Happy New Year

See you in 2015 for more eBay hauls and garage sale finds! May 2015 bring you joy and prosperity!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Thrifting!

Merry Christmas!

Buying Stuff on eBay to Flip on eBay

I still do that, buying things on eBay to flip on eBay. It's a viable option if for some reason you have limited access to yard sales or charity shops. Make sure you use different ID's. Even if you are not reselling, it's best to have a buying ID and a selling ID. That's a way to protect your selling id from any kind of retaliations. I never had any problems on eBay as a seller or a buyer, but I know many who had.

Since it's now dead season for yard sales, I am taking time each day to browse listing and see what I can snatch. I also hit the local small ads and a few other online marketplaces.

Here's 3 lots I bought this week.

The first one is a rare Playmobil set (no picture yet I need to pick it up from the post office): it's the always popular Snow White Fairy tale set (Playmobil 4211). Mine is complete with box and background scene.

Second is a Littlest Pet Shop lot with some houses. I don't care much for the houses and accessories, they will be sold locally. I bought this lot specially for Great Dane #577. I sold it within 12 hours of listing, for $45. I paid $20 for the entire lot. My money is made already on that lot and I still have all the other figurines to sell!

Thank You Great Dane!

Here's another nice lot I bought on eBay: 32 Pet Shop, paid a total of $44 for them. But as you can see, there are many good ones in the lot. Including collie 1676, Dachshund 640 and Siamese 1116.

Easy money with LPS!

A Little Potpourri of My Latest Finds

Here's a quick "here's what I found" in the last 10 days or so. Some comes from community sales and some have been bought on ebay.

Three, yes three! Biche de Bere necklaces. Not her most spectacular, but still very pretty. Some more Littlest Pet Shop (no real rare and hard to find but I do sell the cheapest ones too. I offer a flat shipping rate for the LPS, so either 1 or 20 will be a flat fee for shipping so people tend to buy more then one. Keeping a good selection in store is the way to go. A mint in box lego set, a Playmobil wolf knight with some accessories. An old marzipan or chocolate mold shaped like a pig, 2 official Monster High tees and an old French madeleines mold.

Antique Cabinet Photo Little Girl With Big Eyes In Bird Nest

Cute is all I have to say. This pretty antique cabinet photo sold for 30$. I paid less than 10$ for it.

I do buy a lot of vintage and antique photos and I find it easy to turn a profit with these. I am getting better and better at spotting the "good" ones: interesting topic, popular and cute pictures. I buy in lots but I also buy single photos at auction when I am pretty sure I can flip them. This one was a flip. It wasn't part of a larger lot, I bought it because i knew I could sell it for more.

Old photos that sell well for me: gay interest, cute babies and kids, weird and bizarre topic. So next time you see a bunch of old dusty photos at yard sale, take a peek, you never know! Look for cuteness, kids with animals (dogs and cats do well), kids with antique toys and dolls, war photos, anything that can appeal to the gay crowd (shirtless guys, guys holding hands or close together. See this one, I sold it last year: Antique Photo of a Young Adonis Man Posing Shirtless ). Also picture depicting vintage cars can find a new home easily.

Cute photos do sell on ebay!

Another Score on a Craigslist-like Website

Another day another great score. Mint in Box Littlest Petshop 2009 Exclusive Around the World Africa set.

Yes MIB, perfect, new and clean as a baby!

I did pay more then I did with the MIB #1542 Collie (see here), but at 38$ it's still a great deal and future flip.

Very happy.

Now excuse me while I go browse small ads some more!

Exclusive 2009 Littlest Pet Shop Around the World (Africa) 12 Collector's Pets

One of my Best Find This Year

I can't believe my luck. This one has been sitting on a French small ads website (a cross between eBay and Craiglist) for a few weeks and no one snatched it! Why? Thanks to the seller who used no keywords in title, no pet number and uploaded a bad picture. His title was "bag with a pet shop".

So for 12$ I can now flip (when I find the time) this Littlest Pet Shop #1542 Collie Dog mint in package with all the original tags attached.

I love selling Pet Shop: easy to list easy to ship!

Here's my precious (sorry bad pic, will make a better one of course when I list on ebay). Still mine is much better then the one the seller used, no wonder it did not sell fast! Or I am just lucky......

 Littlest Pet Shop #1542

Cute Playmobil Princesses with Hoop Skirts

You know you have come to the right place when your first find of the day is a LPS Great Dane #588 for 50 cents! Followed by a few more interesting (although not as expensive) Littlest Pet Shop and some cheap very sought after  Playmobil princesses in hoop skirts.

Top that with a cute Strawberry Shortcake bedding set (European pillowcase, fitted sheet and duvet cover).

As they say:

And now the pictures:

My eBay haul

More LPS

Playmobil Ladies with hoop skirts

2 biche de Bere Necklaces Sold on eBay

These are the two first Biche de Bere necklaces that I sold on eBay. I found them at a yard sale and had no idea who what was Biche de Bere at the time. But they were nice and at 8$ each it was not a big gamble. I love the style so I figured I could always wear them if they are not sellable.

Both sold for $29.99 each. I could have priced them higher, but as I said I was a bit unfamiliar with the designer but now I know better.

Since September 2012 I have sold around two dozens of Biche de Bere necklaces and I am always on the hunt for them.

Biche de Bere "hedgehog" necklace

Biche de Bere necklace with orange beads

Stupid Me Going To A Toy Sale With Not Enough Cash!

My toy ebay haul: lots of  Pet Shop again!

It finally happened! I usually hit yard sales with plenty of cash in small bills and loads of coins (best way not to miss any good deal... you know, not all sellers are prepared and have enough change for large bills).

This morning I didn't bring as much as I usually do and well I had to leave one small inexpensive lot of Lego Fabuland. Good thing is that I was able to pick one of the 2 sets. Lesson learned, next time I bring as much as usual, even more! Fortunately, I manage to buy everything else I wanted.

Lego Fabuland raccoon and bear

It was yet another toys/kids sale. I picked a lot of Littlest Pet Shop, a small lot of vintage Lego Fabuland (with 6 figurines) and a very fun board game by Haba. It's a ghost game, in English it is called "Shiver-stone Castle". Bought the French version. I was going to keep it for the kids but I might end up selling it. Looks like an hard to find game and fun too. It's the final haunting exam at ghost school and the little ghost must scare as many people as he can. The board comes with a magnetic ghost that can be moved around with a magnet underneath the board. Very very cool!

The little ghost haunting Shiver-Stone castle

Found for Free Sold on eBay: Coasters

Free stuff are among my favorite things to sell on eBay. There are lots of freebies around that can be resell. No worries about fees and profits because.... it was free!

Coasters, especially beer coasters do sell. Depending on the rarity I either sell coasters in lots (for the general coasters collectors) or, for the more unique and hard to find pieces, I sell them separately (or in small lots of the same brand) for those who collect everything related to a specific brewery.

Prices are all over the place, so it's worth checking your coasters and put aside the rarer ones. These should not be sold in lots.

For example, this Boreal beer coaster with Rodin spoof sculpture sold for 5$, while the lot below also sold for 5$ (both sold a few years ago). One was rare and more interesting to collectors, while the lot was made of more common coasters.

Front and back of Quebec's Boreal Beer. Rodin spoof coaster

Coasters lot sold on ebay

Fake Littlest Pet Shop Sold on eBay by Chinese Sellers

Littlest Pet Shop from China and Hong Kong sellers on ebay are 100% fake!

Collectors of genuine Littlest Pet Shop figurines will pay good prices to add to their collections, which is good news for sellers.

Unfortunately, as so often happens, Chinese manufacturers have flooded the market with cheap, shoddy versions (knockoffs) hoping to cash in on the popularity of these cute little figurines, with eBay opening doors to many sellers from China.  While competition is healthy and definitely good for the buyers, eBay is now one of the most popular venues for sellers of fake collectibles.   With labor and material costs being extremely low in China it is very easy for manufacturers to replicate figurines at prices that are unbeatable.

For those who may not be as savvy about how to recognize authentic figurines the prices offered for the ones from China must seem too good to resist.  Sadly none of them are real.  Obviously price is not automatically proof of authenticity, because some of the ones from China are priced as high as the real ones, thereby fooling some people into believing they are in fact purchasing a genuine item.

Sellers of genuine Littlest Pet Shop figurines are having to compete with the huge influx of fake figurines being sold from China, and it can be extremely difficult to do so when potential buyers are being lured away from listings for authentic items and enticed into buying the cheaper priced fake knockoffs.  

Even when buyers who have purchased the fakes realize their mistake there is little that can be done. Reporting the seller to eBay is one avenue, but for every seller that gets shut down there are a great number more waiting in the wings to take the sellers spot.  

There is another course of action that buyers can take.  By simply refusing to buy the fake knockoffs the Chinese sellers will eventually realize there isn't enough return on investment and will move onto producing knockoffs of the next popular collectible items.  It may take a while but the more knowledgeable buyers become about authenticity the quicker the Chinese fakes will lose their footing in the market.

Collectors should find reliable eBay sellers and only buy from them, avoiding the Chinese sellers altogether. And this is true for almost everything on eBay. Don't even get me started on Disney knockoffs from Chinese eBay sellers. It's a wonder Disney hasn't yet sent their lawyers. EBay is harboring and helping the sales of counterfeits and knockoffs on their site......

Poor Toy Sale

I went to 3 sales today: 1 never happened and was cancelled, the second was a typical indoor community sale and the third a "bourse aux jouets" (toy and kids stuff only. Very popular at this time of the year).

My fault I was a bit late and really didn't find anything worth much. Nothing to be exact, except a few Littlest Pet Shop (oh no! Not again!).

The toy sale was crowded as I expected, for the next one I'll try to be there at the opening, not an hour late. But I needed the sleep more then I needed stuff I guess!

So here's my thin pathetic loot of the day:

Make The Most Of Random Playmobil Pieces With Custom Sets

Playmobil always performs well on eBay because it is one of those toys that sells in a box, without a box and even as a incomplete set . Even single, tiny accessories can make money, vintage or not. This is encouraging for all of us that buy lots of Playmobil at yard sales; however, it is far too easy to end up with too much stuff and be stuck with things that cannot be sold separately, either because of high shipping costs or a lack of interest on characters are just not sought after or sets with that vital, collectible piece missing. 

So how do you make the most of all those random pieces you cannot sell on their own?

You may think those unloved characters and buildings are doomed to sit in a cupboard but they can be given new life and value quite easily. What I do when I end up with those characters and accessories that just won't sell well is I make custom sets! Look at what you have hidden in your collection and use your imagination to make some fun, themed sets with a difference. They can be big or small, realistic or outlandish, and you could even make your own version of a popular movie. The important thing is to experiment and have fun!

Need an example to help you get started?

As Christmas is around the corner, this is perfect time to share a story about one of my own custom sets. Recently I found myself stuck with a few nice animals that didn't really belong anywhere and couldn't really be sold separately because they were quite heavy, meaning shipping them as single items was pretty much out of the question. Those three animals were a donkey, ox and dromedary camel – very different animals with one instant connection that I could let my imagination run away with. And so my custom Nativity themed set was born and, with the extra touch of some cute little angel girls, I was able to put a product titled "Playmobil Lot Christmas Nativity Scene Decorations Angels Ox Donkey Dromedary" up for sale to see who might be interested. Thankfully, the venture paid off and it sold. 

My little custom Playmobil nativity set: a good start for a complete nativity manger scene

I partly put this success down to good timing because people were starting to shop for Xmas décor at that point and I offered them something fun and unique. Of course creating custom sets from Playmobil is not just for Christmas; once you start thinking creatively you can take advantage of all the various holidays throughout the year. Christmas themed sets may be the more obvious choice but with some time and thought you can also make Halloween theme sets, or perhaps Easter or Thanksgiving ones.

Dig out all those pieces you had given up on and look at them again with a fresh eye.

Hopefully this has inspired you to try out some custom sets of your own and see those random mismatched pieces in a more positive light. You will be amazed at what can sell; I have made a few sets over the last two years and all have sold! What odds and ends of Playmobil sets do you have that can be put together to form something new and interesting for families this holiday season? You may just surprise yourself with the results.

Custom Playmobil forest scene with animals

A custom Playmobil Roman camp with tent, horse, legionaries and centurion 

Antique French Chocolate Mold

Sold this old antique French chocolate mold pan with 8 different fish design. It's a G. Mora Paris mold #1505.

The mold has 8 different 2 inches long fishes, below you can see the front and back of this vintage French chocolate mold. Condition was not perfect, it had a few tiny rust spot. But so unique that it sold very fast.

Chocolate molds are highly collectible, keep that in mind!

I paid $25 on a French auction site and sold for $89 to a US buyer.

Front

Back

French Cafe Au Lait Bowl Coffee Chocolate Bowl Purple Polka Dots Cute

Real genuine and vintage café au lait bowls do sell well, and this one was very original with its purple polka dots! Although it was unmarked and had some tiny flea bits on the rim, it still sold for $34.99 to a Japanese buyer. With airmail shipping added, it wasn't cheap of course but she was very very pleased with it. A very unique French café au lait coffee bowl indeed.

I always look up for them in brocantes, vides-greniers and online, but they are rarely cheap. This one wasn't cheap either but I knew it was unique enough (purple polka dots) for me to make a profit. I paid around 15$ for it. It took me some times to list it, but once it was it sold very fast!

Here's the precious:

My beautiful café au lait bowl went to japan!

Polka dots coffee bowl

Inside

Some little flea bites

Some more flea bites

If it's unique enough it will sell. If you spot cafe au lait bowls and are unsure if they are worth it, look under it. If the bowl has a mark it can help, especially if it's the Sarreguemines there are plenty of Sarreguemines collectors around. Otherwise if unmarked or a mark you are not familiar with, make sure it as a nice design: fruits and flowers sell well, so are the ones with polka dots.

Here's a few recent price realized on eBay: Vinatge French Cafe Au Lait Bowls

Barack Obama Election Day Newspapers From Canada

Following what's hot, following international news and keeping up with what people are passionate about is another way to target items you can sell on eBay. Barack Obama stirred a lot of passion all over the world back then. So in November 2009  buying these newspapers at my local newsstand was a no brainer. I sold a couple of sets for $29.49 (total cost for me was under $2 per sets). I sold a few to US buyers and also to a couple of buyers overseas.

Last Weekend Yard Sale Finds

Really not much! Went to 2 brocante/vide-grenier in Paris. Both were mainly antique dealer type with only a few being moms and dads selling their stuff.

Found a neat vinyl raincoat. I used to do extremely well selling old vintage vinyl raincoat back in the early 2000's. Some fetching very high price. There was a market for them...... Not sure if the market is still hot these days. But it was a cute piece so I figure I should manage to sell it eventually.

Also found some Littlest Pet Shop again, including Dachshund #1491. I paid more than my usual point price for the lot but the Dachshund alone will cover my expenses and leave me with a nice profit.

Yard sale season is pretty much over, with a few exceptions. I'll need to source elsewhere this winter. Already looking up the local craiglist-style site and still buying stuff from a few France only sites to flip on eBay.com

My Latest eBay Finds

Charity Shops Finds

It's been a long time I haven't hit a charity shop for inventory. Never did that a single time while I was living in Paris. Now that I have moved, I found a small charity shop near my apartment so I went and check things out. It's mainly clothes, shoes and bags. I picked a few t-shirts and a bag (by Dark Dudes). Will see if I can sell those. T-shirts by Oxbow, RipCurl and The Muppets.

T-shirts from charity shops

How do you feel about buying from charity shops for reselling? Here's my thoughts: Reselling from Charity Shops for a profit

Recent Littlest Petshop Price Realized on eBay

Just a couple of my recent Littlest Petshop sales on eBay. This is only a small fraction of what I sold, but you'll soon understand why the LPS dogs are what I am targeting at yard sales. Especially dachshund, collies and Great Danes. By the way they are not the only expensive ones, but if you are just starting sourcing them and have problems memorizing stuff, at least remember these 3 petshop dog breeds.

I paid less than 1$ each. All were in good pre-owned condition with no stains (such as sharpie/marker on them) and no rust bleeding from their neck. By the way,  littlest pet shops are prone to rust; inside their head is a little metallic piece that makes the bubblehead system. And kids like to clean and bath their petshop and if not done correctly you end up with rust all over the pets.

They are easy to list and easy to pack for shipping. Got to love them!

Click images to enlarge!

Sunday's Ebay Haul Same old Same Old!

Yes more LPS at today's sale, including some very good ones. But not only!

I came home with around 20 Littlest Pet Shop, some Playmobil Knights, 4 cute embroidered place mats (I might keep them, not sure yet) and a cool Tintin  and The Black Island (Tintin in Scotland) flat sheet.

Sunday's eBay Haul

Plus I went there walking so no tram/train/subway to cut my margin! Happy.

Among the Pet Shop I found: Great Dane 577, Great Dane 1022, the Monopoly dachshund, dachshund 325 and many more.

Some Rare Littlest Pet Shop

Now, I have been really busy since last summer and the inventory is just growing out of proportion sooooo after yet another short break for the fall holidays starting next Wednesday, I will take a complete day and focus on taking pictures and then start listing.

We are now settled in our new home, everything has been cleaned and tidy up, kids are at school, so once I am back from our week off, I'll be productive on eBay (which mean not only finding stuff, but actually listing it!). 

Oh did I mention I'll be in Paris next week which mean..... potentially more inventory! And stuff I need for the home and a trip to Mark and Spencer to stock on their delicious bacon and sausages. The French make lots of delicious food, but bacon... they don't seem to manage bacon making real well yet. Miss my Canadian bacon, but the one from M&S is pretty good too.

More Littlest Pet Shop at yard sales this Weekend

Went to a pretty large community sale this Sunday and once again came back with my fair share of good Littlest Pet Shop.

In the lot I found the K-Mart exclusive house with pet shop #1655 to 1663. It is missing two pets, but I have already bought them cheap on the French ebay site so I am looking now at a complete set minus a few of the accessories.

Also the lot included other pets and accessories. Including the valentine special dachshund dog #556

Also bought a game called Fairy Land because of the beautiful artwork of the cards inside. It was dirst cheap so even if I don't sell it I can keep it for the kids. One never have enough games at home anyway!

Found a 50 cents European fast food premium Simpson's mug. We'll see.

And bought a French audiobook: 20000 leagues under the sea. A classic.

Thanks to the LPS once again despite my expenses (train and tram both ways) I will pull a profit.

My ebay haul

Look What I Found!

Look at that! Found that next to the trash a few weeks ago. I know it doesn't look like much. At first glance, just a pile of old broken picture frames. I picked them up anyway to have a closer look... and am I glad I did.

My treasures

First there are a few I can use. I will up-cycle them. Some still have their glasses and are usable as is. Good for me.

The two tiny one I can sell. They are nice and decorative. Not a huge profit, but easy work. The large one, oval, with the rose flower should sell as well. Very shabby, just need a nice paint job a bit of lace or ribbon to hide the 2 missing flowers on the side. Someone crafty will snatch that I'm sure.

And then, in the middle of the pile.... a very old daguerreotype photo from a Parisian photographer named Pillas. Mid 19th century. It's a very lovely looking photo of a young woman wearing a nice gown and necklace. I'll probably list this one in auction. Daguerreotype can sell well, we'll see.

Daguerreotype by photographer Pillas in Paris

Here's the most recent daguerreotypes sold on ebay, with price realized: daguerreotype price realized

Don't discard trash picking! You never know. Although technically it wasn't really trash picking since it wasn't in the bin, it is still the trash of someone else.

My Sunday Ebay Haul

A good, although small, yard sale had a few nice and cheap surprises for me Sunday. This time I didn't have to take the train nor the tram nor the car, so it's going to help with the profit margin.

My Sunday Ebay haul!

First is a cute and pink My Little Pony duvet cover with matching pillowcase. This set is an European sized set with the square pillowcase and it's an officially licensed My Little Pony product.

My Little Pony Pinkie Pie Duvet cover

Then a 2006 Target exclusive Littlest Pet Shop tin with pets (it comes with 12 out of 15 pets). Pets originally included in the tin are numbers 248-262. Even this incomplete tin should sell well.

Exclusive Littlest Pet Shop tin

Also for the first time I found some cheap Lego sets (they are usually priced beyond reason at most yard sales). I got Lego 6232 from 1996 (skeleton and pirate) as well as a nice Lego Technic that may end under the Christmas tree this year.

Lego found at the garage sale

And to top, a whole bunch of littlest pet shop, I do need to research them, but the 2 great Danes looks like good ones. I paid around $0.75 each, so I should have no problem making my profit on these. The worthless ones will be put aside until I have enough to make little lots of LPS.

My Worst eBay Pick This Year

We all have our duds hidden somewhere in our eBay inventory. Some of them just won't sell, whatever we do. In my case, this year bad pick is a somewhat good looking necklace by my favorite designer. I have a lot of success selling this designer's necklaces. They sell like hot cakes. Except this one:

Designer Choker Necklace by Biche de Bere Limited Edition M'Buti Rare Unique

It took  a little over a year to sell, and nowhere near what I priced it originally. Oh I made a profit, albeit a small one, but still I was expecting this necklace to be one of my good find. So what went wrong here?

First, the photos. My first set of photos, without a dummy, were..... err bad. Although all my other necklaces were selling nonetheless, this one was not looking good with my way of taking pics. I did redo the pictures later on and the look was much better. Still, no taker.

Second, the style of the necklace. Not the kind of thing you can wear at work, everyday. It does affect the number of potential buyers I guess.

Third my asking price (before I add a best offer). Over 100$. this is a limited edition necklace, from a well known French jewelry designer (Biche de Bere) and I am usually pretty good at pricing them. They sell usually very fast, with no best offer. I was off with this one.

Anyway I sold it for $60 (and paid $32). I usually don't pay that much for my Biche de Bere jewelry, but I thought this one was hot.....

The "before" pic