Estate sales

Estate sales are by far the best bet to find those rare collectibles and antiques that can bring you huge profits. I always feel kind of like a vulture attending these sales because there the result of someone passing on or having to move to a senior center or nursing home. The family is left with the task of selling the house and everything inside. The estate sale services organizing these liquidations are very up to date on the value of certain items and will price these items accordingly.  In my community there are two or three estate sale services that advertise a certain time that numbers will be handed out but, they also have somebody there very early handing out pre-numbers, so get there early and if you are one of the first twenty or so people in the door you'll have good pickings. On the second day of these events they will cut prices by half, which makes it the best day to get there early. Most collectors and dealers have passed up these big ticket items for a chance at half price on the second day. You can still find some good bargains on the opening day but you have to look through everything. You will find items priced at 50 cents or a dollar and it is these items that have a good chance of bringing in a nice profit. The head of the household may have worked for a popular local company, retired from there and might have saved some advertising items from that business. Many people like to collect vintage items from there hometown and will pay good money for something unique. I was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin so breweriana is a hot collectible that is found most often. The estate might contain old toys that belonged to their children and were packed away for the grandchildren to play with when they visited. They simply could've been collectors of certain items over the years so those items will require some attention too.

Thrift and resale shops

Thrift and resale shops are usually stocked full of merchandise received from charity, storage unit auctions, spring cleanings and of course left overs from estate sales. I've been in most of these in my area and they all have what I call a good stuff section which is usually behind the counter or in a display case. Proprietors of these establishments know pretty much what belongs in the good stuff section.  I find these resources to be overpriced for the items of special interest. I've visited these establishments a number of times in a two month period and still found those items available but at the same high price. I quess they's rather keep it in stock than to mark it down to a price where you or I could make a nice profit on it. One such shop in my area has half price day every Wednesday and Saturday, so I make it a point to go there on Tuesday to see what is available and if half would be a good deal. Sometimes I make a mental note of what they have or I even write it down. I then will research the item and see if it's a hot collectible. Don't even ask if they'll take less for an item, they just won't! One good warning about these shops is, if you find something that is really rare and/or has a famous name on it, check the item out thoroughly because it's probably broken or has a flaw of some kind.

Antique shops

I just love going to these little shops that are scattered all over town. I get dollar signs in my eyes as soon as I start looking around, but they soon disappear when I look at the prices. Unlike the thrift and resale shops they just might take less for an item, so it does pay to ask. Most of the owners of these little shops also buy and sell antiques right here on EBAY. It goes both ways for them, sometimes they get a better price for their item on-line but on the other hand they might buy something on-line and get a even better price for it right out of their store. Antique shops are more for the collectors than dealers because collectors will pay a higher price to complete their collections, the dealers are looking to resell and make a profit which is hard to do with antique store prices.

Rummage and yard sales

You can spend a whole Friday or Saturday going from sale to sale and not find anything worthwhile. I've found just a handful of items over the years that turned a good profit. these sales are the best place to wheel and deal, you can walk out of there with many nice items for only a few dollars. I try to find sub-division or community rummage sales where there might me twenty or so residents having one within a four or five block radius. You can spend almost the whole day here and not waste valueable gas driving from one to another.

Auctions

I've only been to one auction in my Ebay selling career and it was a toy auction. They were auctioning off older and newer diecast farm equipment. I won a few of items but payed way to much because the other bidders just drove the price up beyond the profit margin, problem was, I was bidding against collectors not dealers. One of the items I won sold for double the money I paid which made me just about break even for the day. I've heard of other kinds of auctions that might be more appealing to the seller, they are storage unit auctions where people have not paid their rent in months so the owners of the service put the whole unit up for auction. Another kind is where you bid on boxed lots of items.

Research Research Research!!!

About a year and a half ago I injured myself at work and was off for about a month. I burned the midnight oil every night going through all the collectible categories on here on Ebay. For example, this is when I learned that Pez dispensers with "no feet" were getting big money. That same week I went to an esate sale which to this date is the most memorable. I found a whole box of still in the package pez dispensers for a quarter each, but they all had feet. I dug down past the packaged ones and found about five that had "no feet" and still priced at a quarter each. I'm pretty sure that the estate sale service didn't look through this box completely. I paid $1.25 for all five and sold them for $33.00. I always made it a point to page through the areas such as old toys, breweriana, advertising, old radios, vanity items and pottery/glass. These are types of older items you might find at an estate sale or antique shop. In breweriana I always looked at what Olympia Beer items were selling for because at one time Olympia Beer was very popular beer, they went out of business some years back so, some of their items now are highly collectible.

                         The good and the bad 

Everybody thinks "boy if mom hadn't thrown out all my old baseball cards I'd be rich" I doubt it! Over the years i've come across baseball and football cards, some from the late sixties and early seventies. I'd get them home and start doing searches here on Ebay for each and every one, only to see them same ones listed for .99 and with no bids. You have the graded and non graded cards, I still don't understand this. I don't know why somebody has to tell me how good a shape a card is in, I think it's pretty easy to grade a card. If it's got bent or worn corners or torn, it's probably in not to good a shape. I started out years ago selling some older Avon bottles that I found at rummage sales or resale shops. I've since then given up on them just as I've given up on coins, stamps, sports cards, jim beam bottles, mccoy potter and lefton figurines. Ok, here are a few things that still bring in some nice bids. Old toys are probably the hottest collectible going right now. Not to long ago at an estate sale I purchased a huge box of diecast toy tractors from Ertl and True-Scale. I paid one hundred dollars for the whole box and when everything was said and done, I more than tripled my money. Diecast cars from the Frankin and Danbury mint co's are a good bet too, but don't pay more than twenty five or thirty dollars for them.