Ahoy Matey! Pirate Ships and Shopping!

If you haven't been shopping at your local thrift stores lately, now is the time! Here in PA our thrift stores are packed with merchandise.  The donation bids are overflowing and the sales floor is brimming with goods. This week I found several toys that were new in box and they were immediately listed on Amazon (the holiday selling season will be here before you know it).  I also found everything from designer shoes to house wares.  Look for Hallmark ornaments if your store holds a Christmas in July sale. See, now you know what I haven't written lately, but a girl's got to shop, right?!

Summer is super busy, so I need to keep this short.  I just wanted to give you a little prod in case you've only been hitting yard sales.  As much as I love yard sales, I get tired of driving around and only finding duds lately.  I haven't given up on yard sales by any means, especially since I got this Playmobil pirate ship for $5:

and sold it for $80 in a few days! It's my third toy pirate ship this summer, so now it's something I look for if they have accessories with them. Be on the lookout for the Fisher Price Imaginext pirate ships too.

Now for some shameless self-promotion! Last month I was a featured in Auctiva's education newsletter.  I love Auctiva and have used their service for many years.  Here's a link to the article.

Happy selling (and shopping),

Jackie

CathrineHolm Enamelware ~ Wow!

Until recently, I had never heard of CathrineHolm enamelware so I'm certain that I've passed up many a piece (which equates to passing up lot of money) in my travels. 

A few weeks ago, my friend Wendy from wwbrosky emailed me with such excitement because she had just found several CathrineHolm pieces.  Of course I said, "What the heck is that"?  So she emailed me some photos:

She currently has this set of nesting bowls listed here for $349.99! She has other pieces in her store, and this pot sold almost immediately for $79.99.  Here's the photo:

While I was researching coffee pots, I came across the ugliest a lovely CathrineHolm percolator that sold for $150. Check it out here.  I can just picture it sitting on a gold stove back in 1960. Yuck. Kudos to the seller though!

CathrineHolm's most popular collection is called Lotus.  It's highly sought-after, especially for those with a mid-century modern decor. Besides the unique pattern, you should look for a "C" in script writing on the bottom.  I am not sure if all pieces are marked though.

There are a lot of different makers of vintage enamelware and even items with an unknown maker can be very valuable.  Vintage enamelware kitchenware that is ornate or has unique patterns and colors are very collectible.

By definition, enamelware is the term used for items that have a porcelain enamel finish. It was used in kitchenware since the 1870s and it's still used today.

So take a moment to search eBay's completed items and you'll find a lot of different items and colors by CathrineHolm. Hopefully you can find a piece or two at your local thrift store or yard sale.

Happy Selling,

Jackie

Book Lots for Summer Reading = Great Profits!

If you think that only rare books, signed books or complete sets of books bring in big profits for sellers, then you should reconsider your view on selling used books on eBay!

The school year is coming to a close and many parents are looking for books that will keep their child reading all summer. Children's books, especially chapter books can be purchased for pocket change and made into lots that will turn that change into big bills.  With yard sale season in full swing, now is the time to buy low and sell high!

Children's chapter books are wildly popular in our house.  I'm always on the lookout for exciting books like Star Wars, Goosebumps, Junie B. Jones, Beast Quest, Animorphs, and The Magic Tree house just to name a few. I can buy them for .25 each and my kids can read them, then I can sell them for a profit!

Right now I'm on the hunt for Sweet Valley books. These were always popular, but it looks like there is a movie in the works that should create a surge in new readers. Recently this large LOT of 172 Sweet Valley books brought $660!  You can usually find 10 or more at a yard sale that has school age girls, or at thrift stores.  You don't have to have over 100 to make a profit, here's a mere 38 that sold for $71.

I love when I find hard cover Dr. Seuss, Sweet Pickles, Help Me Be Good, and Value Tales. These books are always great sellers.

One thing to remember, you don't want to pay $2 each per book, you need to buy books at a low price to make a good profit. I've found several yard sales offering to "fill a box" for a fixed price and at other sales people were charging 5 for $1 on all books. In addition, I have a local thrift store that sells books for $.05 and $.10 each.  I won't pay more then $.50 for a book unless it's the last one I need to complete a series!

Not into children's books? Consider looking for cookbooks, TV Guide, and Mad Magazine, which are just a few of the hundreds of options you have. Take a few minutes to look at completed listing of lots in books; when doing this I eliminate words like old, vintage, rare, leather, signed, and new since there are hundreds of thousands of listings.

Books are also easily donated if  you make a bad purchase. We donate books to our school since recent budget cuts have made it harder for them to buy new books. So consider trying your hand at book selling, you may find it's an easy way and fast flip!

Happy Selling,
Jackie

Cool New Tool If You Go To Yard Sales!

Hello online selling friends! Sorry I haven't posted for a while, it's been a busy spring for us. Anyway, I wanted to take a minute to tell you about a new tool that I heard about. The links below are not affiliate links, I just put them there for your convenience.

My friend Jen over at Molasses Creek Traders just told me about this great new tool if you use Craigslist to find local yard sales.  It's called Yard Sale Treasure Map and it's free! It maps out the yard sales in your local area based on the posts on Craigslist.  If you're in a big city it's a great way to narrow down the sales in your area. Here's how it works:

You just input your address and use the drop-down box to decide your maximum distance then chose the day for which you'd like to map out the sales.

Boom! You have a marked map of your local sales!  It worked great for me but I did read of some glitches when I was reviewing the comments on their site.

Yard sale season is just starting here in PA, so I plan to use this tomorrow to help me find my local sales.

Happy Selling,
Jackie

Coins: Pocket Change to Big Bucks

Most people know that old coins are valuable and that coin collections can be worth thousands and thousands of dollars. However, you don't need to be an expert or an avid coin collector to make a bundle by selling coins on eBay. I don't know a lot about coins, but in February I sold these 80 coins for $465:

My father introduced me to coin collecting as a child. He showed me how to tell if a coin was 90% silver by the way it looks and by the date.  My father didn't actually collect coins, but he did accumulate them.  A true collector has them graded, looks for coins that have not been circulated, and knows a whole lot more about them then my father did!

Anyway, after talking to many different people about coins, I'm finding that more and more older folks have coin accumulations that they don't know are very valuable. You see, the value is in the SILVER weight, not the rarity of the coin. It doesn't matter if they've been used and show wear. Rare coins are a whole other ball game and I don't know nearly enough to discuss them with you.  I'm talking about people that have thrown coins in a jar or box or whatever for many years, preferably in the 1960's or earlier.

The last year that coins were made of 90% silver was 1964.  Since I was born in 1965, silver coins were plentiful while growing up. My father told me to keep them because they'd be valuable some day. Here is the second lot of quarters that I sold recently:

This is lot of 80 quarters, all 90% silver that I sold for $518 at auction and it's just like the lot I sold in February. None were "rare", all were previously circulated, and some showed significant wear.  The value was purely in the silver.

I realize that you can't just walk into a yard sale or thrift store and find coins.  Since it's been 46 years since they stopped minting coins in silver, you don't often get silver coins back for change when you buy something at a store.  Once in a while you do, but not often -- it sure is worth glancing through your coins though to see if any are dated 1964 or earlier.  If you look at the photo, they look a little bit different - shinier and brighter.

Why am I telling you this if you can't just find it at store? Because I bet many of you have an older relative or friend who has been hording miscellaneous coins for years and they have no idea what they have.  Personally I don't sell a lot of items for other people, but this is one thing that I will take on consignment because they are so easy to sell!  Think about how easy it is to ship 80 quarters, and if you take a 30% commission, you'll make over $150 and the coin owner will be very happy to have hundreds of dollars instead of just the original face value of $20.

Dimes dated 1964 and earlier are also made of 90% silver. Check out this listing; who wouldn't want to get $6,400 for $250 worth of dimes??

So next time you visit older relatives and friends, strike up a conversation about coins and see if they have any that they would want you to sell for them. You don't need to be a coin expert to sell coins for the silver value. 

Happy Selling,
Jackie