A Day at the Garage Sales! UPDATE!

It took about three weeks but everything that we bought on this garage sale day is now sold. Take a look and see how we did. The final selling prices, less selling costs, are posted in red.

Today was spent garage selling. Stephanie, Gus (our Boston Terrier) and I spent the morning running all over the countryside seeking out bargains, bargains, bargains. Did we find any? Well a few. Here is a list of what we purchased:

Blue upholstered wingback chair in great condition $30 $ 58.00

Blue upholstered bed seat $30 57.80

Black & Decker power sprayer $20 42.50

Black bookcase cabinet (KEEPER!) $40

Fancy wicker bed $75 106.50

Lenox Butterfly tea set NIB (pictured) $20 67.00

Lenox winter greetings lamp $5 11.00

Royal Worcester Queen Elizabeth figurine $5 23.00

Wroght iron and brass bakers rack $5 41.00

Herman Miller design chair and ottoman $15 28.00

Total $255 434.50

I missed on the Herman Miller chair and ottoman. I thought that it would bring closer to $100. Overall pretty good. I am happy with the results.

Most of the items that I purchased will be going into an auction Monday, April 26, 2010. The rest will either go to the flea market or onto ebay for sale. Just for the fun of it I'm going to sell the items and on April 27, 2010 I will post what they sold for. I am going to estimate the final selling price after expenses at $535. Stay tuned...and then see if you can do the same.

I will post a few more pictures as soon as I can (see previous post)!

Persistence

Thursday, May 6, 2010 :

Woke up at 4:45am.

5:00 Showered.

5:15 Ate breakfast.

5:45 Walked up the street for a newspaper.

6:10 Checked ebay, emails, blog, auction zip.

6:45 Mapped out garage sales after reading paper.

7:00 Left house for 1st garage sale.

7:15 Got to sale before anyone else...purchased nothing. Complete waste of time.

8:00 to 12:00 Went to 18 garage sales. Bad morning, spent a total of $20, probably should have spent $0.00!!

10:00 Took a phone call from local storage company who needed an auctioneer. Set up appt. to see them in late afternoon.

12:00 - 2:00 Listed on ebay, cut grass and washed van.

2:45 Bought flowers for Stephanie (Mothers Day! Don't forget.)

3:00 Filled car with gas. Giant Eagle (local supermarket) Get Go saved $1.60 a gallon.

3:30 Arrived at auction that began at 4:00

4:00 - 5:45 Spent $375 at auction. Great auction expect to make a few hundred dollars.

6:00 Met with storage unit people.

6:15 Came to agreement to sell the units.

6:30 Arrived back at auction to meet Stephanie. She came there after work to see me. Of course I wasn't there when she got there. She didn't mind and was happy that I got the auctioning job.

7:00 Spent another $125 and stayed to the end of the auction.

8:00 After loading purchases from the auction got back home.

9:00 Too tired to cook so we ate out at Olive Garden.

10:00 Sat down at home.

10:30 Went to Bed. Stayed there until 4:40 Friday.

Pretty much a typical day. There are times when I go out and just can't miss. Today however the garage sales were pretty lame. I didn't let it bother me. I approach bad moments with the attitude that the next place will present great opportunity. It almost always does.

Sometimes the key to success is persistence. At anytime during the day I could have stopped, gone home to watch t.v. and relaxed. I didn't. Looking for every chance to "make it" finally paid off when I least expected it. The auction and the agreement to sell the storage units were the good payoffs. The rest of the day as far as business goes pretty much sucked.

This business can be frustrating at times. You work and work and work with what seems at the time, no hope of a payoff. Then out of nowhere good things happen. I guess that life in general is that way. The antiques business just magnifies it because instead of the payoffs happening on Friday's with the receipt of a paycheck, the payoffs occur every time you make a good purchase.

In life (and the antiques business) never give up. Persistence and a willingness to do whatever is needed to obtain your goals will always pay off. Even if it doesn't happen when you expect it to.

Heubach Piano Babies

Heubach is a German company that produced highly collectible bisque and ceramic items from the mid 1900's until the early 1900's. They were known primarily for producing bisque doll heads but also produced a line of bisque figurines. Piano babies were the most popular of these figurines.

You need to be alert to these highly collectible figures. Look for the markings on the bottom of the figures. The impressed mark looks like a rising sun. They are also sometimes marked Germany. As always condition is very important. Make sure that they are free of the three C's; chips, cracks and crazing. Don't be afraid to step up on excellent condition figures. Babies like the one pictured can sell for several hundred dollars.

Avon Bottles

Avon bottles were one of the items that really lost in the Internet age. These novelties were sold with a perfume that could make the best of us sneeze until our eyes fell out onto the ground. They show up just about anywhere many of them still in their original boxes with, of course, the wonderful perfume still contained within. No matter how cheap they seem to be don't be tempted to buy them. These fall into the trash it column. Supply is high and demand is very low. So unless you need a gag gift for Christmas time.....

TRASH IT!

Women's Underwear

I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert on this particular type of collectible due to my vast experience in handling them. That right! Thongs to Grannie panties I've seen them all. Every time that the opportunity arises I will examine, touch and even look inside every pair that I can possibly get my hands on. I have examined them at flea markets, auctions and garage sales. Most of the time people (women in particular) look at me with complete disgust and condemnation. That dirty old man touching women's underwear. How could he?

MONEY!!!

Everyone listen, there's money in them panties. No, I'm not talking about 5 year old used underwear. I'm talking about a little known about market for unused women's undergarments from the 1960's and earlier. Why unused? Lets not get gross here, although I'm sure that there are people with unusual fetishes that is not what this is about. It is about filling niche in the vintage/antique clothing industry. Namely Hollywood, and movie making.

Hollywood? Yes, Hollywood. Think about it. The movie industry produces hundreds of films in any particular year. Most of these films strive for complete authenticity in every facet of their production. When you watch a movie based on a 1950's theme would you expect to see a 2010 Honda Accord driving by? The answer is certainly not. The same can be said of the clothing that is used in the productions. In that same movie would you expect to see your favorite actress in a bedroom scene scantily clad in a Victoria's Secrete thong? No.

Authenticity in movies is important. The desire to be authentic extends to the dainties that the actresses wear in the roles. So guess what...there is a need for unused women's underwear. Whenever you are at a sale where old clothing is present always take a look! Amazing enough it does turn up.

How much will they pay? Well, I have sold vintage unused underwear (panties) for prices exceeding $400 a pair. Yes, I will repeat that over four hundred dollars a pair. Bra's typically sell for $50 to $200 each. It is important to note that this is for unused, mint condition undergarments. Buy it only when it is in perfect condition. Is there money in women's underwear (take your mind out of the gutter now)? An emphatic YES is the answer. Don't forget;

Unused

Clean, mint condition

With tags

1960's and earlier

Finally, you will most likely be the only person at the sale to know about this one. Because of that you will be able to buy them cheap, and coincidentally make a lot of money on them.

Cash it in!

Washing Machine meets Camera!

So, how are all of you doing? I've been remiss the last couple of days not putting up any new posts and I do have a reason (excuse). It seems that my camera came up missing. I've gotten into the habit of carrying the camera with me wherever I go. It all started with a few missed opportunities to get photo's for what I thought would be interesting stories. The common sense answer, keep your camera with you at all times. Great idea except for one thing, remember to take your camera out of your jacket pocket on wash day.

You see, my wife is a very diligent keeper of the home. Everything is clean and in order, all of the time. This is a good thing because I do not necessarily follow this same creed. I have been known to well, "put things away" by leaving them in a spot where I hope that she will not find them. In this case I foolishly left my jacket laying by the computer (on the floor in a knot), in my basement office. When wash day came, she of course picked up my "dirty" jacket and into the wash it went, camera included.

Oops! Getting old is not as fun as the commercials would have you believe. I know that everything from incontinence to denture cream awaits me but I had no clue that senility would strike so early. First, I forgot to hang up my jacket, second, I forgot about where the camera was and finally I forgot about my wife's obsession with cleanliness. The result; I'll be getting a new camera!

Although I pride myself in being able to sell just about anything this one may be beyond having a value. Maybe if it dries out a little? Any offers? Feel free to shoot me an email.

Rogers Flea Market

Once in a while I actually have to get out and work for a living. The overwhelming amount of time that I spend "buying" stuff to sale has to be tempered with the need to obtain new cash so that I can continue to get "fixes". Yeah, I'm a hopeless "JUNKIE". I have spent time in the gutters going through trash, I have spent time sneaking into garages in the hopes of finding unknown treasures and yes, I would even sale the family pet "Gus" so that I could get more stuff.

No, I really wouldn't sell Gus, but I do have it pretty bad. So it was off to the flea market. Rogers, can be described using many adjectives: dusty, hot, huge, fun, great, crowded, tiring, impossible, fantastic, too early, too late, cheap and unusual. It is all of these and many more. My day at Rogers actually started two days before when I reserved a grassy spot along a gravel road. When I called I actually got one of the few remaining selling spots available for the day, number 2032. Well over 2,000 vendors were set up on a beautiful sunny Good Friday and the number of buyers, phenomenal. I estimated the crowd at around 60,000.

So, how did I do? Fair. The dealers that usually comprise around 70% of my sales were as always, very good. The general public sales seemed to be weak. It wasn't so much that they were cheap or that they were not finding that special item to add to their collection, it was that they weren't looking at all. I spent a large portion of the afternoon watching people just walk by. It happens like this sometimes. Too hot, too bored and just not ready to buy. When this happens I just sit back relax and watch.

If you have never tried selling at a flea market you should. You will be amazed at not only the people, but what sales and for how much. I was lucky on this day it was sunny, warm and not too hot. Overall, a plain great experience.

So give it a try. The recipe:

Throw a few tables into the back of the mini-van

Take a little bit of change

Toss some junk (I mean antiques) into the van

Get there early

Sell it as fast as you can.

Good luck!