Hi Everyone & Evelyn & Mike!
I introduced my newbie self on the Newbies thread and we started chatting about big selling items we've sold on eBay.
My listing service used to have a thread in their forum called Hot Items Anyone Can Sell, and it ended up being about 80 pages long! All the members logged on & suggested "sleeper" items that sell really well on eBay. Shall we start one here?
Something to look for at yard sales:
older Coleman Lanterns (for camping) in box
I never pass up a .10 cross stitch, painting, or macrame booklet. Most can sell well individually. The ones that don't go into a lot of 10 or more where they sell for 10+
Last year I got 20 macrame booklets for 50 cents. All but 5 sold for $5 individually - the remaining 5 sold for 8. Not bad on a 50 cent investment.
It doesn't hurt that the shipping costs are so low.
Today I went to the local used bookstore searching for 2 books to complete my Jedi Apprentice series (I found books 1-18 yesterday at Goodwill - if I have the 2 special editions I'd have a complete set)
I didn't find them - but I did find Nora Roberts The Winning Hand...I have sold this book over and over again.
Then at Salvation Army I found Nora Roberts The Perfect Neighbor - SCORE!
These 2 books are from the same series and are the ones that are hard to find. I try to sell them together but sometimes only can find the one (or the other).
I paid 2.49 for both books combined (yeah, plus tax). They SHOULD sell for 20.xx. But ya never know.
I also found some other books to put into lots - kids series books - sells well all year long.
This thread is great! Ill add some.
On the subject of books, Ive found that in general, self help books do really well in terms of resale, and the more well known they are, the better. A few titles to look out for are "Rich Dad Poor Dad", "Who Moved My Cheese" or anything by Robert T. Kiyosaki about personal finance. I picked up a set of three Kiyosaki books for $1 and sold all of them in a lot for something like $15. Also, right now, "The Secret", "The Purpose Driven Life", and "You on a Diet" are among the top books being sold on ebay. You can usually find some of these titles at yard sase due to their popularity and usually they can be had for $1 or less.
Another hot topic that sells is anything about real estate, how to invest and make money in real estate, are all good sellers especially if you can get them in lots.
Ill have more to add soon!
Last week I bought a complete cross stitch kit - Harley Davidson - for $1.50 - a premium at a garage sale.
It sold last night for $15.00! Woohoo!
I never pass up anything Harley. I had found a womans see-thru body suit that said Harley Davidson and had Motorcycles in the mesh. I paid .45 - put it on my hanging dress form and it sold for over 30 bucks.
You know what else is good...video games and old MAC PC's. If your into reselling, you can't go wrong with Legand of Zelda for Nintendo and if you can find a 1984 Mac 125K SNACH IMMEDIATLY they are worth $250 on Ebay!
Thanks BarginNutt - I'll have to look them up on ebay to see what I'm looking for.
I am on the hunt for books 37,38,39 and 40 in the Left Behind Kids series. I bought the first 36 books for 25 off of cheap cycle once I did my research and found the complete set sells for right around $100.
I keep going to our local half price book store...nothing yet.
Also, I am trying to complete a teenage star wars series. 14 books - and I have 13 books - I'm looking for Crisis at Crystal Creek. I may have to buy that one off of ebay. This set sells for around $50. (Jedi Apprentice).
Well, no one has posted anything new for a while...so I'll go again.
Weebles! They Wobble - but they don't fall down.
I was at an amazing garage sale with only $11 in my purse...oh what a time to have so little cash!!!
Anyway, the garage was FULL of toys from the 1970's - and there was a crowd. Nothing was priced - their neighbors were having a sale so they thought they should piggyback.
I barely got up to the garage when I saw a TON of weebles - and many with Mickey Ears - I knew I had to have that. So I started raving how I had them as a kid...nothing dishonest...but I was telling more than I usually do. Then I said - how much for all of this? 10 BUCKS!
For $10 I got a large box of a few weeble cars, slides, chairs etc and a ton of weeble people.
I got some pretty hard to find ones and I have high hopes.
Right now I have a few auctions up for the most desireable of the weebles...and I have over $30 in bids. Plus many more Mickey Mouses' to go. Woohoo!
REMEMBER people will buy their childhood. Buying toys from the 70's and the 80's is a good idea.
Thats great advice on the childhood stuff. SO true. I found a website that is selling t-shirts from 80s TV shows and movies, and I just had to have some of them.
Recent yard sale finds for me have been a Farberware "Open Hearth" electric broiler, never opened in the box for $20. I remember seeing the same one priced at another sale earlier for $60, and did some research on them. While had high hopes that they would be going to $80 or more (which some of them do), this one in particular will probably fetch me $40 or so, so I'm likely to double my money on it.
Also if you are selling on ebay post a link to your auctions so we can see how they do!
Mike