Selling Items in Lots

I love to "lot" items together and sell them in one big group.  A few posts ago I talked about selling blank audio cassettes in lots, but there are many other items that turn a great profit when selling like items in one group.

Take DVDs for instance; during yard sale season (which is limited here in Southeastern PA) I can find children's DVDs for .50 to $1.00 each.  Last fall I found a woman selling her son's Thomas the Tank Engine DVDs. She had 5 of them at $1 each.  The next day I found another 4 Thomas the Tank DVDs for $4.  I listed all of them in one lot on eBay and quickly sold them for $49.99.  Nice profit for a $9 investment and an easy item to ship too!

Toys are one of my favorite things to sell, and I sell many toys in lots. Most recently I found a Madeline doll case that included 2 dolls and a bunch of clothing for $5. I considered breaking up the pieces and selling them separately; but honestly that's a lot of work.  So I decided to just sell everything together.  In 12 hours the lot sold for $69.99.  Hmm, maybe I should have priced it higher, but I was happy to get a great profit so quickly!

Here's the Madeline lot:



Dollhouse furniture is a really great item to sell in lots. It doesn't have to be Barbie or vintage.  This month I sold a huge lot of Dora the Explorer dollhouse furniture. Here's the listing.  It sold for $69.99; I bought the Dora Talking Dollhouse and all the furniture for $20. I still have the house, which I will sell on Craigslist; I also have another lot of furniture that was duplicates so I'll list that on eBay this week. 

Dollhouse furniture is easy to ship and usually a quick flip.  I look for Fisher Price Loving Family, Madeline, Calico Critters, Barbie, Dora the Explorer, vintage Little People and Little Tikes, which are fairly easy to find.  If you're at a live auction or an estate sale, try to find Strombecker, Tomy, Marx, Idea, Tootsie, Renwal, in addition to well made wooden or metal furniture.

Clothing items can bring great profits when sold in lots.  I sell my sons slim jeans once he outgrows them. This past fall I was able to get $50 for 4 pairs of Gap jeans that he had worn the previous school year. You can often find jeans at thrift stores or yard sales for low prices. Look for current styles in great condition and put them in a lot; just be sure they are all the same size to maximize your profit.

I've also sold a few lots of Littonware cookware. Littonware is made of a hard plastic that can be used in the conventional oven, convection oven or microwave. It's no longer made and has a big following. Here are 3 pieces that I sold for $58.99:

Selling in lots is lots of fun and can bring lots of profits.  Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Happy selling,
Jackie

Kid's Cassette Tape Players

Since I talked about blank cassette tapes a few weeks ago, I thought I would mention how popular kids cassette players can be. These are big profit makers for me, especially at Christmas time. 

The most popular cassette player is the Fisher Price Tuff Stuff with Voice Warp. I consistently sell this on Amazon for an average of $69.99; last Christmas they were selling as high as $89.99.

If you find one, make sure you test the microphone to be sure the voice warp works; it seems to be the first thing to malfunction on these players.

Fisher Price Tuff Stuff Tape Player with Voice Warp

Fisher Price also made a standard Tuff Stuff cassette player. I've sold this one for $49.99 on average, and I was lucky enough to find on new in the package that I sold for $110.00.

Standard Fisher Price Tuff Stuff Tape Player

Other kids tape players/recorders sell for a nice profit.  Two weeks ago I found this purple Playskool Tape Player for $5.  Sold in 1 week for $29.99.  I've sold this one before so I just keep reusing the same listing. Very quick and easy flip!

There are a number of reasons that these still sell even though compact discs replaced cassettes.  I've sold these to teachers who have a lot of books on cassette. They are not as delicate as a CD player, so they are great for schools and daycare centers.  I've also sold them to parents of special needs children, as they are easy to use.  Finally, adults with poor eyesight can see the buttons to listen to music or books without assistance.

There are lot of different makes and models of children's cassette players. I stick with the brand names like Fisher Price and Playskool. I've always kept my prices high and have never had to wait long for one to sell. I've seen some people price them low on eBay, and that's ok because I just buy them and put them on Amazon and make a nice profit!

Happy selling,

Jackie

Priority Mail Regional Rate Boxes

I'm not sure what happened to my last post, the whole thing was there when I hit post....  so let's try again.

The US Postal Service recently added some new boxes and envelopes to their Priority Mail line-up.  I primarily use Priority Mail to ship my eBay and Amazon packages.

They are now offering a Regional Rate box, well 2 of them actually. These boxes provide the speed of Priority Mail while allowing you to ship heavier items at a lower cost, similar to the flat rate boxes.

You have 2 choices; Regional A box which has a 15-pound limit.  The Regional B box has a 20-pound limit.

The cost to ship is a flat rate based on region. Like regular Priority Mail, it will cost more to ship from one coast to the other, and less within your own region.

Here is the cost to ship using these boxes:

Box           Zone 1&2            Zone 3             Zone 4         Zone 5         Zone 6         Zone 7         Zone 8

A                   $4.97              $5.08               $5.58          $7.15            $7.83           $8.36            $9.37

 

B                   $ 5.81             $6.88             $8.06          $10.51           $12.29         $13.12          $14.62 

What is the benefit of these boxes? For example, if you live in Zone 1 and are shipping a 15-pound widget to Zone 4 you would pay only $5.58 for shipping if you use Box A.  If you used standard Priority Mail, that same package would cost $20.12 to ship and using the Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate box the cost would be $10.95.

USPS also introduced a new flat rate padded envelope which I love! The shipping cost is only $4.95 and it's stronger then the cardboard envelopes that are meant for documents.  The padded envelope works great for anything you can fit inside! This week I used it to mail a bed sheet that weighed just over 1 lb. It would have cost over $7 to ship, but with the padded envelope it was only $4.95.  I bet you can be very creative in what you ship in these!

The ONLY immediate issue is that Paypal does not have these new boxes and envelopes programmed into their shipping. Thank goodness I also subscribe to Endicia for online shipping.  Endicia also allows you to print First Class International postage from home, which I use daily and I don't have to go to the post office! Now I'm also using Endicia for these new boxes and padded envelope. What a time saver!

Happy selling,
Jackie

Priority Mail Regional Rate Boxes

The US Postal Service recently added some new boxes and envelopes to their Proirity Mail line-up.  I primarily use Priority Mail to ship my eBay and Amazon packages.

They are now offering a Regional Rate box, well 2 of them actually. These boxes provide the speed of Priority Mail while allowing you to ship heavier items at a lower cost, similar to the flat rate boxes.

You have 2 choices; Regional A box which has a 15 pound limit.  The Regional B box has a 20 pound limit.

The cost to ship is a flat rate based on region. Like regular Priority Mail, it will cost more to ship from one coast to the other, and less within your own region.

Here is the cost to ship using these boxes:

Dolls & Accessories ~ Not Just For Collectors & Experts!

If you're like me, you see dolls and doll clothing, furniture and cases while shopping at yard sales and thrift stores.   It's so easy to walk by without giving them a second look while thinking "I don't know enough about dolls to buy them for resale".

I am not a doll expert; I only know what I played with in the 1970's and the things that I've researched. However, you don't have to be an expert to make a great profit on dolls and doll stuff - you just need a keen eye and a little bit of knowledge. Everyone knows that older Barbie sell and that the first Barbie can bring big bucks, however, Barbie is not the only gal in town, and many people donate dolls to thrift stores without knowing the value. 

Right now some of the dolls from the 80's are hot! Did you know that Mattel made a doll called My Child?It is said that it was made to compete with Coleco's Cabbage Patch Kids.  Because CPK was so popular, these dolls never really took off, however, they do get donated to thrift stores and can bring some big bucks. My friends over at Care and Share Thrift Shoppe have one listed right now:

My Child Doll

In reviewing completed items you'll see that one sold for over $1000!  So next time you see a bunch of Cabbage Patch Kids type dolls, double check that you're not walking passed a little gold mine!

A few years ago I bought a small suitcase full of doll clothes along with 2 vintage Ideal Crissy and Velvet dolls.  I assumed that all of the clothing went with those dolls but not all of it was marked. I immediately sold the dolls and the clothing that was tagged Ideal.  What I was left with was a pile of untagged clothing and shoes; one pair of shoes had Timpson Fine Shoes stamped on the bottom, which was the only thing I had to use to begin my research.

As it turns out, the remainder of the dolls clothing and accessories were from a vintage Sasha doll. Jackpot! Two weeks ago I finally sold the Timpson Fine Shoes, doll shoes, for $150. I sold the other 2 pairs of unmarked shoes for $50 each.   In total I earned $336 (plus shipping) on 3 pairs of shoes and 3 outfits.

Here are the shoes, keep your eyes open for this style of doll shoe:

Here's my listing for these Sasha Shoes!

I could go on and on about dolls and I will blog about them more in the future. For now, here are some of my favorite dolls that I've found pretty easily. They are not the porcelain "display" type dolls, but dolls that kids play or played with:

• Topper Dawn Dolls
• Kiddles
• Ideal Crissy and friends
• Madeline
• Hugga Bunch
• American Girl
• Older Character Dolls
• Barbie and friends, of course!

Check the back of the neck of a doll to see if has a brand name stamped on it. I love to find Kenner, Ideal, and even Mattel when looking at dolls. There are lots of names out there, but I'm just touching on the ones that I'm familiar with. If you want a more complete doll history, I have found some great books on doll collecting at my local library.

Doll clothing is very popular. Most people know that vintage doll clothes are good sellers, but so are today's doll clothes. You can find modern Barbie clothing in lots at yard sales and thrift stores. A 235-piece lot of modern Barbie clothing, shoes and accessories just sold for $138.  You can find boxed lots for $1 or $2 at yard sales. Again it's not just Barbie, look for clothing that has the doll's name or brand on it. I've done well with putting Cabbage Patch Kid clothing together in a lot.

American Girl dolls are sold on Craigslist a lot. Although you might think that everyone know that they are valuable, there are still some people that live under a rock aren't aware. Last summer I bought an American Girl Just Like Me doll at a yard sale for $2. Sold her for $97!

I love to sell doll furniture, but we'll talk about that another time. I'll just leave you with one other doll and that's the Kenner Blythe doll (caution, she's scary looking IMO). Check out the completed items on her and other Kenner dolls.

Happy selling,
Jackie