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| May 22 haul |
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| Jewelry, need to be research a bit |
May 28 finds: toys and more toys! Pet Shop, Playmobil, Pinypon, Brio trains, Frozen etc.... I have good success selling toys so whenever the price is right I buy.
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| toys to flip! |
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
2 of my Latest Yard Sale Hauls
May 22 haul includes a cheap Playmobil mix lot, a nice Champagne ice bucket, an old French Hot Water Bottle Bras, some jewelry (mainly vintage, nothing real hot, but so cheap that whatever it sells for it's going to be profit). Also found a rock climbing metal sculpture made by HINZ & KUNST. The cute plate and wine rack were bought online for resell.
May 28 finds: toys and more toys! Pet Shop, Playmobil, Pinypon, Brio trains, Frozen etc.... I have good success selling toys so whenever the price is right I buy.
May 28 finds: toys and more toys! Pet Shop, Playmobil, Pinypon, Brio trains, Frozen etc.... I have good success selling toys so whenever the price is right I buy.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
May 21st 2016 eBay Haul
Gorgeous day today, so I went early and hit 2 yard sales in Grenoble. Both were pretty big and one of them was located in a nice park.
I ended up buying a lot of Littlest Pet Shop and way way cheaper then what I usually pay. Also got a huge (and I mean huge) lot of LPS accessories for dirt cheap (7$ for all the Littlest Pet Shop accessories you see in the picture below).
Sales of Littlest Pet Shop on eBay are not as good as they used to be. They still sell but not as fast as before. I blame this on two things:
1- lots of sellers now look for them because they are money makers.
2- But mostly, the China sellers on eBay have flood the site with cheap knockoffs/fakes and buyers either don't come back to ebay because they feel they were scammed (they receive a cheap knockoff instead of a real Pet Shop) or they see cheap price so they think they get a deal.... so instead of buying the real thing they buy a fake.
But still what I got will sell, for less money then a year ago for sure, and they will move more slowly, but I'll still make decent money. And the accessories sell well (and the Chinese sellers don't produce fake accessories so they are not killing the market for these).
I also bought some cute necklaces, from South America. One is made from Tagua and the 2 others are made from paxiuba beads. I might keep them if they don't sell, I love them!
Also found a lovely cookie tin depicting a Victorian (horses and noble people):
More yard sales tomorrow if weather is good. I also need to list some of today's finds!
I ended up buying a lot of Littlest Pet Shop and way way cheaper then what I usually pay. Also got a huge (and I mean huge) lot of LPS accessories for dirt cheap (7$ for all the Littlest Pet Shop accessories you see in the picture below).
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| May 2016 eBay Haul |
Sales of Littlest Pet Shop on eBay are not as good as they used to be. They still sell but not as fast as before. I blame this on two things:
1- lots of sellers now look for them because they are money makers.
2- But mostly, the China sellers on eBay have flood the site with cheap knockoffs/fakes and buyers either don't come back to ebay because they feel they were scammed (they receive a cheap knockoff instead of a real Pet Shop) or they see cheap price so they think they get a deal.... so instead of buying the real thing they buy a fake.
But still what I got will sell, for less money then a year ago for sure, and they will move more slowly, but I'll still make decent money. And the accessories sell well (and the Chinese sellers don't produce fake accessories so they are not killing the market for these).
I also bought some cute necklaces, from South America. One is made from Tagua and the 2 others are made from paxiuba beads. I might keep them if they don't sell, I love them!
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| South American Fair Trade Necklaces |
Also found a lovely cookie tin depicting a Victorian (horses and noble people):
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| Vintage tin |
More yard sales tomorrow if weather is good. I also need to list some of today's finds!
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Brocante Finds and an eBay Cassini Search Rant
Here's some of my recent brocante finds that will eventually end up on either Etsy or eBay!
Yard sales haven't been good lately so I rely on brocante (both online and offline).
In this lot: a very large cast iron rooster in a wonderful green paint (a door stopper most likely), a cute, whimsical little chick (ceramic), an old wood bench, a zinc florist vase, a fleur de lis zinc frieze, an old jam jar filled with marbles (I'll need to research marbles a bit, I know they sell well, but I know nothing about them. Might just make a big lot with best offer option)
Otherwise, yard sales have been slow lately (luckily I have a lot of inventory not listed yet). I'll post about what I found later this week, nothing much thrilling tho.
Sales on eBay right now are very uneven, it's either a flood or a dry spell, something I have never experienced before. Something is very strange and I do hope it's only a temporary situation, not a taste of things to come... When buyers tell you "I have been looking for this for months on eBay" and your item has been listed for months, you know something is wrong. We all know Cassini search is not very good, but I feel that goes beyond that. Traffic seems off, it's like my store is visible then invisible. Of course the flood of cheap Chinese crap on eBay doesn't help anyone: buyers get burn and don't return, buyers cannot find what they want because the Chinese sellers are known to manipulate search so they go elsewhere....
What do I do then? I keep listing but no longer exclusively on ebay!
Yard sales haven't been good lately so I rely on brocante (both online and offline).
In this lot: a very large cast iron rooster in a wonderful green paint (a door stopper most likely), a cute, whimsical little chick (ceramic), an old wood bench, a zinc florist vase, a fleur de lis zinc frieze, an old jam jar filled with marbles (I'll need to research marbles a bit, I know they sell well, but I know nothing about them. Might just make a big lot with best offer option)
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| Brocante finds |
Sales on eBay right now are very uneven, it's either a flood or a dry spell, something I have never experienced before. Something is very strange and I do hope it's only a temporary situation, not a taste of things to come... When buyers tell you "I have been looking for this for months on eBay" and your item has been listed for months, you know something is wrong. We all know Cassini search is not very good, but I feel that goes beyond that. Traffic seems off, it's like my store is visible then invisible. Of course the flood of cheap Chinese crap on eBay doesn't help anyone: buyers get burn and don't return, buyers cannot find what they want because the Chinese sellers are known to manipulate search so they go elsewhere....
What do I do then? I keep listing but no longer exclusively on ebay!
Monday, April 4, 2016
Mermaids: a Fun Theme that is Collectible
Among the things I look for when I am thrifting, yard sailing or browsing online sales for things to flip, is mermaids. Popular collectible, mermaids come in all sort of shape and forms. I look for whimsical items or unusual enough to pique curiosity. Mainly vintage or antique (although you may have success with modern decor pieces as long as it is original/unusual enough and not mass produced in China).
Here are a few of my finds that have sold:
These were all bought online to flip and they were all successful flips.
Here are a few of my finds that have sold:
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| Vintage tin box with mermaids |
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| Mermaid hand held mirror |
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| Signed cast iron trivet by Deville |
These were all bought online to flip and they were all successful flips.
Friday, April 1, 2016
Never Accept a Buy Now Offer On An Ebay Auction
I have been selling on eBay since 1998 under various "niche" accounts and stores.
I sold anything from:
Vintage clothing: This was a very hot niche for me in the late 90's to the mid 2000. I did especially well in the "EMO" style niche. But when I moved to France I pretty much dropped that niche because at the time the French postal service were not offering any cheap small packet rates. Now that they have been fined a couple of millions euros by the European Union for this aberration, and are now offering small airmail packet rates I guess could go back selling vintage clothes. But for what I see the market is not as strong as it use to be. So I still offer the occasional vintage t-shirt or French designer piece, but that's pretty much it.
Collectibles: all sorts of collectibles and small antiques. Stamps, coins and paper money as well.
Magazines and books: especially French magazines and rare French books
Now back to the "never accept a buy now offer on an Ebay auction" AKA "you know you got a winner item when....": If you list an item up on auction and within a few hours you got messages asking if you would sell for a fix price, it pretty much mean you hit the jackpot.
Never accept any offer for a buy now. Even if it sounds attractive. It just mean the buyer KNOWS it will go high and he tries to get a deal. Even if the offer sounds attractive (like 10 times or 20 times your starting price).
I had this happen often: One time it was a vintage Iron Maiden t-shirt. Within a few hours I got 3 offers ranging from 50$ to 125$. I refused them all and the t-shirt sold for over 300$ to a Japanese buyer.
Another time it was a very "ugly" advertising display for some sort of drinks. Some plastic sculpture of a guy holding a tray of said drink and the display would be illuminated by a light bulb. Ugly. I paid 2$ at a garage sale (I mean for 2 bucks, the risk of loosing money is almost nil). Same, got a bunch of offers, turned them all down and end up selling the thing for 500$ to someone who's dad had a bar in the 50's with the same ad. He wanted it as a tribute/souvenir of his father.
So if you don't know what it's worth, let the auction run its course. On eBay or elsewhere!
I sold anything from:
Vintage clothing: This was a very hot niche for me in the late 90's to the mid 2000. I did especially well in the "EMO" style niche. But when I moved to France I pretty much dropped that niche because at the time the French postal service were not offering any cheap small packet rates. Now that they have been fined a couple of millions euros by the European Union for this aberration, and are now offering small airmail packet rates I guess could go back selling vintage clothes. But for what I see the market is not as strong as it use to be. So I still offer the occasional vintage t-shirt or French designer piece, but that's pretty much it.
Collectibles: all sorts of collectibles and small antiques. Stamps, coins and paper money as well.
Magazines and books: especially French magazines and rare French books
Now back to the "never accept a buy now offer on an Ebay auction" AKA "you know you got a winner item when....": If you list an item up on auction and within a few hours you got messages asking if you would sell for a fix price, it pretty much mean you hit the jackpot.
Never accept any offer for a buy now. Even if it sounds attractive. It just mean the buyer KNOWS it will go high and he tries to get a deal. Even if the offer sounds attractive (like 10 times or 20 times your starting price).
I had this happen often: One time it was a vintage Iron Maiden t-shirt. Within a few hours I got 3 offers ranging from 50$ to 125$. I refused them all and the t-shirt sold for over 300$ to a Japanese buyer.
Another time it was a very "ugly" advertising display for some sort of drinks. Some plastic sculpture of a guy holding a tray of said drink and the display would be illuminated by a light bulb. Ugly. I paid 2$ at a garage sale (I mean for 2 bucks, the risk of loosing money is almost nil). Same, got a bunch of offers, turned them all down and end up selling the thing for 500$ to someone who's dad had a bar in the 50's with the same ad. He wanted it as a tribute/souvenir of his father.
So if you don't know what it's worth, let the auction run its course. On eBay or elsewhere!
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