Yard Salers and eBayers: Issue 16! 2.16 – Sept. 30, 2004
**Fall Edition**
Hello all!
Yardsalers is back from its summer hiatus.
I hope you had a great summer, with many wonderful yard sale finds. And speaking of wonderful yard sale finds, we're going to (finally) announce the winners of the YAB “Best Item You’ve Sold at Auction” Contest! And, so you don't miss out on these great readers' stories, I am running all the winning entries in this issue.
I've also decided to award all who entered a package of all of my ebooks. And, of course, the first prize winner gets the most stuff: a signed copy of my new book, “eBay: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks,” a tin collectible pins from last year’s eBay Live (including a Nikon "Duck Pin" in its own tube), and a package of all 5 of my auction ebooks.
But, if you didn't win this year's contest..don't worry, there will be a new contest to enter soon, and even better prizes in the next contest. I took a few trips this summer, the first to eBay Live in New Orleans -- which I will be writing about -- to the beach, and to the mountains. But I've also been working on my new book, which I hope to tell you more about in the coming months. Some of you may be wondering when I will next update my ebook, "What Sells on eBay for What," and this new book will answer your questions. This issue will primarily consist of the YAB Contest winners, and we'll pick up with regular newsletter features in the next issue.
Before we move on, I'd like to metion another newsletter you may find useful: it's called "The Auction Seller's Resource" and it's run by a very experienced an knowledgeable professional, Skip McGrath. You can subscribe at: http://www.auction-sellers-resource.com/newsletters/index.shtml
Also, be sure to check out his web page of 99 free tips for selling (and buying) on eBay...some great stuff here, for free: http://www.99auctiontips.com
Now, let's get to those winning entries!
**************************
In This Issue:
1) YAB’s “Best Item You’ve Sold at Auction” CONTEST Winners!
2) Reader Mail
***************************
NEW ebook offered: Get my latest ebook, "How to Spot Fakes," for only $3.95! It covers how to tell if some of the major upscale-brand designer handbags and accessories are authentic.
If you want it, please email me at juliawilk@aol.com.
----------------------------------------------
1) YAB’s “Best Item You’ve Sold at Auction” CONTEST Winners Announced!
----------------------------------------------
The entries have been tallied for the YAB's first annual “Best Item You’ve Sold at Auction” Contest. I'm publishing a selection of them below, as well as the winning entry at the end. But, really all of them are winners, since I will be awarding everyone who entered a free package of all my auction ebooks.
(If you missed the details of the contest, you can check them at yab web site at http://www.aolmemorabilia.com/yab. I will be posting the details for the next contest (the prizes for which will be even better!) soon).
-------------------
Tuba
Hi, there,
The best thing I sold on eBay is a tuba. Not a tuba toothpaste, but the instrument, tuba.
It wasn't even for me, but for some friends. They bought it as some small local auction for $50, had their daughter's band teacher check it out for soundness, and my husband and I agreed to sell it for them on ebay, as a favor. At the end of the auction, it had sold for a little over $2000! I was really happy for them. They did the chore of packaging and shipping it. They never paid us back the fees we had to pay, as I failed to take it out when I gave them the check. We have decided that the friendship means more than the $50 we lost, and let it drop. And they have blessed us in other ways.....but I sure wish I could find a ton of tubas on my own to sell, as I have never sold something with that great of a profit. The best my $50 has got me is a chair, sold for $300. Though I did sell a mini pac-man game once for $130, bought for a dime. Now if I could do that 15 times..... So, that's it.
Sincerely,
Cristina
banana_box
Congrats, Christina! I think it was a good decision to let the $50 go. And the chair and Pac-Man sales sound great...may you find many more such profitable items. - Julia
----------------
Teapot
Hi, I just found your newsletter while surfing for something entirely different. I want to tell you about two ebay sales I made. The first was a teapot I found in a box I bought at auction for about $3. It was a Shelley, made in England and the week after I bought it I bought a magazine that had an article in it on Shelley teapots.
It told how to find out the age of the teapot and it turns out it was over 100 years old, so I listed it on ebay and sold it for $100! Then there was the time I bought a 1960 something Pulsar LED watch for .25 and it turned out to be not only collectible in its own right but also was 14 ct gold and sold for $300. These are a few of my better sales. I enjoyed your news letter.
Vicki
Thanks, Vicki! Those are both great stories! I keep tellign myself to look for more ceramics and glassware, so maybe this will help me remember. Old watches are also great for resale, as you say. Many brands have devoted followings and people will pay decent sums for old models -- Bulova is one that comes to mind. - Julia
-----------
Compote
Hi Julia,
I found a very pretty light blue (Translucent in spots) compote at a yard sale. It had a "C" in a diamond mark on it so, I figured it was older and of better quality. It had a shell dish on top being held up by a nude female with flowing hair. I bought it for $10.00, which is more than I typically spend for yard sale gambles for eBay but, I liked it enough that I would keep it if it didn't sell.
After I got home, I researched and learned it was called a "Nude Stem Compote" and was made by Cambridge Glass. The book value for a green one was $350. I checked eBay and found a pink one that sold for $160. Now I felt fairly confident when I listed it with a starting bid of $100 or 10 times what I paid for it.
It had bids on day 1. Day 7 and it was at $371!!! Yippee!!! I started watching it and refreshing about the last 10 minutes. Nothing more until 20 seconds $736... 7 seconds $911... AUCTION ENDED!!! Paid by PayPal within the hour. I doesn't happen very often but, when it does, you have to LOVE eBay!
H.D. Wilkinson~cyber-sellers
P.S. Wonder if we are related?
Hi H.D., Whoa! That's a fun one. Don't you just love the closing days and hours of successful auctions? I think that's part of what gets us hooked. I had a photography teacher once who said he thought watching a photograph show up in the developing fluid was one of the things that got people addicted to photography as a hobby. Watching an auction end is kind of like that. And yes, we just might possibly be related..we both seem to have the "eBay gene"! Thanks for entering! - Julia
--------
flower pot
Hi Julia, I just discovered your newletter and really enjoyed reading some back issues. I want to tell you about an exciting "find" of mine.
Several years ago my husband & I were selling on Ebay and also renting space in an Antique Mall. We buy our stock any place we can - garage sales, flea markets, directly from homes and auctions. One day I was shopping the outside "box lots" of an auction and found a box of misc. dishes. Wanting some colorful items to spark up our booth, I grabbed 3 blue items and won them for a $10 bid.
At home I was being rushed by my husband to leave for the "shop" and didn't get one of the pieces priced. I was going to price it $12.00. It was a blue and white marblized flower pot with enameled daisies painted on the sides. I'm not sure that I had even noticed the Akro Agate trademark at that point. Anyway, several weeks later, I looked at it again, saw the mark and decided to list it on eBay. On the first day the bidding went to over $100 and I was mystified!
The next day I got an email from a person asking permission to use my photos of this RARE Akro Agate flower pot for their book on that company. I was thrilled to give my permission. The little, less than $6.00, flower pot ended up selling for around $450. My husband doesn't laugh at my rooting through box lots anymore!
Cathy Serwalt (jrzdvl)
Hi Cathy! I'd say that's a good ROI. ;) Well done, as they say in England. Sometimes it only takes a success like that for our significant others to understand our hobby...or one might say obsession. - Julia
-------------------------------
Doll
A friend of mine was a doll collector. She had lots of antique dolls of all sorts. At a bookstore one day she noticed a doll book and on the cover a picture of a doll that resembled one in her collection. She had acquired this doll a year earlier at a local antique shop for $200.00. After buying the book and reading more information she came to find that this was a French BRU doll, valued at about $8,000.00.
As she was not yet attached to this doll, we decided to put her on ebay in hopes of making some money. Not knowing if the doll was "as good" as the doll in the book, we put a very modest reserve of $1500.00 on her. Days went by and there was little interest in our BRU so it seemed. A few questions were asked, more pictures requested and finally she made the reserve price.
Well, as the auction end grew near there was still little movement in the doll's price. With only 45 minutes left until aution end the price started to climb. With each passing minute (or so it seemed) the bid increased by a thousand at a time. With each click of "refresh" we screamed with shock and delight. Bidding continued up to the final seconds and after the gavel dropped, the BRU doll sold for $10,000. It was an amazing feeling, probably will never happen again...but I can always dream.
M. Adams
Stratford, PEI Canada
Hi M. Adams.. Wow. That is truly amazing. Another wonderful auction ending story. By the way, if any of my readers are doll experts out there, I would love to run a story about collectible dolls. Just pop me an email at juliawilk@aol.com. - Julia
------------------------------
Tazmanian Devil
Hello, Julia. My name is Kristie and I am a brand new subscriber to your newsletter. So far, I have read some back issues online and find it to be VERY informative.
I wanted to enter your contest for the best item I've sold at auction. For me, that would have to be a Tazmanian Devil stuffed animal who was dressed in a U.S. Marines uniform. I think he was the best item I've sold - not because of the money I made off him ($8.42 after eBay fees) - but because I was able to do two good deeds through him. First, I purchased him at a hospital benefit sale, so I was able to give some financial support to a great cause. Second, the lady who bought Taz mailed him to her son, who was a U.S. Marine spending the Christmas holidays fighting overseas. She said she was thrilled to have this little guy because he would bring great joy to her son, who was getting depressed being away from his family and amongst so much tension at the holidays.
Sometimes the greatest auctions are not necessarily the ones that make the seller a fortune!
Thanks for reading my submission.
Kristie / "Bubblace" on eBay
Hi Kristie! Thanks so much for the kind words about my newsletter! And, I do agree that some of the best auctions are because of what they do for the winner, and not necessarily the ones we make the most money from. What a great feeling. Thanks again! - Julia
-------------
Bracelet
Dear Julia,
The best item I sold on eBay was an old bracelet I had. It sat for years in a large box of bracelets in the corner of the room.
In the back of my mind the old polka dot bracelet had more sentimental value than monetary. I wasn't sure anyone would want it, but I posted it anyway. Days went by, someone finally bid on it and it sold. That made me very happy.
Gina
Hi Gina, I hope you got a nice price for it! I can relate to your story because there have been some things with sentimental value that I've contemplated selling. So far I've been loath to sell most of them, but in many cases the items are just cluttering up the house and not being put to any use, so maybe I will be inspired to sell more. I'm glad you were happy about the end result. Your letter raises an interesting question to me, though...are there things you, the readers regret selling? Email me and let me know. - Julia
------------------
Pink Luggage Set
Note: If you are the person who sent me this entry, please email me so I can send you the free ebooks. When I saved your email from AOL, AOL did not include your email address, date, time etc. as part of the saved mail...(at some point they decided to stop doing that as the default save on emails; why I have no idea).
hot pink 2-piece vintage luggage set sold for $235.
Hi, Congrats! Well, pink is in. I'd be interested in learning what brand it was, if you remember. Just shoot me an email. Thanks! - Julia
-------------------
And the first prize-winning entry...
-------------------
Painting
Hi Julia!
What a great idea for a contest!
Go ahead and get everything boxed up, 'cause here's the winner! ;-) Back in the mid-60s, my mother-in-law purchased a painting (for the frame) at a yard sale for $5. The painting was so ugly, she put it behind a door and forgot about it.
About 20 years later (1988), she decided to take the painting out of the frame and use the frame for something a little prettier. As she was taking the painting to the trash can, my father-in-law noticed a paper sticker on the back of the painting. They took a closer look, and it was a label from a museum in Canada. At some point, it had been loaned to this museum. The mother-in-law did some calling and letter-writing, and found out that the painting was probably worth $2,000-$3,000! She decided to just hang on to it and see if it would be more valuable in the future.
Fast-forward to 2003... The mother-in-law found out I was selling on eBay. She asked if I could try to sell her painting. I did some research, and wound up talking to the son of the man she had corresponded with in 1988! The painting had indeed gone up in value. I put this painting on eBay for a starting price of $10,000, buy-it-now for $15,000. It sold with buy-it-now in 24 hours! The buyer flew down from Canada the next day and handed me a cashier's check for 15 grand!!
THAT'S how to make points with your mother-in-law! ;-) Oh yeah!!
Let me know what you think!!
Tim Walters, Atlanta, GA (ebay trwalters)
Hey Tim,
OK, ya got me. That one does take the big prize. I especially like the story because I am fond of buying art for the frames, myself..though I haven't come across much original art. Original art can be worth a lot, and of course, a lot of these artists don't see higher prices in their work until many years go by. You win the tin of collectible eBay pins, signed copy of eBay: Top 100 Tips & Tricks, and a package of all my ebooks! Tim, if you are reading this, please email me at juliawilk@aol.com and give me your mailing address. Otherwise, I will contact you soon.
Well, thanks again for everyone who entered, and stay tuned for the details on what the prizes for the next contest will be! Also, thanks for your patience in waiting for the end of the contest, which went on a little longer than I anticipated. ;) - Julia
********************************
Have you ordered your copy of “eBay: Top 100 Tips & Tricks” yet?
It’s available now on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. If you do want to order the book, I’d appreciate if you’d use my affiliate link below.
ebay top 100
********************************
----------------------------------------------
2) Reader Mail
----------------------------------------------
The following is an email I received after an auction, and since his question is one I thought many of you might have, I asked for his permission to use it in this newsletter, which he granted...thanks, Bruce:
Thanks Julia, Very professional, very prompt, you are truly a credit to Ebay. Will leave you glowing feedback. Bruce
(Do you have a report or review on all the software programs available for listing and creating auctions on EBAY. I like your style of writing and if you have other publications, let me know. Thanks, Bruce)
Bruce
Hi Bruce!
Thanks so much! I don't have such a special report, but the book I recently wrote for Wiley covers some of them ("eBay: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks" (Wiley, 2004)) -- you can find it on amazon.com and in most bookstores. Also the news and resource site AuctionBytes.com has some excellent resources..check out their chart of eBay software programs at this link: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/ams
At the bottom of that page, there's a also a link to a related article they recently ran.
-------------------------
YOUR FEEDBACK WANTED: An Update to “What Sells on eBay”: Secrets of the (High-Margin!) Powersellers; The Real Deal on Wholesalers, and What Else Do You Want to See?
-------------------------
Note: I am always open to reader articles, so if you want to write about something relating to yard sale-ing and eBaying, just flag me down! I will of course give you credit, using your eBay ID, web site, or any other contact info.
I’d love your feedback on this topic, as well as other topics you’d like to see me address.
***
That’s it for this issue. Until next time, happy yardsale-ing and eBaying!
Julia
------------------------------------
That’s it for this issue. Until next time, happy yardsale-ing and eBaying!
Julia
------------------------------------
eBooks by Julia L. Wilkinson:
[all my ebooks are offered at substantial discounts from their regular price of $8.95 to the subscribers of this newsletter. Only $4.95 each! If interested in any of them, please email me at juliawilk@aol.com.]
New eBooks:
- Making Big Bucks off Catalogs on eBay:
http://www.aolmemorabilia.com/clkslcat.html
- Over 100 Books that Sell for $50-$100 on eBay: email me!
- Selling Kids Clothes on eBay: email me! (these last two will be available for purchase via my site soon).
- How to Spot Fakes
Julia Classic:
What Sells on eBay for What:
http://www.aolmemorabilia.com/clkbnksales.html
My Life at AOL (available at amazon.com, booklocker.com, and 1stbooks.com)
----------------------
Copyright 2004 Julia L. Wilkinson
----------------------
Thank you for subscribing to Yard Salers and eBayers. Yard Salers and eBayers email newsletter may be freely distributed in its entirety, so please pass it on. (Individual sections MAY NOT be copied and/or distributed without written permission of the publisher.) No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Yard Salers and eBayers makes diligent efforts to obtain accurate and timely information. However, Yard Salers and eBayers disclaims any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in Yard Salers and eBayers, whether or not such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident or any other cause.
End
<