Things Can't Get much Busier than this. Can they?

Wow, I've been swamped with so many things to do I've neglected to post anything on my blogs recently. It's not so much preparations I have to make for myself for the holidays, although decorating the house was time consuming, as much as it has been pricing things up for sale at the booths and listing items on Ebay. I've been concentrating on my Ebay store where I sell my stamps since I've been making some major purchases of inventory and have to get them to market. For any of you who are stamp collectors or know someone who is check out my Ebay store Innisfree55 to see what I have currently for sale. I will be adding quite a bit more as time permits in the month ahead because this is the busy season for stamps. When the weather gets cold collectors are more likely to pull out their stamp collections and work on them inside their cozy, warm homes.

The season is also heating up at my antique booths as it appears our winter residents from up north are showing up very quickly. With that last storm this week I expect to see more arriving in the next couple of weeks. Sales at my antique booths were double in November over October so December thru April should be pretty darn good. I will take the opportunity to sell down my excess inventory and maybe even clear out a warehouse bay. I need to throw my own Garage Sale to get rid of some of the deadwood and "dumb" purchases that just didn't interest anyone at the booths and you don't want to waste precious shelf space on items that don't sell. November's best sellers at the booths were US coins, silver bullion coins, Jewelry, post cards, books and elegant pattern glass. Foot traffic has been good from what I'm told by the owners of the antique malls so I hope that keeps up all season because this summer totally sucked and I've got some catching up to do sales wise.

My oldest daughter as you know has started to make and sell hand crafted items recycled from old or used items which she is repackaging in the form of paper journals and just basically neat craft items that make wonderful gifts and are totally one of a kind. The new owners can then personalize them to their own tastes. If you check out her items for sale at her Etsy store Paperphilia, then you can see what I mean. I'm nagging her to make as many items as she can that I can sell in my booths since I feel much of her items would do well once a potential buyer sees them in person. I think one of the main motivations I have for treasure hunting for old and vintage items is because much of the items I buy come from a time period before everything was mass produced by machines and they have a lot of craftsmanship in them. I truly appreciate the work that went into the making of old furniture, pottery, hand-painted china and items I consider pieces of art. Much of the value of an antique I feel is in the skill and labor that went into it's creation. Many collectors feel the same way or at least I hope they do. Collectibles as art is a topic worthy of a post of it's own which I will have to work on when I make some time.

The Scary Estate Sale

Today's treasure hunt led me to a home that used to be an antique store that is legendary around these parts. I can remember going into this house when it was a store and the place was packed from floor to roof with items for sale. The owners also lived in this house and God only knows how they managed to move around in it with all the "junk" in it. The interesting thing is that the merchandise wasn't junk it was just so disorganized that it looked like a junkyard inside.

They always had items of value, they just couldn't find at times if you asked for something in particular. Well last night while checking the online classifieds I noticed that they were having an Estate sale there this weekend and I just had to go see what was left inside of this place. I knew that the member of the family that last ran the place had died accidentally a few years ago and the place had been boarded up since then. It looked like a building that was about to be condemned.

Ok enough background dramatization on this place and let's get on with the Estate sale story. My wife came along to see for herself what I was facing. We walked in and much to our relief the place was actually cleaned out enough that walking around wasn't going to be like running an obstacle course. The main concern was to not fall thru the floor as there were several soft spots in the wood and lots of plywood patches. We managed to navigate safely and although it was dark managed to find lots to dig through. Dig is a good way to put it. Remember in an earlier post I mentioned you had to be willing to get dirty to find good items sometimes? Well this was one of those situations. Everything was covered with dust and droppings from insects, rodents and who knows what but underneath were several nice items for purchase. I managed to find some great old photos of local interest that were inscribed and autographed to George Palmer Putnam who was at one time married to Amelia Earhart. I will have to research and find out who the men in the photos were to see if they have any monetary value. I also managed to find another early Dansk teak wood Salt and peppermill designed by Jens Quistgaard. To think I've managed to find 2 of these rare items in the past week is a big surprise. The one found today has some wear to it but I managed to clean it up and got it looking spiffy. It does have a slight crack in the wood so I'm not sure if I'll be selling it or using it myself. I probably will sell it since it still should fetch a decent price and I didn't pay much for it. Also found were some nice Williamsburg Reproduction trivetts that look great and will be easy to sell at one of my booths. My wife found a Fitz & Floyd swan shaped soup tureeen with a ton of dust and dirt on it but it also cleaned up nicely. She also found a dandy of a splite oak basket with brass fittings that will be kept for home. We found some other easily saleable items for the booths.

So while it wasn't quite as bad as hunting thru a haunted house it was definitely an experience that will be remembered for some time. I will go back probably on the 3rd day and see if I can get some big bargains buying by the boxload. There looks to be a ton of sales advertised this weekend so I'm hoping to find some more treasure for resale. When you live in Florida you can yard sale all year round as long as the rain doesn't stop you. Good luck with your treasure hunting.

Give vintage gifts for Christmas this year

Every Christmas at my house there is a higher than usual anticipation when it comes to the gift giving par of the celebration. For several years I've made a habit of giving vintage and antique items as gifts to my family members. Of course I still buy my fair share of the latest DVD's, CD's and the latest electronic toys and of course clothing and they usual gifts you would expect to find under the tree. But I'm getting famous or perhaps infamous for spicing things up by giving gifts you can't buy at the mall because there were no malls when they were made. Vintage gifts are a great way to really surprise folks during the holidays. I like to give vintage ceramic items or items that have a nostalgic appeal to them. Often it's an item I know one of my siblings had when we were kids and you can see their faces light up like a kid again when they open that box and get a flashback of their childhood. It's priceless the reactions you get sometimes. I like to find souvenir items from places we went to on family vacations as kids like plates or cedar wood boxes with the names of the vacation spots from the 60's and 70's like Rock City, Look out Mountain, Niagara Falls, National Parks, caves, Washington DC or any other major city we visited. Many of the "Theme Parks" we went to were not nationally known but were very popular in that state or region of the country and were just as exciting to go to as Disney World today to us as kids. Florida sure had a ton of small family run roadside attractions that are long gone but their souvenirs show up at yard sales frequently.

I am Christmas shopping all year long and setting aside items for gifts for the holidays or even to just decorate with. Some suggestions for items that I think make good vintage gifts are anything that has a childhood or nostalgic appeal to them.

• Souvenir plates, tins, trays, etc from places like Disneyland or any of the tourist hot spots from the "good old days"


• Fisher Price Viewmasters with the slide wheels are good items and still rather easy to find

• Old LP records with good covers on them that even if they can't be played can be displayed
• Postcards from your local area or from the part of the country the gift receiver is from originally


• Any vintage items of local interest especially books
  


• Vintage toys for the grand kids that their parents will have fond memories of.
  Coffee mugs from restaurants from the 40-70's such as Howard Johnson, Walgreen, Woolworths, Denny's, White Castle, etc.


• If you have a veteran to give a gift to any souvenir item that pertains to the branch of the armed services they were in
  
• Vintage textiles like embroidered pillows, pillowcases, bedspreads and tablecloths
  


• Vintage ceramic items such as planters, figurines, cookie jars
  Vintage bedside clocks, radios, lamps, prints and photos


• Coins that were minted in the birth year of the recipient
  
  I think you get the point I'm trying to make here by now. I just find that vintage gifts are always unexpected and they're a nice alternative to the latest crap made in China that you see stuffed on the shelves at the local discount or Department store. When you take some time to sit down and work on a list, the possibilities are endless and you can save a lot of money on your Christmas budget also if you are patient in your hunt. Most of these vintage items are very durable which is why they are still around and have lots of years left in them. Another way to think of it is you're recycling gifts and helping the environment too. So give a gift they they won't be expecting since they haven't made them in a generation or two. Good luck with your treasure hunting.

Battling for the customer's disposable Dollars in Hard Times

Gas over $3.00 and heading for $4.00. Mortgage payments going up. Food and electric bills rising and soon you've got less money available after the bills are paid to spend on luxuries. So how does a collectibles dealer compete for the ever shrinking disposable income budget of the average American household to increase their sales or at least keep them from diving below last year's levels? For many sellers there isn't very much that you can do but brave it out and keep your costs down as much as possible. You need to spend more time and effort on marketing items you've already purchased and dig them out of boxes and put them up for sale. Down times are a good opportunity to hone your sales skills and be a more savvy seller.

If you have booths in an antique mall like I do, now would be a good time to rearrange your booths and move the merchandise around so that it looks like you've got new inventory in even to the customers who browse the antique mall on a regular basis. If your inventory is basically in the same position it has been for the past year regulars will often pass it by thinking there's nothing new to draw them in to browse even if you've added several new items recently.

Try adding some seasonal items that will have plenty of eye appeal for those shopping for items to decorate with for the holidays. Brightly colored items will attract attention to your booth. Items that are at eye-level have the best chance of selling on average so be sure to place your usual best sellers there and often if you have nice inventory that should be selling but isn't because you've got it in a high or low spot, get in there and move it closer to eye-level. It really boils down to taking the time to keep your booth looking fresh and you're actively managing it. If you don't take the time it will show in your sales.

Talking to several dealers in my area lately I'm hearing that sales are half of what they were last year in the off season. This is most likely worse than the national average because my area is now in a recession after having ridden a real estate boom that has since collapsed. Foreclosures and unemployment has pretty much dried up the cash from the general local buyers. For those customers I try to stock as much items of local interest such as postcards from this area and anything that might have a nostalgia pull to them. There are still customers here who have money in good times and bad and they are out and taking advantage of this buyer's market so I do my best to tease them with reduced prices on more expensive and higher margin items where I can afford to take less to keep the cash flowing.

We lost a lot of dealers that had to throw in the towel because they went several months with sales that didn't even come close to meeting their booth rent. I myself decided to downsize my booth space to cut overhead and made do with less shelf space. I didn't want to do this but if you've got very little customer traffic you'd have little chance of selling even the Mona Lisa for $2000 so I feel it didn't cost me in sales. It also made me take a good hard look at my inventory and evaluate areas that really didn't have much potential even in good times. It was good to be forced to take a hard look at my inventory and trim the "dead wood".

Now finally we are moving into the busy season when we have our northern residents moving down and sales are picking nicely so I feel fortunate that I was able to weather a really brutal off season without having a month that I couldn't meet my rent and even turning a decent though small profit.

Charleston, SC-What a town for antiques!

Well we made it to Charleston for the wedding and had a splendid time. My only regret is that I didn't have the opportunity to do any thrifting or yard sales due to the festivity schedule. Charleston is certainly an antique lovers town though since I don't think I've seen so many Antique malls in one area as I did driving thru. It made me think about how good the sales must be to be able to stock so many booths. I mean there were over a dozen malls within a 5 mile stretch of US 17 heading out of town. Another thing there is in Charleston is MONEY!!. That town has such a long and rich history in the South and was the center of commerce and finance for a lot of the early history of this country. Anyways I will certainly plan a trip back where I can take advantage of the buried treasure I'm sure is there having been passed down from generation to generation. My Ebay auctions for the weekend did well also with much of my recent purchase from Goodwill selling for handsome profits. You can still pluck some gems out of a Goodwill if you keep your eyes open and know what to look for. The auctions paid the gas bill for the trip so I'm pleased.

How to improve your Ebay Auctions to increase Sales

I wanted to share some thoughts of mine on what I believe are ways to improve the sales on your Ebay auctions. It's not an easy task most of the time to put together an auction that has both good eye-appeal and a description that will attract as many potential bidders as you can get. For most Ebay buyers their first impression of your listing will make all the difference in whether your auction grabs their interest enough to make them a potential bidder. If you can't snag their attention from the get go they will quickly move on to another auction. So here's the areas I believe you need to focus on to help maximize sales.

• Learn as much about the item for sale as you can before you describe it.
• Take good pictures to ensure potential buyers have a clear visual view of what they are bidding on.
• Make sure to include as many relevant Keywords in your description to increase search traffic
• Clearly explain you return policy
• Promptly answer any e-mails you receive concerning an auction.

Before writing up your description for an auction do the best you can to learn as much as possible about the item as you can in a reasonable amount of time. Try to learn the general time period or age it was made, if it was designed by someone special which gives it added collector appeal and any kind of info that will help you with your choice of Keywords. Measure it accurately which helps assure the buyer it's the right piece in a pattern they are looking for. The size of a piece of crystal stemware or sterling flatware for example makes a difference in value many times especially when it comes to serving pieces. Be sure to accurately describe any flaws or repairs, chips, etc even if they were done by the manufacturer. Basically you goal should be to remove as much mystery about your auction item as you can for the buyer so they can bid with confidence. This often results in a higher bid price.

I can't stress enough how important the picture(s) you use in your listing are for giving a potential buyer their best visual impression of your auction item. Too many times I've looked at listings with pictures that are out of focus or too small that I feel like they hurt more than helped the auction's chances of selling. I'm sure most of them are by sellers who may only occasionally list items and aren't particularly experienced at taking close up pictures with a digital camera. But many times I see long time sellers that have poorly taken photos that are out of focus or badly lit and don't help sell the item. If you need to take a close up of a china or silver hallmark or just want to show the detail better be sure to learn how to use the macro focus option on your camera. Macro focus adjusts the lens to allow for close up shots of 18 inches to as close as a couple of inches. Make sure you have enough natural lighting if possible so that you can hopefully avoid using the flash. If you use your flash be sure you don't overexpose the picture. It takes time and practice to get the hang of it but you don't have to be an expert to get better picture. The next area to help your auction picture is to use an online hosting site to store your picture files. Since I use AOL I store them at My FTP SPACE. There are several online sites such as Flickr or Photobucket that are free which you can use to host your images. The reason I recommend this is I feel that Ebay's own photo hosting is not the best way to put good pictures in your listing. Also it can save you money using your own hosting site. If you are handy with any of the photo editing programs that are available your can combine several shots of your item and then arrange and combine them into a single jpg file and upload that for your listing. This is what I do and it allows for much larger views of your auction item. I take shots from different angles, the inside if it has one. All hallmarks and manufacturers labels that identify the piece and also any blemishes and flaws that the buyer needs to be aware of to help them have as best a visual impression of the item I'm selling. Once again your goal is to remove as much mystery and doubt from the buyer so they are won't be hesitant to bid higher for fear of a buying something that doesn't meet their expectations when it comes to condition. Collectors nearly always want items that are in great or near new looking condition and will often pay dearly for it.

Keywords play an important part in driving search traffic to your auction so be sure to include them in your description. Your choice of Keywords of course depends on what you're selling. As an example, my daughter recently listed a 1978 brochure for the Universal Studio's movie tour in California and called me because she was discouraged that no one seemed interested in it and she only had one bid for the starting price of .99 cents. I looked at her listing and noted she had a very basic description with little details. I told her to list the names of the movies that were featured on the tour and any star's name or other Keywords that would result in her listing showing up in a greater amount of searches. She ended up selling her brochure for $26 to a serious collector of Jaws the Movie memorabilia which was one of the movies featured on the tour. Buy adding that Keyword her auction then showed up on any search for Jaws plus any of the other movies on the tour and gave her auction a greater number of potential buyers. I don't have to tell you she was thrilled with the results of her sale. Now don't go overboard and have dozens of Keywords that clutter up your description and make it look obvious that you are baiting bidders. Just give it more thought when you write your description to add keywords that are relevant and blend in well.

Your return policy should be stated clearly to assure potential customers that they can bid with confidence that they may return an item in the event that it isn't correctly described or doesn't arrive in satisfactory condition. This helps you build up a group of repeat buyers in the long run you'll find. A clear return policy will also decrease the chances that a bidder will be reluctant to trust you and improves your chances of getting more bids. Accurate descriptions are essential to avoid buyers from abusing your return policy, so be as precise as you can when you write your description. A satisfied customer will often be back to check your auction listings because you made the buying experience so pleasant. Also be sure to pack fragile items carefully to avoid returns for breakage.

Promptly reply to e-mails sent concerning your auctions. I know from experience that the most common e-mails you will receive will be from people asking for an estimate of shipping charges so try to avoid that by either stating in your description the shipping weight or if you can include a link for a shipping calculator, the interested buyer can figure it out for themselves. The rest will be for some clarification or more specific details on your auction item and those need to be dealt with promptly. Always remember that your #1 goal is to remove as much mystery and resistance the bidder might have about what you are seller. The more confident the bidder the higher the sales price will be. Also the percentage of items listed that sell will increase due to you making a greater effort to remove as many doubts a potential bidder might have about your items for sale.

I hope you'll find these hints helpful and I always welcome input from you on ways you find improve your sales results.

Gold and Silver are Even HOTTER!!

Well Gold and Silver still continue their climb while the dollar sinks down the toilet. I'm not sure how high is too high but I do know from experience that too high too fast is a way to lose money if you're speculating short term on these metals. I'm going to bet that the silver I put in my booths at $16.50 an ounce are most likely gone if someone happens to notice it and has precious metals fever. The charts on these metals are not sustainable short term and I plan to sell even more of my silver since I think it has more appeal right now and if you want to put some money in precious metals you should start with silver anyways. Gold is king but you have to have a pretty big wallet right now to buy even a small amount of it. Besides Gold is in a buying panic right now and is overpriced short term in my opinion. Be patient and sit on the sidelines for a correction if you want to be a buyer. If you want to sell take advantage of the spike to make a healthy profit but long term I would hold on to gold that you already have since Washington and the powers that be apparently don't want to save the dollar.

I'm just glad I bought as much silver as I did when I could get it for $3.00 and sometimes less and ounce years ago. But I did have to wait quite a few years to take my profits on some of it didn't I? Anyway people who have some money to invest should buy silver even at these levels and set it aside in case the government sets off a hyperinflation bomb to help them cure that huge national debt that they will never stop piling up. Besides the Chinese are getting reluctant to hold as much US Treasury bonds as they now have and will be cutting their holdings of US denominated investments.

Gee when did I get so political and into macro-economics?

Oh yeah, I like to buy stuff cheap and sell it for more I guess is part of the reason. After all the lesson I learned from some old timers who had money when I was a kid was to buy it when everyone hates it and sell it when they love it. There are many variations on this saying but you get the picture. Markets overdue it on both ends. When it's out of favor they dump it as quick as they can and move on to the next "HOT" item and when it's hot they buy without much concern about the value involved. Now smart treasure hunters know that you buy for pennies or nickels on the dollar and sell it for a dollar and pocket the difference. That's what we're here for isn't it?.......hmmm. I Can't Hear You................Anyways it's all about the thrill of the hunt and the feeling you get when you sell it for a good price. Good luck with your treasure hunting this week.

The 500% Solution

When I first started buying items at yard sales and thrift stores I didn't have a good idea of how much was too much to pay for something that I intended to resell. Much of what I bought I sold on Ebay so the bidders pretty much determined what the sale price was unless I put a reserve on the auction to protect myself from getting too little for a high priced item. My original experience in retail I've mentioned is selling old US Postage stamps to collectors and the general markup rule there is you can expect to get 2-2.5 times what you pay for a stamp which makes the mark-up on average 125%. After my expenses I would net around 40% on every dollar I sold. I quickly found out that a 125% mark-up wasn't going to work for me if I wanted to sell other kinds of collectibles especially after I started selling most items at antique booths. I sat down with my scratch pad early and figured out my expenses and came up with the 500% solution. I determined that as a general rule I wasn't interested in buying something for resale unless I was pretty darn sure I could get at least 5 times what I paid for it retail. I do have some exceptions to this rule especially in the area of furniture and jewelry and some other high ticket items but for 90% of the items I purchase the 500% solution is the standard I work with.

Other dealers I talked with told me I was nuts for thinking I should expect to get so much for an item and warned me that I wouldn't be able to buy enough inventory if I hoped to buy stuff that cheap. Well I stuck to my guns and managed to buy enough inventory to stock 4 booths and 2 warehouses with inventory in the waiting with the 500% solution. One thing I'd learned after buying stamps for 30 years is how to walk away from a buy if the numbers don't add up to my advantage. I am patient and I don't panic while bidding at auctions and I don't fall in love with the merchandise. I fall in love with the numbers. Have I missed out on some deals that would have made me a fair and decent profit? Of course I have and have no regrets usually. I have often told a seller when they asked me to make them an offer on an item I'm eyeing that I will probably insult them but they want to hear anyways. I make my offer and you'd be surprised how many sellers will take that low ball bid. You have to remember a lot of sales involve either people who are moving soon and have a deadline to meet for clearing the house out, or they are liquidating an estate and are under similar pressure to make everything disappear or they just are tired of seeing it in their garage and don't want to haul it back in if it doesn't sell.

I often find that a good tactic for getting a low price especially at estate sales is to find a box and start loading it up with several items and then ask for a quantity discount or just ask for a price for everyting in the box. This works especially well on items from the garage such as tools, textiles and records or books. Getting to a sale later in the day of course helps you get a good price since the prices usually get dropped since the seller is fatigued and anxious to get the sale over with. Now I know getting there late reduces your chances of finding a set of Wedgwood China or any item that has a well known name and obvious premium value. But it's a good bet that those items were priced at a level that would have made it difficult to buy for resale anyway. I have purposely spent a lot of time learning about areas of collectibles that the average dealer doesn't know well so that no matter what time I arrive at a sale I still have a good shot at finding something worth buying with the 500% solution. I have studied Eames era and Danish modern items which you can still find a good deal of at an average sale or Italian and Scandinavian pottery and cookware such as Dansk, Krenit, Arabia of Finland, and many others that are many times ignored because let's face it a lot of it doesn't appeal to the average American. I currently have a Stelton Cylinda toast rack listed on Ebay which was designed by Arne Jacobsen. My oldest daughter scolded me for asking so much for a silly little toast rack and I had to explain to her that it was a designer piece and worth every bit of what I was asking as a starting bid. She laughed and said I'd never get it. Right now I'm having the laugh and it's still got more time to go higher.

Now my point here isn't to brag about how much I sell my items on Ebay or elsewhere for. It's actually quite the opposite. When you do this as a business or even as a profitable hobby you want to stack the odds on your side as much as you can. Booth rent isn't cheap and neither is gas and your other selling expenses. You have to factor in the time it takes to sell you inventory and if you have storage costs because you deal in larger items like furniture you need to have a sizable markup to end up with a decent net profit. You have to realize that the only areas that you have a major say in this business equation is how much you pay for your inventory and how much you will take for the final sale price. You don't want to be devoting all your time to this enterprise and find yourself just breaking even or squeaking out a small profit. I don't know about you but I don't want to do this just so Ebay or the owner of the Antique Mall makes the lion's share of the money.

A Budding Entrepreneur in the Family

Well it looks like I've got a budding entrepreneur in the family. My oldest daughter (the crafty one in more ways than one) has decided to start selling some of her art's and crafts items online and see if she can continue her successful plunge into the business world. I hate to do a shameless plug but dang it she's my kid. Besides the more she makes the less I have to send her to get through college. Take a peek at her stuff. She's just getting started so I don't know how quickly she will be building her inventory of One of a Kind items.


Check it out at: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7732669

GOLD and SILVER are HOT!!!

Well I went to stock my antique booths today and found that my Gold and Silver bullion coins are all sold out. I really wasn't all that surprised since bullion prices for GOLD are close to all time highs (not factoring in inflation) right now of course. Seems like people are finally figuring out that between the cost of the Iraq war and deficit spending and trade deficits the old greenback is on it's way to becoming the green halfback or even less. I'm telling you the idiots in Washington are playing with fire by letting the dollar sink so easily in value. They think a weak dollar will increase exports and help the trade deficit at the same time they bail out the big banks and hedge funds from losses due to foolish lending to low quality borrowers. Easy money always ends up being an expensive thing. So much for the political ramblings here but that's how I see it.

So while I'm delighted with the amount of sales I've decided to not restock any of the Gold and keep hold of it for myself for a while. The silver isn't on quite so wild a ride so I'll restock that but stagger the prices around a $1 between groups of 5 on the quantity of coins I put in this time. That will protect me in the advent that silver decides to spike in the near future. One of the owners of an antique mall I have a booth in said a man came in with a scale and asked them to open several cases that had sterling silver items in them and weighed them to see if any of the sellers hadn't adjusted the prices of silver items to take into account the rise in the price of bullion. They opened more than 30 cases and the guy didn't buy anything. He didn't make any friends either. LOL.

Sales where I live here on the east coast of Florida have really sagged at the booths since we're in a bit of a recession due to real estate prices dropping and the number of foreclosures is sky high. It was great on the way up but now people are hurting to even make ends meet so not much FUN MONEY to spend on collectibles. $3.00 a gallon gas doesn't help much either. On the upside I'm finding some better items to buy at sales and even from dealers booth who have decided to throw in the towel and quit since they can't even make the booth rent payment. We're all hoping that the snowbirds will get down here soon and bring money and ease this dry period. It's a shame to hear some of the stories. Sometimes when I'm buying from someone desperate I feel bad but I have to remind myself if it's not me buying, it will be someone else's money getting the goods. I just glad I always keep money set aside for slumps like this and can afford to ride them out and also take advantage of the bargains when they present themselves. Like the old saying goes: "It pays to keep some dry powder around".


Other areas I'm finding that are doing well in my booths are postcards and books. Dishes suck and patten glass is really hit and miss. I guess it really depends on who walks through the door and manages to find your booth so I have to keep them interesting looking. The holidays are coming up also so I will have to put more Christmas themed items in there too. I've also decided to bump up my Ebay auctions and save more money for buying inventory in the spring. I also want to pull together a long vacation to the Northeast or California this summer so I'm setting money aside from my sales to pay for that. After all that seems to be the reason I do this. It gives us another excuse and opportunity to travel and hunt for treasure.

So what are the rest of you folks finding that's selling good right now for you either on Ebay or your websites and antique booths?

My lazy day looking for treasure

Well Saturday morning and time to hit the yard sales. I have a rotten cold and really am in no mood to drive around looking for treasure but I want to get out of the house. It's been raining for nearly a week and I've got 4-wall madness anyways. I want to at least get out and socialize with the world. I got such a late start though I didn't expect to find anything special and I wasn't disappointed. After all the early bird gets the delicious worms. I did find a lovely Statler teapot in the shape of a cottage which will sell nicely in one of my antique booths. I picked up a box full of children's books which one of my daughters will use to make one of kind journals from the book boards. She's so creative. Other sales produce a selection of books suitable for sale in my bookstore and a few cut crystal bells and a piece of Belleek from Ireland was a nice surprise too. Not much else special except the usual nostalgia and souvenir pieces that sell well for around $5 each in the booths. I will be busy taking pictures and getting some auctions on Ebay since I do most of my listings on the weekend.

It sometimes takes a strong will to go hunting especially when you do it for money but I always enjoy the getting out amongst the other people who are looking. There is a community aspect to this addiction that makes it more fun than just collecting for me. The money's good too I find. Hope your hunting was a great experience today too.

You need to assemble a Collectibles Research Library

A research library to help identify and determine the value of collectibles is an absolute necessity for a dealer. The more you know the better your chances are of finding items to sell and knowing what to sell them for. If you go to your local book store or surf websites such as amazon or even ebay you will find hundreds of different books related to hobbies, collectibles and antiques. Some will cover a wide variety of areas without much detail besides categories, while others will cover either a particular manufacturer like McCoy, Fenton or Roseville. Others will cover a specific area of collecting like Coins, Stamps, Coke memorabilia, Depression glass...and the list seems to go on forever which it does since people collect just about anything. If it gets popular enough sooner or later they're publishing a reference and price guide book about it. You'll also notice at the book store that these books aren't cheap and I've learned from experience you don't find them very often at yard sales or used book stores because people just don't part with them easily and if they do they are scooped up very quickly when found second hand.

So where do you start? When I began going to sales I carried a softcover reference book that concentrated on ceramics and art pottery because I was a collector of Hull Pottery and at that time I was looking for items in that specific area of collecting. This book along with my Hull Pottery reference book were helpful of course but I soon realized that with all the goodies I was finding I wasn't going to limit myself to just ceramics. I soon bought a book on depression glass which was also helpful in identifying the major patterns that were popular with collectors. As time went on I kept adding to my reference library whenever I felt I needed a more detailed knowledge in a particular area of collecting. When I began to sell some of my "treasures" on Ebay I soon saw that I needed to know a lot more. At this point I knew I couldn't afford to buy the books I needed so I headed to my local library and checked out books on collectibles. 5 years ago the selection was rather limited and most of the books were 20 years or older. Luckily the the items I was learning to identify were even older so the books were still very helpful for reference and identification. Then I turned to the web for fill in the pieces and also get a better idea of what current values were. One of the best places to go for identifying and pricing was of course Ebay. I spent hours surfing around looking at listings and checking out auction results and found that one search led to another area of interest and I accumulated a tremendous amount of knowledge reading info the descriptions of auctions from dealers who had a far better knowledge of what they were selling then I had. This still is a valuable source of info for me.

You can also find several websites that are helpful identifying sterling silver and pottery marks. You just have to think of yourself as a detective and take the evidence and clues you have and dig for the answers. Sometimes I hit a dead end and I just store the item away and often find in a search to identify another piece I run across a clue that leads me where I need to go to identify the earlier piece. Places like Replacements Ltd are great for identifying china, silver and crystal patterns although the pictures are often small and hard to work with. But hey it's free. Digging for info can be fascinating at times and totally frustrating at other times but you just have to keep at it. It will pay off well in the end with better sale prices. The more you can tell a potential buyer about an auction item the greater the chance is that you'll get a great price for your auction......but that's another post for the future.

So if I was to make up a list of what kind of reference books should make up the core of your research library I would recommend:

• A general guide to Antiques and collectibles that will list by category and manufacturer
• a guide to identifying sterling silver patterns and manufacturers marks
• Guide to crystal stemware patterns. Replacements LTD sells one that is excellent.
• Pottery and porcelain manufacturers marks both US and foreign
• Pattern glassware identification guide
• Depression glass and elegant glass patterns
• China manufacturers and dish patterns
• How to do books on selling your items on Ebay, online or in antique booths
• A detailed map of your county to save time finding the location of sales.

After you've gotten these and can identify items from the basic categories of collectibles you can then get books that go into more detail on individual manufacturers and areas of collectibles. It helps to concentrate on the areas that you either have experience in either from having collected them yourself or chose areas that interest you personally. You may decide to specialize in a certain area of collectibles for resale which many dealers do. I personally will buy anything I think I can sell at a handsome profit whether it be tools to Waterford Crystal. In my experience I have sold items that were so bizarre that the average dealer wouldn't touch but the money I made always justified it.

Hope this has been helpful and I always appreciate your input since I'm always eager to learn more. Collectibles and selling for profit on Ebay or elsewhere is a huge universe and there's always something new to learn.

Are they really "THRIFT" stores anymore?

After church and lunch this past Sunday I decided to make a visit to one of the local Goodwill Thrift stores and take a leisurely peek. Now I am using the word Thrift loosely here because I really don't consider Goodwill stores to be thrift stores anymore. I think that most shoppers who browse their local Goodwill will notice that they're not quite like they used to be. I know from experience that 4-5 years ago I could dig through one of their stores and usually find some nice pattern glass or some decent dishes. Perhaps I would find a Dansk teak tray or bowl amongst the rest of the wood items and it wasn't even uncommon to find sterling silver thrown in with the rest of the flatware.

So what happened? I'll tell you. Goodwill woke up and figured out that they were all too often the middleman between the donors and the antique dealers that cruised the aisles looking for inventory for their booths or items to sell on Ebay. Apparently someone at Goodwill management decided it was time to quit being the middleman and they started to screen the items that were donated to them. I don't know how many of you thrift addicts know but in the back of every Goodwill store there is a big printed list of premium manufacturers names up on the wall and when the sorters work on the donations and see those names on an item they put those items in a separate bin headed for the "boutique". If you want to see the list just ask to use the bathroom which in many of the older stores is in the back room and you'll see it.

In most larger cities Goodwill has a separate store they put in a more upscale part of town and you will then find the better items sold in these "boutiques" at prices pretty close to what you'll find in an antique booth or even higher. They even have an on-line auction site for items they feel will sell better that way. Goodwill Online Auctions if you want to take a look. So now you know why when you go into a Goodwill store for the most part you'll look at "Made in China" marked on the vast majority of items for sale. Do I think this disqualifies them from using the word thrift in their store name? Part of me does and the other part knows that they're running a business like anyone else and the goal is to maximize their sales and profits and I just live with it. I will admit that I will no loner make a special trip into town to go to Goodwill because the pickings are so thin for a reseller that it's usually not worth the cost of gas. I must also point out that Goodwill isn't the only one guilty here of cherry picking their donations. Most "thrift" stores now either have someone working for them that has a fairly good knowledge of what are the better selling items or hires a consultant that comes in a few times a week to look things over and advise them on pricing of better items. For the most part the good old thrift store is a thing of the past. In some rare cases you will find a church or local charity based thrift store where you have a better chance of finding stuff that hasn't been pre-sorted.

So what's the solution here or is there one? I feel the best way to gain the advantage back is to be more knowledgeable about what is a premium item then the seller. This applies to any place where you look for inventory to sell. You have to do your homework all the time and research hallmarks, especially of European manufacturers which most "thrift" stores don't know well because let's face it few dealers do off the top of their head unless they are full time dealers and are looking over dozens of new pieces on a weekly basis. You absolutely must assemble a decent library of reference books for collectibles and especially glassware and learn as much as you can about European manufacturers. Knowledge truly is money when it comes to finding bargains for resale. I will devote an entire post (probably several) in the months ahead on learning more about harder to identify manufacturers that will improve your chances of finding items that will sell well.

So how did I do at Goodwill this past Sunday? Well I guess I got lucky or was just a tad smarter. I found 2 Waterford Crystal knife rests, a Stelton Cylinda toast rack designed by Arne Jacobsen, a vintage cookie jar of a dog marked USA which I haven't identified the maker yet but I'd bet it's going to be from a Californian Pottery maker. I found an original Disneyland California tray. Also a hand-painted vanity dish signed by the artist and a few decent books that I can sell in my bookstore. I'm going to estimate I will sell these items on Ebay and in my antique booths for somewhere in the $150-$200 range. My cost was around $10.00. So I will continue to duck into those "thrift" stores and buy their mistakes and pocket the profits.

Where should I sell my yard sale treasures?

You're out at a yard sale and you run across an item such as a nice set of dishes or perhaps some crystal stemware or maybe an attractive porcelain figurine. You know it's got value but what's the best way to try to sell it to get your highest return? This question is always a factor in any purchase I make since if it ends up going from their house and sitting in my house or storage building I'm not making any money and might as well just walk away from the item. How do you decide what is the best way to sell your purchase? Do you use Ebay? Would it do better in your antique booth? Should you sell it on your own website? In my opinion you should have a pretty good idea of what type of customer is most likely to purchase you item before you decide to purchase it. What I mean by that is, which marketplace is going to have the best chance of matching up your item for sale with customers that are most likely to buy it.

For example, take the duck figurine pictured at the start of this post. At first glance it looks like an ordinary ceramic figurine that you might find in any booth at an antique mall (which I did by the way) that you would likely see selling for $3-$8. It's attractive and was in mint condition with no flaws and would make a lovely addition to someones animal, bird or duck figurine collection. Now when I eyed this figurine I figured that it wasn't just a Japanese or Chinese export and picked it up to see what kind of mark if any it had on it. Well it turned out to be made by Richard Ginori of Italy which few dealers know is a maker of high quality dinnerware, porcelain figurines, lamps and other ceramic wares. The dealer selling obviously didn't know since the price was $5 when I bought it. After purchasing the item I could very easily have taken it over to my booth, made out a new tag and put it up for sale for $175 and it would have been a good deal for both me the seller and also the buyer since Ginori figurines are hard to come by and aren't cheap. Trouble was I knew that it likely would take a year or more for someone to walk into my booth and know anything about Richard Ginori figurines and buy the item. My booth just doesn't get that kind of customer browsing through it very often I figured. I knew that an item such as this needed to have the whole world as it's marketplace so Ebay was the place to sell it especially since the most likely buyer would be a European who was more familiar with the company and it's products. I listed it on Ebay and it sold for a handsome price and I had my money in less than 2 weeks. Ebay was the right marketplace to maximize my sale price and make a quick sale too.

Now if I had found a decent set of dishes with a mid range value in the $75-$200 they would have ended up in one of my booths. Most dishes are hard to get a good price for on Ebay due to the high cost of shipping involved and the customer really doesn't get the best opportunity to observe the condition of the whole set before bidding and there's always the added fear of breakage during shipping. With the exception of high end china or serving pieces that a buyer wants to add to their pattern I don't feel Ebay is the best place to sell dishes in quantity if you want to get the highest return. Ebay I feel is the best place to sell items that have a more limited group of potential buyers or you're selling an item such as sterling silverware or china or anything which is from a specific pattern and will be bought by someone who is actively searching for pieces in that pattern. Your goal is to place your item for sale where it will sell quickly and for a good price. You don't have to get the highest possible price as long as you're getting it fast enough. Velocity of sales is a an important factor in sales because inventory that isn't selling doesn't earn you anything and the expense of displaying or storing it cuts into your profit margin.

Items that I feel that are more suitable for antique booths are lower valued dishes, glassware, jewelry, coins, books, artwork, furniture, nostalgia type items, postcards, pottery, and generally bulky or heavy items that are expensive to ship. I hate to see someone pay $10 for a platter or planter or similar heavy item and then get hit with $15 for shipping. I know that with the cost of gas and the distance that some customers would have to travel to an antique mall or flea market it might make sense to go ahead and pay the high shipping for the item but as a general rule I won't sell an item that I feel the shipping will be higher than the sale price.

Items that I would sell on Ebay are more unique and rare and need to have a much larger area of potential buyers than those that drive through my town and love to browse antique malls as a way to pass the day or spend their weekends. Ebay gives you a whole world of possible buyers if they are currently in the market for what you are selling and take the time to search for it. Most experienced buyers know if they want to find specific items or out of the ordinary one's that it's easier to locate them on Ebay or on a website then hunting through an antique mall. Take advantage of that to maximize your sales potential.

Be willing to get Dirty to find treasure

In my experiences at moving sales and especially at estate sales when the seller pretty much has to get rid of everything in the house and clean it to the bones you need to be willing to get dirty searching for treasure that is truly buried. Many times there are sheds, detached garages and rooms and closets that are filled with boxes that the seller just didn't have time to dig through when setting up. This is especially true at estate sales when the seller who is usually hired displays the nicest items in the kitchen and living, dining, and family room. The bedrooms are usually left with clothes and furniture and often boxes that have been piled with linens and paper items. Often those boxes have vintage clothing, gloves, handy work and photos buried in them. Keep your eye out for anything that you can see had a lot of hand made work done on them. Make sure textile items are clean and not damaged. Often I have found old sheet music and photos or unframed artwork piled on shelves in a closet that have been totally ignored by other shoppers in their rush to find the obvious. Look in drawers to see if anything has been missed since many times these sales are pulled together in a hurry.

Now it's time to really get dirty. If you're not afraid of bugs head for the garage or inquire about the attic and if there are outbuildings or sheds that's even better. Often I have been able to find antique tools, or not so old tools that are always in big demand on ebay. These are often priced cheap since most estate sales are done by women who aren't usually familiar with what certain tools are used for and what to value them at.

Note the item in the picture at the top of this post which I found in a corner of a garage. That's a plunger blasting box used for setting off dynamite. The seller had an idea of what it was due to it's shape and the fact that it had a brass label on it stating it was a DUPONT Blasting Box. But the plunger handle was stuck and you couldn't get it to go down. I asked how much they would take and we agreed on $5. Now since I have a natural knack for mechanical things I managed to open it up and fix the plunger which only required lubricating the gears and moving the plunger up and down until the grease got spread around enough. I ended up selling it on Ebay for almost $300 because it actually still generated power and worked. But even if it didn't You easily could have gotten $40-50 for it as a display item for either a business, an engineer who collects these kind of tools and gadgets or it may even have ended up at your local Bennigans in Colorado as memorabilia.

Sheds and attics many times are loaded with old enameled pots and pans which always sell well, or ceramic garden planters that end up being early McCoy, Roseville, Hull and other collectible pieces. Condition is often poor but you can find really nice pieces from time to time. Old newspapers with historical headlines and books are often found too. You might find nice pieces of furniture or picture frames that can be refinished and brought back to life.

Always be looking for items that are hand made and if the condition is good buy it since labor costs were much lower generations ago and give these items an intrinsic value built into them. Great Grandpa didn't go down to the local Wal-Mart or Target and buy pre-fab furniture, he made it himself.

So take some damp rags or better yet diaper wipes to clean yourself up with after you dig through the mess. The dust you get on your will pay off many times over I promise you.

Get a Head start on advertised Yard Sales

Want to get to an advertised yard sale ahead of the crowd? Here's a way to do it. Go to the online version of your local paper late at night and check the classifieds. Most papers I have found will post the following days classified ads around midnight and sometimes earlier on their online versions of the paper and you can look at the sales that look the most promising for the kind of items you are looking for. Most will have a set up where you can click on the ads that interest you and let you click on it and make up your own list of ads to print out. Then you can take some time with your city map and plan your route and prioritize the sales you want to get to early. This method always helps me save time and gas and of course you'll see other unadvertised sales along the way that you can hit too. Many times I will find nicer stuff at the "piggy back" sales that people will pull together to take advantage of the other guys advertising and signs, so don't ignore them. The dealers will usually hit the advertised sales at the break of dawn and cherry pick them before the rest of the crowd because they know this method of getting the info early.

Yard, Garage, Estate Sales and Ebay 2

Well is that a whopper of a fish or not? Actually this little fishy nearly didn't get caught. As I was exiting the local Goodwill with an impatient daughter I caught a glimpse of this wild colored mounted fish on the shelf. At first I didn't think much of it except that it was bright orange and had a bit of an art deco look about it. When I picked it up I could tell that it was carved and appeared to be made of Bakelite. I always am attracted to items that have a lot of craftsmanship put into them since I consider them art most of the time. It cost 69 cents so I put it in the basket and headed for the cashier and it had a new home.

Now when it comes to Bakelite there are a few ways to test it that are very reliable and I tend to stick to the 409 test. Make sure it's good old fashioned Blue 409. Spray some on a paper towel and rub the object for a while. If you notice a yellow stain on the paper towel similar to what a nicotine stain looks like it's Bakelite. It doesn't matter what color the Bakelite is you will get a yellow tinted stain on the rag or paper towel because the 409 reacts with the formaldehyde in the Bakelite.

Well after determining I had a carved piece of Bakelite I headed to Ebay to search for a similar item to see if it had much value. When I got the results of my search I was amazed to find that Bakelite items were HOT however it was mostly jewelry pieces especially bangles that were the best sellers, followed by broaches and pins. There wasn't anything close to being what amounted to a piece of mounted Bakelite sculpture. Well I really liked the look of this item but decided to take my chances and put it up for sale. Maybe I had something that was really special. Well it went on for 10 days and sold for $69.50 which was the reserve I put on it. I have to admit I was disappointed it only made the reserve price but I did get 100 times what I paid for it. Since it wasn't a jewelry item it just didn't have the appeal that I hoped it would. It was however a nice piece of artwork that now lives in Japan to be enjoyed by it's new owner. Glad I saw it out of the corner of my eye while being rushed out of the store.

TO BE CONTINUED.................

Yard, Garage, Estate sales and Ebay

Well since we won't be traveling due to all the obstacles I decided to price up some items for sale in my antique booths and get some items on Ebay for sale. A lot of times when my wife and I travel I'm hunting in thrift stores and stopping at yard and garage sales looking for "treasure" to sell. Sometimes "saleing" can turn an otherwise lackluster day into an exciting and profitable one. I can't tell you how many times I have actually paid for the cost of an out of town trip with items I've bought on the trip and then selling them either on ebay or at my antique booths. At the very least I pay for the gas.

I have been a mail-order stamp dealer for 35 years now and that still accounts for the bulk of my collectibles sales but over the past 6-7 years I have been adding more to my income from sales of items I've picked up from yard, garage and estate sales or the local Goodwill and thrift shops. Stamp dealing is my true area of expertise but as a general rule you don't buy stamps for resale in your own home town. I have to buy most of my stamp inventory from auction houses or wholesalers in New York, Chicago and other major cities. When it comes to antiques and collectibles you don't have to go any further then within a mile of your own house many times and there's the added bonus of getting out and socializing with the seller and other buyers looking for a bargain. Since I'm buying for resale my motive of course is different than the average yard saler but it doesn't change the excitement of the hunt.

I first started yard saleing at the request of my wife who wanted the company and I figured, "sure, I'll maybe find some tools I can use". And that was my main goal as I chauffeured my wife around the area and dug through boxes dragged out filled with God knows what in the homes and yards of strangers. I really can't remember when it dawned on me that some of this "junk" for sale could be possible money makers. I have long been a collector of art pottery from the early 20's-50's, especially Hull Art Pottery which I always hunted for in antique stores when we traveled and decided I would broaden my search at sales from the garage to household and kitchen items. I didn't find much Hull pottery but was finding items from other manufacturers and items made by Wedgwood, Waterford, and other names that sounded familiar that I knew were not cheap when originally sold.

Since I had been selling stamps on Ebay for a couple of years with a good deal of success I decided to take a shot at selling some garage sale purchases also on Ebay. To sell stamps I used a scanner to generate pictures of the stamps I had for sale. However you can't scan a 3 dimensional item like a set of dishes or lamp or sterling silver item. You needed a digital camera to get pictures to sell items like that on Ebay. Now back in the late 90's digital cameras were far from cheap and many listings on Ebay didn't even have pictures for the items for sale. Since I figured I could use a digital camera for other business purposes I bought a Sony Mavica for the low price of $495 to take pics for my ebay items. The mavica was a very handy camera for my needs since it stored the pic files on a floppy disk you could just pop out of the camera and into the computer and upload you picture for your listing. Having pictures for your listing was a big advantage over other sellers because it removed a lot of the mystery for the buyer as to what they were bidding on since depending on just a description was a risky situation. Well before very long I found myself selling $500 or more a month of garage sale items that I may have paid a total of $50 or less. This was getting exciting to say the least and I was definitely hooked on yard sale hunting as a money making "hobby".

TO BE CONTINUED.....................................

To start perchance to continue.......

Well everything has to have a beginning. I have been fascinated reading others blogs and wondered how it would be to have one of my own. So I've decided to at least get my feet wet and hopefully be diving in before too long. I will have to sit down and set some goals as to what I want to accomplish with this forum and at this point I just want to use it as a way to reach out to others and share experiences or dreams and take advantage of that knowledge and perhaps share knowledge of mine that will be of interest or help to others. Who knows it might be the beginning of something significant but baby steps first. Each long journey begins with one step and I'm taking it. Hopefully many other's path will intersect with mine. Let the adventure begin.