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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