everything vintage/what is it worth?

Bought this doll in a box of other dolls for 1.00. She was setting in my office for a month or two and I kept ignoring her. She didn’t like that. I almost took her to the flea market for 1.00. She really didn’t like that!  I decided to research her first.  She sold for 33.00. Always research!

This is an 8mm film of Apollo 9 and10. I also had a separate one from Apollo 11. I sold them in separate auctions but together they sold for 28.00. I didn’t even know they were in the box lot that I bought for ah… yea… probably 1.00. That’s what I pay for almost everything…

Some more of those hats! I think I told the story before of how I bought an entire table full of hats for 25.00. There were over 50 hats and purses on the table. I bought them all at once. It was the end of the auction and the auctioneer was getting tired. I always stay until the end if I can! These 2 hats sold for 12.50. I’m still selling them but the pile is less than half!

I just listed this yesterday. It is a real egg that was dipped (?) and the design was scratched out of it. It is dated 1926. It feels like an old egg! I have no idea what it is going to sell for. Come back next week and find out! I don’t remember what I paid for it but it might have been 1-3$.

VISIT ME AT EVERYTHINGVINTAGESTEPH.COM

I love old quilts! They are not too hard to find at estate sales but you probably won’t find too many at garage sales or thrift stores. There are all kinds. Some are applique, most are pieced, and this one has some beautiful cross stitch needlework on it. This one sold for 89.00 (postage included). Someone got a great deal! It was in excellent condition too. It was hand quilted also. The tied ones will not bring as much $$ because less work is involved.

How do I know this is a Quaker lace tablecloth? This one happened to have a small label so it was easy! The main way to tell is the fancy scalloped edging it has. The quality of the fabric is always great too. It is more cottony than slippery to the feel. Table runners and placemats are harder to find in good condition but these are a beautiful addition to any table! This one sold for 15.00 including postage.

Interesting story with this Skipper doll. She is a twist n turn Skipper from the 1960s. “Real” eyelashes, “Day at the Fair” outfit, paperwork included. I bought her at an antique mall. I also sell at the ZIONSVILLEANTIQUES.com mall.   I bought her for 18.00 because I wanted to take her to RENNINGERS.COM show and sell her there. I had her tagged at 25.00 at the renningers antique show. She did not sell. Barely got a glance! So I listed her on eBay and she sold for 40.99. That is why I love eBay! You can reach the entire world to find a buyer.

COME VISIT MY EBAY STORE AT EVERYTHINGVINTAGESTEPH.COM

This is a quilt I sold this week. It sold for 66.00. I paid 35$ at the local estate sale near me. It is a beautiful quilt. The condition is like new. I do not know the exact age but I am guessing it is around the 1970s or so. How do I guess this?

1. I feel the fabric. It feels like a cotton blend rather than all cotton. Cotton blend was  invented as a “no iron” fabric in the 1950s. Anything with a cotton blend is probably at least 1950s  and on.

2. I look at the style of the quilt. It has raised sections for the flowers and most older quilts were all flat.

3. I feel the batting. The older the quilt, the less thick the batting. This one is somewhat thick. Again this has to do with the introduction of polyester to the batting.

Here is a group of neck ties that I sold this week. I bought a box of them for 1.00. There were probably 20 or so in the box. Some were dirty (threw those out), some were newer (sold those at the flea market for 1.00 each), and some were vintage like these (the novelty ones with special designs are the best–these are all nautical). I sold them for 9.57  total. Two of these were marked “Rooster” on the back. I like that brand—they are always unique.

My last favorite find is this Hallmark pop up book. I bought it in a box of books for which I paid 1.00 or less for all. It sold for 11.73. I even made a mistake on the title! I got a bid within a few hours of listing it and then I noticed that I spelled the word “might” instead of “mighty”. I don’t know if this affected the search or not! You can’t change the title once it has a bid so I was stuck with it that way. It sold to someone in Germany.

Those are my favorites for this week. Below are some items that are listed in my store right now—if they are still there! Check them out at everythingvintagesteph.com. OR click on any photo above to visit my store of over 350 items. (vintage also means used clothing!)

I sold saddle shoes sold on eBay for 35.77. They were in very good condition–barely even worn. They are leather and are often worn as part of a school uniform. Here is where I found them— At the clearance section of the Goodwill store. They were setting right on the edge of the bin just waiting for me to pick them up. I did–and they cost me 1.50. How do I know what to look for? One of my tools is this great book  Thrift Store Goldmines.

My next favorite find is vintage dress patterns. I find a lot of these at local estate sales. No seamstress ever throws away a dress pattern! I think I found most of these though at my friend’s yard sale where she was selling things that her mother had kept over the years. I usually pay about 1.00 for a dozen of them. The goods ones are the older ones (1950s or earlier–and they usually are not dated), especially apron patterns, doll patterns, and unusual items. The dress patterns are pretty ordinary and I sometimes don’t even sell them the first time around. I think these went for more $$ because there was a wedding dress in the lot—not sure! Oh, almost forgot to mention—they sold for 42.09 for the lot of 10 patterns. This FREE newsletter has also really helped me in my eBay business. CLICK HERE.

These jeans are on auction starting tonight and will be over on July 20. The reason I am writing about them as my favorite is because I just sold a pair of jeans that I had listed for over a year! I buy most of my jeans at the Goodwill clearance for 75 cents each. I start them at 3-4$. Then if they don’t sell, I move them to my eBay store and start them at 9.99 buy it now but I also accept almost any reasonable offer. They often sell for 9.99 as these did–even after a year! I usually don’t leave them in there that long but I do sell almost all of them eventually.

I have learned what brands to look for by reading the THRIFT STORE GOLDMINE book and also by trial and error! Another trick of mine in knowing what brands are good (besides just doing research on eBay completed listings) is the outlet mall in my area. I don’t buy there because the prices are still too high for resale but I know what brands they have there and how much other people are willing to pay for them.

HOPE this has helped you in thinking about what to sell on eBay. Check my auctions and eBay store at everythingvintagesteph.com

Yea, people collect milk bottle caps and I have at least 500 more of these! I sell these 48 at a time and I only start them at 3.00. Sometimes I get 3.00, sometimes I get more. The reason this is one of my favorite finds is that I got over 3 cartons of these at a local estate sale and only paid 1.00 for all of them. They are brand new and never used but they are for vintage milk bottles and are probably from the 1960s or so. I remember this dairy and it has not been in business for quite a while. 3.00 doesn’t seem like much but I keep relisting them over and over and it adds up with very little effort since once the auction is up and running it only takes one click to relist it.

My next favorite find this week is the Boehm porcelain flower. This is my favorite because it was a found treasure at the local auction. I bought one of those famous box lots that I love for about 3.00 and there was something else in it that I was interested in—-I forget what! When I looked at the other items in the box I pulled out this very pretty porcelain flower. I got out the magnifying glass to read the name on the stem and it read Boehm. I went right to eBay to look it up because I had never heard of Boehm before. (hey I don’t know everything!) I saw some other very pretty flowers and sculptures made by Boehm and some of the larger ones were going for 100s of dollars–check it out yourself! So I listed it right away and even though there was a very tiny flaw in the one petal, it sold for 36.55. I’m lovin’ eBay again!

Almost the same thing happened with the Commodore 64 plug and play. I got this at the same auction that I bought the Boehm flower. It’s not a vintage item but it actually plays 30 vintage games just by plugging it into the TV. My son-in-law was with me at the auction and he wanted it so I think he bid about 5.00 for it. He actually got 4 of them for 1 price and only wanted the 1 so he gave me the rest. Thanks, Scott! I sold the first one for 42.98. I just listed the second one last night and I have one more after that is over. HINT: don’t list same items at the same time unless you want to compete against yourself! If you are reading this before June 22, you can check it out on auction.

Thanks for listening to my auction stories and if you want to check out my auctions click on  everythingvintagesteph.com OR click on any of the photos.

anne klein

I should have paid more attention when I bought these perfumes at the auction a few weeks go. I will from now on! I just sold these 3 containers of anne klein for 113.00. It was a good deal for the customer but a great deal for me. I get most of my items to sell on eBay at local estate auctions. Sometimes when a house is cleaned out, there is some perfume to sell. I usually don’t pay much attention because I don’t use perfume and don’t even like it that much. I bought a box of it the other week for a few dollars. These were in it along with some Hawaiian fragrances–I got 5.00 for those, and  Perry Ellis–on auction now with a 10.00 bid and 5 days left.

It makes sense to me now. This is the scenario I picture for these items: Mother/wife likes perfume and kids/husband buy her some for her Christmas and birthday. She doesn’t actually wear it much so it stays in the bathroom or bedroom cabinet and adds up over the years. It makes a nice gift, so they keep buying it for her. She won’t give it away or throw it away because it is a gift and it doesn’t take up much room. A few years later–or maybe a lot of years later–the house is cleared out for whatever reason and the perfume ends up at an estate auction. That’s where I buy it. I bought this box for about 2 or 3 dollars. I could tell the perfume was never opened or used so, why not–the price was right. I am going to be looking for the perfume items a lot more in the future!

jessica mcclintock

Here’s another one I bought in the same lot. It is still on auction for a few more days. As I write this, the bid is at 6.08 and has 12 watchers.

raffinee

The Raffinee perfume has an opening bid of 3.00 and has 12 watchers.

Last December, I had a container of Ambush powder that I bought for 1.00 and it sold for 26.75.

If you want to see how much these sell for in a few days, visit my auctions at everythingvintagesteph.com. Check for completed listings. And keep your eye out for perfume in the thrift store and estate sales that you might be lucky enough to have in your area!!

Land's End novelty tie

For some reason, last week was very slow on eBay for me. Here are some of the things that I listed that DID NOT sell! With their starting bids…

GAP reverse fit jeans size 10     3.00

15 Easter lamb metal cookie cutters    3.00

3 vintage feedbag pieces of fabric    4.00

Land’s End novelty tie veggies and fruit    3.00

Singer sewing machine vintage buttonholer    3.00.

gap reverse fit jeans

So what do I do with the items that don’t sell?

lamb cookie cutter

I will relist some of these on auction OR I normally relist them in my store, which will now be the same as fixed price. When I relist in my store, I usually list them higher than the auction starting bid and they usually sell, it just takes more time! I have sold similar items in the past and some of them have sold for much more than the opening bid; for example, cookie cutters and Gap reverse fit jeans. You just never know what will sell from day to day on eBay!!

CLICK HERE TO visit my STORE and see some of these relisted items!

feed bags

sunbeam mixmaster cookbook

florida travel decals

This was a good week on eBay. For some reason, sales were up and bidding was in the war zone on many items. Such as:

7 vintage travel decals for Florida. I bought a handful of these at my local auction a few months ago. I sold some of them by the single piece and made about 3-5$ each. I also have a few that didn’t sell that are still listed in my store at everythingvintagesteph.com. I probably paid about 3.00 for the lot of them. I had some leftover that I just held on to for a few weeks but I finally listed all the Florida ones together. They sold for 45.00 total. Nice! They are probably from the 1960s or so and have nostalgic value for those who visited and collected them at that time. Mine were still in the original wax envelopes—most of them– and featured various parts of Florida.

vintage craft patterns

Another favorite find this week was vintage patterns. I buy a lot of these and they don’t always sell. I have clothing patterns from the 1970s and apron patterns from the 1950s, etc. The craft patterns seem to sell better than the clothing patterns. This lot of 9 patterns was for various crafts like pillows, purses, aprons, and even felt shoes. I decided to list them all together instead of separately. The lot sold for 22.10. I usually pay 1.00 for a box full of old patterns at the local auction so I was happy!

colored aluminum pitcher and mugs

My final pick is aluminum kitchen cups and pitchers. I bought a box full of these at the local auction. They were sold in lots of 5-6 pieces and not all the pieces were matching. I paid about 9.00 for the entire box of various lots. I only listed 2 lots on ebay. The rest will go to the flea market this weekend at merchantssquaremall.com in Allentown, PA. One of the lots I listed on Ebay were for 6 pieces of “Colorcraft.” I decided to try those because they were marked with a brand name. Those sold for the opening bid of 4.00. Not that great. I also listed a 5-piece lot of 4 mugs and a pitcher. These sold for 26.00.They were not marked with a brand name but I think the difference is that that they were colored and not plain.

Perhaps this info will help you in pricing some of your vintage finds—let me know! A great tool to use in determining value of items and deciding what to sell is called HAMMERTAP.

Vintage Skipper doll below is listed on eBay now until Feb. 16 at everythingvintagesteph.com

vintage skipper doll

Let’s start with the shoes! I bought 2 pair of vintage shoes at the local auction a few weeks ago. They were brand new in the box. I paid 1.00 each. The first pair was by Colorifics and they were full of gold beads. They sold for 4.00, my opening bid. The second pair was by Vera Cruz and they had leather soles and suede sides with fancy lacing. They sold to a person in South Africa for 15.50 plus I had to charge them 18.00 for the postage. Not mind boggling but a pretty good investment for 1.00!

gold beaded shoes

Then there was the box of lace I bought for 1.00 the entire box. I just started to sell this. So far I sold 70 yards of white lace for 8.76, and 11 yards of eyelet lace for 5.50. The ribbon trim didn’t sell so I will list it in my eBay store. I have about 10 times more lace left in the box. That should add up nicely for my (once again) 1.00 purchase.

lots of trim--still for sale!

How about a brass doorknocker featuring a Scottish man in kilts with a bagpipe? I had 2 of these, exactly the same. I took them to an antique show and they didn’t sell for 6.00. I took one to my booth at Zionsville Antiques and it didn’t sell for 6.00. Then I listed one on eBay. It sold for 5.75 right before Christmas. I listed the other one and it just sold for 29.00 right after Christmas. You never know!

vintage tablecloth on auction until jan 12

VISIT ME AT  EVERYTHINGVINTAGESTEPH.COM

CLICK HERE for one of the best ebooks about buying and selling vintage items from thrift shops!! I use the cheat sheets and ideas in this book all the time!

My favorite finds to sell on eBay this week are vintage Revere Ware pots. Sorry they are all SOLD but I am always on the lookout for more because they are good sellers! I didn’t know this until I found it out by accident a year or so ago. I bought a box lot of items and there was a copper bottom pot in with the other junk I wanted. The pot was marked Revere Ware and I know that new pieces are pretty pricey so I decided to sell it on eBay.

I don’t remember how much that first pot sold for, but I know I was happy! The ones I sold this week were:

10-inch sauce pans 14.89 and 10.50

3-quart pots 16.07 and 10.50

5-quart pot 16.07

I didn’t pay more than 3.00 each for them at the local auction and they all needed to be “cleaned up.”

Last June, I had a set of 6 Revere Ware copper mugs that sold for 46.00. I was really surprised on that sale because when I bought them at the auction, I only had 3 of them. (probably paid about 1.00) Another person at the auction ended up with 3 of them that she didn’t want so she just GAVE them to me so I had a set of 6. Thank you auction friend!

So keep an eye out for Revere Ware at yard sales and thrift stores! If there is a “face” on the bottom of the pan and a number 1801, then the pot was made before 1968 and has a heavier bottom. These are really good ones!

HAPPY HUNTING!

selling some cool vintage jewelry until Dec. 7!