everything vintage/what is it worth?

3 weeks ago I was at my usual local auction eyeing up

on auction until 10-21

the merchandise. The first thing they sell is a bunch of boxed stuff that is outside the firehouse where they hold the auction. Some of it was just junk that didn’t sell the week before so they box it up and you buy it by the box—sometimes for 50 cents or 1.00 a box. The last couple of weeks they also had “leftover” plants from some nursery and you could get a tree for under 5.00 and mums for 1.00. I got 2 yellow ones for my yard.

 I saw a box of books I had my eye on that I later got for 50 cents but I didn’t see much else. Some old dressers, dirty rugs, boxes of glassware and dishes, and tons of other junk. Then I looked over on the grass under the trees. Halloween costumes?? OK, that might be interesting. Wow, new ones too. Some of them were Lillian Vernon and Rubies and there were probably about 100 of them on the 2 tables and in boxes under the table. My mind started racing—is he going to sell them by the piece or by the box or by the table full?

 Have to plan my strategy because this looks like a good deal. So I’m thinking, if he sells them by the piece I would be willing to pay 1$ a piece but I don’t want all those costume parts—only the real costumes. I don’t really want the skeleton gloves and the unicorn hats and the princess hats and all those leotards. I don’t know if I can sell those.

 The M&M costumes look good and the character ones like Superman and the Thing and Bugs Bunny,etc. Maybe he’ll sell them by the box or table full. How much would I pay for a box full? Gotta plan!

 So, about 30 minutes into the auction he comes over to the 

a few of these left!

tree area and gets started on the costumes. He starts them by the piece and the bid is up to 5.00 so I drop out. The first bidder only takes a few from the table. I jump in again at 1.00 a piece. He is only selling the ones on the table at first. No one else bids!! I get to pick whatever I want from the tabletop at 1.00 a piece. I am always careful—too careful—and I only take 11 costumes. Then he moves on to the ones under the table. I bid again at 1.00 a piece. The M&M ones are there and they are really cute. No one bids against me again and I get about 10 more costumes. Wow, I’m on a roll now. I hope he does the usual and puts everything that is left all together in one lot for one price and I can get them for even less than 1.00 each. Oops, he announces that he is not going any lower than 1.00 and he is going to sell the rest of them next week. Boo! I should have taken more than I did at 1.00 each. Oh well, I will list the ones I have and be ready for next week.

 Wow, this story is longer than I expected! Anyway, I list a

fixed price 6$ good until cancelled

bunch of them on eBay in fixed price and a few of the single ones on auction. I also give all the M&M and Bugs Bunny ones (and a few more) to my daughter-in-law to sell. They start selling as soon as I list them because I can start them LOW since I got them LOW. And I can’t wait until next week to get the rest of them.

Next week comes and I see the costumes inside the firehouse on the back table. The auction starts at noon and goes until “whenever.” Of course, there are other things I want to buy but by 5PM the auction is almost over and he hasn’t done the costumes! He is standing right in front of me when he says, “Oh, is anyone interested in the costumes?” I say “YES.” And the rest of the story is… I get about 30 mores costumes for 1.00 a piece and then I get the skeleton gloves and leotards and unicorn hats (all new) for 2.00 for the entire box. 

 So, you can still see a FEW of the costumes I have left at everythingvintagesteph.com. and at my daughter-in-law’s site at vintage4mykids.com. But you won’t find any leotards (sold for 6$ each) or skeleton hands (sold for 3$ each) because they are all GONE already! With eBay, you never know!!!                

NEW M&M costume

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 11:40 am and is filed under Recent random posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.