Buying/Selling for PT Income -Ending early

[framing fowl]

I thought I would start a separate thread for my buying and selling so it doesn't get buried in my journal. Feel free to jump in with your buying and selling stories, tips, tricks etc.

This all started because my boss has cut my hours back again and I don't want to have to get a part-time job to fill in the financial gap. My plan is to do something that I enjoy doing for the 3 days I'm off. Pies for the holidays is one avenue. The other is getting serious about buying and selling on e-bay and craigslist. I have bought and sold on CL and ebay with a good amount of success as a hobby and I am wanting to capitalize on that.

My current game plan is to attend one auction or estate tag sale per weekend, fill in with any interesting yard sales and a couple of online auction places that I buy from. Then the rest of the weekend is prepping, photos, listings and getting it sold. I have a set amount of initial seed money. I have given myself a mileage allowance of 40 free miles every weekend because that is what I would drive if I had gotten a part-time job. Any mileage above and beyond must be subtracted from my profits. I have given myself a time frame of six weeks to test this out and see what happens. I have a final dollar total that must be in my money box at the end of the six weeks.

About a month ago, this was my plan so I had picked up a few things on a weekend and then my boss had promised more hours so I'm including the items and $ and mileage from that weekend into the current project.

I also have a fairly specific idea on things that I am looking for: good quality gardening equipment, cast iron, food processors, dehydrators, presses, stainless steels pots, crocks, canning equipment, scrap silver, certain old books, certain types of picture frames and paintings, specialty wood working tools, welding equipment, tool boxes, certain "looks" for home interior, scrap metal, certain types of mirrors, trailers, and lawn mowers.

Here is my current inventory from previous:

33 quart water bath canner that does 9 quart jars. Sold and doubled my money. (The same buyer had bought some rainbarrels from me a couple of years ago!)
2 motorized older stainless steel rival meat slicers
manual stainless steel rival meat slicer
motorized cider press

Yesterday I went to an auction and picked up the following:

old wooden surveyor's tripod (people in town are buying these to make lamps out of)
Enterprise lard/sausage/fruit/wine press
Old floor lamp (that I'm keeping for myself )
Base off of a cream separator (may try to sell as yard ornament but will take to the scrap yard if it doesn't sell that way)(this was also my one mistake of the auction. I thought he was auctioning off an aluminum tub in his right hand but he was actually selling this thing. I bought it for cheap enough that I will still make money but I was a bit chagrined with myself.

Sterling silver tussie mussie that came with a box of misc. silver plate over copper and brass items.

I also made a contact for a dealer who specializes in Kentucky history books that may be interested in a couple of things I have on the shelf.

 

[THEFAN]

I wouldn't pass up old 1980's toys. I have made a killing on them for the last 10 yrs now.

Toys like

80's gijoe
transformers
he-man
battlebeast
old slot car sets
1st series garbage pail kids
baseball cards pre 1970
silver age or older comics
MASK toys
Even old war type model kits unopen or complete in box
Another is old Games Workshop 1980's stuff gaming products.





This is some of the stuff I have always been able to double or better my money with. Especially when I find the stuff at flea markets and yard sales.

If you come across silver coins and want to sell spot I am all ears. Especially walking liberty halfs.

 

[framing fowl]

Thefan -we've done well with some of the old tonka, structo, ertyl, buddy L etc. -especially the fire trucks for some reason.

80's toys... I don't have much working knowledge on that. I was a kid in the 80's but my folks didn't buy us a lot of toys. They just told us to go outside and play! Anyway, how did you learn about that stuff? Typically, when I see kids toys, unless it's old metal I personally run the other direction! It all just looks like plastic to me. Where do you then resell these items?

I'm going to have to look up the game workshop stuff. That had kind of a specialty following didn't it?

Aren't people real particular about comics? The thought of looking for that type of stuff and baseball cards really intimidates me because of listing out the conditions and not knowing where to sell it locally. I do have a bunch of 80's baseball cards that I personally collected and have in a binder but I've never looked into selling them.

 

[Boogity]

I have a niece who does that sort of thing about 4 hours a day 6 days a week. She is in Chicago and evidently she does very well with her little business. She spends all day Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at garage/yard sales, flea markets, and auctions. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesdays are for listing and shipping. She says that she uses UPS exclusively because it's the most reliable and closest to her home. I would imagine that it's not always the cheapest but reliability has value. And she only drives to the UPS shipping place on Wednesdays - one trip per week. This saves time and fuel.

She comes to visit us once a year and we go to visit her once a year. I have gone with her several times on her buying missions and she is very business-like and no-nonsense in her approach to purchases. She has done this for at least 20 years and she knows exactly what to look for and can quickly scan a yard sale and target one or two items, make her purchase, and hit the road in a mater of minutes. She says that a lot of precious time can be wasted at yard sales and flea markets with very little profit to show for it. She is the type of buyer that we don't usually like to see at our yard sales. When we have a yard sale it sometimes becomes more of a social event than a sale. My niece doesn't talk to anyone and moves quickly. She knows her items and knows the price. She makes an offer quickly and does not spend much time bargaining. She is usually in the car waiting for me before I get a chance to look at half the stuff.

She sells on eBay and CL from home and she also sells stuff at consignment auctions. She has built up a client list that calls her to make purchases for them.

I think it would be fun thing to get into but, like most things in life, they are fun until they become work. Good luck and let us know how things are going.

 

[framing fowl]

Well, I'll tell you that right now, it's much more fun than work and much better than a part-time job! I can scan yard sales and tag sales pretty quickly. I've found that it doesn't really pay to stray too far from your knowledge base. I'm going to have to see how the auction thing goes. I guess the tradeoff is that there is a lot of stuff in one place rather than driving all over looking at sales.

I did sell one of the meat slicers today for 2 1/2 times what I paid for it. The guy asked if I would take less. I told him "If we were talking about all three slicers, I would be much more inclined to bargain. I sure would like to get $x for it." I never said no to him but he forked over the total.

I also contacted the book dealer that I met yesterday and he said he would have a quote for me in a couple of days. This set of books is such a niche market that I really think a dealer would be the way to go rather than listing on e-bay for this one. But we'll see what he comes back with.

 

[THEFAN]

Thefan -we've done well with some of the old tonka, structo, ertyl, buddy L etc. -especially the fire trucks for some reason.

80's toys... I don't have much working knowledge on that. I was a kid in the 80's but my folks didn't buy us a lot of toys. They just told us to go outside and play! Anyway, how did you learn about that stuff? Typically, when I see kids toys, unless it's old metal I personally run the other direction! It all just looks like plastic to me. Where do you then resell these items?

I'm going to have to look up the game workshop stuff. That had kind of a specialty following didn't it?

Aren't people real particular about comics? The thought of looking for that type of stuff and baseball cards really intimidates me because of listing out the conditions and not knowing where to sell it locally. I do have a bunch of 80's baseball cards that I personally collected and have in a binder but I've never looked into selling them.

Those old metal toys are a winner for sure. Nothing like metal toys.

I was a huge toy can fan in the 80's I was poor but I always found ways to get my toys. I was a barter as a kid. Had to be I was poor. The skill has paid off big time through out my life. Anyway I have owned a few collectable type stores in my time. So that is where I crafted my skilld. I have owned 2 baseball comic shops and 2 Game stores. I of my game stores was an on-line store in 2000. First sale ever on ebay was 250.00 for a gijoe toy. After that I was hooked. I have dealt on many different sites. Like Yojoe.com, Hisstank.com rebulscum.com, ebay, bartertown for gaming and dumping odd stuff. There area ton more sites out there too. I have used gun site forums to dump reloading and odd gun stuff. Like Northeast gun shooters, gunbroker, and auction arms.

Comics are for sure a nitch thing. If you have key issues like 1st appearances and low numbers you can get some good money for them. I stay in silver age . As for baseball cards forget anything from 1983 and up. WAY TO MUCH out there. I collected pre 1970 pretty much. I have always found local people who still love baseball cards to sell to. Pre 1965 stuff is hot. Can't tell you anything about the other sports. I am a baseball fan only.

Magic the gathering cards are hot too. Especially, Beta Unlimited, Legends, Antiquity, and some of the other older stuff. Got through high school with this stuff. Got me to some of the grand tourneys in Boston too.

Garbage pail toys are good sellers too. There were multiple colors and they came in a trash can. They look like old muscle men. They sell very high for an odd collectable.

I can go on and on. I have made my fair share of money on these items and still do. They always turn me a profit. Good Luck!!

Keep me in mind if you come across Walking LIberty Halfs and or old silver age comics like. Amazing Spiderman, The Hulk, X-men, The Avengers, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Thor, and Batman

 

[framing fowl]

Keep me in mind if you come across Walking LIberty Halfs and or old silver age comics like. Amazing Spiderman, The Hulk, X-men, The Avengers, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Thor, and Batman

Will do!

 

[FarmerChick]

we just chatted about a thread on auctions.

I have a local auction and am thinking of selling some things. You could buy and then sell (and not have to ship) at the auction. Fast disposal of items.

might be an idea

 

[framing fowl]

FC -depending on the items, I'm getting more money by selling direct to buyers through craigslist. I'm also trying to not deal in anything under about $20 or it's just not worth the time. However, in the box of silver plate over copper and brass, I may take to the local auction because I would probably get more than scrap.

I did check out the local auction today and I do think it might be a good outlet to sell some of my smaller personal stuff and my misc. picture frames that people always dump on me at the gallery. I might take them some stuff next week and just see how it goes.

Today I went to the scrap yard and sold the big base from the piece of equipment that I accidentally bid on at the auction. I doubled my money so I was okay on that mistake. It weighed 160#.

 

[beerman]

This would be a good one to have it's own section, giving each other ideas on what to buy and sell and maybe help each other with pricing and what is selling and what is not. I thought I would make a killing I bought 6 huge boxes of happy meal toys then the market tanked