that we are usually looking for. This particular house was a pretty good mixture of everything. I wound up only spending $18, but it was a well spent 18 bucks.

Check out the finds:


WE PAYED: $4




WE PAYED: $9




WE PAYED: $5




You can see everything at our store HERE

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Live Auction: The Goods

This message comes to you from flooded Nashville. I said I would update you with how my first LIVE In Person Auction went. My friend Mike and I ventured out on Wednesday of last week not really knowing what to expect, and it went pretty well.

It was definitely entertaining and we had a good time. You hear about people getting into a 'bidding frenzy' during online auctions. I have definitely seen this before on some items that I have sold. Some items have sold for MUCH more than they are actually worth. But when you get two people that really want the same thing the price shoots up.

This was even more evident in person. Some items had no business going as high as they did. The selection at this auction wasn't exactly up my alley. There were a lot of vintage signs and old collectibles and memorabilia.

I did wind up picking up some pretty cool items though. Check them out below:

WE PAYED: $7.50



WE PAYED: $10



WE PAYED: $17




You can see everything at our store HERE

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