everything vintage/what is it worth?

Sold at the same flea market today that I wrote about last month. It was really PACKED! There were so many customers that I had people in front of my tables almost constantly. Sometimes they were 2 and 3 deep, looking over each other’s shoulders. I had one lady with a large walker “parked” in front of the jewelry for about 5 minutes and I could tell others were annoyed who wanted to look at the jewelry.

I only had 4 tables this time because I gave one to my son to sell stuff. He sold about 25$ and I sold about 170 $ just today. There is still tomorrow. I sometimes waited on 2-3 customers at once. Some people take a lot of time getting out their $$ so I just stick out my hand to take someone else’s 50 cents or 1.00 while I am waiting and then I might have 2 people digging in their purses for their money! It can get crazy but that is how I like it!

The Christmas items were still selling pretty well. People were buying purses and books and bottle openers and dolls and all kinds of knick-knacks. I had Barney back packs and tablecloths and a box of old paper for 50 cents a piece. People love to look through the pile.

If you live anywhere near Allentown, PA, check out merchantssquaremall.com and come on over!

neat vintage bedspread selling on ebay until Jan. 8 click on photo

too cute grandaughter!!

So now I can write about what I bought on eBay for Christmas presents since it won’t matter if my gift recipients read it! I got a vintage Star Wars game for Nintendo 64. Under 5$. Bought 2 mini tripods for cameras, 3.99 each. Bought one of those step on pedals that you plug into any outlet and it lights up the Christmas tree (or any electrical stuff) for 5$ free shipping. I wish I had bought more for gifts—I love it!

I also bought a Little Tikes video camera for my grandson that normally costs 75$ and I bought it for 45$. It was new.

I hope a lot of people got nice leather gloves this Christmas that they bought from me! I sold over 40 pair in the last month.

Some ebooks I bought for myself (not all for Christmas though!)…

A neat book about buying and selling thrift store stuff. Very detailed!  CLICK HERE

 A great book about selling on eBay that is really worth the $$ at  CLICK HERE.

 A great book about blogging that will save you TONS of time in getting started! CLICK HERE.

WHAT DID YOU BUY ON EBAY FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR? Were you happy with the bargain you got??

Well, today was not very good for sales. I think I made about 50$ though but it was really slow! All the snow was gone and the sun was out but it was COLD! It was warm inside the flea market though…we are in a nice big building in an antique and collectibles mall. I sell there every month. The customers came but they were no mobs of poeple like there has been in the past in the winter months. I sold over half of my “junk” though and went home with 4 bins instead of the 9 I came with!

Most of the items I sell there are 50 cents and 1.00 so you know I sell a lot to get over 200$. The customers like it CHEAP! It’s all leftover stuff that I buy at local auctions and doesn’t work for eBay. I had a lot of Christmas stuff that I had been saving for a few months. Then I sold things like 2 old radios, china and pottery, milk bottle caps, old paper, cookbooks, scarves and mittens and hats–sold them ALL! It’s fun–I have a lot of repeat customers who come to see what new bargains I come up with!

some of my 50 cent jewelry

VISIT: merchantssquaremall.com

everythingvintagesteph.com

Awesome snowstorm we are having here in PA today! It’s a little crazy—some areas (mainly south) are getting 12+ inches and others about 4 inches—we are somewhere in the middle. I set up YESTERDAY for a flea market in Allentown, which is about 20 miles north of me. Well, it started snowing about 7AM here and already had a half-inch on the ground by 8AM when we left our town to get to Allentown. I was worried about the roads and the sale and the fact that no one likes to come out in any kind of bad weather, so why even bother going??

I am glad we went! There was NO snow in Allentown until about 2PM which is when the sale was about over. TONS of people came to the sale at Merchants Square Mall and I made about 200$ so far. The sale goes for another day and the snow is supposed to be over by morning so I am off again! The roads were pretty bad on the way home but my husband was driving and I closed my eyes for a lot of it! I get nervous if he gets too close to the car ahead and I don’t want to keep yelling at him!

We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at the Emmaus Diner on the way home and there were only a few people there. Some guy in a Honda Civic was doing donuts in the parking lot while we watched out the huge front windows. Great pumpkin cheese cake!

 

 

just listed on fixed price

I just listed 4 pair of these leather gloves on fixed price and sold a pair in about 5 minutes! at everythingvintagesteph.com

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

I am trying my hand at adding video to my site. Click on the video below to see a vintage quilt that is selling on ebay from Oct. 11 through Oct. 18 (and maybe later if it doesn’t sell on auction!) Follow it at: everythingvintagesteph.com

Here’s the story: I bought this quilt at a local estate sale. I think I paid about 5.00 for it–I’m not sure. It has wear and tear around the edges and it smelled a little musty when I got it. I just washed it in the washing machine and hung it over my deck to dry. A big NO NO but I figured what the heck, if I wreck it, it didn’t cost me very much!

It turned out pretty nice and smelled fresh. Then I took it to an antique sale in Kutztown, PA. I had it marked for 50.00. I didn’t sell it. (I did sell other quilts though!) So last week I decided it was time to put it up on eBay. So there it is! Follow it at: antique vintage quilt/patchwork  if you are a crazy vintage quilt lover staying up late at night just to watch quilt auctions!

this flag lists on ebay today oct. 5

I was helping a friend clean out her attic a few years ago. I LOVED it! I know, I might be a little strange but if you are reading my blog, you might be a little strange too! She had stuff up there from the 1950s and on. It was one of those attics that you have to use a ladder to get into a little hole in the ceiling so you just don’t go up there too often. Vintage heaven!

Well, her son was helping too. He had the job of climbing the ladder and throwing the JUNK down on the floor.

My job was to catch what I could and start setting it out so we could go through it.

The dust started to fly! My friend kept yelling at her son, “George, (not his real name!) what are you doing?? Stop throwing that stuff down here! Be careful! You’re going too fast!”

“Mom, I can’t help it, there’s no other way to get it all out!”

So it was raining toys and baby clothing and lots of dust bunnies—more like dust elephants!

Some of the JUNK we found and my estimate of what it sold for on ebay (I don’t remember exactly):

Baby clothes from the 50s in lots of about 5-6 pieces each 12.00/lot (after a good washing!)

Cowboy and Indian playset from the 60s: 36.00  

some clothes I sold recently

Liddle Kiddle dolls (her daughter did not want to sell those but they are worth about an average of 50$ each in good condition)

Doll case, no particular brand but cute: 9.00

Doll clothing, 1960s, no particular brand: 4.00 or more each

Old newspapers, 1950s: just about worthless unless they are perfect and from some great event—we threw them out.

Sheet music and songbooks, 1970s: songbooks about 5.00 each and sheet music about 2.00 each depending on the graphics

An old potty chair: maybe 2.00 until my dad fixed it up real nice—then maybe 20.00 (we didn’t sell it)

And SOOOOOOOOOOOO on……..

AND MY POINT IS……..

The 3 things that determine value are:

1. CONDITION CONDITION!!!                                                                                     
2.  age
3. manufacturer/brand
4. “it depends” (oops that looks like 4)

this chenille had damage but sold for 30.99

 Condition: a chipped glass is worth about 95% of its value but a small (or large) wear on an antique quilt is not the end of its life

 Age: a doll or toy from the 1980s can be valuable but a dishtowel from the 1980s is NOT (try 1930s though and you are getting close!)

 Manufacturer/brand: Any of the dolls and doll clothing that were marked with Mattel, Ideal, Vogue, Madame Alexander, etc. would be worth a lot more than an unbranded one. (same goes for glassware, pottery, clothing, etc.)

As you can see, “it depends” on what it is and what kind of demand there is for it. It depends on how rare it is. It depends on its condition and it depends on how much time you want to spend cleaning or repairing it. You can find out a lot about an item by doing a completed search on ebay. More about that later! I have to go wash some old baby clothing……….   

I love these old spools, listed on ebay until Oct. 9