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- Massive 90's Goosebumps Marketplace Haul for Only $100
Massive 90's Goosebumps Marketplace Haul for Only $100
Never seen before collectibles, worth a ton of money.
Issue #112
This newsletter is so big that we have a $18 into $500 sale which barely gets a paragraph worth of text. We’ve got one of the most insane Goosebumps deals of all time which I didn’t pay a cent for, a surprise on how it’s going to be sold, I might have been scammed out of $450 plus a lot more.
Let’s get right into it and remember if you want to hear a middle aged white dude moan about reselling check out Flip Weekly’s podcast, new episodes Thursdays 9am.
Mat.
In This Issue
What I Bought
We have hit the jackpot.
This is proof that you don’t always need to be #1, sometimes you can just get lucky with some basic information.
I came across this Facebook Marketplace listing 1 hour after it had gone live.
Would this have caught your eye?
88 vintage Goosebumps books for $100 only 5km up the road on a random weekday at 1pm. The immediate thought is I don’t really want to be outlaying $100. I started to think though, if I saw these in a thrift store for what’s essentially $1 per book would I buy them all? The answer is yes.
6 photos were attached to the listing and they weren’t organized in any specific order. We had the original series plus the spin offs. Knowing that there are 62 books to complete the valuable OG set (on a good day worth over $500) I took a gamble and didn’t bother analyzing the photos.
If you insist on analyzing the photos.
One of my internal reasons for snapping up this listing was on the basis that maybe there would be bookmarks or postcards inside the books. Collectors go crazy for that sort of stuff even though it’s literally just cheap cardboard.
$10-$20 for a bit of cardboard. I guess it’s not too crazy.
Plus if they’re inside the actual books you can ask for a lot more - around $25-$100, the more expensive being the books that are later in the series.
Book + all inserts can fetch a lot of money.
I ask the seller to mark the listing as pending and tell them I can come out if they’re home. Unfortunately they weren’t home but I could pick up at 6pm.
They then said something that got me really, really excited.
I couldn’t believe it.
“I have a second box full of other collectible goosebumps stuff if you’re interested“
This sounded extremely exciting. I’ll take them, sight unseen.
I get out there and we have 2 old, dusty fruit boxes.
“Take a look.“
I open the first, there’s the books. Nice. Then the second… oh man it’s chock full of Goosebumps collectibles. At the top of the box I can see a hand puppet that I’ve sold before. Yes, the exact same one which was my fastest eBay sale ever at just 16 minutes.
Back then I sold it for $29 + postage. Nowadays they’re listed on eBay for a minimum $59.
Prices on these have doubled.
You know what? That’s just 1 item. This box is completely full of vintage Goosebump. I pay $100 for the books and the box full of collectibles comes home with me for no extra cost.
I’m going to save you the wait, here are the collectibles in all their glory. The more you look the better it is, items pop out from under one another, there’s so much here.
1/8. We have layers upon layers of vintage Goosebumps!
2/8. The more you look the cooler it gets.
3/8. Can you guess the value of all of this?
4/8. The spoon is one of the weirder items.
5/8. That’s a t-shirt and cap from 1996.
6/8. He even cut out the Goosebumps logo from Samboy chip packets!
7/8. Topps trading cards in protective sleeves.
8/8. Unused order forms, stickers and so much more.
To say this guy liked Goosebumps is an understatement. There’s literal magazines, newspaper cut outs that just mention the word Goosebumps. We have posters, collectibles, stationary, toys, clothing, posters and more. Going through this box felt like I was rediscovering my childhood and it seemingly never ended.
I was looking up some items on eBay every now and then but the truth is some of this stuff is so rare that its never showed up on eBay. It’s make sense too, like who is keeping in perfect condition a poster from The Sunday Telegraph in 1996? Or cutting out the Goosebumps logo from Samboys chips? Or even storing away the order forms, like that’s just nuts!
From there I’ve completely forgotten about the books. I go through them 1 by 1, arranging them sequentially. A decent number of the original series and a lot of spinoffs. I turn the books on the side so I can read the numbers on the spine. I start counting.
I go from 1 to 62 without missing a single book. Wow, this is a complete set.
The original Marketplace listing would not have been available 1 hour after being posted if it was labelled Goosebumps Complete Set for $100.
The gamble paid off on the books - we’ll be turning $100 into somewhere in the $500 range. That’s a good score. What about the other collectibles?
I decide to create an itemized list. We have 3 columns: item name, approximate value and the 3rd is whether it’s a sold comp, active listing or an educated guess. That’s the thing when you stumble across rare items from the 90’s - you can be the first person to ever list it for sale.
The list is also created for another reason. I don’t intend on selling this 1 by 1 on eBay. I’ll talk about that in a second. First though, please enjoy a raw data dump:
Item | Approximate Value | Research |
|---|---|---|
Curly Inflatable Tombstone | $350.00 | Sold Comp |
Complete Book Series 1-62 | $500.00 | Sold Comp |
Shrunken Head Puppet | $50.00 | Sold Comp |
1996 Calendar (no stickers or poster) | $20.00 | Guess |
1997 Calendar with Magic Window | $100.00 | Active Listing |
Voice Changing Haunted Mask | $200.00 | Active Listing |
Binder | $50.00 | Sold Comp |
A4 Refill Book | $20.00 | Guess |
Pencil Case | $30.00 | Guess |
Velcro Wallet | $70.00 | Sold Comp |
Hat | $25.00 | Guess |
T-Shirt Size 12 | $50.00 | Guess |
Miscellaneous Books | $50.00 | Guess |
1 Slammer, 16 Pogs | $30.00 | Guess |
Curly Bookmark | $25.00 | Guess |
Audio Book with Box | $50.00 | Sold Comp |
Glow Zone | $50.00 | Guess |
Hand / Finger Puppet | $100.00 | Guess |
Topps Trading Card | $50.00 | Sold Comp |
The Haunted Mask VHS | $20.00 | Sold Comp |
Escape from Horrorland PC CD-ROM | $30.00 | Sold Comp |
Mousepad | $30.00 | Guess |
Prince Khor-Ru Screaming Figure (untested) | $50.00 | Active Listing |
Reading Light (untested) | $25.00 | Sold Comp |
Slappy Pencil Topper | $30.00 | Sold Comp |
Yo-Yo | $50.00 | Active Listing |
Party Invitations | $20.00 | Active Listing |
Glow in the Dark Stickers | $50.00 | Sold Comp |
Bookmarks | $20.00 | Guess |
200 Piece Puzzle | $30.00 | Sold Comp |
Cuddles Squishy Keyring | $50.00 | Guess |
Cuddles Pencil Sharpener | $50.00 | Sold Comp |
2 Eraser + Pencil | $20.00 | Guess |
Paint Tube | $10.00 | Guess |
Pin | $20.00 | Guess |
Party Mask | $10.00 | Guess |
Order Form | $20.00 | Guess |
Chip Packet Cutouts | $10.00 | Guess |
Stickers | $10.00 | Guess |
Showbag Bag | $10.00 | Guess |
Enter If You Dare Poster | $100.00 | Sold Comp |
Miscellaneous Cardboard Bookmarks, Postcards | $10.00 | Guess |
This is a lot of data to process and it doesn’t make it as much fun without seeing all of the pieces. Don’t worry you’ll be able to see it all soon.
In the meantime, we have around 41 lots that make up a combined total estimated value of $2,495. As I said, a lot of these items have never showed up on the market before.
I tried to be conservative with my estimates, smaller things like the showbag, party mask, paint tube I’ve marked them all as $10. However, I’m sure if I lotted a bunch of this together you could ask for $100. I don’t think it’s out of the question.
That’s not what I’m going to do.
You know me, I like a bit of fun and I love to gamble. Where’s this leading?
No, it’s not a single eBay auction for everything combined.
We’ve done that before, I’m craving something new, something exciting.
We’re going to send this entire collection to Melbourne, to Erin and Mitchell from Retro Rescuers and they’re going to host a 90’s Goosebumps show on Whatnot.
We’re doing this for 3 reasons:
Primarily, it’s a bit of fun.
As much as I love the nostalgia, it rids me of the entire collection, quickly.
Erin and Mitchell host exciting Whatnot shows and I know they’ll make us some good money.
With everything happening at Flip Weekly and behind the scenes, including the upcoming biggest flip of all time, it’s just 1 less thing to worry about.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Whatnot platform, it’s a live selling marketplace. Think an eBay auction except it’s hosted by content creators who auction off items in real-time. To the wrong person, it could get severely addictive.
If you want to join the platform, you can do so by using my referral link here. If you use this link you’ll receive a random, 100% free credit of between $10 and $200.
The auction date has yet to be set, but it will be within the next 2 weeks. I’ll be keeping you updated via the newsletter, podcast and social media but you can also follow Retro Rescuers directly on Whatnot so you don’t miss the auction date.
What I Sold
We may need to create a “What Got Stolen“ section to Flip Weekly.
“Sold“ in just under 60 days.
Here’s the thing, I picked up this Holy Grail WWE action figure playset at the beginning of February for $5 from Vinnies. Whilst the box was open, everything inside was brand new and still sealed. A legendary op shop find. I had it on eBay for $500, Marketplace for $450.
On Friday I received a message on Marketplace from a lady that needed a last minute gift for her son’s birthday. She’s writing out paragraphs and seemingly over explaining herself. A chatterbox or someone about to attempt a scam?
Seems quite desperate.
From there she asks me to hold the item. I do what I usually do, ask if they’re 100% committed.
I don’t usually give out my address the day before, but I thought doing so would make her commit even more to the purchase.
Saturday rolls around and I haven’t heard from at all in the morning. I send a message at 2pm wanting to confirm a time. She replies “Before 6?“ and I say that’s fine.
6pm rolls around and I get the following message:
Probably should have asked for that money, Mat.
You’ll never guess what happens next!
10pm comes and goes and she wants to know how late she can come around.
How late is too late?
I am awake at all hours of the night but I ain’t meeting somebody from the internet at midnight, are you kidding? You may have heard me talk about my magic freezer before. It’s a chest freezer in my garage (turned off of course) that I can leave items in and they magically turn into cash. I do this for the WWE playset and send through directions, instructions and photos.
Hmm…
I wake up to the following message on Sunday.
Communication dies down once they’ve gotten the item. Surprisingly, no block.
So the kid is enjoying my Holy Grail item and I’m not enjoying their cash. What’s up with that?
She sends through proof and it appears to be a scheduled payment for Monday. It’s 2026, why not send through the payment with PayID which is insant?
Anyway, it’s now Monday evening and I haven’t received anything.
Is the money in the room with us?
Does it rock up Tuesday morning? No it doesn’t. I waited until Tuesday midday and there’s still nothing. So what are we thinking? Scam? Late payment? Transfer between banks taking multiple days? The weirdest part is I haven’t been blocked so I’m not 100% set on scam.
Moving on, whenever you see VHS tapes out in the wild always check them out.
$13 into $89.96 - don’t ignore your VHS.
I’m looking for anything unusual and these certainly tick the box. Aeon Flux was an animated television show back in the 90’s. That however isn’t the first thing Google tells me about it. It says “'Aeon Flux' is the heroine in the sexy and futuristic cartoon.“
It must be one of those types of cartoons. I’ve never seen it, don’t think I’ll ever watch it, but the tape had no mold, the comps were good the bundle of 3 sold for close to $100.
How do you get your average sale price up? You sell expensive items. Case in point…
$18 into $500 via Vinnies.
Out the door in just 10 days - this ultra rare Matthys Verkul model airplane. I only just talked to you about this the other day. It had no stand, it had what looked like tobacco stains all over it yet one of those rich aviation enthusiasts in Germany have picked it up for $500 + $70 postage. The funny thing about this find is that it pales in comparison to what I’m going to tell you about in August/October (aka, the biggest reseller flip of all time.)
We’ve been doing that well this find never got a chance to feature as the headline item in Flip Weekly. Not when we bought, not when we sold it. That’s just how much luck we’ve been having.
Moving on, a type of book that I’m always telling you to buy. Anytime you see “The Art of“ followed by a pop culture film, video game, whatever, chances are it’s an expensive coffee table type book.
Always pick up your “The Art of“ books.
Disney does really well, any type of popular video game, you’re going to make bank. I wasn’t that surprised about this one only selling for just over $50 as it’s Volume 2, if you can get both volumes you’re going to make over $150.
Keep an eye out!
Pokemon video games are always going to sell.
Polly Pocket’s continue going out the door.
A nice Street Sharks sale this week.
Bought in a huge bundle and sold for $250.
$250 for the 100% complete Mecho Shark. The difference between this guy being worth $20 and $250 is the little plastic mask on his face.
No bueno.
Bueno.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week. Make sure you to follow Flip Weekly on social media to stay updated with the Goosebumps Whatnot show. If you haven’t signed up to Whatnot, do so by clicking this link and you’ll get a random amount between $10-$200 to spend on the platform.
Check out the podcast, thanks again for reading and I’ll see you next week.
Mat.
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