Sunday, April 28, 2013

This Saturdays Haul - Estate Sale Finds 4-27-2013 & Some Info - Tips for eBay

We have decided we are going to start sharing our finds from thrift shops, yard sales, estate sales, and of course storage auction wins also. Yesterday we went out hunting estate sales, yard sales, and one decent size church rummage type sale. We spent about $50.00 (probably closer to 51.00). We got goodies for our eBay store & some goodies for ourselves and the kiddos as well.

I am going to try to share what some of the items cost us and what price they sell for on eBay as I research sold items and start getting ours listed. So far I did a little bit of researching on this haul and below the video you can see some of what I found. This was a decent haul overall. I must say the best part is the hunt. Yes, we do love being able to sell online & locally and make a living, but the funnest part is the hunt for items.... whether it be items to stock our eBay store or items for ourselves. Hunting those treasures down always equals a fun time for us!

 

Then And Again Treasures eBay Shop

 
The Valet wireless hotspot router thing was at the same sale we got the bottles at. I almost missed it as I had seen it out of the corner of my eye it was under a table kind of out of site. I figured it was an out dated useless type of electronic and assumed it was going to have a sticker of 10.00 or more on it. This is one of those items though that prove it is worth taking a close look at everything as you are out hunting those treasures. Turned out it had 1.00 sticker on it. I decided for 1.00 I would give it a shot, worst case scenario I would break it down and scrap it out if it was useless or broken. After making this video though I opened up the box to find out it is completely brand new, never been used... sealed up. Then I researched sold listings on eBay to find out that this little gadget sells pretty much every time one is listed and will fetch us between $55.00 - $70.00 plus shipping. So this ONE item will cover the entire cost of our haul plus a few bucks in the green! WOOOHOOO! Gotta love when that happens.
 
The old man paper mache type statue thing we did a little research on and asked the members of one of our most favorite FaceBook groups "Thrifting With The Boys" and one of the members knew right away what he was and they have sold a couple like him (but I believe a little better than him) and sold for around $18.00. However with mine I don't have high hopes of getting much more than 9.95 plus shipping on him. Funny how it worked out that the item hubby and myself thought was most interesting turned out to be the item that was the biggest flop. Well I shouldn't say flop considering it cost us a whole 10 cents and even if we sell at 9.95 that is still a lot of profit compared to the 10 cent investment.
 
The vintage iron I did a quick bit of research on and I am not overly impressed so far with this one either. Especially since I spent a bit more than I normally would hav (2.00) on it. I have not been able to track down one like it with the Thermodon brand name on it on eBay sold listings. I am going to have to research it a little more using other sites to find out more.
 
The Bobbie Brooks sweater I show in the video that I absolutely love and am not going to part with.... cost me a whole 25 cents! I get chilly easily so I like having a decent amount of sweaters & jackets even in the summer for when the AC in stores or restaraunts is on full blast so I can be comfortable. I researched the sold on Bobbie Brooks sweaters XL, just for the heck of it. I found the prices for sold ones range from $1.00 up to $20.00. Seems sweater vests with cute designs do the best, and next regular sweaters but again ones with cute designs. This is not something I would actively look to purchase for reselling but for a 25 cent investment I might be willing to give a Bobbie Brooks in an XL or bigger a shot if I come across one especially if it has a cute design or is a vest style. This one is going in MY closet though.
 
The children's VHS movies I purchased for a quarter each. I did get a few others that are not kids, a couple Yanni ones I am going to give a try at selling those. Normally I would not purchase anything other than children's as far as VHS movies go. I am waiting to get a decent amount together and put in a lot. They do sell well in lots of multiple movies. Same theory on children's books as well. If can group many by same show/characters, or with books same author... this will increase what the lot can be sold for. I also am going to start doing children's DVD movies this way as well and adult ones too but making sure to group them with some kind of theme, such as a "Horror & Suspense" lot or "Horror & Sci-Fi". Many times if something is not a big seller on it's own it is a good idea to see what the difference is in sold prices if you take those items and put them into lots, selling multiple of a certain type of item at one time.
 
As you can see in the video there is a ton more for me to research. Some of the items we are keeping - like the blocks which were for our daughter, some of the clothes were for me and some for our son. The way kids go through clothes it is great to be able to get a shirt & an outfit both for $2.00 total BIG MONEY SAVER thrifting & picking up kids clothing at yard sales. I will sell children's clothes online as well, but plan to do that when I can put multiple items together.... yep another "LOT" type of item. The bigger the lot the bigger the profit.
 
Try searching sold items on eBay and keyword "childrens clothes lot" or "boys clothes lot" "girls clothes lot" you get the idea. You will be pleasantly surprised. Especially if a seller takes the time to match up outfits. For instance listing 50 articles of clothing but making outfits out of the lot or most of it. Match up a shirt with a pair of shorts, if a girls lot to make it even better add a matching accessory like a hair tie, or with both boys and girls you can give the outfit a matching pair of socks to go with it. Many times you can find boxes of socks at yard sales for kids and people ask just 10 cents or 5 cents a pair, offer them a few bucks for the whole box and usually they will take it. Now you will have a huge supply of socks to match with outfits for your kids clothing lots you want to list.
 
Okay, this was supposed to be a blog post about this Saturdays haul and now has went into all kinds of other info as well. If anyone follows me on FaceBook or even this blog here you all know how once I get typing/talking I just don't stop ha ha ha! I hope something I share though can either inspire someone to start earning money through eBay, or scrapping, or maybe something I share helps someone to save some money, or helps them to know to grab a certain item when they see it at a thrift store. I love to write & share information both for fun & to hopefully be of some help to someone out there.
 
Now it is time for me to get to work actually listing some of our finds to our eBay store. Stop by and take a peek - and remember we are now trying to add items DAILY!!! So you should always be able to find new & interesting goodies each and every day.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Collect Scrap Metal For Recycling On A Walk = A Little Extra Cash & A Little Fun

Hi there everyone.... I know we have been MIA as far as our blog goes for a while now. Life has been really really busy between our scrapping & hauling business, and then of course the ever growing eBay business too. However, family keeps us just as busy as work, especially with us expecting another baby girl on September 28th 2013. I am going to try my hardest to at least get a post or two added each week from now on. Sometimes written & other times I will be sharing little videos we are starting to upload onto YouTube. Now we are far from video experts, VERY far from it, but we do hope that you enjoy them.

Here is a video we made today after locking our keys in the truck and having to walk back to our house. We played a little game to make the walk a little less miserable seeing if mommy or daddy could collect more metal "scrapping aka recycle" items.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Our First Storage Auctions Attended & Unit Won in 2013

We got lost Thursday looking for the storage auctions and only caught tail end. Friday we went to a bunch of them. I believe in all we saw 33 units (actually about 29 some got paid up and were taken off list). Many were dud units, one when opened was actually EMPTY! Some only had 1 box that looked like stuff people just didn't feel like throwing away.
This made me think about something though - if you ever rent a storage unit - when you leave make sure you take EVERYTHING don't leave junk behind because you might have something with info on it like SS # or something and even though people are SUPPOSED to return things like that to the office after they win a unit, who is to say that everyone does? What you think will go into a dumpster might just get auctioned off..... That's what it got me thinking about .

Then a bunch we knew people were just bidding us up so we didn't play the game. Figured okay you want it for that much go ahead and try to make money on it LOL.
Second half of day I stayed home and John went by himself. He almost had a real good one but we had given ourselves a budget and only brought that much cash with him (thats how you keep within your budget no matter what lol). This time we were wishing we had brought an extra hundred on top of budget - like a just in case their is an awesome one kinda spare money but oh well.

At the last facility he did wind up winning a unit. Paid about $50 more than he was wanting to (but still well within budget). So now after taxes and all we have $351.00 invested in this unit. Unfortunately it was seriously missing that WOW factor ha ha ha.
We did some math though and it will probably take the vintage poker table (after we refurbish top which is not hard), and the leather chair & ottoman plus maybe the Hammock we found to break even. Then we will make a little profit from a couple telescopes, some bric & brac, and some plush for Halloween and Motorcycle/Biker plush Teddy Bears etc. So we MIGHT be able to at least double on this one, but we were not overly thrilled with it. They can't all be amazing though! Hopefully next time.

Other things we found in the unit: Books that were just too dirty to be anything but garbage, a ton of Christmas decorations most just dollar store or homemade and not good homemade, an entertainment center (we can resell that probably for 50.00), a long wood table but its missing its glass pieces, not sure what we will do with that yet. Some electric tools we have to test still also were in there. We have a small pile of old Christmas cards, some paperwork etc. with personal info we are going to hand into the office their on Monday so they can return to the previous owners.

Oh I almost forgot there was this neat little chair in there. It is a folding chair and is obviously vintage. We just took some quick photos of it. It has a metal tag/plate that has two little nails/tacs to hold it onto back of the chair but the writing is oriental so we need to figure it out still. It looks like a child size chair. The blue flip flop is there to show size its a womans size 6 or 7 shoe. The other picture has my husbands large McDonalds drink.



 
 
 I like the chair, but not sure if it has any value. As of right now all we know is it is cute and in good shape other than needing a little cleaning/dusting and some of the screws/nails are a little rusted on the heads from age.


Sometimes you find things in units that just don't go together. This unit was one of those kind of units. There was a glass pipe in there wrapped in a towel (certainly some type of drug paraphernalia) and also in the unit was a bunch of Jehovah Witness materials, books etc. These two things just didn't seem to be a combo that made sense to me. Certainly not the strangest combo we have found, but one to make you go hmmmm and scratch your head a little.

Well now time to turn this unit around and see if we can manage to at least double the money. Looking forward to the next auctions and hopefully will have lots of wonderful finds to write about.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Winners Of Our First Blog Contest - Better Late Than Never

Sorry to be a little late on this but we have just barely been able to keep up with our eBay shipments as we have been battling this evil cold/flu thing that has not only hit our house once now but came back and knocked me and my daughter on our butts AGAIN for almost a week now. The men of the house have been lucky and this time around our son only had a runny nose and hubby managed to not get sick at all. NO FAIR!

Well as fun as it is chatting about being under the weather I am sure that is not what everyone is really interested in. I am sure there are two people out there who are curious about their PRIZES! We ran our first blog contest, but did not do that great of a job promoting it. That is okay we live & we learn. We only had TWO OFFICIAL ENTRIES so there are two winners. With only two people being entered all we did was gave them the numbers 1 & 2 then for each of their entries wrote on pieces of paper, crumpled them up and put in a bowl. My son picked the Grand Prize winner out of the bowl........ and the Grand Prize winner is.........

The first person who entered and they actually had MANY entries due to they completed almost every option to enter the contest they possible could.

OUR GRAND PRIZE WINNER IS CORY BOUDREAU one of our Twitter followers.

Then because there was only two people entered there was no reason to pick any more out of the bowl by default the only other entrant would obviously win 2cnd place.

OUR SECOND PLACE WINNER IS: User: Vanwyckkelsie (that is the info from email address I am not going to enter the entire email here due to spam/junk mail issues I don't want her/him to have email plastered in the middle of a blog post).

I am getting ready to send them their WINNING EMAILS and they can claim their prizes and receive within 24 hours of claiming.

Thanks for entering. We hope next time around others will now see that YOU REALLY CAN WIN BLOG CONTESTS. Actually I personally love blog contests because I feel my odds of winning are a lot better than lotto, or other raffles with big companies.

Thanks again... and keep an eye out NEW CONSTEST COMING VERY SOON!!!!!

Below is the list for the winners to choose their prize from 

GRAND PRIZE: 

The Grand Prize WINNER gets to choose from this prize list below - The Grand Prize options 1 & 2 are open to BOTH US and International Winners.

Grand Prize Option 1 - $15.00 (usd) eBay Gift Card

Grand Prize Option 2 - $10.00 Cash Via PayPal

Grand Prize Option 3 - (For U.S. Residents Only) - Surprise Basket Of Goodies (Value Minimum of $20.00 usd)

 

SECOND RUNNER UP PRIZE LIST : 

Second Place Runner Up gets to choose from this Prize List - 1st and 2cnd options available to both U.S. and International Winners.

2cnd Prize Option 1 - $10.00 (usd)eBay Gift Card

2cnd Prize Option 2 - $7.00 Cash Via PayPal

2cnd Prize Option 3 - Small Surprise Package Of Goodies (Value a Minimum of $10.00 usd).

Friday, February 1, 2013

We Will Be Doing Drawing For Our Blog Contest 2/2/13

There was not too many entries for the blog contest for January. I did not do a very good job promoting the contest actually. Next time around I will do better I am sure.... Anyways with a handful of entries I am just going to put the entries into a hat (each person still gets the amount of entries they earned) mix them all up and draw one out for Grand Prize then so on.... So be sure to check back tomorrow and see who the big winners are.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

How To - Add YouTube Videos To eBay Listings SIMPLE VERSION

   After spending over an hour trying to figure out how to add a simple YouTube video showing how an item works to one of my eBay listings I decided I would do a short blog post and try to save other sellers the hassle I just went through. This is not a YouTube how to, it simply covers the steps to embed the video into an item listing.
 
To make this simple - YouTube has changed the code they give you and it does not work in eBay auctions.So instead of going crazy like me trying to figure out why it isn't working just follow these simple steps
 
1. Go into your youtube video you are wishing to add to your new item listing. This is assuming you know how to use YouTube videos (if not wait for my more detailed blog post coming soon)
2. Switch your auction listing to enter html code instead of standard
3. Decide where you want your video placed
4. Now it is time for a little copy and paste & edit 2 simple spots in the html coding
 
COPY THIS HTML CODE AND PASTE INTO YOUR EBAY LISTING
 
 <p align="center">
<object height="385" width="640"><param
 name="movie"
 value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XXXXXXXXXXX?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"><param
 name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param
 name="allowscriptaccess" value="always">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XXXXXXXXXXX?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"
 type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always"
 allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="640"></object></span></strong></p>
 
You notice the XXXXXXXXXXX  - NEXT STEP IS TO REPLACE THOSE X's WITH YOUR 11 DIGIT YOUTUBE VIDEO NUMBER
(I found the most simple way to do this was to go to video and simply copy the 11 digits right out of your web browser from the url to your video)
 
ASSUMING YOU HAVE ALREADY PASTED THE CODE INTO YOUR AUCTION BODY (in html editing not standard) THEN ONCE YOU REPLACE THE X's YOUR GOOD TO GO!
 
Now this is NOT like other html editing that when you switch back to "standard" editing in your eBay listing you will be able to see the video. THIS PART HELD ME UP FOR A WHILE. I kept thinking I was doing something wrong. Turns out I just could not see it. If you are done working on your item then just simply go onto the next step in the listing process and you come to the page where you can "edit" "submit" or "preview" - at this point PREVIEW your listing. This is when you will be able to see the video in your listing.
 
I have included my video to the listing that took me over an hour below. So to save you some time just follow the simple steps above and you will not have to go insane like I did. Hope this helps someone out there. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me here on my blog, through my email, facebook, twitter, or any of the many social media networks. I am easy to find and always willing to help in any way I can. BEST PART - NO I don't CHARGE A DIME..... I don't always have the answer, but if I do I am more than happy to share.
 
 

 
Special Thank you & credit to pinkfloydtrader of eBay for their very helpful guide. Whom I learned how to do this from.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

$10 Garage Sale Find Becomes $200 eBay Sale

My Big eBay Sale Of The Week

 
I wanted to share something to be on the lookout for when your out shopping garage sales, church sales, etc. Many times they will have a large amount of unused cards for sale. Cards are a pretty good seller, especially if those cards have envelopes and are in good shape. I got really lucky at a yard sale in my neighborhood when I noticed some really nice greeting cards, post cards and tons of envelopes. They were Avanti cards which are made in the USA and are very nicely made and normally have colorful envelopes to go with them. I noticed they were 3 for 1.00 and I passed the first time but then decided to go back and ask how much for all of them. They said 10.00 for stand they were in and all cards. I did not even bother to haggle as this was an awesome deal and I was happy to hand over $10.
 
So far from this deal I now have a really nice wood display/storage rack. I listed the Avanti cards all in a lot and I got a best offer of 50.00 less than I had set the price for. I had it set to auto accept offers of at least $200 as I thought that was an incredible return on my investment. Less than 24 hours later I had my sale and the buyer paid right away. Below I have included in this post a couple pictures of the cards. You can see the actual eBay listing here: Avanti Card Lot Auction on eBay
 
Now in addition to that nice stand I own now, and the really nice turn around on the cards - THERE ARE STILL MORE! Yep there are still at least 200 or so postcards still that need to be listed, and about 50 or so more greeting cards of other brands all with envelopes too. There is also at least 15 - 20 or so small gift type tag cards. So I figure by the time I am done I will have at very least turned $10 into $300 or possibly more AND I still have the wood stand I think I will keep for me.
 
 

 
Come again soon.... I haven't been keeping up on my writing so well in the last couple of weeks, but I am going to try to get back into swing of posting almost every day. I love sharing ideas, tips, tricks, and passing along any info I discover in order to help others.