My Best Sales This Week

Sales have picked up a little the last few days. Below are my best sales. The first sale is a brass Holy water font. I paid 1.99 and it sold for 29.99 plus shipping. This is my second religious item to sell. 

Music Box. I had this music box for about a year. It sold for 27.99 with free shipping.

The book below sold for 34.99 plus shipping. I can't remember how much I paid but it would be less than a dollar. So many books I pick up are only worth about 9.99 with free shipping but once in a while I hit a winner. I love books and it's hard for me not to buy them. The problem is they take up a lot of room.  

This wool mens Timberland sweater sold the same day I listed it for 34.99 plus shipping. I paid 3.00 for it. I'm thinking about buying mannequins for my clothes. I think they look much better on a form of some sort. If you use a mannequin what kind do you use? 

I want to share a couple of pages from a 4H cookbook I sold this week. It's from 1959. Washing dishes was quite a bit more complicated back then. It made me laugh so I thought you might enjoy it too. 

I hope your sales have picked up too. Have a good week and a nice Thanksgiving. 

BOLO All Penguins

image from Wikimedia

Have you read this article? It's a really sweet commercial. I gather from the article that all things penguin are hotter now. Keep your eye out for anything penguin especially plush and/or list um if you've got em.  I have one lone penguin ornament to list but I'll be looking for more penguin paraphernalia when I'm out thrifting.

Bonanaza

Before today I'd had one sale on Bonanza since I started listing there a couple of months ago. Well today I had two sales and one offer which I accepted but hasn't been paid yet. To me this is an indication of holiday buying. If you have been thinking about trying Bonanza now is probably the best time to do so. Below are the things I sold or had offers on today. So if like me, you have a Bonanza account but just haven't been using it get your ebay or etsy stuff up there. Or if you've been thinking of opening a Bonanza account now is the time to try it. Do you use Bonanza? If so have your sales been increasing there? 

The Sorcerer's Apprentice Book

A lot of Gurley Christmas Candles

A Framed Print of a Lighthouse

Batman Stamps

I am a stamp geek. I don't have a formal collection and I usually use my stamps but I consider myself somewhat a stamp collector. I love stamps. Particularly I love commemorative stamps. I love the art work. I love the little stories they tell. The pieces of history depicted. I had to show you my latest. These are currently available at the USPS. I'm not really interested in older stamps that are valuable because of age unless they are also cool looking. As you can see I already used a stamp off of this sheet. These would be a great gift for a Batman lover.

I listed 13 items yesterday. That is a record for me. Yeah! I had four sales as well which is high for me.

My Best Sales This Week

Pendleton Shirt. I paid $4 for this shirt. I didn't notice when I bought it that it had paint all over it. I listed it anyway at a lower price and described the condition. It took quite a while to sell but finally sold this week for $24.99 with free shipping. 

These Levis cost .50 at an estate sale. They sold for $39.99 plus shipping. They were made in the USA which makes them worth more (I didn't know this but someone messaged me about them and clued me in). I had them priced at $14.99 before. Valuable lesson learned. 

Lastly. I sold this model kit before but the buyer didn't pay. Took a best offer of $50 this week and the buyer paid this time. I paid a dollar for this at a rummage sale. 

Sales have continued to be slow again this week. I have an auction ending today on this St Elizabeth statue that I featured in a previous post. I started it at $79.99 and have one bid so far and 4 watchers. I'm hoping it goes high. 

Lastly yesterday I went to a very unique estate sale. It was the contents of an art gallery. The owner of the gallery died two years ago and this sale was to sell everything in the gallery and settle his estate. There were hundreds of pieces of art, books, some furniture and a bunch of persian rugs. I went toward the end of the sale to get some better deals and not have to fight crowds. I purchased two rugs, a set of collages, a bunch of art books and catalogs and a framed vintage woven bag. All in all I spent $270. OMG! I've never spent that much in one shot. I'll post some pictures of my finds later. It was a fun experience. 

What happened in your store this week? Are you experiencing a holiday rush yet? 

Baby Ben Clocks by Westclox

I find these cute little Baby Ben clocks by Westclox fairly often. I think I've sold two and have two listed right now. I love their style. This morning I got a question through ebay messages asking if I knew the age of the clock. From it's appearance I thought it was 60s but I went searching the internet for some information to back me up before answering the potential buyer. I found this great site that I wanted to share with you in case you ever need to date Big Bens or Baby Bens. Interestingly my clock was made between 1979 and 2000. I didn't know they made them that recently. There are earlier models but this isn't one. I guess I should remove mid century modern from my title LOL. Previously one I sold was a mint green. It was really cute. The two I have now are off white. Hopefully the person interested in them will buy one or two..

My Cap Climbed a Mountain!

I love to read when sellers get a nice message from a buyer. I get them once in a while but none recently. So yesterday when a buyer left me feedback for a Chicago Cubs hat they bought from me I was happy. They bought the hat specifically to represent their home town when they climbed Mt McKinley  Whitney. I messaged them back and they sent me a photo. How cool is that? I blurred their face since I didn't get their permission to post their photo. Beautiful view. 

It's a rainy cloudy day today so I won't be listing much. I'm taking advantage of the weather to prep items and organize. 

Some More Cool Religious Finds

Last night I caught a little bit of the movie The Davinci Code on cable and it made me all tingly thinking about my recent interest in looking for religious items. What if I got caught up in something like the Davinci Code ;) Hey it could happen! 

Yes, I found a couple more neat religious items this week. The first I found at a thrift store. It's a vintage 7" carved wood sculpture of a saint. Very lightweight. Doesn't appear to be really special. After a bunch of research I am pretty sure it is a piece made by the company ANRI. ANRI is a very old company in Italy that makes carved wood pieces. I put it up at auction and already have a bid after just a few hours.

The second is a set of two vintage carved wood plaques of two figures praying. They are about 12" in height. The one has a feather in his hair which to me indicates American Indian but I don't really associate Christianity with American Indians? Or maybe praying with hands together isn't just Christian. Any thoughts? I haven't done much research on these yet but they are very cool looking. I found one similar pair on ebay. I haven't listed them yet.  

I had ZERO sales this weekend and haven't had a sale yet today on Monday either. Gulp. I thought things were looking up. It's given me lots of time to list though which I have been doing…religiously.

My Best Sales This Week

Vintage Electric Angel Tree Topper. I can't remember what I paid for this. Sold for 22.95 plus shipping. Christmas type sales are picking up. I also sold a lot of satin beaded ornaments this week and a set of Santa nesting dolls last week. 

I had been picking up vintage tablecloths for a while and had amassed a pile that was just sitting and sitting as I didn't want to list them. Why? I was thinking it was going to be this huge job of measuring each one and meticulously going over them for stains and holes. I could see without much work that some had stains. Finally I did my research and ended up listing them as a lot of mixed sizes as is with some stains and holes. I still got 45 dollars plus shipping for 9 tablecloths. If they are pristine you can get around 10 a piece for them. People buy them both to use and to repurpose in crafts. I love their bright colors and patterns. 

Finally yesterday I hit a church/school sale. I've got a method now where I go at the end of the day for the bag sale. At yesterday's I got some great items for 3 dollars a bag. This is my new favorite source that I'll be looking for each weekend. Indoors. Cheap. Huge variety of things. I just have to be careful to leave those items behind that I know are only going to net a few bucks. It's hard! and I fail sometimes.  They had a whole table of religious items which I scooped up. I'm hoping there is something interesting in the bunch. 

My primary source is thrift stores but church sales are closing in. I hope they last all winter. What is your favorite source? Estate sales, rummage, thrift stores or church sales? Or other? 

My Ting and Motorola Photon Q Review

I originally heard about Ting a couple of years ago when I was looking at cell phones and plans. I went with a different provider at the time. Fast forward to present day. I was spending almost 90 dollars a month for my cell phone plan through ATT. I'm also paying for a land line. I'm one of those old school people who have a hard time getting rid of the land line. My cell phone was reaching the end of its life plus I was trying to cut some expenses. With Ting you pay according to what you use. Here are their rates. If you didn't use your phone at all you pay a flat $6 a month. I was paying way too much for the type of usage I had with ATT. I don't talk a lot on my phone. I don't text a lot. I don't use a huge amount of data for internet but I didn't want to NOT have it because I like the GPS feature and sometimes I will look something up for resale. Even that I don't use very much though because I like to be inconspicuous when I shop. So I was paying a lot for the least amount I could get. At the same time I was reading on Scavenger Life what Jay and Ryanne had to report on their recent experience with Ting. As phones go I have a difficult standard to meet. I want/need a real keyboard on my phone. Not all companies/plans offer a phone with this. I've tried phones without a keyboard. For a short time I had an iPhone. I just couldn't deal with it! I need a physical keyboard. The trend indicates that some day I will probably have to go without my keyboard. Sprint (which is what Ting uses) has a phone which I liked a Motorola Photon Q. I purchased it on ebay for $100. Knowing there was no contract I knew I could always sell the phone and go back to a more conventional plan if I didn't like it. Based on their maps of coverage I saw that I do not live in an area with optimal coverage. Ting uses Sprint satellites. But based on the price and the fact that Sprint offers a phone I was happy with (it has a keyboard) I decided it was worth a try. I've had my phone  for over a week. Porting my number and joining Ting was super easy. I've had no dropped calls which is what I was most afraid of. I love the phone. I'm very happy with Ting so far. I'm including my referral link in this post. If you decide to try Ting and use my referral link we each get $25. I used Jay and Ryannes link and I got $25 off of my first bill.

I haven't got my first Ting bill yet as it's just been a little over a week but I'm hoping to at least halve my cell phone bill. And did I say I love my new phone?

Ting referral link. 

My Best Sales This Week and My First Etsy Sale

Sales picked up this week. My sales were about double what I usually reach. Yeah! Below are my best.

Framed signed art print. Paid $3. Sold for $29.99 plus shipping. $3 of that sale went to a Mission Fish Charity.

Koala Salt and Pepper Shakers. Paid 50 cents. Sold for $29.99 plus shipping.

Serengeti Sunglasses. Paid $1.99. Sold for $65 plus shipping. 

And I was kind of excited this morning to get my first Etsy sale. This vintage little girl lamp.  Paid under $5. Sold for $39.99 plus shipping. Isn't she cute? 

So now I've had one sale each at Bonanza and etsy in about 6 weeks. Obviously not going to replace an ebay income but it's something. I've got less than 15 items on etsy and 900 on Bonanza. All are from my ebay inventory. No original items. I'll keep listing in both places. It doesn't take much time or money. How have your Bonanza and etsy sales been?