Thursday, November 29, 2012

Thrift Store(ies) 11/28

After jinxing myself with this post, and the Thanksgiving holiday, things have been fairly quiet around here. The Black Friday/Cyber Monday thing was a non-event although I had a different sale each day.   We went to 2 Salvation Armies yesterday and did pretty well. Above, from left to right:
  • Orange County Choppers baseball jersey
  • Tori Richard shirt
  • Harley-Davidson t shirt
  • Polo Sport hoodie
  • Robert Graham shirt
  • Tommy Bahama shirt
  • Reyn Spooner Warner Bros. shirt SOLD $30.00
 In the shoes and housewares department, we have:
  • 2 pairs of Converse sneakers
  • MBT Sand sneakers
  • SAS loafers SOLD $51.00
  • Pyrex 043 Butterfly Gold casserole dish
We also found 2 t shirts by The Mountain, and a Pearl Izumi bike jersey.  There were several heart breakers as usual, including a nice Ralph Lauren winter jacket which was stained horribly, and  no less that 8 Under Armour shirts that were all (of course) full price.

On the selling side, we picked up this old Boy Scout uniform a few weeks ago for $9.99 and it sold today for $49.99.  Well, it's time to stop writing and start listing!  Have a great one!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving to all in the Blogosphere! Things have been on the quiet side here since my last post.  No thrifting, yard sailing, or flea marketeering.  Sales have been on the steady side, with the highlights being 2 vintage typewriter I had bought over the summer.

This one, an Underwood No. 5 from 1925-26 sold for $159.99. I had it at $199.99 OBO (I rejected 2 $100.00 offers) with free shipping, but it didn't sell, so I relisted with new photos at $159.99 + shipping.  It sold within a week. This baby weighed in at about 30 pounds, so I had to be very careful with packing and shipping. It arrived safely, but I have not gotten feedback yet.
If you ever find an old typewriter and want to find out when it was made, I highly recommend the Typewriter Serial Number Database.  All you need are two things: the brand of typewriter, and the serial number.

This is an Underwood Universal Portable from 1940-41(one of the first "portable" typewriters, although at 25 or so pounds, portable might not be the right word!). It went for $69.99. Anytime you can find an old typewriter in good condition for less than $10.00, pick it up. Due to the weight of these old timers, shipping is really the only drawback, but get a sturdy box and some styrofoam peanuts and you're good to go!
Good sales, all, but the flip of the week month goes to Autumn for this little gem:

She scored this Palm Z22 (as is, no cords or anything) for .25 cents. The seller was not sure it worked, but for the price why not.  She got it home, found a USB charging cable and lo and behold, it worked.  I listed it for $44.99 and it sold within a few hours! Yep, even these older PDAs go for some cash!
Well, I'm off to do some prepping for Thanksgiving dinner.  Have a great one!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

A Great 24 Hours!

Whenever Ebay decides to change things (and as we all know, this happens quite frequently), I always try to change with them. Lately its been:
  • Optimizing for mobile devices
  • Fast and Free shipping
  • More, larger pictures
  • Less wordy descriptions
I  have implemented all these things, and I have to say,  I think it has helped. November has been great so far, I am on pace to sell about 100 items for the month. In the last day I have sold 8 items (5 over night!), not a lot to some, but a whole bunch to me! Several of these items I had just listed a day or two ago. 6 shirts, a pair of SAS shoes, and a rubber stamp.
The best part was that I had one buyer purchase 2 shirts. One was free shipping, one was not.  He paid $5.04 shipping for the one. They are both heavy Polo Ralph Lauren rugby type shirts and together they weighed 2 pounds 5 ounces. After considering my options, I used a Priority Regional A Box (I am in MA, he is in NY) and the total cost for both shirts was....$5.04!!  That made my morning even better!
On the down side, my luck with not loosing packages may have come to an end.  I had a buyer from Hungary tell me that she has not yet received a jacket I sent her almost a month ago. It is insured, so if worst comes to worst, we will both get our money back. I asked her to give it another week and she was okay with that. If it doesn't arrive, I will issue a refund and file a claim with ShipSaver.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Sales And Such

Autumn picked up this pair of UGG boots a few weeks ago. They were pretty gnarly looking, and there  was also a small purple ink spot on the back, but after some suede brushing and overall TLC, this UGGly duckling became a beautiful pretty decent looking swan. My history with UGG is limited, we had a pair of men's sandal/slipper looking things that were hideously UGGly and sat around for a few months but did eventually sell. 
So I finally got them listed yesterday for $59.99.  Within an hour there were 3 watchers, and they sold yesterday evening. Boy do I love a fast sale! Needless to say, my opinion of UGG boots has changed. When it comes to buying things, the one factor that I go buy is "will it sell". There are several surefire sellers that we will buy every time (Dansko being one) almost regardless of condition. Autumn likes to try new things, whereas I will sit up and take notice only when they sell.  Then they are on my buy radar. I must say that she does have very good instincts when it comes to buying new items.

I enjoy old typewriters. I picked this Underwood Portable up at a yard sale over the summer. I bought it to sell, but when I got it home and realized how heavy it was, and what a pain the whole shipping thing would be, I kinda put off listing it. For 3 months. However, last month I decided it was time.  I photographed it, and listed it for $99.99 Or Best Offer. Yesterday I got an offer for $69.99, which I accepted. I am waiting on the payment (the one thing I don't like about Best Offer). I still need to figure out the best way to sent this beast.

Monday, November 12, 2012

A Trip To Savers


Our 2 local Savers had their Veterans Day Sale today which means 50% off clothing and shoes. I really like Savers, but they are on the high end when it comes to pricing, so we really only shop there during the 50% off sales. They both opened at 9:00, and we were at the first one at 8:55!  It was packed about 15 minutes after opening! Autumn tackled the shoe department and I went to clothing. We spent about 1 1/2 hours at store #1 and found 3 Tommy Bahama silk shirts, a Columbia PFG shirt, a Polo Golf jacket, 3 pairs of Danskos, 2 SAS, Merrell maryjanes, and a pair of Cole Haans.  A great trip, and a great way to start the day! 
On to Savers #2. We arrive at about 11:00. This store has a better clothing selection in my opinion.  Again, Autumn hits the shoes, and I go to clothes.  Highlights include: Ralph Lauren Purple Label polo shirt with tag from Neiman Marcus for $245.00!! (I paid $15.00), a Robert Graham R&G shirt, a Nat Nast silk shirt, 2 pairs of Clarks, and a nice Chaps polo shirt.  I also found a Pyrex Old Orchard bowl, which I will probably keep.
Heartbreaker of the day: Autumn found 5 pairs of SAS shoes but every single one had bad soles, some worn smooth!  I also found several nice Nike sneakers that had the same problem.  Oh well.
I got a message from Ebay this morning saying that from November 12-14, fixed price listings are free. Needless to say, tomorrow and Wednesday I am going to be busy!


Saturday, November 10, 2012

Tag Sale Treasure Hunt 11/10

Very few yard sales again today as the season winds down. There was a parking lot sale at a local school this morning, which was quite good.  There were about 40 vendors there. I found the Pyrex Butterfly Gold covered casserole for $5.00, and the 2 Revere Ware saucepans for $1.00 each.  Autumn got the Clairol Kindness curlers for $1.00.
We hit the remaining yard sales next.  At one I got 11 Corelle Spring Blossom Green coffee cups for free (1 is pictured above), and a Tapout shirt for $1.00.  We also picked up an Under Armour vest and a pair of Clarks shoes at another sale for $3.00.
We stopped by the Goodwill next.  I had filled up a card (every $5.00 you spend, you get a stamp on your card, get 20 stamps, you get $5.00 off your next purchase). I have been having very good luck at this Goodwill lately, and today was no exception. I scored 3 Polo Ralph Lauren shirts; 1 was a Big Pony, another was a Dual Match. Also a nice Cooke Street Hawaiian shirt, and a North Face western style shirt. Bottom line: 5 great shirts for $13.00.
The flea market is now closed, so I will spend tomorrow listing.  Autumn is cleaning up a bunch of shoes, so I will get those listed as well.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Thrift Store(ies) 11/7



We go to our local thrift stores on Wednesday because it's Family Day, and most items are 50% off.  Yesterday was no exception.  We went to 1 Salvation Army and 1 Goodwill and found these gems (top left-right):
  • Polo Ralph Lauren Clayton shirt
  • Harley-Davidson Sturgis 1996 t shirt
  • Lacoste polo shirt
  • Reyn Spooner Silk Red Sox shirt - SOLD! $30.00
  • Polo Ralph Lauren Terrier polo shirt (I have never seen one before)
  • Ralph Lauren sweater
  • Vintage Polo Ralph Lauren long sleeve shirt
  • Tori Richard Hawaiian shirt
  • Harley-Davidson dealer t shirt
Bottom:
  • Silver jeans
  • Diesel Cochise jeans - SOLD! $31.99
  • 7 For All Mankind A pocket jeans - SOLD! $35.99
  • Bloomies Eiffel Tower coffee cup
  • Lavazza coffee cup - SOLD! $10.00
  • 2 cross stitch kits
All in all, a very good day! It started snowing while we were in the second thrift store we went to, but there was no accumulation.  Cold as heck, though!  We did very well at the Goodwill, 3 of the items I got were 50% off, and 1 was $1.00!  We got home to find out that I had made 2 sales on Ebay for a total of 4 yesterday.  I had 20+ items end yesterday, so coupled with the new items, I have a lot of listing to do today!  Well, I better get going!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Flea Market Finds 11/4


As previously reported right here, today is the final day of 2012 for the flea market. It returns in April, but there is a new flea market in the works that is supposed to start in a month or so. Yay! 
On to the finds find. We found a vendor who had a box of wood type blocks that were used back in the day for newspapers. He was selling them for .50 cents each, so I picked the four coolest I could find. They are:
  • Top - Christmas Greetings
  • Left Center - Westborough Woman's Club
  • Right Center - Engineering/Installation/Design Financing
  • Bottom - Always In The Market For Antiques
I really like these.  I want to ink these and print them so when I list them the buyer can see the designs, but apparently we need a brayer to roll the ink on and then stamp them.  I tried using an ink pad and it did not work well.  That was it, but we did get to stop at the donut shop on the way home and I got 25 glazed chocolate donut holes.


After the flea market we went to the Goodwill where I picked up the Reyn Spooner shirts yesterday. There were several Go Barefoot Hawaiian shirts there and I picked up five.  We also found a Life Is Good t shirt, a cool Polo Sport t shirt, a Wilton Barney cake pan, microwave turntable, and Mr. Bacon vs Monsieur Tofu. I don't know what that is either.
In other news, the soon-to-be-world-famous Pioneer Valley Fashion Super Sunday Sale is going well, and I have sold several items.  The sale was scheduled to start at 1 minute past midnight this morning, but there was a glitch (I think setting the clocks back) and it did not start till 7 am. So I extended it by 7 hours. That's it for now, time to do some listing. Adios!

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Tag Sale Treasure Hunt 11/3


With only 4 tag sales today, my hopes of finding something good were not too high. The first sale was a bust, the second was an estate sale. Even though I have never had great luck at estate sales, they intrigue me greatly. There was a large crowd there already when we arrived. I saw a man walking to his car carrying two nice Pyrex bowls. NOOOOOO!!  After a little poking around, I found a Pyrex Americana Cinderella bowl, #444. It has some scratches on it, so we are going to keep it. It was only $1.00.  We also found a pair of SAS shoes for $1.00.
The 3rd yard sale was terrible, and the fourth was at an address we had been to twice previous. Here I found a bag of K'Nex parts for $1.00.  I will add these to the K'Nex lot that I will list when I get at least a pound.
On the way home we decided to stop at a Goodwill that is close to our house. I found an Oreo coffee mug first. Then I spotted a Fire-King peach luster coffee cup. I have terrible luck reselling Fire-King, but I cannot resist it's charm. Spent a buck on that.
Then I made my way over to mens shirts. Nothing....nothing....nothing...wait what's this? A Reyn Spooner? Cool! Another one! And another! Holy cow! One more! 4 all together. There were also about 8-10 Go Barefoot Hawaiian shirts.  I had never heard of these, but I bought one anyway.  I think someone got rid of their Hawaiian shirt collection, cause they are all large.
Here they are!





Friday, November 2, 2012

New and Exciting Things!

New and exciting for me at least! Despite the sales slump, I have been moving forward with listing and such. I have achieved my goal of upgrading my store to Premium.  My plan was to wait until I hit 230 listings, as this is the magic number where it becomes cheaper to upgrade from Basic store to Premium. I hit 230 last night.  Fixed price listings are now .05 cents vs .20 cents. Of course the monthly fee is more, but if you stay above 230 listings you do save money. 
Autumn got a flyer from Vistaprint  for 250 free business cards, so we ordered the card pictured above. The cost was $4.50 for shipping. Not too bad.
About a month ago, I registered Pioneer Valley Fashion at Go Daddy. I finally got around to redirecting  it to my Ebay store. This makes finding it a lot easier than using the old Ebay store address.
I have embraced using a tripod when taking pictures for auctions. I used to point and shoot, and while usually good, my pictures left a little to be desired. I am by no means a pro at taking pictures, but this is a major step in the right direction.
I have gotten everything ready for my Sunday Sale. All items have been put into a second store category for easy access.
I have gotten all of the rubber stamps we bought listed on Ebay. I have sold 5 already for $16.95.  Not a lot, but we only paid $2.00 for the lot, and I still have 45 listed so I stand to make some decent money if they sell.  
As of now, there are only a few yard sales tomorrow, and Sunday is the last flea market. Hopefully there will be some last minute additions to the yard sale roster.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

First, and most important, I want to give our best wishes to all the folks that have been affected by Sandy.  I lived on Long Island for most of my life and hope that everyone is okay, and everything gets back to normal as soon as possible.  I find it hard to stay focused on business with all that is happening, but go on we must.

The Good: Remember those rubber stamps Autumn scored for $2.00?  I have cleaned them up and listed 33 of them so far.  I still have about a dozen to list.  I have already sold 3 for $10.00, so the rest is gravy.

The Bad: This past week I have had 4 returns.  I accept returns for whatever reason, and have had very few to date.  Of the 4, I have gotten 2 and refunded the buyer's money and relisted the item.  The other 2 have not arrived yet.  In fact one left me positive feedback.  So who knows?  All the returns (3 pairs of shoes, 1 pet costume) were due to not fitting properly.

The Ugly: Sales are in the crapper.  June and July were terrible, August and September were great, October started okay, and finished dismally.  I averaged 3 items sold every day in August and September, October was less that 2. In the past 5 days I have made $19.96. I try very hard to implement whatever "suggestions" Ebay comes up with (large photos, Fast and Free shipping, optimized listing for mobile customers, 1 day handling, tracking uploading).  Now the new one, according to Tina at My Secret Ebay Diary, whom I trust very much, is "Inverse Document Length". I interpret this to mean that it is not good to have an overly long description, as the more words you use means the more keywords you have and this is known as "keyword stuffing" and is no good. I do have a long "fine print" section, which I am deleting mainly because it is covered elsewhere, and no one reads it anyway.

I am going to have a sale on Sunday to see if this helps, and I am making some tweaks here and there. Saturday is yard sale day, so until then, have a good one and happy Ebaying!