Giraffe Sale

Remember this guy from a previous post? I finally listed him yesterday and he sold within a couple of hours for a best offer of $30. I'd listed it for 39.99 OBO. After some angst about not knowing if it was brass or bronze I just described him as that. Brass or bronze. Problem solved :) Sometimes I worry a little too much…

Yesterday I also listed another item that had been languishing for a couple of years because of indecision/angst. This model kit was purchased at a yard sale for $1. I have no idea if all of the pieces are there or not. The instructions are in Spanish. I couldn't find the year it was made. Finally I just decided to list it with the little information I have. It already has 4 watchers. I couldn't find anything like it anywhere so I'm hoping it is a desirable unique item.  The original price tag of $99.95 is still on it and it appears vintage. I priced it at $99.99 OBO. What do you think? Too high? Too low? 

I signed up for Google Adsense today. I don't see any ads on my blog. Do you? There they are. 

Have a good thrifting/holiday weekend. 

Vintage Christmas Pyrex and Some Old Inventory Sales

There was a discussion recently on Scavenger Life about a vintage Christmas Pyrex bowl that a person in the comments sold for very good money. I can't remember exactly how much it went for. I sold one this week as well. It was a different Christmas pattern. I sold this for my sister (we split the profit) who got it free. It sold for $34.99 plus shipping. I probably could have got more if I'd listed it a little closer to Christmas. Prior to this bowl I didn't realize there were Christmas Pyrex patterns. It makes sense though. Check out the solds on ebay for Christmas Pyrex. As you can see it's not just the bowls that sell well. I'd love to find those mugs too! Mine is below.

I continue to dig through the old inventory and get it listed. Sometimes I'm so surprised at how quickly something I've had sitting around for a couple of years sells! Yes you heard right, years. I need to start imaging bags of money sitting on my floor and get that stuff listed! Here are a couple of those sales.

These corduroy Express pants were sitting for a long time. I don't remember how much I paid. Probably a couple of dollars. They sold for $29.99 plus ship. Sold about a week after listing them. 

This picnic thermos set also sat forever because it had flaws that I didn't see when I bought it. Some tears in the vinyl and the gaskets had wear and stains. Sold a couple of days after listing for $24.99 plus shipping. I just disclosed all of the flaws and someone still wanted it. So just those two items was $55 sitting stagnant in my workroom. 

Here is what I need to keep in my mind when I don't feel like listing.

About a week ago I reported that I'd sent in my first FBA shipment to Amazon. I've now sent in two shipments and have a third ready to go. I've only sold one book so far but that's okay. It's a lot of inventory I moved out of my house and I believe it will sell eventually. My sister on the other hand also started at the same time as myself. She got a lot of free almost new books from a friend who was moving in a desirable subject. She has already made almost $200 which is thrilling for her. I love getting someone else turned on to reselling. I hope she is inspired to continue after she runs out of the books that she was given. At least she will see that that avenue is always there for her if she needs or wants it say for a nice vacation or christmas presents. 

Edited to Add: Someone in the comments asked some questions about FBA. I'm very new at and don't have much experience to offer but I'm linking up to a recent interview on Scavenger Life with Andrew of Picking Profits. There was a lot of information shared. A good place to start if you are interested in FBA. There are also tons of Youtube videos and bloggers who do FBA and tutorials on Amazon itself.  Hope this helps.

Hodge Podge of Coincidences and I Like to Iron

I realized something in the last couple of days that I never thought before. I like to iron. I don't iron for myself. I wear mostly tshirts and shorts or jeans. Lately though I've been spending time spiffying up items of clothing or fabric that I'm selling and really enjoying it. I love the idea of taking something thrifted and wrinkled and transforming it into a like new version of itself.

Something else I realized is that you can iron the dust jacket of a book. You know those people that iron gift wrap and reuse it? Well, I got a book yesterday and the dust jacket has a lot of creases. I wondered to myself could I iron it? It's kind of like wrapping paper. I put my iron on the lowest setting and used a thin towel to protect the dust jacket. It worked!

Coincidences.

This morning I listened to an old NPR story on coincidences. Afterwards here is what happened.

Today I realized you can iron a dust jacket...sort of a weird use for an iron. Yes, I know I already mentioned this but it's pertinent to the story. Later on today I listed to an old Scavenger Life podcast in which Ryanne discovers she can use an iron to remove some damage out of a vinyl chair...weird hunh?

in the same podcast she talks about a weird coincidence she'd experienced earlier in the week. She'd been reading a blogpost I wrote about the weird Kraft promotion I experienced and she returned home to find the same package in her mail! I can't even begin to calculate how many coincidences occurred and how circular it all was. Has my mind reeling..is it just me ;) Any weird coincidences ever happened in your life?

Pokemon Help and FBA

This week I created my first FBA shipment to Amazon. I've been inspired by some booksellers including Andrew who did an interview on Scavenger Life this past week. I have a couple hundred books listed on ebay and I decided to move a lot of them to Amazon. I may not make as much profit on them but it will free up a lot of shelf space and some of them I've had listed already on ebay a long time.

My first box was 30 books and weighed 25 pounds. It should arrive at Amazon in the next couple days. I'm excited to see how this goes. I like to buy books but I simply don't have the room to store the volume of them that I buy. If I do FBA the space is infinite ;) It did take quite a while to prepare the shipment. I don't have a scanner so I put them in manually. Alot of FBAers have scanners and just scan the bar code. I'm sure that would be quite a bit quicker. We'll see how this experiment goes before I do that.

Can any of you or your kids help me name these Pokemon characters? I have no clue and it seems like there are hundreds of different characters out there. This is a duvet that I just listed on ebay. I've sold quite a few Pokemon items including sheets, pillowcases and plush.

Any Metalurgists in the Room?

I bought this cool metal giraffe at GW. I can't figure out what kind of metal it is or if it is real vintage or a Pier One type knock off. It's so hard with all the fake vintage stuff out there. It's about 14" high and wieghs about 10 ounces. It has sort of a bronze look. Underneath though the metal is a different color bright and brassy. I think it's pretty cool looking but I'm not sure if it's worth anything or just a cheap decorative object. What do you think? Do you ever stress over whether an object is true vintage? Or what to call the material it is made from?

Cow, Horse or Other

I bought this plush last week. He has a cow face but a mane and long tail. I don't know what to call him. Is he a cross breed?

Editing Photos

Really??

This is an actual ebay listing.

We all probably have piles but have you ever considered leaving them in your photo? Is this a marketing technique I haven't tried LOL. Good thing they have the mannequin. It's so much more professional ;)

Cool Marilyn Monroe Find

I found this at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago. I picked it  up because of the cover but when I opened it up to see what was inside I suspected it was a great find. I paid $2 for it and after several days took a best offer of $54.99 plus shipping. The first picture is the cover. The others are the serigraphs inside. There were several more of the serigraphs. They were printed on a heavy paper suitable for framing. There were other recent sales of the same issue for up to $100 but mine had some minor damage and I was happy with the offer.  BOLO this issue of a large sized magazine called Avant Garde. 1968 Marilyn issue.