I’ve been buying and selling on eBay a long time – since 1998 in fact. Suffice to say, I’ve sold a significant number of items and been astounded numerous times when the price a seemingly worthless item goes beyond my wildest expatiation.
I’ve got a few regrets too. I came across some old shipping invoices the other day for some SNES RPG’s I sold in the late 90’s. Made me weep. Sold for pennies compared what they are worth now.
Anyways, in the last decade I’ve discovered a lot of things to keep my eyes open for when at yard sales, thrift stores and while sorting through classified ads. These things have always allowed me to earn a decent side income and help fuel my own collecting habits.
Some of my favorite sales?
The best one by far, was a western pulp magazine. Pulp magazines (often referred to as “the pulps”) are inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. Typically, they were seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long. Pulps were printed on cheap paper with ragged, untrimmed edges. This book was in a lot of vintage magazines (1950’s and earlier) a neighbour found in their attic and sold to me for $50. Now, in that box alone their were at least forty magazines that I sold anywhere from $10 – $30. Plus a couple of Men’s Magazines (not those) with Pinups (again, not those) that sold for around $100 each. The real gem though, was a western pulp that I considered not listing. The back cover was gone, it was dog eared, it was dirty and it looked like crap. The condition was absolutely horrid. I listed it though, and the bids came rolling it. When it hit $100 on the first day I was floored. When it closed at $500+ a week lately, I could not constrain myself. I cannot remember if it was desired due to a story by a specific author, or if the artwork was by a certain artist, but even at the time I could have cared less. The buyer, (whose name happened to be western-pulp or something similar) paid instantly and was only too happy to do so.
Another favourite is a vintage (kerosine) oil lamp I had. I actually had five of these, all which had been sitting in my shed until a couple years ago when I decided to see if they were worth anything. They had come from my Grandparents house and had no sentimental value, so sat in the “sell one of these days” pile for years. When I looked them it, I really couldn’t find anything. I know so sold for big money, but figured these would fall into the cheaper range if they sold at all. I managed to find a few keywords to make sure were in my auction after a bit of research, and listed all five of them. Three garnered a couple bids and went for prices I was happy to live with, $40 – $60. The other two? Well, those were a different story. One sold for $300 and the other for an insane $1500. Everything was paid for, and while I was extremely nervous during shipping, they all arrived at their new homes and went into the collection of people who were only too glad to get them.
Do you have any favourite stories about items you’ve sold that blew your expectations out of the water? Please share them in the comments, I’d love to hear.
Anyways, this brings us to my new site I’d love for you to check out: Auctioning Advice.
Basically, once a week I’m going to explore a niche and show you an item that has a brisk collector market. Things that you can keep an eye out for when you’re hunting for games. Things that sell quickly, and for a good profit to boot.
Let’s face it, a lot of people would never believe that old video games sell for such huge figures. And they do! So what other collectibles are we passing by every day? Check out the site and see some of them. I’ve only got my first post up so far, and it’s about Lego, another market that’s close to my heart.
