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?

BOLO and a Tip

I have some vintage tablecloths I'm researching and while doing so I learned that the Wilendur brand of vintage tablecloths can be very lucrative. See completeds. I love the vintage tablecloths that have the colorful designs like cherries or florals. I've been picking them up one by one when I see them cheap to sell in a lot. See completeds for lot of vintage tablecloths. You can make a lot of money off them.

My tip is something I learned by accident this past week. Here it is. Sometimes I will list a particularly nice item in two categories IF the categories are both relevant, thinking that I'm increasing the number of people who will see the item. Well last week I learned that this can be a bad idea and work against you. I had a pair of Vintage Serengeti Drivers Sunglasses. I listed them in Mens Accessories and also in Vintage Accessories, at a good price with best offer.

I had them listed for a couple of months with no offers. One day I was looking to see where my listing was placed in among the other listings and couldn't find it! I looked and looked. Mens..Accessories...Sunglasses...Used...It wasn't there. When I searched in Mens Accessories Sunglasses Used there was only one page of listings coming up so I just couldn't understand why my listing wasn't showing up. Finally a few hours later in the day it dawned on me. Because I had also listed them in the Vintage Accessories category they were NOT showing up in the USED mens accessories. Why? Because they were in the Not Specified categary of mens accessories. What? you ask? Because 'vintage' does not have a Used/New catgegory and that was what the search defaulted to. I don't kjnow if it was because I picked that category first or if it always defaults there but that was why. I ended the listing, removed the Vintage category and relisted them just as used in the mens accessories where most of the other vintage Serengeti sunglasses were listed.  A couple of days later I had a sale.  Be careful when you list in multiple categories. One may influence the other in ways you're not aware of. I know this is kind of convoluted. I hope it makes sense!

BOLO Flocked Animals

I have a soft spot in my heart for flocked animal figures. Probably because they were popular when I was a kid. As a kid though I didn't think they were anything special. A cheap souvenir to pick up on vacation. As I grew older though nostalgia kicked in. This past weekend I picked up a flocked doe at a bag sale (pictured below). Is he not the cutest? Mostly I picked it for myself as it doesn't look to be worth much but I researched it anyway 'cause you NEVER KNOW.  Look at some that are in recent completeds. I'll definitely BOLO this Kunstlerschutz brand. So I always pick flocked animals up if they are cheap and I have sold a few pieces but never found any worth a lot. I may start saving them instead of selling them....maybe the doe is the start of something :)

Do you remember flocked animals? Maybe a flocked easter bunny in your easter basket, a flocked deer that decorated your home during the holidays or maybe a flocked bobble head on the dash of your parents car?



In the spirit of Halloween I'm looking for scary movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime. What are a couple of your favorite scary movies old and newer? Some of mine…Tonight I'm trying out The Awakening on Netflix streaming.

The Omen
The Exorcist
Poltergeist
The Blair Witch Project
Let the Right One In
The Birds
Carrie (I thought the new Carrie was pretty good too)
The Paranormal Movies

My Best Sales This Week

Sales have been picking up this past week after a very slow week the week before.  How are your sales this week?

Bailey's Irish Cream Cookie Jar. Paid $4. Sold for $54.99 plus shipping. This cookie jar even had some chips on the edge of the lid.

Vintage Pendleton Plaid Skirt. Paid $3. Sold for $39.99 plus shipping. Perfect for Christmas.

Double H Cowboy Boots. Paid $5. Sold for $40 best offer. Plus shipping.

My Search for Religion

Lorraine at Clamco has written some very interesting posts lately about interesting items she's found. If you haven't yet read the series you should hop on over there. I was excited after reading the posts to add some of the items to my BOLO list and get out hunting. At my third thrift I finally found a vintage religious object. A holy water font. I remember as a kid having one of these in our hallway and then later I had one in my bedroom. Ours weren't this fancy. It cost 1.99 and I've got it listed for 29.99. I priced it at the high end of similar items but it is pretty cool. Thanks Lorraine for writing about your interesting religious finds. If anyone know which angel this is please let me know. I wonder if it would be a guardian angel. Completed Religious Objects. One thing about looking for vintage metal objects is there are so many 'fake antiques' out there from stores like Hobby Lobby, Pier 1 and other stores of their nature. Sometimes I'm not sure. I guess if it says made in China that's a good clue :) My holy water font has some good ole grime and oxidation on it so I'm sure it's true vintage. Are you ever fooled by faux vintage?

Opted In to Managed Returns

Today I opted in to managed returns on ebay. I just wanted to make a record of that on my blog so I can kind of track how it goes. I'm hoping that doing what ebay wants me to do...will result in better sales. Yes, I'm feeling desperate lately. My sales have tanked this week.

Have you opted in to managed returns? How is it going? Any problems?

Scottish Kilts and Sales

Recently I wrote a blogpost about flannel shirts. The day after writing that post, I was eager to go on a flannel hunt. I went to two thrifts looking for some good flannel shirts. I did find a lot of flannel shirts and learned one brand that isn't worth much at all. You will see a bunch of this brand when you hunt flannels. That brand is Consensus, and no I didn't bring home any! They sell for about $5 on ebay. I didn't find any of the brands I was looking for but while sniffing out soft plaid items I did find two cool things that I wasn't looking for. What were they? I found a kilt and a vintage plaid wool jacket pictured below. I'm asking $29.99 for the jacket. I would ask $39.99 but I did find a small hole after I got it home.

 

I'm asking $120 or best offer for the kilt. It's ambitious but I'm starting high. I learned some interesting things while researching kilts. For instance the kilt pin which you see down near the bottom is not meant to go through multiple layers of fabric and hold them together it is just supposed to go through the top layer and weigh down that layer which is called the 'apron'. Some sellers have the name of the clan listed that the tartan represents. I learned there are thousands of possible combinations when looking at different tartans. Most are a combination of Red, Green, and Blue which mine is. This kilt is made in Scotland. Did you know ebay doesn't list Scotland in the pull down menu for country? I guess you have to use United Kingdom.

My sales have been really sparse the last few days. I've had three days with zero sales. I usually have at least one sale a day and never multiple days with no sales. It's disheartening but I continue to list and am tweaking listings as well to inspire some hope each day. I hate when my sales are so slow. I always imagine everyone else is selling lots of stuff and it's just me. So let me know in the comments if the last few days have been bad for you too!