Issue #28

This weeks newsletter has some highs and some lows. We have a 10 times return on garage sale purchases and finally some luck with electronics. On the flip side we also have over $1,000 worth of inventory left behind by yours truly. The most idiotic part of it is that I took photos of the items. Let's hope you can learn from my mistakes. But first!

In This Issue

• What I’ve Bought

• What I Sold

• Win a Free $200 Mystery Box

What I’ve Bought

How did we all go at garage sales this weekend? I had 5 on my route and purchased from the 1st and the 4th. It’s always reassuring that I score big at the 1st sale, it’s the one that I identify as having promise based on the listing description, photos and location.

The first sale started at 7:30am and I spent a total of $30 on 5 items, you can see the sale below and my small haul immediately after.

First I want to point out that I had a feeling the Christmas ornaments were worth a bit of money. The one on the left is a “Hat’s Off Santa“ that’s animated and the second is this fiber optic Santa’s Starry Night set. I decided to leave them because of the box condition and only looked them up when I stopped in at a cafe to have breakfast. The first thing I did? Look up the garage sale to see when they closed and how long it would take me to get there (read: I wouldn’t have made it). Check out the comps:

With the holidays right around the corner this would have been a great purchase so please learn from my mistakes. With the valuable items being left behind, you must be wondering what clutter I decided to pick up.

We have 3 jerseys, a hat and a LeBron James plush. When it comes to jerseys, I try to only pick up ones that have slight variations than the teams regular jersey. That could mean a number and/or players name on the back, an unusual color or a celebratory patch (plus of course jerseys that are OLD!) The reasoning behind this is pretty obvious: the standard jerseys the collectors would already own, we want the unusual ones.

With $30 spent on 5 items, we have a $6 cost per item and this is how it breaks down in terms of value:

There’s probably around $100 in postage and fees so total profit might be approximately $190 give or take. I was spewing when I got home and fully took a look at the Manchester City jersey. I gave it a quick look over and could tell it was real and I saw the XL sizing however when I measured it to list it up it was less than 50cm pit to pit which is definitely not an Extra Large. Turns out it’s a kid size hence why it’s only going for $50 - if it was an adults you’d expect close to $200.

So that’s the first sale, we head on over to the 2nd sale and this is how it’s described:

I only decide to go because it’s within the route. I rock up at around 7:50am and there’s a huge line up of people standing near the closed garage door. I remember thinking that the listing wasn’t anything flash, it had no pictures, the neighborhood was whatever… I think people just read the records and collectables and thought they were in for a payday. It was nothing like that. The prices here were even higher than eBay. A Nintendo Wii with no games or controllers had an $80 sticker on it. Of the 10-15 people that were initially lining up, I’d estimate over half walked away empty handed within 30 seconds. I joined them not long after.

The 3rd sale was only a few minutes up the road and it seemed as though the crowd were on the same route as me. After waiting around for 5 minutes with a closed garage door, I decided to stay screw it and got back in the car and headed to the next one. I was timing this just right, the 4th sale started at 8:30am which was a 3 family combined sale and earned a cheeky little asterisks on my list. I arrive at 8:36am.

I didn’t take too many pictures of the overall sale, just a few things.

We have a bit to go through at this sale. I left the house with $70, I spent $30 and I’m down to $40. The first thing I pick up are the 2 VHS players for $10 each. I learn my lesson from Issue #24 and ask if I can test them out. The garage has a power point so I painstakingly unravel and plug each one in. Power comes on both. Success, they’re mine. I contemplate the CorningWare. It’s brand new and sealed, literally older than me and people love the brand. It has a $40 price tag on it and with the $20 I’ve committed to the VHS players I can’t afford it, they’re only taking cash. I decide to pass.

Now comes something extremely painful… I spot and take a photo of 2 old Sony Trinitron CRT TV’s. In the back of my mind I vaguely remember hearing that these TV’s have shot up in value over the past few years because people are buying them for retro gaming. Essentially it’s like an immersion experience these gamers do, they get the old gaming consoles like Nintendo 64, set it up in a sort of man cave, gaming room complete with the old bulky CRT TV’s and have themselves a night. Both are listed as free, they’re obviously wanting the bulky items gone. I envision carrying them to my car and to my apartment and Lazy Mat™️ makes an appearance again.

I decide against it and instead take a photo so that I can look them up a bit later, basically to torture myself if I realize I missed out. And boy… did I miss out. If you’re sitting down and want a quick shock to the system, jump onto eBay and check out not just Active Listings, but Sold Listings for this brand and model of TV: Sony Trinitron.

We have the TV’s going for hundreds and hundreds of dollars each. And there were 2! And they were for free! And I left them! I have to admit I looked up the garage sale listing as I type this to see if they’re open again tomorrow (they’re not) because I couldn’t believe the value. If you’re going to add these to your to-buy list, know that they’re not all created equal. You’re going to want good quality brands and a TV that isn’t 1 meter squared in size. To save myself the torture of leaving behind potentially $1,000 worth of inventory, I’m going to convince myself that these TV’s didn’t work, didn’t come with cables and were being given away because they’re junk. That’ll help me get through the week.

The fifth and final sale turned out to be an eBay de-cluttering her home. Unfortunately, unlike Issue #26, the prices were basically on par or a tad less than eBay. Nevertheless she still had some great stuff and it was worth a look around.

I didn’t end up buying anything from this sale, not even for my personal collection so I called it a day, hit up a cafe and went home with my Saturday haul.

What I Sold

Let me preface this by saying that collectors come in all different shapes and sizes. Some people stand in line for hours for a hyped sneaker, others pre-order and spend over $100 for a limited edition video game, and others, like Nancy, choose to collect salt and pepper shakers. I’ve done a write up on this line of product before (Issue #4) but if you’re unaware there’s a huge collectors market for unusual salt and pepper shakers. Nancy is based in the USA and purchased these tooth shaped shakers from me this week.

I only paid a couple of dollars for these and they’re on the way to the US to Nancy, who told me:

With shipping and taxes the total order value came out to $56.93. Now this type of order value isn’t usually what I’m aiming for but at this point I’m enjoying the hunt for the ultra weird shakers and I’d love to find something that tops a set of teeth.

I picked up this iRobot smart mopping guy last week for $19.99 and he’s already out the door. I had hopes he was going to stick around, take care of the tiles, save me some time, become a close friend but alas, the universe had other plans.

Not too much profit with LeBron but he sold within 24 hours and I probably under-priced him considering there were sold comps going up to $46.00 in the USA. When I posted him on Marketplace his views and saves were going up like crazy that just shows how popular LeBron James is in Australia.

In Issue #23 I found this Dragon Ball Z Wii game in the thrift for just $5. I knew this was a good game because I spend too much time playing Flip Vidya so I picked it up and it’s gone on to sell for $50 within 30 days. Basic rule of thumb is that Dragon Ball Z is an IP you want to keep an eye out for you.

Fifty Shades of Grey was fully signed by the author and has gone on to sell for $49.95. I picked it up back in March so it’s taken a while but when it comes to these signed books you’re only paying a few dollars and realistically you can ask for whatever you want, especially if their are very few comps and if the inscription is unique. This copy has an inscription that read “Welcome to Christian and Ana's world. I hope you enjoy their journey“ so I probably could have asked for more, but I’m happy with the sale.

Next sale was a jersey I picked up at this weeks garage sales. The cost per item was just $6 and it has gone on to sell on Marketplace for $100 + post.

I’ve been picking up more and more jerseys every single week because they just sell so goddamn fast.

Win a Free $200 Mystery Box

I want to give a massive shout out to delaneyavenel for successfully referring 3 people to Flip Weekly! That’s amazing, thank you so much, we haven’t even cracked 50 Issues and we’re already growing at an incredible rate because of people like you. Thank you once again!

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