Category: ebay

Slightly less hot, and small chance of rain, which is a nice change from ‘normal’. Even yesterday was slightly less humid, you could see that the air was clearer than it has been. Any change to “less” is a good change.

I finished up my hobby thing. Show floor was very dead Sunday. It’s always challenging to keep some exhibitors from leaving early, but this was a crazy number that left. Added to having fewer exhibitors to start with and Sunday was DEAD. I had some sales though, about $225, on Sunday. Lots of smalls, and really tiny margins, but I did move stuff. The big items didn’t budge.

Talking with others there, they sold some things, but the excitement was missing. One guy said it was because people were ‘scared’. They are worried about war and violence and the economy failing. He new about the new ammunition factory and about the new chip fabs, and their importance if war breaks out. Everyone mentioned inflation.

It was another data point, another reality check for me. A broad cross-section of folks, all with the same concerns.

An ill wind is blowing, and lots of folks have their finger in the air, trying to take its measure.

After I got everything packed and we cleaned out the venue, I came home and fell asleep for a couple hours. W and the Ds woke me when they got home. They had a good time with friends at the lake. Then I took the trailer and unloaded at my storage unit. Decided to put it all there, instead of putting some at the secondary location. I unloaded the rest back at home.

Today I’ll return the trailer, and hopefully my ranger will be ready for pickup. Once I get that sorted, I can get back to normal stuff here at the Casa De Nick. I’ll probably do an auction pickup too.

Lots to do, lots to stack, and no one knows how much time left. Get busy.

nick

Cooler and still clear, warming later… which is yesterday’s weather as well. Although there was periodic overcast yesterday, and I would really like ‘clear’ today. In fact I thought it might rain in the late afternoon. Didn’t though.

Did my driving around and pickups. Stopped at goodwill bins and scored some great books. Literally volumes of the great books of our time. These I’ll send to auction, as my time for reading history is limited, as is my desire. At 50c per book it’s ridiculously cheap to build out a library to rival anyone’s. You do have to take what you get, and fill it in over time, but eventually, everything comes to the outlet.

You never know what you’ll find either. This time it was a giant instapot with the air fryer attachment and accessories, and a complete Panasonic bread maker.* The japanese brands of bread makers still bring crazy money online. A Champion juicer will provide a bit of spending cash too. I filled two carts with appliances and books, no clothes, no electronics. I almost never do that. I found about half a flip top bin’s worth of “smalls” for the local auction too, stuff like old cookie tins, novelty salt and pepper shakers, and a HUGE coral. I’ll keep the smaller brain coral for my collection, but the branching piece that is as big as a basketball will likely go to auction. The bag of seashells will definitely go, and could do really well as there are large and unusual specimens.

I haven’t been doing much thrifting or yard sale shopping lately. I’ve been too busy, and my auctioneer put me on hold. I’m trying to get rid of stuff, not build inventory, but adding fresh pieces to the stuff coming out of storage helps bring up the average price per lot, since I’m a better judge of what will sell now than I was.

In any case, I’ll be testing the instapot and breadmaker today. I’ve already sorted most of the stuff and put away what went into the stacks…

Thrifting is a great way to build your stacks, as is estate sale shopping. Most people will look right past the stuff a prepper wants, like sewing supplies, books, and camping equipment. So as we get back into yard sale season, look around and see what you can stack.

nick

*It’s rare to find a complete breadmaker. The highest value to weight ratio in the bins is the paddle for a bread machine. Second is probably the bread pan. (leaving off collectible cards and ephemera, and mostly considering stuff that you see there all the time) The paddles are almost always missing, and the pans are gone about 1/3 of the time too.

Cold, then warm. Sunny and clear for a while yet. If we get rain over the weekend, it’ll be a wet Christmas, but until then, the national forecast is showing us in the clear. Yesterday was like the day before, and today is supposed to be the same. It’s great.

Did stuff around the house in the morning, then got D1 from school. They are having finals and early dismissal this week, and are off starting Thursday. The parent pickup line is a lot shorter at 12 noon, than at the end of the day. I’m pretty lucky to have the freedom to do it.

Spent the afternoon doing pickups, then spent more than an hour with my auctioneer going over the last sale and what we want to do for the next ones. Short pause for the holidays, then back into it. That’ll do. My items were almost a quarter of the lots last week, which is risky for him, and he makes less money selling my stuff than he does selling his own. His auctions are usually a mix of consignment stuff, like mine, and stuff he’s sourced, and often estate stuff that wasn’t enough for its own stand alone sale. The work of listing and fulfillment is the same no matter the source, so his profit is a mix of how well he gauged the market for my stuff, and his stuff, and the ratio of the two. It’s easier when it’s all his, so including consignment stuff is doing me a favor, in some senses. I guarantee if my stuff didn’t sell for decent money, he’d stop doing it.

FWIW, clothes, books, and the occasional vintage piece are my highest ROI. I’m VERY selective in those categories though, so I expect them to sell. I don’t pick up clothes unless there is something special about them. (Allen Edmonds mens dress shoes, or Lucchese boots, vintage or designer, technical outdoor wear…) Books are old, and usually have a local interest. Plus, I’m getting them at the bins for 50c each. Don’t have to sell for much to make crazy ROI on a 50c item. I shoot for $10-20 for books, and sometimes score with $100 or more. Got $420 for one… I had a designer beanie hat sell for $47 last week. That was probably a 10c purchase… The trick is to either hit more home runs, or increase volume if I want to increase my top line.

Balanced against that is the problem that buyers are paying less than they were a year ago. They just don’t have the cash. If you are selling something they don’t really need, and you are competing with food and rent, you’re going to have a problem. I’M going to have a problem. On the other hand, if you have stuff they need to buy anyway, and it’s cheaper than other retail outlets, you should do ok. As a buyer, those are the places you need to be looking, as I’ve said many times. The secondary economy is going to save you money, and might have stuff you need that you can’t get elsewhere.

One other mitigating factor for me is that people are often willing to spend on their collections or hobbies, justifying it as an affordable splurge. As long as it’s affordable. Markets are complex.

And I see that once again I’ve gotten off into the weeds with my particular situation. I didn’t intend to end up there again.

Did I mention I fixed my garage fridge? That’s a bit more ‘prepper’ content. Food storage, self reliance, fixin’ stuff… It was just some ice build up behind a cover blocking the fan, but it was making a gawdawful noise and wasn’t keeping as cold as it should… and it just started sometime yesterday afternoon. Took the cover off, sprayed everything with the Rain-X DeIcer I mentioned last week, cleaned up, and put it all back together. Success.

But it’s always something….

Stack what you can, find a side hustle.

nick

Cool and damp, mid 60s to low 70s, and overcast. Yesterday was cool enough that I switched to heat in the house. It was clear most of the day though.

I spent the day cleaning the house at half speed. Not really feeling up to anything demanding, but I can clean and put away and sort. So that’s what I did. D2 made some Tollhouse cookies, and I ate them, but that was later.

Today I’m hoping to get a load dropped off at my auctioneer. I’ve got about 5 bins sitting in the foyer, and a couple more in my storage unit that are ready to go. I keep finding stuff as I move and organize. There is a LOT of inventory kicking around. I’m hoping I have time to do about 6 ebay listings too. I’ve got that many pairs of men’s dress shoes ready for sale, and getting them out of my bedroom will make everyone happy. There are a lot of other things to list too, but most need to be tested, or cleaned before listing, and that is just more than I want to do today.

This cold is slowing me down. Lots of running nose, some sneezing and the occasional cough, coupled with the achy “sick” feeling, and I’d prefer to sleep all day. Can’t. Got too much to do, but I’m not busting azz either.

Fortunately nothing is especially pressing today. Tomorrow I’ve got a site visit planned at my client’s house to replace a switch and PoE injector, and do some housekeeping with the system. I’m not pulling cable and hanging new cams, not this visit. Like my own houses, there is always something that needs doing…

Do what you can when you can. Try to keep up. And stack.

nick

Cool and wet. It rained all day yesterday pretty much without a break. It varied between light misty drizzle and heavy drizzle. Late afternoon temps got into the high 60s and maybe the low 70s for a bit. I’m hoping today will be a bit drier.

I was feeling … odd. And since my plans were altered by the rain, and since I felt unwell, I went back to sleep for a bit. I hadn’t slept well, and I was really tired. Woke later, and had stuff to do, of course. So I got started on that.

Mostly did auction stuff, getting stuff out of the attic for the auction, and I even shipped an item I sold on ebay. I thought I’d killed all my listings, but apparently not. I’m $5 richer! I also managed to get a couple of “if I can” jobs done. I like to have some projects sitting around, ready to work on so I can do it if I have time or inclination. Yesterday I grabbed one.

I picked up an aircleaner/ionizer at goodwill for a few bucks, mainly because it was filthy. I tested it there and smelled the characteristic ozone smell, so I knew it worked. Similar models on amazon are $150-180. I took a little time and disassembled it, cleaned it thoroughly, and put it back together. It runs well, and from the smell, is working perfectly. It will deodorize a big room if needed, claiming up to 3500 square feet. In any case, it went into the attic until needed. That got it fixed, and out of the foyer where it was sitting and waiting for attention. I love little jobs like that that I can use as fill in for my day.

I also spent some time sorting and building out Elenco Snap Circuit kits. I buy them and pick up the parts at the Goodwill bins whenever I see them. At the bins the parts are essentially free, but even buying the missing parts on ebay or through the manufacturer site, they aren’t expensive, for the common parts anyway. I did order some things from their site, mainly fans and motor cogs, as the fans are always missing, and the drive cog on the motor is often broken. I put about a dozen kits together and will put them in the auction. They sell pretty well, especially around Christmas, even as used sets. I’ve got a half dozen more without boxes that are just waiting for the fans. They probably won’t go in the auction this season. I like putting the kits together. It satisfies my desire to save stuff from the crusher, helps a kid learn electronics, saves someone some money, and makes me good money for the effort and time involved. Doing a dozen at once is fairly efficient.

I wouldn’t call it a side hustle, because I only do the work twice a year, but it is something I know and know will pay off. The percentage ROI is big, even if the absolute money involved isn’t huge. Do enough of that and it adds up.

That is true of a lot of things, and a lot of preps too. Do a little bit of this, and a bit of that, look for places you can add value easily and effectively, and keep doing it. It will add up over time.

And your stacks will grow, as will your skills and knowledge.

And that is a good thing.

nick

Cool and clear, turning warm and clear. Possibly even “hot” for values of hot. It was nice bordering on sweaty yesterday by late afternoon. That would be just fine for me today too.

Did some pickups. Filled the truck bed and the passenger seat. My opening bid won 14 cases of methyl alcohol in bottles. Yeah, wasn’t planning for all that. That is so far more than a lifetime’s worth it isn’t funny. Should burn in an alcohol stove, or work as a cleaner, don’t know if it will work with resin printers to clean the model, but that would be sweet. Normally they recommend isopropyl alcohol.

I also won food, 10 packages of oreo cookies in various flavors, some Kettle chips, and something else I can’t remember. Also a bunch of OTC meds, some makeup for D1, and various and sundry other things for around the house. I made a big loop and hit three auctioneers before my doctor appointment.

After that it was ‘busy with kid stuff’ until late. D2 had a band concert. They’ve improved dramatically. My Axil G2 active hearing protection worked well for the parts that weren’t great.

Spent some time looking over my auction sales for the last two months, mainly to see how specific things did, and what my best sellers are. For margin, it’s clearly books. I pay between 33c and 50c per book, and it’s rare that the sort of book I pick up doesn’t sell. Minimum of $1, but $5-6 is more typical, and I hit $15 or more with several in every auction. Occasionally I have one that is crazy, like the one that sold for $420, although $40- 50 is more common. Most of what I pick up is either old, no UPC codes, or small press with narrow subject matter, or of local interest. Regional cookbooks did very well, as did outdoor books by authors telling their particular story.

Pokemon is a good seller, since it’s basically free (weighs very little) it has great margins, so do console game discs. Cast iron sells well too, but it’s heavy so the margin is poor. Modern Lodge sells for about $10-15 per piece, which is a small profit, but antique or collectible brands sell for much more. I had a collectible frying pan sell for $100 a couple weeks ago.

Well respected name brand cowboy boots, especially in exotic hides, sell well, but the ‘store brands’ like Justin don’t bring much money, even in great condition. Clothing and regular shoes are hit or miss- sometimes the top brands or vintage bring good money, sometimes it is just ordinary thrift store pricing. Even so, the margin on clothes is pretty good.

Ladies handbags, some vintage toys, and some cookware are all items selling well, but not for crazy money.

In general I’m seeing 1/3 to 1/5 of ebay sold price for most items with a few going much higher. And I’m getting a better idea of what should really be on ebay, where you don’t have to have the ‘right’ buyer during a narrow window of time, and your audience is broader. Add in that the economy is always changing, buyers come and go, and holiday spending has an effect, and you have to play a numbers game and hope for good averages. This month and last, I could finally get a lot of stuff in and sold. I hope it continues, and that the recent drop in prices improves.

Today I’ve got a few items to pickup, and all the normal list to do. I won a couple of blue plastic water barrels that will become part of my rainwater harvesting, either here or at the BOL. I won a couple of other things for the BOL too. And it would be nice to get some more stuff out of the attic and driveway for next week’s auction. At least I don’t have a bunch of kid chauffeur duties today.

I’m stacking up money, and clearing the way for more useful stuff, as well as buying stuff for the stacks. It’s a ‘multifaceted’ approach. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Multi- faceted.

However you source it, stack some stuff.

nick